Today's Topics:
1. Britain, freedom news - A year through anarchist eyes: 1950
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Greece, Text of Patras anarchists comunists against the
recent occupation of the Polytechnic School of Athens (ca, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Novembre - Social Worker:
Child Protection Under Attack (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. awsm.nz: Filthy Rich - Europe Billionaires Wealthier Than
Ever (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. [Chile] 2nd Anarchofeminist Journey: Presentation of
Arpillera Magazine Nº 3 By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. wsm.ie: Dublin march demands end to Direct Provision, No
Deportations and the Right to Work + video (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Rob Ray takes a unique run through the pages of Freedom in 1950, a time when anarchism was
in a pretty dire state, but was starting to gain traction via a focus fighting issues such
as capital punishment, nuclear weapons and militarism, which would characterise some of
anarchism's biggest campaigns later in the decade. ---- The 1950s saw what remained of the
anarchist movement very much on its uppers, hit hard by both the war and the seeming
success of Bolshevism - the Communist Party of Britain being able to pull out 2,000 people
at a time for debates and as yet untarnished by the Hungary invasion. Much of the first
part of the year's reporting was taken up with a series of translations of the happenings
of the 1949 International Anarchist Congress, alongside comment on issues which would help
to define the movement, including Korea, the atom bomb and a scathing approach to TUC
union chiefs.
Noteable was the small number of groups listed in the regular Meetings and Announcements
list, which outside London included only Glasgow, Liverpool, Colne & Nelson, and
Hampstead. By the end of the year only London and Glasgow were reporting back, and times
would be tough until the close of the decade.
January
In November 1949 a major international anarchist gathering had taken place in Paris, which
Freedom opened the year with and would translate over the course of several months for
readers. The conference claimed direct descent from the 1872 Congress of St Imier, saying:
As the first five decades of this century have passed, the federalist and
anti-authoritarian solution of the social problem has become a more and more pressing
necessity.
[Jan 21 pdf]
February
The month started with a general election and a four-page denunciation, at a time when it
was still plausible to vote for a communist candidate as opposed to merely a social
democratic one, of the:
Appalling waste of energy and paper which has resulted from the frantic efforts of
political people to acquaint you of the benefits of full employment, the iniquity of
controls, the upsurge of liberalism or how everything would be wonderful if only Britain
would trade with Russia ...
The Union of Anarchist Groups meanwhile (of which Freedom was a member) had Albert Meltzer
talking on "the futility of elections," John Hewetson on birth control and a debate on
whether workers' control would be established by industrial action alone.
[Feb 18th pdf]
March
Much was made of the end of the Peckham Experiment after 25 years, a fascinating and
successful experiment in self-actuated community social life and positive health lost due
to a lack of financial support from the government. Freedom noted:
The newspapers have suggested that the LCC (city authority) should take over the Peckham
Centre to serve as a model health centre under the National Health Service. Nothing could
more completely misconceive the aims of Peckham ....
Two considerations ought to be clearly in the minds of those who watch anxiously the
future of the centre. First, the aim of researching into positive health, to study human
behaviour in conditions of freedom. And the second (which really stems from it), is that
the member families shall be allowed to follow their own inclinations without organisers
or masters of ceremonies or any other kind of busybodies.
Meanwhile on the London Docks, 1,200 people were holding an overtime ban - because the T&G
(now part of Unite) had expelled three trade unionists who had been members of an
unofficial Port Workers' Committee during a major strike the year before. Freedom mused
that the timing of the expulsions, which essentially made it impossible for the trio to
work in what was a closed shop workplace, was deliberate - March being a slack period of
the year.
On April 29th however the paper reported that the overtime ban had become a strike. Union
leaders confirmed the expulsion on April 14th, feeding into a wildcat walkout over
"resentment of union authority" which saw 12,000 people down tools and 60 ships left idle.
