COMPANY “COMPLICIT IN THE WORLD’S WARS AND GENOCIDES”, SAY ACTIVISTS ~ Cristina Sykes ~ Groups including Shut the System, Carnage Total and Scientist Rebellion say their activists last night smashed windows and spray-painted offices of Allianz, a major global insurance company, over its complicity in Israeli arms. The groups said offices were defaced in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, and Birmingham. Provided photos from Paris The actions follow the 1 November renewal of Allianz’s contract with Israeli arms company Elbit Systems. The group noted the actions coinciding with the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. “Palestine is a crux point for our shared struggle for justice against imperialist forces”, said a UK spokesperson in a press release. “They massacre communities so that greed-driven multinationals can ravage the land for oil, gas and minerals, devastating the support systems for all life on Earth”. Elbit Systems supplies up to 85% of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment, while its British exports to Israel mostly concern drone and aircraft components, military electronics, and target and acquisition systems The post Elbit insurer Allianz targeted in 8 countries appeared first on Freedom News.

AS WAR PROFITEERING NUCLEAR TYRANTS PROMISE ARMS-DEAL APOCALYPSE, ANARCHISTS CONTINUE TO RESIST IN UKRAINE ~ Josie Ó Súileabháin / Photos: Fran Richart ~ On the east coast of the United States of America a deal is going down. For the past week Ukrainian ministers have flown from Kyiv to Washington to discuss the exchange of drones for tomahawk missiles. This weekend Trump and Zelensky will meet to finalise the movement of long-range missiles to Ukraine, and the cut throat discount on Ukrainian-manufactured drones sold to the U.S. at 20% the going rate. The art of this arms deal is a threat. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in response that the transfer of missiles would be “a qualitatively different level of escalation” as he claimed it would require U.S. army personnel on Ukrainian territory to operate the missiles. The armed forces of Russia launched over 71 missiles across the frontline on 5 and 10 October, along with hundreds of drones directly targeting the energy sector of Ukraine. The military have continued to bombard Ukraine with these mass drone and rocket attacks as Zelensky arrives in D.C. Among those killed was a 15-year-old girl with her family in Lviv Oblast, and a 71-year-old man who was sitting in a civilian train carriage in Sumy when it was attacked by Russian drones. Hundreds of items transported by Boeing and Airbus have made their way to Russia, according to customs data analysed by Investigate Europe. Some of the subsidiaries from India are themselves on sanctions lists for transporting military personnel into the DPR and other Russian occupied territories. All western companies deny knowledge of committing any crime. “The willingness of the groups management to supply ammunition even to warring nations,” wrote Otfried Nassauer, the late German peace campaigner, “and states that blatantly disregard human rights, is an essential prerequisite for the economic success of Rheinmetall’s ammunition business.” From Indonesia to Yemen via South African subsidiaries, Germany’s largest weapons manufacturer is attempting to repeat it’s historical economic successes of the first and second world war by arming the world through a shadow export business. Rheinmetall call this blatant war profiteering “taking responsibility in a changing world” as the company profits have multiplied following the outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine. International support for Ukraine has been fickle. While western nations promise their support for Ukraine in the defense of Europe, arms-dealers are continuing to subvert international sanctions through third party countries. Ammunition produced by Rheinmetall is making its way into the hands of those resisting tyranny and occupation around the world. Flights with western cargo are continuing to land in Russia. Profit trumps peace, after all. In Berlin, the air-raid siren is blaring with the beeping of phones marking the emergency tone. The trams are painted camouflage and posters for political parties are replaced with recruitment for the security services. Germany is slashing social security and its arms manufacturer is making a killing. The lights go out in Ukraine but the residents of Europe are still sleeping, dancing a conscious delirium that now threatens to consume us all. As the Doomsday clock reaches 89 seconds to midnight, how long until we are awoken by the sound of bombs? “Everything is as pleasant and beautiful as possible,” Greta says walking through a park, on the frontline of the impossible spring of our waking nightmares. It is calm and peaceful. The sound of birds fill the air. Bakhmut has roses and Greta is eating a falafel. “Another interesting thing about the psyche…” Greta says, picking up a medic pack and rifle resting by the tree. “When you fall asleep in such conditions on the frontline you usually have very good and pleasant dreams, things I don’t have in my normal life, the complete opposite of all the horrors that is… and this is interrupted when I am woken up. Because I am a medic rifleman. When I hear that one of our guys has been wounded I have to quickly get my shit together to help him.” Greta is awake, moving into position on the frontline with a comrade. Something felt wrong. A Russian solider ambushes their position and throws a grenade, destroying Greta’s automatic machine gun. Grot had managed to wound the Russian soldier, Greta tells Solidarity Collectives. It