Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - 13 th congress (Nantes,
3-5 June 2017), Humanity in the living world (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. alternativa libertaria fdca: June 1967- June 2017
(Geopolitical atlas Treccani) (ca, it) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. wsm.ie: 7 Lies for the 7th 'Rally for Life' - July 1st
Author: Kellie McConnell (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. wsm.ie: Jobstown Not Guilty verdict exposes Garda, Labour
and class rule in Ireland (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, London Anarchist Federation - CORBYN AND PRAGMATISM
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Switzerland, Three decades of libertarian activity in Ticino
By ANA (pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Since Libertarian collectively elaborates an ecological reflection and political responses
to the ecological crisis that is mounting, these are structured around a certainty: " the
ecological urgency is to leave capitalism ". However, an ecological anticapitalism
remains to be invented. ---- This means integrating the environmental issue into all of
our analyzes. ---- The preservation of the capitalist mode of production imposes what "
common " language calls growth. This translates into processes of intensification of the
exploitation of human labor ; By the massive exclusion imposed on an increasing share of
the population ; And by a pillaging of the resources of the planet and a destruction of
the dynamic equilibriums of the living being, of which the human species is a part. We
speak of dynamic equilibrium, because species and ecosystems evolve and change
perpetually, depending on the evolution of each species, or changes in living conditions
(eg geological or climatic changes).
Our denunciation of the capitalist project must put an end to the claim of the capitalist
class to exploit the labor of a part of the dominated classes and to exclude the other
part from access to work and the satisfaction of their needs. And it must also attack the
appropriation and the unlimited exploitation of the resources of the living world and the
carelessness which constantly overturn dynamic living equilibriums everywhere. For the
maintenance of the capitalist economy requires a perpetual self-increase of capital, and
therefore at the same time always more productivity and always more pillage and
destruction of the biosphere.
There is an inextricable link between the uncontrolled development of the means of
production, the capitalist exploitation of human labor, the exclusion of a large part of
the population, and the process of commodification of the whole of life.
Within the framework of capitalism, it is impossible to solve both the ecological crisis
which imposes control and self-limitation on the overall level of production and
consumption and the economic crisis which requires the opposite. To overcome the one
implies necessarily to aggravate the other and vice versa. We must, therefore, denounce
the illusions of the political currents - reformist or revolutionary - in the field of
capitalism with a human face, whether radical , ecosocial or declining.
Our strategy of combating capitalism is therefore twofold: against the exploitation and
exclusion it imposes on the vast majority of humans with its cortege of material and moral
miseries, violence and alienation, as well as jointly against Environmental degradation,
widespread pollution, climate destabilization and very serious damage to biodiversity.
Our struggle against exploitation and exclusion is built first of all by the organization
of the dominated social classes, by the self-organization of their struggles and the
solidarity between the exploited.
This implies that, within the dominated classes, there is a growing awareness of the
consequences of the ecological crisis ; That the necessity of a rupture with productivism
be taken into account within the social movement ; Ideologically the battle against "
growth " is won ; Whereas, therefore, the struggles against redundancies are
systematically built around reconversion projects ; Demands on the reduction of working
time, transport conditions, the right to housing, the right to an environment without
pollution and rich in genuine biodiversity, the right to live and work Country or
neighborhood,
But it seems illusory to imagine a significant transformation of the mode of production
and consumption without advancing in the construction of embryos of a counter-society
within which significant fractions of the disadvantaged social classes could access the
products of an industry escaping To the rules of capitalism. Obviously these alternative
elements can not, by an illusory process of generalization, lead alone to the overthrow of
capitalism. But, constructed in convergence with a dynamic of social struggles demanding
the socialization of the means of production, they are a necessity to create libertarian
imaginary and to structure a counter-power indispensable to the overthrow of capitalism.
Our project of society: it must also truly integrate our will to think the place of
humanity, in the heart of the living world, in breach with the capitalist claim of a
dominating and exploiting humanity of the living world. This text deals exclusively with
the last point.
What place for humanity in the living world
A transformation of the relationship between man and the living world is essential to the
survival of mankind and a large number of animal and plant species. From the current
imbalance in which we are mostly exploitative and destructive of nature, we must integrate
ourselves as a link within the living world, respectful of other forms of life, and
recognizing diversity, complementarity and cooperation as a basis for a new Dynamic
balance in our relationships to the living.
We must begin by finishing with the vision of a humanity supposedly superior to other
animal species. The progress of the life sciences has largely demonstrated today that
culture, altruism, intelligence, symbolic languages, to consciousness, in short everything
that man claims to be the basis of his superiority, are not The prerogative of humanity.
On many cognitive processes, animals have demonstrated greater abilities than humans. For
all that, presenting humans as animals " like the others " is contrary to reality: homo
sapiens is the only species to have settled in almost all terrestrial ecosystems ; The
complexity of its forms of social and political organization is unrivaled and endowed with
an unprecedented capacity for destruction.
In the end, what must be put down is the claim of the human being to be superior to the
rest of the living, without denying his specific place in the bosom of the living world.
We must finish with any conception of hierarchization between species, for each species,
including homo sapiens, depends on all other species for its survival. Any utilitarian
conception of life is dangerous because it involves a manipulation relationship with the
rest of the living world. The living world - vegetable as animal - is this interweaving of
relations of competition and cooperation between individuals of the same species as
between different species.
Today philosophical currents affirm that humans must abandon all forms of domination over
any other animal species, which means, if one goes to the end of logic, by abandoning not
only fishing and Hunting, but also all breeding and domestication. Alternative libertarian
condemns persecution or fierceness towards other animal species and claims a significant
reduction in meat consumption to ensure a sustainable diet for all.
