NEWS AND VIEWS No. 8

P.O. Box 500
Moscow 107061
Russia
cube@glasnet.ru

AdMinister of Information: Laure Akai

May Day has just passed, marking the time for the appearance of another issue of NEWS AND VIEWS. Those of you who are already familiar with this periodic outburst of info and ideas know that it's mostly views, not news - but that's not my fault. There isn't much "newsworthy" activity going on and, on top of that, I don't necessarily know what's going on in Khabarovsk. No, we're much better at thinking about doing stuff than doing stuff, unfortunately. Traditionally it seems that actions fill up the bulk of anarchist "news", but long-term actions are much more important for us all, so in this issue of NEWS AND VIEWS, apart from my clever insights, I'll try to tell you more about some long term projects in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Also, a few words about the few actions that we've had and about one coming up. In the second part of this newsletter, a few details about a bothersome matter - the activity of some red-browns; a certain segment of the so-called left have undergone an ideological synthesis with parts of the right, reminiscent of classical Italian fascists. I'll take a brief look at an immense subject - the growth of the Russian new right. And are fascist-friendly leftist ideas growing around the world as well? Finally, I will confess to my abuse of the internet - don't believe everything that you read!

ALTER-ECO

Activists in Volgograd have started up an initiative to make a network of infocenters. Cooperation has been already set up between Volgograd and Germany and they are hoping to set up good contact in Finland, Kazan and Moscow. (In Moscow there is already an office of the Social Ecological Union, but we'll probably set something else up at the Serge Library.) They are interested in trading all sorts of literature. In particular, anybody who has video footage might want to send it down to Volgograd; comrade Yaschenko does an interesting TV program there and the channel broadcasts to up to 3 million viewers. For more info, contact us and we'll get you in touch.

WE NEVER RUN OUT OF THINGS TO TALK ABOUT IN MOSCOW

Or, at least that's what it seems like. We lived through another season of seminars, lectures and discussions - the anarchist professors and academics deserve a pat on the back, as well as a few dynamic individuals who also were heroic lecturers this season. In addition to our fifth year of Thursday meetings and the Anarcho-School, we did lectures at the Serge Library, the Moscow Socialist University, at several educational institutes and academies, as the guests of several other groups - we even turned up in the mass media. All in all we decided that we did a good job and that we need to expand things next year.

MARCH 1 - DAY OF THE UNKNOWN ARTIST

Around the world there are people praticing anonymous and free art - and in Moscow, anonymous artists hold a festival every year on the first of March. Why that day? How the fuck should I know - just happened that way. A concert was held on the 22nd floor of a construction site; how they got the instruments up there is one of those great mysteries of life, like the pyramids. (Maybe we should assume that they were aided by extraterrestrials.) About 20 different groups played up there; it's a good way to finish a concert as cops aren't apt to climb up after you. Afterwards, there was a showing of different independent films in Moscow - already not exactly anonymous, but by people who are normally anonymous. (The ego must take over after putting in long hours at the drawing board.) Marina Potapova showed a brilliant cartoon/montage film, "How the Red Soldier Kicked All the Bourgeois off Mars", destined to be a classic of the new Russian underground.

The anonymous artists have organized many concerts around Moscow - in places ranging from an empty swimming pool to various building sites. Once even a famous western group joined up - but it's against my principles to name them. Since even so-called "alternative" clubs in Moscow are too expensive, this kind of self-organized activity is especially important for creating a non-commercial social life. Unfortunately (REALLY!) leisure is not everything in life, and the politics of some of the anonymous artists often leave something to be desired. But, as Vladlen Tupikin (avatar of anarchy) tells me, you have to start somewhere.

SPEAKING OF TUPIKIN - Lenin's namesake is in a manic mood and put out two issues of "Organ" in the last two months; as one can tell from the name, it's the Organ of Moscow Anarchists, and at least, if Tupik can keep it up, we'll all know at least what we're up to. If you read Russian you can get one via snail-mail from me, or you can write to Vlad directly at kosmos@glasnet.ru.