probably saved their life. Grot “had been hit by a bullet and had multiple shrapnel wounds,” Greta says. “I thought he was dead… I think the experience could have had a strong impact on my perception because it felt like I had died at that moment. I thought that was it. I didn’t expect to get out of there and survive… that moment was psychologically tough.” After being deployed to Klishchiivka close to Bakhmut, Greta requested rehabilitation in Odessa. “As a medic I provided assistance to both comrades and allies, but this deployment was simply ineffective,” Greta says. “I spent 8 days in a basement, completely confused because drones filled the entire space and field.” Solidarity Collectives have interviewed international anarchist medics in Ukraine since 2022, and spoke to Charlie this year. “During work, there is no space for anything but work,” Charlie says, “I mean when we have a wounded person and we need to, you know, do something about it, stop the bleeding and all that, this is what you do and it has nothing to do with politics.” “The fact that I’m here, it’s already connected with the fact I’m an anarchist and believe in solidarity with the people… all the decisions I make, they actually come from what I believe in and what I think is right.” Charlie started working as a medic on the frontlines with anti-authoritarian units in the armed forces of Ukraine and has been there since 2022. “I actually came to Poland for a short holiday for just a couple of weeks to see my friends,” says Charlie. “We got up in the morning and saw the news and I realised that I am not going back. I’m not going back to Belarus. I am not going home because it was just impossible for me. My country was bombing another country.” “Very often anarchist movement becomes extremely marginalised and impenetrable for people from outside,” Charlie reflects. “Anarchism and feminism and veganism, for me it’s first of all not struggle but first of all it is care. Care for people, care for women, care for animals and on the second place it is struggle. Very often activists are caught in this struggle and forget about care.” “The deepest feelings, of course, I have towards Bakhmut,” Charlie says. “I remember it as an extremely beautiful city with a very beautiful cape. Like, there were these swans and this nice river and full of roses. I arrived there at the end of summer, the weather was beautiful and it was all green and there were many flowers. So I have a strong bond with the city, completely destroyed now, just a graveyard… we lost a lot of comrades and Marcy isn’t with us today.” Marcy was a gardener from London who came to Ukraine to support people during the invasion. He drove an ambulance with Charlie as a volunteer in Bakhmut. After joining the armed forced he was killed in Avdiika. “The vast majority of people we are picking up from the frontline”, said Marcy back in 2022, “who have horrific wounds are ordinary working people. I think they should ask for free healthcare and free education after this is done because I smell that blood everyday and they have paid…” “They should see all the desperate people in Bakhmut, who don’t have anything as civilians,” Marcy reminded us, “just been left behind there.” Solidarity Collectives work alongside Solidrones for the construction and assembly of UAV drones, as communities seek to defend themselves rather than wait for the delivery of tomahawk missiles. What does victory look like when we fight for our freedom? “I really want people to win,” says Charlie. “Not the governments. Screw governments. I want people just to breathe freely without being afraid to be killed by some random aviabomb.” For the last 20 months, the frontline has been moving towards the mining town of Dobrophillja, with an attack on a market and shopping centre in July causing the authorities to evacuate most of the population of the mining town. The Russian Federation currently occupies around 70% of the Donetsk Oblast in the east of Ukraine, declaring a de facto client state along with other territories in 2014. Those who have escaped are finding themselves constantly bombarded. “For ordinary people like us, it’s just misery,” Ivan told Медузы (Meduza). “So now, I’m about to leave with my wife. She packed herself a bag full of medicine, and well we’re heading out. My wife hasn’t slept for three nights. She is afraid of everything,” he said. Those who remained in the town despite the danger where the elderly, the disabled and internally displaced persons from Bakhmut. On the other side of the frontline, a show trial is commencing for the second time. As observed by Медиазона (Mediazona), at least 26 prisoners of war were convicted by the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) multiple times for the same crime. Among the prisoners of war were former Azov brigade fighters, six convicted for the same act of terrorism on two occasions. A lawyer working in Donetsk has commented that by bringing repeated cases against far-right Ukrainian soldiers, Russia could “justify the invasion” under it’s own propaganda to portray Ukraine “as a nationalist and pro-fascist state,” the legal worker testified under anonymity. This violation of the law has become established practice in the show trials of prisoners of war. In the Russian occupied city of Enerhodar, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant has been running on back-up generators for almost a month since it was severed from the electric grid following continuous shelling in and around the plant. “This is an extraordinarily challenging situation,” said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, as Europe’s largest nuclear power station is now kept from meltdown by eight