THE PUBLIC IS CLEARLY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH JAILING PEACENIKS FOR TRYING TO STOP WEAPONS SUPPLIES TO A GENOCIDAL REGIME ~ Andy Meinke ~ Woolwich Crown Court is a grim place even if you’re not on trial. No history like the Old Bailey or even a duck pond like Snaresbrook. Just a concrete block on land reclaimed from the marshes, which you have to walk past two prisons to reach and is connected by a tunnel to a third, so those sentenced can’t be rescued from the Serco van by their terrorist accomplices. Small chance of that from the peace campaigners and human rights activists gathered outside yesterday — so all hopes rested with the jury. And Glory Hallelujah did they deliver! Despite being caught red handed with actual paint and on camera smashing up an arms factory with sledgehammers, the twelve good and true found all six activists not guilty of Aggravated Burglary, three not guilty of Violent Disorder, and were unable to reach a majority of at least 9 to 3 on three remaining charges of Violent Disorder, six of Criminal Damage and one of inflicting Grievous Bodily Harm with Intent.  Sadly we anticipate the Crown Prosecution Service, pushed by the Government, will put them all through a retrial. But five of the six have been granted bail, a decision rather forced on Mr Justice Johnson because they’ve served more time in jail than he could give them without ripping up the sentencing guidelines. Sam Corner remains inside as the offence under section 18 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 carries a maximum life sentence. Jury’s do not give reasons for their verdicts and are not allowed to reveal their deliberations. Nor is anyone allowed to carry out any form of research on actual jury decisions, so we cannot tell why they came to these conclusions. But we can guess pretty good, can’t we kids! With due respect to the forensic oratory of the team of barristers from Garden Court Chambers and thorough research by solicitors from Irvine Thavis Natas (ITN), the obvious truth is the great British public is clearly uncomfortable with jailing peaceniks for trying to stop weapons supplies to genocidal regimes. We shouldn’t get carried away, this is a London jury, I wouldn’t have fancied their chances in Canterbury or Stafford where other anti Elbit cases are due. But by making a spurious ‘terrorist connection’ the trial had to be held at the Bailey or Woolwich — and they didn’t choose Woolwich for the greater security. While we’re showing some objectivity: These defendants would still have got a jury trial under the current Levison/Lammie proposals to restrict peoples’ right to chose one. While not firmed up, the suggestion is that only cases with a prospective sentence of three years or more would entitle you to choose a Jury. Aggravated Burglary has a life maximum. In this case where it’s clearly ‘high harm’ and ‘high culpability’, the sentencing guidelines give a starting point of 10 years with a range of 9 to 13 after a contested trial. There are 18 people awaiting three further trials for the same incident, due between April and September. Their lawyers will be scrambling to Court to make bail applications in the aftermath of yesterdays’ verdicts (or failure to reach them). Trial 4 has a preliminary hearing on Friday. There are also the people awaiting trial for pouring paint in plane engines at RAF Brize Norton. Even those advocating resurgent British militarism may consider it cheaper to pay a sentry to guard the Nations’ hardware than to prosecute the scooter-born menace trying to graff it. To misquote Lloyd George, “A fully equipped Judge costs twice as much as a Dreadnought and is nearly as terrible”. It’s a lot to expect more miracles in quick succession, but in a year already filled with horrible shocks we can take hope that we may be seeing the start of a sea change in public opinion, not unlike that towards South Africa in the 1980’s, which will make the British state’s support for the overtly racist Israeli regime untenable. The post Filton acquittals: The start of a sea change appeared first on Freedom News.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM OPENS WITH POWER-CUT AND GRAFFITI AGAINST THE ELITE “DEATH CULT” ~ Cristina Sykes ~ Shut the System says its activists this morning sabotaged snow machines at the Davos ski resort, where the World Economic Forum (WEF) opens tomorrow (20 January). The group said its “saboteurs cut power cables supplying snow machines across the Jakobshorn and Parsenns mountainsides. They used natural pigment to write blood-red messages alongside the ski runs stating: ‘Summit of Delusion’ and ‘Blood In Your Wallets'”. In a press release the group described the Forum as a “death cult” for political and business elites, and noted that “Davos uses machines to create fake snow because global warming prevents that happening naturally”. In 2020, WEF stated that missing the 2ºC target for global warming would mean “climate apocalypse”. The group said the 2ºC limit is “impossible for the 1% to contemplate because any legitimate pathway for limiting global warming threatens their disproportionate wealth and power.” There was no immediate confirmation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos from Shut the System. The post StS sabotage snow machines at Davos appeared first on Freedom News.

