Anarchic update news all over the world - 20 February 2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  anarkismo.net: turkey, Istanbul - A Call From Anarchist
      Women for articles for Meydan (ca) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  US, Black Rose Rochester, Genesee River Rebellion:
      INCARCERATED WORKERS STRIKE! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #268 - Breeding: "Animal
      welfare is a pernicious notion" (fr, it, pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Libertarian Thessaloniki Initiative: Concentration in the
      courts against auctions - 15/2 -- Housing is a social good and
      not a commodity (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Germany. fau: Reasons for the end of one history and the
      beginning of a new one - FAU and IWA - looking back to look ahead
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Britain, freedom-news: Obituary: Simon Chapman, A Very
      Distinguished Fucking Anarchist (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



To all women comrades all around the world, ---- The next issue of our monthly newspaper 
Meydan is going to be prepeared by Anarchist Women, as for all March issues. In this issue 
we're going to focus different topics; violence against women, violence as a state policy, 
crisis of the state and capitalism... ---- In this issue, we are also planing to give 
place to our women comrades all around the world for solidarity messages about 8th March. 
---- While we are resisting patriarchy, we're trying to organise women solidarity against 
all form of power (violence,capitalism, militarism etc...) for becoming free. ---- In this 
context, we're waiting to hear your (women comrades from anarchist organistaions and women 
organisations) message about the importance of women solidarity and 8th March, to publish 
them in our paper. As we will publish the solidarity messages of other women organistaions 
and women comrades from anarchist organisations, we will be appreciated to get yours.

You can contact with; anarsistkadinlar@gmail.com

Long live to women solidarity!

To all women comrades all around the world,

The next issue of our monthly newspaper Meydan is going to be prepeared by Anarchist 
Women, as for all March issues. In this issue we're going to focus different topics; 
violence against women, violence as a state policy, crisis of the state and capitalism etc...

In this issue, we are also planing to give place to our women comrades all around the 
world for solidarity messages about 8th March.
While we, are resisting patriarchy, we're trying to organise women solidarity against all 
form of power(violence,capitalism, militarism etc...) for becoming free.

In this context, we're waiting to hear your(women comrades from anarchist organistaions 
and women organisations) message about the importance of women solidarity and 8th March, 
to publish them on our paper. As we will publish the solidarity messages of other women 
organistaions and women comrades from anarchist organisations, we will be appreciated to 
get yours.

We're hoping to have your replies 200-300 words max., on 22 February, Wednesday at latest, 
in order to share your words with our readers on March issue.

You can contact with; anarsistkadinlar@gmail.com

Long live to women solidarity!

https://www.facebook.com/anarsistkadinlariz/
http://meydangazetesi.org/

Related Link: https://www.facebook.com/anarsistkadinlariz/

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30006

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Message: 2



River Rebellion   January 4, 2017  black lives matter, history, police  No Comment
On September 9th, prisoners all over the country went out on strike against slavery in the 
United States. ---- You read that right. It may sound like an exaggeration, but slavery 
continues to this day across ---- US, made legal by the 13th amendment. ---- "But the 13th 
Amendment abolished slavery," you might be thinking. You'd be at least partially correct. 
The 13th Amendment ended the traditional use of chattel slavery that had been the backbone 
of the South's economy in the lead-up to the Civil War. However, it left open a very big 
loophole for slavery to continue in a new form. ---- To quote the amendment: "Neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime ... shall exist within 
the United States." This meant that slavery could be moved into the prisons, with 
prisoners sometimes even working the same plantations that had once been worked by slaves.

Just as slaves resisted their own servitude, prisoners today are fighting for their 
freedom too, engaging in strikes that have involved at least 20,000 inmates nationwide. 
These strikes, which were called for by the Incarcerated Worker Organizing Committee 
(IWOC), represent an incredibly important step in the movement against mass incarceration 
in the United States.

For years people have talked about challenging mass incarceration, about uprooting the New 
Jim Crow, even about abolishing the prison industrial complex. But the strategies for 
challenging these structures have been few and far between, and almost none of them have 
centered on the agency of prisoners themselves... until now.

Now, prisoners are proving their own collective strength, their own capacity to change the 
situation they find themselves in. They are transforming prison abolition from a principle 
into a program, from a motto into a movement.

Across the country, fast food workers have been building their own movement through the 
Fight for $15. These are workers who work erratic hours, without benefits, and always, 
always for low wages. What many of these workers are unaware of is that the uniforms they 
wear, the patties they serve, and the cutlery their customers eat with are all made by 
prisoners who earn even less than they do.

Inmates who work in prison often make only pennies per hour, and some make nothing at all.

Some may remember the name Scott Walker. In 2011, Governor Scott Walker attempted to break 
the backbone the labor movement in Wisconsin, a state that has traditionally been home to 
some of the most vibrant and, at times, militant unions in the country. Some might 
remember what his new law meant to the labor movement, and might better remember the 
reaction that workers had towards it. However, most people never heard about the part of 
the law that said unions would lose the ability to maintain "union-only" jobs.

That meant that many jobs that were once held by union workers would now be given to 
incarcerated workers in Wisconsin, a state with the highest rate of black male 
incarceration in the country. These incarcerated workers didn't just earn less - they 
earned nothing at all.

