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donderdag 30 april 2015

World News Information MOONDIAL is out ! Edition 2 of 30 April 2015‏


MOONDIAL
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30 April 2015
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Today's headline
Nigeria: 160 more women, children rescued from Boko Haram camp - CNN.com
thumbnailwww­.cnn­.com - Kano, Nigeria (CNN)Nigerian troops rescued an additional 160 women and children from Boko Haram days after they found hundreds of other hostages, the military said Thursday. "We are still working t...

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Saudi Arabia Amnesty International USA Join the global outcry to free Raif ‏Badawi

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May 7: Join the global outcry to free Raif
Get Involved
Saudi embassies, here we come

Amnesty activists will mobilize outside of Saudi embassies around the world on May 7 to demand Raif Badawi's release. Please support our efforts on behalf of Prisoners of Conscience like Raif.
Donate Now!
Share This Action
Share on Facebook. Share on Twitter.
Dear friends,

We're gearing up for a major mobilization on May 7, and we need your help.

Raif Badawi was imprisoned and publicly flogged by the Saudi government - lashed 50 times - for starting a blog that encouraged social and political debate. Right now, he's in a cell serving the remainder of his 10-year sentence and awaiting 950 more lashes.

Amnesty and other global partners are planning a mass mobilization outside Saudi embassies and consulates around the world on the first anniversary of Raif's sentencing. Please support our efforts on behalf of Prisoners of Conscience like Raif with a financial contribution.

We believe that the global outcry has been key to sparing Raif from the weekly floggings mandated by his sentence. But until Raif is unconditionally freed, our work is far from over.

We are gravely concerned that the Saudi government is waiting for the international spotlight to fade and is considering trying Raif for apostasy, which carries the death sentence.

That's why we're planning this event on May 7. We must show the Saudi government that the world is still watching and won't stand for anything but Raif's unconditional release.

Please donate to support our efforts. Your support makes a difference:
  • $25 can help print banners and signs for activist events on May 7.
  • $50 can help Amnesty pay for digital advertising that asks people to put pressure on the Saudi Embassy in DC.
  • $75 can help us mobilize activists to generate more letters, calls and emails to the Saudi Embassy in DC.
  • $250 can support a human rights expert who will apply "grasstops" pressure on Saudi authorities.
The more support we amass, the more pressure we can apply to demand Raif's release. Please help us maximize this moment. Support our efforts.

Let's free Raif once and for all!

With hope for justice,

Jasmine Heiss
Senior Campaigner, Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA

Amnesty International USA
© 2015 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400  

Belgium Radio Klara Jeroen Brouwers 75 - Orson Welles 100‏

Jeroen Brouwers 75

Jeroen Brouwers wordt vandaag 75 - van harte gefelicteerd, mijnheer Brouwers - en maakt met zijn met zijn jongste roman Het Hout kans op de Gouden Boekenuil. Christophe Vekeman ging de schrijver thuis opzoeken voor een gesprek.

Pompidou, donderdag 30 april om 17 uur lees meer

Vaarwel vrije pers?

Persmensen maken zich zorgen over hun vrijheid. Niet alleen omdat steeds meer regimes censureren, maar ook omdat door de vrije handel en door de weinig transparante concentraties in het mediabedrijvenlandschap de persvrijheid in nauwe schoentjes komt. Naar aanleing van de Werelddag van de Persvrijheidpraat Werner Trio met Ides Debruyne en Annabell Van den Berghe. Ides Debruyne is manager van journalismfund.eu, en in 2013 winnaar van de 'Prize for the Freedom and Future of Media. Annabell Van den Berghe is freelance journaliste in het onvrije en gevaarlijke Midden-Oosten. 

Trio, zaterdag 2 mei om 12 uur lees meer

Berg en Dal met A.L. Snijders

A.L. Snijders - pseudoniem voor Peter Müller - maakte furore als schrijver van columns (onder andere bij Het Parool) en staat nu bekend als een van de grootste schrijvers van het zeer korte verhaal, kortweg zkv genoemd. In 2010 won hij de Constantijn Huygens-prijs voor zijn gehele oeuvre. Hij groeide op in Amsterdam maar woont al heel lang in de landelijke Achterhoek.

Berg en Dal, zondag 3 mei om 10 uur lees meer

Klara Live rechtstreeks vanuit Bozar

Maandag staat bij Klara Live Sergei Prokofiev in het brandpunt van de belangstelling, met een uitvoering van zijn tweede symfonie en zijn tweede pianoconcerto. Deze moeilijke, maar visionaire partituur is een kolfje naar de hand van Severin Von Eckardstein, bekend van zijn eerste plaats in de Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd 2003. Het Brussels Philharmonic staat onder leiding vanNicholas Collon . Eveneens op het programma: Amérique van Edgar Varèse.

Klara Live, maandag 4 mei om 20 uur lees meer

Late Night Special met Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Naar aanleiding van de tentoonstelling Work/Travail/Arbeid van Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in WIELS herhaalt Klara volgende week de eerder uitgezonden vijfdelige reeks Late Night Special, rond de muzikale invloeden en voorkeuren van de choreografe. 