BOTH THE “CENTRE” AND THE COBWEB LEFT WALLOWED IN FAILURE, WHILE THE FAR RIGHT EASILY HAD ITS BEST YEAR ~ Rob Ray ~ Reform UK has consistently topped national polls in 2025 as the “anything but LabCon” choice, with its predictable and often ridiculous incompetence in local government barely making a dent on numbers. Barring a minor miracle, it will win big in May’s local elections. Meanwhile its street wing, in the form of Tommy Robinson’s mob, managed to pull out a record crowd for Unite The Kingdom and litter every lamp-post from Kent to Yorkshire with the butcher’s apron. KEIR? HARDLY Much of the blame for this must be laid at the feet of former human rights lawyer Keir Starmer, whose journey from McLibel activism to implacable opponent of left dissent went supernova when his government proscribed a non-violent direct action group, Palestine Action, as a terror organisation. A monumentally stupid decision on all counts, not least for his own political future, as for many, it stripped away their last illusions of Labour as a progressive force. The impact of Labour’s attitude to the left, its abandonment of promised policies, and its seething hatred for protest can’t be overestimated in terms of where it finds itself entering 2026. Starmer’s wing of the party, its eminence thoroughly greased by Morgan McSweeney, never did understand that over the long term, if you have no tame corporate media you need grassroots activity. Not for the election-time door knocking, but for the shield it provides online. When no-one wants to defend you, because you make it clear you despise them, all that gets heard is the negative voice. The impact of this choice, to deliberately insult and alienate its own base, can be seen in the wake of the Autumn Budget, which did have a few vaguely centre-left ideas in it, and the Employment Rights Act, which (even watered down) genuinely does introduce a handful of protections for working people. Nobody cared. No-one has been jumping in on socials to pat Labour on the back, not even the old guard of (lower case r) reformists who previously would have been saying “see, this is better than the Tories”. And as a result, it all goes one way. As many predicted when Starmer first started purging Labour’s ranks of anti-Zionist Jews and rolling back on his leadership promises before the general election, a total reliance on public exhaustion with the Tories was never going to hold up, and so it has proven. With a grassroots shattered by its own hubris, an implacably hostile corporate media, and a public refusing to trust a word said by party or government, how Labour might pull out of the nosedive is anyone’s guess. All of which, in tandem with the Tories’ own self-immolation, has opened the void through which Nigel Farage sauntered. YOU’RE KIDDING ME … To his left, meanwhile, all has been chaos embodied by the extraordinary saga of Your Party. What were they thinking? Freedom has never made many bones about its position on Corbyn and the ultimate uselessness of the cobweb left, but even we weren’t predicting such an immediate and comprehensive proof. It’s hard to think of a critique, sneer, or bald-faced insult that could do justice to the absolute fucking shambles of it all. Amidst perhaps the most dangerous political situation of the postwar era, we watched a handful of inflated egos take all the potential energy created by Labour’s desertion and explode it into little pieces. The people I feel most sorry for are those who genuinely, for just a little while, believed it could go somewhere. Not in a patronising way, but in the comradely sense of knowing how it feels to have hope in a project and see it dashed. That is what the likes of good ol’ Corbs, Zara Sultana, and the various “revolutionary” parties should feel ashamed of: they took the energy and hope of hundreds of thousands of people and stamped it into the mud, unnoticed amidst the squabbling and scrabbling for position. There can be no better example of why we don’t need parties, but to turn outwards and organise the working class directly — place the horse firmly in front of the cart. Leave that pack of blithering idiots behind and give up on their decades of abject, piteous failure. SAVED BY THE (GREEN) BELL? The beneficiaries on the left from these twin towers of dung were, of course, the Greens under their affable, well-meaning and occasionally analytically shallow new leader Zack Polanski. No word of a lie, it’s been nice hearing someone be direct and relatively uncompromising in his language while taking on the press this year. His absolute refusal to play the “how many rights can we take away from trans people this week” game, in particular, is the sort of confidence many on the left could stand to learn from. But, even setting aside obvious anarchist critiques of the inchoate core and systemic shortfalls of the Green Party project, there are plenty of limitations on its surge, which already seems to have peaked. The Greens have no friendly media. Not the Independent, not the Guardian, not even the Morning Star, which (in the absence of a functional Communist Party offering) has broadly plumped for Your Party as the home of a more Proper socialist politic. And the Star is probably correct