Anarchic update news all over the world - 19.03.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  [Spain] A historic March 8 By ANA (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #280 - University of
      Mirail: Mobilization against fusion (fr, it, pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Britain, Anrchist Cmmunist Group, ACG: UCU members reject
      leadership recommendation and bin bullshit offer
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Greece, Liberta salonica: Solidarity with Afrin on Thursday
      22/3 18:00 Kamara (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 5.  US, black rose fed - RESOURCES ON TENANT 
      ORGANIZING, HOUSING
      AND GENTRIFICATION (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL - feminism, Spain: A
      historic 8th of March by AL Gard (fr, it, pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  wsm.ie: Comments as #repealthe8th referendum becomes a
      reality (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





Yesterday (08/03) there was no place for silence, our voices took to the streets and the 
squares. More than 300 demonstrations took place simultaneously in all the territory of 
the State. ---- "If we stop, the world stops" was the motto of the Feminist Coordinator. 
We do not stop it, we brake it dry so that the inertia of capitalism of unscrupulous 
accumulation does not drag us. In the CGT we saw it with clear meridian, even when the 
agougers called us crazy for wanting to "dance our revolution". "Without us the world does 
not work," was the motto we proposed for this campaign for EQUALITY with capital letters. 
---- A century and a half of struggle carry the libertarians in their minds, their backs, 
their sides and their bellies. Our grandparents fought for us and now we fight for them. 
How they always taught us that life seemed impossible. With pride of class, with worker 
consciousness. If they saw us they would give us that kiss on the front that protects us 
from everything that alienates us from ourselves. We will tell our grandchildren and 
grandchildren, to the generations to come, that we had the courage to dream of a different 
world and the strength of finding collective strategies to change it.

A resounding success, an unprecedented historic milestone that surpassed any imaginable 
prediction. About six million women supported Greve and many millions of people took to 
the streets in most cities. A feminist and working class tsunami that does not want to and 
can not afford to leave for another time the social debate that generates a change of 
common sense until more egalitarian and respectful of life. Feminists demand to speak of 
wage differentials, of assumptions for the state pact against gender violence, inequality, 
gender violence, economic, judicial and labor violence.

The figures lie when they speak of the feminine. We were more than counting governments 
and were less than the atrocious production allows or the wages of fear grants. There were 
thus many precarious ones, the prey, lacking those that fell into the hands of the macho 
violence in this state of social war. Artificadas, Cifuentes and all acolytes of the 
patriarchy are the only ones left alone. Their Japanese strike pickets did not work, nor 
did the shabbiness and miserable demobilizing maneuvers of the regime's unions which they 
presume to be "majorities" and went out to be booed.

The CGT flooded the streets, filling them with their tracks. We do not come here by 
chance, our movements are horizontal, assembly, slow but relentless. We raise once again 
the red and black flag with constancy, consistency, justice, parity, solidarity ... to say 
Enough of violence against life! Proud to favor and legalize a 24-hour General Strike, 
committed, courageous and combative, which is the beginning of the change and which gives 
us the opportunity of another 365 new days of struggle until the 8th of March.

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE FEMINIST OR IT WILL NOT BE!

Permanent Secretariat of the CGT Confederal Committee

Translation> Sol de Abril

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Message: 2






Before the Christmas holidays, the University of Mirail had a major mobilization against 
the project of university merger, amplified by the betrayal of the president who went 
against the results of the referendum that had organized it. ---- In Toulouse, the project 
of university merger had been brewing for a few years. Already effective in other cities, 
these are major budget cuts and working conditions and studies degraded for all sectors 
and labs deemed unprofitable, uncompetitive, not compatible with the market. The merger is 
also less democratic boards of directors, with a greater presence of private economic 
interests who decide where the funding goes, while the student presence and staff in these 
same councils will be minimal and without influence possible.

Increased presence of economic interests
These large institutions have a derogatory character to the Education Code and thus on 
diplomas, registration fees and programs. In a context of officialization of the selection 
in license and master, it is the door open to all injustices for students (or rather 
candidates) of the working classes. We are moving towards a two-tier university with 
private structures at exorbitant cost and public faculties with degraded and powerless 
conditions. The Idex label dazzles 25 million euros of funding to facs accepting the 
merger, but we know that they will benefit especially labs meeting the "   criteria of 
excellence"  "(Pharmaceutical, aeronautics ...) to the detriment of the labs and sectors 
which are not in a logic of adaptation to the requirements of the market.

College staff also know how much they will be eaten with planned job cuts and increased 
working hours without pay compensation for those who are "   lucky   " to stay. Lacroix, 
president of the Mirail factions, said he was opposed to the merger when he was elected. 
At the beginning of December, a consultation of the students and staffs was organized, 
where the no to the fusion won the majority. The board, yet divided, betrayed the result 
by voting for ... with the predominant voice of Lacroix  !

President's betrayal
Enough to provoke a serious mobilization, in spite of undeniable difficulties. It is 
difficult nowadays to succeed in a massive strike in the facs. The precarious tenants dare 
to strike. Some teachers and researchers are in favor of the merger because they believe 
in Idex grants. Student unionism no longer has the weight of yesteryear and students 
mobilize less easily.

This being the case, at Mirail, in addition to a trade union unit of the personnel (CGT, 
SUD-Educ, FO, FSU, Unsa) and students (UET, Solidaires, Unef), several GAs pronouncing 
against the merger and for the resignation Lacroix has exceeded 300 people. The last week 
before the holidays, a staff strike was held in order to challenge the university 
train-work with the closing of almost all the libraries of Mirail, as well as the visible 
consequences in the administrative services of the facs. But difficult to mobilize a lot 
of students when the lack of compulsory and partial courses can call into question our 
scholarships, often vital.

