Researchers find how tiny plastics slip through the environment

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

Washington State University researchers have shown the fundamental mechanisms that allow tiny pieces of plastic bags and foam packaging at the nanoscale to move through the environment.

The researchers found that a silica surface such as sand has little effect on slowing down the movement of the plastics, but that natural organic matter resulting from decomposition of plant and animal remains can either temporarily or permanently trap the nanoscale plastic particles, depending on the type of plastics.

The work, published in the journal Water Research, could help researchers develop better ways to filter out and clean up pervasive plastics from the environment. The researchers include Indranil Chowdhury, assistant professor in WSU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, along with Mehnaz Shams and Iftaykhairul Alam, recent graduates of the civil engineering program.

"We're looking at developing a filter that can be more efficient at removing these plastics," Chowdhury said. "People have seen these plastics escaping into our drinking water, and our current drinking water system is not adequate enough to remove these micro and nanoscale plastics. This work is the first fundamental way to look at those mechanisms."

Around since the 1950s, plastics have properties that make them useful for modern society. They are water resistant, cheap, easy to manufacture and useful for a huge variety of purposes. However, plastics accumulation is becoming a growing concern around the world with giant patches of plastic garbage floating in the oceans and plastic waste showing up in the most remote areas of the world.

"Plastics are a great invention and so easy to use, but they are so persistent in the environment," Chowdhury said.

After they're used, plastics degrade through chemical, mechanical and biological processes to micro- and then nano-sized particles less than 100 nanometers in size. Despite their removal in some wastewater treatment plants, large amounts of micro and nanoscale plastics still end up in the environment. More than 90% of tap water in the U.S. contains nanoscale plastics, Chowdhury said, and a 2019 study found that people eat about five grams of plastic a week or the amount of plastic in a credit card. The health effects of such environmental pollution is not well understood.

"We don't know the health effects, and the toxicity is still unknown, but we continue to drink these plastics every day," said Chowdhury.

As part of the new study, the researchers studied the interactions with the environment of the tiniest particles of the two most common types of plastics, polyethylene and polystyrene, to learn what might impede their movement. Polyethylene is used in plastic bags, milk cartons and food packaging, while polystyrene is a foamed plastic that is used in foam drinking cups and packaging materials.

In their work, the researchers found that the polyethylene particles from plastic bags move easily through the environment - whether through a silica surface like sand or natural organic matter. Sand and the plastic particles repel each other similarly to like-poles of a magnet, so that the plastic won't stick to the sand particles. The plastic particles do glom onto natural organic material that is ubiquitous in natural aquatic environment but only temporarily. They can be easily washed off with a change in chemistry in the water.

"That's bad news for polyethylene in the environment," said Chowdhury. "It doesn't stick to the silica surface that much and if it sticks to the natural organic matter surface, it can be re-mobilized. Based on these findings, it indicates that nanoscale polyethylene plastics may escape from our drinking water treatment processes, particularly filtration."

In the case of polystyrene particles, the researchers found better news. While a silica surface was not able to stop its movement, organic matter did. Once the polystyrene particles stuck to the organic matter, they stayed in place.

The researchers hope that the research will eventually help them develop filtration systems for water treatment facilities to remove nanoscale particles of plastics.

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The work was funded by the State of Washington Water Research Cente

DISARM, DEFUND, DISBAND POLICE

Trustees vote to end program assigning uniformed police officers to Vancouver schools 

VANCOUVER — Uniformed police officers will no longer be assigned to Vancouver public schools after trustees voted to end its school liaison officer program.

Provided by The Canadian Press

The program had been under review for almost a year due to concerns that uniformed officers make some students anxious or upset, including many identifying as Black, Indigenous or people of colour.

Trustees voted eight to one Monday in favour of a motion to halt the program at the end of June.

The decision is supported by several groups, including the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council and associations representing elementary and secondary school teachers in the city.

The school board said it will now work with Vancouver police and RCMP to create what the motion defines as a "new relationship" developing "trauma-informed approaches to working with children and youth."

The Vancouver Police Department is disappointed about the "political decision" made by trustees, Deputy Chief Const. Fiona Wilson said in a statement Tuesday.

Video: The VSB’s school liaison program is coming to an end (Global News)

The department had in recent months "strongly declared its desire to make changes to the (student liaison officer) program, in collaboration with all stakeholders, to address the concerns that have been raised," she said.

The end of the program "leaves a big gap in relationship building" and decreases safety for youth and staff in schools, Wilson said.

