(en) Canada. UCL, Balance and perspective back on the past year by Collectif Emma Goldman (fr)

(en) Canada. UCL, Balance and perspective back on the past
year by Collectif Emma Goldman (fr) [machine translation]

Long before the final conference of the UCL, the collective Emma Goldman (hereinafter 
collectively) had to reinvent its practices and review its scope, simply by necessity and 
pragmatism. To overcome the absence and in support of a national federation that fed the 
collective as materially (agitation-propaganda) in the guidelines, we shifted our actions 
from a local perspective and worked on new collaborations. ---- These shifts have taken 
many forms, be it in that of the implementation of activities and gatherings (cabaret, 
Emma views )[1] promoting the exchange and networking of the Saguenay social left, as 
under that of bridges and building collaborations with other alternative media - including 
the arts (CEAR, etc.) - in the region. ---- Members and sympathizers of the collective 
assets accentuated production work and reflections on local issues (analytical articles, 
projections, agitprop tools (videos, blog, flyers), etc.). Our willingness to intervene in 
more depth on issues of Saguenay culminated with the development of a campaign on 
gentrification, not to mention the continuation of this campaign rather informal but 
permanent enough against intolerance and racism in the Saguenay.

Present a positive vision of anarchism

We remain strongly behind all and all the oppressed and exploited of this world, and 
against the system (patriarchy, capitalism, racism, imperialism, etc.) that create and 
maintain inequalities. In our speech and our practice, we have always favored direct 
action and civil disobedience, developed self-management and direct democracy in the 
struggles in which we participate. However, we would also like to propose and put forward 
alternative practices and make some sort of not propaganda by deed, but by action.

During the last year, we realized at various times, "taking the job" activities that 
enable people to set aside their usual context and thus see things differently. The 
achievement of free markets and type of activities from food, not bombs is not an end in 
itself, but it allows us to address the issue of free while putting forward the adage " 
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. " As we already wrote: 
"Free appears somewhat like a subversion of the capitalist economic processes, especially 
apparent when people are taken astonishment not to pay the distribution points."

A local action: G?rons town ourselves!

The campaign ! G?rons the city ourselves , it is primarily a platform: open, horizontal 
and anti-capitalist, which exposes and denounces certain urban problems such as 
gentrification / gentrification in inner-city Saguenay, as urban sprawl. By observing and 
documenting these different issues, it allows us to get out of the personalization of 
issues related to Saguenay city. Because beyond statements to the punch of the first 
magistrate and his positions, issues, including the lack of residents and inhabitants of 
the city in decision making are cultural and institutional (systemic).

For this reason, the group wanted when he started the campaign G?rons town ourselves! , 
put forward the premise; we can not and will not be able to democratize the Saguenay city 
council, despite what may suggest a certain electoral left and other opponents to the 
authoritarian administration of Mayor Tremblay. The participation of inhabitants in local 
democracy is more than a question of political will and requires much more than a redesign 
of the city council.

For it is not enough to "involve citizens in decision-making," or to set the top 
"mechanisms of information, consultation and participatory management that can take the 
form committees or councils neighborhoods question periods to Board meetings, surveys, 
public consultations, referendums, etc. "All subject to partisan interests to democratize 
the city. The problem lies in the principle of representation and inter-class nature of 
the city. For Castoriadis representation is "[...] a foreign principle of democracy, as 
soon as there is" representatives "standing, authority, activity and political initiative 
are removed the body of citizens to be given to the small body "representatives", who then 
wear out at their convenience and according to their interests.?

This is more than the proposals made by a politician and opportunist opposition in order 
to maintain the illusion of power from the base, while strengthening passivity "citizen" 
as a real commitment or an approach still distant of participatory democracy. In short, 
once part of musical chairs over and the event of a major crisis of the municipal 
institution, "everything must change so that nothing changes" so to ensure that power 
remains in the hands of technocrats and the city remains a good business opportunity.

