Today's Topics:
1. BLOCK IN SWITCHES, IN IRELAND AND ELECTRONICS by dirty horse
APO (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - What class struggle
XXIth century? January 13 in Toulouse by AL Toulouse (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. cnt.es: [CNT-Zaragoza-Dock39] The CNT achieves the
readmission with indefinite contract of the first of the
dismissed from Dock 39 (ca) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, Interventions of the Women's Initiative Against
Patriarchy and the Dwarf Horse in the City Center by dirty horse
(gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. wsm.ie: PESCO and The Militarisation of the EU
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. anarkismo.net: SUTCRA communiqué on murder of Marcelo
Silvera by Unified Trade Union of Cargo Transport and Allied
Branches - SUCTRA (ca, it) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. black rose fed - Philadelphia: STREET MEDIC TRAINING
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
For many months, we have been gathering every Wednesday afternoon in front of the Patras
County Court to prevent our fellow residents' auctions. Together with other fighters,
student clubs, collectives and organizations, we have managed - at the present time - to
put down mounds in the attempt to get the first home from the state and the banks.
Respective mobilizations are carried out by a number of people at county courts throughout
the country. Mobilizations that have occasionally been targeted by state repression and
resulted in the persecution of several fighters. ---- Today, the inability of the state
and capitalist system to draw consensus on its plans leads to the gradual replacement of
auctions in peace courts and to the adoption of the method of electronic auctions through
the legally-validated lawmaking of a relevant online platform. Electronic auctions will be
conducted with the care of the local notary offices on various days and hours.
Despite government announcements about the immediate operation of the system in September,
technical issues, according to the official version, have not yet allowed its
implementation. In fact, the development of a militant and unwavering defense of housing
and basic social goods coupled with widespread aggravation of social anger and indignation
brought about by the assault of the bosses have created a climate of complete
socialization of the measure, - which will entail enormous political costs for the
government - to be postponed, now at the end of the year.
True allies throughout this aggressive movement of the state and capital are the big
notary offices, which act as the long hand of the banks by undertaking the realization of
electronic auctions. As if this was not the case, the Notary Association of Patras and
West Sterea has recently decided to abstain from auctioning by the end of the year, but
not to prevent the exploitation of popular property but with a basic demand for their
proper conduct and the protection of notaries from "attacks by groups or individuals who
are indiscriminately directed against any auctions"; proposing that the auctions be held
in normal court hours and in a hall within the patrimony of Patras to ensure their smooth
conduct. Nobody is responsible ...
We clearly state that we will continue to struggle against the attempt to impose the
regime of exploitation and oppression at every point where the aggression of the bosses
and the state manifests itself. Housing, as well as access to basic social goods
(electricity, water, health, education) are non-negotiable rights and we will defend them
against the state which once again bangs the lower and poorer social strata confirms its
diachronic antisocial role .
The only way to be able to respond to this attack we are experiencing is the road of
social and class struggles. Employees, the unemployed, the youth, the locals and the
immigrants, knowing their real needs, must take their lives, organize themselves and
fight, collectively, self-organized and uninvolved, in every social and working space,
schools and schools, workplaces, neighborhoods and streets, away from any party and
syndicalist manipulation that inevitably leads to the weakening and degeneration of the
social and class movement. It is now perceived that people from the bottom of society,
they can no longer have any confidence and can not wait for anything from the various
aspiring managers and mediators of social anger. The only way to abolish exploitation and
oppression is self-organized, uninterrupted, unbridled social and class struggles, for the
total rupture and overthrow of the state and capitalism.
To link them some and-demand games for permanent and stable employment, access to social
goods housing, healthcare, education, to defend labor and social rights, with the full and
timely social and political demand for the overthrow of the rotten world power and
libertarian transformation of society.
The insidious approaches of the state, the bosses, the bankers and their notaries will
fall into the gap. No attempt to evict will be tolerated. Safeguard our neighborhoods,
apply social solidarity and class self-organization in practice.
NO PEOPLE WITHOUT HOUSE
TO ORGANIZE THE SOCIAL AND DOCTORAL AUTONOMY!
