Anarchic update news all over the world - 19 February 2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  US, Black Rose Rochester, Genesee River Rebellion: WE'LL
      ALWAYS HAVE BERNIE (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #268 - Iraqi Kurdistan: In
      Maxmur, self-management is a combat sport (fr, it, pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #268 - Agriculture: Does
      organic food change the world? (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  US, Black Rose Rochester, Genesee River Rebellion: IN THE
      ELECTIONS OF 2016 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Poland, rozbrat: In defense of the rights of tenants. WSL
      report for 2016. Greater Association of Tenants [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  anarkismo.net: Solidarity with Théo and every victim of
      police abuse! No to the "Public Security" law! by Coordination
      des Groupes Anarchistes c-g-a (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



For a number of months this past year, American voters were treated to glimpse of what it 
might look like if we actually had democracy in this country. Many on the left have been 
energized, others were skeptical. There are good reasons for both attitudes, and much to 
be learned now that it's over. ---- Whether or not we realize it, whether or not it is 
acknowledged in the media, there is a very good reason why so many people Felt the Bern. 
That reason is that Bernie Sanders represented policy positions that are favored by a 
majority of the US population. That may sound mundane, but it's incredibly rare in either 
political party. ---- "Party managers read polls, and are well aware that on a host of 
major issues, both parties are well to the right of the population," writes anarchist 
intellectual Noam Chomsky. "A large majority of voters object, but those are the only 
choices offered to them in the business-managed electoral system, in which the most 
heavily funded candidate almost always wins."

Whether it's support for a Medicare for All health care system, a promised crackdown on 
Wall St, tuition-free public college, $15 minimum wage, federal action against police 
terrorism, expanding Social Security, a more peaceful foreign policy, or a carbon-tax and 
investment in green energy; it would be hard to deny that a Sanders Presidency would've 
been really good news for most of us.

The most obvious reason for the left's enthusiasm for Bernie is that he calls himself a 
Democratic Socialist. He brought the word ‘socialism' out of the political closet. 
Interestingly, this is also the main reason for left skepticism of Bernie. In one campaign 
ad, he defined Democratic Socialism as "a government that reflects the interests of 
ordinary people, rather than... the billionaire class."

Bernie is not describing socialism - he's describing democracy at its most basic. 
Socialism requires a democratic economy, something that most countries with strong 
socialist parties don't even have. To quote Chomsky again, "Bernie Sanders may use the 
word ‘socialist,' but he's basically a New Dealer. Now, in the current American political 
spectrum, to be a New Dealer is to be way out on the Left."

After Bernie's defeat, there was a scramble among his supporters about what to do next. 
Most of that debate focused on the question of which clown standing deserves Bernie's 
votes in the general election. The irony is that the preoccupation with the election 
distracts people from the tasks of building a movement strong enough to win the policies 
Bernie talked about.

Bernie Sanders received over 12 million votes in the primary. If any significant fraction 
of those people were to commit themselves to unionizing their jobs, organizing with their 
neighbors, or joining progressive social movements; the political ramifications could be 
groundbreaking. Such an upsurge in working class organizing would be able to force 
progressive action from whatever President got elected.

http://riverrebellion.org/2017/01/04/well-always-have-bernie/

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Message: 2



100 km to the south of Mosul in Iraq, where 20 years ago only "stones, snakes and 
scorpions" survived, today stands a camp of exiles.es people of Kurds Of Turkey. Despite 
the wars in Iraq, the Daech attacks and the betrayal of the peshmerga, these men and women 
managed to create a self-organized micro-society under the protection of the PKK in this 
desert corner. Report. ---- "We want to come back to our village, even if we have to 
suffer for it. Here it's not home, " sighs Asiya, readjusting the white scarf around his 
face marked by the years and events. Through the window of his modest room to live, the 
dust raised by the wind makes the sun a pale round brilliant in a gray sky. It hides the 
top of the rocky, bare hills to the side of which Maxmur's camp is leaning, and clogs the 
horizon of desert plains facing it.

Despite the years gone by, all the inhabitants consider the camp as a temporary refuge and 
dream of a return. Their true home is in their northern Kurdistan village (Turkey), from 
where they were driven out in the mid-1990s by the violent repression of the Turkish 
state. After a long wandering exilé.es[1], temporary camp in temporary camp, Saddam 
Hussein gave in 1998 the current location of the camp to the UN, near the village of 
Maxmur. Generosity of him: 100 km south of Mosul, there was then, as described Nihat, 26, 
as "stones, snakes and scorpions"  ( "stones, snakes and scorpions"). No water, no 
vegetation and a temperature that exceeds 50 ° C in summer.

100 kilometers south of Mosul, the camp of Maxmur.

One of the main streets of the camp. The sky is obscured by black fumes coming from the 
fighting around Mosul.

Feast organized in the camp on the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of 
Kobanê, Syria.

After a ceremony in memory of a PKK combatant, Beritan, the elderly women make the tour of 
the portraits of their relatives.

Asiya works in a greenhouse. "We do not want anything from the[Turkish]state, just to be 
able to live our culture and speak our language. "

The teachers of Maxmur write the textbooks themselves in Kurdish, to revive this forbidden 
language.

Arrived for 6 months, Agri proposed to the parliament of the camp to open a room of 
kick-boxing.

Mohammed and his family repair a wall of their sheepfold before the winter rains.

Medya gives a music lesson. In the fund, a poster of Sakinê, Fidan and Leyla, murdered in 
Paris in 2013.