diesel engines. In the early days of the Russian occupation of Enerhodar, an anti-fascist punk spoke of collaborators, arrests and interrogations by Russian soldiers, including staged photographs of an underground far-right element as ‘proof’ of the need to de-nazify Ukraine according to Russian state propaganda. These photographs and videos are then disseminated for both Russian and western audiences, appealing paradoxically to those whose politics are the polar opposite to the Russian Federation. “I think there is quite a big resistance against understanding the situation in Eastern Europe,” Belarusian anarchist Nikita Ivansky tells me. “Certain dogmas used within anarchist and left circles are not working in such a complicated situation. Instead of adapting the ideological ground for such a conflict and applying our values within the conflict – and find our place according to those political values – a lot of people try to stick to those written political ideas from the past”. “Anarchist movement has no mechanisms of dealing with disinformation – It is very easy to plant a certain narrative delivered via state propaganda channels and make it grow without serious push back,” Nikita writes. “The discussion about Maidan in 2014 is one of those perfect examples.” The fetishisation of far-right Ukrainian Nazi groups in certain ‘left’ publications risks blinding us to the actions of those putting anarchism into action on the frontline. Even in the western anarchist movement there are some who echo the paranoia of the Russian Federation in labelling the Maidan Uprising as a Nazi putsch, like a judge at the Supreme Court of the DPR. But away from headlines that promise apocalypse and despair from nuclear tyrants, anarchism continues to fight on the frontlines. Anti-authoritarian fighters are continuing to resist Russian occupation, as well as supporting internally displaced people and abandoned animals with mutual aid across the country. In the predictable failure of the charity of nuclear tyranny and the security of borders over solidarity with the people – all we have to fight for is each other. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos taken in Sumy and Kharkiv regions, the persons in the photos are not connected to the article The post Frontline solidarity at 89 seconds to midnight appeared first on Freedom News.

WELL-COORDINATED DIRECT ACTION CATCHES THE POLICE OFF GUARD, SHOWING THE POWER OF SECURE AND STRATEGIC ORGANISING ~ Kevin Blowe ~ On 9 September, at around 7.30 in the morning, an advance bloc of about 150 protesters, their faces covered, suddenly appeared by London City Hall in east London, near to where Britain’s largest arms fair, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi), was due to start at 9 o’clock. The protest bloc walked unchallenged to the entrance, where DSEi 2025 delegates were due to arrive, and blocked it. They then successfully held the space as police tried desperately to push them to one side, while more and more protesters began to arrive at the advertised 8am assembly time. Groups of senior officers stood in huddles trying to work out what to do, while the attempts of the ‘Police Liaison’ blue bib intelligence gatherers to engage with protesters were loudly rebuffed with cries of “free, free Palestine”. As delegates arrived, a few in military uniform but most in the industry’s favoured ‘casual suits and trainers’ combo, they were eventually diverted to another entrance, forced to run a narrow gauntlet behind a line of police officers as other groups of campaigners shouted “shame on you” and worse. The message was up close and unavoidable, and while some delegates were angrily dismissive, most looked embarrassed and deeply uncomfortable. It was magnificent. How was it possible that the Metropolitan Police so abjectly failed to see this coming, despite the leaflets and social media calling for campaigners to “Shut DSEi Down”? Clearly, the National Police Coordination Centre’s Strategic Intelligence and Briefing (SIB) team, who compile the intelligence for police forces on protests, thought this call to action was symbolic, rather than genuine. The last DSEI protests in 2023 had been quiet and in the absence of other information, they assumed it would remain so this year. However, SIB’s failure was fundamentally the result of decisions by protest organisers themselves. The ‘Big One’ Coalition had mobilised through trusted networks, sharing information internally based on an agreed plan of potential risks that, crucially, everyone had stuck to. At Netpol we have long argued that we can risk over-estimating how proficient the police really are at surveillance, when in fact they rely heavily on the information we carelessly share ourselves. That did not happen in advance of 9 September, and is a large part of why the police were caught by surprise. The DSEi protest was the clearest example, for some considerable time, of what is possible when groups start to take security seriously – and at one of the most heavily surveilled events in the country too. Later in the morning, the police turned to violence—as they often do when frustrated by protesters. At the alternate entrance for delegates, officers from the Territorial Support Group, the Met’s thuggish riot unit, along with officers from British Transport Police’s equivalent, the Operational Support Unit, were assembled and then rushed protesters, knocking people to the ground and then pointlessly kettling a small group. Photo: Netpol One older peace campaigner from Bristol was, fortunately, helped to his feet unharmed, but a young woman left the kettle in an ambulance with a broken ankle. Not long afterwards, another protester was knocked