CONCENTRATION IN THE PATRAS HOLIDAYS
EVERYTHING TO 3.30 pm
a narchiki group "restive horse" - a member of the Anarchist Political Organization
ipposd.wordpress.com | d_ippos@hotmail.com
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Message: 2
Is capitalism doing well ? In any case the crisis is not for everyone! ---- Public Meeting
- Saturday, January 13 at 6 pm at La Chapelle 36 rue Danielle Casanova 31100 Toulouse ----
But those who suffer from it must adapt to the new economic norms that the ruling
oligarchies concoct to extract for their benefit as much as possible from surplus value
produced by the whole proletariat: it is recomposed in precariousness, uberisation,
self-entrepreneurship, the decline of permanent contracts within the state apparatus, the
gradual disappearance of the small peasantry ... ---- And what about the new attacks
against Unédic (unemployment insurance) and pensions ! ---- All these attacks in the
economic field are embellished by a crisis of legitimacy towards the "representative
democracy" otherwise called bourgeois democracy.
Faced with this new offensive of the ruling classes, which is driving the whole of the
proletariat into social precariousness, as well as the lack of combativeness of the
working classes, we have no other choice today than to organize ourselves, to resist today
to lay the foundations of another society, imbued with the libertarian communist approach.
Facebook Events Link
https://www.facebook.com/events/528258090879892/
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Reunion-publique-Quelle-lutte-de-classe-au-XXIe-siecle
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Message: 3
On December 28, the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA)
declared null and void the dismissal of a worker of the company Top 30 SL in its
subsidiary Dock39 of Zaragoza, for which reason it must be incorporated to its former
post. working full-time and indefinitely, after the company has paid the processing fees
corresponding to the time he had to have been working since the day of his cessation. Said
worker was dismissed following the creation of the CNT Trade Union Section in Dock39 and
to denounce the lack of safety and hygiene in the facilities located in the "Puerto
Venecia" Shopping Center in Zaragoza, as well as the fraudulent nature of their contracts,
which was linked to weekly way. ---- The worker was dismissed after forming a trade union
section in that company with other work colleagues who, fed up with chaining temporary
contracts fraudulently and fearing for their health and safety (both of the workers
themselves and of the people , mostly boys and girls who use leisure and adventure
facilities) were organized in the absence of response from the company.
The shortcomings that were exposed in the complaint to Labor Inspection (IT) on
occupational hazards were: harnesses that do not adjust properly in the recreational
climbing wall and worn and peeled worsted clothes; accumulations of dirt in the park of
balls, carabiners and lines of life damaged; lack of staff safety training; daily reviews
ignored by the company; ratios of incomprehensible participants ... among others. After
these facts, the management of the company decided to dismiss the worker as well as two of
his colleagues also belonging to the Trade Union Section of CNT. The three workers
demanded arguing to suffer union repression because if they had not taken union action the
company would not have ceased them. Of the three dismissed and dismissed two are still
awaiting trial, while the third must now rejoin their job. The three workers demanded
arguing to suffer union repression because if they had not taken union action the company
would not have ceased them. Of the three dismissed and dismissed two are still awaiting
trial, while the third must now rejoin their job. The three workers demanded arguing to
suffer union repression because if they had not taken union action the company would not
have ceased them. Of the three dismissed and dismissed two are still awaiting trial, while
the third must now rejoin their job.
While the company was meeting with the workers in SAMA thinking that they would accept
financial compensation, in the workplace there were growing rumors from the management
against the union, saying that these workers were not dismissed but were instead
dismissed. The contract had ended and the union was campaigning against prestige
(demanding the readmission of the dismissed people at the doors of the shopping center
through demonstrations and rallies). This ruling gives the reason to the CNT and its union
section, recognizing that the dismissal was a reprisal and that the contracts were indeed
in fraud of law, so that this union values that by facing the companies and fighting, you win,
This sentence of the TSJA declares in fraud a model of contracting that is generalized in
the company, affirming the right of who is in this situation to pass to indefinite
contract. Therefore, the CNT encourages all workers who are in these circumstances to
contact the union to defend their rights.
http://aragon.cnt.es/cnt-dock39-la-cnt-logra-la-readmision-contrato-indefinido-del-primero-los-despedidos-dock-39/
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Message: 4
On the evening of Tuesday, January 9, you were comrades and partners from the initiative
of women against patriarchy and the anarchist group "dwarf horse", we made an intervention
at the center of Patras with posters and slogans. ---- Glued posters of women initiative
(founding text and the event stonewall, lgbtq the movements and the revolutionary
perspective). ---- Also, slogans were written at Benetton on Corinth Street for the murder
of the anarchist Santiago Maldonado and solidarity with the Indians Tupuse. ---- Finally,
we wrote slogans in central locations: bank branches, squares, churches and shops that
systematically circumvent the Sunday holiday.
