Today's Topics:
1. vrije bond: This month we are showing Trouble episode #7.
(nl) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. iwa-ait - IWA, The Belgrade Congress (ca) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Greece, FOR THE DECEMBER EXPERIENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
NOTICE FOR
DECEMBER INVESTIGATION, By APO (gr) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Southern Africa, zabalaza.net: The political nature of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Czech, AFED, A3: Hands away from our homes! [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Poland, rozbrat.org: Remarks of the Wielkopolska Association
of Tenants to the draft document "The housing policy of the City
of Poznan for 2017-2027" [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
It's now been twelve years since Hurricane Katrina smashed through the levees of New
Orleans, completely inundating the Lower Ninth Ward and validating scientists' dire
warnings of climate change's destructive effects on weather patterns. In the long years of
government inaction that have followed, early warning signs have given way to a sinking
realization that climate change is no longer a nightmare future scenario humanity needs to
avoid - it's a present-day reality that we need to adapt to. From record-setting wildfires
and famine-inducing droughts, to mass flooding and a punishing string of unprecedented
mega-storms, 2017 has been a watershed year for climate catastrophe. ---- While liberal
environmentalists wring their hands over the Trump cabal's decision to pull out of the
Paris Climate Accord, Indigenous land-defenders, anarchists and other radicals are taking
matters into their own hands. For some, this has assumed the form of direct action
campaigns waged against pipelines and other infrastructure tied to extractive industries.
For others, it has manifested in grassroots mutual aid efforts aimed at supporting and
empowering communities most affected by natural disasters. In this month's episode of
Trouble, anarchist media collective subMedia focuses on the latter, highlighting the
voices and experiences of individuals actively providing mutual aid disaster relief in
front-line communities.
https://www.vrijebond.org/submedia-tv-docu-no-permission-needed-benefiet/
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Message: 2
The IWA is pleased to announce the success of its first Congress ever in the Balkan
Region. The Congress marks a new era for the IWA, which has shown its commitment to
development and spreading anarchosyndicalism in more new regions around the world. ---- On
November 3-5, 2017 an Extraordinary Congress of the IWA took place in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Congress was held, extraordinarily, less than one year after the XXVI Congress, that
took place in Warsaw. Despite this technical challenge, the Congress again went smoothly
and was accompanied by discussion on practical matters and public presentations of the
work of the Sections. ---- The choice to hold an important Congress in Belgrade can be
seen as an act of defiance against the authoritarian state, that tried to criminalize
comrades in this country on more than one occasion.
Matters Discussed at the Congress
The Congress included a number of technical matters as well some debates and knowledge and
skill sharing. Technical matters included revising the language of the Statutes and
updating them to reflect current procedures and give more information. There were also
presentations from various delegates of working groups about work on strategy and training.
The last day of the Congress was devoted to speaking at more length about various training
courses that were run and the particular situations of the Sections. This helped everyone
to understand the types of problems we can face in the workplace, with a view to sharing
experiences and improving our skills and the effectiveness of our organizing efforts.
The Next Regular Congress and New Perspectives
It was decided that the next regular Congress, which is scheduled for 2019, should take
place in Australia. This agreement shows our committment to combatting the (Western)
Eurocentrism that the IWA had been suffering for decades and which it now has a good
chance of overcoming. We were very pleased to have a delegate from the PPAS (Indonesia) at
the Congress and are excited about the attempts of comrades to spread anarchosyndicalism
in this area of the globe. There was also discussion about new contacts in this area and
others.
The working groups should now make efforts to support these organizations, as well as the
current Friends and Sections of the IWA.
Presentations of the Sections and other Areas of Organizing
A public meeting was held where the Sections and Friends of the IWA, as well as members of
invited organizations, presented a bit about their organizations. Due to the number of
participants and the translation, the presentations were all about 10 minutes long, which
turned out to be too short for some Sections which have been active in a number of
conflicts lately. It was a very good chance to get more information about what some of the
Sections are doing.
In addition, another public meeting was held before the Congress. The host Section, ASI,
has recently been involved in housing struggles, blocking evictions. Both the ZSP and
SolFed are involved in tenant organizing, so there was an idea to make some presentations
for local activists. Unfortunately SolFed were not in Belgrade in time to take part, but
members of the ZSP talked about how they organize and showed some films of how they block
evictions and about direct actions against responsible politicians. Importantly, it showed
how we can take our class struggle and horizontal organizing and direct action methods to
other areas and, in effect, build effective social movements, capable of making a difference.