That's slavery. That's slavery. And it's being carried out on the backs of the rest of the 
working class.

Fast food workers won a recent victory, finally winning a path to $15/hr in NYS. Though it 
may be obvious, it should be said that this wasn't simply a gift from a benevolent 
governor. It was a hard-fought concession that was won through wave after wave of strikes 
carried out by countless courageous fast food workers.

Now, incarcerated workers have picked up that mantle. But just like fast food workers, 
they can't win it alone. Join the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, get 
organized, and help build a movement on both sides of the bars.

http://riverrebellion.org/2017/01/04/incarcerated-workers-strike/

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Message: 3




The issue of meat consumption, particularly in relation to the ill-treatment of animals in 
slaughterhouses, is a topical issue. To think about it, meet Sylvain, a farmer in the Var 
in mixed farming, a producer of organic ewe's cheeses, and a member of the Peasant 
Confederation. ---- Alternative libertarian: In recent months, several videos of the 
association L214 showing the conditions of slaughter shocked the public opinion and pushed 
the political class to react. What is the reaction of breeders to these videos? ---- Some 
images have shocked, there are things inadmissible for our breeders. When one sees a 
swinging type of sheep against the railing, it is out of question that he do this with my 
animals, it revolts me to see him. But you have to analyze these videos a bit, because it 
is important to know what you are watching, and you have to try to understand. I find 
these videos very manipulative. Already, it is only on the affect, there is no explanation 
or reflection. In addition they say false things. For example, they speak of recovery of 
consciousness when the animal is struggling, whereas it is just the nerves that are active 
because the body undergoes ultimate stress at the moment of death, so there is a reaction 
and jolt movements . The matador is a tool they use for "stunning" large animals, it is a 
metal rod that pierces the cranial box, so I do not believe in the recovery of consciousness.

Secondly, we note that maltreatment is often due to a lack of staff training, or poor 
working conditions for employees. And there is only one eye of a breeder who can see it. 
For example, we could see very well that a guy did not know how to deal with the sheep at 
all, so he got upset and did anything. And the last thing is that we focus on the death of 
animals, which is an important issue, but it hides the whole debate about the life of the 
animals and how the livestock is going.

Exactly, between industrial farming and international competition, how much freedom do 
farmers have to work as they see fit?

Fortunately we have a certain latitude, otherwise we would no longer exist. There is a 
part of the livestock which is on this path of industrialization, but the majority of the 
breeders do not make the industrial breeding. Large herds of dairy cows or above ground 
pigs are not at all the same as pastoral or farmer breeding where herds are out all year 
round. The type of marketing is important. The more short it is, the more autonomous it is 
to international competition.

We fight at the union level, for example, to defend our autonomy. It is an important 
notion if we want to continue to control our farms, the way we produce food, the living 
conditions of our animals. For example, this is the question that arises with the wolf. We 
are told that the last resort to protect us from attacks is to put our animals in 
buildings, so do the aboveground but we are not what we want! That is why each time we try 
to bring back the question of the agricultural model and how to produce it at the center 
of the discussions, because it is the real political question: what kind of agriculture do 
we want for our society?

What do you think of the notion of animal welfare? Is this something relevant to farmers, 
observable, quantifiable, adjustable?

In everyday work, it is not at all a concept that is used. The texts of Jocelyne Porcher 
are interesting on this. In fact, this notion has appeared with what it calls animal 
production, which must be differentiated from livestock. In peasant farming, the animals 
are outside, and building a part of the year if you are in mountain or according to 
climatic conditions. They are in spaces that are theirs, under proper conditions of life. 
And there is a strong bond between the breeder and his animals, with attention, 
observation, a close relationship. Our job is that our animals are all right! And then it 
is pleasure also, when I see that my beasts are content, that they eat well. So we do not 
ask ourselves the question of improving animal welfare, because our job is precisely that!

But in animal production systems, this whole relationship has been trampled. The animals 
were first put under inadmissible and abnormal conditions for them, and then it was 
suggested that animal welfare could still be improved. So, for example, in some intensive 
breeding pigs, they put small straw areas where the animals can walk a little, quickly 
does what. Oh yeah, we've improved the animal welfare there! No, it does not mean 
anything, and it's really a pernicious notion, because it's giving a somewhat clean image 
of unbearable conditions for animals.

And contrary to animal production, Jocelyne Porcher speaks of breeding as a form of gift / 
counter-gift, the breeder gives a "good life" to animals, and the animal gives services 
and products ( Labor, milk, meat). Is not it a bit too idyllic?

I find it interesting how she has to see the relationship between breeders and their 
animals. I really think there is exchange yes, whether it is on material forms, because I 
take milk for example, but also of intangible exchange, with communication, affective, and 
A lot of things happening. It should be remembered that livestock are ruminants, they are 
not at the top of the food chain. Domestication, the fact that they are with us, is 
somewhat the idea of the implicit contract: they are guaranteed a way of life that is more 
serene than in the wild, which is a little the state of Permanent stress. In the image 
conveyed by many naturalist associations, there is an idealization of what is wild nature, 
a contrario of domestic breeding which would be malicious. But nature is pitiless! There 
is no good or bad, you eat others to eat and basta.

