Snitch – Dark Nights

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In 2022, the section of the International Workers Association in the region of Russia called for a boycott of the provocateurs, Anatoly Dubovik and Alexander Kolchenko. The statement said:

“The latter means that these fake anarchists, by publishing the addresses of anti-war activists located in Russia, are directly inciting Russian secret services and nationalist thugs against them, as opponents of the war, in order to deal with them with their hands! In the conditions of ongoing harassment, dismissals, threats and physical repression against anti-military-minded people in Russia, such actions are tantamount to real denunciation with a direct indication of whom the repressive forces should turn their attention to.”

It is now necessary to reiterate this issue. The snitches Kolchenko and Dubovik continue to be given space while their intrigues are concealed or downplayed. Both continue to organize support for the Ukrainian State in the name of anarchism, and others provide media space for their war propaganda. Specifically, these include Ondrej Slačálek (1) in the academic journal Kontradikce, the Anarchist Federation website, the Belarusian website pramen.io (2) and the Russian-language website avtonom.org. Kolchenko and Dubovik are denouncing our anarchist comrades in the region of Russia, therefore they deserve contempt. Slačálek, the editors of afed.cz and others who uncritically support the denunciators must all accept the consequences.

For those who are not yet familiar with the context, here are some important facts. Kolchenko and Dubovik made use of doxing, i.e. the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about anarchists who, in times of war, oppose a State that applies an aggressive war policy. Anarchists obviously oppose all States that engage in war. It must be taken into account that at the same time as the Russian State is invading Ukraine, it is also cracking down very harshly on any anti-militarist criticism and activity. Those who were relatively “safe” to declare their anti-militarist position in Russia before the outbreak of the war are now, for security reasons, expressing their position covertly. The risk for open anti-militarism is now too great, and people are ending up in jail for even just standing with an anti-war picket in a public place.

In wartime, Kolchenko and Dubovik broke the anonymity of the anarchists and deliberately used doxing as a means to expose them to harassment or legal sanctions by the State. After the information about the doxers’ activities was disseminated, they attempted to deny everything. The article “Lies are being spread about Ukrainian anarchist Anatoli Dubovik” was precisely intended to do that. However, shortly after its publication, evidence was presented. It turned out that there was an attempt on the part of the denunciators to cover their tracks by falsifying the content of the history of posts on the Facebook profile. The editors of Autonomous Action first retracted the article, and it was clear from a brief comment that the reason for the retraction was that the original text had proven the guilt of Dubovik and Kolchenko. Later, however, even this justification was replaced on the website by another. However, this is so vague that a person without knowledge of the context can hardly understand what actually happened. The original article is replaced by the following text:

“This blog has been retracted as it included erroneous results of an investigation due to technical issues with the Facebook. Eventually all the contents had to be removed because they could gain access to some personal information. Apologies to everyone involved.”

By the way, the context is well illustrated by the post in the discussion below this statement:

“You are lying. We can all see that the comment has indeed been edited as well check its edit history, where we easily see that Dubovik has indeed been doxing people.”

One thing is sure. Certain structures are consciously engaging in war, defending the Ukrainian State and reproducing NATO’s war propaganda. According to the logic of “those who are not with us are against us”, they are ready to jointly destroy their opponents in the anarchist milieu. These people are open to side with anyone who says the same things about the war as they do, even if it means siding with denunciators.

History is replete with examples of how revolutionaries deal with denunciators and their accomplices. Snitches must expect that there may be a strong response.

Anti-Militarist Initiative [ AMI ], April 2024

Notes:

(1) We mention Slačalek specifically because he was the one who pushed for the publication of the texts by Dubovik and Kolchenko in Kontradikce, despite the criticism of his colleagues. Although he claims that he did not know about the activities of the informers before, he continues to defend the provision of space for their voices. Among other things, he said: “(…) This enquiry is not a political act, but an attempt at a cognitive procedure of a professional journal, although certainly a journal with a certain profile. So, yes, under certain circumstances I can imagine that I would address people with an even more unacceptable profile to the enquiry of such a journal (…)”.

(2) Pramen.io, for example, published the following text, which quotes Dubovik as a relevant source without any critical reflection: Vadim Damier’s Myth of “Classical Anarchist Internationalism” https://pramen.io/ru/2023/08/otvet-na-tezisy-vadima-dame-o-vojne-mezhdu-ukrainoj-i-rf/ (published on 21/08/2023)

A 30-year manhunt ended in the heart of Berlin when police special forces arrested former Red Army Faction guerrilla fighter Daniela Klette. She is one of the famous RAF trio, three ex-militants still on the run and among the most wanted in Germany. This trio emerged from the leadership of the third and final generation of the urban guerrilla group.

The arrest of Klette in Berlin marked the end of her successful evasion of authorities for over 30 years. Klette, now 66 years old, was found in an apartment where ammunition was allegedly discovered. Her identity, allegedly, was confirmed through her fingerprints.