Nevertheless, the towing and GA have alerted many people, several invasions of advice have 
taken place (imposing the postponement of some), not leaving the pro-fusion elected 
representatives and representatives of private interests sleeping on their two ears . The 
movement is clearly visible, and many students and non-strikers speak about it, and for 
many, understand it and even support it. It remains to imagine how to launch in the action 
the many informed but passive people, how to start a movement in the faculties of Toulouse 
outside Mirail and converge this fight with those equivalent in other cities of the country.

Marius (AL Toulouse)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Universite-du-Mirail-Mobilisation-contre-la-fusion

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Message: 3





After ongoing negotiations with Universities UK (UUK), the leadership of the University 
and College Union (UCU) went into full backslide mode and attempted to get the membership 
to accept a capitulation deal. The reaction from branches was understandably one of anger 
with 52 branches voting to reject and none accepting the dodgy offer. ---- So staff in 61 
universities continue with their strike, now in its third week. Morale has been high on 
picket lines across the UK, with considerable support from students and lots of energy, 
creativity and fighting spirit amongst academic and professional workers. ---- The nature 
of the attack upon the University Superannuation Scheme (USS) is so particularly brutal 
and provocative, with some staff looking to lose up to 50% of their pensions, it has 
created a level of anger amongst Higher Education workers that has pushed the UCU into 
calling sustained strikes and making militant noises.

Some UCU branches have opened their strike committees to students, to members of other 
unions and to supporters from outside the university. Others have passed resolutions 
demanding that UCU negotiators reject any substantial change to the existing scheme - 
something which the UCU negotiators have already accepted as inevitable. Both of these are 
positive but they need to be generalised. In order to win this fight the rank and file 
have to take the lead and find ways to broaden the struggle in a way that can bring on 
board ever larger numbers of workers who are facing similar attacks. Student occupations, 
which have taken place at 9 universities so far, have hinted that direct action could be 
used to maximise impact beyond picket lines. Years of marketisation of Higher Education, 
where profit and market position has become central to working life at university whilst 
casualisation has become widespread have seen little resistance from the union. UCU 
members are aware of this but instead of waiting for the ‘sell-out', they need to take the 
initiative in the strike and link up with other workers' struggles.

For news and updates, see:

Notes From Below - for rank and file strike bulletins

USS Strike solidarity blog

Advice about UCU strike Libcom thread

Lecturers' and support staff rebel as unions offers poor pension offer

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/03/14/ucu-members-reject-leadership-recommendation-and-bin-off-bullshit-offer/

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Message: 4





On 20/1, Turkish troops began to attack air and artillery against the positions of the 
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the canton of Afrino, part of the Democratic Federation 
of Northern Syria or else Rosawa. The bombing of Turkish troops has also hit civilian 
targets. The number of wounded and dead remains unclear. At present, the Turkish army has 
encircled Afrin, where 800 thousand people remain free besieged without water, food, and 
drugs. A few days ago, Erdogan launched threats against the Kurdish Rosa, saying that 
Turkey has expansionist aspirations towards the region of Manbiz, Kobani and Kamilli, 
which they are about to end through militarist interventions. The 20th. ---- Turkey's 
generalized military assault on the liberated Rosava lands was made with the consent of 
the central and regional imperialist powers operating in the Middle East region and in 
particular with Russia's consensus that withdrew the troops from Africa and from Iran. In 
a tripartite agreement between Russia, Iran and Turkey in Astana, it was decided to 
establish areas to restrict the tensions in the Aleppo and perimeter of Indlib, as well as 
the removal of Islamist troops from these areas. These al-Qaeda militia organizations are 
funded and supported by Turkey. The Assad regime, however, with the help of its stable 
allies in the region, Russia and Iran, that is, he wants to append for himself the region 
of Idlib, the northern part of which is under Turkish occupation. Turkey, however, not 
only did not "nudge" and remove these organizations from the region but found the 
opportunity to increase its influence on them and to integrate them into its plans to 
strike the canton of Afrin, which borders northern with Turkey, south with Indlim and west 
with a Turkish occupation zone called the "Shield of the Euphrates". So, Afrin is 
surrounded by Turkish military forces and their allies. Assad's military units are 
withdrawn from the border with Manbiz, opening a pass for the Turkish army and the Free 
Syrian Army (FSA) to hit Afrin at his rear. Assad remains faithful to his dependence on 
Russian interests, so he does as well. At the same time, the US, which up until now 
supported the Rosa Kurds in terms of funding, arms supply, military training and aid, said 
in a Pentagon statement that units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) focusing 
exclusively on armed conflict with ISIS, will not receive US support from now on. At the 
same time, ISIS launched a fierce attack on Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern 
Syria. The forces of the revolutionary Kurdish revolutionaries are in a dilemma, being 
under terrible pressure. They have two huge open fronts, in Africa and in Eastern Syria. 
Afrins defend 10.