Media relations officer Sgt. Steve Addison said in a separate statement that police were open to an "evolving" relationship that could include roles for plainclothes officers in city schools.

The lone dissenting vote came from trustee Jennifer Reddy, who said in an email she didn't support the motion because it wasn't clear enough that police will be removed from schools, rather it outlined what the next steps are for working with them.

"Instead of focusing on students and listening to parent and teacher groups who all supported a clear end to the program," she said, the decision prioritized the relationship between the school board and police.

Reddy said the review process for the program and the resulting motion, with its conditions and amendments, demonstrates how often Indigenous and Black voices are ignored and sidelined in decision-making.

The New Westminster school board is also set to vote Tuesday on a recommendation that it discontinue the child and youth liaison officer program and "redesign" the relationship with the local police department.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April

Edmonton Public pushes for non-confidence vote on Alberta draft curriculum at provincial school boards meeting

Lauren Boothby

EDMONTON JOURNAL

4/27/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Edmonton Public School board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks.

The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) will be asking for a non-confidence vote on the draft K-6 curriculum at a spring meeting of the Alberta School Board Association (ASBA) in June.

Trustees passed a motion 6-2 Tuesday afternoon that, if the resolution is approved and passes at the ASBA meeting, would see the association lobby the government to halt the curriculum pilots and demand a rewrite. It says the draft is rife with errors and plagiarism, is not age-appropriate, and it does not reflect the province’s diversity.

EPSB chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks said the proposed emergent resolution is based on feedback from local parents and families, as well as the curriculum experts and others who criticized the draft publicly.

“The committee felt that, based on feedback, that more than a pause is required,” she said.

“If we believe that this curriculum is not good for kids in Edmonton Public, I believe we need to be strong in what we are asking for.”

The proposed motion also notes the Metis Nation of Alberta and Chiefs of Treaty 6’s call to reject the curriculum as it “perpetuates rather than addresses systemic racism.”

Estabrooks, along with trustees Michael Janz, Shelagh Dunn, Michelle Draper, Bridget Stirling, and Nathan Ip voted in favour of the motion. Trustees Ken Gibson and Sherry Adams opposed.

Prior to the vote, Gibson and Adams said while they heard from parents, teachers and others about flaws – both acknowledged signifiant concerns with portions of it – they didn’t want to make the recommendation before hearing from EPSB’s own curriculum experts.

Both also questioned the board’s right to tell other boards what to do.

Stirling noted all motions reviewed at ASBA are raised by boards individually and their recommendations are not binding, and that the curriculum as it exists needs to be revised not thrown out completely.

Around 40 Alberta school boards have publicly declined to try out the draft curriculum – Wetaskiwin Public Schools, Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools , and Palliser School Division joined the growing list on Tuesday.

The board’s own curriculum experts will also be reviewing the draft curriculum, Superintendent Darrel Robertson said.

Also during the meeting, trustees also asked staff to look into how the division can offer free menstrual products to students’ school washrooms, including the possibility of having costs covered by a third party.

7-12 could stay home longer

The division is still facing some supply teacher shortages – between 20 to 25 every day across the division – despite Grades 7 to 12 classes going online last Thursday for a two-week “circuit-breaker” amid rising cases, Robertson said Tuesday.

He said the division doesn’t want to move classes online for younger students as that is “incredibly disruptive” to families.

“Right now we’re looking at our (Grades) 7 to 12 experience and whether or not there’s a need to extend that time that our students are online,” he said.

After the meeting Tuesday, Estabrooks told reporters the division had not formally requested the province allow them to keep those students online longer, but she said that move was “absolutely the right decision” to relieve pressure on the K-6 system amid a surge in cases.

But she thinks the last thing parents want is a “COVID coaster” where students go back to class only to be sent home again a short while later.

lboothby@postmedia.com

KULTURE KAMPF

Black Conservative addresses an Alberta Christian University and a free speech fight breaks out, 

Sey, an anti-abortion activist with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform who also runs the blog SlowtoWrite and has contributed to many conservative websites, spoke to students over Zoom on Feb. 4.

Tyler Dawson NATIONAL POST 4/27/2021

EDMONTON — An Alberta Christian university student council has disavowed its own apology, issued after a Black History Month speaker denied the existence of systemic racism in a speech on Biblical definitions of racism.

© Provided by National Post Samuel Sey at his Brampton, Ont., home on Monday. In a speech, he denied systemic racism based on Biblical definitions.

