To order the book quote quantity and delivery address. Make payment £20 each including postage, by bank transfer to: ‘Dorset Bookfair’, Account number 84669314, Sort code 51-81-18
If the above link takes you away from the page, it’s dorsetbookfair [at] riseup [dot] net
Bibby Line Group Limited is a UK company offering financial, marine and construction services to clients in at least 16 countries around the world. It recently made headlines after the government announced one of the firm’s vessels, Bibby Stockholm, would be used to accommodate asylum seekers on the Dorset coast.
In tandem with plans to house migrants at surplus military sites, the move was heralded by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman as a way of mitigating the £6m-a-day cost of hotel accommodation amid the massive ongoing backlog of asylum claims, as well as deterring refugees from making the dangerous channel crossing to the UK. Several protests have been organised against the project already, while over ninety migrants’ rights groups and hundreds of individual campaigners have signed an open letter to the Home Secretary calling for the plans to be scrapped, describing the barge as a “floating prison.”
Corporate Watch has researched into the Bibby Line Group’s operations and financial interests. We found that:
Refugee massacre in Melilla is no different from genocid.
“Other deaths may have occurred when some fell from the top of the fence: at the place on the border where the massacre took place, the border fence rises to between 6 and 10 meters in height. Other may have been directly killed by police who hit them with stones and batons.”
“Footage released by Al Jazeera showed dozens of people lying by the border fence, some bleeding and many apparently lifeless as Moroccan security forces stood over them. In one clip, a Moroccan security officer appeared to strike a person lying on the ground with a baton.’ ‘Certain images, recorded by elDiario.es between 11 and 12 in the morning, show two Moroccan gendarmes at the border, on the roof of a Spanish checkpoint, taking turns trying to stone a migrant who was at the top of the fence.’ ‘ I was surprised when I saw green helmets of the Moroccan forces on the Spanish side of the fence. The Spanish agents were in trouble, there were many people in a very narrow place. I was surprised to see Moroccan policemen on Spanish soil detaining, assaulting and returning migrants. It’s the first time I’ve seen this in four years working in Melilla.” On Sunday evening, protests erupted across Spain against the massacre—in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, Badajoz, Cáceres, Seville, Granada, Cádiz, Mataró and Zaragoza.’ ‘These horrific scenes testify to the barbaric character of the European Union. To the east, NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has led to tens of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees. To its south, the EU is arraying the full force of its police-military machine against migrants, thousands of whom are left to drown in the Mediterranean each year.’
Kundgebung 28. Juni | 16 Uhr Botschaft von Spanien Lichtensteinallee 1 | 10787 Berlin
Stop the war on refugees – migration is a human right! Figth the deadly, racist, neocolonial European border regime in #Mellila, at the #BelarusBorder, in Calais, Bosnia and Libya – #FightFortressEurope! Join the rally in front of the spanish embassy in Berlin on Tuesday!
#b2806
The Internationale of Anarchist Federations has made a statement on the war in Ukraine, but we consider it insufficient.
The Committee on Relations of the Internationale of Anarchist Federations (CRIFA), which met in Marseille on 19-20 March, discussed, among other things, matters relating to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Although there are different views among the member federations on some points, they agreed to continue the discussion. The debate resulted in common positions which were summarised in a compromise statement entitled “Against war, for global solidarity” (full text at the end of this article).
The Czech Anarchist Federation (AF) agreed to the statement because it expresses some general principles that are our own, but is nevertheless very dissatisfied with it internally, and is therefore engaging in further discussion. We come to the joint debate with a statement of our positions, a reference to our activities and the points we consider to be essential. But this is not just an internal debate within the Internationale of Anarchist Federations (IFA), our comments are directed towards the wider anti-authoritarian movement (in particular) in Europe.
So here are the very brief discussion points from AF:
1) We understand the joint IFA statement as a compromise, but it does not fully express our positions.
2) We advocate first and foremost that movement should listen to anarchists in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
3) We consider any disregard of their positions and decisions to be arrogant, unempathic, and an expression of ideological supremacy, which we find unacceptable. Eastern Europe has been treated this way by the Western power bloc for long. We do not intend to tolerate anything like this in the international anarchist movement.
4) We fully support both combat and non-combat activities of anarchists in Ukraine. We are familiar with their attitudes and dilemmas. We appreciate their difficult decisions. We refuse to ideologically judge them from the comfort of peaceful areas.
