March 8 1917-2017

Happy and combatant Working Women's Day. 

Today, one hundred years ago, began the Russian Revolution. Its first phase to be precise, the so called "February Revolution" (the Julian calendar in use in Russia back then was 13 days off relative to the Gregorian one). It was the beginning of a revolutionary cycle that affected not just Russia but much of Europe. 

The situation was dire in Russia, the war had been lingering for years already and the masses were utterly exhausted by the ever-growing demands of the totalitarian regime and the war effort. Let's not forget that most of those killed in World War I were subjects of the Russian Empire. 

Since March 3rd, strikes had been popping around like mushrooms, the most famous one being the one at the huge Putilov factory. On March 7th, in spite of the unrest, the Tsar left for the front. On March 8th worker women marched in large numbers demanding something as basic as "bread", their striking male comrades joined them. It was a general strike at the capital of the most backward and reactionary state of Europe.

Thousands of women have just left street near our store. Heard they’re heading towards Nevsky Prospekt #1917LIVE #womensday pic.twitter.com/3XfkAEdTpN

— Filippov Bakery (@FilipBakery1917) March 8, 2017

On March 9th the protesters gathered hundred of thousands and they already demanded the head of the autocrat. By March 10th, in spite of the prohibition, the marches broke all records, not a single industry was active in the city. Four people were killed but the uprising did not stop at all. 

On March 11th an inexperienced commander, General Khabalov, was ordered to put down the protests at any cost. On March 12th the city was besieged by his garrison. However soon troops began quarreling among them and one company was the first to mutiny, opening fire against the police.

That very same day the Petrograd Soviet was formed, while the (very conservative and not really democratic) Duma had been rendered ineffective by an imperial edict.

Before the day was over, four regimients mutinied and even the usually loyal cossacks hesitated. Officers were killed or had to flee for their lives.

The next day, Tsar Nicholas attempted to go back to Petrograd but could not reach it. His guards either deserted or declared "neutrality": the fake Emperor's clothes were gone. On request of the Duma, the Tsar abdicated. Few days later a provisional government under Octobrist (conservative) Rodzianko was formed.

In five days or so, Russia had gone from totalitarian empire to unstable provisional republic(?) That's how revolutions happen: they may only throw down rotten structures but when they do, they are fast and merciless.

In the following months the two opposing powers: the soviets (popular councils) and the Duma will go on a crash course. It may sound "unreal" but this is true history: this actually happened... and will happen again with whatever variations, because the real issues have never been solved but rather just aggravated.

As La Polla Records sang:

This story that was maybe true

seems a lie, we're going to tell it anyhow.

In the Russia of the beloved Tsar

lived a peasant named Ivan,

toiling the land without rest,

always hungry, no time to think.

Sowing, sowing and sowing yet again,

and Count Borrowich gets all the harvest,

the petty priest asks for resignation,

invites himself to Ivan's home

and he eats all the best. 

Ivan was there... (chorus, thrice)

A good day he worked with the hoe,

came some men, they told him: Comrade,

There are no more masters to whom obey,
you are a free man, we've taken power!

Thinking, thinking and thinking yet again,

Ivan gradually gets used to the idea:

the nobility has been deposed,

there will be no more jerks living at his expense.

Ivan was there...

Jumping around one-legged

the sickle and the hammer in the red banner,
with effort and some attention
what extreme flips reality makes!
Hurray!

Original song in Castilian (Spanish):

10,000 march in Pamplona against Christian Fundamentalista anti-women law

Some 10,000 people, mostly women, marched yesterday in Iruñea-Pamplona in defense of the right to decide on their own bodies, a fundamental right that may be severely restricted by the Neo-Fascist government of Madrid (PP).

'Our body, our choice'

They explained:

We need sexual education to be able to decide freely, contraceptives to prevent abortion and free abortion to prevent killing. Suddenly sexual and pregnancy rights are being thrown to the trash bin with this new law, sending us back to the Franco dictatorship, and we will not accept that. 

They also criticized the outraging process of privatization of abortion services. 

After decades of quite liberal abortion laws, Spanish far-right minister Gallardón is promoting a new abortion law which will make free choice a crime for nearly all cases, in an obvious attempt to return to the Fundamentalist Christian ideology of the Franco era. 

The sociological reality however is not at all in line with such extremist intolerant ideas and the bill is causing a serious social conflict, even inside the ranks of the conservative party in power.

Source[eu]: Berria.

March 8th: maybe the most glorious day for the Working Class in history

March 8th was proclaimed International Working Women's Day in 1910 by the Second International and soon became a day of struggle against Capitalism and Patriarchy through the World. 