there — pathetic though Corbs and co. may be, their platform is at heart red economics, while the Greens are, well, green, with social democracy largely tacked on as an often uncomfortable coalition-building exercise. Much like the Lib Dems, green parties are notorious for opportunism, most notably in Germany where they frequently enter coalitions with the conservatives. So it remains to be seen how deep its commitments will run when placed under pressure. WHAT ABOUT US? Perhaps I’m being Mr Bias of Cheerleader City, but I think the direct action movement, particularly that wing of it which refused to simply roll over on Palestine and proscription, deserves a great deal of praise this year. It’s been a hard one, in which it became clear long sentences for non-violent dissent are here to stay, surveillance and repression are on the rise, and money has poured in to fuel our opponents. But thousands of people stood up to be counted, knowing they could face prison terms, knowing they would be mocked and mistreated. There has been a great deal of bravery on display throughout the year, and everyone involved should be proud of themselves. Always under the cosh, always few and underfunded, facing up to a State that increasingly has done away with even the slightest respect for privacy and human rights — the fact you keep going is frankly incredible. If 2025 has shown one thing, though, it’s that we’re right. The “practical” cobweb left and their electoral obsessions won’t save us; they can’t even save themselves. They’ve been given chance after chance, and shown that even if they could win power they probably shouldn’t. We need grassroots strength. We need the force of unified working class communities who can disrupt business as usual and make those in power sit up. It was direct action this year which, time and again, rattled the government where the conferences of electoral leftists produced only a distant gale of laughter. As we head towards the spectre of a far-right government which will show us no more mercy than this one, I can only say: keep going. Because they sneer at you. Because they seek to silence you. There is no greater proof of a government’s fear than a law designed to stop you from doing what you’re doing. You’re right. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images: Radical Graffiti The post 2025: A gilded year for the right, hubris fulfilled on the left appeared first on Freedom News.

DIRECT ACTION OPPOSES DEFORESTATION AS YEAR COMES TO A CLOSE ~ Gabriel Fonten ~ On 17 December the Ada’itsx / Fairy Creek Blockade released footage of the latest raids by Canadian police, who arrested activists camped in the Walbran Valley in British Columbia. The activists, who have continued to blockade logging roads despite the damage to their camp by police and harsh weather, stand as the most recent iteration of a 30 year long campaign to defend Canada’s old-growth forests in the region. The existing old-growth forest represents just 3% of what existed pre-colonisation and protects some of Canada’s richest biodiversity and endangered species. On the other side of the world in Australia, South West Forest Defenders ended the year with a victory, successfully forcing the cancellation of planned burns of Mt Clare, Nornalup and Coalmine/Knoll Tingle forest blocks for 2025/26. Their campaign parallels activists in Canada in many ways: both came to the fore in the 1990s, oppose the ruthless expansion of the logging industry in their regions, and have used similar tactics such as blockades, tree-sitting, and mass civil disobedience. Both have also put forward an alternative understanding of the forests to the capitalists and politicians they oppose, emphasising shared responsibility, intertwinement, and indigenous rights to the land that are incompatible with its current exploitation. Image: South West Forest Defenders of Facebook Crucial to both is also their sustained efforts, including when victories are achieved. In both cases, the Australian and Canadian governments have compromised with the activists by creating national parks, delaying logging operations, and cancelling burn plans. Yet campaigns have been ready to continue when these protections ultimately give way to industry pressure once more. In both cases this has led to decades of continued struggle, to both win protections and ensure their enforcement. In the Canadian case, where mass civil disobedience had been a crucial tactic, this has meant that the campaign to defend Fairy Creek holds the record for the highest number of arrests in Canadian history. In an interview with Canada’s National Observer one organiser at the Fairy Creek blockade stated that “Blockading is not a marathon; it’s a relay. We just hope people will be here to pick up the baton”. Both campaigns stand as a testament to the resilience and longevity needed to stave off the relentless exploitation of the environment in a capitalist world, even when the pockets of old-growth forests still left are tiny compared to the expanses already stripped bare. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top image: Fairy Creek Blockade on Facebook (not AI) The post Forest defence in Canada and Australia appeared first on Freedom News.

