The most important lawyer involved in anti-fascist struggle in Russia (as well as an anarchist who attempted to stop the assassin) was assassinated on January 19th, a month ago. I found out today. There’s infoshop.org’s take on it as well as Netherlands Indymedia’s.

The Russian anarchists don’t have it easy. The neo-nazis there kill them. Two years ago, someone bombed the st. petersburg food not bombs. Also in 2007, neo-nazi’s raided an environmental protest camp and left an activist dead.

I honestly don’t know what to do. I’ve never felt more privileged than through my experience of being a first-world anarchist. The level of activism I’m involved in–public discourse, open organizing, etc.–could get me killed in parts of the world… not so much by the state as much as by fascists whom the state turns a blind eye towards. What does this mean? What is our responsibility as first-world anarchists? First of all, to let them know that they aren’t alone. But what does that even mean? Banner drops? Blog posts?

Well, continuing to organize against the fascists in the US, that’s a start. Because they are here. They just don’t kill as many punks. But look at the statistics on hate crimes against trans people in the US (actually, don’t.).

I’m not going anywhere with this. I’m mournful and I’m confused.