Last Monday, Ambrose University in Calgary said the speech, given in February by Samuel Sey, a conservative activist, blogger and Christian who is Black, “caused severe harm” to some students.


“As a Christian, what I was saying should not be controversial to them at all, but because they disagree with what the Bible says on racism, it becomes offensive to them,” Sey told the National Post on Monday. “They are essentially, by attacking me, attacking the Bible; I didn’t go there to share my opinion, I was going there to explain what the Bible says about racism.”

The apology, which was retracted Thursday, said the student council had “invited speakers to come and speak to our student body who have caused harm and offence with the words that they have spoken.”

An updated post detailed Ambrose’s commitment to free expression and intellectual diversity.

“Each person has their own experiences and we believe that by having healthy discussions and learning different world views that we have the opportunity to expand our horizons,” the statement says.

The apology was “never intended to be public and sought only to provide support for those students who had been emotionally affected,” the statement says.

Sey, an anti-abortion activist with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform who also runs the blog SlowtoWrite and has contributed to many conservative websites, spoke to students over Zoom on Feb. 4.

The event was in honour of Black History Month, according to an Ambrose Student Council Facebook post.

It was intended “as part of our commitment to fostering conversations about racism and how we can support members of our community who have experienced racism,” the student council said in an email to the National Post.

Sey provided his notes for the speech to the Post. It opens with a question and a proposition: “If I asked you, what’s the best anti-racist book today, what would you say?”

“If we say anything other than the Bible we’re completely and destructively wrong.”

Sey argues that racism is determined by intention, not outcome, if you go by the Biblical definition. He cites two books of the Bible: 2 Timothy and James, arguing the “Christian definition of racism is that it’s partiality, or bias against someone because of their skin colour.”

It means “our opinions, feelings and experiences do not determine what’s racist,” he concludes. “Racial disparities between white people and black people do not prove racism…. A lack of diversity or representation doesn’t determine what’s racist.”

Sey also suggests there needs to be “a policy or law within a system — especially our political system — that shows partiality for white people or partiality against black people.” Absent that, there cannot be systemic racism, he says.

“I know no one here today can identify a single racist law,” he says.

According to the student council statement, his views — and the event itself — “caused some members of the community to feel as though Ambrose did not support their lived experience of systemic racism.”

“I guess they didn’t expect what would come out of my mouth,” Sey told the Post.

© Peter J. Thompson/National Post “My skin colour does not define truth. As Christians, the Bible is supposed to define what’s true,” says cultural blogger Samuel Sey.

He said he did ask the students to feel free to offer criticism.

“I don’t want anyone to be afraid to challenge me because of my skin colour,” he said. “My skin colour does not define truth. As Christians, the Bible is supposed to define what’s true.”

The Ambrose student council said that Sey was vetted, but that they feel the process fell short for this event.

“As a result, we have amended our vetting process so that we may better inform students about topics that are being discussed especially when they may conflict with lived experiences and convictions,” it said. “This process is not intended to reduce the variety of voices on our campus but to more clearly inform.”

Sey said that statements intended to respect and support people of colour and their lived experiences ring hollow.

“Clearly they only mean the lived experiences of black people that’s approved by Robin DiAngelo (the author of White Fragility) and themselves,” Sey said. “When they say they are allies of people of colour, they really only mean some people.”

Leading scientists urge UK to share Covid vaccines with poorer nations

YOU EXPECT THIS FROM A GOVT THAT CUT INTERNATIONAL AID

Sarah Boseley THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021

Leading scientists are urging the UK to share the Covid vaccines it has bought with India and other nations, to tackle the soaring death toll and reduce the spread of the virus and new variants around the world.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said rich countries including the UK that have bought up most of the vaccine supply “urgently need to start sharing these doses with the rest of the world, alongside national rollouts in their own countries, and through the Covax programme. And they must set out a timetable for how these donations will be increased as they vaccinate more of their populations domestically.”

© Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPA A Kashmiri man receives the Covid vaccine in Srinagar. Only one in 500 people in low-income countries have been vaccinated.

Writing in the Guardian, Farrar called on the UK to lead the world, through its presidency of the G7. “We have already vaccinated over half of our population – including those who are most at risk from Covid-19. In fact, the UK has given almost as many doses to its own citizens than Covax has been able to ship to 120 countries in dire need of jabs,” he said.

Covax, the UN-based initiative to get vaccines to the most vulnerable 20% of the population of every country, has managed to deliver only a fifth of the doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected by May, because of global shortages and problems with supply.