We do not want to give our opinion!: Radicalization of social movements towards greater 
autonomy

The campaign G?rons town ourselves! comes from a desire for autonomy and is in a spirit of 
creation of local and subversive alternatives. By independence, we mean first of all deal 
with the municipal administration and the false friends who sit on the council. But it can 
not be summarized only this. For if we are to avoid the re-appropriation of our struggles, 
act and transform reality, we must start to build an effective autonomy to the State and 
Capital, a counterweight which shows that we can take collectively things in hand, without 
the intervention of "experts" and bureaucrats. A force that will, once mature, able to 
challenge bourgeois hegemony and allow the transition to a society based on libertarian 
principles. Unfortunately, we are still far from it not qualitatively.

Three areas: to inform, educate, mobilize

Using allies, we imagined for a few days of summer 2014, a park. We have, for this 
approach, realized at once: 1) direct action (without intermediary); 2) an occupation; 3) 
urban redevelopment action and collective appropriation; etc. But the greatest strength of 
this intervention (and probably the last campaign), however, lies in the three axes that 
were developed throughout the process, including: analysis, criticism and one of the axes 
important proposal .

If at first views of Emma (screenings and discussions) managed to cool the pot of 
indignation, the campaign, although promising in its infancy, may rest, in the near future 
and for different reasons, in the graveyard of good intentions.

The first reason is simple. Between the person who reads a blog text (or newspaper, 
leaflet, etc.), which supports and contributes to a screening / discussion or the one who 
takes part in an organizational meeting, there are three levels 'different involvement 
that although roughly reflect the different degrees of engagement of a person. But it is 
still necessary, once we have mobilized these people maintain their interest. This 
requires the difficult movement back and forth between speech and action and, ultimately, 
the possibility of transforming reality. This is far from a foregone conclusion, because 
on one hand the forces of the status quo - such as apathy and fatalism - and the other 
machine manufacturing consent - not counting the repressive and reactionary forces of all 
stripes are everywhere - and scope without comparison with our achievements. For the time 
being ...

We were first surprised, then, then, were struck with an excess of enthusiasm for the 
response of different vis-?-vis the project areas are Emma's Views . This led us, when 
response to this initiative, to overestimate the degree of mobilization of people. We not 
only misjudge the forces involved, but closer and multiply the events, which can be 
difficult for people who have little used to mobilize and organize. Ultimately, our 
expectations that proved rather high have not been met, which has caused some 
disappointment or demotivation.

The second reason is this: true democracy (direct and unmediated) takes time and sustained 
investment. Sure, we've all our own realities and commitments. Subsequently, most of those 
arrested by the countryside, investment remained punctual. Which is not bad in itself, far 
from being unique in the context of organization. Nevertheless, it is important to name 
the difficulties that made us meet.

The work done upstream (often invisible) organization and planning of an action or event, 
to name just one, relies too often on the shoulders of a few, resulting in duplication and 
fatigue. Everything becomes more difficult later for an organization or, as in this case, 
a campaign. As such, the fundamental need to train and support new and sometimes new 
militant (because we are not born militants and activists).

Prospects for 2015

It is rather difficult not to fall, according to the new events (imperialist wars, 
austerity, etc.) in a form of activism. The current environment requires us to rethink our 
priorities. By cons, we must take time, as in some previous campaigns ( Get out radios 
garbage , racist standby implications in certain labor disputes, etc.) to bring local 
issues are national in scope, and vice versa while developing a terraced political 
perspective between the need for reform here and now and the desire for revolution. 
Obviously, all this without neglecting the international solidarity actions (support for 
Palestine, Kurds, etc.) and regional (locked out, Anse-?-Pelletier, etc.) that are 
necessary under these circumstances and future .

Despite the previously submitted items (the campaign G?rons town ourselves! ), we must 
avoid a fall on us consolidate our struggles active and aim to expand. It will, through 
our actions and within herself, maintain hope and strengthen the power to act.

Capital does not servant

As the crisis of globalized economies experienced since 2008 threatens the Quebec model by 
adjusting the economies of states to the interests of the financial markets and banks, the 
crisis of overproduction, in turn, via, among other things, the extractive model leads to 
scarcity energy and mineral resources and generates real negative impacts on the 
environment, climate, biodiversity, etc. This other crisis demonstrates also that 
maintaining a production-economic model says growth is desirable at all, not being, by 
far, sustainable in the medium and long term.

