American Hindus, including two congressmen, raise alarm on Bangladesh violence

RIGHTEOUS CAUSE OR ISLAMOPHOBIA

(RNS) — ‘Hindus in Bangladesh continue to be targeted today — with their homes and businesses being destroyed and their temples vandalized,’ said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi on the House floor this week.

A new digital billboard about Bangladesh in California’s Bay Area. (Photo courtesy of United Hindu Council)

Richa Karmarkar
January 10, 2025

(RNS) — In the last weeks of 2024, several digital billboards paid for by the newly emerged United Hindu Council popped up around California’s Bay Area.

“Hindus, Buddhists, Christians living in fear in Bangladesh … Ask Yunus Why,” read one.

“Hindu monks are being arrested … Ask Yunus Why,” read another.

The tagline, a question directed toward Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader of Bangladesh’s government, asks for accountability on what many Hindus worldwide are calling targeted violence and discrimination against Hindus and other religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim nation. Since the ousting and resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August — a leader whose secular party historically held Hindu support — and the subsequent takeover by Yunus, Hindu advocates say the atrocities have increased with no consequence, including reports of the destruction of homes and houses of worship, looting of businesses and physical assaults by emboldened Bangladeshis.

Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu monk and vocal minority rights advocate formerly of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, was arrested in Bangladesh in November on charges of sedition after allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag. His arrest has led to protests, violent clashes and international condemnation, reaching a high after Das was denied bail and detained on Jan. 2 of this year.

Bangladeshi Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das shows a victory sign as he is taken in a police van after a court ordered him detained pending further proceedings in Chattogram in southeastern Bangladesh, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP photo)

In the months since the student-led coup against Hasina, Hindu advocacy organizations in the United States have been attempting to gain national attention for the estimated thousands of incidents, and more than 450 deaths, that have taken place against Hindus in Bangladesh. In October of last year, a large airline banner flew over the Hudson River, reading “End Hindu Genocide in Bangladesh.” Sewa USA, a disaster response nonprofit, has been steadily raising funds for Hindus fleeing violence for the past five months.

“People have been asking what they can do as individuals and constituents to let their voices be heard by those in power,” said Ramya Ramakrishnan of the Hindu American Foundation in a recent press release. “They are also tired of the biased media reports omitting accurate facts about the situation of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and therefore decided that they needed to take action themselves.”

RELATED: Bangladesh’s Hindus need protection amid the country’s political turmoil

This week, two Democratic Hindu members of Congress, Reps. Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi, publicly spoke out about the issue.

On Tuesday (Jan. 7), Khanna posted a video to his X account: “I had a long and productive call this morning with (Muhammad Yunus),” he wrote to his constituents. “He assured me that Bangladesh will do everything in its power to protect Hindus & people of all faiths from violence & religious persecution.”

The same day, Krishnamoorthi took to the House floor to raise further awareness among his lawmaker colleagues.

“Hindus in Bangladesh continue to be targeted today — with their homes and businesses being destroyed and their temples vandalized,” he said. “I have engaged with the State Department and called for action in Senate confirmation hearings, but we must do more. I urge my colleagues to act now to protect Bangladesh’s religious minorities.

“The world is watching, and we cannot let history repeat itself.”

U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi addresses the House of Representatives on Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Video screen grab)

Hindus now make up less than 8% of the Bangladeshi population after once accounting for 20%, a fact that many attribute in part to the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, in which Hindus were disproportionately killed, raped and displaced by the Pakistani military and its collaborators. This genocide of more than 2 million Hindus, acknowledged by a U.S. Congress resolution in 2022, caused a mass emigration of Bangladeshi Hindus to India, where many of their descendants remain today.

“It is galling to see (Muhammad Yunus’) continuous disregard for basic human rights, religious freedom and security for Bangladeshi Hindus,” the Coalition of Hindus of North America, an advocacy organization that has been mobilizing for action since August, posted on X. “We urge more lawmakers to speak up.”

Bengali American citizens have urged action at the Bangladesh Embassy, the White House and most recently, in Mar-a-Lago. The Hindu Bengali Society of Florida and other Hindus showed up to protest outside of President-elect Donald Trump’s home on Dec. 27, demanding the release of Chinmoy Krishna Das.

“We have gathered here today as Hindus from all across America,” said Dilip Nath, a former Democratic New York City Council candidate who traveled from the city to Florida. “Hindus, Buddhists and Christians are dying every day. This is our last option: to ask President-elect Trump to help the 18 million Hindus in Bangladesh. Intervene, help, please stop the genocide.”

Before the presidential election last year, Trump posted a message on X, saying, “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, & other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos… It would have never happened on my watch. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have ignored Hindus across the world and in America.” He has commented on the situation since being elected.

“President Trump will not stand for this!” another protester could be heard saying at the Florida protest. ”No one in America will stand for this!”

RELATED: Bangladesh’s Hindu-Buddhist-Christian council pushes for secular state

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism

A new opening for a Christian understanding of diversity

(RNS) — We don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to diversity.

First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., hosted hundreds of LGBTQ people and their allies May 1, 2024, for a celebratory sing-along after the United Methodist General Conference lifted a ban on gay ordination. (RNS photos/Yonat Shimron)

Charles C. Camosy
January 9, 2025

(RNS) — There’s not much we can say for sure about the political and cultural moment before us in the United States, but we can be fairly confident in saying that when it comes to matters of diversity, equity and inclusion we are not in Kansas anymore.

The dismantling of DEI came so quickly we hardly saw it. Donald Trump, who ended his first presidential term by trying to outlaw DEI programs, nonetheless gained significant and surprising support from the very people of color they are supposed to help, with even more surprising support from young Black and Brown voters. The unexpected support from these quarters, many argue, was decisive in his winning the popular vote by 2.3 million. Perhaps more oddly, Kamala Harris, selected for vice president in part because she would attract people of color and especially women of color, refused to emphasize this part of her identity on the campaign trail.

LGBTQ activists may also be asking what happened to DEI when it comes to matters of sex and gender. Harris spent the campaign defaulting to simply saying that she would “follow the law,” rather than giving a full-throated endorsement of gender ideology itself. Not unrelatedly, not long after the election, Democratic member of Congress and progressive leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took her preferred pronouns out of her Twitter/X bio. Meanwhile, The Washington Post editorial board has apparently reversed course on the question of whether science or ideology should guide the trans debate. 

Remarkable.

But suddenly, skepticism about all kinds of DEI abounds. Even The New York Times did a long and deeply reported piece on how DEI is failing in higher education, particularly at the University of Michigan, and a firm backlash from supporters of the old DEI guard could not save it. DEI appears to be in serious trouble at many other institutions of higher learning as well.

It would be a shame, however, if diversity, equity and inclusion became so completely tainted that they could never be employed in a positive way. Indeed, the concept of diversity in particular, properly understood, has a place in society, and Christian theology can help with this.

A central point must be acknowledged at the outset: A commitment to diversity only makes sense in the context of a larger and more foundational commitment to unity. The unity gives an explanation for the diversity. It tells us what it is for.

Consider an analogy from basketball: It is good to have diversity on one’s team — not random or neutral diversity, but a range of players: tall people who excel at rebounding and block shots, smaller, quicker ones who can shoot from long distance and handle the ball. Together, a diversity of types wins basketball games, which is the goal. It’s obvious that it doesn’t serve the unity with players who can’t run or who have poor hand-eye coordination.