The representatives of the district 1 commune meet and discuss the problems of the camp.
Photos: Yann Renoult
"We want nothing from the State[Turkish], just to live our culture and speak our 
language," resumes Asiya. Suspended on the walls around her, photographs, some with faded 
colors. Her husband and one of his sons were killed after joining the PKK and two of his 
daughters are fighting in Rojava. She and other mothers keep the memory of the disappeared 
in the house of the martyrs of the camp, with walls covered with faces. On the most recent 
portraits, the YPS flag, the young Kurdish activists and militants who, having declared 
autonomy in the Kurdish cities of Turkey, were crushed by the Turkish army.

After surviving the Iraq wars, the inhabitants of the camp, abandoned by the peshmergas 
supposed to protect them, abandoned their homes in front of the advance of the jihadists 
of Daech in early August 2014. After occupying the Camp for ten days, they were driven out 
by the fighters and fighters of the PKK who since then ensured the protection of the 
exiles. They also face the hostility of the KDP (Democratic Party of Kurdistan) led by 
Massoud Barzani (also president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government), who controls 
the access and surrounding area of the camp. The conflict between KDP and PKK dates back 
to the bloody civil war that broke out between the two Kurdish majority parties in Iraqi 
Kurdistan, the KDP and the PUK in the mid-1990s. The PKK being allied with the opponents 
of the KDP, violent clashes took place between these two forces and the exiles of Maxmur, 
located at the time farther north, paid the price. Until today, about 60 of them and they 
were killed by the peshmergas of the KDP.

Co-chairmanship by a man and a woman

Despite these hardships, the inhabitants of Maxmur succeeded in organizing themselves 
according to a political system based on the ideas of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. 
Imprisoned since 1999 in Turkey, it theorized from his cell he called the Democratic 
confederalism, thanks to extensive correspondence with Murray Bookchin, thinker 
libertarian municipalism (see G  No. 264 in September 2016). This political project is 
based on three axes: a democratic functioning where local councils have a major role, 
gender equality and the end of patriarchy, and an ecological society project. The PKK 
rejects the idea of a nation-state, in favor of a federalist functioning.

Established gradually, self-organization is openly displayed since the United Nations left 
the camp attacked by Daech. The 15,000 inhabitants are divided into five districts with 
the smallest entity of democratic functioning: the commune, a group of people ranging from 
fifteen to fifty families living in a common space. The councils of the communes, with the 
participation of all persons over 16, meet regularly. We discuss the problems of everyday 
life and neighborhood conflicts, which we try to resolve through discussion. What could 
not be resolved goes back to the Assembly, in which the management of the camp is 
discussed. Ninety-one people are currently sitting. Like all the structures of the camp, 
it is co-chaired by a man and a woman, this being a major principle of democratic 
confederalism.

Kurdistan, the revolution


The monthly record of Alternative Libertaire  in November 2014.

Rojava: A new Chiapas?
What really changed at the PKK
Computer graphics: the Kurdish galaxy
DAF: "Ankara feared revolutionary contagion"
Yes, the people can change things (the Rojava experience)
[video]Kurdistan, the Kurdish Left and self-management , an interview with Cem Akbalik 
(Kurdish libertarian socialist)
Every two years, the representatives of the municipalities elect the latter, who can 
present themselves for only two consecutive terms, as well as twenty-nine representatives 
at a major conference which also allows to discuss the rules of operation within the camp 
. The other sixty came from the various committees and associations of the camp. Every 
month, the twenty-nine representatives and the two co-chairs meet, and every two months it 
is the turn of the whole assembly.

Nine, the committees are another aspect of the camp's democratic life. Their members are 
elected by the municipalities and are responsible for proposing and implementing projects 
in their respective fields: social, self-defense, municipality, "diplomacy", economy, 
education, politics, justice and organization In general. Each project proposed by the 
committees is debated and voted in Parliament.

Major importance of education

The education committee is responsible for organizing the operation of the schools that 
house the 4,000 children in the camp, from kindergarten to high school. An academy offers 
postgraduate training in the field of media, or for nurses, and soon in economics. 
Teachers come from the camp.

One of the projects of the Education Committee was to organize the writing of the 
textbooks, since children study in Kurmanci, the majority Kurdish dialect, which is banned 
in Turkey and differs from the dialect used in KRG, Sorani. This is problematic for young 
people continuing their studies outside the camp. PKK executives attach great importance 
to education. As Ömer points out, part of fifty years having spent fifteen years in 
prison, citing Foucault and read Paulo Freire, "the goal is not for us to destroy the 
existing capitalist system to rebuild something else Its ruins, but rather to educate and 
gradually evolve the mentalities towards another alternative, even if it must take several 
generations ".

"Freedom, revolution, self-management"

AL has published a t-shirt to support the colors of Kurdistan.

The proceeds will be donated to a self-management project in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) or 
Bakur (Turkish Kurdistan). Thanks to the artist Pierre Bunk.

Available in standard (S, M, L, XL) and Bow (M, L) on the U online store .

Cultural activities are also encouraged and the lack of equipment does not stop the 
initiatives. Medya, Gerila, PKK, hair dyed with henna and broad smile on his lips, has 
been teaching music for four years. She explains: "For us, art is an integral part of the 
revolution. " Workshops painting, dance are also offered. Recently, a kick-boxing room has 
opened, offering courses for both women and men. In the evening, youngsters or families 
can relax in the two parks built by the municipality.

Women have a separate meeting, not mixed and a akademie. Asiya, a young nurse, explains to 
us that the role of the women's assembly is to take care of everything that concerns 
women, in terms of education and economy, but also in relation to family problems or 
spousal violence .