unconscious and also taken to hospital. An independent legal observer monitoring the policing of the protest also suffered a broken wrist. Remarkably, despite the disruption and this heightened level of police aggression, only three people were arrested all morning, all for self-evidently dubious “assault on an emergency worker” allegations. The protester taken to hospital was arrested just after he was discharged, but was later told the police would take no further action against him. We hope he is already talking to lawyers about suing the Met and we have released a call-out for witnesses for all the injuries. This is what also makes this year’s DSEi protest stand out: for showing it is possible to take powerful, decisive action against the arms industry without centring mass arrests as a core strategic aim. The contrast could not have been greater, then, with the Defend Our Juries protest against the banning of Palestine Action, which took place three days earlier in Parliament Square in central London. There, around 1,300 people, many of them pensioners, were deliberately anticipating a terrorism arrest for holding up signs in support of a proscribed group. The early pace of arrests was slow, with groups of officers first carrying out the wheelchair users and then sign holders at the edges of the crowded square. Onlookers’ disgust and anger at the sight of grandparents, nurses and teachers treated as ‘terrorists’ led to voices raised even louder. The police became more uneasy and aggressive as they were jostled and during several of these terrorism arrests, people were pushed over and batons were drawn by some officers. Photo: Defend Our Juries After 3pm, more demonstrators began to arrive from the Palestine Coalition’s National March for Gaza, having decided to skip the speeches in Whitehall to come and show their support. The crowd swelled, as did the tension. More and more officers were required for each arrest, as they were quickly mobbed by angry protesters, some of whom seemed ready and willing to help with de-arrests, if only that hadn’t been the exact opposite of what these particular detainees wanted. As well as almost 900 arrested under the Terrorism Act on 6 September, which continued late into the evening, there were also 17 other arrests, mostly for “assault on an emergency worker”. Just as at DSEi, these arrests were highly questionable. The following day, senior officers leaned heavily on the “intolerable abuse” that police had received, as if they deserved praise for enforcing an unjust law. Certainly, some officers in Parliament Square appeared as demoralised as some of the delegates at DSEi, but like the arms traders, that’s the choice they have made. The direct action of the Shut DSEi Down protesters and the civil disobedience of the sign holders represent two strands of the current movement against Israeli genocide in Gaza, alongside the regular marches through the capital (now the 30th organised since October 2023). Both, in different ways, are also trying to navigate the crackdown on the right to protest in Britain that Netpol described last year, even before Palestine Action was banned, as “state repression”. The action at DSEi left protesters exhilarated, but those in Parliament Square who believe the government might at last listen to the mass power of moral example may have felt disheartened. The question now is whether the time and energy needed to outwit police surveillance can be replicated, persuading allies to treat security as central to their organising. The post London arms fair disruption: A stark contrast to mass arrests for Palestine appeared first on Freedom News.

HUNDREDS ARRESTED IN A MASS KETTLE OF MARCH CLOSING ACTION CAMP AGAINST THE ARMS INDUSTRY ~ Gabriel Fonten ~ Police in Cologne, Germany used heavy handed tactics on Saturday (30 August) against a peaceful mass march concluding an anti-militarist camp in the city. The 3,000-strong parade had set out from the “Rheinmetall Entwaffen” antimilitarist camp to meet the yearly rally of the Cologne Peace Forum. One participant described the event as “a historic moment when the few hundred, mostly older participants of this rally watched hundreds, mostly younger people from the camp, who had travelled from both near and far”. Yet the march was not allowed to continue uninterrupted, as marchers were set upon by around 1,600 police in full riot gear, backed by water cannons and armed with pepper spray. The demonstrators quickly reconfigured into a protective block formation (using banners to separate and protect participants from police) taking “3 hours to move one kilometre” under consistent harassment by the police. After dividing and kettling the parade, around 600 participants were arrested over the next five hours. Medical non-profit “Demosanitäter” reported treating 147 injured participants and at least 216 were treated at the “Rheinmetall Entwaffen” camp. Justifications for this brutal crackdown were manufactured by both the police and the establishment media, with the Tageschau news program running headlines including “Riots at anti-war demonstration in Cologne”—presenting protesters, rather than the police, as the instigators of violence. In fact, of the 600 people arrested only one was charged with “resisting arrest”. Cologne police had previously prohibited both the camp and parade citing risks of “radicalisation”, but this was overturned in court. While it stood, the ban seems to have only increased participation with organisers reporting growing mobilisation as well as the creation of an “anarchist neighbourhood” at the camp. The post Germany: Heavy repression at Rhinemetall anti-militarist demonstration appeared first on Freedom News.

