France is at the forefront of a European wave of school and university-led insurrection with protests now spreading to Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Austria. Demands vary from country to country, but the shared grievances are the cost of living, access to decent housing and deteriorating school infrastructure, all of which deepen the chasm between privileged minorities and excluded majorities. State administrations are therefore no longer facing isolated protests over education, but a groundswell of youth-led unrest that brings students in generalised direct conflict with police forces—events that could once again gain momentum and set the agenda for political and social transformation. In France, the youth uprising, now in its third week, began in Paris-suburb high schools and spread nationwide despite heavy police repression. The high school union says about two-thirds of public high schools were blockaded on 6 October, and nearly all mainland universities shut down. Meanwhile the mainstream political system tries to rise to the occasion, condemning or co-opting the movement depending on which side of the spectrum it sits, right or left respectively. The problem officials face is that this movement is on the offensive, going for victory. It has its own agenda—it did not simply erupt “against a reform” or “in reaction” to political events but is reportedly in revenge, echoing the Nahel uprising. Working-class crews (bandes) are also reported to be the driving force, without demands or representatives, indifferent to the codes of the Left and to bourgeois politeness. High school actions are diverse and go beyond blockades to sabotage, barricades, wildcat strikes and the mockery of authority. The mainstream unions want to defuse the renewed call for 17 October, which recalls the Yellow Vests, while the left puts forward demands that help separate “good” protesters with demands from “bad” rioters. In Belgium, the mobilisations have led to repeated clashes with the police and hundreds of arrests. The tension was such that local authorities banned public gatherings of more than three people until 16 October, citing the risk of further incidents. Hundreds of school and university students kept gathering regardless, protesting the cost of education, overcrowded classrooms and scarce resources, and showing that the state’s response is not enough to halt the momentum. Madrid (Radical Graffiti) In Italy, the first school occupations in Turin and Rome took place under the slogan “Let’s do as they do in France”, over chronic underfunding, dilapidated school buildings and rising living costs, and a student delegation travelled to Paris in solidarity. Students in Ireland are demonstrating against high fees, higher education funding and the lack of affordable student housing. In Germany they are joined by teachers and parents, and in Austria university students have announced new mobilisations. In Spain, housing protests sparked by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal have spread to dozens of cities, prompting a snap election and a general strike call. The Gen Z movements in Europe follow those across the globe: widely leaderless, centreless insurrections led by tech-savvy youth who use social media to spread instantly and create real political shifts in their home countries. In Nepal, a mobilisation born online and on the streets toppled the government and led to a Discord-based nomination of an interim administration. In Madagascar, university students forced the president to flee the country. In Morocco, Discord-based organising extracted government promises of more spending on employment, health and education.  In Peru, two presidents were removed within four months and new coalitions of youth collectives took shape. Protests in Indonesia, India and Timor-Leste forced reversals of unpopular policies. In Albania, decentralised Gen Z-style protests that began against a destructive luxury resort widened into demands for government resignation, and cost-of-living protests returned in Kenya and the Philippines. These movements largely form outside existing structures, have in some cases resisted co-optation by opposition parties, and build cross-border solidarity through symbolism and social media. The horizontal, anti-hierarchical structures and the thoroughly anti-authoritarian ethos of this uprising of kids against police authority recall the youth insurrections of the late 2000s and early 2010s around the world. The current waves feel like they pick up the baton from those years, and from the break with vanguardist politics signalled in the mountains of Chiapas in the 1990s. The excluded rise up, loudly, in search of a response to the root problem of hegemony at the level of everyday life, while raising existential questions about humanity’s future on a declining planet. States, capitalists and all political forces, anarchists included!, have been scrambling ever since to catch up or respond. Governments of the left and of the authoritarian right alike, formed in the echo of those revolts, have proved at ease with a capital-backed far-right surge that the neoliberal centre props up to contain the cyclical waves of insurrection across the globe. As illustrated in more detail in Gen Z Makes History, the youth-led uprisings have occurred in international resonance with each other, in places toppling governments and shaking others into changing in ways unimaginable only days before. It is not elections but militant street actions that strike fear into regimes and compel reforms in governments on three continents. The cost in lives and injuries is high (at least 76 dead in Nepal alone), but those once dismissed as “narcissistic babies of the Internet Age” and a “lost generation” are, through their sacrifices, changing the conversation globally and inspiring people to look to the future with new hope. The post Gen Z on the barricades appeared first on Freedom Press.

WHITE SUPREMACY MAY BE AN AMERICAN TRADITION — BUT GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE IS GROWING ~ Dana Williams ~ Although I no longer live there, I continue to identify as a Minnesotan. It’s a rather white state, but also greatly influenced by immigrants, who have always been part of my own life. Among other groups, Minnesota has many resettled Hmong and Somali refugees, displaced by US military invasions of their homelands. Like Portland and San Francisco, the state capital of Minneapolis is known to have a progressive population, often more left-leaning than its liberal politicians. When Mayor Jacob Frey admonished ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis”, Democrats and liberals cheered because of ICE’s association with Trump. But radical anti-racists know talk is cheap: ICE thrived under the Obama and Biden presidencies, too, and Frey (who resisted popular demands in 2020 to de-fund the city’s police department) hasn’t ordered Minneapolis police to arrest or eject ICE from the city limits. Instead, Minneapolis cops have attacked and arrested anti-ICE demonstrators, and protected ICE gangs. In fact, this current xenophobia is only really new in style. Anti-immigrant ideology is as old as the settler-colonialist state. The rot that socially-constructed borders create is deep in the national psyche. This version isn’t any worse than past iterations—consider decades of Chinese “exclusion”, Mexican “repatriation”, and Japanese internment. But white supremacy is hypocritical. Thanks to the 1790 Naturalization Act, my ancestors from Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland were all legally defined as “white”, and thus welcomed with open arms. Minnesota—named after the Dakota word for cloudy water—is itself a creation of theft masquerading as immigration. The federal facility where ICE is staging its operations from is adjacent to a settler fort that served as a concentration camp for prisoners following the 1862 US-Dakota War, that helped White Europeans flood in and expel indigenous people from the territory. It’s illogical to proclaim that some could be “illegally” residing on stolen land, but white supremacists aren’t concerned with redressing historical crimes. They believe to be Minnesotan is to be white. Nothing makes this clearer than the arrest of Ogalala Sioux Tribe members by ICE—profiled simply for not looking white. The US Supreme Court recently ruled it’s now legal for ICE to use “ethnicity” as grounds for detaining suspects. Dubbed a “Kavanaugh stop” due to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion, the US has abandoned a half-century of presumed “colour-blindness”, thereby legalizing the already common practice of racial and linguistic profiling by law enforcement. Have an accent? Look Black or brown? Wearing non-Western clothing? ICE agents don’t need legal warrants for specific suspects, they can stop anybody they wish and create a reason later. The legacy of repression targeting Minnesota’s Lakotan people continued into the 20th century, but so did resistance. Police brutality against indigenous people in Minneapolis—mostly survivors of the genocidal residential schools—was so extreme that it provoked the formation of the American Indian Movement in 1968. Anti-racist movements have thrived ever since, from the Baldies and Anti-Racist Action to the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s no coincidence that rapid response participant Renee Nicole Good was murdered on 7 January 2026 within a mile from where George Floyd was murdered 25 May 2020, which sparked a global uprising against police and white supremacy (likely the largest in world history). The difference between now and the past is that a sizable minority of the US-born white population have become outspokenly pro-immigrant. By becoming accomplices with our immigrant neighbours, we can disrupt the pathetic American tradition of acquiescence to cruelty and injustice. So many white people are in the streets of Minneapolis right now because every one of them can tell the same story as me about how immigrants have enriched their lives, made them better people. Their rage at seeing the contemporary equivalent of antebellum slave patrols (a very American repressive organisation that targeted Black people) roaming around, and harassing and disappearing people in their community makes them want to fight. Residents are joining rapid response networks, carrying whistles and blowing them whenever they see ICE driving around, and then standing their ground until ICE leaves. According to one long-term militant, the anti-ICE siege of the federal building has drained ICE resources, thus limiting the number of kidnappings ICE can make. As the disruption spreads, it could draw in more people and generalize the revolt against authority. For example, the local labor council has called for a general strike tomorrow (23 January), 2026, the first in Minneapolis since 1934. Fascism only wins when we stop fighting it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image from CrimethInc.com The post Becoming accomplices against ICE appeared first on Freedom News.