“SEVERAL INCENDIARY DEVICES LED TO THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF THE CASTLE”, CLAIMED LETTER—POLICE INVESTIGATING ~ from Contre-Attaque ~ “On the night of October 5-6, at 11:30 p.m., we gained access to the Thiergarten hunting lodge near Regensburg. Several incendiary devices led to the complete destruction of the castle,” explained a German-language statement published on the anti-capitalist network Indymedia. The text claimed responsibility action against the aristocrat Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, who represents “the most reactionary networks of the ruling class.” The Thurn und Taxis noble family is one of the richest in Germany, owning the most landed estates, and numerous castles and luxurious villas throughout the country. Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a member of the Bavarian house, is a far-right activist. She is friends with Steve Bannon, the Trumpist ideologue who performed a Nazi salute earlier this year , as well as with far-right US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, authoritarian Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, and Cardinal Müller, who is linked to the most reactionary branch of the Church, and she makes no secret of her admiration for Donald Trump and Elon Musk. On the domestic political front, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis believes that “the best solution would be for the CDU [right] to govern with the AfD [the neo-Nazi party]. The problem is that we have too many complexes about that in Germany.” A rapprochement between the traditional right and the heirs of fascism to gain power: this is exactly the strategy implemented in France by billionaires like Stérin or Bolloré. The lords of our time everywhere dream of neo-fascist regimes. Gloria Von Thurn und Taxis also proclaims her sympathy for Beatrix von Storch, another German noblewoman, granddaughter of Hitler’s finance minister and member of the Catholic-Identitarian wing of the AfD. The far-right princess, who was known in her youth for her partying and wild evenings, now advocates a strict patriarchy: “It is interesting for us women to stay at home,” she declares, while calling for the abolition of abortion, which she considers “murder,” and believes that same-sex marriage is an “attack on the traditional family.” As early as 2001, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis shocked people after declaring on television that the high rate of AIDS in Africa was explained by the heat and the fact that “Black people really like to f***.” A few months ago, protesters hung from the trees of one of the aristocrat’s properties, chanting: “No place for Thurn und Taxis!” while demanding the family’s expropriation. This time, it was one of his palaces that burned. The building, which had served as a golf course and housed a gourmet restaurant since the 1970s, was completely destroyed, and the damage was estimated at several million euros. Responsibility for the fire came from a group called “Kommando Georg Elser,” the name of a communist resistance fighter who attempted to eliminate Hitler and senior officials in 1939. Unfortunately, the Nazis had left the stage earlier than planned, and the bomb exploded too late. This resistance fighter was deported and executed in 1945. The claim states that it is intended to send a “warning” to Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, whom it describes as a “big capitalist” with ties to far-right circles. The text also accuses the pavilion of having housed an agency involved in Nazi crimes during World War II. Police have not yet certified the authenticity of the text. In Germany, the far right is making a meteoric rise in the elections . Last February, the AfD came in second in the legislative elections, behind the right, and obtained nearly 20% of the vote. The party doubled its score in the previous elections, benefiting from the strong support of Elon Musk and a collapse of social democracy. At the same time, the ruling right is in the process of re-militarising Germany at a rapid pace, releasing colossal sums to make the Bundeswehr the “first army in Europe” and rehabilitating ceremonies honouring former German soldiers… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation; Update: there have been questions about the authenticity of the letter. The indymedia post, quoted in the source article, has apparently been removed. The post Germany: ‘Anti-fascists’ claim responsibility for burning down far-right aristocrat’s castle appeared first on Freedom News.

STOP ARMING ISRAEL TARGETS FORGED SOLUTIONS OVER ROLE IN SUPPLYING FIGHTER JETS USED IN GAZA ~ Scott Harris ~ Sheffield-based protest group Stop Arming Israel says its activists this morning once again blockaded the River Don site of weapons manufacturer Forged Solutions. The action follows the group’s previous blockades of the same site in August and of the company’s Meadowhall factory in July. Protesters halted traffic entering the River Don site, standing in front of the gates with banners, chants and speeches denouncing the company’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Despite a heavy police presence, they continued turning cars and lorries away until 8am. Later in the morning, a larger protest organised by local pro-Palestine groups gathered outside Forged Solutions’ Meadowhall site. The blockade formed part of a national day of action against the F-35 fighter jet, currently being used by Israel in its ongoing assault on Gaza. Called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the coordinated actions also targeted F-35 supply-chain sites in Brough, Cheltenham, Havant and Rochester, demanding a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. > “We’ve lobbied the council and mayoral authority countless times about > Sheffield’s complicity”, said one participant, “Two years into this genocide, > campaigning is not enough—we must halt the activities of these factories and > disrupt the supply chain”. The post Protesters blockade Sheffield weapons factory in national day of action against the F-35 appeared first on Freedom News.