The participants found these meetings interesting and we thank the local hosts for
organizing them and the Congress. There was also an art exhibition held in honor of the
Congress and we thank the artists who took part. We think we can state that we all enjoyed
the events very much.
Happenings Unrelated to the Congress
Although unrelated to the Congress, we can mention that ASI has maintained an important
publishing initiative for many years and a type of alternative book fair took place at the
same weekend of the Congress. Some of the comrades were there maintaining a table and some
comrades from the Congress visited afterwards, reporting positively. It also turned out
that Postal Workers decided to strike and make direct actions around this time and some
local comrades went to support this struggle. On learning of this, comrades from Poland
thought it would be positive to pursue links between the postal workers in Serbia and
their union.
The CNT-AIT is still our Section in Spain
The main reason for holding an Extraordinary Congress this year was to deal with some
recent issues that has changed the composition of our international federation. Part of
our former Section in Spain, the CNT, has decided to pursue different forms of
organization. As a result, many comrades in that area, who do not agree with attempts to
split the IWA and reorganize it along other lines, found themselves temporarily in a
difficult situation. We are happy to announce that upon restructuring themselves on the
basis of the CNT Statutes before the reformist swing, the CNT-AlT has been recognized as
the continuation of our Section in the Spanish State. We welcome the comrades (who never
left us), back as the local representation of the International.
We also send our best wishes to the others in Spain that remain in comradely relations and
sent special greetings to the Congress. We support the efforts to keep anarchosyndicalism
alive in the area and to maintain the bonds of solidarity which some have tried
unsuccessfully to tear apart.
For purposes of clarity, we reiterate that although there are now at least a dozen
separate organizations that carry the name "CNT" in Spain, our Section is called CNT-AIT
and its headquarters are currently located in Granada. The CNT, whose headquarters are
currently located in Bilbao, after unsuccessful attempts to split the International
organization and take it over - an attempt not entirely abandoned by those holding their
Secretariat - was disaffiliated by the IWA in 2016. The Sections of the IWA are federated
with the CNT-AIT, not with this other confederation.
The Secretariat, on behalf of the Sections, would like to thank everyone who participated
in the Congress and helped to run it.
Long live the IWA!
http://www.iwa-ait.org/es/node/742
------------------------------
Message: 3
December 6, 2008. Cops killed a child in Exarchia. We go down. ---- There are fires in the
straits. Outside the Polytechnic, silence breaks the sound from irons that hit the cement
rhythmically. A platoon came close. On them, WE GO TO THEM ---- Our utopia does not stop
at the outbreak of spontaneous insurrection. It is not justified by anything less than the
social revolution, the universal overthrow of the state and capitalism, and the building
of a new, classless society of equality, solidarity and freedom ---- The December uprising
is engraved in the memories of the many thousands who lived it, and is a symbol of
resistance for the younger men mentioned in it. It began as an angry answer to the
assassination of 15 year old student Alexandros Grigoropoulos at the junction of Tzavella
and Mesolongiou streets by the special guards E. Corkonas and V. Saraliotis. A murder that
came as a corollary to the exacerbated state repression aggression against the struggles
of that period.
In the years before the assassination, there had been fierce attacks by the MAT on
protesters' blocks against the educational reform of the "Giannakos" educational law with
wild wood, a flash of sparks, incendiary "on the ground" and dozens of students in
hospitals. Students who filled the assemblies and streets in a collective reaction to a
restructuring process that prompted the brutal global assault that followed. He had been
shot in the air by a cop in a demonstration in the center of Athens and the initial
unfolding of the class attack on the most vulnerable parts of the proletariat, the
"elastic" workers and the immigrants.
They had preceded the bloom of the stereos and occupations nationwide, the massification
of the anarcho-anti-authoritarian movement on the fertile ground of social and class
struggles, and the statements about the "sensitive nervous system" of the cops by a
previous Public Order minister who was paving the way for the murderous state violence
that would follow. Two worlds in conflict, then like now. The world of power and the world
of struggle. A lasting confrontation that manifested itself with the extreme violence on
the part of the state, in a shot of the weapons held by the masters, to keep their
annoying privileges against many. To scare them and subdue them. This is the condition
that broke the December 2008 uprising.
