NEWS AND VIEWS #7

This issue of News and Views (mostly views) will look back at 1997, the events and issues which passed through the anarchist movement and will briefly outline some of the social issues of importance to activists today.

I have received a lot of letters asking for news updates and complaining that the issue of News and Views promised at the beginning of summer never arrived. There is a reason for this which goes beyond the editor's infamous inability to manage her time correctly (or at all) and that is because all of the news (and views) has fallen into the clutches of the secret police, the FSB. (In other words, the KGB - you can rename the bureau but its still the same shit.)

A number of anarchists have been harrassed, interrogated, arrested and raided this year in an effort to combat extremism. Editors of the two major anarchist publications, Alexander Yermakov of Petersburg, and myself, got treated to 12 hours of interrogation a piece, most probably due to our publication of communiques from a radical direct action organization. In the summer, the FSB conducted raids and interrogated several dozen members of the left in Moscow - among them, former anarchist Dmitry Kostenko whose computer, mailing lists, etc., were taken. (Although I wouldn't call Kostenko an anarchist at all, he often still refers to himself as one, and this is important as the FSB probably also considers him one and this provides a link between radical communist youth groups and anarchists.) Unfortunately, I was not available for my raid as I had left on vacation the day after they started; I was raided anyway, but the FSB, afraid of an international scandal, covered their tracks. The computer was taken so translations, publications, valuable information from Belarus etc., were lost and presumably, all correspondence has been checked by the FSB. (I don't know what they found of more interest - my files of worldwide conspiracy or my sometimes spicy and strange personal correspondence.) Books, letters, flags, lists and so on where taken, as were all powders (detergents, glue) and hairbrushes and gloves. All spice jars were opened and small bags with spices were punctured, presumably to get samples.
(I don't know - I've never heard of people keeping explosives in their curry; in general this is strange but absolutely similiar to items taken from the houses of Kostenko and Pavel Bylevsky, editor of the communist paper "Bumbarash".)

So it took me about 3 months to get money, upgrade an old computer, buy a russified modem and get back on-line. As for the KGB, they are apparently tailing at least one person constantly and a couple of people from time to time. They've arrested some people, stopped some of them from coming to Moscow, threatened to bring up an old case against one unless he snitched, etc.. But in general, the anarchists are OK, especially as they've arrested their sacrificial lambs: four commies, in jail for everything from terrorism to murder. I'm no fan of these people, but I have to say that this whole affair is outrageous; an 18-year old boy is being charged with terrorism for bombing the Romanov family grave (those fucking bastards who are being turned into saints by the church) and two guys recently taken in (while the "terrorist lawyer" was in the hospital) supposedly "confessed" to crimes they didn't commit, including a bombing in Vladivostok and the assasination of the head of privatization in Petersburg, Manevich. This is how the "reformed" Russian government deals with its political opposition.

Anyway, all of this shit took a small toll on our activities but we still are hanging in and fighting. "News and Views" and "Naperekor" are both celebrating the appearence of their seventh issues (practically a longevity record for this sporadical publisher). In this issue you can learn about this summer's environmental protests (their tragic conclusions have generated much debate in Russia over tactics), read about the commune "Atshy", find out what "Veselka" means (no, not the restaurant on Second Ave.), hear a little about our mental problems and, yes, read at least one of those forbidden terrorist tracts.

Veselka is the name of an international anti-nuclear initiative to stop the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus.

We are all opposed to the development of nuclear power and find it particularly disturbing and idiotic that authorities would consider building a plant so close to the site of the Chernobyl disaster. The development of this project is being kept quite secret by the Lukashenko government and attempts to oppose it have even resulted in attempted murder. We see this as yet more proof of the government's total disinterest in the opinions or the interests of the people of Belarus and all the areas immediately surrounding it. We want to build up opposition not only to the plant, but to the people who would build it. (And of course, those of us who are anarchists - and that's not all of us, but some - also want this to be an example of the abuses of representative government.)

The plant will be built in the Vitebsk region but the starting date for construction has yet to be decided. There has been talk that workers displaced from the Chernobyl zone (who have a high rate of unemployment) will be used for this labour. There were ideas about having a camp but first of all, this would be impossible given the size of the Belarus police state and second, many activists are critical of this as a tactic. (At least I am. See further articles on eco-summer camps.) We are going to be conducting various information campaigns and trying to build up local activism. Later there will be various actions starting in April throughout Belarus and different points in Europe.

Activists from 12 countries have already signed up for this project, so it already has international scope.

Anybody who is interested in this initiative should help out. We need international journalists who are willing to investigate the building of the plant and the condition of people resettled after Chernobyl in Belarus. Further, we need to cover expenses for posters, literature etc.. Anybody that has good anti-nuclear material, especially graphics, please send them to me via snail mail @ PO Box 500, Moscow 107051.

We're happy to say that a number of our anarchist and radical projects are still going. Although it seems that discussion groups have split into smaller subdivisions, they are still going on and new people often come to them. Sometimes we have visitors from other cities who come and speak. There were some very good reports this year and we're looking forward to the next season.

The Victor Serge Library is still running, having managed to save itself from eviction by organizing a strong local petition campaign. BTW, we still aren't opposed to contributions of books.

The Anarchist University slowed down it's lectures but they did hold a series of talks on the basics of anarchist philosophy and history.

