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.
While we acknowledge and understand that the bookfair organizers can have a different position to ours, we find this decision disappointing. Not just because we see it as a choice of isolation instead of dialogue. More importantly, it directly interferes with our ability to care for imprisoned comrades in Belarus.
Currently, we have 15 people in prison we support. Their remaining sentences vary from several months to 18+ years.
Many of our comrades face intensified pressure and harassment in prison because of their associations with anarchist movement. They regularly experience solitary confinement, psychological pressure, isolation, deliberate denial of medical care, and time added to their sentences under made-up reasons.
On top of the prison support, we continue to support the comrades who were recently released and forcefully deported without an option to return. They find themselves in a situation where they need to build their life from zero while trying to cover basic needs like food and housing.
To put it straightforwardly, all this work requires a lot of money.
In-person events for us are more than chances to talk about Belarusian anarchism and meet new comrades. They are also a way to raise money for the prisoners – and a very effective way.
International bookfairs usually bring us about 2 000 – 3000 euro in donations and distro sales every year. In Belarus, this sum can cover 15 lawyer visits, or 7 care packages with food, clothes, and medicine for the prisoner, or a couple months of living expenses for a deported comrade.
Our monthly donations equal about 400-500 euro, which are not able to cover the needs of all the comrades we support.
All of this to say, we want to turn this rejection into a call for international solidarity, especially to the comrades in Switzerland.
Here’s how you can support us:
- Donate here – every little donation helps https://abc-belarus.org/en/about-us/donate/
- Buy our distro https://www.sabotage.ninja/category/collectives/abc-belarus-collectives/
- Share this call with your comrades
- If you will be at the bookfair – call for the support of ABC Belarus and talk about our work and the prisoners we care for
- Organize a benefit event for ABC Belarus
- If you see an event that we should visit, share it with us
This is not the first time ABC Belarus is blocked from events like these , and we believe this tendency will only accelerate.The possibility that we won’t be able to support our comrades in prison worries us greatly.
Yet, we are not just a “fund” that will avoid uncomfortable topics in order to keep the resources flowing. We are a political collective and our analysis of how dictatorships function and reinforce each other is as much a part of our anarchism as our anti-prison work.
Therefore, we will keep war in Ukraine on our agenda instead of looking away.
Every day in our struggle we see international solidarity in action, even our comrades behind the thick walls of Belarusian prisons can feel it.
This solidarity gives us revolutionary hope, hope that no matter how strong the state, imperialism, patriarchy are, we will prevail.
Thank you for your solidarity and this hope.
Anarchist Black Cross Belarus