Late Night Special, van maandag 4 tot vrijdag 8 mei, telkens om 22 uur lees meer

Een vol uur Orson Welles

George Orson Welles was een Amerikaanse acteur, regisseur en scenarioschrijver die honderd jaar geleden werd geboren. Welles werd in 1938 wereldberoemd door een radio-uitzending van The War of the Worlds. Tegenwoordig is hij het best bekend als regisseur van de klassieker Citizen Kane. Samen met Tom PaulusHarry Kümel en Patrick Duynslaegher schetstKurt Van Eeghem volgende dinsdag een portret van deze markante figuur. 

Pompidou, dinsdag 5 mei om 17 uur lees meer

Chantal Pattyn op de 56ste Biënnale van Venetië

Onder de titel All the World’s Futures start volgende woensdag 6 mei in Venetië de 56ste kunstbiënnale. Curator is de Amerikaanse dichter, kunsthistoricus en conservator van Nigeriaanse afkomst, Okwui Enwezor. De tentoonstelling gaat voor het publiek open op zaterdag 9 mei en loopt tot zondag 22 november.Chantal Pattyn is erbij vanaf het eerste moment en brengt verslag uit in Espresso. Maandag 11 mei is Pompidou integraal gewijd aan de biënnale. 

Espresso, elke werkdag van 6 tot 9 uur 
Pompidou, maandag 11 mei, om 17 uur
 lees meer

Turkey, DAF - Meydan #26 - Istanbul University Sçimeielrily the invariant for the Retrötülk" - Okan OZDUMAN (tr)

(en) 8 Turkey, DAF - Meydan #26 - Istanbul University
Sçimeielrily the invariant for the Retrötülk" - Okan OZDUMAN (tr)
[machine translation]

Istanbul University recently, this time reflected as left-right fascist provocations or 
fight the agency "Again they Extract Event at IU!" On the title of the publication 
covering not offered to the public from the police attack; agenda was the rector 
elections. ---- Rashid Tükel 1202 vote of the Rector candidates taking first, second and 
Mahmut Ak had been taking 908 votes. However, HEC, Rashid Tükel lowered into second place 
despite being first; President Erdogan is known to be close to him as rector was appointed 
Mahmut Ak. ---- I was a student at Istanbul University, against the state "I'm Rashid 
Tükel President" campaign was launched by some politics. The aim of the campaign, the 
power of which will act according to their own policy instead Mahmut Ak; "Leftist, 
democratic opposition" was not known Rashid Tükel rector of the identity. Under this 
campaign, as well as classic a press release, a "Democracy and Freedom Festival" was held.

This discourse and action -h will be created with the perception that the rector of the 
Higher Education Council koşulda- choice must be made ​​between two people; The presence 
of the rector, purpose, HEC-state and to ignore their commitment to capitalism and Rashid 
Tükel had led to a movement building efforts through the opposing identities.

Performed "Democracy Festival" then n HEC appointed rector Mahmoud Aka against school "not 
to abandon" it was decided in the action. Rashid Tükel or not our rector, no appointed or 
to be appointed rector of recognize it or not, "not to leave" should have been in action; 
We also found. With criticism about the shallowness of our discourse and not for action 
Rashid Tükel; Mahmoud against Ak, explaining that we attend to the HEC. Would not leave 
the Law School. The police action was outside ÖGB was uncomfortable. Rashid Tükel police 
come to our side as mediator of enter and exit the campus immediately after "I came to get 
you, I get the message that you want to now where necessary." Action, saying not only 
damping; This attitude will not change the fact that students are in favor of anything; In 
contrast to efforts to quenching cracks also roll up the fight we have shown.

Trek etmme to eymlee the Bylo to süömmlindirelniş OSL also, we do not damped the passage 
of the fight, we will not. The state of the university yök'l, with HEC rector, rector of 
the sometimes ricayl-friendly, most other times, the police, the pressure will build the 
ÖGB and investigation, pacifying and will continue to fight against the policy of 
integration into capitalism.

Meanwhile, complicated words in writing is not proofreading error. K lieemn the beginning 
and end of blleisy to hrfarel, ardaka the hrfarel the ynire is my drug of oykuaibirliz 
dğieşritsek also Kliem, içğeir also dğieşemz.

Eliminate head-end, duties and powers of the office of the rector when a certain, Rashid 
Tükel or Mahmut Ak sitting in this office; Our struggle for freedom of the office of the 
rector does not change the fact that one of the obstacles ahead.

Okan OZDUMAN

okan@meydangazetesi.org

http://meydangazetesi.org/gundem/2015/04/iatsnubl-uivnertsiseinde-retrotulk-scimeielrilye-degismeyenler-okan-ozduman/

France, Alternative Libertaire AL #248 - March 18: Blockupy the assault of the ECB (fr, it, pt)

 (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #248 - March 18:
Blockupy the assault of the ECB (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]

The inauguration of the new headquarters of the European Central Bank is scheduled for 18 
March in Frankfurt am Main. The Blockupy coalition is preparing to play spoilsport. ---- 
While the European Central Bank (ECB) preaches with the European Commission and the 
governments of the EU (except the new Greek government) blocking policies or even wage 
cuts and the dismantling of public services and devices social protection, she built a 
fortress-building of 1.3 billion euros which symbolizes totally uninhibited domination of 
capital. ---- Mass actions ---- It is in a festive atmosphere that the European oligarchy 
(heads of state, bankers and captains of industry) plans to get together to celebrate his 
power. Blockupy, a coalition of social movements and anti-capitalist[1] created in 2010, 
considering that "there is nothing to celebrate in the austerity policies" intends to 
spoil the party. Blockupy provides deployment in the streets and squares of Frankfurt and 
massive action of civil disobedience. The morning will be marked by the shares of 
blockages and encirclement of the ECB. The actions are designed so that everyone can 
participate regardless of their level of experience. The afternoon will be marked by an 
international event and words sockets. Delegations from a dozen countries are expected.