ISLAMIST ATTACKS AND GREAT-POWER MANOEUVRES PLACE THE REVOLUTION IN EXISTENTIAL THREAT ~ Blade Runner ~ Recent weeks’ clashes between Syrian state forces and Kurdish groups forces have developed into a multi-front assault on Rojava, threatening open war as a means of forcing it to integrate into an Islamist state structure. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are resisting sustained attacks using drones and heavy weapons by Damascus-affiliated militias in Hasakeh and Raqqa, including near two prisons housing thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. SDF confirmed that repeated assaults on al-Shaddadi prison were initially repelled at heavy cost before the facility ultimately fell with thousands of ISIS fighters escaping, despite its proximity to a US-led coalition base that did not intervene. > The SDF has lost significant territory over the past week, including large > areas it previously controlled east of the Euphrates. Grassroots channels > report Islamist forces attacking Kobane, a city pressed against the Turkish > border to the north. Northeast Syria’s ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) has > called on “Kurdistani forces to declare a general mobilisation,” warning that > “Kurds in Rojava face the threat of extermination.” The ceasefire declared on Sunday 18 January is being widely ignored on the ground by the coalition of Islamist forces — described in much of the mainstream media as the “Syrian government forces” — with attacks on SDF and YPJ (Women’s Protection Units) positions and civilian areas continuing. Reports include femicides in Raqqa, executions of captured fighters, and assaults on residents attempting to prevent kidnappings. This escalation follows a wider wave of massacres across Syria, which the SDF, YPJ and Internal Security Forces have been attempting to contain. SDF leadership confirmed that following a meeting with the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and de facto Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, alongside US envoy Tom Barrack, on 18 January, a 14-point agreement was signed under which its forces would begin pulling back from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. The SDF stated that agreeing to the ceasefire was necessary to avoid open civil war and to limit civilian bloodshed, as the Islamist coalition advanced west of the Euphrates into areas previously under SDF control, pursuing confrontation marked by severe violence and displacement. A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) unit in Hesekê (al-Hasakah) in northeastern Syria. Under the agreement, SDF fighters are expected to be merged individually into Syria’s defence and interior ministries. Control of border crossings, oil and gas fields — including the al-Omar field, where Shell moved to exit just as Damascus control was being consolidated — and detention sites holding Islamic State prisoners is set to transfer to Damascus. Limited concessions allow the SDF to nominate some officials for central government roles, and Hasakeh province is expected to receive a consensus-appointed governor. The agreement also requires the expulsion of foreign members linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. In return, Damascus has offered concessions on language recognition and citizenship rights for Kurds, framed as steps toward national reconciliation. Kurdish political forces have rejected these measures as attempts to hollow out the autonomy project while delegitimising Rojava’s self-defence structures and collective institutions that guarantee safety and freedom for all ethnic and religious communities. The timeline for implementation remains unclear, but mainstream coverage increasingly presents a Syrian government portrayed as sufficiently consolidated to impose an impossible strategic choice on Rojava — a trajectory that could effectively terminate the revolutionary project. SDF leadership reportedly confirmed a further meeting with al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday 19 January, after which additional details were to be be made public. The SDF confirmed withdrawal from Deir ez-Zor — Syria’s main oil and wheat region — and from Raqqa, home to major hydroelectric infrastructure, abandoning border crossings and its main base in the area and redeploying to rearward positions. https://cdn.freedomnews.org.uk/news/2026/01/Screen-Recording-2026-01-18-095854.mp4 Earlier in Aleppo, the self-administered Kurdish neighbourhoods — long a refuge for persecuted minorities — came under sustained attack by jihadist forces, resulting in heavy civilian casualties and mass displacement. SDF units withdrew alongside thousands of residents to avoid escalation into urban warfare. Subsequent advances pushed toward the surrounding countryside and the Euphrates corridor previously under SDF control. Alongside frontline fighting, autonomous sources reported attempts to destabilise the administration from within, including counter-insurgency agitation in Raqqa and around Hasakeh linked to entrenched tribal power structures. These networks, rooted in patriarchal clan authority and local economic control, have historically functioned as mechanisms of social discipline, suppressing women and exploiting precarious labour, and are reportedly being mobilised to undermine self-administration. State-aligned outlets circulated footage videos showing the destruction of a statue of a woman YPJ fighter — a symbol of women’s resistance against ISIS. The political symbolism is unmistakable: misogynistic violence remains embedded within forces now being quietly rehabilitated as state authority. Around the Tishreen dam, SDF forces resisted Turkish-backed Islamist attacks, with armed groups repositioning in nearby villages after tactical withdrawals. In Raqqa, SDF units detonated bridges across the Euphrates to slow advancing forces, while clashes continued inside and around the city. SDF and YPJ units reported ambushes and sniper operations against Islamist formations, including former ISIS sleeper cells. At the same time, mainstream media adopted narratives highlighting “crowds celebrating the city’s liberation.” The new agreement builds on an earlier draft signed in March 2025 that vaguely outlined integration into a unified Syrian nation-state — a framework fundamentally incompatible with Rojava’s confederal administration and the region’s multi-ethnic reality. Rojava has consistently proposed a horizontal, decentralised confederal model for Syria, which the US, Turkey and other major powers have declined to support. Women fighters from the YPJ in Derik (northeastern Syria) Turkish forces have meanwhile remained heavily mobilised along the border, signalling readiness for further escalation to compel integration. Kurdish organisations interpret US-brokered talks between Israel and Damascus on 5 January as part of a broader attempt to formalise informal zones of influence, with Israeli consolidation expanding in the south and northwest and Turkish pressure intensifying against Rojava under tacit international consent. The current regime in Damascus is openly backed by Ankara, which has pursued the elimination of Kurdish autonomy for decades as a long-term strategic priority. Kurdish self-administration in Syria and Iraq has also shaped political expectations among Kurdish populations in Iran, deepening Ankara’s anxiety over regional continuity of Kurdish autonomy and the possibility of a fourth Kurdish zone emerging within Turkey itself — a development incompatible with both Turkish state doctrine and western models of centralised state stability. According to PYD representatives, the new Syrian regime increasingly functions as an Islamist caliphate imposing religious governance while drawing on networks of former jihadist fighters and dormant ISIS cells assembled during the post-Assad transition. Remzi Kartal, co-chair of People’s Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK), reiterated that any arrangement imposed on Rojava that excludes democratic autonomy “will not be accepted,” warning that the military balance in Rojava would not mirror the collapses seen in Tabqa or Aleppo. The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) likewise called for mobilisation and resistance, invoking the historic siege of Kobanê and urging that “the spirit of resistance of Kobanê must rise.” As fighting, ceasefire manoeuvres and diplomacy unfold in parallel, the struggle over Rojava is also being fought in how the conflict itself is framed. Mainstream outlets such as Reuters, AP, BBC and the Guardian present the situation primarily as a problem of territorial stabilisation, sectarian rivalry and nation-state restoration. This framing obscures a deeper political confrontation between authoritarian Islamist consolidation and a long-running experiment in communalist, feminist and multi-ethnic self-administration. The information war surrounding Rojava forms part of a broader effort to contain and neutralise the social revolution while legitimising the ultra-authoritarian forces now being rehabilitated as Syria’s governing authority — threatening communities with renewed repression, gendered violence and ethnic cleansing. The post State integration forced on Rojava appeared first on Freedom News.