[March pdfs: 04 | 18]
April
Freedom's front-page denunciation of flogging was part of a long-running battle to stop
the practice, which was finally won for good in 1967 with the abolition of flogging in
prisons. The paper wrote:
The act of flogging requires the services of a brute to administer the lash, or else it
brutalises a less harsh nature. Then there are all the trappings: the fastening of the
malefactor to the tripod; the dipping of the birch twigs in brine; the doctor who examines
the victim before and during the punishment and gives his opinion as to whether he is
"fit" to receive or continue it - these modern refinements make the procedure even more
morally abnormal than the medieval and renaissance torture chambers. For anarchists there
can be no nice weighing up of "pros" and "cons" - the whole business is revolting.
Marie Louise Berneri had died the previous year and throughout 1950 there were updates on
fundraising and tributes to her life. Berneri was a key figure at the Press and
much-loved, upwards of 100 people contributed to the memorial committee.
[April pdfs: 01 | 15 | 29]
May
Arrests in Spain were front page of Freedom as Franco's police swept through Barcelona
detaining people, including Jose Iglesias Paz, a national delegate of the banned CNT union
who had been a member of the Durruti column. The police said 13 men were part of a team
which had committed multiple robberies and assassinations in the area. Five would
eventually be executed, while the rest were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. Paz
would serve 10 years before being granted amnesty and eventually going into political
exile in Switzerland.
[May pdfs: 13 | 27]
Jose Iglesias Paz
June
Freedom took a contrarian view of de-rationing as the government relaxed its regime,
suggesting:
The whole conception of price control and the attempt to secure equitable distribution
through rationing drives from the recognition - belated and incomplete that it is - that
all men have a right to at least the necessities of life. It is unquestionably a progress
that such a conception should now be common property. But it is also indicative of society
and of the administrative class that this conception is thought to have application only
during wartime.
One of the trends of Freedom in 1950 was that, in the absence of major anarchist upheavals
at home the content largely revolved around a vocal support of unofficial union action in
Britain and the more spectacular efforts of anarchists in other countries. A court case in
Genoa was a good example of this, with three anarchists, Buscio, Deluchi and Mancuso going
on trial for forcing their way into the Spanish Consulate with a plan to assassinate the
Consul. The man himself being away, they let off a hand grenade in the office.
A full rundown of what happened, and the astonishing outcome, can be found at the Kate
Sharpley Library.
[June pdfs: 10 | 24]
July
The Korean War had just begun, and Freedom's opinion was strident:
We are witnessing the great powers hiring out the territory of a backward, divided puppet
as a battlefield, fighting behind other men's lives. It is not the first time we have seen
such a pattern.
For us, as anarchists, there remains the question - what about the Koreans? In the context
of the cold war, such a question appears almost an irrelevancy! In Korea today it is not
what the Koreans want; the decisions are not made on either side of the 38th parallel, but
thousands of miles away in Washington and Moscow. Propaganda cries about the aspirations
of a people, or the establishment of effective democracy become quite meaningless from
this perspective.
[July pdfs: 08 | 22]
August
The biggest event of the year for Freedom Press was a summer school held at "the Trade
Union Club" in London on the August bank holiday weekend (26th-28th), instructive for
where the anarchist movement was drawing its support from at the time, as it listed
attendees from Glasgow, Liverpool, Cone, Newcastle, Gosport, Crewe, the Isle of Man, York,
Bradford and Birmingham.
Talks were offered on the Saturday by John Hewetson on "aspects of anarchism," Sam
Fanaroff on "agriculture, industry and the commune," Alex Comfort on how the new-fangled
psychology of "delinquency" could append better to MPs than petty crooks, Jimm Raeside on
"anarchism and resistance to war" and Albert Meltzer on "anarchism and the word picture."
Characteristically, Meltzer refused to soft soap in his lecture, admitting that
"anarchism, as a force, hardly appeared on the world scene" and complaining that the
syndicalist unions were tending to treat anarchism as "the poor relation." Many of the
lectures were subsequently written up as articles for following issues.