Convergence revolts

By attacking the ECB and governments that are armed capital arm Blockupy wants to 
politicize and contribute to the convergence of revolts against the capitalist order, but 
also to build an anti-authoritarian alternative and self-management. This is the purpose 
of the meetings held last November in Frankfurt, to prepare the mobilization of March 
18[2]. Beyond this deadline Blockupy wishes to make the lever of a sustainable European 
convergence against austerity policies. All the more reason to get to Frankfurt in March!

Laurent (AL-northeast Paris)

Public transport is organized from Paris and other cities including the North of France. 
Information and registration: blockupy.org

[1] It brings together political organizations such as the Left Party, Die Linke 
interventionnistische (daughter organization of autonomy and anti-fascist gathering, 
feminists, environmentalists, trade unionists, and radical anti-racist) Revolutionär 
Sozialistischer Bund (German section of the Fourth International) ATTAC, Antifascistische 
Aktion, oppositional union DGB, among others.

[2] See Libertarian Alternative, No. 245, December 2014 .

http://alternativelibertaire.org/?18-mars-Blockupy-a-l-assaut-de-la

(en) US, WSA, Ideas & Actions - Why solidarity is necessary - but it's not just about class By Geoff

"An injury to one is an injury to all". This IWW slogan characterizes the solidarity 
necessitated by class struggle. It characterizes the idea that it's necessary for the 
working class to cooperate and work together towards their individual interests, as these 
are also class interests. The interests of gaining control over economic, social and work 
decisions which affect the working class directly is made necessary due to the odious 
nature of our current global economic conditions. ---- But this slogan really goes further 
than just class. It is also an embodiment of the solidarity necessitated by intersecting 
forms of oppression which divide the working class and hinder their ability to fight back 
in the global class war. Intersectional, meaning, issues concerned with intersections 
between forms or systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. These issues also 
create various social hierarchies which marginalize and disempower people. Examples of 
these issues include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, queerphobia and gender 
essentialism. For instance, sexual harassment in the workplace, workplace discrimination 
on bounds of race or gender, and gender essentialism when it comes to the dignity of 
transgender folks who often experience terrible cruelty from others when they need to use 
public restrooms.

To quote Bakunin, "I am truly free only when all human beings...are equally free...". This 
means that a worker in the USA who gains freedom and control over their own work isn't 
truly free while other workers in, say, China and Africa continue to be brutally repressed 
and exploited. But it also means that, so long as social hierarchies characterized by 
intersectional issues are not addressed and dissolved, that the working class as a whole 
cannot be free. In other words, there cannot be real liberty, equality and solidarity 
where some workers are discriminated against or otherwise disempowered by social hierarchies.

So, for instance, there is no real solidarity expressed by people who are only interested 
in their particular craft's labor fights (because it has no real class 
characteristic)...for instance, IBEW workers crossing USW's picket line during the recent 
refinery strike. But additionally, there is also no real solidarity expressed by people 
who are only concerned with freedom, for instance, for white, male, heterosexual, 
cisgender workers, as these are folks who are not subject to marginalization like other 
workers are, including people of color, women, queer and transgender folks. Because 
different workers are subject to various social hierarchies (like patriarchy, racism and 
queerphobia) and they experience a lack of freedom differently than others of the working 
class.

As a result, it is critical for those of us who believe fighting for another world 
characterized by human dignity, liberty and equality, to understand that such a thing is 
necessitated by solidarity. But also that this solidarity must be characterized by both 
class struggle as well as the recognition of the need to combat and resolve intersectional 
issues and dissolve all their associated social hierarchies. Because these issues 
ultimately disempower and marginalize people, prevent the liberation of the working class 
and throw a wrench in the spokes of libertarian solidarity.

http://ideasandaction.info/2015/04/solidarity-its-class/

(en) WSM - Irish Anarchist Review #11 - The Water Revolt: Ireland 2015

The campaign against the water charges is the most widespread and powerful grassroots 
movement in recent Irish history. With hundreds of local campaign groups, daily direct 
actions, and 4 national demonstrations on the order of 50,000-100,000, the cynical refrain 
that 'the Irish don't protest' has rapidly been replaced by a sense of ubiquitous 
rebellion. Irish Water is a depraved neoliberal world in effigy, embodying many of the 
worst problems of our society including the rule of international finance (and private 
greed in general) at the cost of the vast majority's well being, and the chronic 
disconnection of the populace from decision making. As such the movement has become a 
platform for opposition to austerity, the bank bailout, privatisation, the government, 
party politics, the EU, and more. Thousands of people have experienced a political 
(re-)awakening. But while it is possible that we will win this battle, and abolish Irish 
Water, this struggle represents a precious opportunity to make a grassroots offensive 
after so many years of being beaten down.

