Minsk: Anarchists attack ‘Shangri La’ casino

They bombarded the entrance to the casino with bulbs with paint and pyrotechnic torches, and left the writing on the wall: ‘You have been gambled away already!’

At their web-site www.avtonom.org anarchists write they are indignant at the fact that the minimal sum to start playing in this casino is $5,000. ‘Just remember what the salary of a young professional in our country or of a worker is. It is 600-700,000 BYR (about $220- 250) in Minsk, and 400-500,000 in regions. People of many other professions are paid even less.’

‘It means that a Russian or local businessman spends in the casino in one evening at least two-year salary of a worker, in order to sit in a BMW or Lexus and go to his office of a CEO or top-manager, to say to workers that they do not work well, and that is why their salaries are little, and besides it is crisis time now, and everybody should tighten belts. But the most awful thing is that mass media and the state assure us that this situation is completely normal! Most Belarusians are toiling hard, or even have two exhausting works, in order to maintain their families, while others, who are more successful according capitalistic logics, spend huge sums on luxury and entertainment. So the words of the state propaganda about “the social state” and “the state for the people” look like mockery. The aim of our action was to attract attention to this outrageous social injustice and show that not all working people are so intimidated and demoralized to keep silent. Anticipating accusations of primitivism, we would like to make reservations that we do not believe that by exterminating all the rich we would reach better tomorrow. Our aim is not to exterminate all the rich, but to have no poor.’