SOLIDARITY BEGINS WHERE WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT OUR WITHDRAWAL AND ESCAPISM HAS CONSEQUENCES FOR OTHERS ~ Lola, Barrikade ~ Partyvism is not a music genre, not a subculture. It’s an attitude. The conscious or unconscious practice of suppressing societal tensions through constant partying, scene consumption, and escapism, while minimising or completely outsourcing political participation. Partying is experienced not as a supplement, but as a substitute for engagement, organisation, and responsibility. As the rightward shift accelerates, militarisation is ruthlessly pursued, authoritarian policies become mainstream, crises escalate, people are systematically exploited and slaughtered for resource colonialism, and genocides continue or are relativised — a segment of the scene withdraws. Partyvism is not a harmless side effect; it’s dancing rather than fighting, intoxication rather than solidarity, the scene rather than organising. The problem isn’t partying itself. The problem is partying as a substitute activity. Partyvism transforms collective powerlessness into short-term ecstasy and sells it as freedom. While others use all their resources to build structures, mitigate repression, support those affected, and fend off attacks, a large segment remains on the margins, often politically informed, but rarely practically involved. This isn’t about condemning partying. Joy, physicality, intoxication, and community are legitimate needs. Many people are exhausted, overwhelmed, psychologically burdened, or simply preoccupied with surviving their daily lives because they are oppressed by the system day after day. Maximum participation cannot be demanded of anyone at all times. Those who ignore this reproduce precisely the performance-driven and exploitative logics that helped create these crises. But: Those who systematically stay out of it leave the field to others and indirectly profit from their work. Partyvism shifts responsibility downwards and risks outwards. It thrives on others taking the fall. No one owes permanent activism. But there is a difference between taking breaks and permanently withdrawing. Between self-protection and political complacency. The illusion that one can simply stay out of it is deceptive. As if one’s own body, one’s own scene, or the club were an apolitical space. But the shift to the right doesn’t stop at the door, repression doesn’t bypass dance floors, and political decisions affect us all, whether we’re partying or not. Solidarity cannot be postponed or relegated to after-hours parties. This is how invisible hierarchies emerge: Some organise, others consume. Some slowly burn out. This isn’t subculture; this is political division of labour without consultation, always at the expense of those who stay. The question isn’t whether we’re allowed to celebrate, but what for. Whether spaces are merely places of distraction or places where relationships are forged that will sustain us when things get serious. Whether pleasure is connected or becomes an excuse. Solidarity also means asking ourselves: Who keeps the structures running? Who pays the price for political passivity? Who can even afford escapism? Not everyone has to do everything. But no one is completely uninvolved. Solidarity begins where we acknowledge that our withdrawal has consequences for others. That our escapism generates real costs and creates real imbalances: Some keep struggles going while others consume. Some burn out while others dance. This is rarely malicious intent, but it weakens movements and deepens isolation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation The post Partyvism appeared first on Freedom News.

ACTION MEDICS REPORT FROM RECENT DEMOS IN SWITZERLAND ~ Sanitätskollektiv Zürich ~ Between 17 and 20 January 2026, Sanitätskollektiv Zürich provided independent medical support at three demonstrations in Bern, Zurich and Winterthur. Across these protests — against the World Economic Forum (WEF) and in solidarity with Rojava — we observed extensive police deployments, the repeated use of force, and, in Bern in particular, systematic obstruction of medical access to injured people. On 17 January, three of our medics accompanied the unpermitted Smash-WEF demonstration in Bern. A march was prevented from going ahead by a massive police operation involving barrier vehicles, batons, pepper spray and fists. More than one hundred people were held for hours in a police kettle. Throughout the deployment we repeatedly observed disproportionate police action, which also denied us access to injured people. Even before the planned start at 3 p.m., numerous police units were present at Bern main station, carrying out identity checks. When the assembly formed on the station square, Bern cantonal police announced that only a static rally would be tolerated and that a march would be prevented. Several hundred officers, barrier vehicles and water cannons then sealed off the area. The demonstration was forced to circle within the police cordon and was gradually pushed towards the Church of the Holy Spirit, where it was kettled from around 4 p.m. Police then carried out multiple, sometimes violent, arrests. A detained person reported the use of rubber bullets fired at short distance from barrier vehicles inside the kettle. Demonstrators were pressed together by police vehicles, pepper spray was used against people in the kettle, and after our deployment ended we continued to receive messages from people injured by pepper spray near the station. On 19 January, four of our