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Tag: class war

Two cranes sabotaged at Damen Oranjewerf, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Posted on by ellipsism

In a recent speech NATO chief Mark Rutte warned that “we are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,” and that Europe needs to “shift to a wartime mindset and turbocharge defense production and defense spending.” While NATO prepares for the war to come, arms companies worldwide make millions on war that is already here, and millions of migrants flee from wars present and past.

We as anarchists must ask ourselves how we will act, today and tomorrow. Will we complain online about the latest outrage or join those marching in circles begging the politicians for crumbs; to do something, anything, other than funding these merchants of death? Or will we take matters into our own hands? Organizing mutual aid for those displaced by conflict, climate and the economy. Blockading and sabotaging the arms companies that make war, colonialism, and genocide possible in the first place. On the first day of christmas some anarchists chose to do the latter.

Breaking into the floating dock of the Oranjewerf in Amsterdam, owned by Damen, and sabotaging two cranes by smashing the computer consoles and joysticks. Damen is a Dutch ship building and repair company that owns more than 30 wharves and operates in 120 countries around the world. The company produces work vessels as well as military ships and patrol boats used by the border patrol of many countries.

Damen has designed and exported military ships to many different navies around the world, including to the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is a part of the Saudi Arabian led coalition of countries that waged war against the Houthis in Yemen, a war in which over 150,000 people were killed. Another 227,000 people died due to famine and inadequate health care resulting in part from a Saudi coalition naval blockade. Ships built or designed by Damen were almost certainly involved in this humanitarian disaster.

Damen profits from the increasing militarization of countries around the globe. For example through the Song Cam Shipyard, a joint venture with a Vietnamese partner, not far from the Chinese border and in the direct vicinity of the headquarters of the Vietnamese Navy in Hai Pòng. Damen has already sold four Sigma major surface vessels to the Vietnamese navy. The ships will be fitted with missiles made by European missile company MBDA, three Italian Oto Melara guns and will be equipped with Thales Netherlands sensors, fire control and combat management system. This wharf is one of the largest in the Damen Group and is located near the South China sea, a region that is constantly present in the news as the U.S., China, and their proxies flex their muscles and politicians sow fear of a third world war. With each step towards war Damen rakes in immense profits.

Outside the scope of the navy, the Damen company provides a range of vessels for the network of companies that serve the oil industry with personnel transport and offshore activities like building platforms and pipe laying in Nigeria. Shell and other oil companies have devastated the Niger Delta and mercenaries, militias and the state have murdered countless protesters and insurgents seeking to free their territory from the neocolonial grip of big oil. Of course Damen also supplies the Nigerian navy with small ships like the LST-100, suited to transport 235 troops, with bow and stern ramps capable of carrying 70 tons (just below the weight of a main battle tank), and able to transport smaller vessels and (armoured) vehicles, board helicopters and surface and aerial drones. These boats are used in anti-piracy operations that serve to protect the oil industry.

When people attempt to flee this devastation, wrought by European states and companies through colonialism and war, in order to seek refuge in Europe they are often intercepted by the coast guard or border patrol in ships built by Damen. The Damen group supplies Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom with vessels used to patrol the external and internal borders of fortress Europe. They also supply the Libyan coast guard which has been known to forcefully intercept and sometimes shoot at migrants and search and rescue vessels. Damen profits on all fronts; from the industry and resource extraction that often leads to war, from war itself, and from the aftermath when people try to migrate by selling industrial and military vessels around the world to the highest bidder.

On June 24th and 25th the latest NATO summit will be held in Den Haag, where politicians, military personnel, and representatives from the arms industry will come together to discuss how to most effectively wage war on the rest of the world. This summit will be accompanied by the largest police operation in Dutch history involving half of the nations police force. The cops have politely asked the general public to please not organize any other events during this time as their capacity will be stretched to the limit. So what’s your plan?

 

 

Found on: Act for Freedom Now!

Belgium: Car of Prison Guard Set on Fire by Molotov

Posted on by ellipsism

The car of a prison officer at Haren prison was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail on Thursday afternoon [2 January] in the car park of the Brussels prison. Two other vehicles were also severely damaged in this fire.

The incident occurred at around 3:40 p.m. in the visitors’ car park of Haren prison. Firefighters from the Vlaams-Brabant West zone went to the scene to contain the fire. The fire did not cause any injuries. The Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office has been notified of the facts and has appointed a fire expert to continue the investigation.