MAKHNO LIVES! Well, sort of.

Our magazine, NAPEREKOR, received a wonderful packet of information from the Revolutionary Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists in the Ukraine. Normally, they don't think that they should send their stuff all around; they have limited resources and want to give out literature to as many locals as they can to further their agitational work. So we don't always know exactly what they're up to - but we know they're always up to something!

The first thing is that the group is now the Makhno Group of RKAS - a wise move to remind people of the potentials of the commune. They're doing a great job of making and handing out leaflets, posters, papers, bulletins and so on. They are constantly trying to have contact with workers' groups, particulary in the Donbass region.

Last year, the group celebrated its fifth anniversary - so we owe them belated congratulations. Recently they've put out 3 issues of "Anarchy", a small paper; they've also been publishing weekly informational leaflets. They published two more brochures, one on the consequences of closing down mines and one on Kronstadt. "Anarchy" (BTW - there's also an "Anarchy" in Russia and in Belarus, not to mention the one in the States - so don't get confused!) is published in print runs of 1000. They also put out an info-bulletin, "Anarcho-Syndicalist".

The worst problem facing the residents of the Donbass region is that they don't always get paid wages or pensions. For example, Dneprovagonmash company (industrial vehicle manufacturing) hasn't paid workers since September 1996, Dneprokhimstroi since August 1996, and Resinotekhnika since July 96. In Kiev there was even a company, Atomspetsstroi (nuclear builders), who hadn't paid their workers since September 1995. Of course the government and trade unions had promised to get all wages paid by November 1, 1997.

The problem of unemployment is very bad, although it's impossible to tell how much there is. Officially, only two million, but most unemployed don't register as unemployed, and the unpaid don't count. Also, people who have been laid off indefinitely - which is a whopping 20.5 percent of the working population - don't count. 7.2% of those working are employed part-time. In Sevastopol, 80,000 people are registered at local employment offices. Women make up about 2/3 of the unemployed in the Dnepropetrovsk region and have fewer chances of finding new employment. There are fourteen times more unemployed people than job openings.

People in more rural areas have a better time of it as the Ukraine is very fertile; maybe the workers should forget about the mines and take back the land. Who wants to work at Chernobyl anyway?

The bosses should do "reform labour" in the mines themselves! Long live the self-organized peasant commune!

If you want to get in touch with RKAS, write to Tatiana Nosach @ PO Box 327, Donetsk 340122, Ukraine.

NO MORE CHERNOBYLS - anti-nuclear actions around the X

On April 23, members of the Rainbow Keepers, Social Ecological Union and other groups organized a demonstration in Kiev. They marched from the Environmental Ministry to the presidential residence.

On the same day, members of the Moscow and Samara groups of Khranitely Radugi (Rainbow Keepers) and friends made a happening outside the Ministry of Atomic Energy in Moscow. Typical street theater - with people dressed as elements, waste containers and dying nuclear workers. Unfortunately the activists got treated to a taste of police brutality afterwards. Eight people were rounded up into the police wagon and were continually sprayed with tear gas inside the closed vehicle. This constitutes life-threatening chemical torture - a pratice increasingly praticed by Moscow police which should result in their immediate dismissal - and people's revenge I should add. (A favourite tactic is to force a gas mask over someone's face and then spray tear gas or other gases into the breathing hole.) When one person outside the police wagon saw this and tried to stop this, he was restrained and his hand burnt by the police. He was later arrested. The people inside had to break out glass to let air in - and damaging police property is heavier than taking part in a demonstration. The person trying to help his comrades, plus the person who broke the glass, were taken in and threatened with criminal charges. Everybody was eventually released, but not without all sorts of machinations from the judge and the police.

In Minsk, different anarchists participating in an international coordination meeting took part in the yearly Chernobyl march. It was boring as hell - but at least Pavluk (aka the Minsk section of the Belarussian Anarchist Federation) sold a lot of newspapers and bought beer for his fellow FABbers. (FAB=BAF) Nobody got arrested thanks to my election as leader for the march; I sent everybody home just in time - so they arrested the pro-Gaidarist Moscow anti-fascists instead. Upon arrival in Moscow, I was awarded the Nestor Makhno Order for outstanding temporary field command but warned never to boss anybody around again.