LONG-TERM FIGHT AGAINST THE STATE OF THE CAPITAL AND THE PATRIARCH
FOR SOCIAL LIBERATION, FREEDOM OF COMMUNICATION AND ANARCHY
------------------------------
Message: 5
The idea that the European Union is an undemocratic entity has become unremarkable, yet
its latest authoritarian move shouldn't be overlooked since the negative consequences will
be felt both in Europe and abroad. ---- On the 11th of December 2017 the European council
decided to establish a European military command structure under the acronym of PESCO
(Permanent Structured Cooperation). This happened only a month after EU member states
issued a statement about their intention to participate in this European defence
cooperation. The speed of the process and the signing up of countries with neutrality
policies such as Ireland, Sweden, and Austria raises a red flag. In Ireland, the decision
to be part of PESCO happened after a rushed debate and was in direct violation of
Ireland's neutrality stance. On top of this, one interpretation of the 6th article of the
Irish constitution implies that any delegation of power to the EU should be put to a
referendum.
So why has PESCO suddenly become a priority? What is the geopolitical meaning of this move
and what exactly does PESCO entail?
Official communication on the matter from the EU diplomatic service (EEAS) predictably
tried to paint PESCO in a humanitarian light, pointing back to the myth of a European
Union founded on a world peace agenda. While EU and NATO officials haven't shied away from
speaking of PESCO as a complement to NATO and as a major step for European defence,
European state officials have tried to deny that the recent agreement qualified as the
creation of an embryonic EU army. Yet looking back at the history of the EU, it is clear
that the concept of a European Army was present from the start. A more interesting
question would be to ask what geopolitical factors have prevented a European defence
cooperation from happening in the past.
The Historical Origins of PESCO
After the second world war European states were in a vulnerable position and the USSR was
gaining power. The United states believed that without the manpower of Germany, Europe
would not be able to face a Soviet invasion. The Korean war which broke out in 1950 only
reinforced this concern. At this point, the intergovernmental political alliance which had
been created in 1949 under the acronym NATO took a new shape. Under the impulse of its
members (United states, Britain, France, and a number of other European states) it became
an integrated military structure giving the United states a leading role. That same year,
an American plan suggesting the creation of 12 West German army divisions was formulated,
but after the damage Germany had caused during the war, France was reluctant to allow
Germany to rebuild its army. As a counter-proposition, France came up with the Pleven Plan
which called for the creation of a supranational European Army undermining NATO and giving
France a dominant role. Acting as an ally of US imperialism, Britain rejected the
agreement, pushing instead for an integration of NATO and European military forces. A
modified Pleven Plan was formulated but eventually got rejected by the French parliament
(Gaullists feared a loss of national sovereignty and Communists refused a deal placing
them in opposition to the Soviet Union). By that time the Korean war had ended and
Stalin's death in 1953 had contributed to a relative de-escalation of tensions.
From then on and throughout the Cold War, the United states, France and Britain
continuously encouraged other EU states who were part of NATO to increase their military
spending in proportion to their GDP. But realising that they were standing between 2
superpowers who were keeping each other in check, EU states gave priority to the expansion
of trade by setting up a common market in the name of the European Coal and Steel
Community. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, most European countries reduced
their military spending even further. But the Balkan Wars of the 1990's led Britain to
realize that without the threat of an expansionist USSR, the United states might not be
endlessly willing to back up EU countries. In private, American policy makers were even
suggesting that NATO's days were numbered. In response to this change of circumstances,
Britain started encouraging greater military cooperation within the European Union with
the hope of consolidating NATO.
In 1999, at the European Council summit, the creation of European Battlegroups was
suggested for the first time. In 2003, the Artemis operation which took place in the
Democratic Republic of Congo served as a proof of concept and just few months later,
Britain, France and Germany officially released a paper pushing for the creation of EU
Battlegroups. These battalions, which have become a key component of PESCO, are intended
to be ready for deployment at all times, to engage in rapid response missions, assist
existing troops and prepare the ground for larger forces. They are more often described as
peacekeeping troops entrusted with humanitarian tasks such as aid deliverance and evacuation.
In the meantime, France and Britain continued to encourage military spending in the EU and
in 2006, all NATO members agreed on an increase with a target set at 2% of GDP. This had
very little effect and spending continued to decrease steadily in most EU countries. It
appeared as though this situation could only be remedied by a binding agreement forcing EU
members to ramp up their military budget - which brings us to PESCO, a binding agreement
implying the close cooperation of EU states over military matters (research, purchase of
equipment, interventions) increased military budgets, and the supervision of EU state's
military spending by an EU body.