 

 

Found on: Abolition Media

(Chile) Incendiary Stroll at University of Santiago (Usach) in Memory of Risue and in Solidarity with Anarchist and Mapuche Prisoners

Posted on by ellipsism
Thursday, October 10…

On that mid-day a group of masked people left from inside the University of Santiago to block traffic in the context of the first month since the assassination of the comrade Alonso Verdejo (Risue). He was assassinated in the last pilgriage by a cowardly attack of a fascist counter-march. Through this we also show solidarity with the 532 years of resistance of the Mapuche people-nation.

Throughout the action, there were confrontations with the police and propaganda was spread against the frame-up of the comrades from Villa Francia imprisoned for the July 6th case and against the isolation of comrade Francisco Solar, demanding the end of his political imprisonment.

The demo ended without arrests.

Rapid Response BioClean Truck Burned

Posted on by ellipsism
A box truck owned by Rapid Response Bioclean was set on fire on Friday, Dec 27th in Portland OR. Rapid Response Bioclean is responsible for sweeping homeless camps in the Portland area, stealing people’s belongings and leaving them to freeze. It seems like someone had enough and decided to fight back.

Last year, someone fought back against a sweep by pulling a gun on Rapid Response workers.

Rapid Response Bioclean has a fleet consisting of box trucks and stake bed trucks. They are often staffed by crews of 3+ workers.

May many more burn.

 

 

Found on: Rose City Counter-info

 

IWW Demand Sanctions Now!

Posted on by ellipsism

Several thousand people took to the streets of the capital this afternoon as part of a national demonstration in solidarity with the people of Palestine.  Members of the Industrial Workers of the World took part in the event organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and supported by over 150 trade union, community, and civil society organisations.

A spokesperson for the IWW Ireland Branch said during today’s action through the streets of that “It is yet another fantastic turnout to add our voices to the call to end the Genocide in Palestine.

 

“Many are also using today’s action to demand that this new government stop all the excuses and hand ringing over what it is happening. People are sick to death of Irish involvement on many levels, their complicity in assisting the Zionist regime and their friends to continue the terror on workers in Palestine. People are on the streets to demand immediate meaningful sanctions on Apartheid Israel, and we want them now!”

 

 

From: IWW Ireland

Munich (Germany): the rail-mounted factory didn’t make it through the night

Posted on by ellipsism

Some don’t appreciate anonymous attacks on power, to say the least. On one side are the narrow-minded of the revolutionary movement, who see nothing but “recuperation” when comrades highlight and defend acts that speak to them. At the opposite end of the spectrum, for example, are the Munich cops, who in 2023 had to set up a special investigation group called “Raute”, under the State Protection Service (Staatsschutz), to try and solve some 30 arson attacks that left no textual clues. These included sabotage of communications, energy, logistics and war infrastructures*, two of which were the subject of raids by German police on comrades in Brussels and Amsterdam last May

After a few months’ respite, the lackeys of Bavaria’s good order were hoping to finally bask in the summer sun, if not for the return of the ghosts that haunt their sleepless nights. In Oberhaching, a small village to the south of Munich, a 200-meter-long ballast cleaner machine was parked to replace the track ballast between the S-Bahn (suburban railway) stations of Deisenhofen and Solln. A fine civilizational undertaking that was ruined at around 4am on Wednesday July 31, when several incendiary devices were judiciously placed to devour it in flames. The damage caused by the sabotage is estimated at around 500,000 euros, or “a six-figure sum in the middle of the range”, as they say in the bureaucratic language of uniforms. Not least because the expensive steel snake consisting of two excavation chains and three screen systems is now out of action, and part of it had to be dismantled on site.


In addition to the fire department, which had been alerted by a brave citizen, large numbers of Munich and federal police – the latter with a helicopter to track down the perpetrators in vain – were dispatched to the scene of the attack. The fire department also searched the entire machine with thermal imaging cameras, looking for other parts on fire, and the machinery had been burning for a long time was then analyzed by the “Raute” investigation group, which of course was also on the scene.

They immediately ruled out a technical fault, while Deutsche Bahn (DB, Germany’s national railway company) declined to comment, hiding behind ongoing investigations, especially as “politically-motivated arson” looms large. The “Raute” investigators consulted their papers and remembered that a similar attack had already taken place last autumn, alongside the sabotage of fiber optics, cell towers, construction machinery, gravel extraction plants and geothermal pipelines in the region. On October 28, 2023, a rail construction machine equipped with a railway crane was set on fire at Unterföhring, this time in the northern suburbs of Munich.

As for the mysterious motivations and perspectives of the ghosts, perhaps it’s worth mirroring the words of a manager of this equipment (from the company GTU Mobility), who pled not to attack him: “This is much more than just an attack on a construction site: it’s an attack on our common future. Rail is the backbone of our economy and our daily lives”…

[Summary of Bavarian regional newspapers (OVB & Merkur), September 2, 2024]

* Note of Sans Nom: A detailed overview of these 30 sabotages can be found in the article “Ghosts continue to haunt the night”.