REGIME ASSAULT ON SELF-ADMINISTRATED AREAS EXPOSES WEAKNESS OF POST-ASSAD SETTLEMENT ~ Blade Runner ~ Syrian government forces launched heavy attacks over the past week on the predominantly Kurdish, self-administered neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo, marking one of the most serious escalations in the city since the collapse of the Assad regime. The assault followed months of pressure, blockade and low-intensity attacks throughout 2025, intensifying at the end of December before erupting into a full offensive in early January. Residents reported deaths and large numbers of injuries as shelling and urban combat hit densely populated civilian areas. Homes were destroyed, hospitals overwhelmed and thousands displaced. Medical facilities serving the neighbourhoods were struck or rendered unusable, forcing emergency evacuations of wounded civilians and fighters alike. As fighting peaked on 9 and 10 January, civilians gathered at Khalid al-Fajr hospital to assist the wounded and seek shelter. Turkish-backed groups reportedly shelled the hospital repeatedly. The number of people killed, injured or missing remains unknown. During an international call held in the aftermath, speakers cited reports of kidnappings, executions, torture and mutilation of bodies, including those of fallen women fighters — allegations largely absent from mainstream coverage. On 11 January, a partial ceasefire was announced to allow the evacuation of wounded civilians, women and children, and the recovery of bodies. Official statements framed the ceasefire as a humanitarian measure amid mounting civilian harm and destruction. The offensive involved thousands of fighters from multiple brigades, many backed by Turkey, and employed tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and heavy munitions, alongside surveillance and strike support from Turkish drones. Reports also referred to the use of gas munitions. Internal Security Forces (Asayish) organised the defence of the neighbourhoods under siege conditions. Although officially framed as clashes between Syrian government forces and Kurdish self-defence units, multiple reports point to the involvement of Islamist armed groups operating alongside or under the cover of state forces. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose networks played a central role in the rise of the current Syrian leadership, has been repeatedly linked to operations targeting Kurdish-held areas despite efforts to downplay its role. Participants in the international call described this as the use of deniable proxies, blurring the line between state violence and jihadist mobilisation. Following the initial assaults, Damascus-aligned forces pushed for the full displacement of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh. The General Council of the two neighbourhoods rejected surrender and called for general mobilisation. In response, civilian convoys from cities across north-east Syria set out towards Aleppo, framing the defence as a collective popular struggle rather than a purely military confrontation. Mainstream media reported that Kurdish-aligned Asayish and SDF forces withdrew under the ceasefire, with Syrian government forces subsequently taking control. Participants in the international call confirmed evacuations and widespread civilian harm but declined to give definitive information on force positions, citing the ceasefire’s fragility. Fighting reportedly continued after its announcement, while returning civilians faced extensive damage, unexploded ordnance, arrests and security operations. The escalation coincided with renewed US military activity in Syria. During the same period, US Central Command carried out air strikes targeting Islamic State positions, with Jordan confirming participation. While presented as counter-terrorism operations, these strikes reinforced a broader climate of militarisation, underscoring that Syria remains shaped by competing imperial interventions rather than moving towards peace. Beyond the battlefield, the offensive was accompanied by an intense campaign of media warfare. The international call described a flood of videos portraying Syrian government or allied forces as rescuing Kurdish civilians from alleged attacks by the SDF and Asayish, inverting residents’ accounts and obscuring the impact of state and militia shelling on civilian areas. Gendered propaganda also featured prominently. Videos depicted women fighters as defeated or humiliated, erasing their central role in organising defence and sustaining resistance under siege. Speakers stressed that women played a decisive role during the attacks, arguing that such distortions aim to undermine the political foundations of the Kurdish-led revolution, where women’s liberation is structural rather than symbolic. Kurdish organisations widely view the attacks as part of a longer continuum of violence against minority communities in Syria. Participants situated the escalation alongside recent massacres of Alawite and Druze communities, arguing that despite leadership changes, the transitional government continues to reproduce the nationalist and centralising mentality of the Assad era. Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have for over a decade functioned as self-administered Kurdish neighbourhoods within Aleppo, offering sanctuary to Kurds, Arabs and others displaced since the start of the uprising. They maintained autonomy from both the Assad regime and Islamist opposition factions despite prolonged sieges and repeated attacks, making them long-standing targets for forces opposed to decentralised self-rule. This perspective contrasts with mainstream coverage, which frames events as disputes over sovereignty, security or stalled integration agreements. In March 2025, Damascus and the SDF announced a deal to integrate Rojava’s defence forces into the Syrian army and political system. Implementation has stalled amid distrust, disagreements over decentralisation and fears that integration would dismantle hard-won autonomy. For Kurdish movements, the issue is existential. The self-administration project in Rojava represents a radical departure from the nation-state model, built around decentralisation, women’s liberation and coexistence between ethnic and religious communities. External pressures continue to shape Syria’s future. US-mediated talks recently established a joint US-supervised intelligence “fusion mechanism” between Israel and Syria, alongside proposals for demilitarisation and economic zones, reinforcing the primacy of security arrangements over popular will. Turkey remains central to these dynamics, viewing the SDF and associated Kurdish structures as an existential threat and maintaining sustained military pressure. Speakers argued the Aleppo offensive could not have been launched without long-term Turkish pressure and assistance. These developments coincide with renewed discussion of negotiations involving Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish state. While framed by Ankara as peace efforts, the timing of simultaneous military assaults suggests a strategy aimed at extracting concessions while weakening Kurdish leverage rather than pursuing genuine resolution. International normalisation has further emboldened this approach. During a 9 January visit to Damascus, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced €620 million in EU funding for Syria’s recovery, describing the Aleppo clashes as “worrisome” while calling for dialogue. As of now, Syrian government forces control Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, while many displaced residents remain unable or unwilling to return. The ceasefire has halted the most intense fighting but resolved none of the underlying political questions. For Kurdish communities, early January represents another phase in a prolonged struggle against state power, media distortion and regional alliances determined to extinguish an alternative model of social organisation. Whether further escalation can be avoided remains uncertain. What is clear is that the attacks on Aleppo’s Kurdish neighbourhoods have again exposed the vulnerability of self-administration in the face of converging state, jihadist and imperial interests. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine-assisted edit. Images from Radio Onda d’Urto The post Attack on Aleppo’s Kurdish neighbourhoods appeared first on Freedom News.