TWO YEARS OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT ORGANISING AROUND COLLECTIVE STRUGGLES ~ Antti Rautiainen ~ The current government of Finland has been called the most right-wing administration in the country’s political history. It formed in 2023 through a coalition of the centre-right National Coalition Party, the far-right populist party Perussuomalaiset (The Finn’s), the Swedish People’s Party, and the Christian Democrats. The integration of dissenting parties into unorthodox coalitions has been a long tradition in Finnish politics. Under the current government Finland has become a testing ground for the incorporation of anti-immigrant, right-wing populism into national politics. Since the election, anarchists and radical left organisations formed coalitions around common struggles heightened by the new government. In 2025 anarchists have made attempts to resume the anti-government protests however, but have failed to reach beyond anarchist and radical left circles. The question raised across the two years of organising is, how to struggle together against conditions of economic stagnation and decline? The context of Finnish politics is an economy hit by several crises at once. Finland’s economy has not recovered since the 2010’s which brought the Eurocrisis and the collapse of Nokia, a company which generated up to 5% of GDP. There is also a continuous decline in traditional exporting industry, made worse by the full-scale war in Russia, and a population aging faster than average. In 2023 the centre-left coalition was defeated by a narrow margin and the neoliberal National Coalition Party quickly found a common language with far-right populists, offering term of ‘you are free to bash migrants as long as we may bash the trade unions.’ The four-party coalition has set up a government program of austerity. This includes budget cuts to every sector except defence, tax cuts for the rich, and various anti-migrant policies to appease the right-wing populists. Within weeks of the new government forming, two of the biggest anti-government street demonstrations erupted. Nazi jokes made by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Vilhelm Junnila, alongside his speech at a fascist demonstration was reported by the national media. This scandal and the general shock at the inclusion of the far-right populists into the government sparked the ‘Zero Tolerance Against Fascism’ demonstration, attended by 10,000 people on 19 July 2023. In September 15,000 people gathered for the ‘We Won’t Be Silent’ demonstration, demanding the resignation of racists and fascists from the government. Although Junnila resigned, the vague demand of opposing racism was neatly resolved by the government promising to create a position paper on the topic. Already by mid-September 2023, vast majority of the liberal contingent of the anti-racist protest disappeared from the streets and has not been seen since. However, the anti-government movement was far from over. At the September demonstration anarchists joined with a banner stating ‘If something is to be cut, let’s cut the head of Petteri and Riikka’ referring to the austerity cuts by premier Petteri Orpo and state treasurer, and chairperson of Perussuomalaiset, Riikka Purra. The slogan, originally an adaptation of the UK newspaper Class War cover ‘The Best Cut Of All’ protesting Thatcher’s cuts, provoked media uproar. The backlash successfully sidelined the anti-racists agenda of the demonstration, and protest organisers publicly distanced themselves from the anarchist collectives. No other groups made much effort to introduce wider social issues into the liberal anti-racist mood of the movement. We Won’t Be Silent demonstration, 3rd September 2023 The summer of 2023 also saw a coalition between five Helsinki-based ultra-left groups swiftly created. This included A-ryhmä (a local anarchist groups since 2006), Extinction Rebellion, and three groups inspired by autonomous Marxism. Extinction Rebellion, established a week after the original UK group, brought more activists than the others combined. Together they organised the ‘Hands off!’ demonstration timed to match the government’s budget negotiations on 19 September 2023. The four major demands were to halt budget cuts, defend right to asylum, defend the right to strike, and the protection of biodiversity. Hands off! Demonstration, 19 September 2023 The demonstration drew 600 participants and was considered unsuccessful. The most likely reasons it failed to draw similar sized crowds as the ‘We Won’t Be Silent’ demonstration a week earlier was an inconsistent promise to blockade a government building, to narrow a coalition, horrible weather, and lack of widespread promotion. It is also representative of the fragmentation of anti-government protest. The day for ‘Hands Off!’ was also the launch date for students occupying Helsinki University’s main building, opposing the cuts to education and student welfare. The movement eventually spread to 16 higher education institutions and 10 high schools/trade schools. They failed to raise demands wider than their immediate self-interest, and the occupation failed to achieve their goals. Additionally, the Palestinian solidarity movement has been a major focus for anti-government protest. Although the Christian Zionist movement has traditionally been stronger in Finland than support for Palestine, this is no longer the case. In 2023 demonstration against the genocide in Gaza occurred almost weekly and have