The Veselka project was organized this year and a number of people have visited Belarus on organizing/fact-finding missions and participated in a conference to organize an anti-nuclear movement in that country.

"Naperekor" magazine continues to come out and has expanded to almost 80 pages. Also published were issues of "Direct Action", "A-S Infos" and "Trava i Volya" ("Grass and Freedom"). Other attempted publications have showed up or plan to appear.

Anarchists continue to work in various left groups including a councilist student group, human rights groups, anti-nuclear/ ecological groups and so forth.

A protest in solidarity for Vaclav Jez was organized in September in Moscow. A lot of people came and there was a riotous atmosphere. Czech and Slovak TV filmed the event and interviewed people. In the end, members of the Moscow Anarchist Club burned a sign where the flag was depicted with a swastika. The embassy people decided to press charges against the organizer of the protest for this act.

A group of autonomen from Berlin visited us in Moscow this August on the second part of a Moscow-Berlin political exchange. Excursions to places of interest around Moscow were organized, as were many discussions. There were some rather interesting moments and some very good contacts were made but the whole event was not without problems. In general there was a rather big gap between some of the political concerns of the two groups and also a huge difference in the culture of relating to each other and working in groups. (In short, group process leaves a lot to be desired here.) Still, we were very glad to be able to share experiences and learn more about the political scene in Germany and to tell them about Russia's.

On a related note, the FAU-IWA eastern europe group is hoping to improve contacts with us and we say DAVAI. Earlier in the summer there were plans to improve coordination, but, as always, they fell a little short. (So much to do, so few available brain cells.) For those of you interested in more info about Eastern Europe, the best place to get news in English is ALTER-EE@plearn.edu.pl (subcribe ALTER-EE) or, for Russian speakers, Naperekor.

As always, we visited the Indonesians a couple of time this year - to protest Indo-imperialism and when they wanted to conclude an arms deal with Moscow. We're getting fed up with standing in front of their gates though - maybe we ought to invite ourselves to dinner. Did anybody call the caterers?

Speaking of food - a group of anarchists decided that if all they could afford were rotting tomatoes, they might as well get good use out of them. On April 22, a foul group of nasties headed onto Red Square and awaited the arrival of Gena Zyuganov, hurling the offensive fruits as far as they could. (Well, it DOES beat sitting home and watching TV.) The Party Boss was visiting the mummy when a bunch of red blobs headed his way, catching him slightly off guard. All well and good, but in the end we had to put down the action on the bad experience list.

First of all, the action was "organized" (that is to say, thought up) by Pavel Bylevsky - young commie leader and radical shepheard. Bylevsky, not unlike Kostenko, is famous for having ideas for "tough" actions which they promptly get young folks to carry out - sort of like the juvenile dare system. In these actions those guys never participate (I remember Kostenko calling us to beat fascists many years ago and running away when we started to fight); they let the other people do the work and then call press conferences and take "responsibility" for the actions. Other people are always bearing the brunt of these actions and they strut around like Lenin --- in short, another reason why anybody having anything to do with them are fools.
And of course, it was five of our friends who were picked up while the commies ran away. Zyuganov wanted to press criminal charges; misdemeanours are for plebes. So a group of anarchists (those who decided to show solidarity ANYWAY) picketed the Duma on April 25, and then THEY got arrested. But then apparently the cops decided that they couldn't bear these great unwashed anymore and let the whole group out. Such was our little mini-drama for April.

And then May came and our headaches started all over again. Literally.

Our annual May Day activities were greatly upset by the actions of trade union leader and former anarcho-pretender, Andrei Isayev. Every year we gather our own demo, organize some events and what not but also we usually go to some larger demonstration first to hand and leaflets and so forth. This year we decided to go to the FNPR (Federation of Indepedent Trade Unions) demo but, unfortunately, we weren't invited. It seems that the union leadership, infamous for signing pacts with Yeltsin and guaranteeing that workers won't strike, didn't want our radical presence seen so they sent the police to beat us up. A couple of people were arrested and a few were hospitalized, including a pregnant woman who was punched in the stomach and had a serious concusion. Needless to say, part of the day was wrecked.

We did have May Day anyway but our meeting was rather pathetic. Afterwards we had fun tearing down fascist leaflets. Part of the anarchists went on to an anti-fascist concert and others had a concert themselves drinking at the Serge library and singing anarchist songs. A las barricadas!

ECO-SUMMER

There's a tradition amongst Russian ecologists to do actions in the summer, known as "camp season" as most of these require that people travel and live somewhere in a tent. This year people went south again, back to the beloved city of Vogondonsk and to the Black Sea where a pipeline project threatens this beloved vacation area, one of the most beautiful around here.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (KTK) is planning on building an enormous pipeline project to bring oil up from Kazakhstan into the terminal at Novorossisk. This would go under important rivers like the Kuban and the Volga. The Russian oil barons are all salivating at the prospect although this would not only be ecologically dangerous but would spoil much of the Black Sea coast, an area many are trying to get under government "protection". (I'm chuckling here - just who do they think the oil barons are anyway? Oh, yeah, I forgot - it's Western capital. Well, as they told people, it's better if Russians build it cause the Turks are just dying to come in.) A large oil spill already happened on the existing line; on May 28, hundreds of tons spilled there, an incident that the local residents would not like to see repeated.