This philosophical conception still echoes part of the history of our current and we can
not ignore it. And if collectively Alternative libertarian denounces ideologies reducing
the " other ", human or animal in thing, in quantity, in series of data to be managed,
it seems inopportune today to impose this philosophy at all, the conditions at the same
time Cultural, economic and political problems are not met for such a change. We will
remain condemned for a long time to manage the contradictions between the reasonable
welfare of the human population and the respect of the life of our cousins of other animal
species.
Obviously, it is quite different from the political considerations which involve a
redefinition of the agricultural productions needed by humankind to ensure a sufficiently
high protein diet for all men, women and children, which will imply Necessarily a drastic
reduction in meat consumption in Western countries. Obviously, the same is true of the
indispensable evolution of the standards of breeding and slaughter of domestic animals, in
order to eliminate all that is more or less related to the maltreatment of sentient beings
by a species affirming an illegitimate superiority, And in particular to put an end to
industrial systems of battery breeding, chain felling, etc.
To conclude, contrary to certain currents that claim to be radical, our aim is not and can
not be to advocate solutions aimed at ridding the planet of all human technology. A virgin
nature, free from all human action is simply a fantasy. Even in a region like the Amazon,
flora and fauna have been profoundly altered by human activity, even before the arrival of
Europeans on the American continent. The future we want is that of a nature where human
activities can be developed but controlled by the need to control our impact on the rest
of the living world and to safeguard biodiversity.
This shared future imposes a fundamental break in the way we imagine the development of
humanity. In particular, the following points are addressed:
The spatial planning of each country, the constraints necessary for a genuine policy for
the conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecologically compatible urbanization ;
The necessary changes in the broader agricultural sector (culture, livestock, forestry,
fisheries) ;
The necessary evolutions within the cities, including as much the question of the habitat
as that of the articulation between habitat and organization of the production. This
includes extractive industries, manufacturing, construction and public works, services ;
The question of the international organization of labor and economic relations between
countries of the South and the North.
Differentiated spatial planning
The plundering of resources, the endless exploitation of fossil energies, the
artificialisation of soils, lead humanity to an impasse. Without a major and rapid change
in human activity, the wall could unfortunately be hit faster than imagined today. It's
probably only a few decades--
The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was presented to the United Nations to assess the
extent and consequences of ecosystem changes. Its main conclusion is that mankind has
changed ecosystems more rapidly in the last fifty years than since its history:
destruction and pollution of natural environments, overexploitation of natural resources,
introduction of species from one environment to another, and Global warming causes an
irreversible loss of biodiversity.
Mexican and US experts in an article published in June 2015 in the journal Science
Advances announce that the " 6 th extinction " is on: the rate of species extinction due
to human activities continues to accelerate. Its impact rivals that of the five massive
biological crises that have punctuated the history of living beings for 500 million years
- the last, 65 million years ago, precipitating the fall of dinosaurs.
To achieve a new dynamic equilibrium with the rest of the living world, mankind must put
an end to the process of artificialisation of all ecosystems.
This means that it will have to set up differentiated management between:
The main zones of human habitat, with activities, on the one hand industrial and on the
other hand agricultural. In them human activity will seek to integrate itself into a
dynamic equilibrium with the development of other forms of life, even if it is inevitable
that human pressure completely transforms the equilibrium of living beings.
And protected natural areas preserved from human activities related to industrial
technologies.
Protected areas, apart from the fact that they must not be reduced to the minimum, must
make it possible to sanctuate the current primary forests, or at least what remains of
them, but must also be established on all continents And on each of them, as far as
possible, to cover all types of existing ecosystems in order to maintain true biodiversity
and not only on land " useless " for industrialization.
It must be understood that these protected areas, in addition to portions of land, will
also have to integrate coastal and maritime lake and river areas within which not only all
pollution will be drastically combated but also any banned industrial activity, Character
" tourist ".
For non-industrial activities, such as hunting and gathering activities, fishing or
traditional culture in dynamic equilibrium with the surrounding ecosystems will have their
place as today the agricultural activities and in particular the breeding in the National
and regional parks.
Furthermore, protected areas can not be reduced to a set of isolated sanctuaries, if only
in relation to the challenge of maintaining biodiversity. Maintaining a circulation of
flora and fauna from one protected area to another will obviously be a major challenge.
Territorial continuity will be difficult to obtain everywhere. However, acceptable
compromises have to be devised everywhere to safeguard the potential of biodiversity on earth.
The management of these protected areas will form part of a dual system of power. On the
one hand, the people living there will organize themselves to manage the resources they
will use in their environment, as they have always done. On the other hand, international
coordinations will set global objectives for the protection of protected areas by
supporting local populations in the implementation of these objectives.
A new agricultural revolution
Concerning agricultural areas, it must be said that within them a new agricultural
revolution must be implemented, based on agrarian reform. The collective ownership of land
where the interested parties wish, or their redistribution to redevelop a peasant
agriculture must be put in place in order to increase the number of farms and the
installation of a large number of peasants and peasants. This is a sine qua non condition
for ensuring diversified production and food self-sufficiency in small regions.
This will mean ending the agricultural specialization of entire regions and reducing
agricultural export production when it is an obstacle to local food self-sufficiency.
The forms of farms have a direct impact on biodiversity and soil quality. Let us take the
example of reparcelling, which caused the destruction of the bocage form, thus reducing
the biodiversity of the hedges (and the continuities they offered), while facilitating the
leaching and desertification of soils.
A fundamental change in cultivation practices must be put in place in order to ensure that
there is no environmental pollution, food quality of production and the health of workers
on the land. The objective is the development of an innovative and diversified farming
industry that will be able to take on the important climate changes to come: innovative
techniques of organic farming, the use of robust varieties, the association of crops,
biological control, Polyculture-raising, no-till cultivation to combat soil erosion,
permaculture, differentiated management are all ways to develop and for some to generalize.