not dwindled in the two years of the right-wing government. The protests created a government crisis to recognise Palestinian statehood, however under pressure from the Christian Democrats and Perussuomalaiset the prime minister could not pursue it. With so many mobilisations, participants spread thin, unity was elusive. Meanwhile, the government pressed on with its agenda. One of the biggest challenges to the right-wing government came from the trade unions. In December 2023 the unions launched the direct-action campaign, ‘Painava SYY’ (Serious Cause) which rejected many of the government’s reforms including: cuts to unemployment and benefits, restricting political strikes to one day, and changes to contracts which would limit pay rises and weaken employment security. From the three central unions, SAK, STTK, and Akava, only SAK undertook serious strikes action, organising rolling-one day strikes across industries. This culminated in a one-month port strike between March-April 2024. This was expected to halt foreign trade and result in serious disruption, however there no major industry shutdowns. Due to decreasing opinion polls in support of strike action, or the lack of willingness to really rock the boat, SKA ended the campaign before imposing a general strike and won slightly less strict changes to employee’s contracts. As the unions chickened out, anarchists continued to call for a general strike. The ‘Hands-Off!’ coalition organised an event to discuss the history of a general strike in Finland and gathered 400 people in a general strike bloc at the Mayday marches of the unions and left-wing parties. This reached further than the usual anarchist circles, but failed to instigate a general strike. Throughout 2023-2024, ultra-left coalitions remained active in anti-government and anti-fascist organising. A coalition between A-ryhmä, anti-fascist Varis network, and Left Youth created in 2016, continued its annual counter demonstration against the far right ‘612’ march on 6 December 2023.  The march was created by Nazi organisation Nordic Resistance Movement and other Finnish far-right groups. In 2023 right-wing populists deserted the march, leaving it for fascists alone. For several hours, 1,500 counter-protestors occupied the square, delaying the march, and demoralising the fascists. In 2024, right-wing populist MP Teemu Keskisarja attended the march, however, despite the backing from parliament, fascist numbers were again decreasing. Also in 2024, the fascist ‘Blue-Black Movement’ party attempted to organise reading circles in public libraries, using a legal loophole designating libraries as free public spaces for any groups use. In Helsinki, reading circles were organised and the library administration was first adamant to permit the fascist gatherings. Due to loud anti-fascist protests inside the library, the library reconsidered the interpretation of law and the fascist gatherings were pushed out from public libraries nationwide. Additionally, in April, the ‘Hands Off!’ coalition organised the ‘Unruly Street Party’ where 400 people gathered and was continued with a squatting in a former manor house close to government officials’ residences. The house was evicted after 7 weeks; however, another former manor house was occupied further from the centre of the city, and remained occupied until December. Kaaoskartano (Chaos mansion), squatted 19 April 2024. Active demonstrations and protests against the right-wing government diminished through 2024.  The trade unions rounded up their direct-action campaign and the ‘Hands Off!’ coalition collapsed as Extinction rebellion moved forwards with a campaign to propose more ‘environmentally friendly’ cuts. The Left party won the EU parliament elections of June 2024, gaining 17% of the vote.  After this, most leftists seem to be happy to wait for the next parliamentary elections. In April 2025 anarchists resumed anti-government protests by forming a queue for bread to the prime minister’s residence in Helsinki. The protest failed to reach beyond the anarchist and radical left circles with around 300 demonstrators attending the event. Despite two years of efforts from anarchists and the radical left to form coalitions around common struggles, it is clear that different organisations and groups pursued their own agenda without attempting to unite on common struggles. Despite this, there are positives from the anarchist, anti-fascists coalitions, and wider anti-government protests of 2023-2024. Fascists were successfully marginalised and pushed out of public libraries, unions showed their strength and gained minor concessions, and Palestine solidarity showed endurance and provoked a government crisis. Yet, some big questions remain as the Finnish economy stagnates and the right-wing coalition remains in power. In 2024, the Finnish economy was the worst in Europe, and currently the unemployment rate of 9.9% is behind only Spain. How can growing number of unemployed people be organised? How can anarchists intervene in trade union struggles when they are hostile to outside intervention? How to united anti-racist and social struggles, and stop the fragmentation of struggles? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article has been adapted from a lecture given at anarchist days, Dresden, 21st September 2024. It has been updated with recent developments. The lecture is available on YouTube and Spotify. The post Finland: Struggles against the right-wing government appeared first on Freedom News.