HPG: Five Soldiers Were Killed and Three Others Wounded in Guerrilla

Posted on by ellipsism

The Press Centre of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) reported that the guerrillas are continuing their resistance against the Turkish occupation troops in the guerrilla-held Medya Defence Zones in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

According to the HPG statement on Tuesday, four Turkish soldiers have been killed and three wounded by guerrilla snipers in the Girê Bahar resistance area on the western front of the Zap region and in Lolan near Xakurke since Sunday. A fifth soldier was killed in Metîna when an attempt to advance on the tunnel complex in Dergelê was met with guerrilla fire.

In Lolan, guerrillas from the Free Women’s Troops (YJA Star) also targeted soldiers who were planting explosive devices at underground guerrilla points and a member of the occupation troops was injured. In the resistance area of Şêlazê, which is also in the Xakurke region, a Turkish army helicopter was fired upon. According to HPG, the helicopter was hit and forced to retreat from the area.

Regarding the continued attacks on the Medya Defence Zones, HPG reported that in the last two days the Turkish army has used banned explosives at least ten times against two guerrilla tunnels in the resistance areas of Girê FM in Zap and Lolan in Xakurke. In addition, HPG reported a total of 73 air strikes by fighter jets and attack helicopters on 27 and 28 October on several locations in Qandil, Xakurke, Gare, Metîna and Zap.

 

 

From: Abolition Media

Bangladesh Garment Workers Clash With Security Forces in Mirpur

Posted on by ellipsism

Two workers were shot dead as textile workers, numbering 5,000, took to the streets in Dhaka on Thursday, October 31 to demand the payment of their wages.

In response to the uprising company management closed down several factories. The workers clashed with the police and army, throwing stones and setting fire to two police vehicles.

Attempts by the police and military forces to disperse the crowd met with fierce resistance. Police used batons to control the crowd, but the situation quickly worsened. Police fired several shots to disperse the protesters, injuring two workers aged 15 and 17.

The injured were taken to Dhaka hospital, while six other workers were detained.

 

 

Found on: Abolition media

Armed Attack on Turkey’s Critical Defense Industry Facility After Calls for PKK Capitulation

Posted on by ellipsism

On Wednesday afternoon, two well-equipped guerrillas arrived in a taxi at the entrance gate of the Ankara facilities of the state-owned strategic defence company Turkish Aerospace Industries Corporation (TAI) and carried out a bomb and gun attack.

Four people died and 22 people were injured, including seven Special Branch police officers. The two people who organised the attack, a man and a woman, were killed after the clash.

Minister of National Defence Yaşar Güler suggested that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind the operation. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that both identified attackers were PKK members. But, significantly, the PKK has not issued a claim of responsibility.

TAI, whose website describes itself as “Turkey’s technology centre for the development, modernisation, production, systems integration and life-cycle support of aerospace industry systems”, has recently been a key pillar of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government’s “domestic defence industry” campaign. The Ankara plant where the attack was organised reportedly employs between 15,000 and 18,000 people.

CHP leader Özgür Özel also pointed to a provocation, saying: “When you see this attack, you cannot help but think how remarkable the timing is.”

In response to the attack, the Erdoğan government carried out air strikes on alleged PKK-YPG positions in Iraq and Syria overnight.

The Mesopotamia Agency reported that the air strikes targeted “the cities of Kobanê, Rimêlan, Amûdê, Til Rifat, Dêrîk, Qamişlo, Tirbespiyê, Qereçox Mountain and the village of Mêrkamira in northern and eastern Syria, killing 12 people and wounding dozens.”

The attack on TAI came on the heels of an unprecedented statement on Tuesday by Bahçeli, leader of the MHP, part of the “People’s Alliance” led by Erdoğan. Bahçeli suggested that jailed PKK leader Öcalan should lift his isolation and address parliament, “shouting that terrorism is completely over and the organization [PKK] has been dismantled”.

Bahçeli’s statement, supported by Erdoğan, was welcomed by the opposition DEM party and the CHP as the beginning of a new “peace process” with the PKK. On the morning before the attack in Ankara, Abdullah Öcalan was allowed to meet with his nephew Ömer Öcalan, DEM deputy for Şanlıurfa, as a sign of lifting the 44-month isolation imposed on him.

These unexpected developments come at a time when, in West Asia, the US-backed Zionist regime has turned the genocide in Gaza into a war of extermination, invaded Lebanon and is preparing a full-scale attack on Iran.