But as Christians, who find our unity in making up the united body of Christ, we should not hide our unity, or grudgingly admit it, or speak about it only when pushed to the extremes. We can and should be clear and confident about it. The very notion of relationship, as Trinity-worshipping Christians believe, requires difference. We are many parts, baptized into the one body of Christ. We relate to each other for the good of the whole.

In fact, there really is no way of escaping our commitment to unity.

The problem with the understanding of diversity that is championed not only, but often intently, in higher education is that the unity, the reason for the commitment to diversity, is not openly acknowledged. “Every school has a statement of faith,” said a college president who had left the Ivy League to teach at a Christian institution. “Some just write them down.” (My thanks to Philip D. Bunn at Covenant College for this anecdote.)

In many academic contexts, in other words, there is an unspoken orthodoxy that gets dressed up as diversity. Candidates may meet hiring goals regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, religious preference or disability, but if they do not also meet an ideological litmus test, they are never hired. This happens in Christian contexts and secular ones, but as Christians we should explicitly and publicly embrace being united in our diversity. We should be forthright about our foundational commitments and how diversity is related to those commitments.

If we do so, we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to diversity. Christians can help the broader culture understand that there’s no neutral view from nowhere — we must acknowledge our commitment to a particular unity prior to diversity. We should all be upfront and clear about the particular unity that is driving our commitment to diversity. If we do, academia and the world will be in a better and more authentic place.

And the current moment may be one in which such a message could actually be heard.

(This column is based on a presentation at Beyond the Impasse: Theological Perspectives on DEI, a conference hosted by Princeton University’s Aquinas Institute.)

ONE OF THESE PEOPLE IS GAY

Anita Bryant, a popular singer who became known for opposition to gay rights,  and ERA dead at age 84

NEW YORK (AP)

 — Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, according to a statement posted by her family.

Anita Bryant is seen at a press conference in Miami Beach, Fla., on June 8, 1977. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson, File)
Associated Press
January 10, 2025


NEW YORK (AP) — Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma, Grammy-nominated singer and prominent booster of orange juice and other products who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84.

Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, according to a statement posted by her family to news site The Oklahoman on Thursday. The family did not list a cause of death.

Bryant was a Barnsdall native who began singing at an early age, and was just 12 when she hosted her own local television show. She was named Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and soon began a successful recording career. Her hit singles included “Till There Was You,” “Paper Roses” and “My Little Corner of the World.” A lifelong Christian, she received two Grammy nominations for best sacred performance and one for best spiritual performance, for the album “Anita Bryant … Naturally.

By the late 1960s, she was among the entertainers joining Bob Hope on his USO tours for troops overseas, had sung at the White House and performed at the national conventions for both the Democrats and Republicans in 1968. She also became a highly visible commercial spokesperson, her ads for Florida orange juice featuring the tag line, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”

But in the late 1970s, her life and career began a dramatically new path. Unhappy with the cultural changes of the time, Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Florida’s Miami-Dade County that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. Supported by the Rev. Jerry Falwell among others, Bryant and her “Save Our Children” coalition continued to oppose gay rights around the country, denouncing the “deviant lifestyle” of the gay community and calling gays “human garbage.”

Bryant became the object of much criticism in return. Activists organized boycotts against products she endorsed, designed T-shirts mocking her and named a drink for her — a variation of the screwdriver that replaced orange juice with apple juice. During an appearance in Iowa, an activist jammed a pie in her face. Her career in entertainment declined, her marriage to her first husband, Bob Green, broke up, and she later filed for bankruptcy.

In Florida, her legacy was challenged and perpetuated. The ban against sexual discrimination was restored in 1998. Tom Lander, an LGBTQ+ activist and board member of the advocacy group Safe Schools South Florida, told The Associated Press on Friday, “She won the campaign, but she lost the battle in time.” But Lander also acknowledged the “parental rights” movement, which has spurred a recent wave book bannings and anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Florida led by such conservative organizations as Moms Against Liberty.

“It’s so connected to what’s happening today,” Lander said.

Bryant spent the latter part of her life in Oklahoma, where she led Anita Bryant Ministries International. Her second husband, NASA test astronaut Charles Hobson Dry, died last year. According to her family’s statement, she is survived by four children, two stepdaughters and seven grandchildren.

____

Associated Press writer Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida contributed to this report.

Bono: The most existentially American non-American

(RNS) — U2 is capable of dissecting this nation — and its religion — with a rare and effective ruthlessness.

Bono performs on the Joshua Tree Tour in Indianapolis in September 2017. Photo by Daniel Hazard/Creative Commons

Tyler Huckabee
January 7, 2025

(RNS) — Bono was far from the first non-American Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, but he may be the most existentially American recipient. Not in the sense of where he was born, but in the sense of his obsessions. Bono has never become an official U.S. citizen, but maybe this slight remove has allowed him to see America a little more clearly. Because when his band, U2, is operating at its peak, it’s capable of dissecting this nation with a rare and effective ruthlessness. And nowhere is this talent more on display than U2’s handling of America and religion.

U2 was a lot of things to a lot of people, and one of those things was a “non-Christian” band Christians were allowed to like. “Non-Christian” is a bit of a misnomer here, because the U2 guys are nothing if they’re not Christian. But they weren’t Christian,™ which meant they were secular, and in the ’80s and ’90s, being secular meant you were on the wrong side of a cosmic battle for the soul of all reality. Some of you reading this know what I’m talking about.

Many evangelical kids were raised to see the world as divided piecemeal between “Christianity” and “Mainstream,” and truly good Christians were maybe sometimes allowed to look but could not touch Mainstream stuff, because that was giving Satan a foothold. Secular movies, TV and, above all, music were gateway drugs to drinking, premarital sex, abortions, being gay and, well, actual drugs. But never fear, Christian kids! Thanks to the Evangelical Industrial Complex, you don’t even need to be tempted to listen to evil secular music, because we’ve got Christianized versions of it. No need to listen to “Paul’s Boutique” when you’ve got “Jesus Freak.” Why listen to Madonna when you could spin Rebecca St. James? These figures and many others were bricks in a wall built between the Christian bubble and all the other bubbles, and they did their job passably well.

Except for U2, who must have been aware of this wall but certainly never gave it any credence. The band’s very existence proved how unnecessary this wall was, and whether the group knew it or not, their ongoing impact was a chief factor in tearing it down.

The “Contemporary Christian Music” scene was in its infancy in 1976, when a 14-year-old Irish marching band geek named Larry Mullen posted a notice to his school’s message board to see if any other musically inclined kids wanted to come over and jam. His notice was answered by four other kids. A charismatic bassist named Adam Clayton and his buddy, a slightly aloof guitar enthusiast named David Evans. They were joined by an artsy weirdo named Paul Hewson, a member of a surrealist street gang that gave each other creative nicknames. This gang had taken to calling Hewson Bonovox, after a local hearing aid store. Hewson hated the name at first but warmed to it when he found out it was Latin for “good voice.” At some point, it got shortened to Bono.

Mullen has since joked that he’d hoped the band would be called something like The Larry Mullen Band, but that was clearly out of the cards the second Bono stepped into the room. Bono had gravitas. Bono had energy. He didn’t know anyone else there, but he had ideas. The guys were thinking of calling themselves Feedback and playing Clash covers, but Bono was already thinking bigger.

America welcomed U2’s early efforts with open arms, as “Boy,” “War” and “The Unforgettable Fire” saw the band graduate from scrappy punk outfit to something more grandiose. The band retained punk’s revolutionary spirit and channeled Bono’s bleeding heart for current events into soaring anthems of beauty and terror.