So yes, it may seem idyllic, because here we theorize things. But it is the same when we 
speak of domination, we theorize a relationship that in fact has nothing to do with what 
you see on the ground, because to reduce the breeding to a history of domination of the 
man on the Animals is nothing to know about breeding. Afterwards, one could start in the 
principles of alienation and company, but to copy concepts made for interhuman relations 
on human-animal relations, it is a bit wobbly as history. Good afterwards, everyone speaks 
in the place of the beasts, but the beasts also express themselves, it is necessary to be 
able to read their behavior to know if they are well or not.

Interview by Jocelyn (AL Marseille)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Elevage-Le-bien-etre-animal-est

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Message: 4




Inside the lunar landscape of Greek reality, as formulated in the period of capitalist 
crisis, the right-left governments and the European Union, the social wealth bleeding 
campaign puts another purpose: housing. After the all-out attack the state and capital to 
work, agriculture, insurance, social liberties, the environment and social goods, raise 
their targeted one of the few remaining materials supports the working class and 
oppressed. ---- The antiasfalistiko bill passed by parliament, is another face of the new 
war which has declared the local and international capital to employees, self-employed, 
farmers, pensioners and by extension to all people who support with their incomes ( 
children, relatives with chronic diseases, etc.). After the new criminal bill in social 
security, is more evident than ever that an all-out counterattack class, in the fields of 
housing, insurance, health, leading to a concerted proletarian refusal of payment is 
necessary.

Leaving now aside any pretext, the recent enactment of prerequisites in late 2015 by the 
SYRIZA-ANEL government, paving the way for the advent and international finance capital 
against the house. Manage Red loans and real estate longer enter into international 
investment houses and funds, and in particular, as the guardian of the interests of 
debtors against the above companies, displayed by the Bank of Greece and the Banking Code 
of Conduct (!).

After 'legal drafting improvements "in November substantially slash whatever protections 
existed until now, the framework of the auctions protection afstiropoieitai dramatically 
timeouts remain unclear, while new abstract concepts are introduced as the" cooperative 
borrower. " Clarifications, definitions, reviews etc., Pass all the banking crisis. The 
government washes its hands, simply asking bankers to show understanding and grace (see. 
Dragasakis November statements). Queues of debtors in local courts late last December, for 
joining the relatively favorable settings Katseli Law, reveal the dimensions of the 
threat. The application for inclusion in the Act itself is a costly process with the 
required amount could rise to about 1000 euro. Even the claim to protect, handsomely paid.

 From 1/1 / 2016, the possibility of zero dose abolished for those who have no income or 
unable not only to pay their installments and to cope with daily expenses of their 
families. In addition, it opened the process of free sale and reducing the costs of 
auctioning. If that is the first auction prove fruitless, the second starts at half the 
market value of the property, and if he too is not completed, the third starts from zero 
starting price. Even if the property is auctioned at an amount lower than the commercial 
value and the loan amount, the borrower still owes the bank the remaining amount. And 
loses his home and still owes. In essence sought from borrowers repayment of the loan for 
the second time. And this at a time when many of the red loans have essentially paid to 
banks through taxes and bank recapitalization.

So if someone is unable to repay the banks the net profit will be marked "uncooperative" 
and the house will be coming under the hammer or alternatively, the loan can be passed 
into the hands of investment houses, who added convenience -as the banks do not expect 
necessarily to the repayment of the loan will convert the property to a financial product 
and gambling, multiplying their winnings. For us, the defense of the first housing and 
preventing evictions and auction, is practical and class terms defend the social good 
housing. Away from populist, radical Falsified fanfare, our policy framework for the fight 
against auctions, is class protection of all social assets, part of which is the 
dwelling-house.

The cancellation of an auction in the county court, shifts the process to two months after 
creating a first time, a temporary defense forefront of our class. Therefore, the presence 
of all of us in local courts is necessary. We must realize the need to pass from the 
defense of housing, to guarantee as good for all and all; the necessity of passing from 
defense to attack.

Starting from this position, and against all private and commercial exploitation of the 
dwelling use but put the tool of the occupation as a form of militant recovery of social 
wealth, to ensure housing for all the oppressed of the world, homeless / s, immigrants / 
only three, laborers / behavior shows, the ftochodiavolous of our time.

As Anarchist Federation, part of the exploited and oppressed, we fight with our class by 
any means. We will be there, the local courts, roads, neighborhoods, opposite to the 
judges, bank representatives and managers of investment funds, in physical confrontation 
if necessary with their uniformed protectors; with the poor, the unemployed, workers, the 
oppressed with the exploited against the state and capital.