Alongside Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, they have managed to elude capture for decades. The arrest in Berlin could tighten the circle around her comrades.

The arrest followed a recently launched public manhunt, also screened across Germany on billboards. Additionally, police forces raided relatives’ homes associated with the RAF trio in early 2023 in search of clues about the wanted revolutionaries.

Klette had been involved in left-wing revolutionary groups since 1975. She primarily engaged in Germany’s anti-NATO movement before affiliating herself with the RAF’s supporters network and eventually joining the group.

The RAF carried out attacks agaist imperialist, capitalist and state targets. The revolutionary organization was founded in 1970 and disbaned in 1998. They were particularly active during the 70s and 80s.

In the 1980′, the trio allegedly partly formed the command level of the third generation of the RAF. The third generation coordinated with other European guerrilla struggles like the Italian Red Brigades, and concentrated attacks against US and NATO targets, like the 1981 bombing of the US Air Force headquarters in Ramstein.

The bourgeois state alleges that Klette was involved in the very last RAF action which was a huge explosion targeting Weiterstadt prison in 1993. The attack is considered to be the most technically perfected attack incomparable in terms of damage to other RAF actions.*

Source: Abolition Media

DN Note

On 27 March 1993, the Red Army Faction (RAF) Command Katharina Hammerschmidt bombed and destroyed a newly built prison in Weiterstadt, near Frankfurt am Main in Germany. It was the RAF’s last major action before it dissolved. At least three armed and masked men and a woman climbed a high wall and entered the guardhouse around 1 am. The terrorists tied the 10 guards and locked them in a van near a landfill. They then brought in five cargoes with 200 kg of explosives. At 5:12 am, the explosives were detonated. RAF`s Command Katharina Hammerschmidt warned the population with signs that the prison was about to be blown up and asked them to get to safety. The Weiterstadt prison took eight years to build and cost 250 million Marks ($155 million). It was designed to be multi-use and high-tech. The blast managed to destroy the administration building and much of its security system. At the time the prison was not holding inmates yet – they were expected by May. Over $90 million in damages was caused. The prison had to be rebuilt, which took another four years when it opened and received inmates in May 1997.

Link to PDF of the communique released by the Red Army Faction:

https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/en/0019930330%2520EN_2.pdf

The new citizen cop weapon ‘AI image search’

It has come to our attention from infomation passed on to us by comrades in Germany that the former member of Red Army Faction, Daniele Klette, was possibly identified using a new repressive weapon of ‘Artifical Intelligence image search’. The program in question is named as ‘PimEyes’, which was used apparently by an ‘investigative’ citizen cop journalist from the snitch ‘investigative’ website Bellingcat, who put the police wanted notice of Klette from the 1990s through the AI image search. PimEyes is a facial recognition search website that allows users to identify all images on the internet of a person given a sample image. It is comparable to the facial recognition company Clearview which is a notorious for providing software to law enforcement and government agencies and other organizations. The company’s algorithm matches faces to a database of more than 20 billion images collected from the Internet, including social media applications. Several Twitter users claim to have used it in an effort to identify US Capitol rioters, for example.

For several years she was involved in a Brazilian culture centre in the Kreuzberg district, where she practised capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines dance and fighting. It is thought that the discovery of photographs of her with her capoeira group at Berlin’s annual carnival led to her identification and arrest. The cops have yet to confirm the link between the arrest and a podcast from 2023.

The use of Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recogintion software is not only dangerous in the hands of the authorities but also in its widespread use by the have a go heroes and citizen cops. With the increase of surveillance technologies pernmeating through all society, from the smart phone camera to the doorbell camera. All of these are presented as for personal safety and security but in actual fact are leading to the self-surveillance of our entire environment. In the past computer technology was brought forward in Germany in respose to the Red Army Faction’s attacks. Computerisation of taxes, rental agreements, wages, etc were able to be used to narrow down what the German security forces named as ‘sympathisers’, a minimal group of people they could place under surveiilance that did not buy into their electronic system, who they deemed as avoiding it especially if they paid using cash.

The same tactics that were learnt during the 70’s and 80’s are now being upgraded not only by using the advanced technolgies but asking even more for the ‘responsible citizen’ to be their extra pair of eyes in the corners of the society they cannot reach. The expansion of crime fighting ‘private eye’ style entities on the internet and social media such as blogs and podcasts that have already been mentioned fuel even further the active participation of growing online private security industry, by not only private companies but by any citizen who feels the need to fill the void in their life by becoming a Dick Tracey or Imspector Gadget for the day.

This article is only to highlight once again the danger of technology to be used as a weapon to surveil those who dare to resist as the Red Army Faction did, which becomes a weapon easily used by the society to surveil itself in the aid of the authorities and cops.

For the urban guerrilla, against the new surveillance technologies and all the citizen cops

The Uncivilized