...speaking of the POLICE - we're fed up with them! They're constantly bugging us, especially in Moscow where there are strict residency permits. Recently a number of comrades were beaten by police visitors at one woman's home and one Trotskyist girl was strangled to death by police while in custody. The FSB continues to harrass comrades around Russia and so does the KGB in Belarus. A number of people have been taken in and asked to give evidence against others - one guy in Lipetsk was expelled from his institute for refusing to do so. The Euros name widespread police brutality as one of the reasons not to accept Russia into the fold. What to do? I'm thinking of lobbying, maybe a referendum or something... but I have the feeling that quite a good number of people would like to (mistakenly) vent their anger on us as well.

STUDENT PROTESTS IN EKATERINBURG END IN VIOLENCE

Local police in that city certainly cannot tolerate student protest; during the demo on April 12, the pigs went ballistic. (Well, at least not LITERALLY, which could have happened as well.) Sasha Zimbovsky, local hero activist, told us that the organizers of the demo, traditional for April 12 in Russia, wrapped up the event but that students were more radically inclined and marched on towards the municipal adminstration's building. The first arrests started when students blocked the streets and started to throw snowballs at the building. (Are those weapons? Of course if you put razor blades in them... But these were peaceful snowballs.) Then they went on to the regional administration. The police started to attack the rearguard and, of course took the flag away from the Sverdlovsk anarchists. Then all hell broke loose; the images of brutality were very stark and were shown all across Russia on television. One top regional official was forced to resign after the incident.

BUT IN MOSCOW NOTHING MUCH

Very few people from the anarchist scene (about 10) turned out - but what do you expect for the middle of the day. The anarchists were shocked to find that, with the exception of one or two lost looking lefts, they were completely surrounded by Nazbols (members of the National Bolshevik Party) and Barkashi (Russian National Unity), two fascists organizations who came out in the hundreds. (Luckily, they are a little afraid of us.) The whole scene was very demoralizing; we already don't place much hope on students because they are one of the most bourgeois segments on society in Moscow, but now we see that those who are even a little radically inclined are inclined towards fascism or totalitarianism. Obviously we've got a bit of work to do here.

GRASSROOTS ANTI-MILITARIST CAMPAIGN HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL

Previously I've written about anti-militarist campaigns in Karelia spearheaded by our comrade, Irina Bondarenko. This winter, Sasha Zimbovsky from Ekaterinburg visited Moscow and held a talk at our Thursday seminar on grassroots anti-militarist campaigns in Ekaterinburg. Sasha is a member of the Movement Against Violence; apparently they are very successful in offering consultation and assistance to draft resisters. In addition, their method of organization is very interesting; the people who are helped are expected to get involved themselves, so a rather good grassroots movement is growing there. We're hoping to expand such movements into other fields of social life.

MORE ON THE "NORTH CAUCASIAN LOVE SHACK"

Another on-going project that I mentioned in the last issue of News and Views is the commune Atshy in Maikop. Since then I've found out quite a bit about them and it's really quite an interesting place. (Although the "love shack" label is a bit of a misnomer; I've been invited down to start a sexual revolution.) The project is more than just a commune as people from the area (Sochi, Krasnodar) also go there and work with them - it's sort of a base. They run a local info-center where local activists can come and have 24-hour free access to computers. There are two groups, the Independent Ecological Service (NES) and the Union of Alternative Culture (SAK) which are active in different areas.

In Atshy they are very interested in changing the way people live and relate to each other; they hold frequent seminars, formal and informal, on different subjects, including interpersonal relations and psychology. Some of it seems a bit new agey for my tastes - but they're right on in many ways. We certainly welcome an expansion of such projects and envision a future federation of free communes. Atshy can also be contacted electronically at atshy@glasnet.ru.