The new agricultural model described in the preceding paragraph will necessarily result in
the development of cereal and legume crops for human consumption and a decrease in meat
production and biomass for energy use.
Peasant and ecological agriculture requires more work than agro-industry. A significant
process of returning to the countryside will necessarily begin. But whenever mechanization
is compatible with the requirements of new agriculture and with ecological constraints and
will save human labor, it will be implemented.
Concerning fisheries, the first decision to take will be the prohibition of industrial
fisheries, a measure essential to stop the overexploitation of the oceans. Fish will
necessarily become a rare commodity, except obviously in coastal areas. In the same way,
forestry will be subject to at least two imperatives: firstly, the choice of species
adapted to the forests concerned, aimed at maintaining or developing local biodiversity,
and on the other hand to sustainable management, which does not consume More every year
than what the forests produce at the same time.
Urban planning, fundamentally transformed habitats
Modern urbanism has resulted in a bursting of functions: working, living, having fun
(leisure). The displacement links these three functions. In urban sociology, it has been
shown that the capacity to move increases as we have different cultural, social,
relational and economic capital. Relegation to neighborhoods of habitat too often prevents
self-organization and assigns individuals and groups to residence. Consequently,
ecologically consistent urban planning must promote a strict restriction of travel by
creating intensive and complex neighborhoods, villages and towns in which to live well and
where displacement would no longer be an imperative but a possibility open to all.
Finally, within an egalitarian society, the organization of present-day cities, structured
around the institutions of power and organized services for the propertied classes, will
disappear. A new multipolar organization will be set up, combining within a limited area,
ie a neighborhood, a set of housing islands and places of production, public education and
health services, places Cultivation, collective gardens - allowing the development of an
agriculture and a small urban livestock farming -, pleasure parks, places of practice of
sports, spaces for exchange and / or distribution of productions ... improving Greatly
reducing everyday life and drastically reducing energy costs associated with everyday
transport.
We are witnessing a triple phenomenon, on the one hand a " desertification " of many
territories, on the other hand an increase of cities and megacities, and finally of "
rurbanized " zones , phenomenon linked either to the exclusion of the poorest or to the
'Aspiration to live in a' natural 'environment. A harmonious development of territories,
linking social, economic and ecological, should see a revitalization of the villages of
the towns and a consequent decrease in the economic and demographic weight of the cities.
However, for a long time, cities will remain major areas of housing and industrial
activity. Obviously, it is not a question of making it a place of pollution or a waste of
resources. These will simply be places where biodiversity can be assumed to be low. But
the revolutions implemented, in transport, in the type of consumption and production, will
massively evolve these territories in order to make them livable spaces for humans.
We believe that major changes will necessarily affect the habitat. This will concern
building materials, designed from renewable resources and to be non-polluting during their
production and the integration of techniques making housing non-energy consuming, or even
energy producers using renewable, solar-powered local energies , Hydraulic, wind turbine.
But within a solidarity-based and energy-saving society, the structures of the dwellings
themselves will change, (or the structure will ... change) " individual dwellings " will
be integrated into housing islands that bring together many services and (Laundromat,
do-it-yourself equipment, collective room with audio-visual equipment, computers, board
games and sports equipment, meeting room for residents, bicycles, etc.). .). These various
forms of mutualisation also allow for a genuine user-friendliness, richer exchanges,
putting an end to the isolation within large cities.
The public places will be reorganized to promote social exchanges. In each neighborhood
will be set up a network of meeting rooms, open to associations and political movements,
promoting an intense associative and political life. Movements within and between
neighborhoods will be restricted to bicycles and public transport, tram, metro, bus, whose
networks will be developed, timetables adapted to the needs of the inhabitants and
accessible free of charge.
Urban waste management will be reinvented: Recyclable products, virtually prohibited
packaging, general composting, development of wastewater sanitation within adapted plant
areas (phytoremediation). The development of small urban agriculture, revegetation of
cities, and vegetation cover of buildings are important issues to improve air and soil
quality and to combat the rise in temperature in cities.
The same will apply to the overall spatial planning of each region and the balance between
the different regions on the planet. A dismantling of metropolises, the development of
which is a drift due to the hierarchical and inegalitarian organization of class
societies, will naturally be organized in favor of a more homogeneous distribution of the
population and the establishment of workers closer to the Availability of materials and
energy used in work.
These developments will also result from a transformation of the productive apparatus, in
particular with regard to the international organization of labor and economic relations
between countries of the South and North. On these fundamental questions from an
ecological point of view, we refer firstly to the text adopted in 2006 at the VIII th
Congress of Alternative Libertaire entitled " Facing the environmental challenge, three
revolutions are necessary ", and secondly to text adopted in 2012 at the XI th congress
entitled " Against free trade: productive autonomy ."
Attempting here to define the extractive, manufacturing, construction or services
industries that will function within such a society is meaningless. The only thing that
can be said is that this will result from decisions integrating partially contradictory
imperatives, between supporting the biodiversity of these activities, meeting the needs of
all men, women and children, defining these needs ... In any case, it will be a perpetual
search for balance between what humans can sustainably take from the planet's resources
and the satisfaction of human desires. In addition, toxic waste from productive activities
will be strictly controlled by the municipalities where it will be located,
What we know is that entire sections of the capitalist economy will disappear, especially
everything connected with the commodification of life, the control of dominated social
classes, advertising, overpacking, The private appropriation of land, buildings and
production tools, the stock exchange and the dominance of finance, the production reserved
for the privileged social classes, the daily transport imposed on the dominated social
classes ... This is an important part Of human activities which must disappear, rapidly
allowing both a reduction of the ecological footprint, the end of social exclusion and a
significant reduction in working time.