DESPITE POLICE BAN, PREPARATIONS CONTINUE FOR RHEINMETALL PROTEST CAMP IN COLOGNE AT THE END OF AUGUST ~ Cristina Sykes ~ The camp, running between 26-31 August, combines workshops, discussions and cultural events with protests targeting arms companies across the Rhein-Ruhr region. The Rheinmetall Entwaffnen (“Disarm Rheinmetall”) alliance, formed in 2018, is organising the week-long gathering to oppose Germany’s leading arms manufacturer and the wider militarisation drive. Cologne police prohibited both the camp and a planned “parade” to the nearby Konrad-Adenauer barracks, citing risks of “radicalisation”. A court upheld the ban on 15 August, even pointing to the century-old anti-war slogan Krieg dem Krieg (“war on war”) as supposed evidence of violent intent. Organisers reject the reasoning as political repression. “The camp will take place – we are very optimistic,” said Mila, a spokesperson for the alliance. “We will resist the ban legally and politically. The authorities may want to silence the anti-militarist movement, but we will go ahead”. The camp is expected to draw hundreds of participants from Germany and abroad, including anarchist collectives, feminist groups, anti-fascists and internationalist networks. A dedicated anarchist barrio has been announced, with organisers reporting growing mobilisation since the ban was declared. Workshops will cover topics such as the reintroduction of conscription, weapons exports, the impact of militarisation on women, and new technologies like AI in warfare. International guests are also invited to share their struggles. “We want to build a global network against war and militarisation”, said Mila. “People come to share experiences so we can act together”. The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Rheinmetall’s Düsseldorf headquarters, has become a focal point for opposition to the arms industry. Facilities in Cologne-Mülheim, Neuss and Weeze are all linked to the production of tanks, artillery and fighter jets. In recent days, activists marked a Siemens site in Munich with graffiti and banners denouncing its role in Bundeswehr automation. Another alliance, Rheinmetall Enteignen, has called for a demonstration outside Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger’s villa near Düsseldorf. The Clown Army is also mobilising While police and media point to clashes at past camps, organisers maintain that repression itself fuels confrontation. Die Linke MP Lea Reisner also criticised the Cologne ban as “a massive and unacceptable encroachment on the constitutional right of assembly”. For the organisers, the outcome is clear. “We will make the camp happen, with or without permission”, Mila said. “The repression only shows why our struggle against militarisation is necessary”. The post Germany: Anti-militarist camp to go ahead “with or without permission” appeared first on Freedom News.

BAE SYSTEM HAD MORE MEETINGS WITH MINISTERS AND PRIME MINISTERS THAN ANY PRIVATE COMPANY IN 2009-2019, SAY ANTI-WAR GROUPS, EXPOSING LUCRATIVE ‘REVOLVING DOOR’ IN ARMS PROCUREMENT ~ Kit Dimou ~ Government and arms companies run an ‘open plan office’, says a new report on the depth of the arms industry’s influence in UK government. While all industries seek to influence the government, the arms industry is unique in the closeness of its relationship at the highest levels, and the revolving door of state and corporate careers through arms procurement, said the report. Based on data from a Transparency International open data portal, the report shows BAE Systems had more meetings with ministers, and more with Prime Ministers, than any other private company between 2009-2019, with Airbus and Rolls-Royce also high on the list. According to the report, published by the Campaign Against Arms Trade and World Peace Foundation, senior government officials and ministers met with their arms industry counterparts 1.64 times a day. According to the anti-war organisations, this is not simply the result of industry efforts, but a deliberate policy by successive governments to draw the industry into a tighter embrace. The report describes “the ever-closer union between the UK government and the arms industry” which the authors say is moving “from revolving door to open-plan office”. The report shows that over 40% of top-ranked military officers and civilian MOD personnel took roles in the arms and security industry upon leaving public service. This includes employees, board members, and independent consultants to the industry, a clear majority working in procurement. The organisations say this results in a “broken MOD procurement system, that nonetheless ensures steady profits for the UK’s top arms companies, and a lax arms export control regime that has allowed the industry to continue fuelling atrocities in Yemen and Palestine, while evading accountability for severe corruption”. “No industry should have this level of influence over government, especially one that deals in death and destruction”, said report author Sam Perlo-Freeman, “Radical measures are urgently needed to break the arms industry’s stranglehold on government policy”. The post Arms industry met with UK government “1.64 times a day” — report appeared first on Freedom News.