There is anyhow one particularly critical March 8th: that of 1917. On that day, the working women of Petrograd marched in troves through the streets of the Russian city demanding something as basic as bread. 

The day before the workers of Putilov had declared a strike and the demands of the women were central to mobilize the rest of the workers of the city. By March 10th there was a general strike and the city was paralyzed. The demand of bread had become a generalized cry of "down with the Tsar!" and "down with the war!". 

When on March 11th, the totalitarian regime sent the few "reliable" troops they had to repress the masses, these mutinied. The Russian Revolution had begun. 

Who is still alive don’t say “never”,
firmness is not firm,
not everything will continue the same,
when the dominating will have spoken
the dominated will speak.
Who dares to say “never”?
Who does it depend on that oppression continues? On us.
Who does it depend on that it ends? On us, too.
Let the one who’s defeated get up!
The one who’s lost, let him combat!
Who could stop the one who knows his situation?
Hence today´s losers will be the winners of tomorrow
and never will become today.

Bertolt Brecht.

Also a good one from historical Basque Punk band La Polla Records, "Iván":

Translation:

This story which was could well be true

seems a lie, we are going to tell it anyhow:

In the Russia of the beloved Tsar

lived a peasant known as Ivan.

Laboring the land without pause,

suffering much hunger, with no time to think.

Sowing, sowing, sowing and sowing

and Count Borrowich gets all the harvest.

The petty priest asks resignation, 

he invites himself to diner and eats the best food.

Ivan was there, Ivan was there, Ivan was there...

One good day he was with the hoe

came some men, told him: "komrade,

there are no masters anymore to be obeyed;

you are a free man, we've got the power!"

Thinking, thinking, thinking and thinking,

Ivan gradually gets used to the idea: 

nobility has been overthrown, 

there will be no more jerks living out of the rest.

Ivan was there, Ivan was there, Ivan was there...

Jumping on one leg, 

the sickle and the hammer on the red flag. 

With persistence and some attention, 

what kind of somersaults makes reality!

Yesterday I was involved in a conversation in which certain woman complained without much sense "as if we need one special day!" I had to protest: this is something that women have given themselves by choice and to the whole humankind. It is a holy day of the working class, of the people and, of course, of women in particular, no kidding!

Keep the struggle up, sisters!

Iconoclastic Xmas

I despise Christmas with its stinky mixture of Patriarchal pseudo-religious word-idolatric ritualistic dogma and Capitalist commercial consumerist brainwashing in the prostituted name of peace, love and whatnot. 

Truly I feel much like this FEMEN activist who had the gills to interrupt the pitiful decadent Christian ritual with such an obvious Pantheistic slogan:

But what really motivated me to write this Xmas entry was this excellent postcard by graffiti artist Banksy, which says it all:

After all Palestinians are the real descendants of the protagonists of the Bible and their situation today is much worse than under Herod and Pilate. Possibly even worse than under the Roman genocide.

Somehow related in the Xmas knot is this other American Gestapo story which also illustrates how undercover fascist is the Imperial regime we live under. The FBI investigated the classical Christmas film "It's a Wonderful Life!", full of "honest capitalism" propaganda and religious magic because it depicts a powerful banker for what they are: greedy and evil. 

The screenwriters Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett were accused in the report of being crypto-Communists. As evidence of such tendency, having lunch with other screenwriters claimed to be Communists was apparently enough. Also some details of the plot (the suicide attempt scene) have vague parallels in a Soviet movie.

So that's what your taxes and tributes to the Empire are wasted in: protecting Scrooge from being shown as he really is.

Sources: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2) and The Daily Mail for the American Gestapo story.

Ecuador: fight for the right to abortion

While President Correa shames himself and all the Left claiming that he will step down if abortion is legalized in Ecuador, a dozen women protested in Parliament FEMEN-style for its legalization. 

The President of the Ecuadorean Parliament, Roxana Alvarado, impeded that police evicted them saying: "gentlemen of the public force, we have not requested your intervention". 

She added: this is a public space and demonstration is allowed, I request that the public force retreats and let them demonstrate in freedom. 

In Ecuador abortion is only allowed for women with severe mental problems, less than 1% of the population. 

Meanwhile the Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has strongly tied himself to the reactionary fundamentalist Christian dogma by advancing that he won't sign such legislation and even blackmailing his own coalition Alianza País with his resignation if the law is passed. 

Correa accused the MPs of his own party who support freedom of abortion of "disloyalty" and by the moment he has achieved that Paola Pabón retired her proposal to legalize abortion. 

