Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

From ABC Belarus

This year, we applied to participate in the Anarchist Bookfair in Bremgarten with a presentation on repressions in Belarus and our distro table. We were rejected “because of the war topic”. As we have not received further rationale behind rejecting our request, we can only guess this relates to our stance on the war in Ukraine and the participation of anti-authoritarians in it.

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

The regime has added ABC Belarus to the official list of “extremist formations.” This is yet another attempt to pressure the anarchist movement and criminalize solidarity work.

From Freedom News UK

The Belarusian regime has recently released anarchist prisoner Nikita Yemelyanov, arrested in October 2019 on suspicion of attempting to set fire to a Pretrial Detention Centre No. 1 in Minsk and sentenced to four years in prison. His sentence under Article 411 was subsequently extended twice, bringing his total to seven years. While in prison, Nikita was frequently placed in a punishment cell, and eventually transferred to a prison regime.

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

Yesterday, we received good news: two of our comrades, Pavel Shpetny and Aleksandr Kozlyanko, have been released. After their release, they were deported from the country and are currently in Lithuania.

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

It’s not only criminalised to express any form of dissent in Belarus. Showing solidarity with political prisoners is also punishable, even when it comes from their parents.

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

Over the past few years, quite a few organizations and groups have appeared in the anarchist milieu that actively exclude activists from Solidarity Collectives, ABC-Belarus, and a number of other anarchist and anti-authoritarian organizations from public events, blocking their participation and writing various kinds of “statements” condemning their work in support of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. The basis for such behavior is often the distorted positions of activists from Eastern Europe on the war. Anarchists are accused of becoming militarists, supporting the war, and not being critical enough of the Ukrainian state.

A year and a half ago, we published a bigger text titled “When ideology stands in the way of solidarity” about how certain anarchist groups in various Western European countries manipulate facts to exclude Eastern European anarchists from discussions about the war in Ukraine.

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

Original title: "“The ‘brand’ of anarchists is highly valued in the Belarusian prison system”: an extensive interview with anarchists Andrey Chepyuk and Akihiro Gaevsky-Khanada. Part 2"

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

Original title: "“You definitely won’t be staying on the sidelines, because nothing’s over yet”: an in-depth interview with anarchists Akihiro Gaevsky-Khanada and Andrey Chepyuk. Part 1."

From Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

The main “novelty” of the past year was mass repressions against relatives of serving and released political prisoners. On January 23, mass searches and detentions of relatives took place in Belarus, and phones were taken away from the detainees for inspection.