Activists from the area (Atshy and the Kuban Anarchist Federation) organized several days of actions which included protests, infomation and petition campaigns, street theater and a long walk along the Black Sea. 30-40 people showed up, from Moscow, Samara, Krasnodar, MinVody, Sochi, Novorossisk, Maikop, Budennovsk and Dzerzhinsk; the crowd, aged from 14-35, was made up mostly of young women, aged 17-19 - hopefully a new generation of radicals. On June 30 they held a funeral procession for the Black Sea in Novorossisk which was shown on TV all over the country. It was funeral-like but also festive with burning businessmen (effigies - not real ones) and so on. They renamed the consortium KTK to Capitalism Terrorizes Kuban, a more fitting description of the initials.

The actions were not without conflict with the police who entered into somewhat surreal relations with the protestors. (The protestors were, in all seriousness, continually accused of being Turkish spies and asked crazy questions like "What is your relation to Sergei Kovalyov?" - note, SK is hated in the south because of his opposition to the Chechen war. He tried to stop it, unsuccessfully. He also petitioned to have Kropotkin's house returned - with similiar results.) Following along the way was Dima Ryabinin's own personal FSB agent who was been tailing him since he's come back from Germany with us. As you understand, this just provided plenty of opportunity to make fun of these morons, so their presence just actually helped to liven things up. Of course they did get a little nasty and confiscate some passports until fines were paid - an illegal move but one which they get away with all the time.

Aside from this action, there was the camp at Volgodonsk and another action against the pipeline, but these, for reasons you will see, will be discussed later on.

Dec. 9 was again Kropotkin Memorial Day in Moscow. As usual, a trip in the snow to the cemetary for revolutionary words and songs. Then it was off to the Palestian Embassy, housed in Kropoktin's birthplace. The Embassy people (who would gladly vacate the place if we found them an alternate million-dollar mansion nearby) prepared tea and cakes and listened to different reports on Kropotkin. By the way, the second half of a book of essays on Kropotkin came out; these reports were presented at the International Kropotkin conference in 1992.

Speaking of poor old Pete - the Palestinians have occupied his house, his street was renamed to a suspicious sounding "Prichistenka" and the church wants to get rid of his metro station but we still love him. With a little creative art work, the statue of Engels which stands at the beginning of the former Kropotkin street was tranformed into a princely portrayal of the "great geographer and revolutionary". Plans are being made for more tranformations: Nadya Krupskaya into Emma Goldman, Kalinin into Rudolf Rocker, Gandhi into Alexander Berkman, (OK - we'll leave Gandhi), the bear on Manezh Sq. into Alexander Bakunin and Lenin into Polish anarchist Piotr Remarczyk. But what the hell are we going to do with Zhukov?

Some anniversaries were celebrated this year in Moscow. On a personal note, this editor has been doing the anarchy thing for 20 years now. So we celebrated the fact that I haven't dropped dead or gone totally crazy yet. Also we celebrated 10 years of political activism and I thought it would be interesting to remind readers how much everything has changed since then.

Even though Gorbachev got into power in 1985, there wasn't much of a mass political movement until the events of 1987. (Me and two Mexican anarchists waving a black flag can hardly be called the beginning of the anarchist movement here.) It was in 1987 that Yakovlev called together an intellectual opposition, that the historical-political club "Obschina" was formed and Moscow anarchist extraordinaire Petya Ryabov got arrested by the KGB for writing one little word.

Now, you may be assuming that the one little word was "anarchy" or "freedom" or something like that, but it was actually something a little more common. A bunch of us got together and cracked up laughing hearing how Petya's brave and radical act of the time inspired a whole social movement. We cracked up because that one little word, the word which nobody was allowed to say at the time was simply the word "Yeltsin".

Of course everybody's relationship to the pickled president has changed radically since August 1991 (I TOLD you we should have stormed the White House) but in 1987 it was Yeltsin who made a little speech denouncing the history and role of the Party. (As we now know from Korzhakov, Yeltsin was probably too far gone to even remember the speech, but that's another issue.) Well, you couldn't exactly hear about it in Pravda, so one young idealist, 17-year old college freshman Ryabov, stayed up all night typing it out, each copy individually, and decided to post leaflets on the Moscow City Soviet. Then the boy, having already hit his local party building with a homemade can of spray paint, set out fearlessly towards to Kremlin, only to get picked up by the KGB.

Word of this spread around Moscow like wildfire. (Listen, they didn't have Santa Barbara in those days.) The folks who later were the "Obschina" group didn't want to have anything to do with this "dangerous radical", but later they saw that he was a fairly quiet egghead, so Petya joined up and the rest is anarchist history.

The old 87ers got together, as did the old members of the Obschina group. Well, apart from about a dozen people, they're all businessmen or bureaucrats - a sad commentary on the development of Russian politics. But there's still Petya and Vlad Tupikin, charismatic choleric and avatar of anarchy. And as for those who came around in the next few years (many of them as young as 14 and 15), a lot are still around and we're happy for that. There's only one thing that is bothering us: why did a bunch of people who have long ago given up on anarchism decide to publish issue number 50 of Obschina?