Movement Background

It certainly wasn't always obvious that the fight against the water charges would be so 
enormous. The sheer turnout of the 11th October Right2Water demonstration - not to mention 
that protesters came from all over the country - came as a surprise to most people, 
including much of the activist left. That day definitively established in people's minds 
that not only was a serious nationwide fightback possible, but that we could probably win. 
The mood was of defiance, confidence, and the joy of revolting together.

But people didn't throng Dublin's city centre out of nowhere. After the collapse of the 
CAHWT (Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes) around January 2014, crucially, a small 
number of people decided to stay active and stop the installation of water meters, for 
instance in Ballyphehane and Togher in Cork and then a few areas of north east Dublin. On 
this, Gregor Kerr, who was the secretary of the Federation of Dublin Anti-Water Charge 
Campaigns (FDAWCC) in the 1990s, opined 'I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that 
the huge protest on 11th October wouldn't have been anything like the size it was without 
the slow burn for the previous months of blockades and protests against meter 
installations spreading from community to community. And it was no coincidence either that 
many of the people involved in water meter blockades had also participated earlier in the 
summer in blockades of scab-operated bin trucks in their communities in support of the 
locked out Greyhound workers.' The initiative and hard work of these early campaigners was 
the germ of the huge movement which has burgeoned since.

This is a large part of the reason the fight against the water charges has been far more 
successful than the fight against the household and property tax was. As Mr. Kerr added 
'the fact that [the latter] was so fresh in people's memories was undoubtedly important. 
But maybe for many people it was important from the point of view of people saying 'We're 
not going to allow the same mistakes to be made again'. There is a huge contrast between 
the way the two campaigns developed. The CAHWT (the principal campaign against the 
property/household tax) was initiated by political organisations and was effectively 
strangled by some of those same parties/organisations as they jockeyed for control and 
positioned themselves to be the anti-property tax candidates in the local elections. The 
campaign involved huge numbers of working class people but never developed a grassroots 
structure, and the steering committee meetings eventually became turgid affairs mired in 
wanna be leaders lecturing everybody else. In contrast the anti-water charges campaign has 
emerged from communities and the political parties and organisations have been running 
after it trying to 'lead' it. Indeed there isn't an anti-water charge campaign, there are 
a plethora of groups organising in an ad hoc manner, some co-ordinated, some not. That's a 
huge strength. It does of course also present difficulties or challenges but they are 
outweighed by the fact that this campaign won't be as easily derailed because of the 
diversity and divergence of people and communities involved.'

Irish Water's Mission to Conserve Profit

The attempt to impose domestic water charges in Ireland is not new. In 1977 domestic rates 
were scrapped (raising VAT and income tax), but in 1983 domestic 'service charges' were 
introduced in most counties, being fought off elsewhere (e.g. Dublin, Limerick, and 
Waterford). From 1994-1997 a grassroots campaign in Dublin (FDAWCC), somewhat similar to 
the present one, repelled the water charge (which was flat, no meters were used). This 
involved a strong boycott of the bills, mass demonstrations and court protests, a 
solidarity fund for legal costs, and reversing and preventing water cut-offs. The water 
charge was then scrapped for the 26 counties. The implementation of domestic water charges 
was in the previous Fianna Fáil - Green government's Programme for Government in 2009. 
Then in 2010 it was a condition of the Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, 
International Monetary Fund) bailout.

The purpose of Irish Water is certainly not 'safeguarding your water for your future'. 
Only the most naive would believe that the same kind of career politicians who decided to 
critically under-fund our water infrastructure over decades - so that 40-50% of supply is 
leaked and whole areas are on boil notices - are suddenly driven to make long-term 'tough 
decisions' for the good of humanity. Furthermore, these are the same politicians who are 
committed to ignoring the very present catastrophe of climate change, which not only 
threatens the volume and quality of usable water nationally, but globally. While Michael 
Noonan sermonises about leaving the tap on all night, he wouldn't dare mention that animal 
agriculture - a large component of the Irish economy - is the single most ecologically 
destructive activity on Earth, particularly because of its high methane gas emissions and 
intense water usage. That would not please the rancher farmers. Nor would Alan Kelly 
stridently denounce hydraulic fracturing, or Phil Hogan valiantly question the need to 
devour water in the production of pointless commodities for economic growth.
Indeed, Irish Water has been established to transform our water into a commodity - an 
economic object bought and sold in a market according to the direct use of a consumer - 
that will be owned and controlled by private interests.

Even former Fine Gael junior minister Fergus O'Dowd, not quite an anarcho-communist, spoke 
of being 'deeply concerned at other agendas, they may be European' and '[not knowing] 
where they are coming from' when he was involved in the foundation of Irish Water. But 
this is not peculiar to Ireland. The global pattern is that 'familiar mega-banks and 
investing powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche 
Bank, Credit Suisse ... are consolidating their control over water.' The UN has predicted 
that there will be a 40% shortfall in global water supply by 2030. In 2008, Goldman Sachs 
called water 'the petroleum for the next century'. Such corporations have been slurping up 
water utilities, reserves, and anything else related. For example, in 2012 Goldman Sachs 
bought Veolia Water which is the largest water services corporation on the planet and 
already has operations in Ireland. There are a handful of multinational corporations which 
dominate the global water market. If you can't trust supposedly accountable politicians to 
manage water services for the common good, you definitely can't trust an entirely 
unaccountable corporation to do so.