For the sake of economic emancipation, they have launched a textile activity and a 
cafeteria, the profits of which make it possible to finance their projects. The power of 
the assembly of women in the camp is not discussed. They may decide to withdraw a woman 
from her family if she is ill-treated, with no possibility for the family to oppose it.

Long-term processes

Asiya works as a nurse in the UN-built camp clinic. The doctors come from the KRG, the 
nurses from the camp or the neighboring village. "Since the attack on Daech, we are short 
of medicines. We see about 100 patients each day for basic care. For the rest, you have to 
go to Erbil. "  Maternity absence, deliveries are often in homes. Most of the patients are 
women or children, who come for tummy or kidney problems because of the poor quality of 
the water in the camp.

It is a problem of concern and Bermal Kendan, the co-conveners of the municipality, in 
charge of the camp hardware problems: "We struggled to find new sources of water. (...) We 
depend on Erbil (KRG), but we have little contact with them. For the past two years, 
because of the political crisis, we receive little aid from them, and even if there is no 
official embargo, they sometimes block the goods. We are having trouble repairing 
electrical installations. " Still, the power cuts in the camp are less numerous than Erbil 
thanks to the presence of generators. But part of the drinking water must be purchased 
outside. The main streets are relatively well paved, the buildings well maintained. Unlike 
other examples of settled camps, constructions were not made in an anarchic way. These are 
mainly single-storey houses, with stone and earth walls. Most have a garden that allows 
families to grow vegetables and raise animals for their livelihood.

Discover the report of Yann Renoult in the Qandil Mountains in April 2014.

Part of the food needs of the camp is provided by the economic communes, in the form of 
two collective projects: sheep breeding and greenhouse farming since 2011. >From a family 
of peasants in the Hakkari region, Hussein had to learn to Grow under glass. But it 
plagues to buy expensive seeds that do not regenerate. Initially donated by the United 
Nations, they are now in charge. It tries somehow to use manure to fertilize the soil, not 
fertilizer that "dirty earth."

Seven tents out of the twelve are exploited collectively, each requiring the labor of two 
families who then share their income. A part of the production allows the supply of the 
camp shops in cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers. The assembly of the camp wants to develop the 
cooperative functioning so that all the production is sold internally and that there is no 
need to buy in the neighboring village.

In October 2016, the peshmergas block access to the camp

The economic crisis in Iraq did not spare Maxmur. Many adults are out of work. Those 
outside the camp are employed in a precarious way in catering, hotels or on construction 
sites. But regularly the political tensions between KRG and PKK, exacerbated in recent 
years since the declaration of autonomy of Syrian Kurdistan on the model of democratic 
confederalism, mean that the peshmerga block access to the camp, prohibiting all entry and 
exit. As in October 2016, when the KRG banned the area from leaving for several weeks. 
Those who had a job outside have lost it, more precarious the camp.

The self-organization of the inhabitants of Maxmur has been favored by cultural and 
linguistic ties due to their common geographical origin and a hostile natural and 
political environment. The PKK was thus able to test the establishment of democratic 
confederalism, an experiment that proved crucial when it was established in Rojava, where 
the movement was able to extend it to the scale of a region. This extension made it 
possible to show the challenges of social and political cohabitation between parties and 
ethnic groups with different motivations.

The cadres of the movement hope that the autonomy given by democratic confederalism to 
each group will guarantee the solidity of the alliances, while counting on the youth to 
guarantee its implementation in the long term. However, they have no illusions that the 
process will take many years and that they will have to resist the pitfalls of their 
enemies, with Turkey in mind.

Yann Renoult (text and photos)

[1]I use the term "exile" instead of "refugee" because it implies that the persons 
designated to be moved from one state to another. Now, if one does not place oneself in 
terms of borders established against their will, the inhabitants of Maxmur remained in 
Kurdistan.

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Kurdistan-irakien-A-Maxmur-l

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Message: 3




Organic farming has fueled strong disillusionment in sixty years of existence. Little 
supported by legislation, quickly subverted by the capitalist logic, the "real" organic is 
marginalized. However, by maintaining remunerative prices for production, the sector today 
represents a salvation board and conversions are numerous. A good time to consolidate the 
initiatives that attempt to actualize the radical social and ecological demand of the 
beginnings. ---- Since when organic agriculture[1], understood as an alternative to 
agribusiness, does it exist? Its official recognition and definition date back to the 
specifications set out by Nature & Progrès (N & P) in 1972. At that time, the movement 
already has a bit of history behind it, and is part of a continuity of protest.

Founding Experiences

During the years 1920 to 1950[2], several trends emerge to rebuild agriculture centered on 
the production of life rather than its exhaustion, and criticism of industrial logging 
model while expanding, with its attendant social damage, Environmental and health issues. 
The founders are scientists, ecologists but also politicians: they are the result of the 
peasantry, witnesses of its destruction (rural exodus, indebtedness to the suppliers, 
etc.), they defend the self-sufficiency of the peasants through An agriculture without 
inputs, turned towards consumption, adapted to the soil, sober energetically. Thus Albert 
Howard, an English agronomist who works on soil fertility. Then, the organo-biological 
agriculture of the couple of Swiss biologists Hans and Maria Muller will meet the research 
on the bacterial flora (soil and body) of the Rusch couple in Germany.

