Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Novembre - Dominations: To
no longer oppress, become aware of his privileges (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. wsm.ie: 'Earth is Our Only Home': 15, 000 Scientists Urge
Action on Climate Change (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. ucl-saguenay - Chicoutimi: R.I.P. Michael Labbé (fr)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - Clash, , November 16
still against the selection ! by Youth Secretariat (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. US, black rose fed: FOR A THEORY OF STRATEGY By Brazilian
Anarchist Coordination (Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira -
CAB) (pt) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. [Greece] Polytechnic School, 1973-2017: The rebellion
remains alive against the myths of Democracy By ANA (pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Awareness of the multiplicity of oppressions (class, race, gender) questions different
activist groups, especially libertarian circles. ---- In recent years, in various
countries, several libertarian or anarchist collectives have been interested in the
anti-oppression approach. In Canada, the Research Collective for Collective
Self-Empowerment (Crac) stresses the existence of three shifts in which this approach has
developed: radical feminism, anarchism of color and radical queer. ---- In Ireland, the
libertarian communist organization Workers Solidarity Movement has also put forward for
two years the need to involve in the fight against exploitation, the fight against
oppression in public positions. ---- In England, it is the assembly of women of the
Anarchist Federation that took similar positions in developing an anarchist theory of
privilege.
In academic and militant circles, the notion of intersectionality (of the American black
jurist Kimberle Creenshaw) has come to broadly define any approach that considers that
there is a multiplicity of systems of oppression and in particular sex, race and social
class. In fact, the same person can both be oppressed in some systems and be socially
privileged relative to others.
Ally poses
Feminist Peggy McIntosh has highlighted the existence of what she calls social privileges.
A privilege is an advantage to which a person has access simply because of his place in
the social system without necessarily being aware of it. A man when he goes for
recruitment usually has an advantage over women who are more often discriminated against
on the basis of their sex.
The unconscious nature of social privileges means that in organizations, activists do not
necessarily realize that they can reproduce oppressions. In fact, for people belonging to
socially underprivileged groups - women, sexual minorities or racialized minorities -
activist organizations may not seem very inclusive.
The intersectional approach leads to question immediate class solidarity. Not that social
classes do not exist. But even within the specific organizations (union, single-sex
organizations ...), these are crossed by other social relationships.
It becomes necessary to learn to develop an ally posture. An ally is a person who is not
personally affected by oppression, but who is aware of his privileges, who is careful not
to reproduce oppression and who wishes to support those who fight against this oppression.
Abroad, many militant collectives have developed training practices that aim to raise
awareness of the social privileges available to everyone and to make the different people
more sensitive to the micro-attacks that they can produce without realizing it. against
other groups.
The objective is then to make militant spaces more inclusive and safe for people belonging
to socially underprivileged groups: women, people in situations of social precariousness,
LGBTI +, racialized minorities, people with disabilities ...
These militant groups are part of a broader movement to make educational spaces and
workspaces more inclusive. These are practices that aim to combat prejudices and
micro-discrimination. These can take various forms such as, for example, systematic
invisibilisation or invalidation.
From this point of view, it is necessary to distinguish libertarian pedagogies from
antioppressive pedagogy. Libertarian pedagogies tend to suggest that once the vertical
authority between the teacher and the students has been called into question, all forms of
oppression have been stopped.
Form coalitions
The anti-oppressive approach is attentive to the forms of oppression that can develop in
seemingly horizontal situations. For example, there are socially constructed inequalities
between men and women in the ability to speak. The anti-oppressive approach favors the
establishment of instruments to help regulate these forms of insidious inequality.
The anti-oppression pedagogy is not only for students to whom it would be a matter of
raising awareness of their prejudices and discriminating attitudes. The anti-oppression
pedagogy is aimed primarily at teachers, which it invites to become aware of their social
place relative to students, according to the different systems of oppression, and the
risks of micro-discrimination they or they can cause without being aware of it. Thus,
several studies show that teachers have differentiated interactions with girls and boys
about gender stereotypes.
While the anti-oppressive approach has intra-organizational application, it also has an
inter-organizational scope. It aims to promote the formation of coalitions aimed at
combating multiple oppressions.
It goes without saying that it is difficult for groups fighting for different causes, but
having joint objectives, to join forces if each denies the oppression of which the other
can be the object. All the more so because there are people at the intersection of cross
oppressions. Some women, for example, are further oppressed as racialized and lesbian. It
therefore becomes difficult to envisage alliances with groups that recognize only one main
oppression and second the others.
Even in a specific social movement the antioppressive and intersectional approach raises
questions about the impact in terms of multiple oppressions. For example, during a social
movement on pensions or another social issue, the question is to question the impact of
government measures more specifically on women or racialized people.
Irene (friend of AL)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Dominations-Pour-ne-plus-opprimer-prendre-conscience-de-ses-privileges
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Message: 2
As the COP23 UN climate talks continue in Bonn, Germany, 15,000 scientists from 184
countries have signed ‘World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice', a journal
article cum open letter urging immediate action on climate change ‘to prevent widespread
misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss'.[1] ---- I have sometimes wondered what it
would be like if we failed to stop climate change, imagining that on one sombre and
momentous day the people of the world would listen to a definitive scientific
announcement: ‘Fellow humans, it is my deepest regret to say that we have simply passed
the point of no return. Our heads would droop in disappointment, craving one more try at
the past. ---- In reality, life and history are not so simple. This statement is not such
an announcement of definitive failure. But we might very well read it as such if we choose
to ignore the undeniable any longer. And as such, we would do well to wake up from the
stupor of our routines, take stock of what truly matters, and commit to doing our part in
this great battle. After all, it is a battle for survival, and at present it is as if we
are allowing our rulers to march an invading army right under our noses. We can ignore
reality, but it is impossible for reality to ignore us.
Something is Not Good Enough
The statement follows from a similar one in 1992 issued by the Union of Concerned
Scientists and many others, entitled ‘World Scientists' Warning to Humanity'[2]. The 2017
successor remarks that apart from closing the hole in the Ozone layer, humanity has failed
to properly deal with the problems outlined 25 years ago:
‘Especially troubling is the current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change
due to rising GHGs from burning fossil fuels ... deforestation ... and agricultural
production-particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption ... Moreover, we have
unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years, wherein many
current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of
this century.'
But, they say, ‘humanity is now being given a second notice'. There is so much that we as
a species and society can do to solve this problem, and it is not that we have done
nothing, but we are thus far squandering the opportunity:
‘Since 1992, global average temperatures have increased by over 0.5 degrees Celsius and
annual carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 62%. The amount of fresh water available
per head of population worldwide has reduced by 26%. The number of ocean "dead zones" -
places where little can live because of pollution and oxygen starvation - has increased by
75%. Nearly 300 million acres of forest have been lost, mostly to make way for
agricultural land. Global carbon emissions and average temperatures have shown continued
significant increases. Human population has risen by 35%. Collectively the number of
mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish in the world has fallen by 29%.'[3]
The reason these statistics matter is that climate change means direct harm to us. Higher
sea levels could displace millions of people, by wiping out coastal cities, which includes
over half of major cities (and 50% of humans live in cities). 1.2 billion people depend on
glaciers and snow for fresh water, which are rapidly depleting. Extreme weather events
such as droughts, heat waves, cold waves, cyclones, and flooding, are set to increase in
frequency and intensity over the century. Food production will be majorly disrupted, both
crops and animal agriculture. The list goes on but the gravity of the situation is clear.
‘By failing to adequately limit population growth, reassess the role of an economy rooted
in growth, reduce greenhouse gases, incentivize renewable energy, protect habitat, restore
ecosystems, curb pollution, halt defaunation, and constrain invasive alien species,
humanity is not taking the urgent steps needed to safeguard our imperilled biosphere.'[1]
The System and the Population
One clause here is particularly noteworthy: ‘[to]reassess the role of an economy rooted in
growth'. This is a strong statement from a body of scientists. But, ultimately, it is not
surprising; anyone who has a keen knowledge of our global situation can see the
fundamental tension between the reality of our survival and the structure of our
societies, the contradiction between the numbers and politics.
To explore this further, one other point stands out: the emphasis on population growth
which runs throughout the article. It is undeniable that as human population has
increased, so too has our ecological destruction. It is common sense that a greater
population puts greater strain on our resources. But this is not the whole picture.