The outbreak of the rebellion would not have been possible if the electricity of the
struggles of decades had not gone through our society and class. The first hundreds of
insurgents in Athens would not have made tens of thousands across the country if they did
not step into the ground that many laid before them. Polytechnic of '73, Kaltezas and
Squats of the Chemistry. "When to do it" in '95, Back Rufians - Front Comrades against
terrorism after the arrests of EO. November 17, Thessalonica 7 and solidarity races.
Student squats, strikes and class initiatives, the spread of ideas of self-organization
with "base" work, counter-culture, battles with parastatal fascists, and clashes with MAT.
We are not the "10 hoods", the image of the "marginal" that power defines for us. We are
the workers and the unemployed, the anarchists and the students, we are many and we want
them all, we are December. We became one with tens of thousands, with them we hit state
and capitalist symbols, we took streets, universities, town halls. We conquered the
conscience that next time we do not want to return to the regularity of state and
capitalist sepsis.
The consciousness that in order to expropriate collectively from the capitalists that we
belong to it, to define our own lives against the commission and the political directors
who organize our misery, it is not enough to perpetually reproduce the necessary
insurrectional momentum. We need to organize in the workplace, in schools and in schools,
we need to form politically and build structures to convince, bring and keep even more in
the fight. To sail from the bows of insurrection, into the open sea of total social and
class retaliation and emancipation. To break down the aging world of fear, subjugation,
poverty. To live the only life that is worth living, the struggle for the Social Revolution.
Christos, Stamatina, Iakove, Michalis, Nikos, Christopher, Lambros, Alexandre
You are next to us and we continue
For the Society of Equality, Solidarity and Freedom
For Anarchy and Liberal Communism
Anarchist Colloquy "Circle of Fire" - member of APO
from the occupied territory of Lelas Karagiannis 37
http://apo.squathost.com
------------------------------
Message: 4
Mechanisation and automation have been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. But these
are not inevitable or neutral economic realities. They are political weapons of oppression
under capitalism. It is a war against the working classes to increase profits. It is no an
accident that bosses choose to mechanise and automate in the context of the massive crisis
of capitalism. ---- Recently, the accounting multinational company, Grant Thompson,
conducted a study amongst 2500 multinational corporations regarding mechanisation,
automation and the introduction of artificial intelligence. Of these companies, 56% said
they planned to automate parts of their operations within the next year. Another study by
Oxford University was even starker. It stated that 47% of jobs in the United States and
possibly 50% of jobs in parts of Africa - including South Africa - could possibly be lost
to artificial intelligence, mechanisation and automation in the next two decades. It is
clear that if this transpires, the consequences will be dire for workers in Africa -
including South Africa - and their ability to organise.
Some people have said that this move to use advanced computers and automation is the
‘Fourth Industrial Revolution'; and that the evitable advance of technology must be
accepted. The reality, though, is that automation is not inevitable, but a political
choice of the ruling class to wage a war against the working class to increase profits and
oppression. It is important to understand how and why growing automation is political, and
to do so we need to look at the relations at the heart of capitalism.
Exploitation defines capitalism
Capitalism is a system in which the ruling class, through private property and state
ownership, own and control the means of production - in other words the farms, banks,
factories, machines, mines and services. They use their control of the means of production
and capital to hire workers to produce goods to sell at a profit. In doing so, capitalists
also compete with one another in the market. The vast majority of people, the working
class, are kept in a position whereby they own very little and are forced to work for the
ruling class to survive. The state assists the ruling class to maintain this situation
through the law and - when need be - policing.
Workers, however, never get the full value of their labour; bosses only pay workers a
small share of the value they produce through wages, and keep the rest that workers
produce as profit. It is this exploitation that defines relations between bosses and
workers. To keep workers exploited bosses have to try and make them as powerless as
possible through oppression. Workers throughout history have collectively resisted and
fought to try and win a larger share of the value that they produce in terms of better
wages. To try and break this resistance, one weapon capitalists have is to introduce
technology like machines and computers.
War through mechanisation
Bosses often choose to introduce mechanisation and automation to drive up profits, because
this means they can reduce the workforce, and therefore, have a smaller wage bill and
hence more profits. Capitalists, however, will often only mechanise or automate if doing
so proves cheaper than continuing with the exiting workforce and levels of workers. So
mechanisation and automation is aimed at replacing well-organised workers with machines.