While the band was touring America, its success led it to rub shoulders with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, all of whom deepened the band’s appreciation for American blues and country. At the same time, Bono was reading Flannery O’Connor, Norman Mailer and Raymond Carver while driving across the U.S.’ vast, empty spaces. Evans, who by then was being called The Edge, was getting inspired by Hank Williams and Howlin’ Wolf.

U2’s love affair with America was matched only by the band’s disdain for the country’s politics. This infatuation and outrage were all spun into a single whole by producer Brian Eno, and the result was “The Joshua Tree,” U2’s finest hour.

What can you even say about these songs? “The Joshua Tree” opens like a movie, The Edge’s guitar noodling sounding like a soundtrack soaring through the “for spacious skies” and over the “amber waves of grain” that inspired it, a twinkling echo that becomes a roar that becomes a pulsing sprint so bright and gorgeous that the only possible human response is the exact one Bono sings, the first words on the album: “I want to run!”

From there, you’re off on a series of songs so awesomely majestic that no amount of radio overplay or bad mainstream Protestant Sunday morning church covers have been able to defang them. The more action-packed front half finds Bono at his most reflective and spiritually introspective, while the quieter Side B has more of the fiery political calls to arms the band cut its teeth on. “Red Hill Mining Town” is about the U.K. miners’ strike, and “Mothers of the Disappeared” is about the missing political dissidents of Argentina. “Bullet the Blue Sky” is an outlier, a searing screed of U.S. meddling in Central America that really does sound like The Edge had been listening to some good blues music.

It’s thrilling stuff, and it’s not their fault they made it sound so simple it inspired thousands of youth group kids to try to duplicate the whole thing, copy and pasting the explicitly Christian stuff and largely ignoring Bono’s concern for the well-being of Black and Brown people in South America and Africa. It’s an interesting riddle of history that U2 captured the hearts of Christian America at around the same time Ronald Reagan captured their loyalty. The latter’s influence proved a lot more durable, unfortunately.

“Joshua Tree” paved the way for the worship boom, which spread from churches like Vineyard and the JPUSA communities across the country, eventually leading to Passion and Hillsong. Worship musicians are hardly the only artists to draw copious inspiration from Bono, but it is a shame that after U2 handed Christians the keys to moving beyond “Christian rock,” those keys just got melted down and used to make a new wall.

But this was all far outside U2’s concern, and it all sort of dissolves anyway once you pop on, say, “With or Without You,” a patient, twinkly lullaby that starts out with Bono growling like a tiger. As The Edge slowly starts throwing flashy spears of shimmery echoes, the song arches skyward and Bono goes with it, howling to the sky. It’s the blueprint for a hundred worship songs, but it never sounded better than right here.

That’s because U2 knew how to write a good rock song, sure. But it’s also because the band had a keen understanding of the spiritual realm and the earthly one, and how to trouble the waters between the two. Bono knows Americans demarcate what is secular and what is religious in peculiar and nonsensical ways. But he also knows those boundaries are only as real as you make them, and the right guitar note can shatter them altogether.

(Tyler Huckabee is a writer living in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and dogs. Read more of his writing at his Substack. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

OPINION

Pope Francis' critiques of Israel's actions in Gaza are not misguided

(RNS) — The continued bombardment of Gaza that has killed and maimed civilians almost every day since early October 2023 has long ago ceased to be a war of self-defense.

Pope Francis delivers a speech during a Mass on the occasion of the World Day of the Poor in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ron Kronish
January 7, 2025

(RNS) — In a Dec. 25 letter to Pope Francis, the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations joined other Jewish and Israeli leaders in criticizing the pontiff for comments he made in a Christmastime address condemning Israel’s most recent bombing of Gaza that resulted in the deaths of children.

In his Dec. 21 address to the Catholic Church’s cardinals, Francis said: “Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty. This is not war.”

The IJCIC’s letter to the pope said in response that “Israel is engaged in a defensive war against jihadist terrorism following the brutal and unprecedented massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7,” and that it fuels the rise in antisemitism that Jews have experienced around the world.

As a rabbi who has been involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue for decades, including in the past as a member of IJCIC itself, I find the committee’s claims exaggerated and misguided.

The central question raised by the letter is whether or not the Israel Defense Forces are committing acts of cruelty in their war against Hamas in Gaza. The fact is, the continued bombardment of areas in Gaza that has killed and maimed civilians, including many women and children, almost every day since early October 2023 has long ago ceased to be a war of self-defense. The IDF has destroyed most of Hamas’ infrastructure by now. Yet the killing of innocents goes on and on.

These are certainly acts of cruelty and revenge, which deserve to be repudiated, as Francis has correctly done, and as many world leaders have done. Many people in the Israeli print and electronic media and in the country’s public square have also denounced these measures, and rightly so.

The pope has in the past condemned the massacres committed by the Hamas militants on Oct. 7 as acts of unspeakable cruelty. He has also hosted families of hostages at the Vatican and made it clear that the hostages should be released. It would have been better if he had done so again in his Christmastime statements, but this does not change the facts on the ground.

Pope Francis wants this war to end now, with all the hostages to be returned in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Most of the citizens of Israel, including myself, want this too, as does most of the security establishment of the state of Israel. It is the extremist and rejectionist government of Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that sees advantage in continued hostilities. They have begun to reoccupy Gaza militarily, are planning settlements there and have effectively abandoned the remaining hostages in Gaza (dead and alive).

Secondly, the IJCIC statement seems to imply that “moral clarity” means denouncing only the immoral acts of the Hamas terrorists but not those of the IDF, as if only terrorists commit immoral acts. The continual killing and wounding of so many innocent civilians are not acts of self-defense and cannot be justified as moral. Much of this has been done on purpose, as we learned recently from The New York Times’ recent comprehensive report. Israel has created a huge humanitarian disaster in Gaza, which is clearly unethical and for which Israel has no coherent plan for resolving it.

Equally concerning is the fact that the government of Israel has no plan for “the day after” to offer human and civil rights to the people of Gaza in the wake of forced displacement of most of the Palestinians who lived in northern Gaza, the mass destruction of homes as a method of war and the use of starvation and dehydration of much of the population. Both sides have committed many acts of cruelty and immorality, but the Israeli government and the IDF have undoubtedly committed many war crimes during this war, as have the Hamas terrorists.

The moral course for committed and concerned Christians and Jews at this time is to speak up to end this war now, redeem the hostages, exchange prisoners and restore stability and sanity to the citizens of Gaza and Israel.

Furthermore, to imply, in the face of all this, that the pope’s statements foster antisemitism, as the statement by IJCIC did, is astounding. Francis has denounced antisemitism countless times. One should be able to be critical of the policies of the government of Israel in this war and its terrible treatment of the Palestinians in general without being labeled as an antisemite.

Rather than accusing the pope and other world leaders of being unfair in their statements, as the IJCIC statement did and as ministers in the Israeli government are doing all the time, Jewish and Israeli leaders need to look inward and recognize the cruelty and immorality of some of Israel’s actions in this war. Denial and obfuscation will not suffice any more. We instead need to do our own soul-searching about how we treat others under our administrative responsibility, especially in times of war.

(Rabbi Ron Kronish is an interreligious peacebuilder, writer, blogger, author and teacher. He has lived in Jerusalem for the past 45 years. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

'Black Panther Woman' explores the spiritual life of party member Ericka Huggins

(RNS) — Huggins’ spirituality and political engagement were intertwined throughout her career with the Black Panther Party and beyond.