Obschina was the most important anarchist publication up til 1992 and one of the most important samizdat zines of the time. A few people involved in it are still are comrades but, with only a couple of exceptions, those who put it out have long given up; why the hell do they want to write about Kropotkin? People like Andrei Isayev, profboss and anarchist hater. My theory is that these people have their own whacky ideas about what anarchism is and are merely trying to show up us folk whose anarchism they consider to be too radical. These proponents of "social partnership" assume that we should work in the government for "reform" - the question being, where the hell is the reform? I sense that a harsh political tract is in order - will probably call it "Social Partnership Vs. Lifestyle Anarchism - an unbridgeable chasm." Nah.

On December 19 there was a big demonstration in Moscow against the introduction of payments on local phone calls. What was unique about this demo was that a friend of ours got it together using the Internet. The crowd was therefore made up mostly of young, upwardly mobile people, but still, despite the noticeable absence of regular people, it was good to see people out there and to know that at least someone here is using their computer as an organizing tool.

SOME ANARCHIST QUESTIONS ON THE NATURE OF HOUSING REFORMS

The new year plans many new "reforms" and price increases which promise to make life for the average Russian much more difficult.
Of course we are against the further impoverishment of the people and therefore we cringe at the thought of the social implications of these price increases. Anarchists continue to protest against these increases (and have done especially well cheating transit authorities). Now, housing reforms have raised an old question at Naperekor magazine: do state subsidies do more harm than good?

The debate got underway after KRAS people wrote a leaflet against the raising of common charges. Right away, I should say that I started the debate, so I can just go into my opinion about it. (Although I started the debate this time, the issue of market reforms have long been discussed amongst anarchists and other activists here.)

Of course I understand that a mass leaflet campaign often has populist tones; a full scale discussion of anarchist views on housing will not be read. The leaflet, in short, is against the raising of common charges; currently people pay minimal amounts (average about $30 a month) for maintanence of their flats. With salaries as they are, combined housing and transport leave people will little disposal income; many people live at the subsitance level and sacrifice food when they need (or they think they need) to buy something. (There is now a very high rate of birth complications due to poor diets. There is additionally a problem that in the capital, many young women who do earn money tend to spend it to clothes and so on, starving their bodies in search of model thinness. Needless to say, when people earning $400 a month purchase $1000 fur coats, something is really fucked up.) For millions of low-income people, these reforms, combined with other increases, will further increase their misery.

Still, I think there are some problems with demanding that the state keep subsidizing housing. The state housing system has been, of course, a disaster; while proponents of state socialism may argue that the state at least provided minimal housing for everyone, they were not able to keep up with demand and imposed stupid bureaucratic rules which denied people the right to make some simple housing choices. The situation now is that the state stills provides some housing (but only a tiny fraction of what peple need) and are trying to encourage housing sales. Needless to say, costs are high for Russia; Moscow prices average out at $1000 per square meter, which includes hall, kitchen and bath space; buying a small apartment should cost about $50,000. There is almost no developed system of mortgages; loans, if they are given (exclusively to high-income people), are given from 3-5 years at a very high interest rate. Needless to say, few can afford this with their $200 a month salaries. People remain cramped up in state housing which they can privatize, meaning they essentially can own flats paid for by the state. Some people, however, are more equal than others: those with influence and connections were always given better flats, bigger, in better regions. And this continues now - in other words, state control of housing allocation is just another way of securing preferences for the nomenclatura, of essentially abusing and robbing the system.

If we understand that control over housing allows for more abuse (and, as anarchists, we should know that state control is a vehicle for the abuse of power) then we should be concerned at finding alternative housing solutions rather than offering solutions that require continued dependence on the state.

Depedence on the state has lead to nothing good and in housing questions it would be preferable for people to think of their blocks as their own responsibilty, not that of the state. You often have such situations where, for example, the door is broken in an apartment building, but rather than collecting $2 from each tenant and fixing it immediately, they'll wait 6 months for some bureaucrat to put in a door. While there are many tenant's associations in cooperative houses (far from all houses are cooperative) these often turn into a neighbourhood snitching ground ("there are Chechen's renting on the third floor!") and usually most work gets put onto the elected house meister. We should be encouraging is more direct participation in tenants organizations and the development of different sorts of cooperatives (for example food coops) which would benefit large groups of people. The first thing which may be noticed is that due to the fact that everything except basic services is already at market prices, even if the state were cut out of the picture, most people would pay a little more than now to maintain their homes.

From an anarchist perspective the development of such community organizations would be a great antidote to the passivity bred by state dependence and it is something that can be introduced on a large scale effective immediately. As I mentioned, this would not keep housing costs down. We shouldn't necessarily be fighting to keep costs down, but rather, to raise salaries.

With the IMF plan, much of state subsidies are disappearing. Train prices, for example, have risen greatly. There is some economic sense to this; it is expensive to run trains (as Americans should know) and the tickets should reflect the cost. Train travel is becoming increasingly unaffordable for people because salaries have not risen to market levels. Putting aside an anarchist model for now (cause we won't get that here - they'll offer us something else), either Russia has to maintain its own system of prices for everything (thus locking it out of the international economy) or it has to fully integrate into it. Patriotic communists naturally propose the first variant, pointing to the fact that most people were better off before attempts at integration. Be that as it may (we won't even go into the pros and cons of the Soviet system), we are on the IMF plan and many people consider the ability to be able to purchase Japanese TVs their primary human right. So, OK, if that's what they're forcing on us, an anarchist demand should be for market level wages - that is, wages should be set on a minimum level equivalent to wages in the United States. Of course this can be done, but it's against the interest of the state to have the development of a mass middle class. Better an impovershed country of dependents.

