The neighbourhood of Exarchia (Greece) has a radical, revolutionary, anarchist political background with continuous struggles, solidarity places to welcome and protect the refugees and migrants, squats, political assemblies and social centres.
Back in 1973, Athens Polytechnic uprising began by the students against the military junta. The students decided to show their rejection to this regime with massive demonstrations. Students, citizens and workers became one and rebelled against the dictatorship. The students ended up inside the Polytechnic school and occupied the place. The tanks entered the place by crashing the gates on November 17. Many students and residents got injured, or died around the area. Years later, during the annual 17 November protests, young people continued getting murdered by the state. Iakovos Koumis and Stamatina Kanellopoulou were the victims of police brutality in 1980 and the 15 year old Michalis Kaltezas was shot dead by a cop in 1985. The Polytechnic university, which is located in the area of Exarchia, was a factor for the neighbourhood to acquire the political features that it has until today.
Until a few years ago, Polytechnic university was a place of resistance, freedom and expression.
The police brutality against a 15 year old student was repeated on December 6 of 2008. This time the target was Alexis Grigoropoulos who was hanging out with his friends in Exarchia. Two cops drew their guns on the kids and one of the cops murdered Alexis in cold blood.
Alexis’ murder was the spark that turned the anger into a fire and burnt the whole city. The riots started immediately and the centre of Athens became a war zone. The uprising lasted for weeks and was the biggest that took place in Greece, after 1973. “These days belong to Alexis” was written all over the city. Soon, the whole country was protesting for Alexis.
The “Black December” started spreading everywhere.
Hunt Saboteurs Sweden has been expanding massively in the past year, taking part in multiple actions against hunting, and are in need of support. They depend solely on donations, and to make ends meet many of the hunt sabs have been spending a lot of their personal money just to keep the fuel costs covered!
With more and more folks joining their ranks and more actions in the horizon, they are asking for economic support to be able to afford new tools to sabotage the hunts, from cameras, radios and torches to fuel costs, if you can donate a couple of coins they will be greatly appreciative of the solidarity.
They have also said that if you have spare cameras, or radios or other tools that could be useful in their fight for the wild, they are happy to receive those instead of money, so have a look around and see if there is anything spare!
Their fundraiser is only asking for 220 EUR, which means if you all donate just 1 EUR we would raise that money and much more very quickly! If you have any to spare, please drop them some coins here:
On January 18th police murdered a forest defender, Tortuguita. Immediately, a call was put out for a “night of rage”. The rage was instead was not limited to one night, nor only retaliation.These actions have been claimed in honor, memory, vengeance, revenge, for, or in solidarity with Tortuguita.
By carrying our friends in our hearts and actions they live on in spirit and in memory. With Love and Rage, we carry on those who have been taken from us.
The Campaign for the Abolition of the Fur Trade (CAFT) keeps throwing blows at the capitalist enterprises profiting from fur around the world. After successfully campaigning against the sale of fur by multiple brands, they are now focused on two main targets.
The first is LVMH, which is a conglomerate of luxury goods businesses headed by Bernard Arnault (the world’s latest richest man). LVMH owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dio and Fendi – each of which sell fur coats.
To coincide with LVMH’s AGM (meeting of shareholders), CAFT is joining an international spell of campaigining from April 20th to April 30th to get them to commit to a fur-free policy. In this period, the group calls for everyone to get active by demonstrating outside your local store, signing CAFT’s petition, leafleting, doing video outreach, stickering, or by getting creative! Full details and resources found here on the CAFT USA website. Wherever you are, find the closest LVMH (or any of it’s daughter companies!) location and join the fight against the sale of fur!
As well as LVMH, CAFT is targeting MaxMara, an Italy-based business which sells high-end ‘fashion’. In March, one activist in Los Angeles was arrested for ‘disturbing the peace’ during a demonstration. CAFT calls for activists to continue campaigning against MaxMara until they take the easy option and drop fur!
With both targets, CAFT is willing to offer support in getting started if you email them. No action is too small; every action makes a difference!
As part of the frontlines series, UA will be providing a monthly round-up of hunt sabotage and other forms of wildlife protection that happens within the UK and Ireland. This will include events, actions and developments that have taken place within the last month relating to ongoing campaigns against hunting with hounds, the shooting industry, the badger cull and beyond.
We want to stress that our aim of this is not to cover everything. There are so many active groups and individuals that doing justice to all of their work is an impossible task. Instead, what we intend to do is highlight key examples of tactics and strategies that are being used and contribute to a conversation about how these produce results. With that said, some do not believe that the state is the answer. Legal reform or prosecutions may be mentioned, to give context, but it can be argued that animal liberation, let alone total liberation, can not be achieved through these methods.
