Activists arrested in Turkey for solidarity with hunger strikers

Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça

by  mikail firtinaci         An anarchist comrade along with several others were arrested violently by the police during a solidarity demonstration with Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca*.

Yesterday an anarchist-comrade along with several others were arrested violently by the police during a solidarity demonstration with Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca*. Comrades in question are held arbitrarily by the police in custody and in protest of their treatment, yesterday they went on an indefinite hunger strike until they are released.

As the anniversary of the Gezi Revolt approaches (the end of May) fascist Erdogan government fears another revolt against its violent dictatorial regime. It is keeping every protester it can arrest as hostage. I will update this as more information arrives. As always, but as it becomes more and more clear everyday, our only weapon against the state and sectarian violence directed everywhere against the working class is international solidarity!

Ukraine accuses 50 of Banda Bassotti Solidarity Caravan of Terrorism

The Ukrainian government accuses of terrorism the Italian music group Banda Bassotti after a solidarity caravan to Donbass  (ver en catalan mas abajo)
The executive of Kiev demanded collaboration from various EU governments to arrest and extradite fifty activists who have recently participated in a solidarity caravan to Donesk and Lugansk regions, organized by the famous Roman rock group.

Members of the Banda Bassotti and other activists of the Caravan Antifascist some families of Donbass who distributed the solidarity aid .
by VICTOR SERRI translated from La Directa

Bringing toys to children, doing concerts, showing internationalist solidarity. These are, in the opinion of the Ukrainian government, the crimes of the Antifascist Donbass Caravan organized by the famous Italian musical group Banda Bassotti.

Can a Fascist Dictator be Elected? YES.. and Erdogan threatens Prison, Dismissal and Death to NO voters

The  referendum in Turkey is to give the president Erdogan nearly total dictatorial powers. But can a Fascist Dictator really  be Elected?

YES because in this case Erdogan has already seized dictatorial powers.. he’s supposed to be a generally symbolic president yet see below  the endless list of atrocities he has ordered.

But is he a fascist? Well, he is the absolute power in the populist far right AKP party which advocates extermination of 18 million kurds and the creation of an Ottoman Empire.

Though he screams and bullies abroad he is at home a master manipulator, head of a criminal family and business mafia, adept at abusing nationalist, sexist  and racial prejudices and feelings of resentment (even working class resentment against rich europeans) to whip up frenzied mob fervour and pursue witch-hunts against Kurds, leftists, feminists, Gulanists, minorities and anyone who dares to criticize him (or is a friend or family of any of the above).

Is this fascism.. in my definition YES. The referendum in this climate is a black joke, with every kind of pressure imaginable against No campaigners, with zero international observers coming, and with the most recent elections in Nov 2015 described as ‘stinking of mass fraud’.

Asli is the154th journalist jailed as Turkey heads for full Fascism

Now is the best moment to resist the slide into Fascism and
Genocide in Turkey. President Erdogan is already a ‘de facto’ dictator, already showing symptoms of megalomania. Buoyed by a far right populist party, a racist anti Kurdish blitz and the biggest purge of suspected opposition since Josef Stalin, Erdogan will hold a referendum on April 16th to grant him total power. Who dares to  vote against him? After that we will have a militant Fascist State in Europe. Erdogan will have ”legitimacy” to bring back the death penalty for those suspected of insulting him, and embark on a serious genocide of the millions of progressive left and Kurdish youth, etc..

154th journalist imprisoned in Turkey by Erdogan

Asli Ceren Aslan, editor of the newspaper Özgür Gelecek (Free Future) was arrested on 9 February in the province of Urfa province, Kurdish southeast of Turkey. She was “officially” arrested in Urfa, near the border with Syria while following the events in Syria and Rojava Kurdistan.

She is accused of “violating the border” and being “a member of an illegal organization.” Aslan refuted accusations by saying that it was her work as a journalist

Turkey blackmails Trump to help Destroy Democratic Rojava and Hold it as a Turkish Jihadi ”Safe Zone”

The racist dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is trying every means to blackmail and bribe the US into creating the Trump requested ”safe zone” in Syria by destroying the only progressive multi ethnic, multi religion, non sexist area in the whole of the Middle East, .. Rojava.