Do not let anyone just opposite to bank gangs

Class counterattack, self-organization, solidarity

anarchist Federation

http://anarchist-federation.gr

info@anarchist-federation.gr

twitter: https://twitter.com/anarchistfedGr

fb: https://www.facebook.com/anarxikiomospondia2015/

In Thessaloniki, auctions are held every Wednesday at 15:30 in Thessaloniki courts. Until 
the definitive exclusion of primary housing and safeguard the housing as an inalienable 
right of our class, block in practice, as a means of pressure, each auction, what property 
they respect and whatever its use. Until then, we will not allow in all sorts of 
government and non predators to "do their job".
CONCENTRATION IN THE COURTS OF THESSALONIKI
WEDNESDAY 15/2 15:30
Libertarian Thessaloniki Initiative - a member of the Anarchist Federation
lib_thess@hotmail.com
libertasalonica.wordpress.com

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Message: 5




In December 2016, the IWA, formerly the International of revolutionary syndicalism and 
anarcho-syndicalism, expelled its sections in Spain (CNT), Italy (USI) and Germany (FAU), 
thereby losing at least 90% of its members. The decision at the IWA congress in Warsaw 
came as no surprise. It concludes at least 20 years of agony for an IWA which has 
gradually abandoned its roots and the principles of its foundation in December 1922. ---- 
Translated by Emal Ghamsharick ---- This text represents the view of the International 
Secretariat of the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAU) on the development of the IWA and 
the fault lines of the past decades. We relied several times on two current posts on the 
blog "Amor y Rabia," because we couldn't have said it better.

Although we are sad about this break in our history with the IWA, we still hope that new 
opportunities for a more open project will arise. A project with a new outlook connecting 
- or even uniting - revolutionary syndicalists, anarcho-syndicalists and unionists 
worldwide. This might help overcome old divisions and this momentary split.

Formation of the IWA in 1922 and rebirth in the 1970s

The IWA was founded as the International of all revolutionary-syndicalist and 
anarcho-syndicalist unions in Berlin in 1922. In the early years, some of its member 
organizations had hundreds of thousands of members and very different approaches to 
unionizing. The organization was held together by mutual aid, a commitment to the 
"principles of revolutionary syndicalism" and trying to evade the influence of the 
emerging Leninist parties, who aimed to convert unions across the world into pawns of 
their party politics.

Still the IWA's influence on the history of the workers' movement remained limited. During 
the Spanish revolution of 1936, the CNT - the largest IWA section with more than half a 
million members - did play a decisive role. But the defeat of all revolutionary hopes for 
a liberated society in Spain also accelerated the decline of the IWA. Many national 
sections had already been smashed during the rise of fascism throughout Europe and Latin 
America. The brutal hegemony of Leninism, followed by Stalinism, throughout labor unions 
worldwide increased the pressure. By the start of World War II, all IWA sections had been 
destroyed, save the Swedish SAC.

The SAC also faced pressure in the early 1940s, but not from fascism, as in Germany, Italy 
and Spain. The Swedish government decided to task labor unions with managing pension and 
unemployment claims. The tacit goal was to force all workers into the toothless 
social-democratic union and to marginalize the SAC. Fearing this development, the SAC made 
a U-turn in 1942 and began to participate in managing the government's social security 
funds. This included the creation of an official apparatus. It was not until 2009 that the 
SAC decided to re-radicalize most of its strategies.

This was the backdrop for the 7th IWA Congress in 1951, the first one in thirteen years 
and after WW II. The SAC's strategic turn was heavily criticized for weakening 
revolutionary syndicalism by making the union an extended arm of government and as a 
pacification strategy against workers. As a result, the SAC stopped its membership 
payments to the IWA and opted to leave the International in 1957.

The IWA thereby lost its last member to be an actual union. It began transforming into a 
federation of mere propaganda groups with no tangible influence on class struggles. The 
peak of the Cold War was a "march through the desert" for the anarcho-syndicalist 
movement. It also had to endure a series of strenuous conflicts within the Spanish CNT. 
The members of this largest IWA section were either exiled or lived under the constant 
threat of being persecuted, killed or locked up by Spanish authorities.

In the 1970s finally some hope began to reappear. The student movement, wildcat strikes, 
the crisis of 1973 and the resurrection of the CNT starting in late 1975 paved the way for 
several new anarcho-syndicalist organizations, such as the FAU in Germany (1977) or the 
Direct Action Movement (today called Solidarity Federation), founded in 1979 in Britain. 
The revived USI, the historic Italian IWA section, held its first congress in 1978. In the 
late 1980s the CNT-F in France caused a stir with its first collective actions. Small 
groups of unionized activists from other countries also began joining the IWA. So the 16th 
IWA Congress in 1979 was the first in a long time to see the admission of several new 
organizations. Many were still small, but very motivated to join the class struggles in 
their regions.

The split in the Spanish CNT and the works council question

The first throwback came soon, once again from Spain. Here the CNT had risen like a 
Phoenix from the ashes after the death of the dictator in 1975. Hundreds of thousands of 
workers joined within a few months and celebrated their new confidence in July 1977 with a 
meeting hosting nearly 100,000 at Montjuïc in Barcelona. Parts of the Spanish government 
began seeing the CNT as the greatest threat to the country's development towards 
capitalism, so the "Democratic Transitional Government" did everything to keep the CNT 
out. For example it closed the Moncloa Pact, which promised legally guaranteed 
participation through works councils plus subsidies to unions. In return the participating 
unions had to accept severe restrictions, on the right to strike for example.