The earlier work of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, 
adds biodynamics to the sources of bio. Although still adept, biodynamics is spiritually 
inspired and the irrational discourses around it contribute to make it a scientifically 
challenged practice. Finally, the Japanese Masanobu Fukuoka is today considered a 
precursor of permaculture, although it is known in France only since 1983. These currents 
will found production or processing cooperatives from which the first "brands"»Bio: 
Demeter (biodynamics), Migros Sano in Switzerland, Soil Association in England.

The political and ecological components of organic farming are to be found in the 1972 
specifications, which N & P is hurrying to spread worldwide by promoting the creation of 
an International Federation of Organic Farming Movements, Ifoam, Whose famous charter (see 
box) still refers today. But the bio will never be able to threaten the dominant 
agricultural model.

Its ecological and social requirements were first undermined by legislation. In the 1980s, 
the official recognition of bio via labels began to cost a certain amount of autonomy: 
mandatory homologation of the specifications - and therefore loss of their control - then 
the principle of "third party" certification sought by the Commission European[3]. This 
system of approved agencies (and in competition with each other), costly for producers, 
does not ensure transparency, as proved by the controversial world leader Ecocert. The 
European Commission has mainly imposed lax regulations on bio (in 1991 and 2007), first 
limiting its definition to the absence of synthetic chemical treatments and then even 
allowing it to derogate from it.

The virtual absence of social criteria makes it possible to certify organic products 
obtained without justice for wage-earners or producers on land sometimes extorted from 
indigenous populations (as in Colombia or Mexico); The few concessions to the cultivated 
biodiversity criteria do not prevent monoculture or large intensive farms based on 
practices abusively qualified as bio (inputs, culture almost without soil), nor trade long 
distances; Organic farms are not protected from the pollutants used by others next door. 
And finally, it is the most industrialized actors who have received the windfall of public 
subsidies in all developed and developing countries, and the organic sector has ultimately 
contributed to the unequal trade between producers in poor countries and rich importing 
countries.

Everything has therefore been done to favor the advocates of an agro-industry of the bio, 
and besides, we see the same phenomenon at work in the legislation on the seeds: the 
certification favors the industrial seeds, while the Official catalog of plant species and 
varieties almost forbids peasant seeds, benefiting organic hybrids that undermine 
diversity as food sovereignty, and even allow GMOs to enter by the small door. How can we 
not see in these diverse legislations an accompanying complicity in the offensive of 
agro-industry and mass distribution on bio?

Since the 1990s, major groups have created private labels, but for a small number of 
products and a small segment of consumers (Agir bio in Carrefour, Bio village in Leclerc, 
etc.). By the way, these MDDs are the opposite of the spirit of organic, since the system 
makes the producer dependent on the distributor, who imposes a purchase price on him, and 
reduces his margins.

In the 2000s, the demand for bio explodes, and the war for market share really begins. 
Under the pretext of "democratizing" organic products, large-scale retailers are cutting 
prices thanks to their private label and, above all, to international competition on 
production and labor costs, massively favoring imports from the Mediterranean or America 
Latin and privileging intensive and delocalized monoculture. As its margins are more 
important with organic than with conventional products, it also buys a few specialty 
channels (Naturalia by Monoprix), while others are creating their own practices (So Bio in 
2005, Biostore in 2009). In doing so, it not only torpedo the philosophy of bio, but also 
the concrete conditions of its survival in an ultra-competitive sector. Even historical 
actors in the organic sector may have to go through mass distribution to transform or 
dispose of their production, and it concentrates 45% of sales of organic products in France.

It results from these various offensives that the bio, literally overused, now offers a 
confusing panorama: 35% of organic products are imported, the livestock sector is drifting 
(scandals of breeding and industrial slaughter of cows And poultry), the labels serve as a 
guarantor for "ecologically intensive agriculture" or "high environmental value", which 
are only the continuation of conventional agriculture without the labor of the land and 
with fewer products Chemical properties.

Recovering independence and cost control

The name "bio" can no longer support a political project to defend sustainable, 
traditional and independent agriculture. If the claim is not dead, it has transposed 
itself into wider movements for the defense of peasant agriculture and the agroecology 
adopted in 2008 by Via Campesina, which can even produce organic without the label.

And above all, there are prospects for the most demanding agriculture, with great efforts 
to build the tools for its survival. On the distribution side, producers are organizing to 
regain independence and control of costs: creation of producer stores (At the farmers' 
market in Millau, 2003), an economic interest group (GIE) to set up tools (Where the 
surplus value is high) and distribution of products, farmers' markets, Amap, often also at 
the initiative of consumers and consumers ... On this last side, groups and cooperatives 
of purchase multiply the latter Years, with a strict ethics on support for producers and 
producers and ecological responsibility. As a result, in 2009, 12% of organic products 
marketed in France were sold directly.

Finally, on the production side, it is the land issue that is at the heart of the struggle 
for another agriculture, and simply for the survival of the peasant class and a good part 
of humanity. Shortly after the world peasant movements for land restitution (Brazil, 
Mexico, Colombia), recent crises have forced other populations to return to culture in 
order to survive (in Russia, as in Detroit, Not an emancipatory function), and recalled 
the importance of food sovereignty in the capitalist context.

The right to land, the valorisation of peasants and peasants and the initiatives that 
promote them (Minga, Terre de liens, Reclaim the fields ...) must be supported, and this 
requires structuring markets, building local food systems Production, but also of exchange 
and consumption. The yards are huge, but there is still time.

Mouchette (AL Ecology)

The Ifoam Charter

Ifoam (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) promotes agriculture 
based on four principles: health, ecology, equity and precaution.