FROM LOVE TO HATE

Enough peace already - let's go back to violence. Moscow anarchists and assorted left anti-fa did the nazi patrol again this year on Adolph's birthday (April 20). Always patroling the streets to make them safe for humanity. Unfortunately, they never did find the Hitler march; the nazis, already wise to the fact that we'll attack them and demonstrate "the achievements of anarchist technology", organize everything in top secret. However, they did make an announcement in the press that they were going to kill foreign students en masse; this made the front page of the Independent, but apparently the anti-fas don't always read this paper so they didn't know that the place to go was Patrice Lumumba University where the students, who have also formed an anti-fascist brigade, were out in full force. The nazis (the march is usually held by a small group of pro-Hitler nazis - most Russian fascists are not pro-Hitler, for obvious reasons) decided not to go there. All that effort and the nazis didn't even come for a fair fight! In the end, the nazis were located, but quite accidently; I stumbled upon them near Red Square on my travels to work. Well, there's always next year. April 20 is now known as "Day of the Dead Nazi".

IT'S THAT FUCKING UNION AGAIN

The FNPR was up to their symbolic protests again, threatening to get millions out into the street for a one-day strike. The workers long understand that the federation is in cohoots with the government and is interested only in getting new property and political posts. (The trade unions were very rich bureaucratic apparati during the Soviet era and have becoming money-making operations for their bureaucrats; they own everything from stadiums to casinos to hotels in Moscow. Despite their wealth and the fact that they are virtually a monopoly union, they haven't organized the workers to do anything about wage arrears, etc.; they signed a pact promising to quell strike movements, preach "social partnership" and then try to pull symbolic day strikes once a year, which the workers naturally don't bother with.) A grand 5-6 thousand people came out in Moscow; we didn't expect more, despite the funny letters we got from foolish Western leftist organizers inviting us to the strike. (When will these people ever learn?) Of course the Moscow anarchs went out and distributed the magazine Direct Action. Former KAS founder, Andrei Isayev, now a bureaucrat with the trade unions and apparently fearing his life after the FNPR was bombed last September, spoke to the crowd from inside his guarded car. Who knows - the crowd that did show up, which included many people who haven't been paid for almost a year, might have gotten rowdy.

The bad turn out in Moscow probably illustrates more clearly than anything how workers in Moscow are relatively well off in comparison with other parts of Russia; in St. Pete, more than 70,000 people came out. Two anarchist groups, the Petersburg Anarchist League and the Indepedent Students' Union, took part in the action. The cops tried to start a confrontation with them, saying that they couldn't carry a black flag. (There exist very strange laws in Russia about flags and banners; I was charged with holding a placard recently myself. In short, if one group organized a demo, only the flags and symbols that they get permission to use can be seen; all others are deemed "unsanctioned" and you can be arrested for carrying them.) The pigs claimed that they had no right to demonstrate, which, by law, was correct - but I've never known the Petersburg anarchists to follow the law; they're the biggest fans of illegality that I know in Russia. So the pigs backed off but tailed them all day; they managed to get out 2500 leaflets anyway - I hope someone will read them.

NO BIG MACS ON THE GULF OF FINLAND

SOMEBODY in the second city is taking direct action, and if we are to believe the locals, it's a citizens' initiative. They keep trying to build a McDonald's - and somebody keeps blowing it up. Unfortunately, McShit can afford to hire the best guards money can buy - and eventually they'll be chomping Royal Cheeseburgers on Nevsky Prospect but our friend Jamal Hannah has promised to bring over fighters from the American IWW to organize the workers once this happens. I suggest we form an international group, to be called "the Hamburglar Brigade" or something. Or maybe it would just be easier to keep trying to blow the thing up.

BUT IN MINSK, MAYOR MCCHEESE RULES

The first thing I noticed arriving in Minsk is that there is a new McD right across from the train station. As Minsk is an anti-spectacular town, the McDs are sort of social centers; as they told us when we asked where young people hang out in Minsk, "winters, in the underpass near McDonald's and summer, in front of McDonald's". But we ate Partisan Kasha, Buffalo Cheese and Beloveshky Soup instead when we met in Minsk to work on developing contacts and organizing the Veselka project.