INTERVIEW WITH MEMBERS OF ANARCHIST FRONT, A COLLECTIVE SPREADING INFORMATION ABOUT EVENTS IN IRAN, AFGHANISTAN, AND TAJIKISTAN ~ Gabriel Fonten ~ The uprising in Iran has been ongoing for over a week. It is not only an economic protest, but also a practical revolt against the entire logic of state power. People have disrupted control of the streets, destroyed the symbols of repression, and stood against bullets. This is precisely anarchy in action: paralysis of the government machine from below, without the need for immediate replacement with new power. The regime responded with direct shooting, raids on hospitals and mass arrests, but the crackdown has failed so far. Sporadic and floating tactics (burning cars, breaking cameras and blocking dispatch routes) have moved power from the centre to the sidelines and created a space for real self-management: mass donation, hospital defense, and direct display of information without intermediaries. To find out more, we sent some questions to the Anarchist Front, a collective spreading information about events in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. How widespread is support for the strikes among the general population? Support for radical strikes and protests in Iran is extremely widespread. Out of Iran’s thirty-two provinces, only two or three have not participated in these strikes and protests. How would you characterise the current general strike in Iran? What caused the strike? At present, strikes and protests are unfolding simultaneously, and the situation is escalating rapidly. What began as a peaceful shutdown of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar by shopkeepers turned violent after security forces intervened. From there, protests quickly spread to cities across the country. At the heart of this unrest lies unbearable economic pressure and rampant inflation that has made everyday life impossible for large segments of society. The first strikes emerged among mobile phone sellers, driven by the chaos of fluctuating exchange rates and the soaring cost of imported goods. These protests are entirely spontaneous and self-organized. There is no leadership, no political faction directing them, and no central command issuing orders. This is anger rising directly from the ground. At the same time, the son of Iran’s former king is once again attempting to capitalize on the situation. Whenever protests erupt in Iran, he rushes to claim them as his own. While it is true that he has some supporters inside the country, the vast majority of his base resides abroad. Beyond royalists, decades of repression by the Islamic Republic have effectively destroyed the possibility of other organized opposition forces emerging inside the country. How are protests being organised and what groups are looking to benefit from them? This wave began with the closure of markets in response to the catastrophic collapse of the rial, extreme inflation, rising taxes, and the regime’s complete inability to manage the economic crisis. It rapidly transformed into accumulated rage against the entire structure of power. Slogans such as “Death to Khamenei” and “Basij, Sepah, ISIS — you are all the same” reflect the depth of this anger. The root causes are the total economic collapse of the regime, stemming from systemic corruption, massive military expenditures, and foreign sanctions. However, sanctions are merely an excuse the regime uses to justify repression. https://cdn.freedomnews.org.uk/news/2026/01/video_2026-01-03_18-52-56.mp4 Naziabad Organization is largely horizontal and decentralised: through social media networks, local calls by bazaar merchants, and the organic spread of street-level rage—without a central leader or guiding party. This is precisely its strength: genuine self-organisation by ordinary people against domination. However, this is where the danger lies. Exiled opposition groups—particularly royalists aligned with Reza Pahlavi—have entered the scene and are attempting to hijack this popular uprising. Through calls issued from abroad, they inject slogans like “Long Live the Shah” in an effort to steer protests toward the restoration of another hereditary dictatorship—one that previously crushed people through SAVAK and bloody repression, and now seeks to reclaim power through diplomatic smiles and empty promises. Beyond these groups, anarchists, segments of communists, parts of liberals, and republicans also support this movement and stand to benefit from the fall of the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, sections of the Islamic Republic itself are attempting to portray this uprising as an internal reformist movement, in order to preserve the regime in a modified form. Could you introduce yourselves as a collective: where did you emerge from, what is your purpose, how are you organised? The Anarchist Front is the newest form of a path that began in 2009—a path marked by many rises and falls, from The Voice of Anarchism to the Federation of the Era of Anarchism. Today, with a renewed structure that brings together experienced comrades and new forces, we once again place emphasis on self-organisation and radical struggle—both in raising political awareness and in actively encouraging and supporting struggles on the ground. The Anarchist Front is founded on the principles of solidarity, anti-authoritarianism, and relentless resistance against all forms of domination. We do not seek to reform the existing order; we seek to destroy it—so that no power, no class, and no borders remain. Our struggle is rooted in the historical protests and resistance of people in the geographies of Iran and Afghanistan, while at the same time remaining deeply connected to the global anarchist movement. While our primary focus is on Iran and Afghanistan, our horizon goes far beyond borders. We strive for a world where freedom, equality, solidarity, and genuine mutual aid are realised—without any form of rule or exploitation. For us, anarchism is not merely a theory; it is a way of life, a mode of action, and the process of building a world free from power, repression, and lies. A lot of your coverage focuses on violence against women. Do you see this as part of the current strike? Today, women, students, and youth are actively present in the streets. They formed the core social body of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Therefore, yes—the current strikes are aligned with the demands of the Mahsa movement and with women’s rights struggles. We believe this movement, while preserving the spirit of Woman, Life, Freedom, has also created an opportunity for more passive and conservative segments of society to enter collective struggle against the Islamic Republic and unite with others. https://cdn.freedomnews.org.uk/news/2026/01/video_2026-01-03_18-45-51.mp4 Mourning procession for protester Ismail Qureshindi Our primary concern—beyond confronting the criminal Islamic Republic, which killed more than seven people in our geography just last night—is confronting royalist currents that have infiltrated the movement and are exploiting the situation. Their misogynistic tendencies are clearly visible in both their discourse and political practice. What is the state of anarchism in Iran and Afghanistan, and what challenges do activists face? Threats, summons, beatings, death threats, imprisonment, and sexual violence are realities anarchists have faced over the past two years and even before that. In the past five months alone, two of our comrades have been arrested and four others summoned. Conditions inside Iran are extremely dangerous for us. At present, one of our direct comrades from the Anarchist Front, Afshin Heyratian, is imprisoned in Evin Prison. Other anarchist comrades are imprisoned in prisons in Yazd Province. We hope that through struggle we can free our comrades and create conditions of safety for ourselves. Do you see a risk of foreign intervention in Iran? What would be the result? As mentioned earlier, royalists and supporters of Reza Pahlavi are deeply dependent on Western powers. Along with other sections of the opposition, they have created conditions in which Western governments—under the guise of helping the Iranian people—openly discuss military attacks or media intervention in Iran. Trump and Netanyahu have repeatedly threatened Iran with military action, particularly during moments of active protest. We take this opportunity to state our absolute and unconditional opposition to any military occupation or foreign intervention by Western states in Iran—at any level and in any form. Just as we were present during the twelve-day Iran–Israel conflict in the fields of reporting, mutual aid, and resistance inside Iran, we insist that if foreign intervention occurs, we have both the will and readiness to confront it. We are a local force, composed of horizontal and diverse networks of anarchist activists who previously organized together within the Federation of the Era of Anarchism. We are not primarily a militarist group. However, depending on future developments, we may adopt new positions and prepare ourselves accordingly. We do not view Iranian society as a whole as eager for foreign intervention. Finally, how can people overseas keep up to date with events in Iran and Afghanistan? We provide real-time reporting and organising in Persian. Our reporters are in direct contact and physically present in major Iranian cities. At the end of each day, the Anarchist Front’s news and journalism platform publishes a comprehensive daily report in Persian. In addition, we publish daily news in Italian, Spanish (Argentina), Arabic, English, and occasionally in German and Swedish. A platform also exists for comrades from non–Persian-speaking countries, including an international coordination group. We receive reports from around the world and act as an anarchist political force offering solidarity and support during ongoing crises. Regarding Afghanistan and Tajikistan: our comrades are present inside Afghanistan, and we also have comrades in Tajikistan. Similar to Iran, we engage in both news work and practical action in these regions. Our final demand is the continued awareness of free people of all tendencies across the world. We ask them not to turn their eyes away from the specific conditions of the Middle East and North Africa—especially Iran and Afghanistan—and to resist false information, misleading narratives, and grand narratives that erase society, its dynamics, and its demands from political analysis. We also call for solidarity and mutual cooperation. The post Iranian anarchists: Uprising is “genuine self-organisation by ordinary people” appeared first on Freedom News.