A bitter conflict broke out within the CNT on whether to join this Moncloa Pact. One side 
argued that being the only labor union to factually slide back into illegality would 
weaken workplace organizing efforts. The other side, with a view on Swedish experiences, 
warned that joining the Pact would tame the revolutionary union for the benefit of the 
capitalists.

As a result of this conflict and a number of other factors, such as workers' 
disillusionment and depoliticization caused by the "democratic transition," the CNT's 
inability to integrate such masses of new members in such a short period, and attacks by 
the secret police on the CNT's reputation, membership figures crashed. At the fifth union 
congress in 1979, the first one after the dictatorship, the delegates represented just 
30,000 members, while two years earlier, the CNT hat still counted around 200,000.

At this 5th Congress a majority of CNT syndicates decided not to join the Moncloa Pact and 
not to participate in works council elections. As a result, several syndicates left the 
union and founded their own organization in 1979, which today is the CGT.

The conflict in Spain affected the IWA as a whole. More importantly, however, the bitter, 
sometimes even judicial dispute in Spain made it impossible to openly discuss the 
underlying problem: How can a revolutionary-syndicalist or anarcho-syndicalist strategy on 
the company level be successful, without being pacified by the works council model or 
becoming irrelevant in the workplace? Because this question was not openly discussed 
within the IWA in the early 1980s, many new sections had to tackle the same Sisyphean task 
which had plagued Spain and Sweden.

Crisis in the CNT-F - good-time problems

It began with the French CNT in the early 1990s. The union had succeeded in founding a 
large and very rebellious branch within the Paris Metro cleaning company COMATEC. The 
workers, mostly from North and Sub-Saharan Africa, had very precarious contracts, but 
promptly organized a first successful strike. To shield its members against the heavy 
conflicts with management, the CNT-F participated in employee delegate elections in 1991. 
The same happened at SPES, another cleaning company, where the CNT-F had built a strong 
branch.

This tactical participation in union elections to protect threatened members was approved 
retroactively at a CNT-F congress, but still caused heavy tensions, leading up to a split 
in November 1992. One part founded a union comprising nearly all branches - originally 
named CNT-Vignoles after its Paris headquarters - which supported occasional tactical 
participation in works council elections. The much smaller part held its founding congress 
in May 1993, was named CNT-Bordeaux after the seat of its coordinating committee and 
strictly opposed any kind of participation in workplace elections. Both organizations 
claimed to be members of the IWA.

This was the beginning of a sweltering conflict for the IWA because, for one thing, the 
"French problem" also affected the Spanish CNT. The children and grandchildren of Spanish 
exiles in France had helped make the CNT-F successful and mostly supported the 
CNT-Vignoles. However, a dominant sector in Spain fully supported the CNT-Bordeaux, This 
led to heavy quarrels within the Spanish CNT and finally to the resignation of the Spanish 
IWA General Secretary, who had tried to negotiate instead of choosing a side.

What made the conflict permanent, however, was how the 20th Congress of the IWA (Madrid, 
1996) finally dealt with the situation. The only agenda topic was an "open debate about 
the situation in France." Therefore, most sections, whether attending with delegates or 
only by written mandate, had not made any particular resolutions. At the congress, the 
Spanish CNT and the tiny Norwegian NSF then suddenly made a motion - under breach of IWA 
procedures - to expel the CNT-Vignoles and recognize the CNT-Bordeaux as the only French 
section. The motion was actually voted on, in a very heated atmosphere, and so it happened 
that the majority of French IWA members were expelled through an unworthy and 
unprecedented maneuver, supported by only three sections and against the vote of the FAU. 
The vast majority of sections present abstained, since they could have no mandate for 
motions they had not been informed of in advance.

This slammed the door on any amicable solution for the French situation. Another result of 
the Madrid Congress was, that the decades-old option of recognizing multiple sections in 
one country was struck from the IWA Statutes.

The crisis in Italy

In parallel with the split in France, a conflict also developed in the Italian section, 
the Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI-AIT). Here too, the challenge was finding a suitable 
strategy for workplace unionizing. However, the question in Italy was not whether to 
participate in works councils, but about its relationship to the other Italian grassroots 
unions, which were mushrooming since the early 1980s. One part of the USI (called USI Rome 
due to its regional focus) supported dissolving their union into alliances with other 
grassroots unions. The other part wanted to maintain the USI as an independent union with 
its own profile. The conflict led to a split in May 1996, where the pro-independence part 
held a congress without the USI Rome in Prato Carnico.

At first, delegates of both organizations attended the 1996 IWA Congress. After the USI 
Rome delegation left the general meeting in vocal protest, the Congress declared that this 
meant the withdrawal of the USI Rome from the IWA, and that the USI-AIT was the legitimate 
Italian section.

The USI Rome never accepted this decision and calls itself USI-AIT to this day, causing 
frequent confusion. They have even taken advantage of this situation to torpedo numerous 
collective actions of the real USI-AIT. Italian legislation requires that strikes be 
declared to the authorities in advance. The USI Rome has used this to call off strikes 
started by the real USI-AIT by sending letters to the authorities and has thereby 
effectively broken these strikes.