About 25 people showed up from Belarus, Russia, Poland and Lithuania. The unstoppable Zaczek bugged everybody to sign onto ALTER-EE internet list. The largest groups in Belarus don't even have typewriters and some of us decided to help them out. Yura Glushakov, partisan and revolutionary historian par excellence, told us about the work of the Gomel group, one of the largest and most active in the X. He said that they have a big problem with fascists and one of the areas where they want to increase activity is anti-fa.

We also got treated to some stories of police repression and brutality, including murder. Stas Pochobut from Grodno was also there. The situation is pretty bad there too; little freedom at all, regular visits by the KGB. A few months back he had told us about how they wanted to hold a concert but had to submit the lyrics of all songs to the police in advance. Needless to say, they submitted fake lyrics and the concert was arrested.

It was decided to hold an informational march throughout Belarussian towns and cities in August. We don't know how far we'll get - but we'll give it a whirl. HEY - you should send us money for this shit cause it'll be expensive to organize and Belarus needs to be shaken up. We'll be doing anti-nuclear work - but that's only a cover for us subversives - get it? Send cash to us, or the Polish FA, or McGlynn right away!

Henri and I tried to start work on the anarcho-nudist project, but the repressive atmosphere strongly influenced everyone there. The Polish anarchists were ready to kick off the project, but suddenly remembered that they were Catholics and ran off to repent. Francoise reminded me that as a feminist, I should let the men strip first. Henri wanted me to appreciate him for his brain and muttered something about not being a "dumb blonde" before going to sleep. The local beer must have been something cause everybody was muttering incoherent phrases and talking in their sleep; Sumo declared he was a man, not a sausage, before passing out, Pavluk started speaking German, Yura was mumbling "Long Live Belarus" and "don't tell Damier" in his sleep and Tupikin came out in the middle of the night to ask if I had a tape recorder. All in all, marginal fun, little accomplished - but I'd go live in a tent for 10 days with them anyway.

SEX, LIES AND POLAROID PICS

How did the nudist project get born anyway? It's a LONG story. See if you can follow this one.

It all started when the FAK girls, anarcha-feminists from Krasnodar, now known as "Mat Poryadka" (the Mother of Order), decided to pose nude in a group picture. I don't quite get the purpose of the photo, but I'm a fun girl myself and I especially liked the image of Tanya with an axe, symbol of our Belarussian anarchist interbrigade. (Another long story.) So I wrote about this in the last News and Views. I don't know WHY I write about such things - except maybe because there's nothing on TV and I have nothing better to do than make up pseudo-soap operas to send over the internet. (I must be sexually frustrated.) The appearance of this mention was ignored until a couple of months ago when I got into the middle of a little scandal, engineered by (who else) the leader of one of the local Trotskyist groups.

There's this Militant hack here in Moscow who's always getting in our face and spreading disinformation about anarchists; he did a good job on KRAS, which we answered, which he answered, ad nauseum. Unfortunately, some people in Krasnodar are in the anti-fascist group that this bozo started. Anyway, I'm in his face as much as I have the stomach for - although only when provoked. One day I saw info from him on A-Infos. (To tell the truth, I don't know why there is so much leftist stuff on A-Infos; most of it seems to come from the States and it's giving me the hives.) About communist political prisoners in Kazakhstan. OK, I certainly don't want to see anybody arrested for political activity, but found it disgusting that this arch-enemy of anarchists is trying to get solidarity on the anarchist network. So I responded to that, sent it off to the hack himself, and forgot about it. A little while later I find out that there is an article about how I support political repression in Kazakhstan and several people in Moscow start telling me that they were told that I was denouncing another local political prisoner (I hadn't - that comes next month). I got an angry letter from Krasnodar accusing me of writing trash about them, etc. etc.. This is one of the favourite modi operandi of Trotskyist entrists and it's not the first time. So I decided to apologize to the FAK girls with a very funny confession. (Well, maybe not VERY funny, but in good humour.)