One in four people in high-income countries are now protected but only one in 500 in low-income countries, where unvaccinated health workers are still putting their lives on the line. The US has announced it will give India 60m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet licensed for use in the US.

Farrar said sharing vaccines was in every country’s self-interest. “The shores Covid now rages upon may seem distant to some, but the reality is that so long as the virus continues to spread in other countries, it continues to be a threat to everyone. If we allow Covid-19 to keep spreading, it will go on evolving, increasing the risk of new variants that could cross borders and evade vaccines and treatments.”

Farrar’s views are shared by other leading scientists in the UK, as well as the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has talked of the “moral outrage” of vaccines for rich countries but not the poor and called for countries to share.

Prof Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the UK needed to get to the point where all adults are vaccinated, but added: “Globally, leaders need to be saying how can we make sure that the world’s population is not dying in front of us, which we are seeing at the moment.

“If we continue to focus on vaccinating younger and younger age groups in the high income countries, when there are many thousands of people dying who are not getting the vaccine. I don’t think that’s a situation that’s acceptable. So, if the question to me is, should we be rethinking where we are. I think the answer is yes, we should be, because the only way that we can stop those people dying next month is by vaccinating them this month.”

The grim scenes playing out in India are increasing the pressure on rich countries to act. Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: “The Covid-19 situation in India is currently uncontrollable. India needs to vaccinate as many people as possible to stop the transmission of this virus.

“We must share our vaccines with them to control further infection and death. Vaccination is key to controlling every aspect of Covid going forward, for India and for all of us.”

Prof Beate Kampmann, the director of LSHTM’s vaccine centre, said the UK had ordered five times the amount of vaccines it needed for its population. Rather than give vaccines to the under-30s whose risk is low in pursuit of some concept of herd immunity, politicians should give them to the most vulnerable people in India and other countries to save lives.

“As far as the UK is concerned, I think the kind of approach of going for what we think is an elusive concept of herd immunity rather than sharing vaccines across the globe to prevent deaths is a huge mistake,” she said.

Some argue that vaccines will not help those who are suffering now in India’s hospitals for want of treatment. “But that doesn’t mean there are not other places, including in India, where vaccines can have a rapid life-saving impact,” she said.

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said he liked the idea of a “tithe” for countries such as the UK, put forward by Prof Gavin Yamey of the Duke Global Health Institute in the US. For every nine vaccines given in the UK, one would be donated to Covax.

“The UK is in the enviable position of having vaccinated virtually all of our elderly and vulnerable populations and other priority groups such as healthcare workers. It would be very reasonable to suggest that some of the vaccine rollout now be distributed internationally to countries of high need,” said Head.

WATER IS LIFE 

Tribes without clean water demand an end to decades of US government neglect

A NORTH AMERICAN WHITE STATE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Nina Lakhani THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021


The US government’s haphazard approach to providing Indigenous American tribes with clean drinking water and sanitation must be radically transformed to tackle decades of underfunding and neglect, according to a new report.

An estimated one in 10 Indigenous Americans lack access to safe tap water or basic sanitation – without which a host of health conditions including Covid-19, diabetes, and gastrointestinal disease are more likely.

Among the most affected by water issues are 30 tribes within the Colorado River Basin (CRB), located across California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, according to researchers from the University of Utah and Colorado in the Water and Tribes Initiative.

Reduced rainfall and droughts linked to the climate crisis are further straining supply issues such as inadequate and ageing infrastructure, legacy contaminants, insufficient technical capacity within tribes, and limited revenue streams.

Unlike towns and cities, tribes cannot raise money through property taxes as reservation lands are held in trust by the federal government. But while the root causes vary from tribe to tribe, the overriding issue is the absence of an adequately funded comprehensive government policy to make good on treaty obligations. In exchange for the cession of millions of acres of lands to white settlers, tribes were promised a permanent homeland, a livable reservation, and a home conducive to health and prosperity

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© Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images Navajo people line up in their vehicles to collect water and supplies from a distribution point, as the Covid-19 virus spreads through the Navajo Nation, in Monument Valley at the Utah and Arizona border last year.

“These promises are broken when we do not have clean water to drink, to cook with, and to wash as required to avoid the spread of this deadly disease,” said leaders of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Ten Tribes Partnership and the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe.

Provided by The Guardian Amanda Larson, who has no running water at her home, carries water for her son Gary Jr to have a bath in the Navajo Nation town of Thoreau in New Mexico last year. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

They added: “Helping to provide clean water to us, throughout Indian Country, benefits everyone, and its absence correspondingly jeopardizes the health of the entire United States of America.”