Black Panther Party member Ericka Huggins. (Courtesy photo)
Fiona André
January 10, 2025

(RNS) — In “Black Panther Woman,” Mary Frances Phillips has written the first biography of Black Panther Party member Ericka Huggins, who is now 77 and living in California. The book, published by NYU Press, explores how Huggins’ spirituality influenced her activism, focusing on her time in prison, where she discovered yoga, meditation and other spiritual wellness practices.

In 1969, Huggins and other group members were arrested and sent to Niantic women’s prison in Connecticut in connection with the murder of Alex Rackley, who had been accused of being an FBI informant. Huggins’ voice could be heard on the audiotape of Rackley’s torture by other Black Panther Party members. A judge dismissed the case against her in 1971 after a trial resulted in a hung jury.

The idea to write this book came from Phillips’ desire to understand what happened to Huggins during these two years in prison. “I was fascinated with what happened behind those bars. What did she do? What did that Black Panther Party activism look like behind bars?” Phillips said in an interview with RNS.

In her own words, Huggins reached a state of “spiritual maturity” in prison, which informed all areas of her life.

“Her spiritual lens shapes all her experience,” Phillips said. “Ericka is not religious, per se, but she’s very much deeply spiritual.”


“Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins” by Mary Frances Phillips. (Courtesy image)

Divided into six chapters, “Black Panther Woman” revisits the milestones of Huggins’ life. It describes her childhood in Washington, D.C., and her upbringing in the Baptist church, where she first questions God, sin and her own spirit. It then explores foundational moments in her activism, such as her participation in the March on Washington in August 1963. It also describes her relationship with her partner and the father of her daughter, John Huggins, who led the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.
RELATED: Thousands gather for March on Washington’s 60th anniversary

The book draws on archives, private letters, drawings made in prison, poems written by Huggins, prison documents, court records and interviews with Huggins. Phillips, an Africana studies professor at the City University of New York’s Lehman College and a Black woman, noted how her background in Black feminist studies and her identity helped her create a trusting environment.

“There were moments where we got each other by saying very little because there’s a cultural understanding we both have,” she said.

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One chapter, “Surviving Solitary,” describes Huggins’ wellness practices while in prison. Huggins taught herself yoga by reading a book offered by her lawyer, Charles Garry, who also practiced yoga. Huggins practiced hatha yoga, which focused on developing core strength, meditation and deep breathing.

Phillips spent 10 years researching this biography and dived into Huggins’ prison logs to track her yoga and meditation practice. The author also did yoga and meditation to understand its effects on the young Huggins during her time in prison.


Author Mary Frances Phillips. (Courtesy photo)

Huggins’ goal was to remain grounded and maintain her mental and physical health. It helped her appear strong when she met with her daughter Mai, who was only a few weeks old when Huggins was arrested. “She wanted to be fully present,” Phillips said. “She wanted to be well. She wanted to be fully engaged in that time that she had with her daughter.”

Phillips links Huggins’ interest in yoga and meditation to that of other civil rights and Black liberation activists, such as Rosa Parks and Angela Davis. The book connects Huggins’ practice to a larger cultural moment in the 1960s and 1970s, when wellness practices gained traction, which inspired many Black civil rights icons. The book also associates Huggins’ practice with a broader tradition of Black women’s wellness practices, quoting work from historian Stephanie Y. Evans, who wrote “Black Women’s Yoga History.”

RELATED: A Black preacher ‘no longer at war with her body’ on connecting flesh with the divine

Huggins’ other spiritual practices included writing poetry and letters and creating art. Her commitment to caring for other inmates, many of whom were pregnant while incarcerated, also counted as a spiritual practice, lifting their spirits and giving them dignity. For example, the women spent time redesigning each other’s prison uniforms.

The book also evokes Huggins’ bisexual identity and how the moment she started embracing her queerness was also pivotal in her search for spiritual meaning.

After her release, when she directed the Black Panther Party’s community school in Oakland, Huggins regularly invited yoga experts and introduced students to meditation. She also worked as a yoga teacher for 15 years as part of the Siddha Yoga Prison Project. Her spirituality and political engagement remained intertwined throughout her career with the Black Panther Party.

Huggins later joined the Shanti Project, where she worked to raise awareness about the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the queer community. She was also a lecturer in women and gender studies at San Francisco State University and California State University.

Phillips hopes “Black Panther Woman” will serve as a toolkit for contemporary Black liberation movements that want to incorporate spiritual practices into their activism. The author noted that spiritual wellness practices are central to many modern anti-racist organizations, such as Black Lives Matter.

In her foreword, activist Charlene A. Carruthers, author of “Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements,” challenges readers to also strive for wellness. “Cultivating a Black liberation movement that values and centers the spirit,” she wrote, “is needed right now.”

Vatican approves document allowing gay men to become priests in Italy

AND WHAT OF LESBIAN SISTERS

(RNS) — A new document by the Italian bishops’ conference states that being openly gay no longer bars candidates from discerning the priesthood.

The Vatican City flag, left, and a pride flag. 

(Images courtesy Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

Claire Giangravé
January 10, 2025

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A provisional document published by the Italian Bishops’ Conference on Friday (Jan. 10) and approved by the Vatican cautiously opens the door for the ordination of openly gay men to the priesthood, while maintaining the normal requirement of chastity.

“In the formative process, when referring to homosexual tendencies, it’s also appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the global framework of the young person’s personality,” the document reads, adding that the goal is for the candidate to know himself and find harmony between his human and priestly vocation.

The Vatican department for clergy approved the document, which will be valid for three years. The document was signed by the head of the Italian bishops, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is considered a close collaborator to Pope Francis.

The objective of the preparation for a candidate who is seeking to become a priest when it comes to his sexuality, the document states, “is the ability to accept as a gift, to freely choose and to live chastity in celibacy in a responsible way.”

The document, titled “The Formation of Presbyters in Italian Churches. Guidelines and Rules for Seminaries,” was approved by the Italian bishops who met for their general assembly Nov. 13-16 in Assisi. The episcopacy in Italy, where vocations are at an all-time low, has been pushing the envelope in terms of making the Catholic Church more palatable to modern concerns by suggesting a greater role for women in the formation of priests, a commitment to combating sexual abuse and the acceptance of gay men to the priesthood.

According to the 2005 Vatican instruction by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, “while the church deeply respects the people in question, it cannot admit to the seminary or to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture.”

The Italian bishops’ document quotes directly from the Vatican instruction but also suggests that other aspects be taken into account when considering the acceptance of gay candidates to the priesthood. While being openly gay no longer automatically bars a candidate from becoming a priest, such candidates are still held to the same standard of chastity as heterosexual priests are.

In a statement published on Friday, New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for LGBTQIA Catholics in the U.S., welcomed the document as “a big step forward” in combating discrimination in the church. “This new clarification treats gay candidates in the same way that heterosexual candidates are treated. That type of equal treatment is what the Church should be aiming for in regards to all LGBTQ+ issues,” the statement read.
RELATED: Pope Francis calls for a ‘diplomacy of truth’ to counter wars, fake news

The possibility of admitting gay men to the priesthood caused a stir in May of last year, when Pope Francis used an anti-gay slur to express his skepticism on the matter in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops. The Vatican issued an apology, stating that the pope “never meant to offend or express himself with homophobic terms,” but Francis has been ambivalent in the past about gay priests and seminarians.

The pope has strongly criticized the “gay lobby” as a center of power in the Vatican and voiced doubts about gay priests’ adherence to a celibate lifestyle, but he also encouraged a young gay seminarian who asked for his advice in his priestly discernment last June.