LIVING IN MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL, I LISTEN TO THE STORIES OF OTHER ABOLITIONISTS TO LEARN HOW THEY CAME TO THIS RADICAL APPROACH ~ Camille Tinnin ~ We are living in a time of increased authoritarianism around the globe, propped up by police and other forms of law enforcement. In the United States we see the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the National Guard, with police cooperation on various levels. Masked agents, refusing to provide names or identification, appear in workplaces, homes, roads, and businesses, snatching up neighbours. Fear abounds, as does resistance. As we fight this new onslaught and rollback of personal civil liberties, it is important to not only focus on what we are fighting against, but what we are fighting for. Police abolitionist organisers provide wisdom for this moment. Abolitionists are not only fighting against the police state, we are building alternative practices and institutions that push against assumptions about conflict, power, and interpersonal and community relationships. We are questioning our collective conception of power, considering accountability for harm over discipline and punishment, developing skills to better resolve conflicts in our neighbourhoods, families, organising spaces, and society. We are engaging in mutual aid and the creation of community spaces. We are building skills that generations of capitalist individualism have attempted to train out of us. Living in Minneapolis-Saint Paul (Twin Cities), Minnesota, I listen to the stories of other abolitionists to learn how they came to this radical approach, and about what people are doing to model and build the world we want to see. The Twin Cities have an array of organisations working toward abolition (and related movements) creatively. I see three main ways that abolitionists are engaging which go beyond obstructing injustice to creating prefigurative alternatives. The modelling of imagined future in the now, while fighting against present oppression. These works of what Sarah Lamble calls “everyday abolition” include: 1. the development of conflict skills and education around conflict transformation, 2. mutual aid, and 3. claimed and created spaces. CONFLICT SKILLS During my interviews, many abolitionists mentioned how we, as a society, need to build conflict skills. Collectively, we often outsource responsibility for managing conflict to the State, rather than addressing it ourselves. One way this occurs is through calling the police (or State institutions that do similar work). Abolitionists avoid doing so. One said, “if I have a problem with my neighbour and can talk to my neighbour about it, or if I can talk to another person who knows my neighbour, and get that solved, why would I ever have to go over here [to the police]?” Abolitionists talked about how, to not rely on the police, people need to be willing to step in and help neighbours-in-crisis, or diffuse disagreements. To respond, people need to have the skills to do so. By conflict skills, I mean approaches or tools to use in conflict that equip parties to respond to acute or ongoing situations with de-escalation, communication of disagreement, and collective problem solving. This can include listening skills, conflict mapping, understanding underlying needs and feelings, nonviolent communication, and collective problem-solving skills. These skills are relevant beyond avoiding the police. Abolitionists focus on the need to holistically respond to conflict, including in movement spaces. Conflict is neither good nor bad. Rather, it is something that can be positively or negatively engaged with, arising from disagreements, communication challenges, opposing interests, and so on. It can be interpersonal, or exist within a broader group. We must use conflict, and its transformation, as a way to identify harm, take accountability, repair relationships, grapple with complexity and differences of opinion or strategy, and ultimately determine how we can work together toward transformation. Often, people can be quick to sever ties during conflict. adrienne maree brown, in their book We Will Not Cancel Us, discusses how the disposability projected onto others uses similar carceral logic to the systems we are working to dismantle. Of course, when harm has occurred, people must be willing to acknowledge it and take accountability, and the safety needs for individuals and groups must be considered when navigating repair and transformative justice work. Abolitionists also discussed examples of groups helping people develop these skills, and the importance of education and training. REP, in South Minneapolis, is a local organisation with a crisis hotline that operates several nights a week, and offers ‘studios’ to build conflict skills and knowledge around abolitionist principles. REP’s studios have included ‘consent and abolition’, ‘self-de-escalation and regulation’, ‘community trauma and care’, and ‘solving problems ourselves’. One abolitionist involved in the project said: “We’re striving towards a deep cultural shift in how people assess a crisis and address the crisis, instead of having that knee-jerk response to call someone else.” This is key to the work of unlearning our existing social structures and learning how to face accountability without isolating ourselves, or choosing self-pity or self-flagellation rather than action and repair. There are other community education projects, reading circles, and so on, around the Twin Cities offering different ways for people to learn together. People are creating participatory education programs, sometimes in a certain career or sector, sometimes in certain identity groups, and often for people looking to develop certain skills. MUTUAL AID Several abolitionists interviewed mentioned how they engage in mutual aid work, particularly supporting unhoused neighbours, because many of the biggest challenges our communities face are connected to lack of resources. Mutual aid is when people work together to meet basic human needs because they recognise the capitalist system is not designed to do so. Multiple people discussed working with programs that support our unhoused neighbours. One said of unhoused encampment sweeps, which often result in people losing everything they have, that a lot of our ‘public safety’ interventions are more about preventing people from seeing the realities of capitalism than safety. Community members organise free distributions of clothing and food through Little Free Pantries in people’s front yards, the People’s Closet in George Floyd Square, neighbourhood-based “Buy Nothing” groups on Facebook, and cooked-meal distributions. Abolitionists discussed how people come together to meet collective and individual needs, often stepping in to fill gaps that could be filled by reallocation of government funds. George Floyd Square, the memorial and community space located in the intersection where he was murdered by the police, was a mutual aid hub during the 2020 uprisings, and continues to be where free clothing, books, and other supplies are distributed. An abolitionist explained: “In press conferences, [Governor] Tim Walz, Mayor Frey, [city council member] Andrea Jenkins and the crew, were all saying, ‘oh, that’s the best part of Minneapolis.’ You see it. You see it. You see the people coming together. You see the people forming groups to protect each other and their neighbourhoods. That’s the best Minneapolis, to which I respond, if that’s the best of Minneapolis, why aren’t you doing it?” While city officials continue to destroy encampments, state officials cut public health insurance for undocumented immigrants, and federal officials cut food, housing, and health programs, the needs of our communities will continue to grow. Mutual aid will become even more important. SPACE/ TAKING UP SPACE/ INTENTIONAL SPACES Abolitionists discussed the importance of taking up space and having intentional spaces. John Gaventa, in his piece Finding Spaces For Change: A Power Analysis, calls these spaces “claimed by less powerful actors from or against the power holders, or created more autonomously by them.” One such space is George Floyd Square, which one abolitionist described as “community-built systems of networking and safety doing a lot more to provide feelings of safety than policing does.” Others discussed student anti-war encampments pushing for their demands to be heard through getting in the way of business-as-usual, and providing space to try out alternatives. Abolitionists discussed the need for community spaces that foster imagination, like ‘third spaces’, where people can gather, without needing to spend money, to exchange ideas, host events, and build community. Several interview participants are working on creating such spaces. In this period of amplifying and expanding inhumanity by the State, people are working locally to meet our collective needs. We have the opportunity, amidst the intentional chaos created by those with formal power, to build ways-of-being in community that model a future worth fighting for. The abolition movement in the Twin Cities provides just one example of the prefigurative work happening around the globe. We may not live to see the future we prefigure, but as links in a chain, we continue this work, as Mariane Kaba says “until we free us.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was first published in the Winter 2025-6 issue of Freedom anarchist journal The post Everyday abolition in the Twin Cities 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.