On the Sunday afternoon, an open-air meeting at Hyde Park saw Eddie Shaw and Jimmy Raeside
spoke to "a very large and interested crowd" at Speakers Corner, followed by "a social
with a Dixieland-style jazz band (and singing by George Melly, featured below) providing
the entertainment." The young Albert Meltzer and Vernon Richards dancing the night away
to Melly's cheerful patter, all of them parts of a tiny movement that was yet to see its
1960s growth spurt, or the vicious feuding that would later characterise both Meltzer and
Vero's lives, is a thoroughly charming and poignant image.
[August pdfs: 05 | 19]
September
Freedom was spot on the money about the Korean war when it noted that:
The American government in particular is so deeply committed that, no matter what the cost
in soldiers' lives, it must continue to defend what its own advisers considered to be
strategically undefendable. Defeat in Korea would be so disastrous that, however great the
losses, the government whose prestige is at stake dare not end the war. Men may die, the
country may be utterly ruined, but prestige must not be lost.
The paper was by now also beginning to be able to report on the activities of libertarians
in Britain itself, with one of a series of writeups of lectures given by anarchists at the
Summer School and a piece on the state of the movement, based on a meeting from the same
event.
"CW" (likely Colin Ward) noted the ongoing Union of Anarchist Groups, which had formed in
December 1945 at a conference in Glasgow and to which the London Anarchist Group (linked
at the time to Freedom) belonged. Ward was relaxed about a lack of coherence in the
organisation, described as "nebulous," declaring "let the organisers organise, and the
non-organisers abstain from organising."
Later in the month a front page piece reported on the stymied efforts of the Chemical
Workers' Union to replace the TUC's bureaucratic model of organising with a full
industrial democracy. TUC council member Lincoln Evans was extremely unamused by the
suggestion, saying it smacked of syndicalism, a charge denied by the CWU rep Robert
Edwards (who would later go on to become an MP).
[September pdfs: 02 | 16 | 30]
October
A fascinating report arrived at Freedom via the International Anarchist Congress,
well-timed to provide a stark contrast with the conflict in full flow of war in Korea,
from W Karim, general secretary of the General Federation of Korean Anarchists.
In his essay on their efforts against both Stalin and the US, Karim said around 3,000
active members with influence over a further 600,000 people had in previous years
conducted a highly successful anti-imperial struggle to get Japanese oppressors off the
peninsular, but had struggled after 1945 as a popular front Workers Union had been largely
manipulated and seized on by pro-Bolshevik forces. Shifting to their own groups, including
the Agricultural Workers' Party, Independent Workers and the General Students' Federation,
the anarchists were at the time of writing running two daily papers and one weekly, using
their own presses.
Later that month, a review of Stalin's Anarchism or Socialism remarked on the old man's
"usual myopia" on what anarchism is and remarked, with bitter humour, that despite
accusing anarchists of unfair rumour-mongering about the reactionary nature of the
Bolshevik regime:
"Stalin has lately proclaimed that the state will not ‘wither away' in Russia and is,
furthermore, to be strengthened. So much for the ‘tittle-tattle' of the anarchists, which
seemed to have some foundation, after all."
Six year later, the invasion of Hungary would put paid to Bolshevik pretensions for good,
starting the long collapse of the Communist Party of Great Britain almost at a stroke.
[October pdfs: 14 | 28]
November
In the 1939-45 period following the Spanish Civil War, thousands of people loyal to the
Communist Party fled first to France and the to Russia, a country they believed would
grant them asylum. According to accounts published by Freedom however, Stalin and the NKVD
were less than welcoming:
The defeat of the Spanish workers by Franco's army and the betrayal of their revolutionary
aspirations by such leaders as El Campesino was accompanied by a mass exodus to France of
anarchists, socialists, communists who feared reprisal. El Campesino (now) tells us that
in France a committee of communist leaders was created to ‘screen' those CPers who were
seeking asylum in Russia. Priority was given to three categories of ‘comrades': members of
the NKVD (secret police); well-known militant whose position was compromising; Spanish and
foreign militants ‘who had given signs of lukewarmness during the civil war or who knew
too much. Not having been able to liquidate them in Spain, as had been the case for a
number of their friends, they were to be sent to Russia to disappear.'
The first contingent, under the direction of Tegliatti, Modesto and Lister, left in April
1939. Altogether 3,961 Spanish refugees arrived in Russia this way. They had been
preceeded by 1,700 children accompanied by 102 teachers.
El Campesino claims that of nearly 6,000 Spanish refugees in Russia, only 1,200 are still
alive today, and challenges the Communists to disprove his figures.
[November pdfs: 11 | 25]
El Campesino, aka Valentín González, was a USSR loyalist who was forced to flee Russia in
1949 to France, where he lived in double exile.
December
The Peace Pledge Union is still the oldest pacifist organisation of its kind in Britain,
having first emerged in 1934, and was strongly influenced by the anarchists.
PPU member Alex Comfort, also a writer in Freedom, had published an anti-war pamphlet
through it which, Freedom reported in December, had perturbed Westminster enough to spark
a debate over whether such writing should be somehow banned. The leaflet, Civil Defence -
what you should do now, was worried at by Labour Home Secretary James Ede and Tory MP
Harmar Nicholls for potentially "hindering recruitment for Civil Defence by circulating a
defeatist pamphlet." It was duly given a partial reprint in Freedom.
[December pdfs: 09 | 23]
https://freedomnews.org.uk/a-year-through-anarchist-eyes-1950/
------------------------------
Message: 2
On November 15, 2017 a group of people proceeded to occupy the old Polytechnic School of
Athens, in whose enclosure each year, from November 15 to 17 , events are celebrated in
memory of the rebellion of November 17, 1973 against the military dictatorship . According
to the first concise communiqué of the occupation, its first political goal is "the
expulsion of political and partisan organizations that intend to manipulate the
rebellion." In the same text a call was made "to make the insurrection a reality and to
confront us with the police forces". In the second communiqué, as concise as the first,
the phrase "political and partisan organizations" has been replaced by the phrases
"partisan partisans" and "partisan and institutional manipulators."
On the same day, several leftist groups held a protest march outside the grounds of the
old Polytechnic School. The following day, several leftist parties and groups (and few
anarchists) marched to the School and ended the occupation. At the time of writing these
lines, the group that occupied the Polytechnic School did not issue any statement about
the end of the occupation. Next, the text of the anarchist collective "Communist
Anarchists of Patras" against the occupation.
The Polytechnic belongs to the fighters and the fighters. November 17 can not be
manipulated, anarchy can not be debased
With surprise, sadness and anger, we are informed of the occupation of the old Polytechnic
School by a group of people on the morning of Wednesday ( November 15 ) , and the
consequent exclusion of student associations and leftist groups from the University
campus. These collectives traditionally celebrate in this enclosure the historical memory
activities held each year for three days.
As communist anarchists and fighters who have spent almost twenty years participating in
both Patras and Ioannina in the activities of historical and class memory carried out
because of the anniversary of the revolt of the Polytechnic School ( November 17, 1973 ),
we have made it clear that no one has the right to impose a logic of ownership of the
struggles of the Polytechnic School. The fighting, class and insurrectionary tradition of
the Polytechnic School and the struggles of the students and the workers against the
military junta of the colonels belong to the fighters and fighters of that occasion, the
present and the future. It belongs to the lower classes of society and to all those who
have set up barricades against the onslaught of state and capital totalitarianism.
In any case, we know full well that one of the fervent desires of Sovereignty is to
incorporate and absorb the struggles, as well as to distort those radical traits of them,
for which they may be dangerous in the future. Therefore, the occupation of the
Polytechnic School may only be harmful with respect to the maintenance of historical
social and class memory, when it prohibits student associations or leftist political
youths from celebrating their activities (events) in their enclosure.
We are reluctant, therefore, to any attempt to manipulate and try to derive political
profit from the collective struggles of the lower, both past and present. Even if the
squatters want to protect the messages of the Polytechnic School rebellion from partisan
manipulation, in practice they have succeeded in reproducing this manipulation, having as
a symbol the circulated A and invoking Anarchy. Moreover, since a similar action is an
action of elitism and vanguardism, separated from the desires and needs of the
contestatory class movement in this period. In short, the methods used by squatters are
not those of anarchist and libertarian fighters. They are the methods of the left-wing
leaderships, the notion of political vanguards that rise above fighters and fighters, and
make decisions for them and without them.
Therefore, we believe that this political action reproduces dangerous ideological
inventions, intending to put into practice within the contestatory movement (with its
various shades) a polemic that in the current conjuncture must be carried out against the
sovereigns. We are clearly reluctant to move to the terrain of the social and class war
movement against Capital, the State and the fascists.
At the same time, we can recognize some common ideological starting points after this
occupation-isolation of the Polytechnic School, between the attack against communists and
anarcho-syndicalists two years ago, in the context of the celebration of events on the
anniversary of the rebellion of the Polytechnic School, and the attack against students in
Athens during the last student elections.In both cases we speak of bullies with an
anarchist mantle. Apart from the different composition of the subjects of these different
attacks, the concept that has some segments of the anarchist "scope" of these actions, in
fact is based on an anti-Communist and petty bourgeois logic and attitude, which
identifies the communist students and the leftist parties and classifies them into the
category of enemies, along with the state and capital. This logic makes us sick.
The only positive thing (if there is anything similar) in such actions of people who
(possibly unconscious) operate as the idiots useful for Sovereignty, is that since (we
believe) certain organized segments of anarchists keep distances from them , is
demonstrated in the clearest way that the anarchist "scope" is already a cloud, a
reference to historical periods of the past. The challenge is that (this scope) will
already begin to acquire the characteristics of a movement that has a broad social
discourse. In this direction it is necessary to maintain distances from such actions.
November 16, 2017
Communist anarchists of Patras
http://verba-volant.info/pt/texto-de-anarquistas-de-patras-contra-a-recente-ocupacao-da-escola-politecnica-de-atenas/
------------------------------
Message: 3
A concrete case of attack against social workers, that against the protection of childhood
is symbolic because it affects the most vulnerable. Employees are mobilizing to prepare
the response. ---- The law of 5 March 2007 is an in-depth reform of child protection,
including the principle of the subsidiarity of judicial protection in relation to
administrative protection, by entrusting the department with the responsibility to
implement the whole social and educational interventions. ---- Very quickly, the
departments finance or impose calls for projects placing associations in competition with
each other. ---- In 2015, the departmental council of 49 chaired by Christian Gillet (UDI)
launched a call for projects to allocate 698 places in educational and therapeutic support
including forty new places funded at constant means. While the reception in children's
home of social character (Mecs) costs on average, in this department, 170 euros per day
and per child, the range proposed in the call for projects was below: between 150 and 170
euros .
350 jobs at risk
In March 2016, the ax falls: SOS Children's Village (cheaper because derogatory in terms
of labor legislation) and the Apprentis d'Auteuil Foundation (both recipients of private
funds) take the call by answering calls offers with nearly 30 % budget saving.
For the employees of Tourelles, Apaech, Larpeje in Angers, CAP Baugé ... This is the cold
shower. Nearly 350 child protection workers are threatened with dismissal.
By disengaging themselves, departments put children and adolescents in danger. Hundreds of
children live in dramatic situations: some can not be placed because of lack of means,
other young people are " casé.es " in a social hotel and delivered to them and themselves.
The conditions of access to housing contracts for young adults leave out the most
vulnerable, and many isolated minors are homeless and left in situations of extreme
psychological distress. Specialized prevention clubs are disenfranchised one after the
other ... Not to mention the working conditions and the quality of the services provided
to the public who are deteriorating day by day. Against the scourge of social work, the
Egats (Alternative General States of Social Work) [1]intend to federate all the social
work, medico-social and health around a major national event on 20 November.
The facebook page for the call to strike
The child protection workers had already mobilized in June, July and September. A general
meeting of the Egats took place on Thursday, October 19 to prepare for a major response.
Marie-Line (AL Lyon)
Appeal letter to the demonstration of November 20th
[1] The collective "Etats Généraux Alternatifs du Travail Social", which brings together
several unions and collectives, was formed in response to the lack of consultation and
taking into account of the word of the workers and social workers during the Estates
General of the social work, launched under Holland.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Travailleur-sociaux-La-protection-de-l-enfance-attaquee
------------------------------
Message: 4
Europe's fifty richest people have become 153 billion dollars wealthier over the past
year, with a total net worth rising to 754 billion dollars. ---- That rise - about three
billion dollars each on average - is equivalent to five billion dollars for each of the 28
EU member states or 300 dollars per person across the EU. ---- All but two of the top 50
fattest cats increased their wealth. ---- By country, Germany led the rankings, accounting
for 14, followed by France and Sweden, each with nine , Italy and the UK each with three,
and Spain and Austria each with two out of the fifty. ---- The European Central Bank's
policy of quantitative easing, by raising asset prices, has disproportionately benefited
the wealthy, thereby contributing to rising inequality. ---- At the same time EU-inspired
austerity policies have reduced income for the 99% directly - average EU wages have been
falling in real terms since at least 2011 - and indirectly - through cuts to welfare and
public services, which, together with your pay packet, make up what was once called the
so-called the "social wage".
In 2016, 117.5 million people, or 23.4% of the population, in the European Union (EU) were
at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and 7.5% of the population were "severely
materially deprived", rising to over 20% of in some countries - Bulgaria (31.9%), Romania
(23.8%) and Greece (22.4%).
The above article first appeared here:
https://revolting-europe.com/2017/11/13/filthy-rich-europe-billionaires-wealthier-than-ever/
(AWSM NOTE)
For comparative purposes...
nz's rich list:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11894256
and:
The country's two wealthiest people own the same amount as the poorest 30 percent in New
Zealand.
And the richest 1 percent of New Zealanders own 20 percent of wealth, while 90 percent of
the population owns less than half of the nation's wealth.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/322422/top-1-percent-of-nzers-own-20-percent-of-wealth
http://www.awsm.nz/2017/11/18/filthy-rich-europe-billionaires-wealthier-than-ever/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Comrades: ---- On the occasion of the launch of the third edition of Arpillera Magazine ,
we invite you to an Anarchofeminist Journey: Presentation of Arpillera Magazine Nº 3,
which will take place on Monday, November 20th . ---- We will count on the projection of
the documentary " Cuidado, slips ". Also, we offer the presentation of a new edition of
the body of feminist and anarchist studies, Revista Arpillera. From there, we hope you
will join us in a conversation that sheds light on what anarchofeminism is and how
important it is in a context like ours. ---- In addition, there will be a libertarian
fair, vegan food and infusions. We rely on her voice and presence to create a new horizon
of autonomous feminist struggle. We are waiting for you! ---- The commitment is in the
House of Libertarian Communism (Nataniel Cox 1910, Franklin subway, Santiago), Monday,
November 20, starting at 7pm.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/1679864522088224/
Related Content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2017/07/19/chile-bolivia-evo-contra-o-internacionalismo-feminista/
anarchist-ana news agency
------------------------------
Message: 6
The Direct Provision institutions were introduced as a supposedly temporary measure in
2000. 17 years later they are still with us and some have spent over a decade trapped in
the institutional isolation and poverty they create. Adult residents receive 21.60 a week
and some like Mosney are in isolated locations with no transport connections. Visitors
are controlled and there are little or no cooking facilities which means the children who
have grown up there have seldom taste their parents cooking and have been unable to have
friends sleep over. ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGLiUghnI0g ---- Saturday 18th
November saw what is becoming an annual demonstration in Dublin to End Direct Provision,
Stop Deportations and Give the Right to Work. Ireland was one of only two countries in
the EU that bans asylum seekers from working but back at the end of May the Supreme Court
took the first step in overturning that ban. This was due to a Burmese man who had spend
over 8 years in direct provision before finally winning refugee status. He had argued
that living on 19.20 a week without being able to work meant, as the Irish Times reported
that "he suffered depression, "almost complete loss of autonomy" and being allowed work
was vital to his development, personal dignity and "sense of self-worth." But as you will
hear in the video the government appear to be trying to fudge the issue by denying this
right to anyone appealing their initial ruling, these are almost always negative although
frequently overturned through the legal system.
Saturday's demonstration included residents and ex residents of several direct provision
centres, including groups from Galway and Cork. You will hear several speak out in our
video of the demonstration, a brave act because being outspoken or organising sometimes
results in retaliation from the companies that profit from the centres. MASI, the
Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, an independent self-organised collective of asylum
seekers and former asylum seekers seeking justice, freedom and dignity for all asylum
seekers distributed the leaflet whose text is below.
- Scan of MASI leaflet begins -
END DIRECT PROVISION
STOP DEPORTATION
GIVE US THE RIGHT TO WORK
Direct Provision destroys many lives. It has
robbed us of our future and even our identity
and sense of who we are. Denying us the right
to work is a big part of this injustice and destruction.
We are deprived of the right to provide for
ourselves and our families. We are robbed of
hope for the future and the dignity that every
human being deserves. It is government policy
to keep us in a state of poverty and segregation.
The unrestricted right to work is a crucial part of
dismantling this system of apartheid that is
called Direct Provision.
'Asylum Seeker' is a label that erases the reality
of our lives, talents, experiences- everything
about us ceases to exist once we become
'asylum seeker'. Most of us suffer from depression
and demotivation as a result of not being
able to work and not being able to make any
productive use of our time, abilities, knowledge,
and qualifications. Among us are doctors, lawyers,
bankers, computer scientists, nurses,
teachers, company managers, administrators,
business people. But regardless of qualifications
all of us have skills, qualifications, experiences,
talents, capabilities that are being wasted while
we are barred from employment.
The right to work is not just about people who
are in the asylum system now, but about those
who come after, and about our sons and daughters
who are now children and young adults, and
the opportunities that will be made available to
them to make a life with dignity and meaning in
this country.
MASI calls for the right to work without
discrimination. This includes:
-Immediate access to the labour market for all
including those of us in the system now,
with no time restriction
-No restrictions on which jobs can be taken up
by asylum seekers
-To have the same labour rights and rights to
social benefits as citizens
-To be recognised in trade unions
-The right to education and training
-Acknowledgement of skills and experience we
bring with us from country of origin and
recognition of home country
qualifications.
The right to work must not invalidate our right to
accommodation, access to medical cards, and
other basic supports we get to subsist while in
Direct Provision.
JOIN US IN CALLING FOR THE RIGHT TO
WORK FOR ALL
-Add your voice to the UPLIFT email and tell
Ministers Charlie Flanagan, Frances
Fitzgerald and others that you support the
unrestricted right to work for all people in
the asylum system:
https://action.uplift.ie/campaigns/right-to-work-email
-Call government ministers and your local TDs
and tell them you support the immediate,
unrestricted right to work for all asylum
seekers
-Follow MASI on Facebook for regular updates
on what we are doing and how you can
stand with us and check in on our
website: http://wvvw.masi.ie/
MASI is the Movement of Asylum Seekers in
Ireland. We are an independent self-organised
collective of asylum seekers and former
asylum seekers seeking justice, freedom and
dignity for all asylum seekers.
- MASI leaflet ends -
See our Facebook photo album from the march
https://www.facebook.com/pg/WorkersSolidarityMovement/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2163656283660173
https://www.wsm.ie/c/dublin-end-direct-provision-no-deportations-2017nov
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We want to financially support activists with different opinions who fight against injustice in the world. We also need your support for this! Feel free to donate 1 euro, 2 euros or another amount of your choice. The activists really need the support to continue their activities.
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