But further still, this issue is part of a political trajectory which is even older and 
goes far beyond the shores of Ireland - that is, 'neoliberalism'. Neoliberalism, in 
theory, is the idea that in order to maximise the liberty of the individual, the state 
should interfere with the personal affairs and economic transactions as little as 
possible, merely ensuring the conditions for private property to exist through 'law and 
order', and the conditions of trade by prosecuting fraud. Everything should be a commodity 
and have a price tag so that it is used in an 'efficient' manner, and all companies should 
be privately owned and operated for the same reason. Hence neoliberal capitalist policies 
include privatisation, de-regulation, removing tariffs, and austerity. However, in 
practice, neoliberalism is far messier, and really involves removing state interference in 
ways that suit the elite the most, and applying state force in ways that suit the elite 
the most (see Augusto Pinochet's neoliberal dictatorship in Chile 1973-1990).

As such, neoliberalism is radically opposed to the commons - the idea that, for instance, 
water is a human right, not a commodity, and should be available to all according to need. 
Or that land, or indeed accommodation, vehicles, clothing, and food, are held in common. 
Pleas from professional compromisers in politics and media to 'ensure' that Irish Water 
remains in public ownership are a diversion from the fact that Irish Water exists to be 
privatised. A referendum on state ownership (different to public, communal, etc, 
ownership) would merely leave the utility in the hands of the same shower who are 
currently ramming the water charges through. The time-tested method of defunding the 
infrastructure and wailing for the private sector to save us from state inefficiency would 
be applied. Not only that but EU law on commercial monopolies would require that the 
'water market' be 'opened to competition', not to mention the impending Transatlantic 
Trade and Investment Partnership. Irish Water must be abolished.

The Struggle

Resistance to the Irish Water plan has been relentless. The movement has not withered away 
as the establishment hoped or expected, even in the face of Garda repression and 
mainstream media denunciation. There is the sense that there is always some action going 
on somewhere, and that protest or dissent in general has become a sort of national 
pastime. I remember visiting a pub, after a meeting which included discussion on the water 
charges, only to see a man watching videos of water charges protests on a small 
wall-mounted screen. 'Now that's a sign of the times', I thought.

Another sign of the times is the record distrust of politicians, the judiciary, the 
Gardaí, the mainstream media, and big business. The Irish Water story has provided ample 
opportunity for various parts of the system to expose their true nature. This is 
especially true in the case of the Gardaí, who have enjoyed a reputation of being 
'peacekeepers' among much of the population. But people who have blocked water meters from 
being installed have discovered another reality. To many, the Gardaí are like an occupying 
army. There is no lesson quite like being arrested, and thanks to social media this lesson 
has been shared the length and breadth of the country. A ludicrously excessive Garda 
presence is a familiar sight to anyone following the anti-water charges movement, with 
packs of Gardaí crowding around a few meter holes as if protecting someone from murder. 
One of my favourite scenes was a meter protest in South Dublin where not only had about a 
dozen Garda cars and vans had been deployed, but also a helicopter. The Jobstown dawn 
raids, the pepper spraying of protesters in Coolock, and the jailing of the 4 injuncted 
protesters only made it harder to swallow the idea that the Gardaí and judiciary exist to 
serve the people rather than the interests of an elite.

Within the anti-water charges movement the mainstream media have come to be seen as 
couriers for government propaganda. Attendance at protests is persistently under-reported 
and the movement has been hounded by the 'has protest gone too far?' narrative (sometimes 
using outright fabrication). We have been able to subvert this by forming our own 
counter-media which has played an important role. A sprawling network of Facebook pages, 
Twitter accounts, and a host of blogs and other websites provide a means to communicate 
quickly among ourselves. With this we keep up to date on activity around the country, 
digest and react to establishment spin, discuss tactics, and more. This grassroots media 
network has given staying power to the movement, allowing protesters who would be 
otherwise isolated and forgotten to link with and inspire others.

At the heart of this movement is direct action, both in the prevention of meter 
installations and the boycott of bills. Dedication to the former has been impressive, with 
people regularly waking at 5, 6, and 7 in the morning to protest for hours on end, often 
in quite stressful circumstances. These protests can have almost military precision, 
scouting for meter contractors each day, communicating their movements via text trees. 
This is typified by, for example, Dublin's 'Flying Column' who respond rapidly to alerts 
and drive to different parts of the city, and the Cobh, Co. Cork group who even have a 
makeshift 'command and control' centre. If anything, this movement is a testament to the 
ability of so-called 'ordinary' people to figure things out themselves and organise 
effectively.

What Next?

But despite the spontaneity, ingenuity, and grassroots nature of this movement, most of 
the left are still hell bent on the tired strategy of electoralism. There is much talk of 
left alliances, broad platforms, and progressive coalitions, in other words another 
attempt at social democracy. Along with the economic crisis we have a crisis of 
imagination. Instead of advancing in the natural direction of this movement by renouncing 
parliamentary democracy as the un-democratic charade that it is, and spurring people on to 
take further power over their lives, Right2Water is encouraging us to entrust our fates in 
'progressive politicians' and is drafting its own electoral program. Considering that 
Right2Water won't back the boycott, its mobilisations are effectively election rallies, 
and that the closer the elections draw the more it will focus on them to the exclusion of 
all else, it is worth asking if Right2Water - now a sort of meta-political party - has 
outlived its purpose.

