War escalates from Palestine to Armenia

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Hey comrades! As conflicts intensify around the world, we bring you on-the-ground perspectives about how to understand what is going on and how to support movements for liberation in the midst of it.
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On October 7, Hamas carried out a series of attacks. The Israeli government has responded with a full military operation. While both sides have targeted civilians as well as soldiers, these events can only be understood in the context of decades of repression and ethnic cleansing.


To get perspective on the events, we conducted an interview with Jonathan Pollak ([link removed]) , an anarchist from Jaffa. A longtime participant in Anarchists Against the Wall and other anti-colonial solidarity efforts, Jonathan is currently facing a prison sentence for protest activity earlier this year. In the interview, he explores how he sees the current escalation, describes how the Israeli judicial system structurally oppresses Palestinians, explains how to support Palestinian prisoners, and evaluates the effectiveness of solidarity efforts over the years.


** Anarchist Voices from Azerbaijan and Armenia
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As we feared, war is also continuing to spread across the former Soviet Union. Last month, a new round of violence broke out over the contested zone of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. To elucidate the situation, we’ve published a number of texts from anarchists in the region.
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Our first article, “Solidarity among the Displaced ([link removed]) ,” explores how Russian anarchists in exile supported Armenian refugees who had squatted the abandoned Ministry of Defense. Throughout the world, mass displacement is accelerating as climate catastrophe, economic crisis, and war drive millions into exile, both within their own countries and across borders. This story provides an inspiring example of how displaced people can continue to take political action in their new homes, establishing solidarity across the lines of ethnicity and nationality.


Our second article, “Anarchist Voices from Azerbaijan and Armenia ([link removed]) ,” presents a variety of perspectives from the region in the immediate aftermath of Azerbaijan’s military operation against Artsakh, explaining why it will drive tens of thousands into exile or worse.


In our third article, “Armenia in 2023 ([link removed]) ,” the author argues that within Armenia, the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh crisis has been used to quell dissent and discourage criticism of Armenian nationalism. Politicians on both sides of the conflict have used the threat of war to consolidate power and fatten their wallets. Despite having been partly responsible for creating this tragedy, the political opposition in Armenia is using Azerbaijan's seizure of the region opportunistically.


We’re committed to circulating the perspectives of anarchists and other opponents of state violence from all around the world, especially those outside North America and Western Europe. A truly international perspective can channel solidarity to those who need it most, illuminate issues close to home, and prepare us for confronting similar situations ourselves.


** Introducing Ink Lite
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We’ve added a new feature to the zine library on our site in case you need to go easy on the toner when you’re printing our zines. We call it Ink Lite. In this report ([link removed]) , we explain the feature, discuss the historical reasons it is necessary, and list the nearly four dozen titles we already have available in this option. That's 45 titles already!
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Don't forget—we offer well over 100 PDFs altogether in our zine library ([link removed]) .


Ink Lite is not to be confused with the lite version of our site ([link removed]) , which you can use if you don’t have a lot of internet bandwidth at your disposal and need to load this website without images. You can find the option to switch to the lite version at the very bottom of every page on the site, or just navigate directly to lite.crimethinc.com ([link removed]) .


** This November: Block Cop City
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Participants in the movement to #StopCopCity have called for a mass action ([link removed]) to shut down construction of the police militarization facility on November 10-13. This follows the indictment of 61 people ([link removed]) on trumped up RICO charges and the Atlanta city government's outrageous decision to reject a petition signed by over 100,000 locals demanding a referendum on whether to build Cop City.


** Music
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Don’t forget, there is also a CrimethInc. music page ([link removed]) , where you can freely download all of the records we have released since 1995.


Here ([link removed]) , you can watch footage of one of our classic bands speaking about the #StopCopCity struggle during a show last December.


** Looking Back on the Tumultuous Events of October 2019
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October 2019 marked a pivotal point in social movement history, arguably the high point of the most recent wave of worldwide struggle against capitalism. This month, we’ll be looking back on those events as a way to take stock of where we are today.


First, Donald Trump gave Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan go-ahead to invade Rojava with the intention of carrying out genocide against Kurdish people. Well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this showed the hypocrisy ([link removed]) of supposed “anti-imperialists” who were happy to see the autocratic ruler of another aspiring imperial force carry out a full-scale invasion, so long as the United States military was not directly involved. A year after the invasion, we conducted an interview ([link removed]) with anarchists in Rojava.


Immediately after the Turkish invasion, however, an uprising in Ecuador ([link removed]) set off a chain reaction leading to months of protracted street warfare in Chile ([link removed]) . Elsewhere around the world, unrest was simmering from Hong Kong ([link removed]) to Catalunya ([link removed]) ; it spread to Lebanon ([link removed]) , Colombia
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The movement in Chile arguably represents the furthest any social movement of our era has gone. Although it was ultimately trapped in the blind alley of constitutional reform ([link removed]) , this simply illustrates the importance of developing a transformative approach to social change rather than relying on electoral strategies.


** Where to Find Us
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Since our last email, we’ve operated literature tables at the Bash Back! convergence in Chicago, the New York City Anarchist Book Fair, the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, and the Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair in Ontario, to name a few. Several interesting reports from the Bash Back! convergence have been published on their new news site ([link removed]) . In November, we intend to present and table at the anarchist book fairs in Sacramento ([link removed]) and Amsterdam ([link removed]) , among other events.


Speaking of the 2019-2020 revolt in Chile, on its four-year anniversary, you are invited to join us for an event ([link removed]) in Tucson, Arizona featuring memes, videos, and stories from the uprising.
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For background on the Chilean uprising of 2019, we recommend our four-episode podcast series on the subject. You can listen to the first episode here ([link removed]) . Altogether, the series includes eight and a half hours of coverage from the streets, some of it in both English and Spanish.


** In Our Thoughts
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As we send out this email, our thoughts are with those facing charges in Philadelphia for taking action ([link removed]) after police murdered Eddie Irizarry.


Our thoughts are with Indigenous activist Jacob Johns, who was shot on September 28. This was the second time in three years that a far-right assaulter shot a protester opposing the statue of genocidal conquistador Don Juan de Oñate. You can support Jacob here ([link removed]) .

Our thoughts are with everyone suffering in Palestine right now, regardless of religion or ethnic background, especially those who have been forced to live in refugee camps for years.


And finally, our thoughts are with you, dear comrade, whoever you may be. Everything we do, we do in hopes of helping to equip you to create for the life you desire, to fight for the freedom that you deserve. If you have ideas about how we can work together towards that end, please get in touch (mailto:[email protected]?subject=&body=) .

Everything we do is produced and distributed by volunteer labor—and copyright free. We don’t rely on external funding or market trends. We’re trying to change the world, not turn a profit. If you wish to support us, you can do so here ([link removed]) .
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