The whole debate of course is very interesting and is an important discussion of tactical questions for anarchists. Although there is a specific Russian context (I maintain that the Soviet system of state control produced such a detachment from the management of everyday life that all remnants of it should be smashed), the question is international; privatization is a burning issues in many countries around the globe as is how to create alternatives while living in the global market economy. We welcome comments and details of different experiences on this topic.

SUMMER TRAGEDIES; has the ecological movement adopted suicide methods?

The summer was marked by two fairly serious tragedies: the pogrom in Volgondonsk and an accident in which a young woman's hand was torn off. Both of these incidents have shaken many people in the ecological movement; we can hope that they will at least serve to open serious discussion on the tactics of protest.

Influenced by the environmental tactics of many European activists, Russian ecowarriors have taken to handcuffing themselves to fences, chaining themselves to barrels and so on during the course of their action. Now, this editor does not always like these tactics to begin with, although I've participated in numerous blockades and think they're often the right tactic. But, in order to do this, there have to be some pre-existing conditions.

First, there should be at least some critical mass. Four people handcuffed in shifts is just not going to cut it. Second, there has to be at least something to stop the police from just beating you - for example, press which will run coverage, the ability to sue to cops or a potentially angry citizen base that will be outraged by the incident. Now none of this really exists anywhere here. (When @s were beaten on May Day it was before TV cameras but they destroyed the film and no papers wanted to run the story.) And also, perhaps most important for the second condition, there should be at least some support for your action, at least the understanding that you mean well from the people who will come in contact with it. Especially if this action is going to prevent them from going about their business. Either that or you have to outwit and outnumber them. (Here we are talking about actions which require you to be in one vulnerable, exposed place - crash and burn actions need no consent.)

(If you don't have critical mass, you may as well go for the crash and burn. Last year the camp was attacked, this year - why be sitting ducks?)

Apparently last year the protest had pretty good feedback from the locals but something went sour this year. I wasn't there and I've heard a million versions of the events, but one thing is clear - however it got that way, in the end there were extremely confrontational relations between the workers of the site under protest (the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant) and members of the Rainbow Keepers, organizers of the event.

From the end of July through August they were there but apparently they weren't able to find a common language with the workers; some claim they didn't even try. My suspicion, knowing many of the participants, is that they were very confrontational, perhaps even hateful to them - this is sadly often true that people view others as automaton idiots. Well, maybe they are automaton idiots, but if you tell them that (instead of trying to dialogue with them), the result with be much like that in Volgodonsk.

One day in August, the Rainbow Keepers were blocking the road, chained and handcuffed to their barrels when the workers came by. They were a little fed up with having to walk to work since their buses couldn't get past the Keepers. Now, upon seeing that the workers were going to work anyway, it would seem logical to just abandon that tactic and try something else. The effect on the plant was nil - the whole thing just made tired, underpaid workers more cranky. BUT NO! The Keepers, presumably not knowing anything better to do, remained stuck to their barrels. It was in this vulnerable position that a mob of over 500 people attacked them. (That's ten on one for those counting.) The scene was something of a nightmare, to say the least. Burning, theft, beatings. Our gentle, noble Ryabov was nearly castrated, one person was beaten so heavily that he had amnesia ... lots of wounds and bruises, many of which local doctors refused to treat. The naive Keepers then went to the police - who of course just fined them - to press criminal charges; the document the police returned a historical momument of police complicity to mass violence.

Now, as I said, I wasn't there so I can't comment extensively on their mistakes. (Besides, we get in trouble every time we print an article about this group, even though its own members write them!) Everybody has a different point of view. A lot of good people were there, but I'd have to say that there's a tendency to let the idiots take charge; nobody likes to be a leader, except the idiots and the culture of group decision making is way underdeveloped here. But one thing I will comment on is the attitude of many of the people after this incident; a lot of people were cursing at the workers and when I suggested some actions with them they started cursing me, calling all workers reactionary. Really? Well, I do have to keep in mind that many of these people are young, live off parents or something and don't have to wage slave like me. Still, I don't like this attitude; I also despise the vision of life as going to work, coming back to a nuclear family and Santa Barbara (more so than many of them) but not everybody who goes to work has an ultra-conservative mind set - just like not everyone who hangs out and acts marginal is cool. I don't want to idealize the revolutionary potential of workers, but they need to fuck up the system as much as anybody else. I assume that a lot of people reading this understand what I'm talking about. (Thus part of the appeal of Bookchin's trashy book on "lifestyle anarchism", a book written on something else and which doesn't even begin to talk about the thousands of people running around calling themselves @s who haven't a clue and certainly doesn't offer anything valuable like anarchist perspectives on lifestyle and the role of work in it.)

As if Volgodonsk wasn't enough, people had to handcuff themselves again. Listen, if the cars in this place don't stop to let people cross the street, what makes people think that they'll stop just because a group of young people are handcuffed to objects on the road. Unfortunately one car kept on going and this Black Sea action turned tragic as one woman's hand was torn off. (People who may want to help her can contact Atshy.) Unfortunately, sometimes lessons come at too high a price.