In the US, race – not where you live or income level – is the most significant predictor of plumbing poverty, with Indigenous households 19 times more likely than white households to lack indoor pipes for running water and sanitation.

Several CRB tribes suffer from plumbing poverty, including 30% to 40% of all Navajo Nation residents, who are 67 times more likely than other Americans to live without running water. The cost of hauling water is at least 70 times more expensive than piped water. The Navajo Nation has a diabetes crisis because sugary drinks are more readily available and cheaper than potable water.

Indigenous Americans have died from Covid-19, a highly contagious virus which requires good hygiene to curtail the spread, at twice the rate of white Americans, with CRB tribes like the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache suffering disproportionately.

FIRST NATIONS ARE NORTH AMERICANS
Related: ‘An indescribable moment’: Indigenous nation in US has right to lands in Canada, court rules

Last year’s Cares Act included $5m to support installation of temporary water stations and storage tanks, but tribal leaders were unable to invest the money in urgently needed infrastructure because of an arbitrary time limit on spending. An estimated $4.5bn is needed to address the widespread lack of water access on the Navajo reservation, which is bigger than West Virginia.

Contaminated water is also pervasive in Indian Country, and out west in particular, where mining companies have left groundwater sources with elevated levels of toxic chemicals like arsenic and uranium. An estimated 75% of residents on the Hopi reservation are forced to use drinking water laced with arsenic, which poses serious health risks including cancers and birth defects.

The Trump administration approved $5m towards building a new water system on the Hopi reservation, but that is only 25% of the estimated construction cost and provides nothing towards operation and maintenance of the new pipeline.

Researchers say that the Hopi case exemplifies the limits of the government’s current piecemeal approach: federal grants are too small, require complicated applications to a myriad of agencies and almost never take into account running costs. Tribal consultation – which is key to crafting tailored solutions – is mostly absent.

But this is a pivotal moment, many activists say. They believe Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, known as the American Jobs Plan, is an opportunity to remove bureaucratic barriers and right decades of wrongs denying Indigenous Americans access to safe tap water and sanitation.

SUPERSTITION TO COVER FOR MISOGYNISTIC FEMICIDE
Two women tortured in latest sorcery-related attack in Papua New Guinea

Lyanne Togiba in Port Moresby 
THE GUARDIAN

4/27/2021

Two women have been brutally attacked in Port Moresby by up to 20 men after being accused of witchcraft, in the latest instance of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea.© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

The women were tortured and burnt with hot irons for hours on Sunday in a settlement at 5 Mile in the capital.

One woman managed to escape and ran down a hill before she was rescued by police. She said she was being interrogated by the male perpetrators and pressured to admit to the killing of another woman who died earlier in the week

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© Photograph: David Gray/Reuters The attack occurred in Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby.

Related: 'They just slaughter them': how sorcery violence spreads fear across Papua New Guinea

Police found the second woman badly wounded and bound with ropes, lying in a garden. Both had very severe injuries.

Community leader Elliot Raphael said the incident was shocking and that a solution needed to be found to address the issue of violence against women immediately.




“All we know was that the ladies were picked up in the morning and interrogated, and from there we don’t know what happened before they were tortured and now this,” said Raphael.

The women were treated on the scene and taken to hospital. St John Ambulance chief executive Mathew Cannon confirmed the women were being treated for serious head and leg injuries. They will receive counselling support.

National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Supt Gideon Ikumu said up to 20 men fled before police arrived at the scene, but that the identities of the men were known to them.

“I strongly condemn these crimes and request the families and relatives of the two victims to come forward and provide their statements,” he said.

Sorcery violence – known as Sorcery Accusation Related Violence, or SARV – is persistent in PNG. This latest attack prompted outrage among senior police officers and politicians.

“People must change their mindset as we are living in a modern growing city. Police will ensure those responsible are brought to justice,” said Anthony Wagambie Jr, divisional commander NCD and central assistant commissioner.

NCD governor, Powes Parkop said: “I am totally disgusted and disappointed by the actions of the men who tortured the two women in the nation’s capital. I am appalled that men continue to believe and practice such barbaric practices in this day and age. The fact that it could still happen in the capital city shows we are a long way away from ending gender-based violence, and sorcery accusatory violence in particular.”

He said there was an urgent need to fund the National Gender Based Violence Secretariat and allocate funds to get the National Gender Based Violence strategy 2016-2026 rolled out as soon as possible.