Possible Causes of PESCO's Sudden Implementation
As this short historical overview indicates, the idea of an EU army has been in the air
for a while. Yet disagreement about how autonomous it should be from NATO, and how closely
it should be tied to the United state's imperialist agenda had so far thwarted its growth.
China's rapid power buildup may have provided a new motivation to push the project
through. Yet according to a common media narrative, the reason PESCO didn't happen before
Brexit has everything to do with Britain's opposition to a project that would have
competed with NATO.
This seemingly clean explanation is contradicted by a number of elements. While it is true
that, a few months after Brexit, President of EU commission Juncker called for a stronger
European defence that would protect Europe's "way of life" against existential threats, it
should also be noted that he had already encouraged the creation of an EU army in March
2015. That same month EU commissioner for Industry Elzbieta Bienkowska created a High
Level Group of Personalities meant to lobby the European Commission and promote the
military industry.
A more convincing reason why Brexit might have served as a catalyst for PESCO lies in the
fact that Britain and France were the only 2 EU countries possessing nuclear weapons after
the Paris and London conferences of 1945 had forbidden Germany to develop its own nuclear
arsenal. After the Brexit vote and after ‘Frexit' became a central theme of the latest
French presidential election, the need to enhance EU integration as a means to avoid the
loss of all nuclear deterrents became more pressing than ever. The rise of nationalist
parties and the fear of an ongoing dislocation of the European bloc that would restrict
the trading opportunities of European companies is arguably also a major factor in the
sudden prioritization of PESCO.
Far from materialising its greatest fears, PESCO turns out to fulfill many of Britain's
long-voiced wishes. Contrary to an official EU promotional video which suggest that by
pooling resources together EU countries will avoid redundant purchases and reduce their
military spending, PESCO is in fact a binding agreement that will force EU states to
increase their defence budget in line with the unmet target set by NATO in 2006. A
coordinated annual review on defence (CARD) will serve the purpose of controlling EU
member's level of investment in military research and equipment acquisition. Finally,
PESCO also involves a close cooperation and coordination with NATO in all military-related
activities. Britain will remain free to join at any time.
PESCO and the European Project
Clearly, for a country to remain neutral, the adequate amount of participation in PESCO is
none. To join PESCO is to finance the military industry by allocating billions of Euros to
the EU defence fund. It entails sharing information and engineering weapons in cooperation
with nations that have a long record of hawkish military intervention and of selling
weapons to dictatorial regimes.
The mandatory increase in military spending will further stifle investment in healthcare,
social housing and education. And because the EU has seemingly unlimited supplies of
cynicism, it has been suggested that European state's contribution to the European Defence
Fund might be excluded from the EU's austerity oriented budget-balancing rules. This sets
the priority on war and ‘security' over providing basic social services.
Lastly the conflation of military and humanitarian tasks will allow governments to
dissimulate the true nature of the missions performed by EU battlegroups, and at any rate
would jeopardise intended humanitarian missions.
The possibility for EU states to set up a permanent structured cooperation came with the
ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a repackaging of the Treaty of Rome II which France and
Netherland had rejected. Only Irish voters were consulted via referendum before the
ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, and yet it first got rejected in part because of
Ireland's refusal to participate in a common European defense. The 28th amendment to the
Irish constitution was created explicitly to get Ireland to accept the Lisbon Treaty while
being exempt from participating in PESCO. In spite of this, in a move that reveals his
absolute contempt for the Irish people, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar claimed that there was no
use for a debate around PESCO since Ireland had signed up for it by voting for the Lisbon
treaty. In other words ‘'I don't want (or have) to talk about it, I know what you think
and I don't care''.
On a certain level, this shouldn't be surprising. The history of the EU is the history of
a methodical power grab by the European ruling class. Before the current European
institutions were set up, the European states were institutions through which the workers
of Europe could contest (but never abolish) the terms of their exploitation. States had a
monopoly over the use of violence and this violence was used to enforce the rules of
capitalist exploitation (the police) and also to defend the economic interests of the
nation abroad (the army). With the ratification of successive European treaties, EU
institutions were given the power to decide the terms of capitalist exploitation without
being answerable to the populations of the various EU states. These states continued to
have the monopoly over the use of violence and to enforce the rules set by the EU. As a
result, throughout Europe, debates during elections started to polarize over whether or
not to leave a European Union built on austerity.
From this perspective, PESCO can be seen as a move to diminish the prerogatives of EU
states even further, to stimulate growth with the hope that improved economic
circumstances will deflate anti-EU sentiment, and to increase Europe's capacity to
intervene militarily abroad by investing massively in the military industry.
