Belarus

by straight gaeilgoir Sun Mar 26, 2006 17:05

Since this piece was published Indymedia global and its 5 main multi-lingual portal sites have pushed this story to main feature. you may read a cut and paste of that indymedia global article here:-
http://indymedia.ie/article/75079 & in the comments read whats been happening in the last hours & find links to other sites.

That is how indymedia works on a global basis.

here is a round-up of other press commercial and state media relating to the last 36 hours in the english language (european based) which is the Horizontal Media relationship in action. [The term "horizontal media relationship" was coined by the Luther Blisset and Wu Ming collectives who were most active in the period 1997-2002]

"Belarus protest turns bloody"
By Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1739760,0....html

'Last dictator' arrests rival in Belarus poll protests
By Colin Freeman
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/20....html

"Belarussians defy riot police to denounce president"
by Steve Gutterman in Minsk
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=468332006

"EU urges Belarus to release opposition leader" - staff news desk
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=177276600&p...773x6

"Police break-up Belarus protests" - staff news desk
http://www.itv.com/news/world_826004.html

"Belarus protestors clash with police" - staff news desk
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2101770,00....html

Particularly nice english language blog in german media :-
Dictators in Danger when falling off Tigers "Dictators ride to and fro upon
tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."
(by Winston Churchill) :-)
http://blog.tagesspiegel.de/justworld/eintrag.php?id=116

____________________________________________________________________

In addition (as is customary) an ad hoc team of global cyber-acitivists collate and appraise
material and try and contact those on the ground. This is the least we can do to fulfill our mission statement "a network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues."

links below
courtesy of http://www.iaf-ifa.org

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http://svaboda.org/articlesfeatures/politics/2006/3/CE1....html

http://svaboda.org/articlesfeatures/politics/2006/03/0a....html

http://svaboda.org/articlesfeatures/politics/2006/3/683....html

http://imc-by.hardcore.lt//content/editor/test.avi

http://imc-by.hardcore.lt//content/editor/test2.avi

http://community.livejournal.com/anarchism_ru/177494.html

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/03/25/belarus.protest.ap/story.belarus.clash.ap.jpg

http://community.livejournal.com/minsk_by/1109845.html?nc=2

http://community.livejournal.com/minsk_news/160532.html

http://fishbi4.livejournal.com/162234.html

http://www.hello.by/minsk25/

http://community.livejournal.com/minsk_by/1105907.html

http://community.livejournal.com/minsk_news/157519.html

http://lazyest.streenet.org/scry/index.php?v=list&i=0&p...25.03

http://public.fotki.com/Mirritil/25_march/

___________________________________________________________________________

"We in the indymedia global network demand Amnesty and Release of all political prisoners and detainees in Minsk Belarussia"

"we are more powerful than they can possibly imagine" = Amnesty for all political prisoners.

by The Great Djerginksi Mon Mar 27, 2006 15:08

Did not hear any compaint from you people when Soviet old age pensioners were liquidated by the million after 1990.

by iosaf Mon Mar 27, 2006 16:02

You didn't hear from "you people" because most probably you weren't in the information loop in the early 1990s. Indymedia began in Europe after the RTS! gigs in London and the parallel stuff in Seattle. Almost immediately afterwards the networks becoming accepted by umbrella groups in Italy and the Spanish state and so italy and barcelona imc and then amsterdam and germany. (we could argue about the exact chronology).
Prior to all that criticism would have been relayed to you through Amnesty international, commercial press, russian support solidarity networks, and so on.

There has consistently been great concern at the fate of old age pensioners in Russia, and has proved one the themes of russian indymedia activists since their inception. They didn't just take on a bunch of campaign suggestions because they were "cool", rather they brought their campaigns from outside the network to being reported on the network. Before indymedia ireland there was protest in ireland, and since the inception of the collective and its success we now see protest reported in one place. That is our mission statement.