Blackmail.. by threats to leave Nato, to join the Russia/Iran/China axis, to expose the US creation and financing of ISIS.. etc, and   Bribery.. by promising to conclude the huge new arms purchases, by perhaps blocking the Russian South Stream gas pipeline, etc.

Will Trump betray the only progressive future for Syria? ..Syrian-Kurdish women carry the coffins of female fighters in Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli on July 21, 2016 during the funeral of sixteen fighters killed battling the Islamic State (IS) group in Manbij. 150 SDF volunteers died liberating the town, including six from the International Brigade.(William Savage, from the US was killed rescuing civilians). Now Turkey is pressurizing Trump to betray the SDF, destroy the democratic revolution, and hand Manbij to Turkish controlled jihadi FSA mercenaries.

The Plan is to effectively annexe the north of Syria as a ‘safe zone’ run by his own paid jihadi proxies, the FSA. Russia seems now to reluctantly go along with this, and excludes the SDF and Kurds from all negotiations.

Now the ruling Turks only need to get Trump on board.. so that their 5000 tanks can roll, the Rojava revolution can be destroyed, women can again be slaves, and a new 40 years war with Syria can begin.

How Immigrants Built the US Left—And Can Rebuild It Again

 by Nelson Lichtenstein 

Last Thursday’s “Day Without Immigrants” work stoppages, which closed hundreds of restaurants, grocery stores, garages, retail shops, and other businesses, offered a taste of the capacity for militant action wielded by immigrant America.

Led in many cities by Latino activists calling for a “huelga general,” (General Strike) the February 16 coast-to-coast walkouts augur well for an even larger set of strikes and demonstrations, including a March 8 “Day Without a Woman” and quite possibly a May Day general strike, already endorsed by one of the Service Employees International Union’s biggest and most active California locals….

see also:  Tens of Thousands Strike, Close Businesses & March in Milwaukee for #daywithoutlatinos

IWW strikes Victory in the Lawrence, MA, textile strike in 1912 secured the organization’s reputation for organizing immigrant … The Labor World 09-16-1906 ….. This has been the first major win in Prince Rupert for theI.W.W., Industrial Worker, 10-27-1909.

…The energy and upheaval unleashed by the Trump administration’s assault on Muslims, Latinos, and other immigrants, documented or not, has been directed toward a restoration of their rights and dignity, toward the family reunions and free passage into our country that have been happily broadcast from airports all across the country—and rightly so.

FORCED EVICTION ‘CANNOT EXTINGUISH THE FIRE THAT STANDING ROCK STARTED’

Official Statement From Tom Goldtooth, of The Indigenous Environmental Network:

We are appalled by today’s forced evacuations of indigenous people at the Camp at Standing Rock, they are a violent and unnecessary infringement on the constitutional right of water protectors to peacefully protest and exercise their freedom of speech. It hinders the camp clean up process and creates confusion and chaos that puts the Missouri River at risk of pollution from construction and camping debris.

Today’s expulsion is a continuation of a centuries old practice, where the U.S. Government forcefully removes Indigenous people from our lands and territories.

see also: Activists Occupy Pipeline in North Florida

We urge supporters of the water protectors to continue to resist this travesty by organizing mass mobilizations, distributed actions, speaking out against the violations of the Treaty rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation, and continuing to source up the capacity for litigation and grassroots organizing against the Dakota Access pipeline.
Our hearts are not defeated. The closing of the camp is not the end of a movement or fight, it is a new beginning.

They cannot extinguish the fire that Standing Rock started. It burns within each of us. We will rise, we will resist, and we will thrive.

We are sending loving thoughts to the water protectors along the banks of the Cannonball River, today. May everyone be as safe as can be. #noDAPL

see also…How to Stop a Pipeline: Trump, DAPL and the Power of Mass Action 

and… Update on Getting the Sabal Trail Pipe-Sitters out of Jail