Elections are where movements go to die, demobilising people and fostering divisions. Why 
bother taking action yourself when some politicians are going to solve the problem for us? 
And who are going to do the campaigning for these anti-water charges candidates? Well, 
water protesters of course. Postering, leafleting, canvassing, organising meetings - all 
of this time, effort, and money, and hope, will be poured into what is ultimately an act 
of ritual mass delusion, rather than critical grassroots activity. We desperately require 
a fundamental transformation of society, and that cannot come from the buildings of 
parliament, it can only come from the great mass of people taking charge of their 
destinies and organising direct democratically.

There has been much talk of SYRIZA as a model for change, but far fewer know of Greece's 
network of grassroots organisations which has grown out of the movement of the squares in 
2011 and comprises hundreds of diverse projects including free medical clinics, 
alternative currencies and exchange economies, self-managed education, alternative media, 
and eco-villages. Surely this is more inspiring than a left party being elected to 
government? Clearly we are far from achieving this in Ireland, but this is the sort of 
politics we should be aspiring to. This is actually a 'new politics'. The Says No groups 
are promising in that they go beyond the single issue campaigning of strictly anti-water 
charges groups, linking up issues such as homelessness, evictions, austerity, and 
corruption. They could be the embryos of powerful community unions through which people 
can participate in a real form of democracy and organise local issues and services.

Conclusion

Even if the fight against the water charges were to end tomorrow, this struggle has caused 
significant change in this country which will have long-term effects. There are so many 
people who have become politicised and have risen up, and will not be content to go home 
and be quiet. The distrust in establishment institutions won't suddenly evaporate. We have 
gotten a taste of what real democracy involves, felt our own power, and we like it. What 
is necessary now is to press on, try to get more people involved, and get more organised. 
For instance, Alan Kelly has said that non-payers will be bundled into court, and we need 
to ensure the National Defense Fund is large enough to cover that possibility. Most of all 
we need to cling to what we have already seen to be true: this is our movement and our 
world, not a politician's, and if we want to make change we will have to take 
responsibility ourselves rather than rely on somebody else.

Words: Ferdia O'Brien

This article is from issue 11 of the Irish Anrchist Review

http://www.wsm.ie/c/water-revolt-ireland-2015

Press Release: Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement - Support for McDonalds workers

In New Zealand in 1905 the first May Day workers gatherings were reported in the 
newspapers. There were two events, one in Wellington and one in Christchurch. The 
Wellington meeting was held in a packed His Majesty's Theatre, and was organised by the 
New Zealand Socialist Party, whose acting Chairman, W. Wolstenholm declared the meeting as 
a recognition that the workers interests were the same the world over. ---- The main 
speaker of the day was the anarchist Philip Josephs who gave a full history of May Day and 
it's meaning, and presented a motion that ---- "We, the workers of Wellington, New 
Zealand, send fraternal greeting to the workers of every land, and affirm the principles 
of international solidarity; we affirm our determination to strive for the economic 
emancipation of our class, and are of opinion that no reform, political or economic, can 
be of lasting benefit to the workers of this country, that would not be of equal benefit 
to the proletariat of all nations."
In Christchurch, J. Cook, stated that "The [so called] ideal place for the worker was not 
at all perfect, and would not be perfect until the worker was the ruler and had the fruits 
of what they produced."

These are sentiments that reverberate today and across the world May Day is still a day 
when workers across the world take to the streets to display solidarity and demand better 
conditions. In this spirit the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement express their support 
with the McDonalds' workers who are asking New Zealanders to stay away from McDonalds this 
May Day in support of the workers struggle against zero hour contracts.


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1504/S00272/support-for-mcdonalds-workers.htm

Brazilian Full support to the struggle of workers, workers and students of Paraná! by Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)

 Full support to the struggle of workers, workers and
students of Paraná! by Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB) (fr,
it, pt) [machine translation]

The more we repressed, the more we mobilized! ---- The struggle of the civil service in 
conjunction with the State of Paraná students is already historic, managing to stop 
austerity measures the government Beto Richa (PSDB) from the direct action, with protests 
over 50,000 people and two occupations of the Legislative Assembly Paraná State (ALEP). 
---- The so-called "pacotaço" package of measures that affected directly osdireitos labor 
conquered with much struggle (especially aprevidência of public officials and employees), 
was withdrawn in February due to radicalized fight organized oppressed class. However, the 
state government does not give up to achieve the security of servers and servants, putting 
at stake in ALEP Bill 252/2015, PL Welfare.

With a huge police contingent, coming from all over the Paraná, the state managed to pass 
the proposed amendment on the constitutionality of the security committee, on Monday 
(27/04), but on Wednesday (29), when the project goes to the plenary, the working class 
will resist until the end to stop again this attack on the rights that were won with much 
sweat and blood.

Not only that the state is in debt up to the limit of nãorepassar funds for fuel and food 
of its armed wing, the police, the Government Beto Richa ordered two truculent repressive 
attacks up of employees, workers and students on Tuesday (28). One in the morning, 
complete with pepper spray, and one in the late morning, with many blows of truncheons, 
rubber bullets, more pepper spray and tear gas.