Low paid and poorly organised workers, like in sweatshops, are usually not replaced with
machines because it is cheaper for bosses to keep on these workers. So mechanisation and
automation is an attack generally on more organised and better paid workers.
Linked to this, mechanisation and automation is about disorganising and increasing the
oppression of workers. So bosses don't always introduce all the new technologies that
exist or that are possible. They only introduce technology that will drive down wages; or
increase oppression and the disorganisation of the working class or both. In many of the
companies that choose to mechanise or even automate, there is usually a history of workers
organising. Thus, companies mechanise and automate often to try and break organising.
Lessons from the past
We can see how this has worked by looking back at the past. The first machines to be
introduced by capitalists into factories took place in 1811 in Britain during what is
called the First Industrial Revolution. The machines were introduced so that they could be
operated by low paid, unskilled and so easily replaceable workers. Before then skilled
craft workers were responsible for spinning and weaving. They were well organised into
guilds, and because of their skills they were also well paid - meaning through their wages
they were taking a relatively high percentage of the value they produced. To break these
workers and their organising, and to drive up profits by lowering wages, bosses began
introducing machines that allowed unskilled low paid workers using them to do the weaving
and spinning.
The weavers and spinners began resisting being replaced by machines and unskilled workers
by entering into factories and breaking the machines. The state then sent the army against
them, and implemented the death sentence for workers caught destroying machines. So the
state and bosses worked together to smash organised workers, to lower wages and increase
profits through introducing machines and unskilled labour. Through this, divisions were
also created amongst workers as bosses pitted skilled and unskilled workers against one
another - undermining the prospect of united resistance.
Mechanisation and the capitalist crisis
Today we are again seeing a massive increase in mechanisation and automation, the
so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. The aim is again to undermine and prevent workers
organising and to drive down wages. It is not an accident that bosses are choosing to
mechanise and automate today in the context of a massive capitalist crisis. It is also not
an accident they are targeting countries and sectors where there has been a recent history
of worker organising.
The new drive to mechanise and automate is a response by corporations to try and increase
profits in the capitalist crisis. It is also not a coincidence that multinational
companies operating in China are at the forefront of automating and mechanising. This is
because in recent years Chinese workers have been organising on a massive scale, and
through mechanisation and automation there is an attempt by bosses to break this.
The attempts by bosses, however, to automate and mechanise won't end the current
capitalist crisis. This is because the current crisis is partly due to over-production,
something which mechanisation and automation does not address and will possibly make
worse. In the past, the job losses due to mechanisation were offset by economic growth
which created new jobs. Today capitalism is no longer growing, and mechanisation in this
context will lead to greater unemployment. This means there will also be fewer workers to
buy goods companies are producing, meaning over-production will remain a problem, which
will lead to less profits in the long run for companies involved in manufacturing.
Conclusion
It is clear, therefore, that the mechanisation and automation were are seeing in the
so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution is an attack on the organising of workers. It is
also clear that workers need to resist mechanisation and automation, as today in the
context of a capitalist crisis it offers the working class very little. But to do so,
workers are going to have to experiment with new ways of organising, ways that can build
unity in a working class that is now defined by mass unemployment, casualization and huge
divisions.
Some unions in this context have called for a just transition that will lessen the impact
of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution on workers. The reality though is,
capitalists, states and politicians are not interested in any just transition. This means,
as part of fighting the new wave of automation and mechanisation, we have to renew the
struggle for revolution to overthrow capitalism and the state. If we don't, the automation
and mechanisation we are seeing today, and will see in the future, will have devastating
consequences for the working class, including mass unemployment for large sections of the
class (something we already see in South Africa).
Indeed, the problem we see is that mechanisation and automation are not neutral but rather
reflect and are used as political weapons of oppression under capitalism. In a different
society, mechanisation and automation could have benefits, but under capitalism that is
experiencing a massive crisis, for the vast majority of people, it is a living nightmare.
https://zabalaza.net/2017/12/05/the-political-nature-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/#more-5498
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Message: 5
Available Homes? Privatization of public space? Options for non-commercial use? Cities for
profit or for people? Download, print and enlarge the December issue of A3 wall paper!
