Kkarkiv (Ukraine): Nazis and Police Attack ‘Autonomia’ Squat

From Ukraine to Greece, one coalition: Nazi and police!

On Sunday evening a band of neo-nazis attacked the Kharkiv-based social/cultural center “Autonomia”, which provides shelter for internally displaced persons from war-torn regions of Eastern Ukraine. Activists and shelter residents successfully repelled the attack, as well as the previous two ones that had happened before. The mere fact of attacks against such an institution which was set up by anarchists from Autonomous Workers’ Union and other groups entirely by themselves on the basis of an abandoned and ruined building, raises a major concern.

On September 2nd, the following afternoon after the last nazi attack, the police violently stormed the squat, using tear gas and seizing all the hardware, and proceeded to “invite” its inhabitants to the police station of Chervonozavodsky district charging them with squatting the abandoned building. The captives were required to close down the squat and cease all further improvement to the building. In light of the fact that city administration knew about the squat’s existence, as well as of it being inhabited by IDPs, we find an amazing coincidence in the police raid after a series of failed attacks by neo-Nazis.

At this time, when members of anarchist class movement are helping people who were forced to leave their homes due to warfare and threat posed by pro-russian combatants, as well as organizing lectures, self-education meetings, concerts and other events, neo-Nazis are spreading violence and hatred in their own city under the guise of love to Ukraine and to the “white race”. Meanwhile, the police acts to cover them up. Autonomous Workers’ Union calls upon all progressive forces of Ukrainian society to banish neo-nazis and police from the field of socially acceptable lest they banish us all.

Zero tolerance to Nazi scum!

Autonomous Workers’ Union