The areas of constraint on the tensions referred to above were to be attributed to the 
Assad regime under the Astana agreement. But Islamist armed organizations - Turkish allies 
- have not yet left the Idlib district. It seems that there are vibrations inside the 
newly formed but opportunistic, as it seems, coalition of Turkey-Russia-Iran. However, 
this does not in any way mean its dissolution. It is a fact that Turkey seeks to become a 
pro-world power in the Middle East chessboard. She teeth her teeth in the US and Russia, 
and is trying to increase in size. It can blackmail transnational agreements and 
alliances, but its constant enemy is the Rosa Kurds and the libertarian experiment of the 
democratic confederation. Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime find a common place in its 
goal. The Turkish occupation of Northern Indlim and the Shield of the Euphrates is holding 
Turkey in the game of Syrian civil war and geopolitical developments in the Middle East. 
Turkey has spotted the region's energy sources and suppressing the Kurdish revolution in 
Rosava and is not ready to step back. Turkey currently holds the North Indili region as a 
negotiating paper for a possible exchange of it with the Afghan canton. Turkey has spotted 
the region's energy sources and suppressing the Kurdish revolution in Rosava and is not 
ready to step back. Turkey currently holds the North Indili region as a negotiating paper 
for a possible exchange of it with the Afghan canton. Turkey has spotted the region's 
energy sources and suppressing the Kurdish revolution in Rosava and is not ready to step 
back. Turkey currently holds the North Indili region as a negotiating paper for a possible 
exchange of it with the Afghan canton.

The almost complete elimination of ISIS marks the beginning of a difficult period for 
defending the social revolution in Rosawa. Now, the revolution is either going to be a 
direct target of attacks by the imperialist forces operating in the region, or to become a 
target for manipulation by the big powers (see the US) who will want to use it for their 
benefit the promotion of their designs against their opponents. The geopolitical 
pressures, the economic and military dependence of the YPG units and the YPJ are about to 
culminate now that the ISIS hours are over and the cyclone's eye is to be transferred to 
Rosawa. Although, for our part, we do not suffice for a pure and safe condemnation, albeit 
temporary, part of the revolutionary movements with state formations (with what this 
implies), this certainly does not mean that we forgot even for a moment that these 
alliances strongly undermine the very foundations of a possible emancipatory and 
liberating prospect. Capital has an international displacement within the world of the 
internationalized market economy, as opposed to the revolutions emerging from a particular 
local boundary. Therefore, the only way to release revolutionary movements from 
geopolitical pressure and economic and military dependence on various imperialisms is to 
promote proletarian internationalism and the widespread outbreak of social revolutions, 
especially in neighboring countries. Thus, social revolutions can be defended by 
multiplying them.

We are not totally identifiable with the model of democratic confederation. We recognize, 
however, his contribution to the emancipatory course of women and the struggle against 
patriarchy, multi-racial coexistence and internationalism, in the effort to implement the 
precepts of social ecology, direct democracy, anti-federalism and renewal modern 
revolutionary liberation prospect. We know that the Revolution in Rosawa secured freedoms 
and met a significant part of the needs and desires of the oppressed social base in an 
environment that until recently had plagued religious fundamentalism, despotic state 
sovereignty, sexism and generalized conservatism. For these reasons we do not complain 
about our anarchist "purity"

The oppressed and exploiting of this world do not have to divide anything between us. We 
must find ourselves on the same side of the checkpoint, despite what the 'national' 
narratives are saying, wanting to perpetuate political freedom and economic exploitation 
from the bottom. Our common enemy is state and capital, not people who are in the same 
social and class as ours. At a time when war plans are dwindling and slowly seeming to 
approach their diaspora and in the West itself, the proletarians are all destined to 
become northern in the canons of the sovereigns. The bourgeoisie neither fights nor covers 
the cost of wars. Their wars pay them out of their pocket and with their own blood the 
proletariat itself for the interests of capital.

I find myself in passing, a steady militaristic tactic is the so-called "war on democracy 
and justice" or "war on terror", which has been used in particular by the United States. 
and it has also been put into practice in the Middle East's explosive environment for the 
extermination of ISIS, which has itself evolved into Euro-Atlantic imperialism and its 
satellites in the region (see Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey). Turkey's Foreign Minister 
Melvot Tsavousoglou said Turkey's intervention is aimed at combating "terrorism" and in 
the contradictions of opportunistic alliances, Turkey's presidential spokesman appealed to 
the United States. to withdraw the support of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The 
dominant narrative calls terrorists those who struggle against the tyranny of the state 
and capital. For us the decoding of the above message has to do with the side of the class 
camp in which everyone is. And we are in the opposite camp. In the camp of the oppressed 
and the exploited, those who live by their work, the unemployed, the poor and the unloved. 
YPG fighters and YPJ fighters are battling with the gun in hand for social liberation. On 
the other hand, the wars attempt to be purged of the victims' hatreds, by the "mitigating" 
of "restoring" the abused human and democratic rights. Behind these authoritative 
embellishments, for the eyes of the world, lies the more cruel brute of capitalism and 
state power, painted with blood of proletarians to satisfy the interests of political and 
economic elites. Such interventions have given political / institutional, economic and 
military power to the theocratic and totalitarian regimes that function as marionettes of 
the imperialists and ducts of their aspirations.

As part of the social base, we are not going to turn the barrels of arms towards our class 
brothers, from whom we are separated only artificially from the upper frontiers, nations 
and religions, in order to reinforce the disorientation from the bottom from the political 
and social oppression and economic exploitation that exist and divide themselves among 
themselves rather than the community of their material interests. The only war we are 
involved in is the unstoppable social and class war, whose end we seek to be the social 
revolution that will precipitate the world of state and capital to enable universal 
humanitarian coexistence and generalized social self-management on its foundations 
libertarian communism.