IT WAS “BY NO MEANS OUR INTENTION” TO CUT POWER TO HOUSEHOLDS, SAYS COMMUNIQUÉ, BUT TO “TURN OFF THE JUICE TO THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX” ~ Juju Alerta ~ Anarchists have taken responsibility for a major power outage in southeast Berlin early Tuesday, after two high-voltage pylons were set on fire in Johannisthal, Treptow-Köpenick. The attack, which began around 3.30am according to police, cut electricity to some 43,000 households and 3,000 businesses. Entire areas were left without power, public transport was paralysed, traffic lights went dark, and mobile police units with loudspeaker vans were deployed to inform residents. The state security division of the Berlin criminal police has taken over the investigation. A police spokesperson said arson was suspected and that a political motive “could not be ruled out”. Later, a lengthy statement appeared on Indymedia in which a group of anarchists claimed the action, which they say targeted Adlershof technology park. The authors apologised to local residents for the blackout in private homes, saying this was “by no means our intention”, but described the collateral damage as “acceptable compared with the destruction of nature and the often deadly subjugation of people” caused by the targeted industries. The group singled out several companies, including Atos, Jenoptik, Siemens, and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), accusing them of supplying militaries, enabling border surveillance and fuelling environmental destruction. “Their well-sounding slogans of innovation, sustainability and progress are nothing more than a manoeuvre on the battlefield of discourse, to cover up that they are actually building instruments that bring death and destruction”, the statement declared. Tuesday’s fire is the most significant infrastructure sabotage in Berlin since a 2024 pylon attack cut power to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide. In recent weeks there have also been attacks on vehicles and businesses linked to the landlord of Rigaer 94, a left-radical housing project which faces multiple court cases and eviction proceedings this month. The post Berlin blackout: Anarchists claim attack on industrial park appeared first on Freedom News.

ARRESTS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT RISK CENTRING LIBERAL FREEDOMS INSTEAD OF PALESTINIAN SURVIVAL ~ Kell w Farshéa ~ Its 9pm, last Saturday (6 September). I’m standing on the pavement in the dark, watching the arrests. Police vans queue down the side of Parliament Square, engines idling. Police in high-vis jackets wade through the crowd of chanting singing people. Every five minutes cops emerge from the crowd carrying someone pron,e whilst another cop walks alongside telling them that they are being arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. A group of supporters chanting “we are the revolution” accompany a man walking to the police van. Others shout “shame, shame” or “are you proud of yourself”. On and on it goes. Yet how English and polite and obedient it is. People are quietly carried to the vans where they climb inside unaided. I see people chat to the police officers as if we are all on the same side—decency, civility, democratic values, common outrage. The hours pass, more people are driven off through the police road block to the police cells. Its relentless. Google tells me that in August 2025 there were only 900 cells available in UK men’s prisons. Yet almost 1,500 people have been charged for explicitly stating they support Palestine Action. Indeed the internet suggests many people charged will face a fine rather than imprisonment. The Prime Minister and his new Home Secretary look like paper tigers, not resolute law makers. 1,500 people showing they are not afraid of the consequences in breaking one of the more serious crimes on statute because the law is seen as morally bankrupt. There is something powerful in this spectacle of defiance played out in front of parliament at night. And yet If passive resistance is so powerful, if the prison and police cells are in such short supply—why have the mass protests against genocide not brought 100,000 marchers to sit down in the streets of London? Indeed why was it only when UK citizen’s rights were threatened that people were prepared to be arrested en masse? I am absolutely sure that members of Palestine Action still want the focus to be on Gaza, but it seems like white liberalism is now more focussed instead on the proscription itself. And beyond the sight of elderly pensioners bedecked in military medals being arrested—how effective is this protest at stopping the genocide and ending the occupation? How much has the proscription taken the focus off the millions being starved to death in Gaza? Perhaps in the face of almost two years of mass demonstrations, emails and petitions it is understandable that people grasp for some kind of meaningful protest. Yet in an age when Parliament is uninterested in moral, genocidal, ecocidal or democratic principles, this may no longer be relevant. And yet, the questions must be asked. How can we more effectively resist the actual genocide? How can we avoid centring the debate over liberal democratic ideas and conditional freedoms, and instead re-centre it on the colonial capitalist murder of the people of Palestine? Let us remember that Mr. Starmer is not sympathetic to principled ‘gesture’ arrests. He is on record saying XR actionists should get long sentences. Starmer endorses segregationist policies for trans people and leans into Farage and the EDL’s fascist language on immigration. He would leave every pensioner in London on bail and still not allow PA to return. The mass arrests on Saturday were magnificent, cinematic even. But lets not pretend it’s not a sideshow distracting from the real issue—ending the genocide and fighting for a Free Palestine. Not one Palestinian child’s life will be saved by any of these arrests unless they refocus on the key issue: that while the government mouths platitudes about the man-made famine, it provides logistical support for drone attacks on children and targeted assassinations of journalists. > — “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre” (French General Pierre > Bosquet on the charge of the British Light Brigade at Balaclava, 25 October > 1854) > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Photos: Peter Marshall The post Proscription Action: It’s magnificent, but it’s not war appeared first on Freedom News.