Shame on you, Correa!

"Abortion is sacred": FEMEN activists interrupt Spanish congress debate on new fundamentalist abortion law

Three activists of FEMEN interrupted the discourse of Spanish Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, getting topless and chanting "abortion is sacred" for a couple of minutes.

While some MPs applauded them, others, from the neofascist PP in government, yelled "out!" While the three women were being pulled out it could be heard in the microphones the voice of the Christian fundamentalist Ruiz Gallardón perplex about the slogan: "abortion is sacred?, abortion is sacred?"

This seems to underline the extreme difference in thought, conscience and concept between them and us, between the religious fundamentalists who try to impose their ideological dogma on others by means of law and the humanists who only believe in respect, dignity and freedom.

This is indeed a true clash of civilizations, one that has been going on for at least two centuries, since rationality began overcoming fanaticism. Sadly enough, the struggle has not ended with any decisive victory for the only side which can win; the forces of obscurantism, of darkness are still way too strong. It's they or us, freedom or cultist slavery, we must continue fighting. 

Source: Naiz Info[es].

Ukraine: FEMEN activists go to exile under threat of prosecution

The founders of the feminist and radical direct action organization FEMEN, Alexandra Shevchenko, Yana Zhdanova and Anna Gutsol, announced that they had to leave their country, Ukraine, after they were threatened with political trial. 

A police raid "found" in the offices of FEMEN in Kiev "objects resembling a gun and a grenade". The organization denounces they were placed by police themselves.

The pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovic is known for using political trials and other more violent means against dissidents, much as it happens in Russia.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

India: Lucknow girls take direct action against rape

Teenage girls from Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) have become the more efficient force against rape. The members of the so-called Red Brigades (for their clothes, based on the traditional female attire of the area) won't tolerate sexual abuse and will strike back at rapists and other sexual aggressors. These may get a beating or just public humiliation but what is clear is that they won't get away anymore.

All the members of the Red Brigades are former victims of sexual aggressions. This way they turn the suffering into self-empowering, turning the tables on the Patriarchal order.

FEMEN jump over the car of Tunisian Islamist PM

The radical feminist group FEMEN jumped in their usual topless style over the official vehicle of Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh, when he was leaving the European Parliament see at Brussels. 

They demand freedom for the four members of their organization repressed by the Islamist government in Tunisia. 

The intervention of the fanatic leader's escort has been criticized by the activists as very violent, causing axphysia to one of them identified as Margo (the one being held by the leg in the photo), who lost consciousness and is still suffering headaches and other health problems. FEMEN considers that the life of Margo was put at risk.

Three Tunisian members of FEMEN were arrested by the Islamist regime on the grounds of "offense to morals" and "public disorder" after a topless protest in Tunis in solidarity with also imprisoned feminist Amina Sbui (aka Amina Tyler). 

Amina, who was the first Tunisian woman to dare to appear topless in Internet, as a protest against machista oppression is being tried secretly in Kairouan and has already been fined for having a pepper spray (a self-defense weapon which the authorities describe erroneously as "incendiary weapon").

FEMEN also demands the freedom of blogger Jabeur Mejri and all other people repressed by the Islamists in the North African country for using their undeniable right to freedom of expression. They accuse the Islamization policies of threatening women with torture, murder and mutilation (this last rather applies to Egypt). 

Laarayedh, who claims to ignore who are FEMEN (oh, c'mon!), admitted that he wants to push ahead the new Islamist constitution through a mere parliamentary vote, because he fears that a referendum would block it. He claims that the European Union supports his plans.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (includes video of the action).

France: FEMEN action in Notre Dame: "May Fascism rest in Hell"

After an elderly fascist offered himself as human sacrifice in the weirdest homophobic action ever (and a totally anti-Christian stunt, it must be said), a member of the direct action feminist movement FEMEN has expressed what we all, people of good will, feel about that Nazi: may he be tortured in Hell forever and ever (sadly I do not believe in Hell, but it's a true pity that there's no such a place to make some justice for class A mass criminals like Hitler, Pinochet, Franco or Thatcher, just to cite a few).

The daring nonviolent activist, whose name is not yet known to me, in the usual topless style of this organization, carrying on her torso the legend "May Fascism rest in Hell", parodied the suicidal stunt of the fascist homophobe Venner.

FEMEN explained in their Facebook page that they "call for the death of Fascism in the same spot where far right activist Dominique Venner killed himself yesterday evening".

The daring activist, who was brutally arrested by police, also wore on her back the legend: "In Gay we trust". 

Source and more photos: Webguerrillero[es].