---- Does it also seem to you that homes, flats, and everything are getting more and more
empty? And that homeless people who ask you for a five-crown at the station have recently
made a significant difference? ---- There really has to be something wrong with this
world, when those who think it's in the imaginable wallets can only own dozens of
dwellings, and we who do not have it, we can go to so slip. Housing speculators get
millions by buying and selling houses. The owners of the hostels are quiet and unobtrusive
robbing the poorest of the little they still have and letting the state housing allowances
into their own pockets. And the multinational corporations, who are going to go on a large
scale, regardless of the borders and any moral criteria, are laughing at everyone without
a prescription.
Developers look into our eyes and smile lying about how our cities will be beautiful when
they are in their clutches. Do you feel like it really is? Does the city's beauty lie in
the fact that its center is being deprived of its inhabitants and transformed into a
shopping, office or tourist zone? What is amazing when squares are no longer places to
meet people, spend their free time and associate themselves according to different
interests, and instead, people are reserved as the best way to spend free time visiting
one of the shopping centers on the outskirts? Is there anything positive that people are
being evicted or chased in a variety of ways to retreat from plans to build office
complexes or homes for the rich who lack the spirit of the place, all look similar sterile
and how many times do they not live? Not to mention, that the last remnants of public
space are privatized in a variety of ways, they do not serve people but generate profits.
Likewise, urban greenery is being steeped and people living in a given place are never
asked how they would imagine the surrounding environment and its meaningful use that would
primarily respect their needs.
Houses that have served for years in housing, culture, or community life are dangling
before our eyes. Obviously, it is more profitable for someone to let the "inconvenient"
house fall down or demolish rather than take care of it properly and allow for a new life.
Thousands of people are now in housing distress and can hardly afford to reach the rising
prices of rents, not to mention buying their own homes. How could people with
significantly below average income pay 12 thousand for an apartment on the outskirts of
the city? And that they would go to downtown? Excluded! If you are a "hands-to-mouth"
worker, single mother, unemployed, retired, etc., you can rely on what you want, you just
have to hope that you will not get unpredicted expenses and end up in some of the hostels
or social excluded site.
On the one hand, empty houses and the other people in housing distress, without a place
where they could meet or where they could be culturally groomed without a wallet. The
solution, which would be the most logical and practical, is squats (long-term unused
objects that people take back) and autonomous social centers such as the Prague Clinic.
But they are inexorably destroyed by both speculators and the state, including some
ideologically interested councilors and officials. The repressive apparatus headed by the
police, of course, acts in their interest and "helps and protects" much more the position
and money of political and economic elites rather than the needs of the ordinary
inhabitants of the city. Thanks to similar islands of hope, such as squats, however, in
the hearts of many people, the desire for a better world in which cities will no longer be
profitable, but for people, is constantly thriving. Let's not take them! Nobody should
just go through the free space to make sterile offices.
Fortunately, people are starting to defend themselves. The European Action Coalition for
City Law and Housing, for example, launched a #handsoffourhomes campaign in November to
raise awareness of this issue (financialization). People from different places around the
world are organized to push the capitalist dragon back into his cave. And we anarchists
and anarchists do not intend to stay in this match.
A3 ( December 2017) HERE to download . http://www.afed.cz/A3/A3-2017-12.pdf
Download, print, spread!
The A3 wall paper is published annually by the Anarchist Federation. They are intended
primarily for spreading through street lifts or posting in workplaces and schools.
https://www.afed.cz/text/6764/a3-ruce-pryc-od-nasich-domovu
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Message: 6
On December 5, the "City of Poznan housing policy for 2017-2027" will be discussed at the
Poznan city council forum. The Wielkopolska Tenant Association, referring to the city's
proposal, gave its councilors and local media their comments on this project. Below, we
publish the position of WSL. ---- Remarks of the Wielkopolska Association of Tenants to
the draft document "The housing policy of the City of Poznan for 2017-2027" Poznan,
04/12/2017 ---- Forming preliminary remarks on the draft of the document "The housing
policy of the City of Poznan for 2017-2027", we would like to clearly state that the main
task of the Wielkopolska Tenants' Association is to defend the interests of tenants with a
material status below average, who are forced to satisfy their housing needs through a
lease. As well as striving for a situation in which middle-class inhabitants have the
opportunity to take advantage of a stable communal lease with lower than commercial rents.
In this sense, the municipal resource is not defined as "help" but as a permanent element
of the housing market, providing a stable and favorable housing offer for all or most
groups of residents.