It defines three sets of objectives for organic farming:

- Ecological objectives: non-polluting, adapted to the soil, fertilizing for the soil.

- Social and humanitarian objectives: "agriculture that does not participate in imbalance 
between the nations"  and that "allows the maintenance of peasants to the land by creating 
jobs"

- Economic objectives: encourage businesses on a human scale, decent incomes for economic 
agents, fair and concerted prices, proximity sales.


[1]Some movements distinguish "the" bio (organic farming as a movement) and "the" bio (as 
product and market). We take up this terminology here.

[2]This history is that of Yvan Besson, reprinted in the collective work Bio between 
business and social project, under the direction of Philippe Baquet, Agone, 2012.

[3]N & P reject this system, and its label will therefore escape the progressive weakening 
of the legislation. For its part, the Fnab (National Federation of organic agriculture) 
reacts later by creating Bio Coherence in 2007, more demanding than AB (of which it is the 
manager).

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?agriculture-Manger-bio-change-t-il

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Message: 4



In the elections of 2016, Americans have run out of options. During one of the most 
money-saturated elections in history, voters have been left to choose between two 
candidates who, in spite of their rhetoric, have far more commonalities than differences. 
---- On November 8th, the US electorate will go to the polls without any way to vote 
against the interests of Goldman Sachs or ExxonMobil. They will pull levers and scribble 
in bubbles, without ever being able to voice their opposition to fracking, mass 
incarceration, US support for Israel, police violence, or mass surveillance. With little 
enthusiasm, they'll cast their ballots knowing what's become so obvious - that whoever 
wins, we all lose. ---- Whoever wins, the wealth gap will continue to widen. Though both 
Trump and Clinton have expressed some support for raising the minimum wage, both have also 
promised to oppose the $15/hr wage that has been the central demand of much of the 
country's low wage worker movements.

Whoever wins, the United States' imperialist ventures in the Middle East will continue. 
Both major candidates have made clear their plans to implement an increasingly hawkish 
foreign policy abroad. Both have promised to resume or expand targeted drone strikes, 
which to date have killed an estimated 1,000 or more civilians, many of whom are children. 
If those plans take effect, we can assume that at least as many will die over the next 
eight years regardless of who wins the presidency.

Whoever wins, the US will continue to provide unwavering support to the Israeli 
occupation. In spite of Obama's condemnation of Israel's ever-expanding settlements in the 
occupied territories, Clinton and Trump have both promised to continue or increase 
military aid to Israel, currently valued at $30 billion. Both candidates have likewise 
expressed opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, which has 
spearheaded efforts to pose an economic challenge to Israel's illegal occupation.

Whoever wins, the New Jim Crow will continue. Both Clinton and Trump, while differing in 
their rhetoric surrounding private prisons, have both accepted campaign contributions from 
the GEO Group, a US-based private prison corporation. As First Lady, Hillary Clinton was 
instrumental in helping to inaugurate the modern era of mass incarceration, while Donald 
Trump has recently called for the implementation of Stop-and-Frisk at the national level.

Whoever wins, the United States will remain the world's leading contributor to the climate 
crisis. Though their opinions on climate change vary dramatically (Trump is an open 
climate change denier) both support fracking, both favor domestic oil drilling, both have 
received funding from the fossil fuel industry. While Trump has supported the Keystone XL 
pipeline from the start, Clinton remained silent on the matter until it became politically 
damaging to do so. She has taken a similar approach to the Dakota Access pipeline, unlike 
teenage Green Party candidate Jill Stein who recently went full punk rock, appearing 
bandana-clad at the Dakota Access encampment while vandalizing a bulldozer with spray paint.

No matter who wins, the sad trajectory of American politics will remain unaltered without 
movements powerful enough to stop it.

"But there are other options!" some on the fringes of party politics will contend. 
Third-party candidates Jill Stein and Gary "What is Aleppo?" Johnson are invariably thrust 
into the conversation whenever the hopelessness of party politics is raised, their 
supporters seemingly unaware that their candidates-of-choice are unwittingly demonstrating 
the farce of electoralism through their petty tactics and ridiculous policy positions, 
such as Jill Stein's recent "Statement on the Killing of Harambe."

Her appeal to the much-coveted Harambe vote may make sense, however, in light of the fact 
that Stein and Cincinnati's beloved gorilla were tied in a recent poll conducted among 
Texas voters, trailing closely behind independent front-runner, Deez Nuts.

Unlike the third-party stalwarts behind Stein's campaign, most Americans have few 
illusions about the way that politics work in America. Elections are bought and sold. 
Money determines, to a great extent, both the outcomes of elections and the policies those 
candidates enact. State institutions are bankrupt, and everyone knows it.

This perspective will be met by claims from the defenders of state-centered politics that 
the system can be repaired and made to serve the interests of the people. Calls to 
"overturn Citizens United" or "publicly fund elections" are raised whenever one dares 
criticize the US electoral system. All of these proposals assume that our way of doing 
elections simply needs some patching up. But the system isn't broken - it's operating 
exactly the way it was intended.

During the First Continental Congress, President and first Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court John Jay made this point abundantly clear when he said that "the people who own the 
country ought to govern it." His attitude was then echoed by another founding father, 
Alexander Hamilton, who referred to the public as a "great beast" that needed to be tamed 
by men of higher character. Countless statements like these can be found among the men who 
designed our political institutions, reflecting a consensus that The People are barely 
capable of tying their own shoes, and that politics should be left to the big boys.