Prohibitions and distrust instead of cooperation

As described, the conflicts within the CNT-F and the USI, the two largest sections after 
the Spanish CNT, peaked just before the IWA congress in 1996 and were decided here. 
Originally, the 20th IWA Congress intended to fortify the reborn IWA by adding many new 
members. But since the agenda was manipulated and the Congress was troubled by the 
unworthy behavior of several delegates and visitors, it actually triggered a fatal 
internal dynamic in which the Spanish CNT played a crucial role.

The first step had been taken several years earlier - at the 1984 IWA Congress in Madrid, 
a motion by the Spanish CNT (which had just experienced the worst split in its history) 
was passed, which prohibited formal relations between IWA sections and the Swedish SAC. 
The reason for the motion was the SAC's financial support for the CNT splinter group in 
Spain, the later CGT. The resolution left room for interpretation, which led to future 
conflicts.

The mentality expressed in this motion soon began to poison the atmosphere throughout the 
IWA. Seeing splits in its largest sections, the International started acting like a 
wounded animal and no longer trusted anyone. Trust, the basis for any federalism, was 
therefore replaced by control. Sections were threatened with penalties whenever this 
seemed necessary or appropriate.

A resolution at the 21st Congress (Granada, 2000) upheld this logic. A procedure 
euphemized as "contact rule" and passed upon the initiative of the Norwegian NSF now 
requires that in countries with existing IWA sections, all contacts with other 
organizations must go exclusively through this IWA section. This logic, which aimed to 
replace federalism with a sort of confederate feudalism, had dire consequences. Just as in 
the manipulative expulsion of the CNT-F, the FAU made use of its right to reject this IWA 
resolution as non-binding.

The sorcerer's apprentice

The poisoned atmosphere and the increasing self-isolation of the IWA were aggravated by 
the nomination of the new IWA Secretariat in 1996. What would have been needed was a 
balancing leadership to calm things down and build bridges. Instead, the Spanish CNT 
nominated its former general secretary, José Luis García Rúa as the IWA General Secretary. 
Over the three years of his mandate, he managed to pour fuel into the fire at every occasion.

Starting in the late 1990s, transnational movements sprang up, many involving workers, 
which mobilized against capitalist globalization and its strategies of exploitation 
without borders. These movements mobilized large and militant demonstrations against the 
summits of the ruling classes, where we often joined unionists on the street, whose 
syndicalist organizations did not or no longer belonged to the IWA.

Instead of leveraging the new situation and the great demand for a transnational response 
to exploitation and domination, the IWA General Secretary started searching for "enemies 
of the IWA." And he found them everywhere! Not among governments or capitalists, though, 
but in the IWA, SAC, CGT, CNT-F and various other syndicalist organizations outside the 
IWA. And of course also among those within the IWA, who saw the "enemies" elsewhere.

Starting a witch hunt instead of using the opportunities would not have been possible 
without the tacit or active support by a majority of IWA sections. In this respect, it 
became striking that starting from the mid-1990s more and more small groups were given 
full IWA membership, without actually having the chance to develop any unionizing 
experience. Many of these very young organizations proved to be very volatile and prone to 
dogmatism. Combined with the practice that IWA resolutions are passed by one vote per 
section, regardless of size, groups began to dominate who had a firmer grasp of history 
books than of the reality of class struggle.

The FAU and i2002

The turn of the millennium saw heavy internal hostilities, not just against the USI, who 
was heavily attacked by the new Russian and Czech sections (and others) because it dared 
participate occasionally in the umbrella organization Rappresentanze Sindacali Unitarie (RSU).

Just after the 1996 Congress in Madrid, FAU delegates had warned that the Congress would 
trigger a long phase of division and sectarianism, instead of building bridges between the 
various revolutionary syndicalist, anarcho-syndicalist and unionist organizations and 
currents. In the following years, the FAU tried to oppose all tendencies which threatened 
to turn the IWA into an exclusive debating circle without contact to social struggles. 
This included making use of its statutory right to reject IWA congress resolutions, which 
promoted division instead of understanding.

To offer a positive alternative to the IWA's growing paranoia, the FAU held an 
International Solidarity Conference (i2002) in the German city of Essen in 2002. The 
conference aimed to follow in the footsteps of the i99, which had just taken place in San 
Francisco.

i2002 deliberately avoided sending formal invitations to unions or other organizations or 
their official representatives. Instead, the invitation went to all members and activists 
of all revolutionary syndicalist, anarcho-syndicalist and unionist organizations, who were 
looking to discuss, socialize and make plans for a few days. For the small FAU, this 
successful conference was also an enormous effort, a milestone in its development and a 
confirmation of its assumption that beyond all the divisiveness and distrust there is 
space for ideas, our experiences and common projects.

But not everyone was happy about the conference and the exchange it enabled and promoted, 
or about the FAU's insistence on freely choosing its forms of action, in line with the 
principles of revolutionary syndicalism. In the run-up to the i2002, the IWA Secretariat 
and a majority of its sections had heavily attacked the FAU's presentation of i2002 at an 
IWA general meeting and countered it with all sorts of verbal abuse.