HOW ANARCHISTS CELEBRATED OCTOBER REVOLUTION DAY
or how not to organize an offensive

We have something in common with our comrades in Krasnodar and that is that the first thing it occurred for us to do on Nov.7 was to go out and beat fascists. Unfortunately we had a case of nobody really wanting to lead our gang - in other words, decisions weren't made ahead of time so we spent hours (in the snow) trying to decide how best to attack the fuckers. Of course we kept getting sidetracked by snowballs fights and anarcho-warm-up games and we were noticed hanging around with our bizarre weapons (mine was a stick with the emblem of the Soviet Union on it) and the fascios were warned and faked us out. In the end, the group split up and part of it decided to stroll the Arbat, an area known for it's fascist activity. Of course there's a lot of fascist activity there because it is run by the police station. (Note, most of the 50,000 memebers of Russian National Unity work as police, army or security). In the end they were arrested. The whole experience was a bit demoralizing but it just made other more resolved to get the fuckers the next time.

In Krasnodar our friends also wound up in jail after they were attacked by RNE (Russian National Unity) while playing music in the park. But at least they managed to get in some good kicks and punches and again drew significant media coverage.

FASCIST PRESIDENT? YOU HAVE A CHOICE!

Alexander Barkashov, founder of the RNE, has announced his intentions of running for president in the year 2000. His organization enjoys considerable power and influence in the military and police, among some memebers of the business community and in public office, notably in the south. RNE's newspaper, Russian Order, has a circulation of 500,000 copies.

(We would be happy to up the circulation of our zines to 500.)

A new patriotic bloc will also be running. The bloc is made up of the National Bolshevik Party (Limonov), the RKRP (Anpilov) and the Union of Officers (Terekhov). This bloc significantly increased the power of the more fascist elements in it. Members of the RKRP youth groups are being prepared across the country to launch an offensive, possibly to start on Yeltsin's death. This and other efforts are being sponsored by local government leaders and financed with stolen oil money from the Tyumen region.

Anti-fascist activities have been increasing around the former Soviet Union and many anarchists have been at the forefront of this struggle. In Moscow we saw the appearance of an anti-fascist newpaper called "Humanity" and a number of concerts and events were held. Some anarchists also belong to a group called "Left Anti-Fascist Resistance", founded by Militant hack "Robert Jones". This group enjoys more popularity in the regions (where the anarchist movement is more likely to be filled with strange types who haven't quite gotten beyond the circle-A stage); in Moscow there are a variety of anti-fascist groups and gangs. Some actions proved rather radical; unknown persons set off bombs at a RNE training base, NBP headquarters (located beneath a police station) and did a drive-by against RNE security guards. We think (for you spies that are reading this) that competing factions of fascists actually bombed each other so you should start killing one another as revenge without further delay.

Readers of News and Views are aware of the disgusting policies and deeds of the FNPR (Independent Federation of Trade Unions). It was much to our delight that we heard that these proponents of social partnership were bombed. (Nobody was hurt.) We, naturally, first suspected the mafia, cause after all, Andrusha Isayev, former anarchist guru and major creep, is a part owner of a casino and casino owners are always getting blown away. (Just when you least expect it.) The casino, located on Georgievski Perulok, just behind the Duma, was opened on trade union money (oh - so that's where our pension funds go!) and is a favourite amongst LDPR (Zhirinovsky) party perverts. (Three of whom also got shot down recently. Crime doesn't pay.) So of course we suspected this to be the work of gangsters! Imagine our surprise when we read the papers and saw a communique by the NRA (New Revolutionary Alternative), a left group who keeps getting us into trouble by sending us unsolicited communiques that we can't refrain from printing. :) (It's easy to see from the text that these guys are no anarchists, but we're happy they're out there doing this dirty work.)

Here's the text on the FNPR bomb. (Spies please note that we DO NOT know who the NRA are, half of us consider it to be a police provocation anyway, and NO we will not be saying anything to you KGB fuckers about the matter.)

On September 10, 1997 an explosion took place at the "Palace of Labour", the residence of the Russian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FNPR) in Moscow. We, the New Revolutionary Alternative, take responsibility for this action.

While economic "reforms" have plunged Russian citizens into poverty and despair, the corrupt hirelings of world capital which are presently in power are preparing new ways to rob the people - housing and monetary reforms.

Civil servants, state employed workers, have been virtually turned into slaves, not even working for a salary but for the absolute minimal possible to save them from absolute starvation, receiving their wages 6 months in arrears, devalued. The number of people in jails and labour camps is higher than at the height of the Stalinist terror; the majority of these people are in for committing economic crimes necessitated by their poverty. At the same time, the worst crimes are carried out by the economists and politicians of the country. The government keeps on releasing statements every month about the improvement of the standard of living when in reality it is 400% lower than in 1990.

The so-called entrepreneurs, having stolen capital from the people, bathe in luxuries while the poor, elderly and disabled are thrown to the whims of fate. The now huge army of homeless and unemployed may now be joined by millions more thanks to the further destruction of the economy and "housing reform".

Under such conditions, it is the duty of every conscientious citizen to help overthrow this ruling clique of bloodsuckers who are intentionally trying to destroy the people.