Preventing the "bewildered herd" from getting carried away during elections is of primary 
concern to those men of "higher character," and they've mastered the art of doing so. Look 
no further than the Bernie Sanders campaign to see how. The Democratic National Committee, 
which oversees the primary and is supposed to remain neutral, not only had a clear 
favorite during the election but actively conspired to make sure that Clinton won. 
Internally, they crafted public ‘narratives' to undermine the Sanders campaign, talked 
about using his Judaism against him, and even leaked his campaign information to the 
Clinton campaign.

Given all this, it's no wonder that the public is generally disengaged from the election, 
with only 36% of registered voters saying they're enthusiastic about voting this year 
according to a recent CBS News/NYT poll. However, these attitudes are not unique to this 
election.

The public's distrust in elections has been demonstrated consistently in election cycle 
after election cycle. In 2008, Barack Obama's election broke the record for the greatest 
voter turnout in history and yet, despite this, Obama was still only elected by a 
minority, with almost 60% of the population staying home on election day.

Locally, the public's disdain for elections runs even deeper. The general elections of 
2015 saw an abysmally low turnout in city and county races, with only around a quarter of 
eligible voters turning out to cast a ballot.

In the 2016 election, we find that 60 million people participated in Democratic and 
Republican primaries (about 30 million each). Half of those primary voters chose other 
candidates. Only 14% of eligible adults, representing 9% of the US population, picked 
either Trump or Clinton. About the same percentage of the population that thinks that HTML 
is a sexually transmitted disease.

The public's electoral apathy should hardly come as a surprise, however, when we consider 
that most in the US are raised from grade school to believe that the way to change things 
is by electing the right candidate to office. When those strategies fail year after year, 
it should be considered fairly rational to conclude that change simply isn't possible.

Indifference is the predictable response to living in a country that constantly talks 
about freedom, while affording the vast majority of the population very little actual 
freedom in their daily lives.

In a climate of apathy at the polls, recent social movements have offered other strategies 
for social change - strategies that reflect society's distrust in elections. In an 
interview with The Guardian in the fall of 2015, Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza 
said, "What we've seen is an attempt by mainstream politics and politicians to co-opt 
movements that galvanize people in order for them to move closer to their own goals and 
objectives," flatly rejecting the notion that Black Lives Matter might endorse any 
candidate in the 2016 presidential election. "We don't think that playing a corrupt game 
is going to bring change and make black lives matter."

Like Black Lives Matter, the Fight for $15 has also refused to exhaust movement resources 
on elections. Rather than endorsing any candidate, Fight for $15 activists have demanded 
that the candidates endorse them. Major presidential debates and campaign stops have been 
met by strikes and pickets rather than rallies for one candidate or another. In an 
interview with The Progressive, fast food worker and Fight for $15 National Organizing 
Committee member Quasia LeGrand said, "We want to use our voice to get what we want... 
You're not going to get our votes just because we see you out here on the line with us. 
You actually have to state that you're for $15 and a union. That's why we don't want to 
endorse anybody."

Just before the elections of 2012, Occupy Wall St. also ignited a nationwide movement 
while expressly rejecting elections as a means for social change. Many Occupy General 
Assemblies passed resolutions similar to the one released by Occupy Washington DC, which 
stated: "We believe... that elections alone cannot accomplish what is needed.  We cannot 
‘vote' against the disastrous influence of Wall Street or war profiteers by backing either 
of the two major political parties... We will not divert our energies into electoral work. 
We will not identify with or begin to make compromises and apologies for any party, 
political candidate, or elected official."

Yet, without electing any candidates, these social movements have had an undeniable effect 
on both public consciousness and actual policy at local, state, and national levels. Every 
candidate has had to address the concerns raised by these movements, regardless of their 
opinions of them. All of them, with the exception of only the most reactionary candidates, 
have had to pay lip service to the aims of these movements. And in many places, specific 
policies have been enacted as the result of the struggles these movements have waged.

Here in New York State, fast food workers did what seemed unimaginable even a few years 
ago - they won a path to $15/hr. California, Washington DC, and Seattle have also won a 
path to $15. Since the movement began, more than 29 states in total have seen their 
minimum wage levels rise, no doubt as a result of worker movements across the US. These 
wage increases weren't simply gifts from benevolent state and city governments. They were 
hard-fought concessions won through direct action by thousands of fast food workers who 
had the courage to strike against some of the wealthiest corporations in the world. These 
victories were won without endorsing a single candidate.

While refusing electoral politics, the Black Lives Matter movement has garnered a string 
of victories. In Maryland, the movement won a statewide ban on racist and discriminatory 
profiling - just six months after Baltimore erupted in rebellion ove

http://riverrebellion.org/2017/01/04/in-the-elections-of-2016/

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Message: 5



Greater Association of Tenants in 2016 blocked a total of 12 eviction, we gave many legal 
advice, we work with the residents of the four kamieniec fighting deportations. We led to 
the situation that bailiffs withdrew from claims for hundreds of families Poznan. We fight 
for the right to housing more than 3,800 people from Family allotments (ROD) and support 
more than 100-strong immigrant community of Roma of Romanian origin. ---- recourses ---- 
One of the key 2016 campaign conducted by WSL were action lead to pauses compensations 
(ie. Recourse). We started it in the middle of 2015 taking the appropriate position and 
organizing a picket on the subject, as well as writing a complaint to the Ombudsman (RPO). 
Recall that stood in defense of the people, of which the city wanted to collect damages, 
which previously paid to the owners. Compensation in turn paid because the tenants in 
private resources, which weighed on the judgments of eviction, indicated accomodations 
social. They waited a few (or even several years) the allocation of flats from the city, 
which resulted in an increase in their debt, whose repayment eventually demanded the city. 
WSL led case several claims in several cases in the interest of the tenants appeared hired 
by the Association attorney who is also collaborating with the ROP lawyers to prepare 
legal grounds to stop the process of recourse.