One way or another the question of human demography will weigh in these balances. We know
that this is a problem today. For implicitly posing the question of demographic
equilibrium can refer to racist assumptions which make it a burden on the peoples of the
south. We would like to recall that the ecological crisis is the product of international
capitalism.
What human population can the earth bear ? We have a certainty: it will be necessary to
find a balance between the resources consumed, the capacity for regeneration of these
resources and the decent life for humans. Humanity can not grow without end. But we know
that the demographic stabilization of humanity requires a fundamental factor: a process of
women's liberation, the education of girls, the right of all women to dispose of their
bodies, the fight against all violence against women , Free access to contraception and
abortion, and economic, social and political equality between women and men.
In conclusion, just as ecological struggle is inseparable from a struggle against
capitalism, it is inseparable from a struggle for the liberation of women at the
international level.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?L-humanite-au-sein-du-monde-vivant
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Message: 2
50 years ago ended the war of the six days between Israel and the Arab countries and the
coalition began 50 years of occupation of Palestine. ---- On Monday, June 5, Israel
destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground and put out of combat aircraft of Jordan,
Iraq and Syria. ---- Tuesday, 6 June, Israel destroyed the Egyptian ground troops in
Sinai. ---- Wednesday, June 7, Israel occupied the Old City of Jerusalem without finding
any resistance from the Jordanian army and returned to pray at the Western Wall. ----
Thursday, June 8, Israel appeared on the Suez Canal. ---- Friday, June 9, Israel occupied
the Golan Heights. ---- Saturday, June 10, Israel was on top overlooking the plain of
Damascus. On the same evening it was declared the cease-fire. ---- Sunday, June 11,
Israel rested.
In just six days, Israel had created a new Middle East and was about to become the major
power in the area, that ' empire-by-case basis which now has as subjects millions of
Palestinians in apartheid conditions.
It was rumored at the time that Israel's side there was the Hand of God.
Wherever he lays his hand of a god, the future brings untold suffering.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/blog/2017/06/20/10-giugno-1967-10-giugno-2017/
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Message: 3
On Saturday July 1st, people who advocate the right to choose will gather at the Spire at
2pm for the counter demonstration to the 'Rally for Life', which is organised by Precious
Life / Youth Defence. The first year of the All Ireland Rally of Lies was 2007. This year,
the event is in Dublin. In alternate years, it is held in Belfast. Since 2011, Rally for
Choice has been a counter presence. For those on Facebook, find the event page here. ----
To mark the 7th Counter Demo, here are 7 lies from the Rally for ‘Life' website. ---- 1 -
They Don't '#SaveLives# ---- The website claims that they care about the lives of the
person who is pregnant and the foetus equally. The fact is, if we follow the argument to
it's conclusion, the safety of the person who is pregnant will be compromised without
their consent. In some horrific cases, we have seen people's wellbeing and lives
sacrificed unnecessarily by the state. We will forever remember Savita Halappanavar and
the ‘young girl' who was suicidal at the thought of having to continue her pregnancy, but
instead of giving her access to the healthcare she requested, they tried to detain her
under the Mental Health Act 2001.
Also of note is that even in developed countries where childbirth is ‘safe', 1 in 5,000 to
10,000 die in childbirth (WHO).
In contrast, a legal medical abortion has a mortality rate of 1 in 100,000.
2 - They Demonise Us as Pro-Abortion Campaigners
Not one of us is ‘Pro-Abortion', as if our goal is simply to increase the number of
abortions for the hell of it. No one is calling for the ‘murder of unborn babies'. We are
Pro-Choice. We want people to have access to choices. To have the autonomy to decide what
is right for them, as individuals.
We are Pro-Family, Pro-Children, Pro-Human, Pro-Healthcare, Pro-Rights, Pro-Choice,
Pro-Life. Whatever people choose.
3 - A Steady Heartbeat is Not Possible 'at only 21 days' after Conception
While, in some cases, there has been recording of irregular electrical activity in what
will eventually become a heart, as early as day 18, in reality the foetal heart does not
even have four chambers until week 8. There is not a steady beat until week 20. All that
is happening at day 21, is practice heartbeats. Like a microphone being tested before
being used at a gig. One, two, one, two...
We also need to ask, why is this important? What does a heartbeat mean? The person
carrying the foetus definitely has a heartbeat. And the 8th Amendment doesn't seek to
protect that.
4 - They are Trying to Scare People with the Threat of Cancer
The American Cancer Society say: ‘At this time, the scientific evidence does not support
the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer or any other type of
cancer.'
We trust them over Rally for Life. But that's just us.
5 - They Have the Nerve to Suggest they are Providing 'Choices'
In Northern Ireland, in 2015/16, a grand total of 16 abortions happened. 833 people made
the lonely trip to UK mainland to access a legal abortion. Around 3500 from the Republic
of Ireland made similar journeys . Countless others who couldn't afford to leave, accessed
safe but illegal abortion pills from www.womenonweb.org or www.womenhelp.org. Who knows
how many were not able to make either of these decisions? Who were forced into parenthood
before they were ready? Or who were driven to make dangerous decisions?
This is not choice.
6 - They are Not Protecting Human Rights
Actually, Ireland is breaching the European Convention on Human Rights by not providing
free, safe and legal access to abortion.
Of course, a court isn't the true arbiter of human rights. We can plainly see that the
abortion ban is a violation of our bodies and attack on our freedom, and have been able to
see that before any court made its ruling in our favour.