It is often thought by the general public that climate change has been caused by too many
humans on the planet. That's an understandable viewpoint until you examine the facts. The
shocking reality is that 50% of humanity's greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to a
mere 10% of the global population[4]. The link is wealth, greater wealth is highly
correlated with greater ecological footprint, and after a little thought it's obvious why.
At the most extreme, the top 1% of US residents produce 2500 more CO2 than the global
bottom 1%[4].
The flipside of this is that the poorest 50% of our planet's population is responsible for
only 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions which are making our planet uninhabitable[4]. And
broadly speaking, it is the poorest countries whose populations are growing the fastest,
and the richest countries whose populations are growing the slowest or even declining.
It isn't just about rich and poor countries though, it is about the rich and poor within
each country. The super wealthy on this planet are a nation unto themselves. Of course the
top 10% on Earth doesn't just mean the super wealthy, it means a lot of people living in
countries like Ireland - that's how severely split the planet's wealth is. This is good
news in a way, it means that the actions of relatively few (on a global scale) can have a
disproportionate impact on solving this crisis. The unfortunate side of that is that these
people tend also to be the most insulated from the effects of climate change. The poor of
Bangladesh watching their coastline disappear before their eyes are but spectators of how
this ‘issue' is dealt with.
Undoubtedly we should all take measures to keep our population level in check. But let's
also think critically about it. An economic system based on infinite growth, with little
or no cost on ruining the biosphere, is the central problem. In an ecologically sound
political and economic system - which is certainly possible - the formula of ‘people =
destruction, more people = more destruction' would not hold. Humans are not inherently
destructive to our surroundings, to other lifeforms, but we are currently trapped within a
social frame that makes it true. And in fairness to the article, there is some recognition
of that, for instance acknowledging the ‘geographically and demographically uneven
material consumption' across the planet.
Rising Tides, Rising Temperatures, Rising People
They don't say to give up. The statement underlines the need for action at both the
highest political levels and in our personal lives, including all of us getting out onto
the streets. To quote the banner of a large, vibrant, protest at one UN summit 'Rising
Tides, Rising Temperatures, Rising People':
‘As most political leaders respond to pressure, scientists, media influencers, and lay
citizens must insist that their governments take immediate action as a moral imperative to
current and future generations of human and other life. With a groundswell of organized
grassroots efforts, dogged opposition can be overcome and political leaders compelled to
do the right thing. It is also time to re-examine and change our individual behaviors,
including limiting our own reproduction (ideally to replacement level at most) and
drastically diminishing our per capita consumption of fossil fuels, meat, and other
resources.'
While it would be ridiculous to pin the blame on the disenfranchised masses who are too
busy each day commuting, making a living, looking after their family, and so on, to raze
hectares of rainforest or give subsidies to oil and dairy companies, the fact is that
we're presented with a choice: to sit back and see our world in ruins, or to rise up and
stop this chaos.
Five Steps to the Future
The first step is to educate yourself. It all starts with you. Climate change is less
daunting when you have a handle on the facts, because it means you can start doing
something. There are loads of resources available online to learn the basics of climate
change and the social factors behind it, and even more if you like.
The second step is to educate others. Even if you know a little, you can share that with
others. Point people towards whatever you're learning from. Bring it up at dinner, at the
pub, at school, on your lunchbreak at work, in bed with your partner, on internet forums.
Many hands make light work. Maybe this is a bit awkward, but it's fairly awkward for our
home to collapse.
The third step is to get organised. Go to a protest about climate change. Join a group
which is trying to change things. If there isn't one, start your own, even if there's only
a few of you. Build up your organising experience, draw more people into the fold. This is
how change has always happened, it's tried and tested.
The fourth step is to make a few impactful changes to your own lifestyle. Trying to
micromanage every behaviour is tiring but there are a handful of things each of us can do
to make a significant difference, such as limiting or stopping flying on airplanes and
switching to a plant-based diet. The importance of this is 1) people are best convinced by
doing rather than saying, and 2) climate change is a social problem, but individuals also
need to change.
I'd say the last step, and it's a big one, is we need to transform our society. There's a
lot of good which can be done to slow down climate change within the current economic and
political system, but if we're ever going to have a healthy long-term relationship with
our natural world, that requires system change. That's perhaps a daunting prospect, and
it's not something we can do overnight, but ultimately it could be more rewarding than we
can imagine. And like escaping from a burning building, what is scary might also be
unavoidable.
'Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is
running out. We must recognize, in our day-to-day lives and our governing institutions,
that Earth with all its life is our only home'
References
[1]World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice, Ripple et. al.
http://scientists.forestry.oregonstate.edu/sites/sw/files/Ripple_et_al_warning_2017.pdf
[2]World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, Union of Concerned Scientists.
http://www.ucsusa.org/about/1992-world-scientists.html
[3]Carbon and Equality from Kyoto to Paris, Chancel & Piketty.
http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/ChancelPiketty2015.pdf. Note, the numbers are top 10%
making 45% and bottom 50% making 13%, frequently rounded off to 50% and 10% to more simply
convey the pattern.
[4]https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/letter-to-humanity-warning-climate-change-global-warming-scientists-union-concerned-a8052481.html[Accessed
15/11/2017]
Resources
1. NASA Climate
2. 350.org
3. Skeptical Science
4. Real Climate
5. Climate Central
6. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
If you simply type 'climate change' into YouTube there are millions of results, and lots
to learn from if you step over the climate denial disinformation funded by big business.
Three experts worth searching for are Dr. James Hansen, Prof. Michael Mann, and Prof.
Kevin Anderson.
Three excellent YouTube Channels are:
Climate State
Potholer54
The Elephant
https://www.wsm.ie/c/15000-scientists-climate-change
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Message: 3
It is a sadness without name that filled me after I learned of the death of Michael Labbé,
which occurred during the accidental fire of the rooming house at 734 Racine Street on
November 1st. Many of the members of the Collective personally knew Michael as a very
sociable downtown man who knew how to keep smiling despite the hardships and who helped
one another in the community. He had participated in several editions of the Self-Guided
Marmite. Native and more often than not touched by injustice, Michael lived in a state of
extreme poverty that exposed him to many trials. ---- 734 rue Racine Est was, a few years
ago, a very ordinary student apartment. A member of the Collective had lived there at the
time. The building has changed vocation in recent years, becoming a rooming house. We know
the recipe: homeowners sub-divide small homes in poor condition into rooms to increase
their profits on the backs of the people who pull out the most. With the gentrification of
the city center, more and more of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in our city
are being forced to leave for blocks and rooming houses in other, cheaper corners and Paul
and Rivière-du Moulin). Even if the fire is accidental, I hold responsible for the death
of Michael Labbé a system, with its crooked owners,
Alain, member of the Anarchist Collective Emma Goldman
My condolences to Michael's family and friends.
Listed 16 hours ago by Collectif Emma Goldman
http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.co.il/2017/11/chicoutimi-rip-michael-labbe.html
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Message: 4
On Monday, October 30, the Prime Minister and the Ministers of National Education and
Higher Education presented their " student plan ". Unsurprisingly, he sets up the
selection at the entrance of the college. ---- Plan Vidal: always the selection, always
no! ---- The Macron government is directly attacking us: with the selection, the
baccalaureate will not be enough to go back to university ! It is nevertheless a right of
the schooled youth acquired since 1968, to lose it would be a huge social retreat. The
government claims to have replaced the " pre-requisites " with " expectations ", but
the selection logic is still there ! While this plan is presented as being favorable to
the future of future students, it is actually once again, a drastic selection that will be
put in place, prioritizing diplomas, schools, students. The entry into higher education
will be, among other things, controlled through the establishment of " expected», Ie
criteria, such as grades, extracurricular activities, that high school will have to reach
to enter the sector of their choice. The government says that high school students will
have the last word in any case to choose the sector of their choice, except ... if the
sector is " under tension ". However with amphis already overloaded during this season,
we can see that the majority of sectors can say that they have more room and refuse high
school students who have the bac. Or how to organize the selection by sabotaging the means
given to the university.
The communiqué of the youth secretariat on the Vidal plan
To read in the monthly Alternative libertaire
of October 2017:
" Universities: Selection, the red line not to cross "
Studying is a right, not a privilege
And the Vidal plan accentuates the selection in Master 1 because it allows the license to
be done in 4 years, some will be worth less than others ! The government announces an
increase in the budget for Higher Education and Research, but this increase does not even
offset all the budget cuts of recent years ! It would take three times more than what the
government is proposing to accommodate the 200,000 new and emerging students coming to
college. The breakage of the university, like that of the labor code, follows from the
same logic. It requires the same answer, that of the street and the strike. Students and
high school students, let us mobilize massively on November 16th and after, alongside the
workers against the Macron government's policy!
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Le-16-novembre-toujours-contre-la-selection
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Message: 5
Power, Dominance, and Social Classes ---- Power relations permeate all social relations,
and involve social agents in the most diverse disputes and attempts to influence
situations. In societies divided into social classes there is a specific power
relationship that can manifest itself in different social spheres (economic, political and
ideological): dominance, domination. ---- Domination occurs when a class, group, or
individual carries out the plan of another person, group, or class against their own
interests, thereby damaging themselves, and reinforcing the dominator's privileges. ----
The social classes mark the history of humanity since the appearance of the great
civilizations up to the present, possessing a prominent and specific role in capitalism.
Relations between social classes are relations of domination.
Anarchism, as a socialist current, struggles for the end of domination and, consequently,
for the end of social classes, having the aim of building an egalitarian (socialist) and
free (libertarian) system.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary for anarchists in general, and our political
organizations in particular, to build a strategy and program that will guide the general
path of this transformation.
General Strategic-Programmatic Framework
The table below systematizes what we understand by strategy and program of a political
organization.
Note: Elements in the table are: General Strategy, Limited Time Strategy 1 & 2, Tactic
1-6, Analysis of Conjuncture, Analysis of Structure, and Ultimate/Goal Objective
Strategic-Programmatic Elements
Below we discuss and conceptualize strategy and program, in general, followed by placing
the other elements in the framework.
Strategy and Program
The strategy involves a reading of reality, the goals you want to achieve and a path to
it. It is nothing more than the science of conflict, in the final analysis, the study of
war (at all levels, forms, and intensities), including social conflict or class struggle.
The idea of strategy arises from the relations of conflict between classes, groups, or
people and the fact that political disputes involve antagonistic interests.
We need to form a line that unifies our activity in a way that is federalist, but never
fragmented. We can realize compact and internally cohesive action through a political
practice that grows the organization, and this simply means a line that builds or rebuilds
the social organizations necessary for the basis of popular power. To this unifying line
we give the name and conceptual weight of the program.
The program formalizes a chosen strategy and therefore guides actions for a given time and
place. To build a program, we have to use strategic evaluation and planning. It must
present strategic reflections with notions about where we are, where we want to go in a
particular moment, and how we will walk this path.
A program concretizes the line we apply in a period. It can be for shorter or longer
periods of time. It contains a series of points, goals and objectives to be applied in the
short term or non-short term (between organizational congresses, for example) and reflects
the central objective of the strategy (general or restrained to a specific time). It
presents the appropriate tools for popular activity (horizontal and combative): to unify
the struggles, act from within our different fronts, generate an identity in which diverse
social subjects see and act from a notion of oppressed classes.
There is, therefore, a general political line to guide our initiatives in a specific time.
It may also occur that the strategic objectives of a period do not fully correspond with
the current capacity our militants (both in infrastructure and people/time to work at all
necessary levels) nor with the force of our intervention in social struggles. Still, we
have to transform into concrete political practice what we have chosen as general
objectives for this stage. The program will be the instrument that will demonstrate the
concrete actions we will take to realize our strategic hypothesis. For this reason we also
talk about an agenda. They are distinct operations that must be in place to bring about a
living force (this is because we intend to bring it into existence) in the face of harsh
living conditions, fragmentation, despair caused by misery, loss of the idea of a
collective future, the social fabric in tatters and the ideological advance of the
old-right (oligarchies, financial and/or national capital) as well as the new-right
(ruling class fractions, growing new political-administrative elites, the "official left"
governments).
Of course, the ultimate objective and general organizational strategy may appear in the
program. In this case it is a "maximum program", with little variation. Nevertheless, it
is important that the program presents more narrow short-and medium-term elements.
Structure/Structural Analysis
It is the evaluation of these elements that allows us to understand the system and
structure in which we are inserted, taking into account awareness of the long term. This
type of analysis is based on history and seeks to present the main structural features
(which do not vary much with the conjuncture) of the capitalist system, of the state, of
the current hegemonic culture (always with this awareness of the long term).
Marx's analysis of capitalism in Capital, for example, is structural, as is the anarchist
theory of the state (and this theory of the sate is independent of the party in
government). The structure is deeper and has elements of greater permanence than the
conjuncture; in an analysis of this type, we approach the system of domination and its
class structure, regardless of whether company X or Y has greater economic power or
whether party A or B is has power over the executive or legislative branches of government
for example.
Conjuncture/Conjunctural Analysis
It is the evaluation of these elements that make it possible to understand the moment in
which the system and the structure of the society are found, that is, what is the
characterization of the period in which a society is and its most important features are
encountered? This type of analysis is much more immediate than structural analysis and
takes into account changes such as economic policies, political parties in power, economic
capitalist blocs, international and national scenarios, wars, conflicts, major events,
popular movements, culture in a more immediate sense, etc.
As anarchists, we believe that, even with structural/conjunctural limitations, human
action is capable of modifying/transforming society. Therefore, we must take into account
in these analyzes of human actions that have contributed to the social conformations in
question. Since we are not completely guided by the structure/conjuncture, we have to
think how to position ourselves and how to act in relation to them. The conjuncture is the
current moment, but it is necessary to select a piece of reality to be able to change it.
They are, at least, three simultaneous dimensions. One is time, that is, the period to
which we refer.
We can say that the period of time we stipulate is the following (very short term = 2
years, short term = 4 years, medium = 8 years, and long = 12 or more), or that we are
analyzing the conjuncture of the month, a quarter and so on. We can also say that we
analyze the planning of another agent (ie, another political party or an institution of
the enemy), and there use the time division that this other agent themselves stipulated.
Another necessary dimension is the geographic dimension of terrain. Thus, we can analyze
the conjuncture of a region of the metropolis, as we can try to analyze Rio Grande do Sul
(a Brazilian province), as we even venture into a global analysis of the reality of the
War against Iraq. Analysis simply cannot be done outside of time and space, and therefore
these two dimensions are fundamental.
Ultimate Objective
The ultimate objective is inflexible and establishes the society that one desires for the
future. In the case of CAB, as pointed out in our principles, the ultimate objectives are
social revolution and libertarian socialism. In the case of an anarchist program, we
consider it necessary to point out the general features of this system, that is, what we
propose for self-management and federalism in the three spheres. The ultimate objective is
consolidated with the conquest of society by the forces of the people and with the victory
of popular power, through a long-term revolutionary process. This victory means political
power by the federalist and revolutionary form and socio-economic self-management across
the scale of the liberated territory.
It is very important to know that the finalist goals should not be confused with the
overall strategy. The definition of the objectives we want to achieve is marked by the
ideological choices we make, so that changes in general objectives imply ideological
change, but not necessarily the same thing with the strategy. Revising the strategy,
therefore, does not imply changing the principles. Libertarian socialism is a goal and the
construction of popular power is more in the field of strategy.
It is these objectives that will condition the creation of our strategies and tactics,
since it is the objectives that condition the strategies and these condition the tactics;
This is what anarchists have called coherence between means and ends. This ultimate goal
is established from the utopia.
Utopia is an inflexible and permanent element; It is a place to be built, the inspiration
that, applied in concrete terms, traces the ultimate objective. The place to be built is
socialist and libertarian society, where the form of social organization to live in
collectivity will not emerge through injustice means, systems of privilege, nor will it
reconstitute a state. We may never reach it, but this place is what directs the
organization's strategic goals and time.
General/Permanent Strategy
The general/permanent strategy is inflexible and characterized by general planning that
coordinates the objective goals (where we want to arrive) and the means employed, such
that these objectives are promoted in relation to the other forces involved in conflict,
starting from the a specific moment (characterized by the structural and conjunctural
analyses). In the case of CAB, we point out as a general strategy:
"The general strategy of anarchism that we defend is based on popular movements, their
organization, accumulation of force, and in the application of advanced forms of struggle,
aiming at revolution and libertarian socialism. This process takes place jointly with the
specific anarchist organization which, acting as a catalyst/engine, acts together with the
popular movements and provides the conditions of transformation. These two levels (of the
popular movements and the anarchist organization) can still be complemented by a third
level, that of the tendency, that adds to areas related to popular movements. The strategy
of tendency[also known as the intermediate level]aims to create and participate in popular
movements defending certain methodological and programmatic conceptions within it, so that
they can point to an ultimate objective, which is cemented in the construction of the new
society."
That is to say, this strategy implies a long-term revolutionary process, with the
protagonism of the oppressed classes, and with a high level of confrontation (at all
levels, military, political, social, economic, juridical and, mainly, ideological). In an
anarchist program, this needs to be discussed in more detail to characterize the general
outline of this strategy. In general, in a program, it is relevant to point out a time
more or less expected for this great step, that is, for the realization of these objectives.
We can still say more. The strategy corresponds to a theory of the more general and slow
changes of the system and a policy of rupture directed towards its fundamental structures
of domination. Placed in this category are a characterization of the system of domination,
capitalism and the structures of dominant power, the hard core instituted by
social-historical formation. In this context we have defined a strategy of revolutionary
popular power. We postulate as its constituent elements: the protagonism of popular
organizations, a new political-social articulation, the revolutionary rupture as popular
insurrection. The set of elements systematically and coherently combined point to the
ultimate objectives: a revolution of socialist and libertarian character that comprises a
front of oppressed classes as subject of change. That's where the objective program is
going, which holds a set of measures and propositions that represent the meaning of such
social restructuring.
Our permanent strategy is to build popular power through the creation (or recreation) of
classist[class struggle oriented]and autonomous popular organizations and to advance step
by step in their protagonism as an organized people. But simply a declaration of intention
would not suffice to fulfill the task of participating and contesting the hegemony of this
popular power. It is not only a question of propagating the principles but also of
influencing and ensuring the functioning of these organizations. The more libertarian and
socialist these organizations and movements are internally, the more chance our project
will have. That is, to have a functional federalism as a mode of political management;
Self-management as a mode of socio-economic production; acting in solidarity with other
class organizations and movements; having internal democracy and a high degree of popular
participation and waging the fight in the most advanced way for each stage of the popular
struggle. In this way we will build the anarchist hegemony within the popular movements
under construction and/or advancement.
Short Term Strategy
The limited time strategy is inflexible within the stipulated time and constitutes the
strategy for a given time less than the time of the general strategy. It is not the
general strategy because its time is more limited and it is not the tactics because it has
traits more lasting and less flexible and not merely operational. It encompasses a
particular stage, less than the general strategic stage and greater than the stage of a
restricted set of tactics.
It is linked to more rapid changes and cannot be reduced to the field of tactics. It
corresponds to the analysis of a concrete social formation in its current stage of
development, in order to consider its particular conditions and possibilities. This is to
find a logical answer to an earlier statement that said: "There is only one strategy, what
changes in shifts of time are tactics". Not only tactics change, but also certain aspects,
or zones, of the strategy. The strategy is conceived in articulation and constant
interaction with tactics.
By this category we make definitions about the character of the stage (or phase), where we
gather descriptive and analytical elements that "cut" historical periods and inform our
operating models of the system in its historical dynamics. The minimal program in this
regard accords with the problems facing the dominant model and the accumulation of
antagonistic forces to construct a libertarian alternative.
It may be that with the minimum program we have a zone of consensus with the classist
sectors of the left camp, which in itself is no problem. What cannot be lacking as
elements of distinction and definition are the general lines that will delineate our
profile in political practice and its corresponding tasks within the plans and terms that
we demarcate in the current stage. Within the broad framework of a minimum program that
groups the fight against the dominant model, our strategy starts from where we are and
what we are doing, to make priorities and plans for growth, form alliances and create more
decisive social forces.
This is something that is part of the overall strategy, but limited to a certain field.
Its possibility of change is greater than the general strategy and less than the tactics.
It is general lines in a certain field of activity that feed the program of work for a
certain period. For example, we have a general strategy for achieving libertarian
socialism and a more narrow strategy within the field of health, which dialogues with the
general strategy. Acting within the struggles of the field of health we will use various
tactics.
This being our permanent strategy, we mark out a particular slice in time. That is, time
frames. For the very short term (which is in exact terms of time = 2 years), and for the
short term (= 4 years), where we will apply our strategy. In this shorter and more visible
period of time (that is, where and when we can apply our planning), we will define central
objectives, determinants of variations and changes over the long term, and appropriate
decision-making autonomy by the federalist mechanism. To this shorter form of strategy we
give the name that reflects the concept of the limited time strategy (applied in these
restricted times).
Tactics
Tactics are flexible and endowed with autonomy and constitute an action or a set of
actions of a momentary nature that have the objective to promote the limited strategy and,
thus, the general strategy. They are very practical and concrete and "speak" to the
day-to-day of the organization and its political practice.
It is constituted by the plan of action to be realized as goals of the organization for
the short term. It operates in this historical present, from its specific problems and
conflicts. It is where we point out organizational solutions and the general tactic, that
is, the agreements, the concepts, the criteria of work and objectives that will express
the militancy as a single political commitment during the action. Its execution and its
good or bad results depend, therefore, on a global and/or solidarity view of the comrades,
beyond its own place of insertion or specific task. This is the nature of a political
organization. If it is not able to concentrate force on across different lines it weakens
its associative pact and ends up languishing with impotent actions.
In order to go from our strategy until we reach our ultimate goal we would have to deal
with intermediates of short, medium and long term that form part of the path we are
building. The organization of social militancy in tendencies, for example, is something
tactical that can fit or not fit within the same strategy, but once adopted it can last
for years, even merely being a tactic. These actions linked to these goals, called
tactics, should be in tune with the general objectives, and thus with the overall
strategy. They must be executed based on the same principles, but with sufficient
sensitivity to perceive their greater malleability in the sense of changing the various
tactics in line with the strategic construction that will dialogue with the conjuncture in
which it is inserted.
Goals and means
The tactics must be subordinated to the limited time strategy, which must be subordinated
to the general strategy, which must be subordinated to the ultimate objectives.
It is not the case that "the ends that justify the means", but rather that the ends must
determine the means (strategies, tactics, etc.).
This is a coherence that we cannot toss aside. What we do today contributes to where we
will arrive tomorrow.
Translation by S. Nicholas Nappalos
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30085
http://blackrosefed.org/theory-of-strategy-cab/
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Message: 6
Poster of the anarchist collectivity of Thessalonica Black and Red. ---- Polytechnic
School, 1973-2017. Against the myth of Democracy that follows: ---- - Form the conditions
of the imposition of the modern dictatorship of the State and Capital, that is, the system
of modern totalitarianism, calling "enemies" to the alter ego of Domination. ---- -
Armando, supporting and actively supporting criminals and fascists of all kinds. ---- -
Extending the state of exception, legalizing the permanent state of emergency. ---- -
Applying the policy of death against immigrants and refugees, violently suppressing all
their revolts for a better life. ---- - Increasing the cost of living, crushing the
plebeian social strata. ---- - Intensifying exploration. This has resulted in an increase
in the number of "occupational accidents", that is to say, the murders of the employers.
- By squandering the homes of the poor in the name of protecting private property.
- Repressing, imprisoning, chasing, leaving Irianna and Pericles in jail, constantly suing
anarchists and antifascists, backing the fascist aggressions out of court, etc.
... The rebellion remains alive:
- From the mountains of Mexico, the streets of the US and Europe, to the struggles in the
Middle East, the resistance of the people endure.
- Against the social cannibalism promoted by the state and capitalism with the creation of
ghettos of delinquents near the neighborhoods (zones) of social character that one wants
to repress (neighborhood of Exarchia, University of Thessalonica).
- In Moria and other internment centers, where immigrants and refugees are fighting
against the repression of the European Union, Greece, Turkey, various human traffickers,
judges, police and non-governmental organizations, repressing violently all his revolts
for a better life
- Within the social and class resistance of the plebeians against the state and the
employers, their plans to suppress the rights, the destruction of natural resources, the
reduction of the workers' incomes and the increase of the unemployment rate. Also, within
all struggles for life and dignity.
- In the constant confrontation with the true Executive Power of Democracy: the Police and
the entire system of imposition of state repression.
Demonstration, November 17, 2017 , 18 hours, Polytechnic School.
Black and Red - member of the Anarchist Political Organization
The text in Greek:
https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1580019/
Translation> Sol de Abril
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