March 1, 2016 a meeting was held at the office of the city organized by the Ombudsman. At 
the debate, attended by officials responsible for urban policy and the president Jacek 
Jaskowiak. The decision of the President of further claims were to be suspended, while new 
cases were not to be sent to court. The implementation of these decisions proceeded with 
difficulty. Finally, after about one and half year campaign suspended matter in the 
courts, bailiffs and debt collection suspended tenants resulting from recourses. All cases 
over 3 years old are now discontinued. It gained on this at least a few hundred mostly the 
most vulnerable families in the course because it was 430 cases. Sam dealings could affect 
far larger group, and only the intervention of WSL revealed the problem.

Ewikcjom plots against the residents

At the turn of 2015 and 2016 years we cooperate with residents of allotments. Established 
a common strategy to publicize the problem of the residents of plots in the context of the 
new Law on the Family allotments, which prohibits living on plots of land, the demolition 
orders so. nadmetrazowych sheds and allows the displacement of existing residents. During 
the year, we organized three pickets on ROD: at the City Hall, the Provincial Office and 
under the control of the PZD (Polish Association of Allotment - formal "administrative" 
parcels and announcing the eviction). WSL actively supported a fourth demonstration plots 
on the street. Sarmatian (not PZD). We publicized a case of eviction Joseph Wojnarowski of 
the plot on ul. Zlotowska. Evictions suspended for three years, but the tenant received 
the right to social housing. Also we stopped the expulsion of the residents of the street 
ROD. Czechoslovak.
Together with dzialkowcami podelismy cooperation, the effect of which is also moving 
newspaper issues reside plots and a series of national meetings allotment-secessionists 
from PZD. The movement is already involved many gardens with more than 20 Polish cities.

Stop Evictions!

Halting the eviction is one of the most important objectives of WSL. In 2016 we managed to 
avoid total to 12 evict tenants living in various resources (communal, cooperative, 
private), not including the blocking of the process of eviction ROD Street Czechoslovakia 
(it could cover several or even a dozen families). Directly 5 blocked evictions. As a 
rule, required to organize actions and commitment of at least a few people from the 
Anarchist Federation and the media. Many cases managed to block through pressure and 
negotiations with officials. This way the eviction was stopped on the pavement at least 5 
cases and is adjusted to reverse the decision to evict the workers' hotel on the 
allocation to social housing in at least two cases. Resettlement to the hotel workers WSL 
treated as the issue of de facto "on the pavement." We had one case of a failed lock eviction.
WSL, next to the Anarchist Federation, also took an active part in the protests associated 
with imprisonment of three months for eviction blockade Luke Bukowski. Let us add that in 
connection with the eviction blockades in 2016. Police questioning several people.

Finally, as a result of pressure from the general number of eviction for example. Of 
Poznan municipal resources declined significantly - by 36%. We read this as a significant 
success tenant movement and progress on issues to prevent evictions:

year

2011 140

2012 140

2013 183

2014 143

2015 143

2016 92

the number of evictions, debt collectors of municipal resources in Poznan

immigrants Roma

Describing the cooperation with the Roma community in Poznan require as a matter of a 
separate article. The population of 100-150 people a group of immigrants living in 
abandoned arbor on the plots, so far she could not count on help from the system of the 
city. Usually they faced evictions, which tried to stop. They came the institutional 
barriers and aggression.

In 2016, thanks to the commitment of Poznan WSL and other organizations and groups, the 
position of Roma immigrants in our opinion has changed. Currently, several Roma were 
registered in the labor office, which until now was impossible. Two people get 500+ 
themselves and think about moving out of the encampments. Employed in the local school two 
Roma assistants and significantly increased the number of Roma children attending school. 
The city was forced to bring in encampments garbage containers, TOI-TOI and water. 
Representatives of the Roma are involved in talks with the city on the improvement of 
their legal and social position. This progress was possible thanks to the involvement in 
the problem of the Ombudsman and its pressures.

interventions WSL

Our phone operates daily from. 9:00 am to 21:00 on Saturdays and holidays. The person 
receiving the hotline on average carried five talks on the new problems in the course of 
each day. The range of topics on which people call is wide, beside problems related to 
dishonest landlords, disruptive or diversionary repairs, return the deposit, there are 
questions not necessarily related to housing. In parallel, other persons also give direct 
advice. They concern the rights of tenants and enforce them from private owners (assisted 
minimum of 7 cases) as well as advice on matters of lawsuits (help with writing) 
contesting the rent increases (minimum 4 cases in 2016.).
We are currently and support residents and residents of four houses, who are fighting 
deportation. In 2016, also we managed to complete a number of conflicts, how loud the 
thing the building at ul. Rear Chwaliszewo 26. We were not allowed to clean it, and most 
of the tenants received in 2016. Other premises, including two city.
We take an active part and also finance ongoing for two years, the process against the 
"czyscicielom of houses" where victims a few dozen families. Probably in the middle of 
2017 years, the verdict in the first instance.
Direct meetings with tenants usually take place in the office located at ul. Ecclesial 
made available to us by the Workers' Initiative. There, during talks familiarize himself 
with the case, we review the documentation and if the case does not require legal 
consultation, we try to help you right away. Very often it is associated with writing 
appeal letters to various institutions, completing the application for social housing and 
communal. It happens that the tenant must make an appointment and go to the office.
Sometimes, we contact the owners of houses and negotiate on issues of conflict between 
tenant and landlord. So we managed to carry out the tenants of the building at Bukowska. 
 From this family was initially requested to pay the rent for a few years, because the new 
owner does not want to recognize that the rent tenant act as a caretaker. After 
negotiations and we support the family paid 10 thousand. zl. Part of this amount received 
in cash, and some went to the deposits, moving, rent and refresh the new premises of a 
higher standard.