France: Femen sabotages Nazi concentration in Paris

A group of four brave women displayed a huge red banner with the legend: "Sextermination for Nazism" (which I read as "castration to all Nazis", a bit unsure) from a hotel balcony at the Place des Pyramids of Paris, where the National Front were holding a large demonstration in alleged homage to Joan d'Arc.

Video by Xavier Frere (EBRA):

Extreme capitalism = slavery

This is the model of development and job creation that the European neofascist propose for Spain: casinos and degrading decadence cum slavery.

Bourgeois perverts eat sushi extracted from a dying ocean on the body of a naked woman
Las Palmas Casino (Canary Islands)

That's the "way forward" that decadent late Capitalism seems to offer as only option: sell your body and life for a few euros to satisfy the endless predatory hunger of the ineffable markets, embodied in the faces and behavior of those degenerates.

Of course "workers" have no right to even go to the bathroom.

And worse: the media sells this as the way to go, as great innovation and what not.

In Spain proper, South of the Ebro river down to the seas that bath the Sahara, there does not seem to be anything else in offer: after demolishing the promising solar energy and diverse research projects accumulated through a decade or two. It seems that the heirs of Aznar has chosen the same road to nowhere: earlier it was the brick bubble and now it is the casino and prostitution bubble. All mafiosi from around the world are welcome: this is not even half-assed capitalism but raw decadence as gangsters like it.

Just like with Cuba under Batista.

And the colonies (Canary Islands, Al Andalus) get the worst of it, of course. They always did and they always will... unless they rise up.

Unemployment in Spain (2011): green < 15%, yellow: 15-20%, red > 20% (source)

Source: La Haine[es].

Pakistan: Talibans murder 14 y.o. communist feminist leader

Malala Yosufzai

From Random Pottins:

TALIBAN operating in Pakistan's Swat valley have been credited with a new victim today - a 14 year old schoolgirl who was targetted because she stood up for the rights of women and children, and especially for girl's education.

A gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school and shot 14-year old Malala Yousufzai in the head and neck. Two other girls were wounded, but it was clearly Malala who was the target.

The teenager was airlifted by helicopter to a military hospital in Peshawar, and there were reports she might be sent abroad for treatment. Several schools in the area stopped for the day in protest at the attack and in sympathy with Malala.

Malala, whose father is a headmaster, began writing a blog when she was just 11 under the pseudonym Gul Makai for the BBC. She opposed the Taliban and championed the need for girls education, which the Islamic extremist movement opposes.

... continue reading at Random Pottins.

'Only Two in Ten Young Women are Employed in Southern Italy'

From Struggles in Italy:

Only Two in Ten Young Women are Employed in Southern Italy

Istat (the Italian Institute of Statistics) has published its Italian labour force survey for the second quarter of 2012. The youth unemployment rate currently sits at around 33%. However, the most remarkable statistic concerns young women in Southern Italy. Only 20.7% of women between the ages of 18 and 29 living in the South are employed, compared with 45.7% in the North. It is the worst statistic to come out since Istat began this survey in 2004. It clearly shows that the damage caused by the economic crisis has not spread evenly across the population but rather follows lines of inequality.

In Italy, the employment rate among women is the lowest in all Europe, with the exception of Malta. Fewer than one woman in two has a job. And Italy also holds another disturbing European record: the largest gap between the male and female employment rate, which is around 22%, while the European average is less than 14%.

Another study in 2010 showed that the average day of an Italian employed woman involves 7.12 hours of paid work and 8.35 hours of house and family work. The home is still the most important workplace, even for women who work outside the home. In making women redundant, the economic crisis has just pushed them back to the place they had never really left. The same study showed that women brought up in a family where the mother did not work outside the home are more vulnerable to unemployment. This does not simply demonstrate that a strong backward culture permeates Italian society – although this is obviously true – but most of all it shows the nature of the Italian economy, particularly in the South, where the chronic lack of jobs has forced the majority of women to stay at home, within family boundaries. This has not changed, even after the enormous increase in the levels of female education in recent decades and it shows that discrimination is at its worst during periods of crisis.

Uruguay: first Latin American state, after Cuba, to allow women to decide on their pregnancies

In a major landmark legal vote, the Parliament of the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay passed the law that legalizes abortion in the initial third months of pregnancy, the only requisite being to go through a minimal medical counseling phase. 

The vote was very tight, 50 to 49, because the fascist influence of Catholic Fundamentalism is still too strong in the continent.