While we prepare for our first round-up, we ask that groups and individuals to reach out to us. As part of these releases, we would like to include relevant imagery from campaigns relating to hunt sabotage and other forms of wildlife protection. As mentioned before, we cannot include everything but what we do feature will be credited (unless requested otherwise). Imagery can be sent to allemailsarebastards(attt)protonmail(dddot)com .
Feel free to also contact us with relevent campaign updates but please do not detail planned actions or illegal activities. Detailed information on how to submit hit reports, however, can be found on the ‘contact us’ tab on our website which provides a safer method of submitting.
PalAction is ramping up their attacks aimed at dismantling British complicity in Israeli apartheid.
A year after two PalAction actionists shut down Leicester’s weapons factory Elbit, the group is mobilising for another siege of the factory, starting from May 1st. You can join them at UAV TACTICAL SYSTEMS, Meridian Business Park, Leicester, LE19 1WZ, UK.
According to PalAction, Elbit’s factory in Leicester exported £5million worth of military equipment to Israel in one year. In preparation for the action, PalAction is running a series of talks and workshops on “How to shut Elbit down”. Upcoming in person talks are on 8th April in Newcastle and 9th of April in Bedford. You can also join an online talk, for more info visit their website. The group announces that “the mass action will include hundreds staying put for weeks on end, through day and night, refusing to leave until Elbit does”. Check out palestineaction.org/siege for more info.
Leicester’s Elbit factory has been targeted by PalAction several times before, with the biggest occupation having taken place in May 2021 during Israeli aggression in Jerusalem and Gaza. The siege of the factory by four activists lasted 6 days, with the fire service refusing to intervene and with a huge turnout of community support.
A trial took place early March against three actionists who shut down the factory of APPH in Runcorn two years ago. APPH supplies drone parts to Elbit Systems. One activist was acquitted, while two others plead guilty and will appear for sentencing in Chester Crown Court on Friday, 5th May, possibly facing time in prison.
Several PalAction activists face trial from Monday 27th March for three weeks for shutting down Arconic, a supplier of flammable cladding and parts for Israeli fighter jets. Their case is joined with other actionists arrested in Walsall for possessing items to commit “criminal damage”. PalAction is calling for support in their trials every day from 9.30AM at Wolverhampton Crown Court, WV1 3LQ.
So once again: Join PalAction from the 1st of May in Leicester, LE19 1WZ, and shut Elbit down for good!
HSS has sent us a text to help raise funds so they can sabotage the lynx cull. Hunters want to murder 164 lynx in Sweden starting 1st of March. They only need 442 EUR and have already raised 186 EUR, so this is a very manageable amount that we are sure we can help crowdfund.
On March 1st the lynx cull starts in Sweden and 164 lynx have been sentenced to lose their lives in brutal and ruthless ways. The hunters will tear families apart, torture them to death and traumatize not only the lynx but all the inhabitants of the forest. Because of Swedens new far-right government consisting of hunters, the amount of lynx that will be hunted is record high. As if this were not enough, the lynx is a popular animal to kill in the most sadistic ways. A common hunting method is to have dogs chase them up trees and then shoot them from below. Lynx have also been found strangled, hanged and beaten to death. Hunt Saboteurs Sweden intends to make the hunting difficult and prevent the killing in every possible way to protect the lynx. We will do everything in our power to protect and save these innocent and amazing cats from the hunters bloodlust.
WHERE AND WHEN: Different parts of Sweden from March 1st and forward. We will stay for as long as the economy allows us to.
WHY DONATIONS ARE NEEDED: Unfortunately it costs a lot to sabotage a hunt. The sabs needs food and shelter but also cars and petrol since the hunt is taking place in the woods and sometimes very far away from the society. We always make sure to choose the cheapest options of everything.
WHY TO PROTECT THE LYNX: Hunt Saboteurs Sweden is an anti-hunting and antispeciesist organization that fights for and protects the wild animals against hunters and their psychopathy. We are dedicated to animal liberation. This means we work with groups locally, nationally and worldwide who fight to end domination and injustice.
We take direct action peacefully when needed on the fields to stop the hunt and slaughter of our wildlife. Not everyone can join us on the fields but anyone can play an important role. Fundraising and raising awareness are as important as the sabbing itself.
A comrade sent us a reportback from Lützi, giving us insigt on what is happening first hand. It was originally published on Earth First! Journal and we think you should have a read and find out what’s been happening!
“In small gangs, cops start charging towards groups of protesters, beating up people with batons and pepper spray, kicking and pushing them to the ground. Dozens of people are injured, many with serious head injuries, treated by paramedics, and waiting for a helicopter to hospital.
Lützerath has become a battlefield, where cops defend fossil capital at all costs, enforcing climate catastrophe. From all over Germany, over a thousand police have come to coerce the eviction of Lützerath – the last remaining village being cleared for the expansion of the Garzweiler II opencast mine run by energy giant RWE. For years now activists had prepared for ‘Day X’ – built camps, barricades, tree houses, and tripods, and occupied houses to stop the destruction of the village. They rebuilt community in an area that had long been politically neglected, inhabitants intimidated and paid off, slowly cut off from infrastructure. The last remaining farmer, Eckardt Heukamp, lost his court case in 2022 and had to leave his family farm. This is the second time he’s had to move and see his home destroyed for the expansion of the mine.
Over the last couple of months, since my last visit, even more land has been lost to the mine, even more carbon dioxide has been emitted, habitats lost, political promises broken, livelihoods destroyed. All too clearly, the German state and energy giant RWE show us that they don’t care about our futures, about climate catastrophe, about the web of life that makes human life possible. Even liberal environmentalists are forced to recognise that the government doesn’t give a shit. It’s a coalition with the Green Party that is making this possible. The government will not protect us.
Cops and security forces are taking down structures, violently removing protesters. They have outsourced some of the dirtiest work to RWE personnel – the RWE fire brigade are evicting two tunnellers who locked on underneath the village, and RWE vehicles are used to transport protestors. In close collaboration with RWE, cops use water cannons, horses, and dogs to repress resistance, several people are bitten by dogs. Of course they refuse to investigate the cutting of safety lines, and the dangerous removal of protestors from treehouses and ropes.
Thousands have built and occupied structures, burning barricades, tripods, and monopods. Some take part in sitting blockades and demonstrations, putting their bodies in the way to stop the destruction. 35,000 came today to show that they oppose the eviction. And they are not giving up – groups of protesters have just entered the mine, people are burning police cars, and sabotaging machinery.
They build on a long history of combative resistance in this region of Germany, called the Rhineland. Since the 70s, local groups have fought back against RWE. For over 10 years, the Hambacher Forest occupation resisted (and partially stopped) the destruction of the ancient forest and the expansion of the neighbouring Hambach coal mine – through blockades, sabotage, occupations, building tree houses, tunnels, and many other forms of resistance. The Hambacher Forest occupation, just like Lützerath, has always been not just about stopping a coal mine, but about alternative ways of living and organising together, about solidarity and mutual aid, about anarchist values and practices – a world without coal, police, prisons, and borders, a fight against colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and the state.
But this resistance has always been diverse too. In Lützerath, we see black bloc and church groups, students and pensioners, Fridays for the Future and antifascists. We see solidarity with Rojava and the Zapatistas. People coming together who might not otherwise meet, talking and connecting, sharing skills and building community.
Lützerath is the latest of dozens of villages that have been evicted, inhabitants dispossessed under old Nazi legislation, to facilitate the expansion of lignite coal mines, the dirtiest and most carbon intensive form of electricity generation. This eviction takes place three years after the eviction of the neighbouring Hambacher Forest in 2018, which lasted over four weeks and led to the death of a young film maker. The eviction was stopped by the courts in October 2018, and later declared illegal.
Financed by Deutsche Bank and HSBC Bank, among others, RWE are planning to extract a further 280 million tonnes of coal from the Garzweiler mine. The company itself has admitted that the coal that is being mined here is not necessary for the country’s energy supply. It’s part of a deal between RWE and the government which brings forward the end date of lignite coal mining in Germany from 2038 to 2030, “saving” five remaining villages. But studies show that by reconnecting two generating units and increasing annual extraction, the amount of total coal burnt is hardly reduced at all.
The ‘gas crisis’ triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine serves as a great excuse to continue supporting the coal industry, appealing to people to cut energy use, switch off their lights and turn down their radiators, while leaving industrial energy use intact. The German armament industry – one of the major electricity users – is thriving. Rheinmetall, the largest German arms manufacturer, based in the Rhineland, made record profits in 2022. There is a lot of money to be made from war.
There is still a lot of money to be made from coal, too, indirectly subsidised by the German state. German coal interests have always been inseparable from state interests in the Rhineland. Politicians from all parties – from mayors to parliamentarians – have been on RWE’s payroll. Revolving door relationships have lubricated the political manoeuvring to defend coal at all costs. Just recently, the office manager of Germany’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Green Party has become a RWE lobbyist. But there are plenty of examples.