On Tuesday, Erdoğan revealed what was behind the attempt to negotiate with the PKK with these words: “While the maps are being redrawn in blood, while the war that ‘Israel’ has waged from Gaza to Lebanon is approaching our borders, we are trying to strengthen our internal front.”

Despite Ankara’s signs of a deal with the PKK through Öcalan, Turkey continued to target PKK-YPG forces, particularly in Syria and Iraq. “Last week, 45 ‘terrorists’ were neutralised, bringing the number of terrorists neutralised since 1 January to 2,194,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement on October 17.

While the Turkish ruling elites wanted to strengthen their hands and tighten their ranks in the face of the escalation of the war in West Asia by their allies, the US and Zionist regime—with whom they want to avoid a confrontation—it was unclear how the PKK leadership based in Iraq’s Qandil Mountain would react to Ankara’s initiative.

In an interview with Yeni Özgür Politika before the attack in Ankara, PKK leader Murat Karayılan drew attention to the escalating war in West Asia, the US-led transformation of the region and the possibility of redrawing borders:

Today our region, the Middle East, is boiling. The Third World War in the region is in a state of escalation, and it can be seen that it will develop more and more. The global hegemonic powers want to reshape the region with this war. This is clearly visible.

Karayılan said that the aim of the Erdoğan government is “to prevent the Kurdish people from taking part in the new design that may develop in the region and to condemn them to statuslessness” and added the following:

This war, which is developing ruthlessly with massacres in the region, will bring about some radical changes. This process may have some dangerous aspects, but it will also have some advantages and opportunities.

Karayılan stated that the PKK leadership, rather than Öcalan and the DEM party, would be decisive in any negotiations with the Erdoğan government: “Undoubtedly, as leader Apo [Öcalan] pointed out, the PKK and legal-democratic Kurdish politics have an important role to play in the solution. What the regime is doing is a simple tactic of playing one against the other. This should be avoided. The role that each of the Kurdish components can play must also be taken into account.”

The Zionist genocide in Gaza with the full support of the US, its attacks on Lebanon and its preparations for an all-out war against Iran are fueling a West Asia-wide conflict involving the major powers and regional states. The Turkish and Kurdish ruling elites are trying to consolidate their positions and advance their reactionary interests in this escalation. The claim of the bourgeois nationalist leaderships, which are closely linked to imperialism, to ensure “peace and democracy” in Turkey under the conditions of the escalating conflict on the Middle East front of the global war, expresses a greater fraud than ever before.

 

 

Found on: Abolition Media

Colombelles (Calvados): Contribution to the transnational days of action against militarism and nationalism (France)

Posted on by ellipsism

As part of the transnational days of action against militarism and nationalism proposed at the end of the anarchist book fair in the Balkans 2024 , we chose to attack a power supply point of the technological pole « Effiscience » at Colombelles (France). We set fire to a substation on site in an attempt to shut off several companies:

Safran Data Systems who do telemetric research and innovation from satellites for military use and sell its technologies to various armies.

Probent Technology, who do precision mechanics to build essential parts, in particular for an atomic submarine recently built by Naval Group. Its involvement in the nuclear industry, central to the world’s warmongering, is important as it also designed control rooms of EPR of Flamanville.

We could also mention NXP semiconductors, Telit Wireless Solution, Sotraban, Eff’Innov, France Travail, who among others, participate in the networks of war near or far (research-innovation, subcontracting, recruitment…).

The other companies of this campus participate in the invasive digitisation of all areas of daily life. They develop technologies that isolate us and produce the incapacity to act. Technologies that require raw materials from the extensive colonial looting organised to be produced. It is through war that the extraction of the necessary materials for technological production is made possible. Production which itself strengthens the military and repressive device and colonialist power.

We know that our action is but a grain of sand in the struggle against the military-industrial complex which is deepening technological capabilities day by day of the wars of the present time and the future. However, it allows us to get out of a position  of spectator in the face of the massacres of past present and future wars.

Wars are never very far away. They require industries, transport flows and energy that are everywhere. These productions and infrastructures are likely to multiply and intensify in the current context of militarization of societies. A massive restructuring of the capitalist economy organized by the bourgeoisie is underway, and it is leading us towards a permanent war race.

Other actions of this kind take place regularly. They show the wheels of war, attack them and  making our actions resonate with others seems essential to us. We recognize ourselves in the statement issued at the anarchist book fair of the Balkans and send warm greetings to those who are struggling against the resurgence of nationalism and militarism. Let us continue to strengthen our networks of resistance and solidarity.

War against war and borders!

 

 

Found on: Act For Freedom Now!