From ANews Podcast

From CrimethInc.

The Palestine Solidarity Camp at UNAM in Mexico City: An Interview

On May 2, students from a number of schools and student organizations across Mexico City launched a Palestine solidarity encampment in the heart of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), within view of the Okupa Che, a 24-year-running anarchist squat that once served as the UNAM’s largest auditorium. They established the encampment as an expression of solidarity with the wave of university encampments taking place in the United States against the Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza. By the end of the encampment’s first day, it already involved fifty tents, a free kitchen, and the visual redecoration of the space around it with messages of solidarity with Palestine.

We conducted this interview in person with a well-connected participant.

Tents in the Palestine solidarity encampment in the center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The banners read “Stop the genocidal imperialism in Gaza—long live the struggle of the Palestinian people—break off relations with Israel!”

Outside the Okupa Che, a longstanding anarchist squatted social center in the heart of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

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Q: Let’s start with the basics. How long has the encampment been here?

A: It started today, at noon.

Q: Oh shit, today?

A: Today. The original decision that we took in assembly was to camp out until Sunday, but now my understanding is we’re going through until at least next week. We’re going to have another assembly to take stock of how it’s going and decide whether to extend the encampment longer or continue along another course of action.

I feel like there were more people in the assembly than came to the encampment, but lots of people passed by today and found out about it, and went home to gather supplies, so I expect more people will come to spend the weekend here.

Tents in the Palestine solidarity encampment in the center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Tents in the Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

Q: How did it start?

A: Well, I can tell you how I found out about it: I saw a flier posted by various collectives—I think Juventud Anticapitalista (anti-capitalist youth) made it—calling for an inter-university assembly about how to take action in solidarity with all the Palestine solidarity camps happening in the United States. The idea was for the camp here to be a center of organizing that other actions can emerge from, as well as a space to talk about what’s happening in Palestine. The assembly involved students from different high schools and universities, even schools on the outskirts of the city, and also art collectives, political collectives, a little of everything.

The goal is to pressure the university to break its ties with pro-Israel entities, because UNAM has a certain degree of political weight on the national level. Also, the presidential election is in June, so its electoral campaign season right now, and we thought we could extend our demand to the national level: that the government should break its ties with Israel too. However, it’s not like there’s a single political line here, there are many, and at some point, we may have disagreements about what actions to take to achieve our goals.

A banner at the Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM. The text reads “Until what is essential becomes visible,” a reference to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, and likely to graffiti that appeared during the uprising in Chile in 2019 depicting the Little Prince with the inscription “What is essential is invisible to the state.”

Q: So the camp isn’t only for UNAM students?

A: Right, no one’s checking your student ID here. It’s mostly students, but we intentionally wanted it open to the public in general because we think that’s part of this being a public university. Personally, I’m in the philosophy department and majoring in Latin American studies, but I’m not here just as an individual. I’m participating with my direct action-based activist film collective.

Q: Can you speak to the specific location of the encampment and the meaning and history of this location?

A: To the north, we have the central library of the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) system. It’s the symbol of the school: people take their graduation photos here because of the enormous Juan O’Gorman mural on the building.

On the other end of the encampment is the main administrative building of the university, including the chancellor’s offices, which also features historic and widely recognized murals. By planting our encampment between two of the most emblematic buildings of UNAM, we’re projecting our message right from the symbolic heart of the university.

Tents in the Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

The Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

Q: And the Okupa Che is, like, right there [gestures]. Does the fact that there’s a 24-year-running anarchist squatted auditorium next door make the encampment more viable?

A: Since the student movement in 1968, which has a whole history and context of its own, the law has given universities autonomy from police—they’re not allowed to enter. Even so, it’s peculiar to have a squat in the middle of a university, and Okupa Che is an unusually protected space for the amount of activity that comes out of it. On the other hand, Okupa Che doesn’t define itself as an exclusively student space, and it rejects certain forms of what can be understood as “student activism.” However, even if what we’re doing doesn’t emerge directly from working with the Okupa Che, there’s that sense that they have our back because we’re also occupying space autonomously.

Outside the Okupa Che, a longstanding anarchist squatted social center in the center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The unpermitted street market outside of the squat is another extension of those values and practices, even if it’s not directly tied to the Okupa Che. During the pandemic, students needed a way to cover their costs without abandoning their studies, and the Tianguis street market was born. There were attempts to establish a street market before the pandemic, but it wasn’t until COVID-19 that there were organized, mass calls to have people set up and sell their goods. There were conflicts over whether it should just be for students, but personally, I think it’s better for it to be open to the whole public. This is a “public” institution, after all.

So having these two unpermitted, collective uses of university territory next to us offers a kind of informal network of protection, because we know that if something happens to the encampment, there are people who will fight for us—not even because they are involved in our movement, necessarily, but because what we have in common is the collective occupation of public space.

Artwork calling for solidarity with Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel, an anarchist prisoner targeted for his involvement in the Okupa Che squat.

Q: From what I can tell, what’s happening in the United States is an explosion of ad hoc student organizing. In contrast, the student movement here seems to have a more consistent tradition of struggle. As someone involved in student activism in Mexico, are there any lessons for the students taking action now?

A: If there’s one important difference I would highlight, it is the fact that what is happening in the United States is capturing the attention of the public. The student rebels there should take advantage of that. One of the privileges of the United States is that when something noteworthy happens there, it’s news for the whole world. In that sense, while I know there is persecution happening against the encampments, there is also a kind of unique protection in the United States, because the whole world is watching.