With the exception of one Swedish man, the reaction was more or less like, "why are they so upset"? I still don't know; if they had the balls to pose nude and publish the photo in several places, why do they get upset that I mention it? An interesting discussion about nudism, body image and pornography came up and Henri proposed the cross-border, anarcho-nudist zine. So far there are few pictures, but I've got PhotoShop and have learned to superimpose well.

As for the imprisoned Kazakhs, Ainur is free and I saw him in Moscow the other day. He doesn't like anarchists but came to hear about anarchist collectives in the Spanish Revolution anyway. I was confronted by one of his comrades as to my habits of lying on the Internet but tried to explain who was really lying and why. Ainur struck me as a very sympathetic type and I was feeling guilty about not campaigning for him; besides, I felt really bad about Trotskyists who were recently killed by fascists and thinking that I have to look at them as individuals and not be so mean to them. As I was walking past the cathedral, spilling my guilt, some people luckily reminded me of what the Trots did in Spain - not to mention Kronstadt. We broke out into revolutionary songs and I was given the knickname "Laure Icepick".

But I was talking about sex and nudity. Ah - fuck it. Just send in your pix to me and we'll be sure to use them in the first issue of the zine.

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

On Saturday March 7, a group of anarchists and other crazies staged a street theater action outside the American Embassy entitled "Make Love Not War". The piece was meant to protest American agression in Iraq but also touched upon more general themes such as militarism, sublimated sexual agression, feminism, sexophobia and the media. Among the characters represented were Bill Clinton, his penis, Sadaam Hussein, Monica Levinsky, the 6th fleet, the army, the press, a harem, Sigmund Freud and a story teller. The event turned into a proper media spectacle. I was arrested but later released.

POL POT POST-MORTUM PARTY

One of the happiest events in Moscow was the celebration of the death of Comrade Pol Pot. We took a red hoe, sang our favourite tongue-in- cheek song, "Forward Kampuchea", and hoped for the creation of non-authoritarian political movements in South Asia. I treated myself to dinner in the Tibetan restaurant and then visited "Little Vietnam" to celebrate with some former communists-turned dissident. We were still celebrating on May Day and are hoping that we won't see any butchers of his kind ever again.

MAY DAY IN RUSSIA

May Day was celebrated by anarchists in many cities, but, surpisingly, the crowds turned out not in Moscow, but in other places.

In the Kuban, FAK (anarchist Federation of the Kuban) and LAS (Left Anti-Fascist Resistance) gathered, about 35 people. In Maikop about 60 different sorts turned out under the slogan "Sincerity, Freedom and Fraternity"; it was the first time in recent history that the black flag appeared in the republic of Adygeya. There was also decent a crowd in Petersburg and demos in Kazan and other cities.

BUT THE TROTS CELEBRATED MAY DAY in a strange way, with a little scandal. In May Day, my favourite anti-fascist Trot, the foul-faced Rob Jones and his militant hack friends hosted a conference here in Moscow as one of the big cheese party bosses from England came around. The amongst the meagre crowd of spectators appeared 8-10 NazBols (National Bolsheviks) who behaved very badly. Despite great concern from the audience, the organizers didn't want to kick their guests (who were behaving fairly rudely) out. Finally, Victor Granovsky (of Spartacist fame) started to make a scandal at which point he was scolded for acting up by the organizing and left amidst some anti-semitic remarks on the part of the NazBols. He returned to make some more trouble, take photos for evidence and start an international scandal. Trots around Moscow now have new ammunition to aim at each other. And we had a big laugh about it all.

THE THIRD FAK CONFERENCE took place on May 3 in Krasnodar. Abot 20 people showed up and they discussed networking, publications and anti-fa (the place is crawling with fascists). They also decided to hole an alternative festival, "Lunaya Polyana", in the middle of August.

PROTESTS

On May 18-19, miners started to block railways again to demand their back wages. This very quickly became a big protest movement which grew somewhat spontaneously in different regions. A week on, most miners had struck deals with the government to stop their strike but a few people in Inta (Komi) held out and new strikes started in the Donbass region where miners and marching to Kiev.