We see that the organizations which should fight for the economic interests of the workers in a civil society is not fulfilling its functions. The FNPR is a traitor to the people; instead of fighting for regularly paid salaries and wage increases, against sackings and for a shorter work day with better working conditions, the FNPR supports management and Mayor Luzhkov's criminal hirelings. In order to get them to fight for the workers, the workers must constantly kick them in the ass.

We are sending a warning to the leadership of the FNPR that it is not acceptable to continue selling out the working class. We demand that the FNPR immediately begin to organize a general strike by November with demands that workers be paid, that the workers' rights be upheld, that housing and monetary reforms get trashed and that the government resign. The leadership of the FNPR should realize that if they don't fulfill these demands, they will be held accountable by the working class.

The New Revolutionary Alternative calls on all honest people to fight against the further plunder of the country by these damned parasites and against the spitting on of people's economic and political rights.

Death to the oppressors! Long live the revolution!

New Revolutionary Alternative

BTW, for all you spies, we think that from a psycho-linguistic point of view, the name NRA most closely resembles a name that would be chosen by people close to another three-lettered, "alternative"-loving, "revolutionary", vandguardist organization, the NBP.

At least you should raid THEM a couple of times to be sure.

One of the most disturbing problems in the movement now is with relations to authoritarian communist groups. It may seem hard to believe in the land of Kronstadt, but some of our mentally challenged "comrades" see fit to work with the successors of the official state communist youth organization (Komsomol) and other authoritarian types that should send any normal anarchist running - for their shotguns! (Or at very least a poison pen. And at least one ice pick.)

A few months back I exchanged some words with my old buddy Alexander Tarasov whom I have now relegated to the dustbin of personal history. Tarasov was upset cause we published an article by Alexander Shubin, infamous consultant to Herr Boris Nemtsov. Now many of us have no relations whatsoever with the evil Shubin, although it is debatable whether such employment is enough to get anarchist membership evoked; a lot of anarchs have stupid or questionable jobs and many are naive enough to believe that they can counteract right-wing influence in the government by participating someway in politics. (For example, the idiots in the states that voted for Clinton. Oh yeah, and all you folks that support future oppressors in the name of "national liberation" movements.) At least Shubin still wants to meet with us, writes us long and interesting articles and has recently published the first short history of anarchists in the Spanish Revolution, all of which proves that at least HE thinks he's still an anarchist. Let's not get off the track. So Tarasov, who believes, in the words of the extremely whacky right, that Nemtsov is working towards "the genocide of the Russian people" started yelling about our bad taste in writers, to which I asked if he considers it better to publish in the NBP paper where he is frequently an author. Well, we've already had this conversation, and he had told me something to the effect that it's a provocation to use their money to publish left ideas. Well, my bullshit detectors went wild.

Tarasov seemingly is trying to set himself up as the leading commie theorist and apparently was frustrated with us; we have a bit more brains and don't need any gurus. So, in his attempt to become a political authority, he has taken up two tactics: lying and lying.

First about the lies in the service of mythologizing his friends. Tarasov is always printing articles and pushing them off on naive commie party hacks from the West, articles for example telling of massive student strikes which, quite simply, DID NOT EXIST.

Now, we were all very polite about this at first, choosing not to get into big arguments about little articles that nobody will read, but then he started to write articles on anarchism and the anarchist movement and he just keeps putting things on paper which he knows are not true and quite frankly, it's time to put the record straight and let people know that the guy is acting like a real sleazy schemer.

Tarasov (and he's got brains, so you can imagine how bad off the brainless are) is infected by the leftist disease, "lefty-lepsy". In all due respect to the man, we will at least blame this on the state who locked him up in a mental hospital and injected him with terrible drugs. Like many of other leftists (including some of those who think they're comrades), he believes that the current course of reform is so dangerous that something must be done immediately. In his desperation to find organizations capable of offering resistance, he likes these left authoritarian structures. Although we don't like these "reforms" either, we are not stupid enough to like commies just cause they're in the opposition. (OK - normal academic Marxists, libertarian socialists, but not members of patriotic, xenophobic parties.) Tarasov has adopted the idiotic language of the red-brown opposition and speaks like a Slavophile; they speak not in terms of real class analysis anymore, but of the West, the bourgeoisie (meaning the FOREIGN bourgeoisie and pro-Western Jews) and of evil pro-genocidal apologists like the rootless cosmopolitan Americans, Jews, Masons and individualists at Naperekor publication. These confused souls are so incredibly hung up on reaction to Western influence that they become de-facto patriots, apologists for petty nationalists, supporters of any two-bit opposition movement as long as it seems militant and tries to talk in elitist, avant-garde, pseudo-intellectual politbabble.

Of course the avant-garde of these moronic assholes is the commissar Dmitry Kostenko, former member of Irean and the leading "anarchist" of the RKRP. (I don't know about his current party affiliation. I guess they threw him out of that party.) Kostenko enjoys a considerable following among the easily-impressed, semi-literate, pseudo-marginals of the Russian provinces. Easily impressed by radical cartoons, ultra-left machismo, elitist aesthetical appropriations and cooler-than-thou posturing, none of them seem to care about the real politics of these parties and groups, nor seem to think much at all about the obvious contradictions between anarchism and vanguard communism. Tarasov continually promotes Kostenko as the leading anarchist in Russia and ingenuously claims "not to understand our political squabbles". And quite a number of people work with Kostenko and think that we're "sectarians" cause we curse at him. Oh well.