February 12th 2005 saw mass actions across Russia in protest to the last raft of reforms
Seventy mass actions are held in Russia that Saturday with the participation of 19,300 people, the Russian Interior Ministry’s press centre told Itar-Tass.
The situation at all the meetings is calm and is under control of police. No serious offences have been reported.
Meetings and marches already ended in 46 cities and settlements in the Far Eastern region. A total of 8,700 people participated in the actions. Mass demonstrations with the highest number of participants took place in the Primorsky Territory (1,900 people), the Jewish autonomous region (3,600) and the Sakhalin region (1,200).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4194097.stm
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1931837...Num=0
(titles on these links are from my own archives)
Inflation Follow up meeting – Anarcho.
http://russia.indymedia.org/newswire/display/11741/inde...x.php
old style communists versus ultra rights-
http://russia.indymedia.org/newswire/display/11743/inde...x.php
St Petersburg students no platform no ideas no notion but doing a great job-
http://www.swissinfo.org/sfr/swissinfo.html?siteSect=14...04418

By February 16th 2005 "Sofia" had reported on russian indymedia the welcome addition of a "precarity" campaign angle to the russian indymedia concerns. This saw a few hundred anarchist flags make their first appearance since the years immediately after the October revolution.
http://ru.indymedia.org/feature/display/11587/index.php
____________________________________________________________________________

Anyway that is off topic.
Those arrested in Belarus are facing court today under a decree of March 26th.
they will mostly get a fortnight more of detention.
detailed links, background and further coverage will be in the comments to this article :-
http://indymedia.ie/article/75079
or on http://belarus.indymedia.org
or on http://indymedia.org (global) or our neighbours the united kollective lot.

by The Great Djerginksi Wed Mar 29, 2006 13:48

Who funds you Mr Iosaf? Would it be Mr Berisofski or any of the other carpetbaggers of Eastern mineral resources fronted by the lovers of the backhander like Dr David Owen.

by pat c Wed Mar 29, 2006 13:55

You should know by now that both Iosaf and I are members of the Trilateral Commission. This year we have also been invited to the Bilderberg Group Conference. To top it all off nicely the Council on Foreign Relations have just confirmed that we have been granted full membership.

I have just been granted a Travelling Scholarship by the Rockerfeller Foundation so I will be busy circling the globe from now on. My main thesis will be on the German Communists that Stalin handed over to Hitler.

by Anto Wed Mar 29, 2006 15:49

Is on the impact of the list supplied by George Orwell to MI5 of communists on their lives. If this isn't enough Im doing a masters on Nuns raped and Priests shot by Anarchists inn Spain.

War is hell int it.

by pat c Wed Mar 29, 2006 16:08

Orwell actually wrote a brief not for MI5, but for the BBC, suggesting that certain people were unreliable and should not be used for broadcasting on the World Service. I think this was wrong, but when you consider that some of these people had libelled Orwell and his comrades, calling the POUM fascists, then Orwells antipathy towards Stalinists and their fellow travellers is understandable if regretable.

Theres a hell of a difference between suggesting that someone should not be utilised by the BBC like Orwell did and sending people to certain death in NaziGermany like Stalin did.

AS for shhooting priests, I'm all for it if they have been responsible for the deaths of workers or peasants or if they were Francoites/Falangists. But the Nun part, was there ever any credible evidence of Nuns being ravaged by Anarchists? Not denying it; merely seeking clarification.

by Plato Wed Mar 29, 2006 16:17

Belarus is one of the most stable countries with an annual GDP increase of 7% every year the last 10 years. Unlike the collapse of the economies of other former USSR Members.
The majority of Rural dwellers are happy with the leadership.
Why the sudden activism for change in Russias sphere of influence?
Is this in anyway related to the US doctirine as stated by Zbiginiev
Brezinski in stopping a Eurasian entity from co operating and developing? As so adequately described in Brezinskis "the Grand ChessBoard".

by The Great Djerginski Wed Mar 29, 2006 17:13

I think you'll find that George Orwell wrote reports on everyone he met for the British security services, including false information on his liberal employer David Astor. The CIA turned Animal Farm into a film in 1950 after it had been used in various forms by British and American agencies in Eastern Europe - for ecxample millions of A4 cartoon versions were dropped into Yugoslavia in 1947. Orwell stole the idea for Animal Farm from an Austrian refugee called Gertude Elias who he worked with at the Ministery of Information during the War. The Elias concept was as a cartoon and had the Nazis as the pigs. Orwell's sycophantic genius was to serve it up to the Cold War mongers. The book was published during paper rationing in 1947, Gertude Elias's copywrite case was thrown out of court and guess what was the first post World War II book to go on GCSE English sylabusses.