We express our unwavering solidarity with the Kurdish revolutionaries of Rosawa and with 
the internationalist anarchists and communists who are fighting alongside them. The 
safeguarding of the Liberation Revolution in Rosawa is a mound in the global pursuit of 
state and capitalist totalitarianism and a bright example of resistance and revolutionary 
social transformation. After the heroic battle of Kobani, defense of Afrins is the 
continuation of the people's struggle in Kurdistan for a world of freedom, equality and 
solidarity.

WINNING IN THE GUNS OF THE YUG'S ANGUES AND THE YPJ (WOMEN'S AUTONPROSTATION UNITS)

POWER OF THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM BATTALION (INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF FREEDOM), THE 
REVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 
BATTALION (IRPGF) INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATION

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AGAINST THE HEARING OF THE STATE AND CAPITAL

TO WORK A WORLD FOR ALL AND NOT FOR A LITTLE

ORGANIZATION AND FIGHT AGAINST WORLD SOCIAL REVOLUTION, ANARCHY AND FREEDOM COMMEMORATION

CONCENTRATION OF SOLIDARITY IN AFRIN
SATURDAY 17/3 12:00 VELIZELOS AGALMA
SOLIDARITY IN AFRIN
THURSDAY 22/3 18:00 KAMARA

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2018/03/15

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Message: 5






Collected Writings on Gentrification, Tenant Organizing, Rent Control and Socialized 
Housing ---- Struggles around housing, displacement, gentrification and to organize 
tenants are growing stronger in the current moment. In the recent past we've seen efforts 
to organize alongside tenants to wage single issue fights against landlords with 
solidarity networks. More recently we've seen efforts to form autonomous tenant unions as 
well as struggles over rent control and affordable housing. We hope that this evolving 
resource guide can inform, share strategies and analysis as well as inspire future 
organizing efforts. This was compiled by individuals organizing tenants in Mountain View, 
CA, the hometown of Google. #PowerFromBelow ---- Share with this link and look for 
updates: bit.ly/socializedhousingforall

Other Collections
Gentrification is Displacement and Replacement of the Poor for Profit
A large syllabus by the School of Echoes/Co-founders of the LA Tenants Union

"This syllabus starts from the assumption that housing is a human right, that every person 
has the right to a safe and affordable place to live. Housing is much more than shelter: 
it is our connection to our communities, even our sense of self. This syllabus draws 
together a host of readings that explore the profound contradictions between the economic 
use of housing-for profit and speculation-and this social use."

Yes on Measure V FAQ and resources
 From the victorious 2016 campaign for rent control in Mountain View, CA. - collected 
resources and a FAQ responding to common concerns about rent control:

"Rents have nearly doubled in only the last seven years in Mountain View, fueled by real 
estate speculation and extreme job growth. Rent increases of $1,000 a month are all too 
common. These rent hikes have driven out our friends, family members and the diverse 
people who make Mountain View great. Measure V curbs this with...."

Rent Control Talking Points/Newer Reports
The Benefits of Rent Stabilization
By Stephen Barton, former director of the City of Berkeley Housing Department and former 
deputy director of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Program. Oct. 3, 2017

Clear arguments refuting common landlord talking points in the Bay Area with links to 
important studies at the end.

Rent Control Works: A Response to Business School Professors Misguided Attack on Rent Control
By Dean Preston and Shanti Singh, Tenants Together, March 12, 2018

Response to recent study by Stanford business school professors, which confirms that rent 
control prevents displacement, but blames rent control, not legal loopholes and various 
other factors, for rising rents: "Remarkably, the authors write an entire paper blaming 
rising rents on rent control, and do not even mention once that the primary tool that the 
city could use to prevent those citywide rent increases is vacancy control, which the real 
estate industry banned through statewide legislation in 1995."

Strengthening Communities Through Rent Control
By Leslie Gordon, Urban Habitat, Jan., 2018

"The goal of this policy report is to investigate and challenge common arguments against 
rent control and just-cause evictions. Urban Habitat studied rent boards and policy 
outcomes in Berkeley, Santa Monica, and Richmond..."

Analysis of the Crisis, Perpetrators of the Crisis
Why Is There a Housing Crisis?
Richard Walker, East Bay Express

"Conservative critics, of course, denounce all popular efforts to control runaway housing 
costs, displacement, speculation, and bad planning as unnatural violations of some 
"natural law" of perfect markets. No one should be fooled by such fantasies. The real 
"market distortions" propelling the housing crisis are inequality, speculation, financial 
bloat, tax havens, and more. The day when the runaway privileges of bankers, builders, 
speculators, wealthy suburbanites, and the rest are reined in - that's the day the housing 
crisis will be over."

Short Circuit: Towards an Anarchist Approach to Gentrification
By "Two Toronto members" Libcom.org

A detailed analysis of how gentrification has played out worldwide: "Gentrification, 
etymologically speaking, is a relatively new word, coined in 1964 by the English Marxist 
sociologist Ruth Glass....Glass came up with the term gentrification to describe the 
growing displacement of residents of working-class neighbourhoods in London by 
middle-class property buyers, often under the auspice of "urban renewal""...."Capital 
doesn't care if we feel at home somewhere. That feeling is a barrier to investment."....by 
the 2000s, "Gentrification had become, in many places, something akin to a hegemony of 
urban space, something healthy cities aspired to, as inevitable and regular as the tides."

What's in My Backyard?
By Karen Narefsky, Jacobin magazine

"The YIMBY narrative rests on an idea called filtering, which maintains that even luxury 
construction increases affordability: as new luxury units are built, wealthier residents 
move into the new housing stock instead of competing for existing lower-quality housing. 
Apart from the condescension - should low-income people really have to wait for housing to 
"filter" down to them? - this framework ignores the reality of today's housing market. 
Existing housing is more likely to be turned into short-term rentals through Airbnb, 
flipped to a condo developer, or turned into a high-end rental than it is to be occupied 
by a low-income family."

Listen, Yimby! What if Your Market-Based Model is Destined to Fail? An Open Letter from 
Someone Who is Not a Nimby
By Tim Redmond, 48 Hills

"if housing prices dropped to the level where most working San Franciscans could afford to 
enter the private market, developers would stop building, because the capital would dry 
up. There's more money to be made investing in places where the return is higher."

Nimbys and the Housing Crisis
By Tim Redmond, 48 Hills

"Developers build not to meet the market demand but to meet the demands of their 
investors. In San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s, it was highrise office space, not 
housing, that brought the highest returns to investors (often the newly deregulated 
Savings and Loans, that were speculating wildly in real estate, ultimately causing a huge 
crash that costs the US taxpayers more than $100 billion). In those days, no housing got 
built. I was here; I was watching. It wasn't Nimbys who stopped housing construction in 
SF; it was investment capital."

YIMBYs: The Darlings of the Real Estate Industry
By Andrew Szeto and Toshio Meronek, Truthout.org

"YIMBYs brand the activists continuing the tenant's rights legacy as "NIMBYs" who are 
aligning themselves with wealthy homeowners. However, activists like Becker and McElroy, 
who have been in the game for much longer than Trauss and company, foresee a new wave of 
redevelopment like that of the 1960s and 1970s, when "urban renewal" made a few people 
rich, while leaving large swathes of city dwellers homeless or forced to migrate out of 
the areas where their families had lived for generations. In the 1960s writer James 
Baldwin remarked that San Francisco's "urban renewal" of its then-Black-majority Fillmore 
district was "negro removal." Under the YIMBY flag, the same is happening today with 
low-income Black, Latinx and transgender people of color being the core targets of 
displacement. The YIMBY movement's developer allies and tech-employed urbanites stand to 
profit off this disruption of communities."

The Problem with YIMBY
By Andrew Szeto and Toshio Meronek, SF Examiner

Follow up to the article above: "In the aftermath of our article's publication, we have 
been the subjects of a mass doxing campaign - a common tact used by the alt-right against 
leftists. Our personal information has been shared widely over the internet, and our 
employers and publishers harassed, presumably to have us fired. If YIMBYs are so sure they 
are not right-wing conservatives, their actions hardly prove otherwise."

YIMBYism and the Cruel Irony of Metropolitan History
By David Levitus, LA Streetsblog

"If we don't tailor pro-density policies to explicitly counter a legacy of redlining of 
access to jobs and capital, and to preserve and create affordable housing, then the YIMBY 
agenda will perpetuate and not remedy the inequities that well-meaning YIMBYs intend to 
oppose....This essay seeks to deepen the discussion by offering a big-picture, long-term 
context for the debates we're having in 2018."

Transit-Oriented Development? More like Transit Rider Displacement
By Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal, LA Times opinion section

"On its surface, the idea makes sense: We should reward new housing near public 
transportation if we want to increase density and bolster rides. But rather than expanding 
ridership, new development is pushing riders away."

The Permanent Crisis of Housing
By David Madden and Peter Marcuse, Jacobin magazine

"...for working-class and poor communities, housing crisis is the norm. Insufficient 
housing has been the mark of dominated groups throughout history...Engels was generally 
pessimistic about the prospects for housing struggles per se. Criticizing bourgeois 
attempts at housing reform, he argued that housing problems should be understood as some 
of "the numerous, smaller, secondary evils which result from the present-day capitalist 
mode of production." ... Housing and urban development today are not secondary phenomena. 
Rather, they are becoming some of the main processes driving contemporary global capitalism."

Senate Bill 827, Equity, and the Need for Coalition Building in the YIMBY Movement
By Jason Islas, Santa Monica Next opinion section

"in some ways, YIMBYs - and I have been guilty of this - are discovering the housing 
crisis for the first time now that it has begun to impact the middle class, which is a 
relatively new phenomenon. Housing has always been a crisis for the poor, and there have 
been many activists working to address housing issues - overcrowding, displacement, unsafe 
and unsanitary housing - in low-income communities of color for decades. And we aren't 
talking to them or incorporating their ideas into our solutions."

Organizing Tips/Strategy/Philosophy
Organizing Tenants in the Rentier Society
By Michael Byrne, ROAR magazine

"Creating this sense of collectivity is a specific goal of tenant organizations to counter 
the individualizing nature of renting. The DTA, for example, set out from the beginning to 
develop a language through which to speak to and for tenants, based closely on their 
experiences rather than relying on a traditional left-wing discourse to produce a 
readymade critique of the rental sector. This is not just a case of "representing tenants" 
and communicating with them, but a case of speaking as tenants."

6 Practices to Build Community Power: An Intro to Solidarity Networks
By Brandon Feld, Portland Solidarity Network and Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation

"An important part to making the larger goals of broad social change attainable and 
realistic is building communities that can make decisions for themselves. Helping someone 
plan and carry out a successful campaign to get their stolen deposit back builds 
confidence in the idea that oppressed peoples can take back the things that are rightfully 
theirs, and that they don't have to rely on lawyers or politicians to do it for them."

Tenants Union: Fight Your Landlord and Win
A pamphlet by Buffalo Class Action, an anarchist political organization based in Buffalo, 
New York.