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REST IN POWER

Steven Englander, Visionary Director of ABC No Rio, Dies at 63

SCION OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC

Jan 9, 2025

From Hyperallergic
December 17, 2024

Known for his collaborative spirit, Englander helped secure the Lower East Side nonprofit’s property for a dollar after decades of eviction threats from the city.

Steven Mark Englander, longtime director of the historic Lower East Side artist squat-turned-nonprofit ABC No Rio, died on December 12 in Manhattan at the age of 63 from complications related to a rare lung disease that he had been battling for over a decade. Among other achievements, Englander was known for leading ABC No Rio’s fundraising campaign to secure its property for a dollar after decades of eviction threats from city officials.

The news of Englander’s death was announced by the organization, which stated that he passed away “comfortable, pain-free, and surrounded by the two things he lived for — his family and the ABC No Rio community.”

Born on June 11, 1961, in Chicago, Englander grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. He moved to New York City in 1980 to study film at New York University and quickly became involved with groups like the Black Eye zine, the Libertarian Book Club, and the Anarchist Switchboard. He was introduced to ABC No Rio in 1987 through Matthew Courtney’s Wide-Open Cabaret performances, where he would “occasionally take the mic to give voice to his anarchist writings and musings,” Gavin Marcus, the nonprofit’s new director, told Hyperallergic.

Known for his collaborative spirit, fairness, and honesty, Englander served as the arts collective’s director twice — first in a temporary stint in 1990 when then-Director Lou Ancierno left for Hamburg, Germany, with other ABC No Rio members to mount the exhibition 10 Years, Seven Days at Künstlerhaus in commemoration of the group’s 10th anniversary. The role evolved into a co-directorship alongside Ancierno that lasted until 1991, when Englander resigned over leadership disagreements. In 1994, when ABC No Rio was facing increasing threats of eviction from city officials, he stepped into the leadership position once more.

“When [ABC No Rio] called an emergency meeting, Fly urged me to attend as I was familiar with No Rio’s history with The City as well as squatting and political organizing,” Englander said in a January 2011 interview with comic book artist and ABC No Rio member Fly Orr.

In 1995, Englander met his life partner, ABC No Rio activist, writer, and photographer Victoria Law. They were serving on the collective’s board when they got the opportunity from the city to purchase the 156 Rivington Street tenement building property for a dollar, provided that they could raise the funds for the renovation costs. He became ABC No Rio’s sole paid staff member in 1997, spearheading the group’s fundraising efforts from his office desk in a passageway between the computer lab and silkscreen print shops on the building’s top floor, which was “always buzzing with people coming in and out,” Law told Hyperallergic.

“People would come upstairs to use the bathroom and they’d stop and say hi to him, or sometimes random people would wander in and be like, ‘What is this building?’” Law recalled, describing Englander as someone who “thrived in that collective environment.”

Comic book artist and squatter rights activist Seth Tobocman, who met Englander in the mid-1990s during an uncertain time for the group and its Rivington address, told Hyperallergic that he was “very impressed with the number of different people who came together to defend ABC No Rio.” He attributed the group’s success in obtaining the rights to the property to Englander’s organizing skills and his “ability to reach out to different people and make them feel respected and included and listened to.”

When ABC No Rio was finally forced to vacate the deteriorating space in 2016, Englander’s role changed as its various facilities, including the zine library, silkscreen studio, and exhibition space, became scattered across the city’s boroughs.

“He was still the director, but doing things in exile is not the same as being in the midst of people coming in and out, volunteers using the facilities, random people who are like, ‘What is this weird building with the door unlocked and all this weird art all over the place?’” Law said.

Even as his health deteriorated over the past year, Englander continued to work to bring back ABC No Rio’s physical space until his final days. At the end of August, construction finally began on the group’s long-anticipated four-story building, which is slated to partly open in mid-2026.

“I think that’s a testament to his willpower … and he held on long enough for that groundbreaking to happen, to keep going. This was his life’s work,” Law said.

Englander is survived by two brothers, a sister, and his daughter.

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Steven Englander, Leader of an Outsider Art Outpost, Dies at 63
From New York Times
December 23, 2024

As director of the fiercely independent cultural center ABC No Rio, he led the battle to halt its eviction and later raised money to build a new home for the organization.
December 23, 2024

Steven Englander, who helped lead the pioneering Lower East Side cultural center ABC No Rio for more than 25 years, directing the anarchistic, fiercely independent organization during a long clash with New York City over the occupancy of a crumbling building that ultimately preserved the group’s presence, died on Dec. 12 in Manhattan. He was 63.

His death, in a hospital after a lengthy battle with a lung disease, was announced by No Rio. In a statement, the organization praised him for helping to create “a sanctuary for New York activists, artists, and musicians through the simple act of believing that what you had to say was relevant, powerful, and, if given a platform, transformative.”

ABC No Rio, an activist-minded collective born out of the New Year’s Eve takeover of an empty city-owned building for a guerrilla art exhibition in 1979, has long provided a venue for outsider and D.I.Y. art and culture. It has hosted eclectic, sometimes experimental programming including art shows, poetry readings and eardrum-splitting punk matinees. The singer-songwriter Beck, the punk band Bikini Kill and the performance artist Karen Finley were among the notable acts to perform there early in their careers.

The band Nausea performed at ABC No Rio in 1991. The venue was known for, among many other things, its eardrum-splitting punk matinees.

But No Rio’s story is equally about its contentious battle for a home, one that began with the break-in of the vacant building on Delancey Street on the city’s Lower East Side by a group of artists to mount a show — fittingly, a critique of gentrification called “The Real Estate Show.”

City officials immediately kicked the artists out of the building but offered them part of a ramshackle tenement, also owned by the city, a block north on Rivington Street. The organization took its name from the remaining legible letters of a Spanish-language sign across the street that had bore the words “ABOGADO” and “NOTARIO.” (Only half of the first O was visible, leaving a C.)

Mr. Englander served two stints as director of ABC No Rio, briefly sharing that job in the early 1990s and then holding it alone from the late ’90s until his death. He defined his role as combination curator and facilitator.

“That was my artistic practice,” he said in an interview in his hospital room two days before his death. “To create an environment in which other people could realize their visions.”

No Rio forged a reputation well beyond New York City, forming alliances with artists and activists in Europe and Latin America and organizing shows that addressed weighty topics like real estate speculation and displacement, war in the Middle East and the unexplained disappearance of young Mexican women working in foreign-owned factories.

Mr. Englander described his programming philosophy as saying yes — giving artists a chance to succeed or fail and believing that even an unsuccessful project could have merit or be part of an artist’s development.

How The Times decides who gets an obituary. There is no formula, scoring system or checklist in determining the news value of a life. We investigate, research and ask around before settling on our subjects. If you know of someone who might be a candidate for a Times obituary, please suggest it here.
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But he was also capable of saying no, sometimes bluntly, and he was unafraid to chide No Rio volunteers or visitors whose behavior he saw as reckless or inconsiderate.

The ability to maintain boundaries was especially important in an environment that questioned any form of top-down or centralized power, said Eric Freedman Goldhagen, a No Rio board member who founded a free computer lab there.

“Steven’s position came with a responsibility to uphold community norms and rules,” Mr. Freedman Goldhagen said. “He approached that with the kindness and respect of a caretaker, not as an authoritarian.”

But the building was a wreck, plagued by water leaks, falling plaster and rats. Break-ins were common, and at one point early on, when No Rio had use only of the ground floor, heroin users took over upstairs rooms. The building was, as the poet Allen Ginsberg once put it, “a dump.”

Saying that the city landlord did not make needed repairs, the organization withheld rent, setting off a long stretch of eviction proceedings. When city officials moved in the 1990s to oust No Rio from the building, artists including Hans Haake, Yoko Ono, Tom Otterness and Kiki Smith wrote letters of support or donated artworks to be auctioned to help pay legal fees.

In 1997, the city finally dropped the eviction effort and agreed to sell the building to No Rio for one dollar. The group was first required to raise money for repairs, which took nine years. In 2006, No Rio took ownership of the tenement, whose foundation dated to the Civil War, but the building was deemed too rickety to survive. In 2016, the structure was demolished. The city eventually allocated $21 million for a new building.

In July, at the lot where that building had stood, Mr. Englander joined the Manhattan borough president, Mark Levine, and the commissioner of cultural affairs, Laurie Cumbo, for a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new four-story building that is expected to open in 2026.

Steven Mark Englander was born in Chicago on June 11, 1961, and grew up in Racine, Wis. His father, Stanley, was a pediatrician, and his mother, Barbara, worked as a nurse and a bookstore manager.

Steven was a “film geek,” according to an interview published by the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art; as a teenager, he sometimes traveled to Milwaukee to see European art-house movies.

In the late 1970s he attended New York University and, after graduating with a degree in film, worked part time as a video production assistant.

He attended his first No Rio events in the late 1980s and was asked to serve as the organization’s co-director. The job came with a perk: a small apartment in an upper floor of the creaky Rivington Street building, where Mr. Englander was the only occupant. It was a grittier, pre-gentrification era on the Lower East Side, when sidewalk heroin bazaars operated openly.

Mr. Englander had to contend not only with the drug dealers but also with police officers who wanted to use the nearly empty tenement as a spot from which to spy on them.

“Absolutely not,” Mr. Englander told the police, according to an interview for an oral history project. “These guys are going to kill me.”

On another occasion, he ejected an officer who had made it inside.

“I went to a performance, and I saw Steven Englander bounce a cop out of the backyard,” Becky Howland, a sculptor and founding director, told The New York Times this year. “It was kind of amazing to me. I was like, OK, that’s pretty cool.”

Mr. Englander soon resigned as director because of disagreements with No Rio’s board. But he returned in 1994 when the city moved to oust the group, and led its efforts to fight the eviction. He moved into the building, along with others involved in East Village squatter and anarchist movements, and later joined No Rio’s board.

Around that time Mr. Englander met Victoria Law, a writer who served with him on No Rio’s board in the mid-to-late-’90s and who became his longtime partner. She survives him, as do their daughter, Siuloong Englander; two brothers, Eric and Brian Englander; and a sister, Alison Englander.

While fighting the eviction in court, the group also used more confrontational tactics. It protested against a developer that the city wanted to turn the building over to and held a sit-in at the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

After the city and No Rio reached a détente in 1997, Mr. Englander resumed the job of director. He later worked with the city, his old nemesis, to smooth the path for a new building.

He described the process as more collaborative than contentious, although flashes of the old anarchist leanings still emerged. When the groundbreaking was being planned, he said, a city official called to ask whether the group preferred silver or gold-colored shovels.

“Are you kidding?” Mr. Englander replied. “We want black.”

By then the old, dirty, dangerous Lower East Side had been largely gentrified. ABC No Rio will return as something of a relic, as many fellow D.I.Y. and indie art spaces that once peppered the neighborhood have been forced out or faded away.

Days before his death, Mr. Englander said he took solace in the fact that construction of the new building was underway and that No Rio would live on. “I’m going to die,” he said. “But the project is going to be finished.”

-----------------------

Steven Mark Englander 1961 - 2024
From ABC No Rio
December 13, 2024

To the entire ABC No Rio community --

It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the passing of our visionary director, Steven Englander.

As many of you knew, Steven was diagnosed with a rare form of lung disease over a decade ago. Despite a successful lung transplant 6 years ago, Steven passed away last night, Thursday, December 12th, comfortable, pain-free, and surrounded by the two things he lived for - his family and the ABC No Rio community.

Those who knew Steven were touched by his commitment to the New York City DIY arts community. He helped mold ABC No Rio into a sanctuary for New York activists, artists, and musicians through the simple act of believing that what you had to say was relevant, powerful, and, if given a platform, transformative. Steven dedicated his life to inclusive, community-run art spaces that give voice to oppositional culture, and we will be forever grateful for his work.
steven-in-the-pit

Not only did Steven’s philosophy shape what ABC No Rio became, but he also shaped what it will become. A true visionary for what was possible, Steven began planning and fighting for the creation of a brand-new arts center over 20 years ago. And as a testament to his ‘by hook or by crook’ mentality and his belief in collective power, it’s happening. His dream’s realization is underway, with ongoing construction work following July’s groundbreaking ceremony.

When the new ABC No Rio building opens its doors, Steven’s philosophy will once again have a home to flourish and inspire the next generation of DIY art culture. To finish making this philosophy a reality and complete our new building, we still have more work to do and funds to raise. We will need the continued help of community volunteers, new and old, to help run the collectives that make ABC No Rio what it is. Please get in touch.

In recognition that we will all be grieving as a community, we welcome you to send us your stories and musings (written or recorded), photographs, and videos of Steven that symbolize your time with him and the impact he had on your life. Who knows, maybe we’ll create something with it all. Please send to abc@abcnorio.org.

In solidarity,
-- From all of us at ABC No Rio.

-----------------------

From 0ssuary (instagram)
December 14, 2024

Steven Englander died Thursday night. He didn't really care about punk music but he was an anarchist and tenant activist who acted as a mentor to a lot of us. As the general director of ABC No Rio he acted as a bridge that connected many disparate groups in the New York underground. Musicians, visual artists, playwrights and performers. I came back to ABC No Rio every weekend because of the resources and community. I learned how to screenprint; I read zines in the zine library. I learned some rudiments about setting up and breaking down sound equipment. I hung art and learned local history from the people who lived it. I tried to document as much of it as I could, because in the 2010s there was still some collective consensus that the internet was a permanent archive, but these days I have less faith in digital permanence. Centers like ABC develop communities that generate and preserve materials. Us old heads have been talking about how important that work is, and how nobody is going to do it for us. We need us.

Thanks Steven.

-----------------------

From worldinfernofs (instagram)
December 13, 2024

Let Us Now Speak of Brave Men. It's heartbreaking to hear about the loss of ABC No Rio director Steve Englander. Steve has been a long-time supporter of both World/Inferno and Sticks & Stones. After Jack passed, Steve volunteered to organize "Pete" 's old zines, flyers, art, and papers. He was an ally to the end and beyond.

It's with a heavy heart that this was written, but things are not all grim. Heres to celebrating Steven's life work and his victory. For those that dont know, No Rio was a squatted art center, and their all ages Saturday hardcore punk matinees once upon a time became one of Inferno's early homebases.The wifs played enough benefit shows for the thing, so we are really glad that it's all working out! Against all odds, ABC defied eviction against the city, bought their building for $1, and then over the course of several years, ambitiously raised several millions of dollars to knock down its old crumbling walls and rebuild a new building in its place. No Rio is a collective, it took a village or two to make this happen, but Steve unquestionably was the visionary and the driving force.

There's still more to fundraise and more work to be done, but its gotten this far because of this man behind the scenes who stubbornly persisted and flatout refused to give up on this longshot beautiful anarchist dream. It took years, but the groundbreaking was this past summer, and the foundation is being completed as you're reading this. Thanks to Steve, ABC No Rio will live again. The future generations of punks, artists, and activists of Gotham will soon have a new all ages DIY community center to call home. You will be missed, you are missed, but it's due to your legacy that subsequent cultures of resistance and opposition will have that much more to look forward to.

In solidarity with all comrades of Mr. Englander, from our community to yours, let us now celebrate and speak of brave men who lived their lives just as they would have it.

The specter of the Syrian scenario for Ukraine

Jan 8, 2025



From assembly.org.ua
December 24, 2024

Full title: The specter of the Syrian scenario for Ukraine. Some results of 2024 and where the collapse of the army will lead next year

The rapid collapse of Assad's army, which ended the half-century rule of this family in just 11 days, became perhaps the main event of December for many in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government praises the victory of the pro-Turkish forces as a brilliant victory over Russia, despite the fact that it itself increasingly risks repeating the fate of the deposed dictator.

The host of the YouTube channel "Defense Women" two weeks ago said that in the Kupyansk direction, almost the entire second company in the 152nd battalion of the 117th brigade of the Sumy terror defense went to the SZCH because of the "butcher commander". On December 14, Ukrainian military commander Yury Butusov spoke about the scandal with the 155th mechanized brigade "Anna Kievskaya", which was trained in France and was sent to Pokrovsk. Several thousand bussified people were recruited there, and more than a thousand of them "immediately upon arrival went home." Another example: "After the 21st, Trump will turn on the faucet. Europe is not dragging itself. What pays the salary? What will the equipment be filled with? How to repair? Where is BC from? What is fed? How will it start? Companies and battalions will start to attack from positions like in Syria. We're all oohing and ahhing how quickly everything will fall. A colleague at work, bussified, showed up. Mobilized in the spring, joined the Zaporizhia direction. He says how they started to fuck them with everything, a decision was made at home. The entire company entered the SZCH together with the commander. What are they catching? To p**dy. Now he is sitting at home. Live ," they wrote on December 18 in the Kharkiv district chat.

In general, for November 2024 18,984 criminal proceedings were registered under articles 407 and 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abandonment and desertion). In the previous month, there were 9,487, and in January 2024 - a total of 3,448. In total, from February 2022 to December 1, 2024. 114,280 criminal cases have been opened on such facts. Kyiv journalist Vladimir Boyko, who serves in the 241st Brigade of the Military Intelligence Service, comments on these figures in his blog on December 7:

"The army is running away. After the mindless Maryana, together with her brothers in mind, pushed through the Verkhovna Rada the law on the decriminalization of desertion , and earlier, in 2019, pressed the green button for the liquidation of military justice, the Ukrainian army can already be spoken of as a deceased person (…) Moreover, if 19 thousand reports were entered into the ERDR in November 2024, this does not mean at all that exactly so many servicemen deserted. 19 thousand is, in fact, the limit of physical capabilities for registering this category of crimes. Because in each case, the commander of the military unit must first appoint an official investigation, consider and approve the results of the official investigation, send a report on the committed criminal offense to the State Bureau of Investigation or a specialized prosecutor's office in the field of defense, and there they must consider the report and "fill" the text into the ERDR. Neither in military units do there exist such a number of specialists who could conduct official investigations on such a scale, nor in the prosecutor's office and the State Bureau of Investigation do there exist sufficient employees to enter tens of thousands of reports on desertion into the ERDR (…) Think about which country you will live in next year. And how to leave for that country.”

In a post dated December 14, the same author confirmed what "Assembly" reported about the mass exodus from school :

“Kilometers of trenches were dug near Kurakhove. I recently spoke with the deputy commander of one of the battalions in that direction – he says that a Katsap tank mistakenly drove into our positions, drove for 10 minutes until it realized that it had lost its way, and then turned back. Not a single shot was fired at the tank, because there was no one in the positions. An infantry company from near Kherson was transferred to this battalion as reinforcement – ​​so out of 90 people, three reached Kurakhove, the rest scattered along the road. And this situation is everywhere. And what is happening in the training centers? Here, for example, is military unit A1363 – a training center located in the Samariv (formerly Novomoskovsk) district of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Recently, 70 recruits “skied” there in one day. Before that, on November 10, 2024, four people escaped, one of whom is a relative of my friend. The escapee says that there is no military training, during the three weeks of stay in the training unit, the recruits were only engaged in digging toilets and doing some household work, and the main reason for the escape was “hazing” and bullying of the newcomers. Therefore, on November 3, four people also escaped, and in just a month, 30 servicemen deserted (…) Analyzing the statistics of war crimes, back in February-April 2024, I predicted that at the end of the summer the front would begin to collapse, and by the spring of 2025 the army would simply disperse.”

Another pro-Trump blogger, imprisoned parliamentarian Aleksandr Dubinsky, sounded the alarm on December 16: "Against the data of 200,000 deserters and 20,000 registered SZH per month (equal to the number of conscripts), it is impossible to improve the situation at the front. Therefore, the war must be stopped immediately. I repeat, immediately. This should be done by Zelensky, after which he should leave the administration of the state, which his actions have brought to the brink of strategic defeat (…) The cadres of harsh mobilization, which are scattered daily on the Internet, further undermine the spirit of those who could join the ranks. The obvious reluctance to fight also demotivates the army from within. I am sure that both the General Staff and the OP have charts with a forecast of the development of the situation, and even looking at it from the outside, it is obvious that it will worsen. Against this background, the inadequacy of Zelensky's decisions, which seeks salvation in absolutely fantastic, multi-step scenarios, such as an "invitation to NATO" or a "peacekeeping mission of European troops," is absolutely shocking. The idea with the "invitation" was at least an hour late. And the decision on the entry of peacekeeping troops into Ukraine can, obviously, be taken only in the face of a military catastrophe. So, I have the feeling that Zelensky is deliberately leading her as a last chance." He is afraid to reveal that if this state does not become, his plans for coming to power will also be covered with a copper basin.

In general, evasion from military service still remains a purely personal expression of disagreement, which does not provide any basis for unification. And yet, there are changes: if evasiveness is still associated with some political position, then this year it is no longer only with the "Zhdunami of the Russian world", but sometimes also with anarchism and cosmopolitanism, which in 2023 was quite exotic It is reminiscent of what historian-nationalist Viktor Savchenko wrote about the birth of the anarchist movement in Ukraine back in the Kuchmov times: "The Ukrainian mentality of the beginning of the 20th century. in the South of Ukraine, it was formed as "anarchist,", individualist, which often - thickly ignored "statehood" and mythologized "Cossack Mamai", a kind of gulvis, stateless, "adventurer-individualist". The Ukrainian ideal – “Cossack will” – was mixed with voluntarism, disobedience, justification of violence. At a time when for Russians, speaking out against “their” state was “sacrilege”, Ukrainians and Jews saw the state only as a “rapist”. The Ukrainian mentality gave birth to already in 1919 the phenomenon of the Makhnovist movement, which drew hundreds of thousands of residents of Southern Ukraine into its orbit. Such cultural prerequisites contributed to the widespread dissemination of the idea, while at the same time hindering the coordination of actions of various groups and activists. Time will tell which trend will prevail in the near future. future. As one of our readers aptly noted a month ago on condition of anonymity:

"Our gentlemen from the "union of tormentors of Russia and Ukraine" are now neglecting even the laws that they write themselves. It is good, of course, if their law accidentally helps you, but as a last resort, do not forget that the tactics of resistance depend on the situation: if the law does not help and the resistance has no chance of success, it is possible to resort to civil disobedience. As the people of Tolstoy did when they were asked to drag them to the front or take them to prison: they sat down on the ground and said: "I don't need to go there."