?
But if the state has its armed wing and all its bureaucratic class, the working people and 
students have the solidarity of the rest of the oppressed class. Who gets not forget and 
who collectively fight to the finish wins the victory.

All solidarity with the fighters and fighters of Parana education!

All Paraná people present at the battle of tomorrow!

Only direct action ensures our rights!

The more we repress, we mobilized more!

?

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)

http://anarquismo.noblogs.org/?p=140

anarkismo.net: The Armenian Genocide: An Open Wound by Sungur Savran

The Bullet To the memory of Stepan Shaumyan, Armenian Bolshevik leader of the Baku Commune 
in 1918, and of Hrant Dink, Armenian socialist intellectual from Istanbul who, until his 
assassination in 2007, exerted a Herculean effort to bring the genocide into the centre of 
attention in Turkey. ---- On April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, 
politicians and community leaders were rounded in Istanbul (or Constantinople as it was 
then called in the West) by the Ottoman state, to be subsequently sent to exile from which 
most never returned. This was the signal that set off a chain of events that ended in a 
tragedy the like of which has rarely been witnessed in the annals of modern history. The 
Armenians, who had been living in the eastern part of the Anatolian plateau from time 
immemorial, were forcibly deported from their homes in almost every city in what is now 
Turkey, ostensibly to their destination Dar ez Zor in the Syrian desert.

Up to a million and a half died in the process. Women were abducted, raped and killed. 
Young children were sent to orphanages and forcibly Islamized. All the property belonging 
to Armenians, houses and gardens, farms and orchards, cattle and sheep, workshops and 
tools, trade houses and factories were seized by the state or simply grasped by the 
Turkish ruling strata. Churches were made into warehouses or left to rust and community 
hospitals and schools were taken away.

On the eve of World War I, different estimates and censuses put the Armenian population of 
Anatolia between 1.2 million and close to 2 million. At the end of the war, the only 
sizeable Armenian population was left in Istanbul and the overall figure had fallen below 
a mere 100 thousand. What was to become present-day Turkey was thus "cleansed" of its 
Armenian population. The Turks had entered Anatolia as a result of the victory obtained by 
the Seldjukides over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. They cohabited 
with the autochthonous Armenians for close to a millennium. The Ottoman Empire regarded 
the Armenians as the "loyal nation," and yet it was this very same state that betrayed 
them, massacred them and extirpated them from their homes and their motherland.

Implications for the Future of the Middle East

There is not a shred of doubt that this was genocide of the worst kind. Of course, the 
concept may sound like an anachronism in this context since it was first coined as a legal 
concept in the aftermath of World War II. However, we do not approach the question of the 
Armenian genocide from a legalistic viewpoint. Our concern is to re-establish friendship 
and trust between the workers and labourers of Turkey and Armenia. For us this is first 
and foremost a political question that has to do with the prospect of revolution in the 
region. All social upheavals in the Eurasian land mass from 1905 and 1917 to the period 
1989-1991 passing through World War I witnessed massacres involving the Armenians, the 
Turks and the Azeris, the latter being the ethnic brethren of Anatolian Turks inhabiting 
the Caucasus. On the other hand, the Armenians and the Kurds each claim roughly the same 
geographic territory as their historic motherland. So the fate of the revolution in the 
Caucasus, Anatolia and Mesopotamia hinges upon the relationships established between these 
four peoples. Proletarian revolution cannot succeed here unless it sets in motion a 
process that culminates in the Socialist Federation of the Caucasus and in parallel the 
Socialist Federation of the Middle East, where Turk and Armenian and Kurd will have to 
cohabit. Hence the debate on the Armenian genocide is by no means a futile exercise on a 
long bygone historic event, but really concerns the future of the revolution in this whole 
region.

The Turkish state and those historians and intellectuals who act as its mouthpiece have 
consistently denied the genocide. Their arguments range from the minimization of 
casualties (the lowest figure cited being 320 thousand as against the 1.5 million put 
forward by many Armenian and other historians) to the claim that the massacres were 
reciprocal. They forget two simple facts. First, the Armenian population of eastern 
Anatolia was almost totally eradicated from the face of Anatolia. So to count the numbers 
of the dead is only a part of the genocide debate. Secondly, state power was in the hands 
of the Turkish dominant nation, which renders all talk about mutual carnage empty chatter.

Genocide as Class Struggle

The classical explanation offered for this barbaric cruelty by liberal historiography in 
Turkey and nationalist historiography of the Armenians both in contemporary Armenia and 
the Diaspora has been that it was the outcome of the "construction of Turkish identity" or 
of "Unionist mentality," the latter implying the world outlook of the Committee of Union 
and Progress, the party then in power. These are, of course, philosophically idealistic 
approaches that beg the question of why the identity or the mentality in question became 
dominant specifically at that historical juncture. But there is worse. It is a very 
widespread view among Westerners, Armenians and Westernized Turks that somehow the Muslim 
or the Turk or both partake of some kind of evil, that it is from the nature of the 
religion or the ethnicity in question that this barbarism proceeds. This kind of racist 
characterization is hardly ever pronounced in writing or in public nowadays, but it is 
still voiced in private conversation.