The "FAU Act" - dictatorial powers for the IWA Secretariat

It came as no surprise that the IWA's most dogmatic members now saw the FAU as their main 
adversary. At the 2004 IWA Congress in Granada, it was once more the former IWA General 
Secretary García Rúa who brought a motion by the CNT for an "FAU Act," a unique provision 
in the history of the IWA. It gave the IWA Secretariat exclusive power to dismiss the FAU 
with immediate effect, if ever it should find that the FAU continued to disregard the 
principles and resolutions of the IWA. Almost needless to point out that this motion again 
was not listed on the previously published agenda, and therefore was not covered by the 
mandate of the attending section representatives. What had begun in 1996 as a vicious, 
manipulative exception was now developing into a real method.

Should we stay or should we go now?

Facing the developments after the 1996 IWA Congress, the FAU discussed for many years 
whether it made any sense to remain in this self-isolating International. Several exit 
motions at FAU congresses failed, such as the first one in 2001 or later ones in 2005 and 
2014. Either the majority opinion was that the FAU should not leave on its own, or there 
was a clear exit majority, which failed to reach the three-quarters majority required for 
such fundamental decisions, because some syndicates still hoped that the IWA might change 
its self-destructive course and return to its founding principles.

Final act of the tragedy

In the years following the congress in Manchester (2006), the situation inside the IWA 
calmed down somewhat: The French section stopped denouncing the FAU for its links to the 
CNT-F - or was rather busy dealing with its own upcoming split. Criticism of the FAU's 
casual contact with the SAC became quieter. In Spain, the tables had started to turn, and 
the part of the CNT which emphasized collective action over ideological debates was about 
to put the dogmatists in their place. The Spanish CNT and the USI tried limiting the 
dominance of micro unions within the IWA by proposing a minimum size for unions and voting 
rights proportional to membership. As expected, the proposal was denied.

The FAU's wish to establish connections to the Polish "Workers' Initiative" (IP) - a 
spin-off of the local anarchist federation - led to an escalation, as the IWA had already 
taken in the ZSP as a Polish section, which had been founded by former IP members. The ZSP 
considered the FAU's contacts with this supposed "competitor" a breach of solidarity, 
although the FAU's primary support still went to the ZSP and their joint actions. One 
reason why the FAU maintained contact with the IP was that they were involved in labour 
conflicts with multinational corporations in the German-Polish border region, and the FAU 
wanted to learn about organizing in large companies. The FAU therefore stated that it 
needed no permission to make contacts, because it had not accepted this particular IWA 
resolution.

After a member of the ZSP was elected as IWA Secretary in 2013 and the FAU formalized its 
links with the SAC, the CNT-F and the IP, the new IWA Secretariat immediately suspended 
the FAU in September 2014 and cited the "FAU Act" of 2004 as justification. This meant in 
effect that the FAU was barred from all internal communication in the IWA and lost its 
right to vote - although it stayed a member section of the IWA until the congress of 
December 2016 in Warsaw (where it was officially disaffiliated, along with the Spanish CNT 
and the USI). This meant the IWA Secretariat acted with executive powers, which it should 
never have had under its federalist principles, which were also thrown overboard in 2004.

The fact that the "majority" of all IWA sections (which represents barely 10% of the 
members) confirmed the suspension at an extraordinary congress in 2014 in Porto was the 
last straw for the Spanish CNT and the USI. At its 2015 congress, the Spanish CNT pushed 
the reboot button and invited all IWA sections to build a new foundation for the 
International and begin an international project to revive the IWA's founding principles.

Of course, solidarity with the FAU wasn't the only reason for the Spanish CNT's break with 
the IWA, as is currently claimed. The USI, the CNT and the FAU had to accept that the IWA 
in its current shape serves only itself, but not as a driver for self-organised class 
struggle on the basis of revolutionary syndicalism. This might be painful to realize, but 
in the difficult times which are upon us, it's no use for us to keep flogging a dead horse 
out of nostalgia.

A new project in difficult times

If we see the signs right, we're about to live through a stage of populism unparalleled in 
recent decades. The aim is to divide workers and the oppressed by nationalist and racist 
rhetoric. Against the project of a world full of new walls running along borders and 
through our minds, we need a project to tear down all walls and instead connect workers to 
organize solidarity and mutual aid. We have no more time to cultivate differences - let's 
instead search for what connects our struggles for better living conditions and for a 
world without exploitation and oppression.

The Spanish CNT, the USI and the FAU have therefore decided to jump-start a new 
international project. An initial conference with unions and affiliated groups from eleven 
regions on two continents took place in the Basque city of Barakaldo. We hope this will be 
a new beginning for the small but radical part of the international workers' movement. 
Today, more than ever, we insist that the working classes and their exploiters have 
nothing in common and any hope in states and political parties is not part of the 
solution, but part of the problem.

The International Secretariat of the Free Workers' Union (FAU)

http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_170214-210028

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

Message: 6




Over the last couple of days the strangest thought has plagued me.  Two simple ugly words 
have kept emerging, only for me to lock them out and ridicule them as bizarre.  Simon's 
dead.  Just to write it down feels like treachery.  Part of me looks forward to seeing 
him, to sharing a drink and dispelling this nonsense.  He'd say something wry, and witty 
and that would be that.  He was good like that.  Was.  Sometimes the shittiest word to 
ever have to use about a friend. ---- As part of a (temporary, and self-imposed) exile 
from all politics, I didn't know his health had deteriorated so much.  We weren't the kind 
of friends who lived out of each other's pockets.  There are many who were closer to him 
than me and I wish them all my love.  But for almost 15 years he was always there.  At 
crap protests and good ones, festivals and parties, we'd find each other and we'd usually 
end up drinking together.  We shared a love of getting proper twatted and so we did that a 
lot.