5) We recognize the need to quickly repel the Russian invasion, for the sake of the working class in Ukraine, as well as in Russia and Belarus. The only way to stop this war is through the military defeat of the Russian army. There is currently no sufficiently strong anti-militarist movement in Russia and Belarus to effectively sabotage the attack, and this situation cannot be expected to change in the near future.
6) We find it impertinent to claim that both sides of the war in Ukraine are the same. Putin’s regime is infinitely more brutal than a capitalist democracy, where there are at least some possibilities for the development of anti-authoritarian networks and relationships. Moreover, the Russian army has absolutely no respect for any international human rights conventions; on the contrary, it systematically massacres the civilian population in order to undermine the morale of the defenders. Supporting the armed struggle against the occupiers is therefore a duty for anyone who does not want to completely discredit themselves in the eyes of the Ukrainian people.
7) We disagree with the claim that this is a war between Russia and NATO. Some NATO states are pro-Russian (Hungary), most are staying away or employing only declarations and limited sanctions, aiming to not damage the domestic capital. NATO’s practical support for Ukraine is utterly trivial, hesitant and alibist. NATO has practically sacrificed Ukraine with this approach, leaving the entire burden of the Russian invasion on Ukraine and its people.
8) We actively support the repression-stricken anarchists in Russia and Belarus.
9) We regret that at the international level, anarchists are not able to take a clearer position and, as a whole, provide practical help to the comrades of the affected countries. We are afraid that the defeatist statements will discredit many organisations and collectives in the eyes of our friends from Eastern Europe. We regret to say that Eastern European organisations will unlikely for example cooperate more with the IFA in the face of its failure in responding flexibly and with empathy. This will create a vicious circle of domination by federations not directly affected by the current conflict.
We could, of course, elaborate more, but we do not consider it expedient. We want to listen and provide practical solidarity instead of slogans that appear to be useless in the face of reality.
We want to show that the positions of anarchists outside the imperial centres of Western civilisation are valuable and deserve respect. We understand anarchism as a set of principles capable of responding dynamically to what is happening around us, not as a rigid ideology with no connection to reality. We want to primarily see people and communities, not our own egos trapped in ideological and cultural frameworks.
IFA: Against the war, for global solidarity
The Committee of Relations of the International of Anarchist Federations (CRIFA) met in Marseille on 19-20 March 2022, and discussed matters on the ongoing war in Ukraine. Although there are different views on some points among member Federations, on which we commit to continue exchange and constructive discussion, important common points emerged from the discussion.
We condemn the criminal aggression to Ukraine promoted by the Russian government, alongside all militarisms, and we stand in solidarity with oppressed people from both sides of the border, promoting active support to the victims of the conflict, to refugees, deserters and prisoners from all sides of this war and of its potential expansion. In the contexts in which our different federations operate, we must expose and oppose the role of NATO, the US and the EU in also creating the preconditions for allowing the Russian state to attack its weaker neighbour with the complicity of its puppet, Belarus. We denounce the rise of authoritarianism across the world in recent years, which has seen the growing role of armies in public policies. With the current situation, we especially stress the growing militarization of society in the context of increasing rearmament across the EU, amidst generalized calls for a European Army, to the detriment of social expenditure.
The poor and oppressed people of the world are always the losers in wars. They have become cannon fodder and have been uprooted from their homes, and face poverty and sickness as a result of this war. At the same time, the global bosses continue to work to control the world’s resources. We stand against global capitalism and nationalism that are the causes of war. Instead we have to fight the class war, countering the war industry and public spending on war, and the whole logic of war, and to promote wider horizontal mobilizations of workers and collectivities.
We likewise stress the danger of making the mistake of defending “our” nation or “our” country, highlighting our anti-nationalist and defeatist/refusal positions, as our enemy is in “our” country and it’s “our” national state or national bourgeoisie. Instead we aim to build solidarity amongst all proletarians, and stress the global character of capitalist states.
Confirming our historical values of internationalism, solidarity and global kinship across borders, we confirm our opposition to all crimes and massacres perpetrated by the capital and the state, from the genocide of Black and indigenous peoples that continues today in Brazil, Latin America and all across the Global South, to the destruction of the environments perpetrated by the logic of states, profit and markets which is threatening the very life of our planet.