We note that the prepared housing policy of the City of Poznan for 2017-2027 is a much
more ambitious task, better organized and taking into account the wider context than was
the case with the previously presented project, ie the document discussed in April 2013
("Housing policy Cities of Poznan for 2012-2022 "). At that time, we presented comments
(provided, among others, to all councilors), which are available on the WSL website:
http://www.wsl-poznan.pl/publicystyka/item/135-jaka-polityka-mieszkaniowa-w-poznaniem?-analiza
# startOfPageId135 We think that many of our objections at the time remain valid.
In relation to the current document, we have scattering comments:
(1) In the introduction, the lack should be emphasized, perhaps of a fundamental nature
for the whole of this study, assessment of the current housing policy . Also in such
important aspects - recently discussed - such as the privatization of resources, the lack
of housing needs, the negative effects of revitalization programs, displacement as a
result, etc.
(2) First of all, this document does not define existing and potential tenancy conflicts
in the city . He does not notice the violent disputes that occurred in the context of mass
displacement, cleaning tenement houses, building substandard premises, spatial
segregation, poor housing conditions, etc. He does not sufficiently determine potential
risks (eg regarding the location of social housing estates) and the conflicting interests
of various social groups.
(3) The document does not devote any place to the problem of displacement and prevention
. Words such as "eviction" only appear in the context of the number of "eviction
judgments" and not as a broader social problem and the effect of, among others,
revitalization programs. There is also no word "deportation" or the phrase "cleaning of
tenement houses". This means that important issues are omitted in the document. Which
translates into the lack of coherence of the document and the assumptions made therein.
(4) The document does not sufficiently address the issue of rent increases, which
translates into omitting the interests of residents with lower as well as average incomes.
It is worth noting that the rent (rental fee) in housing communities, including the
renovation fund and profit for administration, is in Poznan at the level of 4.00 PLN / m2;
average rent in municipal flats at the level of PLN 7.50 / m2; TBS - PLN 12.00 / m2; the
replacement value given by the voivode for Poznan is today PLN 13.00 / m2; and the
so-called commercial value 33.00 PLN / m2. It can therefore be said that there is a huge
rift between rents; many rentals are speculative. In real terms - according to the
research presented in the document on page 21 - approx. 37.3% of Poznan residents can not
afford the cost of commercial rent (in response to the question of how high the rent would
be able to pay, 8.5% responded, that up to PLN 500 per month, and 28.8% from PLN 501 to
PLN 1000 per month). Rising rents are one of the fundamental causes of both rental debt
and evictions, as well as the expulsion of existing residents from the city's districts,
depopulation of Poznan and conflicts on the background of tenants. This situation, what is
important, causes that a large number of residents are interested in renting a purchase or
declare the will to buy a flat, because only in this way the rent is low (just at the
level of PLN 4 / sq m) and housing conditions are stable. Meanwhile, the document devotes
little space to the "rent policy" of the city, increasing the stock of municipal housing,
as a resource with a stable lease, and should also include problems such as undertaking
tasks in the field of providing subjective assistance (including housing allowances),
(5) In the context of point 3, the problem of the so-called rent indebtedness , its causes
and methods to counteract it (the word "indebtedness" falls on the document twice).
(6) This document is much more realistic than ever before, assesses the demand of Poznan
residents for housing, especially communal housing. Nevertheless, the problem is very
poorly related to the fact that many people and families live in poor housing
conditionsrequiring changes. In comparison to European cities, the average size per person
in Poznan is still low, which means de facto the existence of hidden housing needs,
amounting to tens of thousands of apartments. According to the research presented in the
document, as many as 11.8% of respondents express the need to change their flat (page 23),
which means more than 25,000. housing (according to the Central Statistical Office's data
on the housing stock for 2016). The study says about 20 thousand (on page 29).