medics supported two demonstrations in Zurich: the authorised “Trump not welcome” march, attended by around 3,000 people, and a subsequent unpermitted protest in solidarity with Rojava. During the authorised demonstration there were no injuries. However, police presence was strikingly heavy compared to other demonstrations of similar size, with even small side streets blocked by barrier vehicles and water cannons positioned pre-emptively. After the final rally at Helvetiaplatz, around 800 people — led by a Kurdish and a revolutionary bloc — set off on another march. Following an accident involving a sound truck, which we treated on site, the march developed into a street blockade. Police issued dispersal orders and then deployed water cannons, some jets directed at specific groups. When objects and pyrotechnics were thrown by a small number of demonstrators, police additionally used irritants and rubber bullets. As a result of the extensive use of force, several people were injured. To dissolve a peaceful demonstration with tear gas projectiles and high-pressure water jets is, in our view, not proportionate. On 20 January, three of our medics accompanied a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Rojava in Winterthur, attended by families with children. Without warning or audible instructions, police fired blank shots from launchers at 6:45 p.m. and again later at close range, and deployed pepper spray. When demonstrators were pressed close to police lines, irritants and physical force were used without any apparent opportunity to leave the situation. We treated a low double-digit number of patients for eye and respiratory irritation, panic attacks and brief losses of consciousness. One person was handed over to the ambulance service. Across all three days, a clear pattern emerged: heavy policing, early escalation, and in Bern the outright denial of medical access. These practices endanger demonstrators and undermine both the right to protest and the provision of urgent medical care. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine-assisted edit from Barrikade.info The post Repression at WEF and Rojava protests 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.

IT SEEMS LIKE IN THE YEAR 2024, GOVERNMENTS AND THE PEOPLE SUPPORTING THEM HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THE IMPOSSIBLE IN TERMS OF NORMALISING DEATH—BUT REFUSAL PERSISTS ~ Juju Alerta ~ With a wild demonstration to enliven the St Pauli district of Hamburg, people from different countries gathered in the city in mid-November to exchange stories and discussions about the Refusal of Military Service and Anti-Militarism. People from various countries with experience on the topic spoke about their particular situations. PALESTINE/ISRAEL Spokespeople from the Mesarvot organisation and the New Profile movement, both active in supporting networks for people refusing the mandatory military service in Israel shared their experiences and advice. They discussed their own experiences both of conscientious objection and of being drafted as women. One younger speaker (age 21) had to go to prison for 87 days for openly refusing to attend the army in 2022, they supported the suggestion of a public and online movement. The second spokesperson is of an older generation (age 42) who shares their own considerations and ideologies for the need for people to keep their refusal to join the army hidden and private. Both want the scary tales around the objection to breakout. People fall into pitfalls while being interviewed, just because they lack the right information, speakers want to harness their stories to inspire something achievable for everyone affected within a highly militarised society, especially one using automated technology for genocide. The Israel Defence Forces have a long history of discrimination when it comes to the treatment of conscientious objectors (ie. Religious, gender, ethnicity discrimination). GREECE In Greece, both the heroism of refusing conscription combined with invisibility, creates a social distance to the topic. Often objection is considered to be a private thing, not something belonging to a political movement. Drafted men could be undertaking tasks on migratory projects or its militarised borders. The Greek Army has a presence at the Red Sea and in the Middle East, as well as being strongly influenced by NATO bases on Greek territories, which might be the reason why it abstained from a vote calling for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, on October 27 2023 at the UN General Assembly. Financial sanctions can affect individuals refusing to attend the army and evading the draft for up to 30 years. One example is that freelance workers can get “force-taxed”. In general, the economic penalties seem common in European territories, however it is relatively new in Greece compared to Germany. If someone in Greece needs some months to secure his finances and possessions from governmental involvement in the case of military service refusal, the same process would take Germany ten years to do due to  its erudite use of bureaucracy as an oppressive instrument. The society in Greece in general is in favour of the army, despite of it is being not such a strong force of a few million people, and even the leftist parties in Greece seem to not be opposed to it – the communist party being highly patriotic and not in favour of a revolutionary access to weapons. The physical training in the army itself in reality is secondary to patriotic brainwashing and lecturing on how to