Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair: August 10

The Anarchist Melbourne Bookfair will be a free event held at Abbotsford Convent (St Heliers Street, Abbotsford) from 10am-6pm on Saturday 10th of August in 2013. The bookfair consists of up to 40 stalls of independent book-sellers and activist groups. Alongside the stalls there will be about 21 one-hour workshops running all day on all kinds of anarchist and direct action topics. There is also a small kids’ space with volunteers to help carers, or for carers to self-organise child minding, or if the kids just want to play indoors.

For more information see their website.

Lublin, Poland: Two banks attacked by ‘Felicity Ryder Anarchist Cell’

325, translated from Greca W Ogniu (in Polish): Our shoes are worn out from all the boring peace walks we have joined. Not only have we noticed holes on the shoe soles, but we have also realised that we are stuck in one place and our inner ferocity is now lulled into gentleness. Demonstrations are not a good outlet for our anger, which cannot be satisfied with mere tramping the streets, all under the watchful eye of the police. Thus, we feel forced to seek new paths of action.

This is why, on the 1st of May we went for a walk without informing the authorities. We took with us a few litres of paint and made a resolution that we need to do something for our comrades. We painted windows of two banks located in two different parts of the city. Their owners should know that not every potential visitor will have peaceful intentions and will beg for a loan.

We dedicate the operation to Felicity Ryder, an anarchist from Australia, who has been hiding for months from the watchdogs, as well as to those arrested in Greece, Italy and other parts of the world.

Nauru: no charges yet over riot because identity papers were destroyed

July 23: Nauru’s resident magistrate says the asylum seekers being held over a mass riot at the country’s detention centre have not yet been charged because their identity papers were destroyed by fire.

Most of the Australian-run centre was burnt to the ground on Friday night, at an estimated cost of $60 million.

Magistrate Peter Law says 152 asylum seekers have been been detained and will start facing court tomorrow. He says he has given police more time to prepare charges because it has been difficult to establish the identity of those involved. “I understand their identity papers were destroyed during the course of the fire,” he said.

The riot began on Friday as a peaceful protest over the slow processing of claims.

But a security guard who does not want to be named says protesters took over the centre, gained access to a kitchen, and armed themselves with knives and steel bars. Buildings were burned to the ground, including accommodation blocks, the health centre and the dining room.

Perth: imprisoned teens trash cells

22 July: Charges may be laid against five juvenile offenders who ran amok at a Perth prison for adults, where they were sent after their usual facility was trashed in a riot.

Five cells at Hakea prison were damaged on Saturday night – the second time since late June the teenagers have damaged their rooms at the facility.

Sinks, toilets, shower areas, shelving and mattresses were all trashed, a Department of Corrective Services spokesman confirmed.

The detainees did not get out of their cells, unlike the riot at the nearby Banksia Hill Detention Centre for juveniles in January that left 108 of the facility’s 240 cells unfit for use and prompted the transfer of the inmates.

Nauru: riots destroy detention centre

July 21: About 125 people who sought asylum in Australia were in police custody on the Pacific island nation of Nauru after a riot ended with fire destroying most of the Australian-run detention centre there, an official said on Sunday.

The blaze on Friday evening destroyed all the accommodation blocks, medical facilities and offices and caused damage worth an estimated A$60m, the immigration department said. Only the dining and recreation buildings survived. A spokeswoman for the Nauruan government said police were stood down at 5am on Saturday. She said only 10 asylum seekers had not had any involvement in the riots.

The remaining 420 asylum seekers had been transferred to tents at a second detention camp under construction on another part of the tiny atoll, which is home to fewer than 10,000 people, the spokeswoman said. The Nauruan Parliament passed new legislation on Friday night allowing police to hold people without charge for up to seven days. The ringleaders face property damage, destruction of property and riotous behaviour charges, which carry penalties of one to seven years.

Australia: Detention Logs

Detention Logs is an independent site that publishes documents and data about Australian detention centres. The first wave of data is a searchable database of 7632 reported incidents across immigration detention facilities from October 2009 to May 2011, as recorded by the private contractors running the detention centres. These events range from self-harms, assaults and escapes to electric fence failures, complaints and aborted deportations.

Across that time, there were 77 escapes, along with four incidents recorded as ‘escape – mass breakout‘ and 56 recorded as ‘escape – attempted’.

There were 98 demonstrations within detention centres, as well as hundreds of records relating to hunger strikes – labeled as ‘Voluntary Starvation’. There were also hundreds of incidents of disturbance and damage.

See The Everyday Violence In Our Detention Centres, New Matilda

Zine: Monkeywrench Downunder

energy crises – social war – ecological crises  – capitalist crisis

Monkeywrench Downunder 1: Claim of responsibility for graffiti attack on coal magnate’s home – Environmentalism of the Poor – A multiple crisis – Indigenous communities asserting themselves across the Americas – Of Energy Struggles, Energy Transitions and Energy Democracy (extract) – Sabotage Against Shell’s Pipeline in Erris, Ireland – Tensions escalate in New Brunswick, anti-fracking protest – Statement from the Black & Green Forum & 2nd Solidarity Eco-Camp in the Philippines – Revolutionary Ecology: Biocentrism & Deep Ecology – Catastrophism: The truth won’t set you free –

Medan, Indonesia: Demonstrators Against Fuel Price Rise Arrested and Tortured

Selamatkan Bumi, via Hidup Biasa, 4, Jul 2013

As the Indonesian Government made plans to reduce fuel subsidies, social resistance broke out across the archipelago, protesters fearing that the price rise would cause knock-on rises in the cost of living that would have a devastating effect on the poorest. The government has wanted to make this spending cut for several years now, but popular resistance over the years has made it very difficult to push it through. This time, however, they seem determined. One action in Medan, North Sumatra on the day the decision was taken was met with a brutal response from the police, where hundreds were injured and 87 people were arrested. Nearly three weeks later 32 people remain in police custody although it remains unclear whether they are actually being prosecuted. Neither their families nor lawyers have had any access to the people who are still arrested, most of whom were seriously hurt. Also, 17 more people, many well-known faces from the student movement, have been placed on the police wanted list as supposed intellectual masterminds of the action. Here’s the full chronology, from a participant:

On the 17th June 2013, an alliance of students and citizen’s groups called BARAK took to the streets to show their solidarity against the government’s decision to raise fuel prices.

Zine: Sydney Uni on strike

Communiques from the Campus: March – June 2013

Download .pdf

This zine was put together to provide a comprehensive account of the strike through the voices of those who participated in it. It is intended to provide a counter narrative to not only the lies of the university administration, police and corporate media, but also to the claims of union bureaucrats and political sects who seek to control, limit and claim ownership of the struggle.

Brisbane: International protesters start talks with Queensland police ahead of G20 Summit next year

June 29: Police have begun negotiations with international protest groups in the lead up to the Brisbane’s G20 Summit to try to avoid failures of past events.

G20 Assistant Commissioner Katarina Carroll insists police have learnt from mistakes of past summits and have contingencies for worst case scenarios, which could include a temporary jail.

With its international reputation on the line, and arguably handling Australia’s largest peacetime counterterrorism security operation, the Queensland Police Service will also travel to London to talk with officials about successes and failures of the city’s 2009 event.