"Just as we would organize in our workplace against exploitative bosses, we propose the 
organization of a Citywide Tenants' Union to organize our power to assert that decent, 
affordable housing is a right for all people. A City Wide Tenants' Union should commit 
itself to organize all tenants of the large landlords in our city to aggressively demand 
our necessary rights to good quality housing. The tools of a serious Tenants' Union are 
incredibly powerful:..."

Building a Solidarity Network Guide
by the Seattle Solidarity Network

"The Seattle Solidarity Network (or "SeaSol" for short) is a small but growing workers' 
and tenants' mutual support organization that fights for specific demands using collective 
direct action. Founded in late 2007 by members of the Industrial Workers of the World 
(IWW), SeaSol is directly democratic, is all-volunteer, has no central authority, and has 
no regular source of funding except small individual donations. We have successfully 
defeated a wide variety of employer and landlord abuses, including wage theft, slumlord 
neglect, deposit theft, outrageous fees, and predatory lawsuits."

Rent Strikes: ‘Together We Can Defeat the Housing Market'
By Matt Broomfield, ROAR magazine

"An industrial striker does no work and so loses her pay, but rent strikers actually save 
money while they agitate, as astronomic rents stop crippling working people and start 
depreciating from the profits of housing companies. The more unbearable the financial 
burden on the renters, the keener the loss suddenly felt by the landlord, in an 
efficacious reversal of power dynamics."

Policies/Gains/Reforms
The Myth of Non-Reformist Reform
By Robin Hahnel, from his book, Economic Justice and Democracy: From Competition to 
Cooperation

"...the fact that every reform success makes capitalism less harmful does not mean 
successful reforms necessarily prolong the life of capitalism - although it might, and 
this is something anti-capitalists must simply learn to accept. But if winning a reform 
further empowers the reformers, and whets their appetite for more democracy, more economic 
justice, and more environmental protection than capitalism can provide, it can hasten the 
fall of capitalism."

NYC People's Housing Plan
decolonizethisplace.org

"PREAMBLE: The People's Housing Plan is a way for grassroots organizations, artists and 
activists to change the conversation about housing in New York City, moving beyond the 
policy goals of established nonprofit organizations and political parties."

End homelessness in New York City...
Universal rent control...
Transfer distressed buildings to tenant ownership...
Repair and expand high-quality public housing....
Democratize development....
People's Housing Plan (Los Angeles)
Page 55 of the Los Angeles Tenants Union Handbook

"...we must change the conversation around housing in California.

"We must move beyond asking for crumbs and only making demands considered "realistic" and 
"acceptable" by the system that creates the housing crisis in the first place. We must 
start making demands that ask for what we really need. These six demands are a start.

WE DEMAND:

An end to homelessness by...
An end to all forms of housing discrimination...
Strong universal rent control....
Public investment in alternatives to market housing...
Public ownership of disinvested land as well as vacant and foreclosed residences....
Development and land use approvals that are based on social need, not speculation...."

Socialized Housing Models
Communities Over Commodities
A report by Homes for All/Right to the City

"In the United States, and throughout the world, there are other models for providing 
housing security, and examples where communities have taken charge of housing needs 
through cooperative and collective arrangements that operate partially or fully outside of 
the market. These innovations emerged from social movements to address the root causes of 
housing insecurity, and as we demonstrate in this report, many models have a proven track 
record of success and some have impacted significant numbers of families and individuals. 
Despite this, U.S. elected officials and policymakers have been slow to support and 
explore alternative housing solutions."

New York Apartment Guide: Rent Control vs. Rent Stabilization
By Emily Nonko, Curbed NY

"...there are laws in place to ensure that not every New York renter is left to the whims 
of the market, and more than 1 million apartments in the city are subject to these 
protections. Rent stabilization is by far the most commonly applied protection, but highly 
coveted rent-controlled apartments still exist in some pockets of the city, too."

Housing Policy History
Making Rent and Rent-Making
By Alexis Zanghi, Jacobin magazine

"When the United States entered World War II, the federal government once again put rent 
controls in place. They continued until 1950, coinciding with one of the largest housing 
stock expansions in the country's history. At that time, even conservatives considered 
rent control a necessary social intervention; an article in the Cornell Law Review warned 
that too-high rents would "create class feeling."

Growing Up in the "Just City"
By Jennifer Baum, Jacobin magazine

"Over the years, long after my father's sudden death in 1974, my mother resisted leaving 
RNA house, even when she could afford to invest in private property. Ninety-Sixth Street 
was where she'd set up a household with my father. It was also where she was politicized. 
Instead of living in a typical New York City building where individuals strove in 
isolation from one another, she belonged to a community where the collective action of the 
building's residents underpinned her everyday experiences, shaping her life inside the 
building, her worldview, and her approach to society."

Tenant Organizing History
1931: Barcelona Mass Rent Strike
By Tom Wetzel, libcom.org

"The story of one of the biggest rent strikes of the 20th century where more than 100,000 
people faced down the landlords and the government winning improvements for many tenants."

The Tenant Movement in New York City, 1904-1984
A large historical work by Ronald Lawson, published on Libcom.org

"We will encounter numerous details of street-level mobilization, of the number of 
tenements organized, of rent strikers, of court cases, of union members, of crowds in 
meeting halls, of leaflets passed out. We will have to sort through the romantic, 
self-serving claims, some of them grown to movement myths, from the hard facts. Many 
remain too elusive to pin down. Some come from first-person reminiscences, a fascinating 
oral history. But the accounts are often thirty, even forty years old; some inevitably 
blend hazy recollections of 1937 with those of 1947. They demand corroboration with the 
written record. Admittedly, this reliance on literary evidence means reliance on those 
middle-class liberals who left a solid accounting and who usually staffed the government 
and reform agencies that tenants often confronted. There seems to be no way around this 
obstacle except to reckon with its biases and make the best of its legacy, to balance 
written reports with movement claims to recruitment and influence. We will be on safe 
ground if we judge the tenant movement by the same hard standards that its leaders would 
have applied to its operations - whom did it influence, what policies did it bring about, 
what results did it accomplish?"