Women's right to abortion worldwide (cc NuclearVacuum):
· Legal
· Legal with restrictions (note: Uruguay just changed to "blue" zone)

· Illegal with some exceptions
· Totally illegal
· Varies through regions

President José Mujica has the power to veto the law but he clearly will not do that, being a supporter of legalization himself.

Source: LINyM[es].

Fascist Sudan wants to murder citizen for (allegedly) exerting her sexual freedom

Once again we are faced with the horror of religious fascism, in this case in Sudan, where a young woman, Layla Ibrahim Issa Jumul, 23, has been sentenced to death by stoning (without any evidence except her confession) for allegedly having free sexual relations outside marriage. 

The horror of the Patriarchal intolerance promoted by Saudi Arabia and Iran all around the World in their large but ultimately limited Muslim sectarian ghetto cannot simply be accepted. 

Weapons for women where they are oppressed because nobody will give you freedom: you must take it!

Free Layla! Because all people, women specially, have the full right to decide who they lay with and when. No father, brother or god should ever interfere in the free will of the people!

Ref. Amnesty International (PDF).

Tunisia: Islamist government want to demolish women rights

From Uruknet:

Tunisian Women Stand to Lose Their Status

By: Nizar Maqni

August 13, 2012 As Tunisia celebrates the 56th anniversary of its Personal Status Law today, August 13, a new spanner was thrown into the works by the al-Nahda movement. The Islamic party proposed a constitutional clause which will stop women from being considered as equal to men by law; instead it says that they "complement" the role of men within the family. It started a few weeks ago when an al-Nahda MP, who is also a rapporteur for the new constitution, spoke about the role of women in the constitution. "Let us agree (before anything else), that women are human beings," he said. The statement was based on several theoretical principles that permeate the writings of Rashed Ghannoushi, who was crowned as head of the movement a few weeks ago. He had presented his theories in his book Women: Between the Quran and Muslim Reality. In the book, the mentor of the ruling troika said that "a woman’s unique features revolve around her sexual functions." Every "feature that a woman has is related to her sexual function and are a result of this function." This function "is a fundamental issue for women but secondary for men," he wrote, concluding that "the sexual function is the essence of the female." This regressive theory was plainly evident in al-Nahda’s proposal for Chapter 28 of the constitution regarding women’s rights. It managed to pass it in the Rights and Freedoms Committee with 12 votes to 8. "The state guarantees women’s rights and upholds their gains as a true partner of men; and their roles are complemented inside the family. The state guarantees equal opportunities for men and women in their various responsibilities and the elimination of all forms of violence against [women]," the chapter clearly indicates. The opposition presented a proposal which states that "the state guarantees women’s rights in all field and cannot enact laws that would detract from them in any way." But the bill was rejected by the Islamic group who then replaced it with their own text. In spite of the strong opposition, they forced their version of the law in to be voted on by the general meeting of the constituent assembly. Al-Nahda’s suggestion was vetoed throughout the Tunisian political spectrum, especially by civil society. This time, the "civil society veto" was a collective effort. In a joint statement, seven women’s and human rights organizations insisted on adherence to the principle of equality between men and women. They categorically rejected the suggestion of the Rights and Freedoms committee of the constituent assembly that claimed women merely complement the role of men inside the family. This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition. Source

Femen denounce Nazi pimps

Members of the impacting Ukranian feminist group FEMEN brought their protest against sex slavery and the Nazi mafias that control it to Hamburg:

Apparently the Nazi networks are particularly fussined with prostitution and sexual slavery rings in the Low German city. Elsewhere too as far as I know. 

In a separate incident, several members of FEMEN were arrested in Donetz, Ukraine, before they could enter the football stadium to perform one of their naked protests. 

Source[es]: Sare Antifaxista (link 1, link 2)

From the Net: 'Women demand change to Moroccan rape law' (Euronews)

Women’s rights activists in Morocco have demonstrated outside the parliament building in Rabat, to demand a change in the law on underage rape.

It follows the suicide of a 16 year old girl, who was forced to marry the man she claimed had raped her.

Amina Filali’s mother said the girl found herself in an abusive relationship after being pressured into the marriage in a custom enshrined in law.

Fouzia Assouli from Morocco’s Democratic League for Human Rights said: “What we have witnessed is scandalous. We have had enough. We must change this law. We must change this penal code.”

... full story and video at Euronews.

(Saudi) Arab women rebel and start driving

Women in Saudi Arabia, the most reactionary theocratic tyranny on Earth, have taken their husbands cars and driven around the roads of the country. With this action they are challenging the very theocratic organization of the state, because it is a religious fatwa issued by the all powerful clerical caste, which directs the religious police, so oppressive but specially oppressive against women. 

Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera.