Anti-war demonstration in Moscow

On February 5, an anti-war demonstration took place in Moscow's Pushkin Square. The demonstration was called by a number of Russian anarchist and ecologist groups, including the Anarchist Anti-war Movement, the Dikobraz group, the ecologist movement Rainbow Keepers and the Localization Program of the Socio-Ecological Union.

The Movement for a Workers' Party, which has called a demonstration against the war later this month, attended the demonstration too, with their slogan "If you vote for Putin you vote for war".

The demonstrators condemned the "police state" in Russia and all forms of racism and repressions. They also spoke about high costs of the Chechen war, about those wounded and killed, about casualties among women, children, old people.

Nevertheless, some right-wing, pro-US elements were present too. They raised slogans in defence of Babitsky, the journalist for the right-wing US-funded Radio Free Europe, who was the object of media attention worldwide when he disappeared recently in Chechnya.

One of the original organisers of the February 5 demonstration was a group attached to the Socio-Ecological Union, a major conduit for US money aimed at manipulating sincere anarchist and ecologist activists.

[Abridged from Russia Info-List, which is put togther by (but does not necessarily reflect the views of) International Solidarity with the Workers of Russia. ISWoR web site is at <http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html>.]

From GLW issue 393