“The strategy has been developed and these barbaric acts are allowed to continue because we have not funded the implementation of the strategy. It means we must multiply our efforts … to stop such violence and change behaviour and attitude. We are too slow at all levels.”

USA FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Profane Snapchat center of high court speech case

Duration: 02:17

After having a really bad day in 2017, Fourteen-year-old Brandi Levy posted a profanity-laced Snapchat post which has, improbably, ended up before the the U.S. Supreme Court in the most significant case on student speech in more than 50 years. (April 26)

20 anarchist communities around the world


Erin Daley 2021-04-15
ESPRESSO

ANARCHIST GAMES

20 anarchist communities around the world


Throughout history, communities with anarchist philosophies have sprung up around the world. Members have formed intentional communities, stateless societies, and autonomous regions, sometimes through tightly controlled memberships, other times through loose associations for a common cause. Here’s a look at 20 anarchist communities around the world, some that are still functioning today.



 © Instagram @christiania_freetown_denr

Freetown Christiania – Denmark

Founded in 1971 as a “permanent squat in a former military complex,” Freetown Christiania is an intentional community of roughly a thousand members located on nearly eight hectares (20 acres) in Copenhagen. The self-reliant, DIY community, famous for its tolerance for using and selling marijuana, has supported itself over the years by operating bars and restaurants, organizing cultural events, and manufacturing bicycles.

Still operating today, the “breakaway anarchist commune” is now subject to Danish regulations and struggles to maintain its original anti-establishment values due to rising costs caused by tourism and gentrification.

See photo on Instagra





During the Ukrainian Revolution (1917 to 1921)

Which overthrew the old regime, and the Bolshevik uprising which, after signing a peace treaty, “allowed the Germany and Austria-Hungary Axis alliance to occupy Ukraine,” Nestor Makhno, a prisoner released during this tumultuous period, attempted to set up a “stateless society organized under anarchist principles.”


In 1918, rejecting political parties, dictatorships, and a centralized state, the Makhnovists fought to reclaim the land to create worker-based communes and cooperatives. At their peak, they had amassed 100,000 troops and controlled an area occupied by roughly 7 million people. By 1921, however, they were defeated by the Bolsheviks.



Shinmin Prefecture – China

Between 1929 and 1931, in Manchuria’s rural province of Shinmin, 2 million Korean migrants operated their own autonomous anarchist region. Villagers set up their own form of government through assemblies and councils, which oversaw “agriculture, education, finance, military affairs, and health.”

Despite organizing a militia, the self-governing communities were ultimately unable to defend themselves against attacks by Japan and the Stalinists.






Zomia – Southeast Asia

You won’t find Zomia on an official map. The term was coined by Dutch historian Willem van Schendel in 2002 to describe the vast and remote mountainous area in Southeast Asia, spanning from the Vietnamese highlands to the Tibetan plateau and over to Afghanistan.

In his 2009 book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, Yale professor James C. Scott argues that the area’s 100 million inhabitants, made up of a wide mix of small ethnic groups, live in stateless “egalitarian societies” free from “taxation, conscription, and forced labor.”




Rojava – Syria

Rojava (the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) is a decentralized autonomous region in northeastern Syria that is actively resisting the Islamic State. The area, established in 2012, is home to some 5 million residents—a mix of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Yazidis, and other groups who have come together to promote “radically democratic and decentralised self-governance, equity between genders, regenerative agriculture, a justice system based on reconciliation, and inclusion of minorities.”

The area is currently facing “extreme violence and genocide” from the Turkish invasion, which seeks to crush the movement and occupy Rojava.






Puerto Real – Spain

The seaport of Puerto Real in southern Spain is home to a unique community of shipyard workers who successfully organized and resisted the proposed shipyard closures with the help of the anarcho-syndicalist union CNT.

In 1987, the shipyard workers began engaging in direct action, including blockading the main road in protest. Building on their success, they went on to fight for other causes, including health and economic issues

This past summer, six blocks of downtown Seattle were occupied by protesters clashing with police following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police.

After police ceded the zone, known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest or CHOP, the area became an impromptu, largely peaceful autonomous commune, with protesters making demands such as defunding the Seattle Police Department. Less than a month later, however, CHOP was dismantled by police, due in large part to the four shootings which took place there, two of which were fatal.

APRIL 28 DAY OF MOURNING/WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY (USA)

AKA THE DAY OF MOURNING IN CANADA AND AROUND THE WORLD