Paying out communities in shares, not cash, for decades means that many communities are financially dependent on RWE’s financial well-being. A quarter of RWE’s shares are owned by communities, cities, and towns. That means local authorities are shareholders, licensors, clients, constituencies, employees, and tax collectors at the same time. Through payments for attending advisory councils and supervisory boards, politicians have lucrative side incomes, and revolving door relationships ensure preferential treatment.
The boundaries between RWE and NRW (the state of North Rhine Westphalia) – NRWE – have always been blurry. RWE representatives can be found everywhere – in church choirs and town councils, school board and universities. They finance police barbecues and fire trucks, sponsor football clubs and festivals, concerts and exhibitions, viewing platforms and historic castles. They put up baking carts and public bookshelves, pay for school buildings, organise volunteering activities and tours through the mine. They go into school and hand out lunch boxes to first graders. They create teaching materials, role-playing games, and girls’ days in their training centres, offer school trips into power stations, zoo schools, and environmental education initiatives.
In collaboration with government forces, RWE has been able to stop and repress the publication of scientific reports and censor media coverage, write legislation and pay for university research. They conduct acceptance studies to understand resistance and collaborate with researchers to co-opt and repress dissent.
All of these are classic counterinsurgency strategies to repress, pacify, and co-opt dissent – a combination of psychological operations, intimidation, and surveillance – including rape threats and sexual abuse – combined with physical violence and beatings. They are covered up by a well-oiled propaganda machine that consists of PR agencies, RWE departments, police forces and other state structures.
Intimidation and violence against the press help to reduce negative coverage. During the ongoing eviction RWE published strict guidelines – co-written with police – that restricted media coverage by journalists, requiring additional police accreditation and restricting access to certain areas, times of the day, and only when accompanied by RWE representatives. As predicted, footage of police violence is absent from the mainstream media.”
German (and worldwide) activists have fought this before, and are doing it again. RWE, one of the dirtiest energy companies in Europe, is unsurprisingly attempting to expand their lignite mining operations and having to face the fierce opposition of anarchist resistance against the destruction of the earth.
Lützerath is a village in the edge of Garzwailer mine, which digs for lignite coal for energy production. RWE has forcefully kicked out the residents from the village with the intention to demolish the houses and expand the mine, and for over a year activists have squatted the village and built treehouses, blockading the destruction.
The police has announced their eviction plan, which started on the 9th of January, where they want to build a fence around the village, then fence off the different barrios and one by one evict the barrios on behalf of RWE to destroy the village.
The resistance is not afraid of RWE and their police goons and folks have joined forces to resist the eviction and fight back, exactly the same way as it was done in Habacher Forst, where the trees still remain! In the exact same fashion as Hambi, Lützerath is as much an ecological struggle as it is an anarchist alternative to capitalist and democratic society.
They are asking for as much support as possible, so if you can, join the camps and block the cop’s access, fight the eviction and support people on the ground!
If you are unable to join that way, remember that RWE is a multinational company that owns many businesses around the world, and most likely has investments wherever you are from. Those assets are as fair game as RWE itself. They are one of the biggest polluters in Europe, they are very good at marketing themselves as a green eco-conscious company and they are not afraid to fight back, but they have been fended off in the past and they can be destroyed once again. Cut their fingers wherever they are so they cannot grab more money and they will run back afraid of their loses.
You can find more info (and all the socials of the resistance) here: https://luetzerathlebt.info/en/
CALL TO ACTION WHERE: Worldwide WHEN: 13th-16th January WHY: Cos fuck Cop City.
The fight to stop cop city from being built in the Atlanta Forest is in full swing, and with six people facing terrorism charges for tree-sitting, the movement needs to do a push for support from everywhere in the world.
We received a short call to action we would like to share with you:
“call for a weekend of solidarity with the Atlanta Forest to #StopCopCity. January 13-16th.
6 people are charged with domestic terrorism for tree-sitting, as police kill more people in 2022 than any year before, & the climate crisis rages.
We can all take action for our future.”
Be it a solidarity gig, a banner drop, a protest, an event or whatever your imagination can muster, there is a call to action to support the fight against Cop City which we all can partake on worldwide.
Meet with your friends, plot and organise! Are you busy already during the weekend? Make a banner and send a solidarity picture! Whatever it is, show up and tell both Blackhall Studios and the Atlanta Police Department to go fuck themselves.
Send your action reports, photos or words of solidarity to: [email protected]
THE WILD BITES BACK!
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