A Familiar Pattern
Although Putin's annexation of Crimea and international terrorism are often used as
scarecrows to bolster western support in favour of PESCO, it is worth noting that France
and Germany's combined military spending already dwarf Russia's and that the war on terror
has been used time and time again to justify imperialist wars abroad as well as attacks on
human rights within the EU (the latest example being French president Emmanuel Macron's
transfer of exceptional emergency policing powers into permanent law).
PESCO should therefore be seen for what it is: In the face of the EU's legitimacy crisis,
PESCO is the European ruling class's short sighted attempt to recreate a cohesive
imperialist bloc endowed with credible military power. But more than anything it is a
testimony of the EU's fragility. Yet we shouldn't take this fragility as a reason to
dismiss what is happening. Like any predator, Europe is most dangerous when it is wounded,
and for this reason we should all take notice.
Main Sources
http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/21481/nato-eu-declaration-8-july-en-final.pdf
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/defence-security/#
https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/34226/Permanent%20Structured%20Cooperation%20(PESCO)%20-%20Factsheet
https://www.viewpointmag.com/2014/10/26/europe-forged-in-crisis-the-emergence-and-development-of-the-eu/
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/european-union-wwii-trade-monnett-merkel-trump
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-military-industrial-complex-is-fundamentally-changing-the-european-union/
http://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/pdf/2011/pb_csdp_24oct11-3907.pdf
http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/dec2017/eu_democracy_empire.pdf
http://www.thejournal.ie/eu-army-pesco-3734034-Dec2017/
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/pesco-makes-us-choose-defence-spending-over-housing-homeless-1.3327607
Subject: Militarisation, EU
Topics: Imperialism
Geography: International
Source: Opinion
Type: Analysis
Author: Emmanuel
https://www.wsm.ie/
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Message: 6
The Union of Freight Transport and Related Branches (SUTCRA) laments to communicate the
condemnable and fateful murder of a comrade and leader of SUTCRA, Marcelo Silvera, during
a General Strike decreed by our union on Tuesday, January 2, 2018. ---- This murder has
numerous different characteristics and has aggravating circumstances to an act of common
violence, taking into consideration that while the comrade Marcelo Silvera was traveling
with his wife to take their young son to a fellow comrade due to health problems, he came
across a worker from the Rivera firm, Viena Transport, a driver who was using the firm's
truck, not in compliance with the union's measure. Recognizing our comrade due to his
well-known militancy, the driver carries out a harsh maneuver that obliges Silvera to
brake his vehicle in such a way that his life and those of his wife and son become
threatened. In these circumstances, a discussion arises regarding the route that ends at
the doors of the Viana Transport firm, when Comrade Marcelo alights from his car and
directs himself to tell this worker off for his attitude. Cowardly, this worker from above
the truck and without ever coming down from it shoots our comrade Silvera in the chest,
leaving him bleeding out on the floor of the firm's entrance, being embraced by his wife
and his 6-year old son.
The Viena Firm, failing to provide assistance and desiring to distance itself from the
murder, orders the truck with the murderer in it to enter the firm's property. Because the
company lacks the decency to even call any health service by phone, the neighbors from the
community are those who call the authorities, having heard the heartbreaking cries of
Silvera's wife.
SUTCRA energetically condemns and repudiates the murder of our Comrade National Director,
Marcelo Silvera, and demands that his murder be profoundly investigated, and that the
culpability not only for the murder but also the Viena firm, which employed an armed
worker during a day of general strike. Furthermore, we wish to stress the omission of
assistance rendered by the company once our comrade had been shot.
We commit ourselves to struggle daily so that the murder of our leader Marcelo Silvera
will not remain in impunity, and that events such as these never recur in our beloved country.
In light of the events that have been highlighted, SUTCRA declares a national general
strike out of sorrow from 12pm to midnight.
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30794
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Message: 7
Saturday, January 20 at 3 PM - 5 PM EST ---- Wooden Shoe Books and Records --- 704 South
St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19147 ---- Philadelphia Black Rose will be holding a Street
Medic Training event on the anniversary of last year's inaugural protests. Come learn the
essentials of stateless emergency medical attention! ---- Due to some logistical
limitations this time around, this will be a shortened version of the street medic
training we originally planned. Half of the event will focus on theory and current
practice of street medicine. The other half will involve a discussion of what we view as
the most essential care one is able to provide in an uncertain situation, assuming a
minimal medical capacity. ---- For more information, check out the Facebook event here.
https://www.facebook.com/events/173763509897181/ ---
http://blackrosefed.org/street-medic-training/
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