by mr iosaf Wed Mar 29, 2006 23:58

the above comments aren't relevant to the thread, and in a way suggest you're not that interested in solidarity with indymedia activists in Belarus.

anyway, a solidarity action has been organised in London
I've left details in the real article which deals with this whole thing:-
http://indymedia.ie/article/75079
or go here http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/337059.html
There isn't a belarus legation to Ireland but they did ask for support. 2 weeks in prison isn't very nice, and we imagine its worse under the circumstances, Belarussian media is portraying this whole thing as a "polish" inteference. (may be it is may be it isn't.)

Belarussian activists asked for any kind of solidarity actions at Belarussian embassies [1] http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Belarus/Belarus2.html [2]
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Belarus/Belarus3.html around the world!


And thanks Pat C. for declaring me as a member of the trilateral to the Great Djergie's question "who funds me". Some weird people believe that sort of shite PAt!!!! grrrrr! Great Djergie- no-one funds me.
I am an independent. I do get assistance from various political circles on the left, anarchosyndicalist, republican and libertarian socialist, I also count on legal and other advice from more centrist elements, but the dosh for it all, comes from my own pocket. THe way I see it is I am very privelaged in relation to most, and sort of literate, and have a sort of gift for archiving and memory & geopolitical analysis. So - a gift is for sharing. I will never work for a think tank or any such agency. & if members of the global organisation I belong to and work for (indymedia) ask for solidarity, I'll give it. If you're well heeled and can accept the conditions of giving me dosh but not telling me what to say or do, then go ahead :-) call me for the bank details :-) LOL 0034 636 105 231

by pat c Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:52

"And thanks Pat C. for declaring me as a member of the trilateral to the Great Djergie's question "who funds me". Some weird people believe that sort of shite PAt!!!! grrrrr! Great Djergie- no-one funds me. "

Sorry Iosaf, I was being satirical! I did include myself as a member of those august organisations. Iosaf, dont you think we'd do well as being part of the secret rulers of the world?

iosaf, I think this is relevant to the thread as the Stalinists are trying to discredit todays dissidents just as they did to Orwell.

" think you'll find that George Orwell wrote reports on everyone he met for the British security services, including false information on his liberal employer David Astor."

Typical of a Stalinist, you show that they are telling lies and they simply repeat the same lies. As Micky McD would say, Goebells wouild be proud of you. Anyway Orwell didnt hand German Communists over to Hitler; Stalin did.

"The CIA turned Animal Farm into a film in 1950 after it had been used in various forms by British and American agencies in Eastern Europe - for ecxample millions of A4 cartoon versions were dropped into Yugoslavia in 1947."

The CIA (using a front company, like say GK International) to buy the film rights to Animal Farm.

" Orwell stole the idea for Animal Farm from an Austrian refugee called Gertude Elias who he worked with at the Ministery of Information during the War. The Elias concept was as a cartoon and had the Nazis as the pigs."

This silly lie was discredited generations ago. Children would not believe it.

"Orwell's sycophantic genius was to serve it up to the Cold War mongers."

No, he used a parable to explain the rise of Stalinism.

"The book was published during paper rationing in 1947,"

As were many other books. Are you suggesting it was the only book published during 1947?

"Gertude Elias's copywrite case was thrown out of court "

Yes, because there was no case to answer.

"and guess what was the first post World War II book to go on GCSE English sylabusses."

Because it was and is a great book. History has judged it; just as history has judged Stalin and his shrinking band of acolytes.

by funny handshake and hooded gowns Thu Mar 30, 2006 14:24

but don't forget we've an important meeting later tonight on the moon base to decide how to fix Britney Spear's son Sean Preston's nomination for the us senate 30 years down the road.
;-)

by pat c Thu Mar 30, 2006 14:57

Yes, in 30 years time President Chelsea Clinton is scheduled to step down after 2 terms (unless we have amended the constitution by then).

by hoody and 2 fingers Thu Mar 30, 2006 15:35

we're online.
they're not suppose to know......... y-e-t.