FROM RACIST ELECTORAL ENGINEERING TO HOLLOWING OUT PUBLIC HEALTH, TRUMP’S SECOND TERM IS CONSOLIDATING AUTHORITARIAN POWER ~ Louis Further ~ As anarchists we can’t get excited about constitutions such as that of the United States. But its 14th Amendment also guarantees citizenship (and hence protection against deportation) to non-white children who are born in the US – regardless of their parents’ origins. Any amendment to the constitution would be a lengthy and complex process requiring congressional majorities. But the US Supreme Court announced that it would hear Trump’s challenge to this ‘birthright citizenship’ Amendment, which seeks to annul those rights. This is unnecessary if judges wish to hear the case merely to re-affirm that they cannot amend the Constitution. Alternatively, if they uphold his challenge, they will unequivocally establish a supremacist dictatorship which is legally and officially above the law and against the constitution. Similarly, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case which would confer on Trump powers to sack state officials without cause or notice, something which the law also currently forbids. What’s more, the Court has finally sided with moves in Texas to redraw electoral maps along unequivocally racist lines. There is some token resistance to the kidnapping, abduction and trafficking of non-whites from the streets particularly in some of the United States’ larger cities. But one would hope this were much stronger in the light of the harm being done by the ICE raids – particularly since over 97% of those abducted are not criminals; just not white. Those attacked increasingly include Asian Americans. Trump’s overt racist abuse and threats towards the Somali population need little comment. Indeed, tirades like those reported here and ‘views’ reported here would probably be enough to end the career of a politician under most ‘normal’ circumstances. HEALTH Health has become a greater locus of dogma, dispute, dismay, distress, disease and death under Trump’s second term than in any recent presidency. Legislation and changes are driven by the MAGA belief that only the fittest should survive. Tenets of proven medical science are disregarded in favour of fascist dogma advancing ‘superior’ race(s). Monstrous liar and eventually struck-off anti-vaccine fraudster, Andrew Wakefield, was recently rehabilitated to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) by quack Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has lauded Wakefield’s work, while influential Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson posted, “Time to apologize to Dr. Andrew Wakefield and all the others who were maligned and vilified for simply asking the right questions.” This as fake claim after fake claim is published on the CDC site replacing helpful and verifiable medical facts. Medical professionals at all levels are retiring or otherwise exiting Kennedy’s mess rather than promote junk science and collude in spreading preventable diseases and deaths. They are being replaced by ill-equipped MAGA cult members who act out of uninformed dogma, like Dr. Ralph Abraham, surgeon general in Louisiana who will be the second in command at the CDC; Abraham ordered health officials to stop promoting vaccinations. Paradoxically, this degradation of federal health agencies could sponsor a positive turn of events. Local, putatively independent, alternative bodies are quickly springing up to take matters into their own hands for the real benefit of residents who need proper public healthcare. Regional coalitions are beginning to share communications, briefs, and insights. Data is being tabulated across traditional demographics and communities by non-federal groups like the Vaccine Integrity Project. Professional groups like the AAP and The Evidence Collective are promoting the publication and spread of reliable information while initiatives like PopHIVE are fully aware of the disastrous effects of disinformation put out in the interests of fascist dogma. Nor is there evidence of ‘partisan rivalry’ amongst these enterprises. But to replace a nationwide structure ostensibly designed to advance public health won’t be easy, of course. Neither is an attempt to impeach Kennedy. Then if Trump/MAGA is serious about discriminatory ideas like his announcement that he will oblige visitors to the USA to disclose recent social media before being allowed into the country to ensure that they are loyal to fascism, and given that he considers criticising him a crime punishable by death, there could be a concerted attempt to shut down anyone providing accurate health information. This would be endorsed and supported by a legal system hell-bent on advancing the MAGA ‘agenda’ regardless of the law – as one of the US Supreme Court justices herself recently outlined. FASCISM Indeed, according to one source it may well not be long before criticising Trump and his policies becomes literally illegal; those belonging to groups which point out the illegality of the MAGA cult in power could soon be targeted as ‘terrorists’ whose “non-traditional” views are disallowed. This is in sharp contrast, of course, to Trump’s own blatant illegality in myriad spheres, in which he has complete immunity. The Trump administration has already designated Maduro as the head of a foreign terrorist organisation, fuelling fear of a potential U.S. invasion of Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest known reserves of oil. While the Trump administration claims its escalating attacks on boats in the Caribbean are in response to drug trafficking, critics say this is just another attempt by the U.S. government – effectively supported by the Democrat opposition – to destabilise Venezuela to force a regime change and exploit resources, including oil. As Trump lied in referring to the illegal murder of sailors in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean; but before his marine terrorists illegally seized a Venezuelan oil tanker (imagine if the Venezuelan navy had boarded a US vessel!), Florida Congressmember María Salazar, Republican assistant whip, remarked: “Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity.” And to complete your holiday cheer, you may need to read this twice: in 2023 the US State Department adopted the Calibri font for its memos and publications because of its greater readability than the previous standard, Times New Roman, particularly on screens and when employees were engaged in text-to-speech and optical character recognition. Last week Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, ordered a return to Times New Roman because helping the visually impaired is seen by MAGA cultists as a weakness and too ‘woke’. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image: Molly Riley, official White House photo on Flickr The post Notes from the US: Supremacist dictatorship appeared first on Freedom News.

ISABEL TORRES’S DAUGHTER WAS ABDUCTED IN 2022 DURING A PARTY IN BERRIOZÁBAL, CHIAPAS—SHE HAS SEARCHED AND DUG IN NUMEROUS LOCATIONS TRYING TO FIND HER  ~ Mariana Morales ~ When she searches in the field, she uses a rod that she inserts deep into the ground, pulls out, and if she smells decay, she knows she may have found human remains. Isabel Torres Aquino is able to distinguish between human and animal bones. Her search began in February 2023 in La Piedrona, a place located in Berriozábal, where her daughter Cassandra Arias Torres disappeared on 17 December, 2022. And although that first time she didn’t find any clues that led her to the 18-year-old, it motivated her to watch a documentary on YouTube about the searchers in the north of the country, read a book, look for information on social networks, and accept an invitation to take courses at UNAM on how to search. In the municipalities of Emiliano Zapata, Chiapa de Corzo and Yajalón, Isabel has removed bullets, human remains, hair, clothing, footwear with her own hands, and has entered ranches taken over by organized crime, where she has also dug. In January 2025, while searching an abandoned ranch in the community of San Isidro, an hour from his home, he put his head into a two-meter-deep cistern and discovered burned human remains. When he climbed out of the cement hole, he prayed that these people, still unidentified, would rest in peace. The mothers searching for their missing children discovered vehicles belonging to organized crime abandoned in the Salvador Urbina community, in Chiapa de Corzo, on 19 March, 2025. (Damián Sánchez) Those who know her know that she wasn’t used to praying; she only started last year, at age 38, when her other daughter, six years old, strangely asked her to. The numerous searches had exhausted her, and she no longer felt at peace. That’s why, ever since hearing that request, she goes to a Christian church to pray. Isabel didn’t know that, although officially Mexico is not in an armed conflict, there are more than 130,000 missing persons. When she lived under the shade of an avocado tree in a small wooden cabin inside a plant nursery, her daily routine consisted of getting up early, taking care of her plants with her husband Jony, mainly the desert rose—whose resilience in dry climates she appreciated—dropping her daughter off at preschool, going to Casandra’s house to visit her and her three-year-old son, and returning to the cabin to sell her rose bushes.  Her mother taught her how to grow plants. That’s why, in that house, besides the avocado and the rose bushes, there was a nanche tree, in whose shade she used to sit with Cassandra to braid her long, straight, black hair. After the disappearance, the tree withered, and with the help of Jony, who now works as a gardener for the State Civil Protection Secretariat, they abandoned the site. Jony says he admires Isabel’s courage when she goes out to dig on ranches taken over by criminal groups, despite the risk of something happening to her. Before her daughter disappeared, Isabel wore her hair short and brown, dressed in tight clothes, and rarely protested. Today, she wears long sleeves because of the sun, and raises her voice when any Chiapas authority accompanies her on searches, but she won’t let them insert their rod into the area where they had agreed to do so. She is short, thin, fair-skinned, with a sharp nose, and long, straight, black hair like the kind Cassandra inherited, which she also wears in two braids. She is no longer the woman tending the rosebush; now she is part of the Searching Mothers of Chiapas, from the South to the Heart, which has quickly become part of national collectives. On November 20th, they attended the first National Meeting of Searching Families, presided over by the Archdiocese of Mexico in Mexico City. Adriana Camacho posts her son’s missing person flyer on a gate of the State Attorney General’s Office in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in October 2025. (Damián Sánchez) This journey in Mexico is not new; it began when Rosario Ibarra started searching for her son Jesús Piedra, who disappeared in 1975. In 2004, Silvia Ortiz, from Coahuila, began investigating her daughter Silvia. In 2012, Alicia Guillén, from Chiapas, searched for her son Eduardo abroad; María Herrera is trying to find her children who disappeared in Guerrero in 2008 and in Veracruz in 2010; Ceci Flores is also searching for her children, missing since 2015 and 2019; and since 2014, the families of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Guerrero have been searching for them throughout the country. NUMBERS ON THE RISE While the first documented disappearances in Mexico began during the so-called “dirty war” in the 1960s, they have now multiplied. According to Data Cívica, an organization that analyzes data for the defense of human rights in Mexico, disappearances in the country increased 55 times by 2024 compared to 2006, and from 2023 to 2024 there was a 9.5% increase.  