Participation in the work of the City Council

WSL often takes part in the meetings of the Committees of Public Utilities and Housing 
Policy (sometimes at the same session of the City Council). We are regularly asked to 
participate in the work on the resolutions concerning matters tenant. We present our 
position, which is not always taken into account, but allows us to control the city's 
policy and tracking its direction. Today, we take a WSL also participated in the committee 
awarding social housing and the developer of the project committee appointment so. 
training venues, as well as in committee. the development of housing policy of the city.
We have produced a number of positions, including ws statement. suspend enforcement 
proceedings against the tenants of social housing (10/26/2016); statement "Poznan city 
brutal eviction" (07/25/2016). We made a number of comments on the documents (resolutions) 
prepared by the City Council, including the resolution of the new rules for granting 
social housing, the draft resolution on debt relief. Finally, we spent extensive critical 
position on the amendment of the Act on the Protection of the rights of tenants.

National and international cooperation

In the years 2015-2016 representatives and representatives of WSL conducted a series of 
workshops tenants across the country: in Silesia, Lodz, Lublin and Torun. Currently, the 
closest cooperate with a group of Lublin.
in 2016. WSL representatives also took part in meetings of tenants from Europe. The first 
was held in Milan. We presented there a presentation on the situation of Roma encampments 
in the context of the debate on the motion response tenant problems related to the lack of 
immigration policies and the so-called. "refugee crisis". Another meeting was held in 
Dublin, where he raised the issue of cooperation in matters related to debt reduction tenants.

http://www.rozbrat.org/dokumenty/lokalizm/4509-w-obronie-praw-lokatorskich-sprawozdanie-wsl-za-2016-r

------------------------------

Message: 6



The Coordination of Arnarchist Groups (CGA) affirms its solidarity with Théo, who was 
raped, beaten and insulted by four policemen on the second of last February. We also 
affirm our solidarity with people who has shown and keep showing their legitimate outrage 
against police in Aulnay and others municipalities of Seine-Saint-Denis. We denounce the 
use of violence by the police against protesters, in particular the warning shots using 
live rounds during the night from the 6th to the 7th of February, as well as all the 
arrests and the criminal convictions. This Saturday the 11th of February, demonstration 
against police violence and in solidarity with Théo were organized all over France. 
Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Bobigny court where the repression was 
very severe.[Français]

Solidarity with Théo and every victim of police abuse!
No to the "Public Security" law!

The Coordination of Arnarchist Groups (CGA) affirms its solidarity with Théo, who was 
raped, beaten and insulted by four policemen on the second of last February. We also 
affirm our solidarity with people who has shown and keep showing their legitimate outrage 
against police in Aulnay and others municipalities of Seine-Saint-Denis. We denounce the 
use of violence by the police against protesters, in particular the warning shots using 
live rounds during the night from the 6th to the 7th of February, as well as all the 
arrests and the criminal convictions. This Saturday the 11th of February, demonstration 
against police violence and in solidarity with Théo were organized all over France. 
Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Bobigny court where the repression was 
very severe.

The abuses suffered by Théo cannot be considered as an individual case: over and beyond 
the beating and injuries, some surveys show an average of 10 to 15 deaths linked to the 
police each year (there is no official statistics on this subject). Let us remember the 
most newsworthy ones such as Zyed and Bouna, Wissam El Yamni, Rémi Fraisse and Adama 
Traoré. The impunity following these cases enforces the all powerful feeling of the police 
that always goes further.
The police willingly relays the State racism that is being institutionalized and moreover 
trivialized through the laws, the practices and the speeches. Cop racism expresses itself 
shamelessly in the working-class districts where racial profiling and more or less violent 
humiliations are common.

The endless state of emergency gives the police more and more powers without almost any 
judiciary control. The State asked its police to increase the repression and the violence 
against the "work act" protestation. These rules contributed to unleash the cops.
Last fall, during their "protestations", cops asked for additional resources, a "greater 
freedom of action against offenders", and an extension of the self defense framework. This 
was welcomed with kindness and attention of almost all the political class and the 
government which increased the budget by 250 millions € and is actually discussing the 
enactment of the widening of the self defense framework for the police.

Cynicism breaks every boundaries when, on Wednesday the 8th of February, while Théo is 
still in the hospital, the National Assembly enacts the "public security" act, which 
softens the rules of self defense for the cops, raises the jail duration for assault on 
police and authorizes the investigators to remain anonymous. This law also states that 
cops could use their weapon "if threatened by anyone carrying a weapon" (without defining 
the weapon types) or "when they cannot defend in an other way the position they keep". All 
this blur can only leads to other tragedies.

We demand the end of police impunity, the repeal of the "public security" act, the lifting 
of the state of emergency and the abrogation of all security laws.
Don't let our rights and social conquests be trim away!

February the 12th of 2017,
les Relations Extérieures de la CGA
Related Link: http://www.c-g-a.org

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30001