A movement with little perspective

Since the beginning of the fall of the reformist going to the extreme revolutionary left 
everyone denounce the austerity of the Liberal government. Certainly, it is in the street 
and the amount of movement that we will create the balance of power necessary to counter 
austerity. Nevertheless, everything suggests at present, the unions, the community 
movement and part of the student movement embarked on yet another battle to limit further 
bleeding and preserve what remains of the "Quebec model". Some statements are at least 
fairly clear in this sense: " For the CSN, the state must play an active role in 
consolidating our model by giving full meaning to state functions as redistributor of 
wealth while allowing growth Economic . "[2]

This leads us to the following questions: how will lodge teaches some components of the 
protest movement, once temporarily "saved" the Quebec model? What will be the next step, 
if we can temporarily prevent price increases, layoffs, cuts in services? We will 
certainly accomplished a great way because it is far from certain that the movement 
ignites enough to achieve it. We can anticipate if the speech did not articulate 
differently than blue-collar, white-collar and other passes from this world act as in the 
past, taking a little prone posture to mobilize alongside people without -emplois, 
ill-housed, the most vulnerable in our society, in short. The reasons are simple. First, 
these situations that affect them from afar. Second, despite the rhetoric against 
austerity struggles remain largely sectoral and focused on maintaining and improving the 
conditions of these workers. So we must transform the slogan " an injury to one is an 
injury to all "a reality.

If the movement is limited to the claims of the various corporate interests (collective 
agreements, pensions, etc.), we get maybe a few victories in the best-organized media or 
the more combative. But we refuse to identify this fight around the simple defense and the 
maintenance of past gains. For if the movement develops a concrete and real solidarity 
between different groups of society, we can gather a broad social movement to not only 
counter the austerity, but turn the tide and begin a real social transformation.

We, the Collective Emma Goldman, believe that it is particularly putting forward demands 
such as the right to housing, access to energy, health care, education, recreation, 
transportation, the eradication of insecurity and unemployment, for a massive reduction in 
working time and by any other drastic measures for social and economic sense, can we hope 
to bring it closer.

Become a force of proposal

After the failure of market capitalism, state capitalism (allegedly socialist) and 
following the liberal turn of social democracy, we need more than ever of utopia and 
concrete proposal out with capital. We note the difficulty that we, people from the far 
left, have to incarnate, beyond the watchwords and editorials, an attractive force and 
actual proposal. Nevertheless, between one side dogmatism and on the other, pragmatism 
false airs, there is a huge range of possibilities.

Social experiments breaking with the dominant order

It is in companies where we work, neighborhoods where we live and our educational 
institutions, we must lay the foundation for an autonomous movement, self-management and 
anti-capitalist magnitude.

As Belgian comrades wrote:

" One of the strengths of the labor movement in history is that it was more than just a 
movement or party, but to propose a model against-society, here and now to build a 
concrete idea of what could being a communist society. This requires the development of 
practical solidarity as were mutual societies and cooperatives, political experimentation 
places, against a cultural-artistic and journalistic, etc . "[3]

It is through this type of experiments that left the ruins of the Greek state and the 
economy a new wind of hope. In 2010, appeared around the archipelago landscape slogan "Do 
longer live as slaves! "Which is pronounced in Greek" Na min zisoum? Douli san. " In 
various popular and free social spaces meetings, participants have developed to meet needs 
without waiting for permission from anyone (party, government, etc.), many social projects 
for and by the people and inhabitants. Participants decided by direct democracy put in 
place including social and health clinics self, the free stores, free access courses 
(language, history, philosophy, art, poetry, art, etc.), and so on. And also, highlight of 
the Greek resistance, alternative and self-managed economic structures (in the production 
and distribution) were put in place.

Before austerity, now building our independence!


[1]. The views Emma are: dozens of posters, three public evenings in five weeks, three 
nights in a "distro", five documentaries (including one produced locally), discussions and 
public exchanges, a " really really free market ", a cabaret, dozens of poems, many 
original texts, a few songs, but mostly about 150 people who came to give life to these 
parties.

[2]. "The CSN is committed in the fight to austerity," September 23, 2014[3]. "Giving back 
to the ideas and practices anarchists visibility," October 16, 2014, online: 
albruxelles.wordpress.com

Published there two days ago by Collectif Emma Goldman


http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.co.il/2015/02/bilan-et-perspective-retour-sur-la.html