In Chiapas, disappearances began to increase in 2018, and continued to rise until reaching 8,589 people in the first half of 2025, according to a record made by Data Cívica with data from the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO). The exponential increase occurred during the previous six-year term, when Rutilio Escandón of the Morena party was in power. It began in 2019 with 321 disappearances, and by 2024 there were 1,468 victims. The state of Chiapas ranks among the five in the country with the lowest disappearance rate, at 155 people per 100,000 inhabitants. “However, the peculiarity is that disappearances have increased rapidly in just a few years,” says Pamela Benítez, an analyst at Data Cívica. “Disappearances have reached this point in Chiapas because criminal groups have adapted and begun to diversify their businesses, with new leaders, using the same routes, but now negotiated differently. In this new landscape, they need people for work, recruited either by force or voluntarily,” explains Adrián Reyes Rincón, legal coordinator of the Minerva Bello Center, an organization that supports victims of violence and is based in Guerrero.  “We have documented that there are forced training centers in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, in the central region of the state, for example,” he adds. Nationally, more men than women tend to disappear, but Chiapas is one of the states —along with Yucatán, Campeche, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and Aguascalientes— where the opposite occurs, more women disappear, and the most marked increase is in girls and adolescents, according to Data Cívica. “Because it is the southern border of Mexico, girls and teenagers disappear into human trafficking,” Reyes Rincón points out. The largest number of missing migrants are of Guatemalan and Honduran origin, followed by Ecuadorians, Salvadorans, Cubans, Colombians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, according to the RNPDNO. MISSING AT A WEDDING On December 17, 2022, Isabel was celebrating her wedding to Jony at the Tierra Bonita reception hall in Berriozábal, about half an hour from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state capital. A group of armed men dressed as state police officers and members of the National Guard stormed the ceremony. They ordered the guests to put their cell phones and wallets in backpacks, and the musicians to lie on the floor. Cassandra and her fiancé were then taken away along with the money they had collected. They fled in three trucks towards the highway that leads to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and in an attempt to catch them, Isabel ran through the town, until she realized that it was early morning and she was still wearing her wedding dress. The following day, when a local media outlet asked the mayor, Jorge Arturo Acero Gómez, a member of the Morena party—who was re-elected to the position a year ago—about these disappearances, he denied the facts. Immediately, Isabel created a Facebook page: “Searching for Cassandra Arias Torres.” Two years later, in 2024, Liliana Pérez Gutiérrez’s 15- and 19-year-old sons disappeared. When she found Isabel’s page, she contacted her to join the search. Her sons had been taken from their home in the municipality of Chiapa de Corzo, about half an hour from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, by men dressed as soldiers.  That’s how other women contacted Isabel, and then more joined in: a resident of Berriozábal told her, through a social network, that her 28 and 23-year-old sons were taken away with six other men from a tenement; another woman told her that people dressed as state police entered her house, in the same town, and took away two relatives. Together they posted missing persons flyers in towns, dug in territories controlled by criminal groups, pressured public prosecutors to move their reports from initial registration to formal investigation files—which entails creating a case file—and personally requested that Governor Eduardo Ramirez, Attorney General Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, and Secretary of Public Security Óscar Aparicio organize searches. On October 31, 2025, they joined together to found Madres Buscadoras de Chiapas, desde el Sur hasta el Corazón (Searching Mothers of Chiapas, from the South to the Heart), and to establish their name, they created a Facebook page. Isabel Torres takes Cassandra’s favorite clothes out of a suitcase. (Damián Sánchez) The Madres Buscadoras de Chiapas collective is currently made up of nine women: —Liliana Pérez Gutiérrez is looking for her sons Luis and Marvin, who disappeared in Chiapa de Corzo on February 28, 2024.  —Consuelo Moreno is looking for her husband and son, Ángel and Alan David, who disappeared in Tapachula on June 5, 2023. —Hilda Moreno is looking for her son Jesús Esteban, who disappeared in Tuxtla Gutiérrez on December 6, 2023. —Yareli and Yoslin Chavarría are looking for their father Víctor Manuel, who disappeared in Tuxtla Gutiérrez on May 8, 2023.  —Adriana Camacho is looking for her son Emmanuel, who disappeared in Arriaga on August 20, 2024.  —Concepción Feliciano is looking for her daughter Yuritzi, who disappeared in Arriaga on August 19, 2024.  —Lupita Cruz is looking for her son Martín, who disappeared in Arriaga on August 19, 2024. —María Josefina Ramírez is looking for her son Hernán, who disappeared on August 1, 2024 in Berriozábal. “We are a family that speaks the same language of pain,” says Liliana, who says that her search tools are three rods, a shovel for digging, and a machete to clear the land where they are going to dig. The Madres Buscadoras de Chiapas collective is growing and strengthening by weaving networks with other searchers, such as Ceci Flores, founder of Madres Buscadoras de Sonora; Alejandra Cruz of Madres Buscadoras de Jalisco, and Deysi Blanco of Búsqueda en Vida Fernanda Cayetana de Quintana Roo, from whom they have learned to unite more.  Outside the state prosecutor’s office in the capital of Chiapas, Yareli and Yoslin Chavarría are searching for Víctor Manuel, their father. (Damián Sánchez) THE LOST TRANQUILITY In Berriozábal, a municipality with a population of 64,000, residents make a living selling plants in nurseries, engaging in commerce, and working for the state and municipal governments. This municipality ranks 11th in Chiapas for the number of missing persons.  Families have opted to use the fences and posts of the central park to post the missing persons flyers, even though Mayor Jorge Arturo Acero sent city workers on February 5 to tear them down and throw them in the trash cans. For example, the poster for Benito de Jesús Olmedo González, who disappeared in Chiapa de Corzo, an hour away, on October 27, 2025, was posted by the State Commission for the Search of Persons, and the poster for Carlos Brayan Muñoz Wong, who disappeared a few days earlier, on October 13, in Berriózabal, was posted by his mother. In Berriozábal Park, families post missing person flyers for their loved ones. (Damián Sánchez) “Berriozábal used to be peaceful, with a cool climate, but now people are being taken away. There’s a waterfall in a mountainous area where we used to go swimming; today we can’t get there because there are armed people, and we can hear gunshots from there,” says a resident. The highest number of disappearances occurs in municipalities controlled by organized crime, says Reyes Rincón, who adds that even though there are Pakales—an elite state police force created to combat these groups—disappearances continue.  They occur mainly in Tapachula, followed by Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Frontera Comalapa, Comitán, Palenque, La Concordia, Arriaga, Tonalá, Pantelhó, Ocosingo, Berriozábal, La Trinitaria, Huixtla, Reforma, Chiapa de Corzo and San Cristóbal de Las Casas, according to the RNPDNO. Source: National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons. Prepared by: Víctor Hernández. These locations coincide with land and sea routes identified by the Mexican Ministry of National Defense that are contested by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Drugs, weapons, migrants, and hydrocarbons arriving from Guatemala destined for the United States pass through these routes, and money laundering also operates in these same areas, according to documents leaked by Guacamaya Leaks. The Sinaloa Cartel maintained its dominance in Chiapas until 2021, when Ramón Gilberto Rivera Beltrán, one of its leaders, was assassinated. This created a power vacuum, and some individuals and local cells that had operated for the cartel switched to the CJNG, explains an activist from the Chiapas Highlands region, speaking on condition of anonymity.  Where there are no current records of disappearances is in the 700 hectares of the Zapatista zone, distributed in the border region, and in the Highlands and the Jungle of Chiapas, because “there is a good government with a good health and justice system,” emphasizes Pedro Faro, of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center.  IN COMPANY On October 6, 2025, Isabel and the other women searching for their missing relatives set up a protest camp in front of the State Attorney General’s Office to demand the search for their disappeared family members. A day later, David Hernández, Secretary of Public Security for Tuxtla Gutiérrez, surrounded by hooded and armed police officers, attempted to remove them. Isabel clutched the banner with Cassandra’s missing person poster tightly, but it was snatched away. In response, the searchers received support from students, neighbors, dancers, cyclists, and motorcyclists, who not only prevented the police from ending the protest but also fueled it: they stayed by their side and brought them bread, coffee, tents, tarps, chairs, and lamps. No one slept that night. Those who were there say that, for the next 26 days, the community kept watch until dawn. This was a pivotal moment for the searchers, as they had not received any support from the community during their previous seven sit-ins. The public supported the searchers, who held a sit-in outside the Attorney General’s Office in October of this year. (Damián Sánchez) Since then, and while the current government of Eduardo Ramirez continues to blame his predecessors for the disappearances that occur in the state, Isabel continues searching, but she is no longer alone.  With her fellow members of the Searching Mothers of Chiapas, she entered the women’s section of El Amate prison in the municipality of Cintalapa on November 25th, as part of the ongoing searches for missing persons in the state’s prisons. She was overcome with anguish when she didn’t see Cassandra, burst into tears, and the other inmates shouted to her: “Courage, brave women, you’re going to find her!” “I’ve walked, I feel powerless, saddened by searching and finding nothing,” Isabel says. “But my search doesn’t end here. I will continue until I find my daughter Cassandra. I will search until my last breath.” During the protest they held in front of the Attorney General’s Office, Cassandra celebrated her birthday, and Isabel carried a banner to commemorate her. (Damián Sánchez) Laura Islas contributed to this report. Top photo: Isabel Torres displays a photo of her daughter Cassandra, who disappeared in Berriozábal on December 17, 2022, at the age of 18. (Damián Sánchez) This report was produced with the support of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) , as part of its “Express Yourself!” initiative in Latin America.  http://www.adondevanlosdesaparecidos.org is a research and memorial website about the dynamics of disappearances in Mexico. This material may be freely reproduced, provided that credit is given to the author and to A dónde van los desaparecidos (@DesaparecerEnMx). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation The post The tireless search for Cassandra appeared first on Freedom News.