Our view on the determinants of the Armenian genocide is fundamentally different from 
almost all commentators. We assert that what lay behind the Armenian genocide was class 
struggle of several orders. The vicious attacks against the Armenians had its earliest 
roots in the looting of the surplus product of the Armenian peasantry by the ruling 
stratum of Kurdish tribes, which shared the same geographical territory with the 
Armenians. The later but stronger and more radical drive came from the urge for primitive 
accumulation on the part of the nascent Turkish bourgeoisie at the turn of the century 
fighting against the economic dominance of the non-Muslim moneyed classes in Ottoman 
society. It was this class fraction that was represented by the Unionists in power and 
dispossessed the Armenian and, in a different manner, Greek population of Anatolia to 
amass capital in its own hands. Marx's remarks on primitive accumulation in Capital sound 
prophetic in regard to the Armenian genocide: "If money, according to Augier, 'comes into 
the world with a congenital blood-stain on one cheek,' capital comes dripping from head to 
foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt." In Turkey the blood and dirt of primitive 
accumulation took the form of genocide.

These domestic factors were reinforced by the support extended to the Turkish bourgeoisie 
by the German imperialist bourgeoisie, instrumentalizing the power of the Ottoman state in 
its intra-class struggle against the other imperialist bourgeoisies of Europe, that is, 
British, French and Russian.

The Importance of German Complicity

This last fact is of utmost importance. Germany was the ally and protector of the Ottoman 
state during World War I. The commanders of the Ottoman-Turkish army were German field 
marshals, generals and admirals. It is absolutely impossible for the genocide to have 
taken place without German consent, even positive encouragement. The German Kaiser and the 
Reich were already responsible for the genocide of the Herrero people in what was then 
called German Southwest Africa, what is present-day Namibia. Hence, there is no reason to 
rule out even a scenario in which Germany may have instigated the ruling Union and 
Progress Committee and its strong man Enver Pasha to implement this "final solution" to 
the Armenian question. Enver Pasha was a personal protégé of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The latter 
is notorious for his secretive and personalized management of foreign and military 
affairs. The Kaiser's government expected the Ottomans to threaten both Russia and Britain 
in their Asian backyards by propagating a simultaneously pan-Turkist and pan-Islamist 
political onslaught. The Armenians stood in between the Ottomans and the Muslim and Turkic 
peoples of Asia. Hence, in an objective sense, the Armenian genocide served the wartime 
aims of German imperialism.

Of course, all this does not necessarily mean the German government was involved as an 
accomplice in the genocide. However, it is only through a study of the archives, including 
top secret documents, that the truth of this matter can be discovered.

Where does the significance of all this lie? Let us start with a general proposition. 
Recognition of the genocide is the primary act in the direction of redressing the 
suffering of the Armenian people and of rekindling a modicum of fraternity and trust 
between the peoples of the region. The problem is that, left on their own, Turkey and the 
Armenians, both Armenia proper and the Diaspora, have locked horns for a very long time. 
The Turkish state and those historians and intellectuals who act as its mouthpiece have 
consistently denied the genocide. The absurd concept of the "Turkish thesis," denoting 
full denial of the genocide, is testimony to the stubborn position of the Turkish state. 
The titanic effort of Hrant Dink, an Istanbul Armenian formerly a revolutionary socialist, 
to create an awareness of the question throughout Turkish society in the 1990s and early 
2000s created an immense breach in the wall of silence that had earlier been imposed. 
Hrant Dink was assassinated in 2007 through a conspiracy prepared by the so-called "deep 
state" of Turkey, but his legacy lives on. If we are today able in Turkey to discuss this 
question openly, most of the credit goes to the Herculean work carried out by Hrant Dink 
and his still extant bilingual weekly Agos. However, the overall situation cannot be said 
to have changed irreversibly. The genocide is still mentioned in the media perforce as 
"the so-called genocide."

The question of the recognition of the genocide cannot be resolved by the ill-conceived 
pressures of the state organs of some imperialist countries and is positively harmed by 
such irresponsible theatrics such as that of the Pope in early April, conspicuous for its 
lack of modesty coming from the head of an institution wholly immersed in the Holocaust. 
However, for the reasons explained above Germany is the exception.

It is a noteworthy fact that although many European governments and parliaments (including 
France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden etc. and the European 
Parliament recently for a second time) have recognized the 1915 events as genocide and 
called on Turkey to do likewise, Germany has remained very much in the shadows on this 
question. This fact glares with significance.

We believe that it is the duty of the German socialist and working-class movements and 
German democrats to press for the complete opening of German archives relevant to that 
historical period. We summon them to press the German government to recognize and condemn 
the Armenian genocide.

If Germany does recognize the Armenian genocide, with documents in hand, the 
Turkey-Armenia polarization will be cast in a new light and the obscurantism of the 
"Turkish thesis" will receive a fatal blow. This is the only way to fraternity and trust 
between the peoples of the region.

Needless to say, the real effort to make the Turkish government recognize the genocide 
falls on the shoulders of the Turkish and Kurdish left. We appeal to the German and 
international movements for efforts without forgetting for one single moment that the 
blood spilled by the Turkish bourgeoisie and the Kurdish tribal ruling class can only be 
cleansed by the Turkish and Kurdish proletariat and the peasantry.

Related Link: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1109.php#continue

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/28121