In the perennial war of the oppressors against the oppressed, we see the worsening of the living conditions of poor people around the world due to the pandemic and regional wars that began in recent years, as a consequence of the growing cost of basic commodities and further spending on armaments due to war economy. We especially stress the tragedy of migrants, marginalized and racialized people who are denied the most basic rights, and we stand alongside the last, the forgotten, the discriminated, against states, capitalism, fascism, racism, patriarchy and exploitation.
The Anarchist Communist Group.
The following is a statement agreed by the ACG and the Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) in France.
The recent twenty-seven deaths of refugees in the English Channel follow another ten deaths this year of desperate refugees attempting to cross to the UK. There does not appear to be official figures for the number of deaths in similar circumstances over the last twenty years, but last October a figure of 296 was given of those attempting to cross by boat or tunnel. These latest figures raise the number of deaths to over 330, to say nothing of the thousands who have met their deaths in the Mediterranean. Our thoughts are with the relatives and friends of those who have died.
Both the British and French governments have attempted to place the blame for these deaths on people traffickers. But it wasn’t the traffickers who supplied the arms to vicious authoritarian regimes and who intervened in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, with bombings and occupations, destabilising the region, it was the Western powers, and that includes France and Britain. In addition, the French state has carried out a war against the refugees, dismantling their camps and pulling down their tents in the middle of winter, running out rolls of barbed wire around a camp at Lille and along the railway tracks to Calais, rounding up migrants, subjecting them to harassment, gassings, and strip searches. On the day of the tragedy that resulted in the 27 deaths, the sub-prefect of Boulogne-sur-Mer sent the police to stop the survivors being supplied with dry clothes.
There have been 1,281 recorded attempts to cross the Channel since the beginning of the year, involving a total of 33,083 people, according to the French maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea. The British Home Office recognises that 25,792 refugees managed to reach Kent, and the Maritime Prefecture says that it has brought back 8,200 during rescue operations.
The refugees don’t come to the West just to annoy people in Calais and in Kent. They are fleeing mass murders, bombings, oppressive regimes and political and religious persecution. Many are Kurds who have been forced to flee from Iraq, Iran and Syria. They are not coming to the UK to “scrounge” as has been stated by Priti Patel and other Conservative MPs in parliament, but because there are already existing migrant communities who can support them and provide work, often off the record. Indeed, in early November, Patel stated that 70% of refugees were ‘economic migrants’ and she has not substantiated this spurious allegation. Tory MPs like Edward Leigh and Julian Lewis have gloated in Parliament over the deaths, saying that it would act as a lesson for those attempting to cross the Channel into Britain.
Both the French and British governments have expressed hypocritical sympathy for those who have died, Macron saying that he would not let the Channel become a cemetery. His actions say otherwise. Meanwhile Boris Johnson allocated £54 million last summer to stop crossings. Both are cynically using the crossings to exacerbate the tension between the British and French governments.
It is precisely because of the militarised and heavily fortified crossing points, particularly at the entrances to the tunnel at Coquelles, that have forced refugees to take to sea, often on improvised rafts.
Johnson came to power because of Brexit and one of the aims of Brexit was to end the influx of migrants, especially from the Middle East. This is failing significantly, as around 25% of refugees manage to cross to Britain. In France there is the run-up to the presidential elections, and candidates are keen to show how zealous they are to combat migration.
The Johnson government has closed down any legal paths into the UK and ways of setting up safer routes, such as allowing asylum applications at British embassies, which it virulently opposes. The resettlement scheme he promised for those fleeing from the Taliban in Afghanistan three months ago has still not been implemented, forcing many to take dangerous routes to escape. As for Priti Patel, the Home Office minister, she continues to blame the French government and her own legal advisers and officials for a failure to deliver on Brexit promises. She has raised the idea of a “push-back” policy, with the coastguard and the Navy forcing refugees back to France mid-Channel. No seafarer relishes condemning anyone to drowning, and even the staff union of Border Force, the frontiers law enforcement agency, has rejected the “push-back”. Other crazy schemes mooted have been the sub-contracting of processing asylum seekers to distant countries, for example Albania. The Albanian government has dismissed this as “totally fake”.