Human Stories/Images of Today's Crisis
A San Jose Google Campus will Erase My Existence
By Daniel A. Gonzales, SV De-Bug

"I feel like Mayor Sam Liccardo and his partners are bringing pain and suffering to my 
doorstep, and that I'm fighting for survival. I'm fighting for home, and home is 
everything. It is identity, it is community, it is family. Without these things I am 
nothing, I don't exist."

Facing Poverty, Academics Turn to Sex Work and Sleeping in Cars
by Alastair Gee in San Francisco, The Guardian

"I feel committed to being the person who's there to help millennials, the next 
generation, go on to become critical thinkers," she said. "And I'm really good at it, and 
I really like it. And it's heartbreaking to me it doesn't pay what I feel it should."

Homeless San Jose State Professor Struggles Living Out Of Her Car CBS local news, with video
"James-Penney used to be an admin in high tech, but was laid off in the dot-com bust and 
was forced to live on her savings. She went back to school and paid tuition with student 
loans. "I'm $143,000 in debt. And I'm in my 50s. But I pay that loan back every month," 
said James-Penney. "That is mandatory for me. But that chunk I pay also affects how much I 
can afford in rent."

Living Under a Tarp Next to Facebook HQ: ‘I Don't Want People to See Me'
By Alistair Gee, the Guardian

"The sprawling Silicon Valley campus has cafes, bike repair services, even dry cleaning. 
But across the road a homeless community epitomizes the wealth gap"

‘It's a Catastrophe': Low-Income Workers get Priced Out of California Beach City
By Sam Levin, Guardian

"California is a monster. If you don't keep up, you end up on the streets, and nobody 
cares," said Kahn, a college graduate who previously worked two jobs in Santa Cruz. "This 
is a public health issue. It's a catastrophe."

If this resource guide was useful then you might enjoy additional articles and audio 
interviews related to strategy, socialist strategy and movements.

http://blackrosefed.org/resources-on-tenant-housing-gentrification/

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Message: 6





Six million participants, more than 300 demonstrations, batucadas, banners, "casseroles" 
... on this day of March 8, 2018, " the purple has invaded our consciences and our lives " 
as the comrades of the CGT say Spanish, who have weighed a lot for the success of this 
women's strike. ---- Information from all parts of the territory reflects the success of 
this day of strike. Nearly 6 million women supported the movement, and millions of people 
took to the streets through more than 300 demonstrations. ---- The pickets in the 
transport (train, metro) blocked the traffic. Others, in front of the department stores 
(Primark, Zara, Mango, Corte Inglés), convinced the customers to leave the empty bags 
without having made purchases. Some shopping malls, under the pressure of pickets, closed 
their doors to the public.

Batucadas, banners, "casseroles", on this day of March 8, 2018, purple has invaded our 
consciences and our lives. We have talked about our reason and our hearts, howled our rage 
against patriarchy, Capital. Teleoperators have dropped their helmets to signify their 
heads off their heads. The maids threw their gloves on the ground, the couriers abandoned 
their motorcycles or bicycles. Nurses, professors, restaurant waitresses, railway workers 
stopped work and added to the number of strikers.

Only a small number of companies had warned her employees that there would be no reprisals 
in the event of a strike. In the majority of cases, the bosses have used various blackmail 
to discourage women workers to go on strike, with the complicity of the majority unions 
(CCOO, UGT). Anti-feminist attempts to invisibilize our reality and anger at the price of 
fear.

In vain, we managed our bet: the streets were filled with people. While only 33% of 
employees in this country are unionized, this strike day of March 8, we have, beyond the 
acronyms, show what it was the workers solidarity.

The square of Cibeles in Madrid black of world

We do not want another minute of silence. We have already given. We do not want to wait to 
be included in a statistical table which at the end of the year will take stock of those 
of us who have been harassed, raped or killed.

Today, we raise our voices, on behalf of all those who can not. In the name of those who, 
because they are blind or terrified, do not dare to do so. In the name of those who have 
fallen murdered, these invisible women of yesterday and tomorrow. In the name of the most 
precarious and the prisoners, these other victims of this social war that we suffer, who 
could not join us in the action.

Today, the world is fairer because we are mobilized. That we took the initiative to make 
ourselves visible. Brave and libertarian women, we took the lead in this fight, head high 
and faces uncovered. Singing, dancing, laughing, shouting our truths in the face of this 
raw reality where we suffer, every day, inequality, oppression and fear.

" Without us the world does not work "

For more than a century and a half, libertarian women have carried with them, on their 
shoulders, in their bellies, in their minds, this labor and feminist consciousness. Our 
grandmothers also fought. They have always taught us class pride and worker consciousness 
when our lives seemed unbearable to us. If they saw us today, they would give us one of 
those kisses on the forehead that protects us from everything that keeps us away from who 
we are.

In our turn, we will transmit to our little sons and daughters this spirit of resistance. 
We will tell them, " We had the courage to dream of a different world ".