Unfortunately, one of the tendencies of the Kostenkovites is to bilk people for money, notably foreigners, cause, after all, their politics are essentially nationalist; as one person recently told me, he considers it part of class warfare to take money from the bourgeoisie and, as I know, bourgeoisie in their lexicon is a code word for foreign.

That's it - I'm going into cardiac arrest here and I'd better stop writing about these morons. When am I ever going to learn to write briefly? In short, we hate commie parties, we want people with half a brain to find the other half, an ice-pick in the back, the collected works of Lenin up their asses --- long live anarchy! (I need a drink.)

SOME BRIGHTER NOTES

The Fuck Girls (that's my knickname for them cause they come from a groups whose acronym is fuck in English) from the Kuban have formed an anarcha-feminist group called "Mat Paryadka" (the mother of order). Comrade Barrikady has been actively propaganizing fun and feminism in the local media for which the Kuban anarchists are the biggest story around. (Especially interesting was the story about the Fuck Girls posing topless - Tanya with an axe - and having the picture winding up in the local porno magazine, getting Barrikady kicked out of school. For those of you lucky enough to get the paper version of this, you can get a look.) In an act of political solidarity (and one-upwomanship) I quickly formed a group in Moscow called "The Mother of Chaos", the title, probably, a lot more appropriate.

PLANET ATSHY - Fear of an Atshy planet --- well, not yet.

You may be more familiar with the famous Anarres, but yes - there was also an Atshy. It's also the name of the coolest commune in the Caucuses - a love shack in Maikop, home of anarchs and radicals trying to transform life. (OK - maybe it's NOT a love shack, I don't know. I know that they eat nothing but kasha and I suppose that people who don't like to eat mustn't like sex much either. I'll visit soon and see for myself.) "Atshitsy" (that "i" is pronounced like the "ee" in "teeth") are actively involved in lots of projects, including running an activist/info center in Maikop. Admittedly some of the things they've sent me are a little hippie-dippy, but hey, it's communal living, harmony with nature, democratic decision making... a model for other friends to follow. Unlike many people in communes, they haven't "dropped out" of society but work hard to change it.

Atshitsy have been particularly active in the ecological movement and have started publishing a digest. Those of you who might want to get in touch with them can reach them by e-mail at atshy@glasnet.ru.

LONG LIVE THE BUFFALO (OR IS THAT THE BISON) BRIGRADE!

A resolution was passed to make buffalos (is this a Quayle word?) and bisons anarchist symbols along with the black cat. We just love the furry critters - symbol of Belarus and once kings of the American plains. The Gomel american indians (who have been known to live in teepees and roam downtown Gomel in nothing but their mocassins), the raging Moscow pagans and anarchists of all stripes support an initiative to give back the land to the buffalo and to form communes in harmony with nature. The buffalo, like the European bison (the Belarussian ZUBR, namesake of our international brigade) has all but disappeared, the helpless victim of the advance of "civilization" (electrification in Russian). To hell with highways and nuclear power plants - give us a home, where the buffalo roam.

SOME ANARCHIST CONTACTS

This is a partial list of anarchist publications which come out regularly in Russia and which we consider interesting. This is only for Russia and those zines which don't have an addresss, are one-shotters or we've already recycled for kitty litter are not listed. Please note, if a name is listed, it is better to write that on the envelope of you are trying to contact them. Very simply the post office can demand registration documents if an organization is listed.

Avtonom - 35001 Krasnodar a/ya 3472 Ryabinin, Dmitry
Anarchiya - 603082 Niznhy Novgorod a/ya 14
Golos Truda 634004 Tomsk ul. Usova 10/a-52
Kazanski Anarchist 420059 Kazan a/ya 199
Mass Disturbances 39400 Voronezh a/ya 233
Novy Svet (New World) 194291 Petersburg a/ya 32 A. Yermakov
In Memory of the Heroes of Narodnaya Volya (Historical Narodnik Material)
185034 Petrozavodsk ul. Kemskaya a/ya 1372
Direct Action 142530 Moskovskaya obl. Eletrogorsk-1 a/ya 31
Khraniteli Radugi (the editor has split from this group but we think he'll still send out old issues) 113209 Moskva do vost. Tupikinu

Some e-mail addresses:
Vlad Tupikin - kosmos@glasnet.ru
Atshy - atshy@glasnet.ru
Olga Miryasova - kuzja@cci.glasnet.ru
RKAS (Revolutionary Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists) - beeper@beeper.donetsk.ua
Belorussian Anarchist Federation - FAB@amerind.bsfdr.gomel.by
Ira Bondarenko - nutsncho@students.soros.karelia.ru
AN-Press - pca00799@mail.admiral.ru
Sergei Fomichev - dront@glasnet.ru
Oleg Raldugin - root@post92.tts.lipetsk.su
Mike Shuvalov - mikes@cat.icp.ac.ru
Leonty Luchenko - leonty@inteh.kazan.su
Nadya Shevchenko - nadia@glasnet.ru
German Aletkin - aka@soros.kazan.su

*ALL THE NEWS THAT I'M FIT TO PRINT*