7 - They are Attacking a Strawman
By intentionally misrepresenting our message, by saying that we want a world where people
can abort for specific reasons, they are derailing the issue at hand. We don't want a good
abortion vs. bad abortion debate. Under no circumstances should anyone have to prove their
right to a termination.
A disabled person has every right to be valued.
This reminds us of the Youth Defence member who walked around O'Connell Bridge during the
Strike4Repeal carrying a sign reading 'Abortions for Terminally Ill Babies' in a bizarre
attempt to discredit the pro-choice movement.
The only way to right these wrongs is to have free, safe, and easily accessibly legal
abortion, for anyone who doesn't want to be pregnant anymore.
That's the truth.
We hope to see you at the Rally for Choice on Saturday, 2pm, by the Spire. Let's show that
we won't sit idly by while bigots bankrolled from the USA campaign in our streets to
oppress us.
*Alliance for Choice in the North, Citizens' Assembly in the South
Other sources:
www.womenonweb.org
www.womenhelp.org
www.abortionrightscampaign.ie
World Health Organisation
Amnesty International
American Cancer Society
Author: Kellie McConnell
https://www.wsm.ie/c/7-lies-rally-for-life-choice-2017
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Message: 4
THE JOBSTOWN SIX have been found NOT GUILTY - a disastrous outcome for the Labour party
and Garda in what has been the biggest political show trial for some decades. It is
impossible to have followed the details of the arrests and trial and walk away with the
impression that the Garda were not acting on government instructions, even if just on the
basis of the ‘nod and a wink'. The verdict may well catch anyone relying on the mainstream
media as a surprise because right across that media the reporting of the trial was highly
selective, reflecting the interests of those who own and control it. ---- *** A summary
for anyone following this from outside Ireland, six men were on trial accused of falsely
imprisoning the then Tanáiste and Labour TD, Joan Burton, and her colleague in Jobstown on
15 November 2014. The charge of false imprisonment carries a maximum sentence of life
imprisonment. All six men claimed that they were exercising their right to protest, and
that the protest was peaceful. Following a nine week trial, the six have been found not
guilty. ***
The prosecutions have been exposed as an act of political revenge by a party furious that
its role in serving the capitalist class while talking left was so completely exposed by
the largest mass movement Ireland has seen. Shamefully the Labour Party rather than
hanging their head in shame reacted to the verdict with a statement repeating the fiction
that the Garda are independent, something we have all just seen disproved.
We can be almost certain that there will be no repercussions for the Garda that carried
out the dawn raids on people's homes as they were getting their kids ready for school.
There will be no repercussions for the Garda that lied in court under oath. The state
needs political policing to protect the super wealthy few from the many and that means
that the Garda understand they will be protected.
The Jobstown Trial shows how desperate the state (and the capitalist interests it serves)
are to crack down on any resistance to austerity, and to enforce the ‘normal' politics of
class inequality and popular disempowerment. The only thing that stopped them was the jury
just as in the past juries stopped attacks on anti-war protesters at Shannon and
anti-heroin campaigners in the 1980s.
This was not without massive cost for the defendants, the trauma of the dawn raids, the
fear that must have hung over many of a 14 year sentence as a result of being stitched up
And perhaps most importantly the grind of having to spend so much of your life preparing
for and in court, all during working hours. For years the garda have got away with using
long drawn out court cases as punishment for political organising. Minor offences can see
people required to attend court on many different days, all requiring time off work, only
for charges to be thrown out or the garda not even bothering to turn up on the day the
case is to be heard. All part of a rotten system designed by the powerful and wealthy to
punish those who dare to rebel.
THE STATE CRACKS DOWN ON POPULAR RESISTANCE
In times of massive inequality and social unrest, it is common for states to wait until
popular anger and mobilisations have subsided before cracking down on particularly
prominent or vocal organisers. The trial of the Jobstown Six occurred following some of
the largest popular mobilisations seen in Ireland for decades. These mobilisations arose
in opposition to the establishment of Irish Water, a water metering utility designed to
introduce water charges and ultimately water privatisation.
From 2014 onwards, groups of friends, neighbours, family and activists organised
themselves to prevent water meter installation in working-class areas right across
Ireland. At the same time, a massive number of people boycotted the registration process,
refusing to pay for water. Some of the largest street demonstrations in Ireland for
decades took place. Amidst this upswing in popular self-organisation, the protest of 15
November involved the six men take part in a peaceful, sit-down protest with hundreds of
other angry Jobstown residents which delayed Joan Burton and her colleague for between two
and two and a half hours.
Jobstown and the wider water movement was particularly significant because, until 2014,
popular resistance to austerity in Ireland appeared to be strangely lacking. Following the
capitalist crisis of 2008, austerity measures were imposed by states on populations across
Europe in order to socialise the debts of failing, private financial institutions. The
crisis in Ireland was centrally managed by the state in order to achieve this outcome
(with much secrecy, lies, skull duggery, broken promises, and propaganda used to do so).
What we were told was the cheapest option, became the only option, became the most
expensive in Europe as 65 billion euro was found for socially useless banks. Cuts to
social services, increased taxes and new charges, including water charges, formed the bill
presented to the Irish people for the enrichment of private interests and bondholders.
Jobstown was a working class demonstration against a party leader whose party had imposed
austerity and water charges, a party defending the privileges of private interests and
bondholders ahead of the basic needs and dignity of the immense majority of the people.
The curtailment of resistance to left-wing activists up to 2014 owed much to social
partnership between the state, employers, and trade unions; to the capitalist media
consensus in legitimating the austerity regime; and to left-talking but austerity-imposing
political parties and independent TDs, notably the Labour party, propping up right-wing
governments. The water movement marked a determined break with these patterns.