WHILE ISRAEL BRANDS IT AS ‘TERRORISM’, GENOA DOCKWORKERS THREATEN MASS ACTION SHOULD THE FLOTILLA BE INTERCEPTED ~ Santiago Navarro F, Avispa Midia ~ As the Sumud Flotilla sails through the Mediterranean, Israel’s stance has been swift, threatening to label its crew, from more than 44 countries, as terrorists and to arrest and imprison them. Following these threats, Italian dockworkers in the port of Genoa have warned that if they lose contact with the flotilla for even 20 minutes, they will block the departure of 14,000 containers of merchandise to Israel. The flotilla of over 50 boats set sail on Sunday (30 August) from Barcelona, carrying trade unionists, doctors, parliamentarians, and activists such as American actress Susan Sarandon and Portuguese actress Sofía Aparicio, as well as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was detained and deported last June while attempting to break the Gaza blockade with the then-called Freedom Flotilla. Their objective is threefold: to deliver aid directly, to break the media and political isolation of Gaza, and to denounce to the world what they describe as a “genocidal war” and an “illegal siege”. Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians and injured more than 157,000. Meanwhile, it continues to systematically obstruct the entry of food and humanitarian aid into the enclave. “It’s unfortunate that we have to do it ourselves; that we have to load ships with humanitarian aid to try to break the blockade and stop the genocide”, said Saif Abukeshek, a spokesperson for the flotilla, who was detained by Egypt last June during the Global March for Gaza. “We’re not just announcing the mission itself, but the building of a global solidarity movement that works with all oppressed peoples”, he explained. Abukeshek speaking in Barcelona. Photos: Albert Hernández Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned that activists travelling aboard the flotilla will be subjected to prolonged detention and will be denied privileges. “We will not allow people who support terrorism to live in comfort. They will face the full consequences of their actions”, Ben-Gvir said. Responding from Genoa, Riccardo Rudino, representative of the Autonomous Committee of Stevedores (CALP), issued an ultimatum in a video warning that if contact with the fleet is lost for even 20 minutes, “we will block Europe”. He also emphatically stated that “not a single nail will come out. We will go on an international strike, block roads, and block schools”. In Genoa alone, more than 300 tons of humanitarian aid were collected prior to the flotilla’s departure. This cargo was sent to the port of Catania and distributed to Italian ships that will join the humanitarian voyage. The voyage is planned to last seven to eight days. Strict security and discretion measures have been implemented, mindful of previous experiences with Israeli repression. This year has already seen two bitter precedents: the Madleen, with Thunberg on board, and the Handala, which were intercepted in June and July respectively by drone attacks and boarded by Israeli commandos in international waters. Their passengers were beaten, kidnapped, deported, and had their phones confiscated. Despite the drone overflights of the vessels near the coasts of Mallorca and Menorca, which the Flotilla has reported, they continue on their way to Gaza. The vessels advance each day toward their destination, with actions in different countries taking place at all times, ranging from words of encouragement to the addition of more vessels and people. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited machine translation The post Sumud flotilla heads to Gaza “to break the blockade and stop the genocide” appeared first on Freedom News.