Only some money was paid out to the miners and we don't think it's likely that the government will fulfill its promises to pay the rest; it never has before. Under the conditions of the IMF loans to Russia, unprofitable mines should be shut down; thousands of miners can only look forward to loosing their jobs in the nearest future. About 200,000 state employees will soon be cut, as was decided at the EBRD meeting this spring.

On May 20, 12,000 people marched on the White House to demand salaries for university professors and lecturers. In Ekaterinburg, the anarchists marched again, getting national media coverage.

ANARCHISTS CELEBRATE THE SPIRIT OF 1968

Well, not really all that well - but, it isn't 68, is it? We held a month worth of lectures and there was a short, boring demo on the 24th. On the 23, so-called radical artists built a barricade in the center of Moscow. This was a spectacle that really backfired on the organizers; their demands were stupid and bourgeois and they got majorly dissed in the papers. Luckily some more radical elements showed up, so at least they entertained each other. Unfortunately nobody thought of a real blockade; some solidarity with the miners would have been in keeping with the REAL spirit of 68. But everything was just about symbolic fashion.

THE EBRD WENT TO KIEV

On May 12 there was an action in Kiev against the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It was organized by different groups including the anarchist Tigra Nigra and Rainbow Keepers.

They were planning on handing out leaflets and doing a street theater only on the evening of the 11, two people preparing the material were arrested and given 5 days in jail. The material was confiscated and they were held overnight without any charges before finally being charged with hooliganism.

The activists were harrassed before this, some being called into the special services a couple of times. They were threatened with arrest and even physical assault. Document checks were done in people's houses and on the streets, people were searched and held for no reason. On the 9th there was a protest and 5 people were given 3-4 days. Lawyers, witnesses and the press were not allowed into the court.

In the end, Nadia Shevchenko has wound up without a computer, that and cameras and other stuff confiscated in a raid. So for those of you who got my first postings on this and were upset about not getting through to her, that's the reason.

Speaking of getting your computer stolen, one sure way to get the FSB on your tail is to print a statement by the NRA, but, since they keep sending them to me, I'll keep printing them. Here's what they did to the police.

STATEMENT NUMBER 5

On April 29, 1998, at 3:50 AM at the building of the UVD (Internal Affairs) of the Southeast Region of Moscow, a police bus was bombed.

We, the New Revolutionary Alternative, take responsibility for this action.

Recently, systematic police terror has come about in Russia. The organs of "law and order" are growing more and more fascist. Recruitment and training of nazi groups is taking place under the cover of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Southeast Internal Affairs Division is especially known for its stepping on people's rights and for many incidents of police excess. On the terrority of Kuzminki park there is a base for the RNE (Russian National Unity) which is protected by the UVD. They conduct training for storm troopers there which the Russian national bourgeoisie plans to use to combat the revolutionary movement.

We call on the people to answer police terror with revolutionary terror and fascist provocations with anti-fascist direct action.

The people will win their rights only through struggle! Long live the revolution!

NRA

It should be mentioned that, probably unbeknownst to them, the RNE training base was bombed last summer by persons unknown. There have been a string of attacks on different fascists groups, but information on this hasn't been widespread; it is unknown who has committed them and it is likely that they are isolated incidents. There have been 3 attacks on different RNE headquarters in the past year, and at least 2 confirmed drive-bys. Also, the NBP headquarters, located in the basement of a police station, was bombed last summer. At least a half dozen other rumours about anti-fa attacks have been floating around, but none are confirmed.

Speaking of unconfirmed facts... well, it's a Trotskyist plot to make me look stupid. The detailed story told to anarchists about the killings of three anti-fa in Moscow, which some crazy Trotskyist chick asked me to circulate, turned out to be made up. Such is the nature of the Jacobin flank of the left; to make up myths to get people into action. Or was it a cheap attempt to freak out the anarchists? I don't know, but it's just more proof to revolutionary rule number 138: never trust a Trot.

AKAI-47