THE STATE ON TRIAL
This trial represent a counter assault on the biggest grass-roots, anti-authoritarian
movement in decades in Ireland by framing the protesters as being beyond the pale,
deviant, illegal, and even fascist. Instantly after the protests media was filled with
accounts of violence, mob behaviour, stones and bricks were hurled, abuse screamed, a near
riot occurred, in the process both the movement and the people of Jobstown were slandered.
One example of many was David Begg of ICTU's claim that an aid of Burton who he
"personally knew", was "beaten and kicked" on the ground, remarkably no such incident was
mentioned at the trial itself.
There exists a latent need within the establishment to pigeonhole any resistance as being
inherently violent and degenerate (and by extension this preys on anti-working class bias
propagated by the media), this goes double when those who resist come from those who are
regarded as belonging to the ‘lower orders', the Jobstown trial is the highwater mark of
this mentality and all it has done is demonstrate the strange brew of foolishness,
naivity, arrogance of the state in light of real people standing up for themselves. These
protests weren't just protests, they were not merely about water charges, they were also
symbolic of wider scale resistance to austerity and direct action. We weren't supposed to
notice the parasite as it fed. The Labour Party's behaviour especially has been
spectacularly self-defeating, the leader of a party that has long given up any pretense of
leftism openly showing her contempt of those whom she is supposedly a champion for.
CLASS DYNAMICS
One issue the trial brings up is the question of what would have happened had this
incident taken place in D4 rather than D24? But this begs the further question under what
circumstance would a middle/upper class protest such as what occurred in Jobstown
manifest? We know the upper classes have their interests looked after automatically by the
Irish state, austerity after-all has increased their wealthy not diminished it, when the
Irish economy was essentially crashed in 2008 it was done so not to keep ATMs open, but to
protect the wealth of bankers and developers (Anglo Irish Bank famously had no ATMs, but
almost exclusively wealthy clients), they have special access to power by dint of their
class and status. The ‘need' to be heard by the upper classes has so many release valves
that it hardly exists and as such is far less acute than it is in an area like Jobstown
where the visitation of a high-level minister like Burton is a novelty and a spur to action.
THE STATE LIMITS THE FREEDOM TO PROTEST
In response to people standing up for themselves, the state has swung wildly between
arrogance and panic. The policing that accompanied the Jobstown protest demonstrated the
idea that the police and the government work in tandem through the state in order to
protect the powerful and suppress dissent wherever possible, that any dissent that
registers as causing any kind of disruption to power itself is to be crushed, that your
freedom to object and fight back is inconsequential compared to the freedom power has to
do as power does, the effect on the people be damned.
The government, nor Labour itself itself did not bring the trial, but they didn't have to,
the mechanisms of the state and legal system are such that their political agenda kicks in
like automatic stabilisers, a good servant they know the will of their political masters,
act accordingly and is rewarded and protected. Gardai are amongst the most best paid, most
conservative and least qualified public servants, with average Garda pay estimated to be
100,000 euro per anum (when pension contributions are taken into account). Meanwhile
blatant and open Garda corruption has little or no consequence for force members, GSOC is
widely regarded as toothless and the allegations of whistle blowers like Maurice McCabe
require relentless pressure from leftist independent TDs before they are so much as
considered, let alone dealt with.
GARDA CORRUPTION OR POLICE STATE IN ACTION
Strangest thing about #JobstownNotGuilty trial is all Garda statements repeated same lies,
the protesters were hurling stones and rocks, Paul Murphy was marshalling and directing
the protesters, there was no cooperation between protesters and the Gardai, the protest
was presented as a scene of bedlam and chaos. Like kids copying homework with the wrong
answer, written testimonies contradicted verbal testimonies, some testimonies even
contradicted evidence the same Garda gave in the previous Jobstown trial (see key facts
below). It goes to show how little scrutiny the Gardai receive in this country that they
can so flagrantly construct their own facts out of thin air to suit their own agenda and
get away with it, only in very rare circumstance is this examined with the kind of rigour
offered by the defence teams cross-examination. It speaks of the corruption within the
force that goes hand in hand with policing in general.
The Garda have been making a lot of noise in the last year about people videoing them in
action. They want to make this illegal. At the Jobstown trial we saw Garda lying under
oath but being exposed again and again by video from the scene.
FREEDOM IN A CAPITALIST SOCIETY
From an anarchist perspective. How is it to be taken? It speaks a lot about spurious
notions of 'freedom' which exist under a capitalist system enforced by the the state and
rule of law, constrict a minister for the duration of a film, it's a scandal and a crime,
worthy of morning raids and a costly and farcical trial. Run a socio-political system that
expands the cost of buying a house from four to nine times the average income in a
generation, that forces thousands to emigrate, that cuts crucial services and lines
hospital corridors with trollies, retire on a nice fat pension and take up an executive
role in the private sector to feather the nest. If Joan Burton is to seriously be
considered as having been imprisoned for those three hours, then surely is it not fair to
consider those who wait for hours in our hospitals not just imprisoned, but tortured?
Whilst Burton and the establishment bemoan the curtailing of her freedom by the action of
the people, what freedom do the people have to reject austerity, neo-liberalism, or
capitalism? You have the ‘freedom' to protest and they have the ‘freedom' to determine
whether or not that protest is to their taste and if it is not you will find all your
freedoms forfeit. It recalls the futility of expecting justice from the legal system that
is highlighted by the well-known Anatole France quote: "In its majestic equality, the law
forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of
bread."
Conclusion
Jobstown reminds us that the longer the state continues to impose austerity in Ireland,
the more it will encounter popular opposition. The more it resorts to force or fraud to
counter that opposition, the more it faces a crisis of legitimacy. Jobstown is innocent!
