Ill Winds from #Ottawa

https://cwc.im/Ottawa2022

In this extensive report, our Montréal correspondent explores the unfolding anti-mandate protests in Canada, reviewing the agendas of the various forces that are vying for power and reflecting on the risks and opportunities in a situation in which the far right has gained the initiative.

"It's Not Sustainable": ISIS Prison Battle Shows Dangers of Indefinite Detention

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/14/syria-isis-prisoners-repatriation/

TIL that the Japanese Yakuza engage in a unique form of extortion known as sōkaiya. Instead of forcing small businesses into protection rackets, the Yakuza harass the stockholders of larger corporations.
https://ift.tt/gR4chPm

Submitted February 14, 2022 at 05:50PM by kirkl3s
via reddit https://ift.tt/en7wdym

#Ukraine—War and Anarchists

https://cwc.im/UkraineWar

Anarchists from Ukraine explore the 2014 Maidan protests, the ascendancy of fascists, civil war, and the threat of war with Russia.

This is a crucial historical document posing difficult strategic questions. We urge everyone to read and discuss it.

i guess we could have been posting “ukraine crisis” updates here

in preparing for a contingency like an active shooter learning how your adrenals react and doing work around that is important, a lot of people freeze in the moment or don’t have experience making choices in urgent situations and drilling even just playing games outside can be helpful in making reactions second nature or mitigating “deer in the headlights” responses

think carefully about this and don’t take us at our word, but in our lived experience with active shooters if you’re close and you feel you have the capacity rushing can save lives and your own if there’s no cover. most active shooters that are taken down are tackled or pepper-sprayed then tackled but it’s obviously a dangerous and chaotic situation. of course taking cover and returning fire if possible may well be preferable if you’re over six feet away.

Our hearts go out to our comrades in Portland and everyone else who experiences gun violence.

A demonstrator’s guide to body armor:

https://cwc.im/BodyArmor

A demonstrator’s guide to responding to gunshot wounds:

https://cwc.im/GunshotWounds

Our love and gratitude to street medics.

🇺🇦🇷🇺

Putin has began deploying self defensive and per regime change style rhetoric after he moved forces into the separatist areas. His forces have now begun long range missile and other strikes on military infrastructure. No solid information about troops moving past the separatist lines. Lots of misinfo out there. It is possible the invasion is a feint to take the ports and normalize troop presence in the separatist areas. We shall see.

Hours after a Russian disinformation campaign falsely claimed Russian paratroopers took Kiev’s airport, corroborated video shows that Russian forces have seemingly taken an airport just west of Kiev.

https://twitter.com/natashabertrand/status/1496849053824471041?s=21

🇺🇦 🇷🇺 Russian offensive in Ukraine daily update via Le Beck Intelligence, February 25th.

Pretty funny to see lefties handwringing about the Ukrainian state sharing reproducible tactics like making petrol bombs saying it’s going to get teens killed. As if people can’t think for themselves and aren’t just already living in a war zone. As if it doesn’t take everything a population’s got to stop an invasion like this.

The Eight Rules of Urban Warfare by John Spencer

1. The urban defender has the advantage.

2. The urban terrain reduces the attacker’s advantages in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, the utility of aerial assets, and the attacker’s ability to engage at distance.

3. The defender can see and engage the attacker coming, because the attacker has limited cover and concealment.

4. Buildings serve as fortified bunkers that must be negotiated.

5. Attackers must use explosive force to penetrate buildings.

6. The defender maintains relative freedom of maneuver within the urban terrain.

7. The underground serves as the defender’s refuge.

8. Neither the attacker nor the defender can concentrate their forces against the other.

further reading https://twitter.com/spencerguard/status/1497583307504046087?s=21

How ambitious are Russia’s foreign policy objectives, and how much force does Moscow believe it must employ to achieve them?

https://www.fpri.org/article/2022/01/moscows-compellence-strategy/