for the uninitiated reader at the article at this link and the comments thereof
you will read a lot about Belarussian affairs of the last week
http://indymedia.ie/article/75079

by Jimmy Whitten Thu Mar 30, 2006 22:03

As an English teacher who has had to force feed schoolchildren the overrated works of George Orwell for many years, I have wondered why the powers that be gave us the task. Orwell's disdain for the "smelly" working class shines through in all his books. Thanks for the explanation.

by pat c Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:38

Force feed Orwell to kids? I guess thats because you ae not a very good teacher. Funny that you see such things emerging from Orwells works, perhaps you get from Down and Out in London and Paris? A book where Orwell chronicles his existence as a tramp and a menial worker. Or could it be from The Road to Wigan Pier? In this volume Orwell travels among some of the most economically depressed areas in England. Orwell reported what he encountered in those circumstances.

The rich, wrote Orwell, keep workers in lifelong drudgery as they see the poor as "such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think." Down and Out in Paris and London

"In every mining family," he writes, "they tell you tales of fathers, brothers or uncles killed at work. (‘And he fell 700 feet, and they wouldn’t never have collected t’pieces only he was wearing a new suit of oilskins,’ etc., etc.).... The place is like hell, heat, noise, confusion, darkness, foul air, and above all, unbearably cramped space." The Road to Wigan Pier.

While Orwell was not a Marxist, he was on the workers side. "As for Marxism I have never yet met a working man who had the faintest interest in it. I have yet to meet a working miner, steelworker, cotton weaver, docker, navvy or what not who was 'ideologically sound'." The Road to Wigan Pier.

I think we should look at Orwells position on workers facing the police. "When I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask which side I am on."

On 1984 Orwell wrote: "My recent novel is NOT intended as an attack on socialism."

Anyway there are few enough of you Stalinoids left. All of Orwells books are in print. They will still be used in schools long after Jimmy has ceased to be even an unpleasant memory.

by Jimmy Whitten Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:52

Orwell was a petty bourgeoise who incubated a hatred of the English upper classes while at Eton.Probably his only direct experience of the working classes was thrashing his house boy while a policeman in the Burma colonial police.

by pat c Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:10

"Orwell was a petty bourgeoise who incubated a hatred of the English upper classes while at Eton."

Yes and he went over to the workers side. Thats why he fought on the workers side in Spain. Thats why he espoused Socialism in all of his writings. Is there something wrong with middle class people becoming socialists? You are a teacher, a middle class profession.

"Probably his only direct experience of the working classes was thrashing his house boy while a policeman in the Burma colonial police."

Your analysis is lacking. As a young man, age 19 - 24, he served in the police. He writes: "I was in the police, which is to say that I was part of the actual machinery of despotism." He spent the rest of his life making up for it. Many people did things in their youth which they later regretted. Stalin trained to be an Orthodox Priest.

Keep calling Orwell a coppers nark, it exposes the paucity of your arguments.

It might be best to use Orwells own words to sum him up:

"First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. The Spanish War and other events in 1936—37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it." Why I write (1947).

by Sean Boyle Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:16

George Orwell gets a mention in the autobiographies of Anthony Burgess and Cyril Connolly. They both paint a picture of a well-spoken but creepy outsider hanging around the pubs of Soho during the war with others who had dodged frontline military service and plagurising the more talkative drinkers. Did he not shop around for a cheaper surgeon for his wife, locating the cheapest in Tyneside. After a long train journey she died on the slab.

by Jimmy Whitten Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:22

Orwell did not fight on the worker's side in the Spanish Civil War. He "fought" for the POUM which effectively acted for Franco in that they attacked antifascist forces. He sustained a flesh wound in the back of the neck which kept him back in Blighty for the duration of World War II.

by joe Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:25

Inside the Myth: Orwell, Views from the Left
Christopher Norris (ed)

1984 saw a deluge of material on George Orwell, much of it uncritical or simply eulogistic. Orwell, the most widely-read English political writer this century, is often presented as a prophetic opponent of the left, yet he always described himself as a socialist. This highly acclaimed collection of essays examines Orwell's controversial and vexed relationship with the left, covering topics as varied as his ideas about the state, his participation in the Spanish Civil War and his views on women.