The state is guilty! The charges against the remaining defendants in the two next trials
must be dropped and the earlier conviction of the 17 year old over turned.
The collaboration of political parties, media and garda in the farce that was the Jobstown
trial reminds us that all these serve a tiny percentage of the people living in Ireland,
the multi millionaires and billionaires. That gang will stop at nothing to maintain their
wealth and power, it's long past time to show them the door. The laughter of our children
in a free society (while history only remembers their shameful role) shall be our retribution.
Appendix: Key moments from case: This includes so many claims that they jury must have
considered lies or which were not even made in court
Protest and immediate aftermath:
In November 2014 a protest takes place in reaction to news Joan Burton is to appear at a
graduation ceremony at An Cosán Virtual Community College in Jobstown, Tallaght.
Media reportage in aftermath speaks of violent protest, Sunday Independent runs with
clumsily photoshopped image of a brick throwing teenager and Joan Burton.
David Begg of ICTU claims a personal assistant of Burton's who he personally knew was
"kicked and beaten" on the ground.
Dawn raids carried out three months after the protest.
Information leaked by Gardai on the nature of charges to and reported on by RTE
correspondent Paul Reynolds.
In October 2016 a teenager (aged 15 in November 2014) is found guilty of false
imprisonment and sentenced to six months, this verdict is being appealed.
Pre-Trial:
Jury selection: DPP request that jurors not come from Jobstown or the Tallaght area,
active in any water charges protests, or to have expressed an opinion on water charges or
austerity online.
Burton evidence:
Burton testimony, claims of nightmares, terror, running her for life, nearly losing her
shoe, the ever present grin of TD Paul Murphy.
The defense essentially aimed to make it about austerity. Broken promises of Labour etc.
Cross examination grilled her on the Labour party's treachery, to which Burton replied
that as leader of the Labour party she saw herself as carrying the ideas of Connolly.
Helicopter footage, no pushing or shoving, very few children to be seen, Gardai can be
heard to comment. "The jeep could have gone back ages ago, but there was no hassle really."
Footage shown from Burton's car, both she and assistant, happy, joking, far from angry
mobs, people chatting, in a second Burton is asking her assistant about making posts on
social media about "the children", in the third her assistant Karen O'Connell can be heard
to said of the protesters they were "the fucking dregs."
Narrative of people being ‘out of control' a baying mob completely shattered, all the
video evidence showed was a sit down protest, minor scuffles which emerged when
Burton's memory shown to be patchy at best.
Zappone testimony:
Snookered on question regarding the role of riots in achieving gay liberation (in a book
she co-authored she made explicit reference to the role the Stonewall riots had in
securing gay rights).
Throughout her cross examination asked Judge "do I have to answer this?"
Later shown refusing to condemn the protesters on in 2016 on Vincent Browne's ‘The
People's Debate', contradicting her evidence.
Garda testimony:
Garda McGuinness' claims of rocks having been thrown, defense pointed out no rocks
mentioned in her statement or visible in footage.
Garda Cooke claimed Paul Murphy was directing protesters using a megaphone, again footage
shown which contradicted this.
Inspector Maguire denied that any agreement between Gardai and protesters, this was
contradicted by evidence the same Garda had given at the previous Jobstown trial.
Super-Intendant Flavin claimed in their written statement that the animation and
aggression of crowd a consequence of what Paul Murphy was saying through the megaphone,
this was left out from court evidence.
https://www.wsm.ie/c/jobstown-not-guilty-verdict-June2017
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Message: 5
Because of the Labour Party apparatus ruled by the Blairites, Corbyn had to shift his
political positions, at least publicly. An opponent of immigration controls, at the last
election he promised the most right-wing Labour policy on immigration in over 30 years. An
opponent of NATO, he regarded it as a "danger to world peace" and socialists had to
campaign against it. He has now embraced NATO, saying that " I want to work within NATO to
achieve stability". A life-long opponent of the monarchy, Corbyn now states that the
abolition of the monarchy "is not on my agenda. A critic of the police and its
shoot-to-kill policy he once laid a wreath to victims of police violence at the Cenotaph.
He now says that the police should use "whatever force is necessary to protect and save
life." Labour pledges to increase the number of police by 10,000 and the number of prison
warders by 3,000 and border guards by 500.
How much more would Corbyn turn to the right if he were Prime Minister? Look at Alexis
Tsipras, leader of Syriza in Greece. In January 2015 Syriza came to power on a strong
anti-austerity programme. Within a year Tsipras had done a deal with the IMF that imposed
the harshest austerity programme in Greece, far west than that imposed by previous
governments.
Again we repeat that we must not let the new social movements currently mobilising around
housing, against austerity and against racism and police brutality, become tools of
Labour. Corbyn's lieutenant McDonnell in particular has a on several occasions hinted at
such a scenario, talking of transforming "the party from the traditional centralised party
into something more akin to a mass social movement, responding to the rising demand for
greater activist engagement." By this he means cooption of the currently existing social
movements as auxiliaries to the Labour electoral machine." More recently he affirmed that
Labour is "changing into a social movement". But whilst Labour is able to organise mass
triumphalist rallies it has failed to go beyond that, to massively engage its members in
social action. Corbyn and McDonnell would like to capture the social movements for their
own ends. It is up to those of us active in the social movements and in grassroots
workplace struggles to develop a truly mass social movement, one that is autonomous and
independent of political parties including Labour so that it can set its own objectives
and aims.
https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/corbyn-and-pragmatism/
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Message: 6
Last year, the circle Carlo Vanza (from Ticino, Italian-speaking Switzerland) celebrated
its thirty years of existence. Founded as an association in Minusio, in 2003 it moved to a
new headquarters in Locarno, and from 2014 moved to a larger space in Via Convento 4 in
Bellinzona. ---- Its library currently has more than five thousand five hundred books,
whose catalog can be consulted on the web page anarcobolo.ch/vanza, where you can also see
the next activities and those already done, along with several documents, in addition to a
large archive Of documentary collections and of libertarian magazines. Most of them are in
Italian, French or German. ---- It tries to specialize in the libertarian movement in
Switzerland and in the new trends of anarchism, in particular antimilitarism and
self-management, not forgetting feminism or free thought.