be a ‘proper man‘. SWITZERLAND Switzerland is a good example of an economical beneficiary of military technology exports, whilst also enjoying living in peace. Surprisingly, they too have mandatory military service. Objection to conscription costs citizens 3% of their annual income to military exemption tax, or the seizure of valuable items. Since the 13th century its general democratic voting system was decisively in favour of a military, because direct voting campaigns are usually highly financialised affairs, orchestrated by various lobbies. You also have an option (or a trap) of civil service to fall into, if you are an ideological objector. This is an increasingly common way of deterring objectors, by forcing them into longer drafts of civil service, than expected in the military service conscription. The military is seen of more use for internal affairs, so you could compare it to a highly economically and technologically developed, patriotic, guerrilla army, where they even have a saying: ”Switzerland doesn’t have an army, it is an army”. For instance, during the Cold War the army was distributing a manual titled Total Resistance, that the RAF considered using it (though eventually it proved not to be that useful to them). The Army’s main operations consist of securing the border, fighting social movements, and event security, such as at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meetings and the Zionist World Congress (in Basel, 2022). A curious fact is, that the Swiss Army can refuse to draft you, if it has profiled you as too subversive for the army. Since it is considered as too easy to escape the service, it is treated on an individual basis rather than a collective one. RUSSIA On November 17th, Russian anarchists organised a block for an anti-war demonstration in Berlin, carrying a banner reading “Death to the Empire”. The fight against the mobilisation in Russia is a fight against destruction of rights and the authoritarian-conservative politics of Putin during a state of war. Before, mobilisation to service in the army was largely avoided by people using any means necessary, as it was seen as an absurd, useless and meaningless time spent – according to a spokesperson, who avoided mobilisation via migration. The army was heavily corrupt, so it could be avoided for instance by buying fake medical documents. Russian society sees it as a cultural rite of passage for a man to experience violence and trauma, since the army’s nightmare is constituted through strong hierarchy and discrimination. Currently, the anti-war charity Go By The Forest helps a lot of deserters from Russia. The most strict conditions are found at the frontline, in Luhansk and Donetsk deserters get tortured and detained in illegal secret prisons. Inside the country itself the laws are becoming increasingly repressive for conscientious objectors. The war reproduces coloniality through the racialised mobilisation, mostly ethnic minorities are overwhelmingly sent to die. A big class difference is also observed within the poorer provinces who populate a majority of those drafted, as well as lower classes from the cities, which maintains the status quo. A common practice of the fascist paramilitary Wagner Group is the illegal mobilisation of prisoners through violent exploitation. The avoidance of the Russian army prompts existential questions for the affected since the start of the invasion on Ukraine. There are few possibilities for challenging Russian conscription, so the attacking of military railroads, fragging (coined by conscripted Americans who protested the Vietnam War soldiers by attacking army superiors) and migration became the only possible, but necessary reactions. Besides, sanctions led to nothing else in reality but a militarisation of economy, where new technological developments are being tested to practice. GERMANY Overall, the  demonstration in Hamburg acts as a good reminder that in Germany the situation, according to the organisers discussion of various indicators, could revert to the mandatory military service that existed prior to 2011. A strong stance is needed to challenge the increased financing and interest in the military. This situation demands the biggest resistance in Germany since 1945 and this weekend in Hamburg served to inform attendees about possible ways to act. It seemed that the organisers prepared the questions for the speakers in advance, and it was interesting to learn, how the patriarchy is shaping the significance of the military. In the future it would be encouraging to see a broader perspective and representation on feminist struggles related to warfare, and to widen the scope of activist participation from other countries. This could build upon the foundations of including different viewpoints, to garner a fruitful dialogue. Instead of enabling the normalisation of necropolitics, we should resist: there is no speculation on death, and there are no varying degrees of it. Speaking about war is speaking about death without any compromises. The deadliest of it could be the human next door, if they do not t care to oppose it. It is worth the fight against the globalised, capitalised, nationalised State war-machine on all fronts, even if the possibilities may vastly vary depending on the region in which the military operates. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: Russian-anarchists-in-exile march at anti-war demonstration on November 17th in Berlin. Photo: avtonom_org The post Report from anti-war congress in Hamburg appeared first on Freedom News.