A-Infos (en) Rusia, Avtonom: Funeral of a politician during the war: "Trends of order and chaos", episode 147 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Alexei Navalny was buried on March 1. Thousands of people took part in 
the funeral, and it seems that this is the largest event in Moscow in 
the last couple of years. When will the next notable popular uprisings 
be? It's a good question. But I can no longer believe that 
manifestations can develop into something more. Something that will 
truly change our lives. ---- But questions remain. Why do we still need 
a leader to get things done? Especially when that leader is already dead.
This and many stories remind us of how important it is to support 
political prisoners. How important it is to make it public. How 
important it is to support those who are conducting investigations into 
torture in colonies and pre-trial detention centers with information.

Loud verdicts
For example, last week there were several rather high-profile verdicts. 
Nikita Zhuravel was sentenced to three and a half years for "insulting 
the feelings of believers," and the famous human rights activist Oleg 
Orlov was sentenced to two and a half years for "repeatedly discrediting 
the RF Armed Forces." The trial against Azat Miftakhov is still ongoing 
because of a phrase that, according to investigators, he said while he 
was in prison.

And the authorities understand that supporting political prisoners is 
important to them. After all, this is the only way to read that the 
authorities are persecuting human rights activists and that they 
recently recognized the Federation of ABC (FABC) as an "undesirable 
organization."

ABC - "undesirable organization"
The American Federation of Anarchist Black Cross (FABC) in Russia was 
recognized as an undesirable organization.

The anarchist black cross is a fairly old, high-status and, most 
importantly, decentralized initiative. The American FABC did not operate 
on the territory of the Russian Federation, but several ABC groups 
operated and continue to operate. They are not part of a larger 
organization. Like ABC-Moscow, almost all groups are autonomous. 
However, displaying ABC symbols may now be considered a crime.

The Irkutsk ABC group commented on this news:

"AChK has always been an underground group, operating more or less 
secretly depending on the circumstances and risks, and now the dangers 
and risks have become clearer, and have also increased significantly for 
those who support us, especially on the territory of the Russian 
Federation. We will continue to work in a slightly different format. No 
pasaran!

War tax
In Buryatia, deputies proposed introducing a war tax. Deputy Anatoly 
Dymchikov said that in the Kizhinginsky district all state employees 
give one day's earnings to the war. There, since the end of 2022, they 
have collected 10 million rubles. And now it is proposed to transfer 
this experience to the entire republic.

And I don't even want to ask why citizens should pay for the war. That's 
how we do it anyway. I wonder why this is being done. Not enough money? 
Do you want to anoint everyone with blood? We hope that corruption 
played a role here too, and not a penny of these 10 million reached us.

Anarchists talk about democracy
A regular column, apparently. This time we would like to talk about 
elections again.

In Ulan-Ude, the issue of canceling direct mayoral elections has been 
postponed. They explained this by saying that "their abolition will have 
a bad impact on citizens' trust and will lead to a further decrease in 
voter turnout." This is how a deputy from the Communist Party of the 
Russian Federation argued it and further added that "today even the 
President of Russia is elected by direct popular vote." But by the very 
fact of the transfer of power they seem to be telling us that they 
really don't care.

We published a text where we talked about how Proudhon tried the taste 
of democracy. In short, he tried to play at democracy, but what he 
proposed was rejected, and what he opposed was accepted. It was at this 
time that Proudhon declared that "universal suffrage is a 
counter-revolution." There is something in this phrase, and a century 
and a half later this phrase sounds somehow different.

We propose to think about how we can begin to replace the state today. 
Think about how to provide parallel structures.

It may be too early to talk about people's assemblies, but it is 
important to talk and take steps on the issues of mutual aid networks, 
cooperatives, first aid skills and general physical fitness. But most of 
these issues require more people than we can afford today. And an 
important question arises about how to look for like-minded people, but 
not go to jail during the search.

Do you want to change something? Invest in the future? To begin with, 
start running in the morning, doing exercises and find a couple of 
people with whom you can do this collectively.

Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order and 
Chaos, members of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchist 
assessments of current events. Listen to us on YouTube, SoundCloud and 
other platforms, visit our website avtonom.org, subscribe to our e-mail 
newsletter!

Support the work of Autonomous Action

https://avtonom.org/news/pohorony-politika-vo-vremya-voyny-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-147
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