In general, according to my observations, cosmopolitanism awakens very quickly in people at the moment when citizenship becomes a basis for duty. Many people, when it was still possible to talk to the TCC and they did not beat them so often, told them: "I am not a citizen, I am a human being." Unfortunately, they used this slogan purely situationally out of an egoistic motive, without developing it to the rank of an ontological position, but I think this is because there is a feeling: as soon as some circumstances come together and certain narratives about the commonwealth of people finally break through to the surface, they will find a response in many people who are already ready for it at the level of intuition."

Tolstoy's methods are not very helpful. A Kharkiv business owner in the field of residential real estate told us on December 22: "This week, my workers went to work, they took all five of them. When we were driving to school, the bus broke down not far from Kharkiv. There were 11 men, and two of them had assault rifles. The men said, either you let us go into the field, or we will kill you, there are more of us. They let go. Now everything is in Kharkov, we just got there." The narrator himself has already sold his cottage in Kharkiv and plans to leave the country for good in June if all this does not end.

Viktor Sydorchenko, who worked as the head of the PR-support department for the activities of the Kharkiv Malyshev plant, and now lives in Germany and participated in the Russian-Ukrainian anti-militarist rallies on December 21 , says this about the way out of the impasse: "No one will win this war. My position is the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war, brotherhood at the front, a revolutionary army. And all the bourgeois, more precisely, the instigators of the war - on the squares... So far, fraternization is unlikely. But you have to work with it. In fact, there are prerequisites. This conflict will either end in their own way with the help of the people, or the people will do it, on both sides, establishing a truly durable peace in the interests of the majority. By the way, who understands the whole class essence of this war at the front, the most interesting thing is not to fight because they are afraid and die, but to go against the system and their ruling class. That's the tragedy." We disassembled the basis for fraternization from each side of the front a little earlier. And the internationalist Telegram channel "Voice of Anarchists" today tells how German and Entente soldiers arranged a Christmas truce exactly 110 years ago...

Telegram channel "Uklonist.ua", which is run by an anonymous leftist from Kharkiv's Nemyshla who moved to France, sets more modest goals in the program article :

"Everything you read and the talking heads of Ukraine tell you is a victory plan for the leadership of Ukraine, its ruling class.
In fact, we should not be concerned about the affairs of the class that sends us to die in a bioreactor.
In fact, I will not say anything new regarding what I have been saying since the existence of the channel.
The victory of the Ukrainian people is the defeat of the Ukrainian leadership.
But what does this mean, in fact?
Any outcome of the war, which informationally and morally will be perceived by the Ukrainian society as a defeat, is, at the same time, a victory for the Ukrainian society. As a result of the war, Ukrainian society will become the winner if it becomes completely disillusioned with the entire current political class, all Western NGOs, and all right-wing radical organizations.
The Ukrainian society will win if the main unconscious slogan of the Ukrainian is again - "if only there was no war".
If the Ukrainian leadership manages to beat out in the information sphere and in the moral sphere that Ukraine won the war, then why won't the war be repeated again? Who wouldn't want to "win" again?
Also, the victory of the Ukrainian leadership in the war means the preservation of the immunity of the political class of Ukraine, the preservation of the credibility of at least part of them. This means the continuation of the 33-year-old policy of the leaky garbage dump.
Defeat in the heads is a chance that all the past and all past slogans will not be perceived as marginal. Defeat means that everything that happened during the war, everything that happened before it and led to it, is wrong. Who wants to lose again, run away again, lose their home again?
And here it is absolutely not important what the results will be on the ground, at the front. It is important how the event was told and what everyone believed, not what actually happened.
Here the main battle is informational, informational will destroy the reputation and authority of the Ukrainian leadership and all those who protect it and work for it directly or indirectly (at the level of narratives).
Informationally, they will destroy everyone who tries to pass himself off as an oppositionist and tries to "direct" the policy of Ukraine in the right direction, "correct" it, do it "in a humane way." All this is the same protectionism, the desire to perfume bad-smelling garbage.
The defeat of the Ukrainian leadership is a chance to lose pink glasses, a chance to realize reality, a chance to take a cold shower.
This is the real plan of Victory. Because the preservation of current narratives, their adaptation in post-war Ukraine is the same way as before.
And yes, the defeat of the Ukrainian leadership gives only a CHANCE to realize reality and lose rose-colored glasses in a significant part of society. But this is not a guarantee, a lot depends on the society as well, whether it will be able to develop grassroots organizations within itself, organizations of their interests, and not of other people's interests with a national banner."

How can one not remember those who will spend New Year's holidays on the way from the people's prison to freedom! On December 9, the Associated Press agency reported a touching story of how a guy crossed the border with Romania through the Carpathians, almost died in 10-degree frost, but was saved by Romanian rescuers. 28-year-old Vladyslav Duda, who ran away from mobilization with a kitten named Persik, was found in a mountain gorge of the Maramures region at a depth of 400 m, soaked and close to frostbite. And when the rescuers unzipped the jacket, they found a friend's ego under it. " The cat was warm and warmed him... so he saved his life . " Duda said that he worked as a journalist in Ukraine and left his home in the Kharkiv region more than a week ago to avoid mobilization: "What I remember is the fear of the unknown and the fear of not surviving this night alive. My Peach saved my life. When we fled, we were afraid of everyone, lest they send us back to fight in a war that is not ours." On his Instagram page, Vlad poses in a cap with the Pacific Ocean and writes: "Dodging people learn to be free . " At the time of publication of the AP material, he was being treated for the effects of hypothermia, and the cat also received treatment at a veterinary clinic.

Since the poem "The Fugitive" by Vladyslav Usachev posted on "Assembly" sold well in the fall , this time we are publishing his second piece - "Hymn of the Fugitives", posted by the author on his channel :

Where the pines hide their eyes
Where a stream whispers among the mountains
The stars paint the sunset
And the night knocks on the window

The spruces stand guard there
And the mountains spread far away
The tops are covered to the very edge With
thick, spreading fogs

And in clothes covered in frost,
the guards of the lines stand guard,
waiting for prey like squids,
merging in the mist like ghosts.

Do you walk in the heat or in the rain?
All your senses are sensitive.
You cover great distances.
Your feet are rubbed by your shoes.

Your back burns like coals
Everything hurts like crazy
And thirst prevents you from thinking
Everything hinders you

And the heart strives to go further
Only forward, only further
And the voice in the head is heard
There will be no way back

You left your home,
and of all your belongings, only a storm jacket, a bottle of
water on your daughter's neck,
and half a pack of raw cigarettes.

Night bends the branches of the oak tree
And fatigue binds the chains
The path is long, feet are like stones
But a ray lives in the soul

The winds sing about the road
About those peaks and spurs
You lie down and there is silence in your chest
It's so good that this night is warmer

Towards the wind, towards fate
An unbreakable will carries you forward
Your compass is faith and hope
May it lead you to your dream

Your friend is a night with rain and mountains
Let the fog draw the curtains
And every step in this adventure
Brings you closer to freedom

What else would our free-thinking reading public want in 2025? All the same as an hour ago. At the very least, stay with the "Assembly" and further (we are not asking you for money, just let the opportunity come from time to time). We wish those who are going to leave warring countries to do it successfully and settle in a new place. For those who do not want to leave, we wish to have as little as possible to deal with the state gang and become as self-sufficient as possible up to the creation of autonomous settlements in the rural wilderness. And, of course, help needy people and animals, keep yourself in good health, develop yourself, study anarchist communism. Perhaps it will come in handy sooner than you think.