Annually it promotes a dozen cultural initiatives, demonstrations and libertarian events,
not only of the "traditional anarchist" type, in order to offer a broader audience moments
of debate, dialogue, confrontation and coexistence on anti-hierarchical thinking and praxis .
The Circle is financed only with the ordinary and extraordinary annual quotas of its fifty
members (approximately). It publishes annually or Bolletino del Circolo Carlo Vanza .
Besides, comrades of the Circle publish every four months the excellent magazine Voce
Libertaria . The headquarters is open on Saturday afternoon, which offers the occasion to
enjoy informal moments and coexistence, meetings and exchanges between colleagues.
The Circle is part of REBAL (Rete delle Biblioteche and archivi anarchici e libertari)
and is a member of the International Federation of Libertarian Documentation and Study
Centers (FICEDL) , in addition to collaborating with the International Center for
Research on Anarchism (CIRA) in Lausanne , In the Cantiere Biografico degli Anarchici in
Svizze , which collects more than two thousand pieces of anarchists who have developed
some activity in Switzerland.
Why Carlo Vanza?
Of course, one can not forget Carlo Vanza, especially now that he has completed forty
years of his death.
Carlo Vanza was born in Biasca on May 11, 1901. Although he obtained the title of
elementary school teacher, he never worked in school. In fact, he was affiliated to the
Socialist party in 1922 and embraced anarchism, and in that same year he clandestinely
accompanied Giuseppe Peretti, Giuseppe Bonaria and others, to the Italian anarchist Errico
Malatesta from Bellinzona to Saint-Imier because of the 50th anniversary of International
anti-authoritarian. "On my return I found myself with the unpleasant surprise of revenge
consummated against me by the socialists who governed in my village, who, not knowing how
to overcome resentment at having abandoned their party, found nothing better than to deny
me the confirmation I should give At those dates,
From 1923 it collaborates in Risveglio communist anarchico (from 1925, Risveglio
anarchico ) of Geneva. In the twenties he will be active in the Bellinzona group with
Giuseppe Peretti, Antonio Gagliardi, Giuseppe Bonaria, Antonietta Griffith, Franz Moser,
Rosalia Griffith, Cleia Dotta, etc., who helps numerous Italian anti-fascist exiles to
establish themselves in France or America, in collaboration with Luigi Bertoni and Carlo
Frigerio de Ginebra, and Ferdinando Balboni in Basel.
He has been an animator since 1928 of the anarchist group of Biasca, whose aim was to
contrast "the incessant fascist penetration in Switzerland, and in particular in our
Ticino ... through energetic and dignified action." At the request of the cantonal police,
the local gendarmerie responded in 1930: "he manages the Hosteria do Norte in Biasca, with
an attached grocery store. Teacher, although he did not work in school. A rough and
violent character, he was at some time deputy in the offices of the Biasca prefecture. By
request of the 20 of April of 1929 requested authorization to publish the magazine
Vogliamo ". Effectively, between 1929 and 1931 will be editor of the anarchist magazine of
Ticino Vogliamo! (We Want!), Which is subtitled "Monthly magazine of social, historical
and literary culture".
In this magazine appears in January-February 1931 the Manifesto of the Anarchist
Federation of Ticino (Federation founded in the Plenary of Bellinzona of November 23,
1930, first with headquarters in Lugano and later in Biasca). In 1931 he met the Italian
anarchist Rodolfo Guscher (later expelled with Pacciardi from Switzerland at the request
of Mussolini) who will reside in Lugano. The attempt by Gunscher and others to organize a
demonstration in front of the Italian delegation in Lausanne in the summer of 1932 is not
due to some provocative Fascist residents in the Ticino (later expelled), and some
explosive charges will fall into Vanza's hands. Which will then be undone.
In the summer of 1948, Vanza opens a library with the anarchist group of Biasca. He is a
member of the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI) and continues his intermittent
collaboration in several anarchist publications: Il Risveglio anarchico in Geneva, Il
Libertario in Milan, Umanità Nova, Bolletino interno della FAI, L'Internazionale in
Ancona, and other Ticino periodicals As Libera Stampa, Il Pungolo , from Lug year, Il
Dovere , from Bellinzona. For the first of May of 1950 a public intervention of his is
rejected by the Labor Chamber.
He participates in the VII National Congress of the FAI in Rosignano, in 1961, as delegate
of the Italian anarchists in Switzerland. In September 1972, he was present at the
Centenary of the anti-authoritarian International in Saint-Imier, accompanied by Romano
Broggini, where he met up with his fellow companions of his age in Zurich.
Here he makes contact with the new generations, since he has participated in the meetings
of the recent Anarchist Organization of Ticino, founded in December 1973. He died in
Biasca on August 31, 1976, shortly after returning from a trip, Coming from Basle to visit
fellow Balboni.
Alice Vanza, maiden Rodoni (1905-1992) donated in the late eighties a part of her
husband's library - about three hundred and twenty titles - to the recently created Circle.
Gianpiero Bottinelli
Source: http://www.nodo50.org/tierraylibertad/345article.html
Translation> Sol de Abril
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