Contributors include Stuart Hall, Bea Campbell and Alaric Jacob.

available from
Lawrence & Wishart
99a Wallis Road
London E9 5LN
T:020 8533 2506
F:020 8533 7369
info@lwbooks.co.uk

http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/books/archive/inside_myth.html

by pat c Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:34

"Orwell did not fight on the worker's side in the Spanish Civil War. He "fought" for the POUM which effectively acted for Franco in that they attacked antifascist forces. "

Do you really believe that? The POUM was a Marxist Party which had a militia that was renowned for fighting the fascists. No reputable historians, on the right or left would accept the lies that you peddle.
Orwell became convinced that the CP strategy meant destroying the gains of the revolution and that the slogan, "the war first, the revolution afterwards, was eye-wash. The PSUC [communists] worked not to postpone the Spanish Revolution but to make sure it never happened. This became obvious as power was twisted out of working-class hands and as revolutionaries were flung into jail."
"
On May 3, 1937, Assault Guards led by CP officials tried to take back the worker-controlled Barcelona phone Exchange. Workers frushed into the streets to join the fight. As Orwell says :

"It is probable that the emotion that brought people into the streets was [that] the issue seemed clear enough: On one side the CNT, on the other, the police. "

Backed by the pressures of Soviet policy, with Britain and France clamoring to put down revolution in Spain, the Spanish Popular Front brutally suppressed the workers’ movement and arrested, tortured and killed some of its leaders before itself falling to the fascists.

"Nark, Nark"

You really are carrying on like a child. Stamping your foot in frustration. Hardly a good example to your puplis. Well stamp your foot all you want, you cannot turn the tide of history which is flowing against you.

by iosaf Fri Mar 31, 2006 13:54

on an appropriate thread. I suppose those who wish derail this thread could write an article on Eric Blair / George Orwell and then we could chit-chat.

This thread was about "other press" response to the events in belarus of the last 10 days.
at this article at this link and the comments thereof
you will read a lot about Belarussian affairs of the last week
http://indymedia.ie/article/75079

by George Orwell Fri Mar 31, 2006 14:22

Dont be so snippy. I wrote a book about your adopted homeland: "Homage To Catalonia".

by iosaf = o as if - "2006 - 1984 = 22 you're on drugs by now" Fri Mar 31, 2006 14:50

I lived on the square they named after you whence I began my named contributions to indymedia.
pointing out that it was the first urban area of the spanish state to get a CCTV camera ( in illustration )
And someday if things work out, and the northern anglo-saxon states change, i may make the pilgrimage to jura where you coughed your last TB blood and wrote animal farm. & I would love to read an article on you here on indymedia ireland, for you are very mis-understood, and i have so many new and fresh links and data to add to your story and that of POUM especially since the civil war archives have returned to "our city" of Barcelona (c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73880 http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68070) And indeed your historical and psycho-geographical placing in the meta-narrative played a rôle in my choice at the turn of the XX/XXI century to go into my exile here in Catalonia and not in Italy as at that time seemed the more logical choice since thats where i had been writing anonymously.

Please write that article. It would be good to see this new data read on an indymedia site first rather than wait for the academic crew to add new Orwellian memorabilia to the Xmas book lists (which they are doing at the moment)

meanwhile since this is the only article with Belarus appearing in the title on the comments list
I do have a point in referring the genuine reader to our real coverage :-

Belarus: Anarchists and Indymedia call for solidarity!
lots of info in the comments
http://indymedia.ie/article/75079
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/336672.html

list of those who faced trial, after our global campaign (lining us up with the spooks and the EU/USA)
sentances were mostly reduced to 2 weeks. Very significantly using a presidential decree by which they were charged, significantly as when they were arrested, they were held under other legislation.
That sort of thing could never happen under anglo-saxon, irish, or even continental post napoleonic law. Worthy of comment

solidarity actions black ribbons at the embassies-
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/337059.html

Now respect that there are readers who may be looking for info on Belarus and are wondering why this thread is full of Orwellian stuff :-)

george orwell square (which is a triangle) in Barcelona under CCTV. (called in slang "placa trippi")

by George Orwell Fri Mar 31, 2006 14:59

"And someday if things work out, and the northern anglo-saxon states change, i may make the pilgrimage to jura where you coughed your last TB blood and wrote animal farm"

My health was a bit better when I wrote Animal Farm; I wrote 1984 on Jura. I think I will write an article on Belorussia, those who slander the Belorussian dissidents are the same people who slander me.