(7) The study approaches too uncritically the question of the so-called
revitalizationand, does not see in revitalization programs one of the main reasons (apart
from the increase in rents) of depopulation of Sródmiescie and the city. On page 36 of the
document we read that Sródmiescie recorded a 13% decrease in the number of inhabitants (in
the last 8 years). In Sródka, according to our findings, the number of registered people
since 1996 has shrunk by 1/3. Revitalization programs, de facto assuming "attractive
display of cultural heritage objects" and that Poznan should be an attractive city for
investing and spending free time, do not take into account that the residential function
is pushed to the background. In the above-mentioned programs, care for residential
functions is a dead record. Hence, the revitalization programs contribute to the
depopulation of Poznan and changes in the functions of previously inhabited districts. It
is characteristic that the residential tissue is used for restaurants, pubs, hotels,
hostels etc. or become vacant. In addition, the issue of protection against displacement
of inhabitants of revitalized areas is still being neglected. Records in the document
concerning plans for Sródmiescie can be treated as a plan of gentrification in its current
form, and in the worst sense of the word. Local spatial development plans for maintaining
a suitable percentage of residential premises are not observed by property owners and
investors. In the document discussed, these problems are not perceived. Records in the
document concerning plans for Sródmiescie can be treated as a plan of gentrification in
its current form, and in the worst sense of the word. Local spatial development plans for
maintaining a suitable percentage of residential premises are not observed by property
owners and investors. In the document discussed, these problems are not perceived. Records
in the document concerning plans for Sródmiescie can be treated as a plan of
gentrification in its current form, and in the worst sense of the word. Local spatial
development plans for maintaining a suitable percentage of residential premises are not
observed by property owners and investors. In the document discussed, these problems are
not perceived.
(8) The document does not address the problem of energy poverty. High heating costs are
(apart from rents) one of the main reasons for rent debt. High energy costs are also one
of the most important determinants of housing conditions. Many people on low incomes live
in unheated premises, which is the cause of a number of illnesses, discomfort and
depression. Older people, but also children, suffer the most. In our opinion, "energy
poverty" is the reason why many Poznanians and Poznanians warm their homes with solid
fuels (wood, coal) and just rubbish. This, in turn, leads to smog, which has recently
become a problem in the public eye. It is worth taking a look at the fact that often in
social premises, despite the low rent, the costs of living in a flat are quite high,
because heating,
(9) The document raises the question of 'social diversification'(p. 31), which should mean
a greater diversity of the class composition of individual districts and quarters of the
city. In our opinion, this is a veiled form of paternalistic policy towards people with
low incomes. At the same time, the document does not mention numerous cases of
"separating" persons with higher incomes from other urban residents, "gated estates", the
city suburbs at the cost of the city, class divisions in the education system,
displacements sponsored by banks or people aspiring to the name of the elite, etc. In
other words, the burden of the problem was transferred only to one of the social groups,
with low economic status, demanding that it dissipated and was invisible,
(10) In the most general sense, the strategic directions presented in the document are
based more on the "striving for property" issues. In other words, the "privatization of
the housing stock" is presented (we do not write here about the issue of privatization of
municipal resources), as the most desirable option for resolving housing problems. The
document's lack of a look at housing resources as a "common good". This is due to from the
lack of analysis of why the inhabitants of Poznan would like to live in their private
apartment - because the ownership of the flat in the current conditions of the housing
policy is the only guarantee of low rent and stability of residence. Although this
situation is desirable by the Poznanians and Poznanians in a declarative sense, it is not
available to many of them. Meanwhile, such conditions should be ensured by communal lease.
In this context, the analyzed document is still a program which - in our opinion - takes
into consideration the interests of the private sector, developers, banks, etc., rather
than social groups with an average, especially a lower material status.
We also have a few methodological notes:
(11) Above all, the mistake of this study is to rely in many places on primary research
from 2015, whose planning process was not socialized, and its issues have not touched - in
our opinion - many important issues related to housing.
(12) The time intervals adopted in many places are in our opinion too short to illustrate
the changes well. In various places, periods of time are assumed in the analysis, without
explaining why they were chosen.
(13) In the opinion of experts of housing policy instruments (pp. 82 and further), in our
opinion too few people and too narrow a scientific environment took part (University of
Economics). Meanwhile, it would be important to look at the housing issues in Poznan from
the perspective of sociologists, lawyers, urban planners, ethnologists, etc.
At the same time, the latest versions of "Housing Policy ...", before bringing it to the
city council, appeared in terms that prevented the social side (m .in. WSL) for a deeper
comment on the document in the final version presented to councilors and parishioners.
Therefore, we request that our comments be attached to the document and become part of it
as an attachment or annex.
Our critical insights do not mean at the same time that we do not see the positive aspects
of the study, or appreciate the efforts of those directly responsible for preparing the
document.
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