There’s a tension there: the importance of not losing that attention, but also of connecting it to international networks. That’s the kind of support that can make a meaningful difference for international movements and struggles, because imperialism and racism are not just limited to Palestine. Now is the time, so push—push with everything you’ve got.

The Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

Graffiti at the Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

Graffiti at the Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

The Palestine solidarity encampment at UNAM.

From Pramen

As it became known from a propaganda video on youtube published by the state media, anarchists from the group “Black Nightingales” were detained in Belarus several months ago. According to the regime’s version, they were planning to attack the state infrastructure and sabotage the support of the Russian military in Belarus. The list of the group members includes Maria Misyuk, Trofim Barysau, Sergey Zhigalyou, Dmitry Zahoroshko, Anastasia Klimenka, and Aleksandra Pulinovich. Based on the attitude of the Belarusian regime towards anarchists, we believe that any recorded testimony was obtained under torture until the contrary is known.

The Lukashenko regime often releases epics about its political opponents, in which it tells its own story of reality. And it doesn’t matter how much truth there is in these stories – it’s important to convey the mood of constant threat posed by Ukraine and the “West” in general. It is not for nothing that the movie itself places such a great emphasis on the fact that Maria Misyuk has Ukrainian citizenship. As in the last 30 years we hear the same record about “enemies, enemies everywhere”. On the one hand, one can say that nobody in Belarus believes in this nonsense anymore, but the reality is more complicated and a part of society continues to consume the propaganda of the Belarusian state mixed with madness broadcast from the “Russian world”.

On the other hand, we can safely say that despite all the attempts to crush the anarchist movement from 2020 GUBOP/KGB and other punitive structures, anarchists still exist in Belarus. The ideas of liberation from authoritarianism and creation of society on the basis of solidarity and cooperation continue to excite the minds of Belarusians who are ready to resist Lukashenko’s dictatorship. Attempts to make the activists of the group “Black Nightingales” just “children” who didn’t know what they were doing look ridiculous. In the country, where on April 30, 2024 at least 153 people aged 22 and younger are sitting in jail for political reasons, we see that young people are not just “recruits of the revolution,” but full-fledged participants in the struggle against the dictatorship. And the punitive bodies understand this perfectly well. Otherwise, the film about the need to combat the radicalization of young people would not have appeared in the state media at all.

Today it is difficult to judge about the full picture of what happened and repressions against the group, but already now we can say that for their courage to politically resist Lukashenko’s regime in a society constantly terrorized by the state, the activists deserve deep respect and solidarity not only from the anarchist movement, but also from the whole Belarusian diaspora. Through their struggle they are paving the way to a future free of dictators, fascism and war.

From Philly Anti-Capitalist

Philly May Day demo-actions are back baby!!!!

This May Day, Philly anarchists went back to doing what we do best….anti-gentrification and anti-prison actions. The evening started out with a demo at the juvenile detention center in West Philly. Around 20 of us walked from the meet-up spot to the parking lot behind the facility, where demonstrators can be heard from the kids’ dorms. There were a bunch of loud fireworks, flares, and anti-cop chants, as locked-up kids pounded on their windows in response. This unfortunately only lasted about two minutes, as apparently the cops’ response times to these kinds of demos has dramatically improved. Cop cruisers immediately pulled up and blocked both exits we’d been planning to use, and one cop car attempted to run over a couple of our friends on their way out. Luckily as far as we know there were no arrests and everyone got out fine in the end, if a little shaken.

Around twelve of us met back up a couple hours later to attack a very ugly new apartment building on Spruce St and 49th St. This is another classic of Philly anarchy – terrorizing gentrifiers by mobbing up to attack a new building while its residents are already living in it. At least ten of its huge windows were taken out and a paint bomb or two got thrown.

Attacking isn’t always easy; most of the time it takes a lot of courage just to show up and a lot of planning to make sure everyone gets out safely. We appreciate how carefully these two actions were organized and everyone who showed up. Let’s keep being brave and supporting each other and maybe one day we can take down Amerikkka ;)

Solidarity to the comrades struggling in and around SCI Rockview, you are not alone! Long live anarchy! <3

From Return Fire

Hi everyone,

Here’s the first part of our upcoming string of staggered releases; Return Fire vol.6 chap.6, complete with a separate version of the covers if you’re printing yourself. Here’s the main contents:

Let’s Talk about Attack

(lighting the fuse in every restless heart)

Targets That Do Not Exist Anywhere Else

& ‘To Choose Wisely’

The ‘Green’ Farce Everywhere and Nowhere Else

(putting fire to the new face of ecocide)

‘Gállok is the Name of a Place’

& “Their Greed Never Stops”

‘The Scarcity Dynamo’

(patriarchy & the logic of the Machine)

Their Sustainability is a Disaster – Let’s Smash It

& ‘The Ecological Transition is a Hoax’

“We Notice When Bigots Get a Win”

(connecting trans- & migrant-defence)

Poems for Love, Loss and War

“What Happens After the Cancellation of the Project?”

(review: Isabelle Fremeaux & Jay Jordan’s ‘We Are ‘Nature’ Defending Itself’)

Rebels Behind Bars

(text by prisoners & repression news)

Memory as a Weapon

(troubling heritages of technological progressivism & leftist conceptions of growth in the struggle)

Riots and Eagles

& ‘With Whom One Relates’

…and more!

This is the first part of a double-issue, so expect both the second part (chap.7) and six separate supplement zines to follow in the coming weeks, along with the usual updating of the pages for our posters, translation of Return Fire articles (in this case into French), and Anarchist Library archives.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

R.F., MayDay 2024

[webmaster: apologies for 2-day delay in uploading due to tech issues]