The London anarchist movement would have looked very different without Simon Chapman. From 
the Movement Against The Monarchy to the Wombles, to May Day, several squatted social 
centres and finally Class War, Simon was an active presence both on the streets and behind 
the scenes.  Countless flyers were produced by him over the years. He helped organise 
dozens of gigs, parties, campaigns and demonstrations and I was lucky enough to work with 
him on several of them. Up until very recently he was still updating the Class War website.

It was the streets where his heart lay though and he was no passive peaceful protester. He 
got nicked all the time when he was younger.  He fucking hated capitalism, was never 
afraid to get his hands dirty and despised the police.  And he had good reason.

In 2003 Simon was arrested during a vicious police tear gas attack at a particularly 
fruity anti-capitalist protest in Thessaloniki, Greece.  It was claimed he was carrying 
petrol bombs in his rucksack and he was held on remand with charges hanging over him that 
could have seen him spend the next 20 years in prison.  Six other people were arrested and 
charged in similar circumstances.  All denied the allegations against them.  Photographic 
evidence soon emerged that showed the rucksack the police claimed Simon was carrying was 
not the rucksack he was arrested with.  It was a transparent fit up.

The treatment of those arrested was obscene.  All were beaten savagely following their 
arrest. For the first few days of his incarceration Simon was left virtually blind after 
the police smashed his glasses.  He couldn't see a fucking thing without his glasses. 
Despite these abuses the UK's Labour government did not lift a finger to help.  Neither 
did any other state. So the prisoners took the only action left available to them and 
began a hunger strike.

A militant Europe-wide campaign fast emerged demanding that all seven prisoners be 
released.  Greek embassies were picketed across the continent and in some cases attacked 
and occupied.  In Barcelona the Metro system was shut down during an international day of 
action in solidarity with the prisoners.  In the UK a relentless campaign targeted the 
Greek Embassy and Tourist Board.   Parts of Athen's University were repeatedly occupied, 
whilst fierce demonstrations throughout Greece resulted in more arrests.

In the end Simon didn't eat for almost seven weeks. All the hunger-strikers were 
repeatedly hospitalised, such was the strain on their health. In the final days the 
prisoners stopped accepting fluids.  By now the solidarity campaign was at fever pitch as 
the risk that someone might die grew ever closer.  Mainstream media across Europe began to 
take an interest, lured by sensationalism and smelling blood.  Faced with international 
embarrassment, and concerned about creating seven martyrs who would shine a light on the 
corrupt Greek police, all the prisoners were released on November 6th 2003 and the charges 
against them dropped.  Simon came home.

Then, five years later, the bastards came for him again.  After repeated appeals from the 
Greek state prosecutor the charges against four of the original seven were re-instated. In 
2008 Simon was found guilty of a string of exotic sounding and terrifying charges 
including Distinguished Riot  and the creation, possession and explosion of bombs.  He was 
sentenced in his absence to eight and a half years in prison.

Under the threat of a European Police Warrant, which was likely to see him dragged from 
his home by our own filth and handed over to the Greek authorities, Simon was forced to 
return to Thessaloniki in 2010 to appeal the conviction.  In the ensuing trial the police 
evidence was repeatedly demolished by the defence teams.  The case ended in humiliation 
for the Prosecutor with all charges  thrown out for all four defendants except for a 
hastily cobbled together guilty verdict of "minor defiance of authority".  This 
misdemeanor was enough to justify the time those accused had spent in prison, although the 
six month sentence was suspended and Simon once again returned home.

Simon was much, much more than just one of the Thessaloniki Seven.  But I suspect none who 
knew him well would deny the shadow these events cast over his life, and the impact they 
had on his health.  Of course our own state also put the boot in, subjecting him to years 
of benefit cuts, Atos assessments and at the mercy of London's fucked private sector 
rental market.

Throughout all this Simon stayed strong, never stopping fighting, or laughing and never 
losing his faith that a better world would one day be possible.  He was kind, and clever 
and both ruefully cynical and enthusiastically hopeful at the same time.  He was also more 
than just an anarchist.  As well as raising his fist, he also raised his daughter who he 
regularly spoke of with loving pride*.  His loss will leave a big hole in many lives.  The 
last thing he would want is tears, but he will get them.

For myself, if you find me hassling you to come and find an off-licence with me at some 
boring, stale protest then sorry, but it's because Simon isn't there anymore.  And those 
are hard words to write, to accept as real.  I will fucking miss you mate.  I'm sorry I 
didn't see you whilst you were so sick but glad my last memories of you are happy ones. At 
least the bastards will never take you alive again. Rest well Simon, you deserve it. Love 
and rage.

Johnny Void x
https://freedomnews.org.uk/obituary-simon-chapman-a-very-distinguished-fucking-anarchist/