For us, libertarian communists, the world is not divided between East and West, North and South, but between the classes, between those who rule and exploit and profit, and those who work and produce the wealth, and are used as cannon fodder by the boss class. Solidarity between French and British workers and with the migrants. Don’t let the nasty, sordid aim of restructuring capitalism on a global scale by those who rule and exploit fool you. The workers of the world have no country. It is time to resurrect a class consciousness that does not recognise borders and states. In the meantime, we must fight to stop any further deaths in the Channel.
In a winter of discontent ruled by shortages, the Tories are turning to the immigrants they demonised to help them out.
Kemi Alemoru
Welcome to Britain. A land where Nandos and KFC, our premier chicken restaurants, are out of chicken. McDonald’s has no milkshakes. Our supermarket shelves are empty. Brexiteer-run budget pub chain Wetherspoons has pumped its own beer taps dry. The British Soft Drinks Association says we’re running out of gas to make our drinks fizzy. And thanks to nationwide fuel shortages, people are stuck in mile-long queues at petrol stations. Good luck. Outside of the motorway network an estimated 50%-85% of independent petrol stations in the UK currently have nothing left to give. We’re watching the nation coming apart at the seams.
What a silly little mess
Via Anarchists of London
Alert and call for support before the trial on October 13 2021!
SUPPORT FOR GIORGOS KALAITZIDIS AND NIKOS MATARAGKAS FROM THE ANARCHIST COLLECTIVE – ROUVIKONAS.
A Kafkaesque trial awaits Giorgos and Nikos on October 13th, based on false accusations. This attempted criminalisation of the social movement might result in life imprisonment for these two political activists. Their exemplary group has obviously become too disturbing for the state. A new international mobilisation is necessary.
The facts : On 7 June, 2016, a drug dealer is executed in Athens, in the district of Exarcheia. This execution is claimed by a self-defense collective named “Militia of the People Armed”, which declared that the drug dealer had behaved with threats and violence in Exarcheia, not just towards anarchist members of the social movements, but also towards other inhabitants of the district.#
Three years passed. No member of Rouvikonas is targeted by the investigation. In July 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis comes into power and pledges, among other things, to end “by all means” Rouvikonas, renowned all over the country for its actions of solidarity and its resistance clearly unrelated to this kind of action. Eight months later, in march 2020, an investigating judge takes over the case and charges two Rouvikonas activists : Nikos Mataragkas and Giorgos Kalaitzidis, with homicide and incitement to murder.
But in June 2020, after their hearing at the prosecution, they are both released without bail and the lawsuits are dropped.
In April 2021, although the file against the members of Rouvikonas is empty, the State and its mechanisms of abruptly decide to charge Giorgos and Nikos, based on false accusations and their trial is rescheduled on October 13 2021!
The goal is to also harm the image of Rouvikonas and to criminalise the social movement in Greece – just as the Colonels in power did fifty years ago.
We give our full support to Giorgos Kalaitzidis and Nikos Mataragkas and we demand the immediate termination of the proceedings.
Let’s not let anyone among us be the isolated prey of power.
International Committee of support to Giorgos Kalaitzidis and Nikos Mataragkas
We are calling to reinforce the International Committee of Support: soutien@rouvikfrancophone.net (send your first and last name, and join the signatories).
We also invite people to support them and Rouvikonas financially, as proceedings are not limited to this trial: the group is frequently the subject of legal action (in total and for for now to the next coming months, the legal expenses are expected to amount to over €10,000): https://fr.gofundme.com/f/soutien-giorgos-et-nikos-athnes
Soutien à Giorgos et Nikos à Athènes organisée par Philippe Guillard
POINT INFO LE 23/09/2021. Nous venons de dépasser les 1500 euros !… Philippe Guillard a besoin de votre soutien pour Soutien à Giorgos et Nikos à Athènes
We are at last calling, for those who can, for a rally of support on the day of the trial: Wednesday, October 13th at 9:00 A.M, at the Efeteio Courthouse, 4 Degleri, Athens. Pictures of long-distance actions of support are also welcome.
Acting Locally, Thinking Globally With Rouvikonas Anarchist Collective
[CC: English, Greek, French] Unicorn Riot sat down with Thanos, a member of Rouvikonas (Greek: Ρουβίκωνας) who works as a server for a living.Since 2013, the…
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Wessex Solidarity 