¡VIVA THE LUCHA OF LAS MUJERES TRABAJADORAS ! ¡THE REVOLUCIÓN SERÁ FEMINISTA O NO SERÁ¡

Translated and adapted by Jérémie (AL Gard)

The two original releases in Castilian:

http://cgt.org.es/noticias-cgt/noticias-cgt/un-8-de-marzo-historico
http://cgt.org.es/noticias-cgt/comunicados/exito-incuestionable-de-la-huelga-del-8m

http://alternativelibertaire.org/?Un-8-mars-historique

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Message: 7





A few thoughts on the start of the #repealthe8th campaign. Commentators who thought the 
anti-choice side were better organised because they went full throttle faster should 
reconsider - how much damage have they done to themselves with fake stories, fake 100s 
crowds & neo-nazi smears. At this stage they must be wishing they had done & said nothing 
over the last week & instead focused on fact checking & claims that could stand 30 seconds 
scrutiny. If you are pro-choice you should reconsider anything presenting the campaigns as 
if it was a apolitical horse race - focus on the issues and not on performance. ---- The 
most disturbing aspect of the past week is not the fake news & smears, that was expected. 
It's that almost no media in Ireland has challenged these, The Times Irish edition being 
the one counter example. Journalism it appears it just cutting & pasting ludicrous claims 
from Press Releases. The fakenurse story was only uncovered because a couple of actual 
nurses saw the obvious discrepancies and posted about them. They were then threatened with 
libel and described as mad by the official spokespeople of the No campaign while most 
journalists looked the other way. See 
https://twitter.com/ArtimusFoul/status/973714559889477632 for more details

The threats & gaslighting from the official spokespeople should cause serious thought for 
anyone inclined to swallow the weird astro turf feminism of the anti-choice brigade - as 
should the MRA types who cluster around their hashtags. Our fear with this is that without 
the mainstream media amplifying the exposures of fakenurse, neo-nazi smears and ludicrous 
attendance figures only the twitter bubble will be aware these were manufactured fakenews 
and the anti-choice side will continue them.

This is an important point for pro-choice online activists that are on Twitter and 
particularly on Facebook. We are in a relatively small bubble of perhaps 10-50,000 people. 
Social media exposures may not get far outside this, the exposing of the lies on our 
social media won't reach the Cavan hill farmer that the lies are aimed at. And this is 
very asymmeterical because the others have the cash to pay to reach everyone. With their 
nasty alt-right #strike4repeal ambush video last year they paid FB to reach everyone 
following the National Ploughing Championship page, we'd guess it was a 10,000 euro spend.

This is a technique straight out of the Trump and Brexit playbooks - large social media 
spends to target fakenews to people thought vulnerable to that sort of misleading story. 
In the above case playing to some rural prejudices with regard to Dublin & the idea of 
young people as foolish. That video was shot by an alt-right crew who came from London and 
later worked with alt-right The Rebel & hate preacher Tommy Robinson - one of many 
connections of far right here and abroad with anti-choice leadership.

The main point here is that they have the cash to push misleading material at what they 
presume to be vulnerable populations throughout referendum and we may not even see them. 
They can push racist material at people following racist pages and this will be invisible 
to almost everyone unless the media expose that this is happening. For journalists reading 
this see http://tref.ie who are going to try and track ads, for everyone else in Ireland 
you can help by installing a plugin see http://tref.ie/get-involved/ - they need another 
400 people at least.

On the @repeal_shield controversy which allows people to block huge numbers of 'pro-life 
trolls' at once by subscribing to their list. We aren't using it as we are monitoring far 
right involvement with anti-choice and the anti-choice movement in general but what we 
noticed was that in the days after it launched we started seeing a lot fewer troll tweets 
showing up in our feed. Almost none now that are not direct @ at our Twitter account. 
Presumably that's because our followers are no longer arguing with such accounts & thus 
boosting them.

This is worth keeping in mind, if you choose to argue with McLurk or similar anti-choice 
accounts you are helping them reach more people. So it's only worth doing if to you can 
really own them the way @NursepollyRgn did with the fakenurse story. Even with our real 
numbers exposure of save8rally we've not engaged with McLurks Sunday & Monday attempts to 
troll us for the same reasons - its not the issue we owned him on which was the '6 Points 
that Prove that 9k and Not 100k Marched' at https://www.wsm.ie/c/save8rally-proof-9k-not-100k

We have answered 100+ challenges to our methodology here, on our Facebook pages and on our 
Youtube channel although TBH we've not seen a real challenge yet, more fury at the 
realities of math and physics we expressed. There is the material for a very interesting 
bias study right there.

A note to Repeal commentators - before making 'the campaign should do this' suggestions 
spend a little time checking if they are already doing so. In most cases they will. 
Blogging or article writing which criticise without doing this is demoralising & 
distracting rather than helping those doing the work. Likewise while informed tactical 
discussion is good but its is also worth considering what criticism to make privately 
rather than publically . Unless you are very very careful any public criticism will be 
used and retweeted by the anti-choice side and its hard to be that careful in limited 
twitter character count.

Twitter is a minor battleground, so is Facebook - the referendum will be won or lost in 
the 100 million personal conversations every week between now and the May vote. You are 
going to be most able to move uncertain friends, workmates & relatives not random 
strangers. But you can also make a small difference in a big way by canvassing, in 
particular if you live or are from the rural areas where the Don't Know votes are highest. 
There is a listing of regional groups at https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/get-involved/

This is an edited version of a Tweet thread we posted, the original is at 
https://twitter.com/WSMIreland/status/973881665113284608

https://wsm.ie/c/repealthe8th-referendum-becomes-reality

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