ORGANISERS IN BRAZIL REFLECT ON THE UN CLIMATE SUMMIT FARCE ~ CCLA Belém ~ Even before it began, as anarchists and libertarians we couldn’t expect much from a meeting that, over the years, has failed to curb capitalist greed in the slightest. It has only brought as its sole concrete “solution” to climate deregulation the commodification of a supposed right to pollute: the so-called carbon market. Therefore, we had carefully prepared our cultural centre to welcome the most varied forms of protest coming from the Brazilian Amazon (starting with Belém and its metropolis), from South America, and from the rest of the world. Every day, during that circus of comings and goings of official delegations corrupted by oil lobbyists, we proposed cultural activities, debates and discussion groups, solidarity meals, preparation for popular protest marches, etc. Despite this preparation and planning, we were fortunate to encounter unexpected moments and meet unfamiliar people, and to connect with others we had previously only known through the internet: we were able to participate in the occupation of the COP’s Blue Zone by indigenous peoples, receive visitors from far and wide and engage in dialogue with them, such as Macko Dràgàn (France), Mário Rui Pinto (Portugal), and Peter Gelderloos (USA)… and that’s not all: these were beautiful moments, full of learning in terms of resistance practices, exchanges of perspectives on crises generated by those at the top, and sharing solutions for us to overcome these challenges from our peripheral position. To conclude these anarchist anti-COP30 journeys, we wanted to leave you with our assessment of this farce that was this COP, the thirtieth lost opportunity to save our Mother Earth (as Emma Goldman called her) and the populations that survive on her, trapped in avoidable ills and torments. We already knew it: the courage to break free from this path of destruction will only be ours, and when we manage to reverse this desperate situation through our struggles, we will leave only the elites with the shameful clothes of those who could have done so but didn’t try, to dress and walk amidst the jeers of humanity and all creatures on the planet, finally freed from capitalist exploitation, inequalities, and oppressions. * * * From the beginning, we considered the COP a farce in terms of resolving or mitigating the environmental crisis in which capitalism has placed us. As expected, this edition of the COP showed us this in several ways. There was a record accreditation of lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry – almost two thousand representatives, with the main objective of debating means for the “energy transition” with more oil extraction and production. Meanwhile, more than 40 accredited representatives of Indigenous peoples were prevented from entering the Blue Zone because they did not have passports – yes, entering the most restricted area of the COP was the same as entering another country. Throughout the event, the Lula government announced the implementation of the TFFF (Tropical Forests Forever Fund), yet another rent-seeking mechanism of financial capitalism that is far from solving environmental problems. This aligns with the logic of perpetuating the same mechanisms that produced this environmental crisis. For us, it is more of the same, without significant changes in the social conditions of those who suffer most from the extreme events of climate change. Meanwhile, the forest peoples continue without self-determination over their own territories. Not surprisingly, the two demonstrations that broke through the security cordon of the colored areas of the COP were led by Indigenous peoples of the middle and lower Tapajós. It was a demonstration of dissatisfaction with the progress of the debates, which did not address crucial issues for these peoples, such as the guarantee of saying no to carbon credit market companies, mining and prospecting in their territories, and saying no to the privatization of the Amazon rivers for the construction of waterways that will only benefit the large landholdings of agribusiness grain monoculture and mining. The COP reproduces the capitalist economic rationale of seeing everything that exists, including the air we breathe, as a bargaining chip. With this vision, solutions could only be conceived within the logic of the commodity. Ironically, on November 20, the day of Dandara and Zumbi, a fire broke out in one of the Blue Zone tents, symbolising an extreme event of climate change, burning down the COP. On the other hand, the activities of the Anti-COP Anarchist Days demonstrated that other worlds are possible, through the destruction of capitalism, the State, patriarchy, racism, and xenophobia. These were two weeks of activities, from street demonstrations, such as the Periphery March on Black Awareness Day, to debates with comrades from various parts of Brazil and several countries who contributed with their analyses, experiences, and struggles on various fronts of resistance against this system of domination/control/exploitation, where, in a broader assessment, while respecting the necessary dimensions in the These struggles are traversed by the imperialism of the powers of the Global North along with their colonialism and racism, by environmental devastation resulting from mining in the countries of the Global South, by the situation of political and climate refugees, by the invasion of the territories of indigenous and traditional peoples, by real estate speculation in large population centres, by human trafficking, especially of women; by speciesism that sustains the logic of animal abuse for human consumption, by poverty/social inequality/concentration of wealth; therefore, some of the problems that were debated, in several languages and with diverse accents. It is worth remembering that confronting this system of domination requires organisation, activism, conviction and resistance, but also music, dance and the construction of happiness. In the words of Emma Goldman, if this revolution doesn’t allow me to dance, then this isn’t my revolution; thus, we held a Libertarian Art Festival, another way to energise experiences of struggle and resistance through culture. We had performances by various musical groups and artistic groups where, nevertheless, we suffered police repression, typical of the modus operandi of this sector of the State, subservient to the petty elite who cannot stand to see the underprivileged in their cultural manifestations. We understand that this crisis cannot be overcome through the neo-extractivism of oil and mining, the neo-developmentalist technology that requires the waste of millions of cubic meters of potable water to cool the data centres of Big Tech companies, the monopoly of renewable energy companies such as wind and solar (the latter even requiring and encouraging the mineralogical race for rare earths), agribusiness, the deprivation of peoples from exercising their rights to live in peace in their territories, the privatization of water and air, the maintenance of the privileges of the rich and colonial elites sustained by the terrible housing conditions, illiteracy, hunger, genocide, sexual exploitation, and poverty of the majority of populations, especially black or racialised people. We do not support and fight against initiatives to mitigate the effects of climate change that do not place the real problem at the centre of the debate, that is, capitalism and its counterparts. We see in the practices of indigenous and traditional peoples those who truly safeguard biodiversity and the world’s forests, who remove tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to regulate the climate and throwing the rent-seeking logic of carbon credits into disarray. This, combined with the struggles and resistance waged by poor populations in the countryside and cities, scattered from north to south and from east to west of the global map, even with much humiliation and difficulty in securing bread, tortillas, chapati, or beiju, reinvent themselves through mutual support and solidarity when they see their lives being impacted by extreme weather events, produced by the greed and profit of the rich. The COP has no solution for our problems; on the contrary, it is an organisation created for the management of the environmental crisis, established by the same sectors that manage world hunger and poverty. Thus, our urgent needs do not fit within the COP. The solutions to the climate-environmental-s From the humid tropics of the Amazonian lowlands, on the Belém peninsula in November 2025. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation. Photo: Peter Gelderloos The post Letter from the anti-COP30 anarchist days appeared first on Freedom News.