Today's Topics:
1. IWA on Lawsuits Brought by CNT-Splitters (ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. anarkismo.net: Turkey, Young Workers Association's in the
streets in May Day by GIDER (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Greece, "Dysenium Horse" APO - SOLIDARITY IN THE TEA OF
THEOFILOS-LEFTERIA IN IRIANA AND PERIKLI (gr) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Spain. Press Conference of CNT-AIT and IWA General Secretary
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
On April 30, 2018, the IWA General Secretary visited the legal counsel of the CNT-AIT
concerning lawsuits brought against some of its member unions and later participated in a
press conference together with representatives of the Secretariat of our Section in Spain.
The purpose of this conference was to publically clarify positions and present facts
concerning this case. ---- Background ---- The CNT-AIT is the Section of the International
Workers' Association in Spain and the IWA has recognized it as the continuation of the
CNT-AIT. At the same time, there is an organization called CNT, which is split from the
IWA and thus the CNT-AIT. There are also at least a dozen other organizations called CNT
which are neither federated in that CNT Confederation, nor the CNT-AIT. These are mostly
organizations which left or were expelled - either according to the Statues or not - from
the CNT Confederation which currently is headquartered in Bilbao. We will refer to this as
CNT-R (CNT renovada or CNT reformed).
Almost a decade ago, the CNT-R began an ideological drift - one of many that occurred in
the history of the organization. As part of this drift and echoing the drift that took
place from 1979-1984, when what is now the CGT created a split in the organization, the
CNT-R began to reassess its relationship with the International Workers Association. The
CNT-R presented numerous proposals which would marginalize or eliminate the majority of
the international Sections, therefore they were rejected by 3 Congresses. The continual
attempts to split the IWA according to the size of the unions, combined with attempts to
create new networks with other organizations finally led the CNT-R to actions aimed to
undermine the IWA and to attempt to coerce it into accepting its positions. The results of
this will be presented further.
The Genesis of Splits in Spain
In Spain, in order to accomplish the ideological drift, a series of purges in the
organization had to be carried out. At the same time, increasing irregularities appeared
in the organization which on various occasions went against the statutes of the CNT-AIT.
The 9th Congress of the CNT was already marked by irregularities. Following this, a
scandal occurred within the CNT which gave shape to many of the current problems. This
scandal started in 2008 and involved the buying of votes by the local Federation of
Seville and other anti-statutory acts, such as dual membership and helping a parallel
organization which participated as representatives in the work councils. The scandal led
to an internal investigation which ended in several expulsions of individuals from that
organization. However, as things progressed in Seville and the Andalucian regional
organization, it turned out that in reality, there started a conflict about the future
direct of the organization. Those who held positions of authority and leadership in the
Committees responded to growing criticism of what was happening by various expulsions.
One of the people involved in those internal conflicts was the lawyer, Escribiano, who is
now suing several unions of the CNT-AIT. This lawyer was one of the anti-heros of the
first series of purges which took place in the Andalucian region. He was inhabilitated by
the comrades of his union but after some while, the higher instances decided to give the
SOV of Sevilla an ultimatum: to fully accept Escribiano as a member, despite threats he
made against other members, or to be expelled from the CNT.
In such ways, several radical unions of the Andalucian region were expelled or decided to
leave. Following this, other unions of that Regional decided to maintain contacts with
those defederated unions rather than to deal with the unions which began to dominate the
Region.
Following the X Congress, more purges were in sight - some successful, some not. Various
unions left the organization and continue on as local groups. One entire Regional
(Levante) was later expelled, but in a way that is not in accordance with the CNT-AIT
statutes. Therefore it cannot be said that the Levante Regional was correctly expelled,
but only that the entities that dominate the current CNT-R yet again broke the statutes of
the CNT-AIT.
Anti-Statutory Actions against the IWA
At the same time, the CNT-AIT, which the CNT-R faction was member until recently, faced
various challenges to its statutes by the practices of the CNT-R faction which, by virtue
of purges and practices, slowly became the dominant faction. One of the numerous
violations of the CNT-AIT statutes was the incompliance of binding agreements towards the
IWA, which occured in an anti-statutory manner. The CNT-AIT statutes clearly state that
they are a member of the IWA and the budgetary agreements require the Treasurer to pay IWA
dues out of each members dues. Without any decision of the organization, the Treasurer, in
agreement with the Secretary, withheld dues that were paid by the membership on several
occasions. This was a serious breach of its mandate and statutory obligations for which
they only received consent in December 2015, during the XI Congress in Zaragoza.
During this time, numerous unions of the CNT-AIT complained to the IWA that the
organization had gone into arrears and faced expulsion from the IWA due to the
anti-statutory actions of the executive, which unfortunately could not be held accountable
to the organization. When speaking of anti-statutory actions, it should be specified that
the executives, which came from the CNT-R faction, broke both the Statutes of the
International Workers Association and the CNT-AIT.
The unions of the CNT-AIT consider that what is now the CNT-R created an anti-statutory
faction inside CNT-AIT, thus creating a split. The CNT-R ignored many of the statutory
obligations of the CNT-AIT and caused various organizations to be expelled or to leave.
The XI Congress in Zaragoza declared its hostile intentions to also split the IWA. It's
idea was to ignore the binding statutes and agreements of said organization and to hold an
anti-statutory Congress to "relaunch" the international federation. According to this
plan, the very fact of this agreement would mean that the CNT-R would refuse to recognize
the majority of Sections of the IWA as part thereof.
Upon publically declaring its intentions to ignore the binding Statutes and to attempt to
split and re-create the IWA, it became clear that this organization could not in fact
continue in the IWA or claim the legacy of the CNT-AIT.
In 2016, the IWA declared that CNT had both left the IWA of its own accord (by deciding
not to abide by its statutes) and had to be expelled (for trying to split it and create a
parallel organization). At the same time, we recognized that many comrades in Spain, both
in and outside that organization, still followed the statutes of CNT-AIT and wished to
remain as the Spanish Section. However, for that to happen, it needed to declare that the
reformist faction was not in fact the CNT-AIT.
The Extraordinary Congress of the IWA in 2017 declared that the CNT-AIT is the
continuation of our Spanish Section and indeed this means it is the continuation of our
historic organization.
Lawsuits
In 2018, lawsuits were filed against several organizations of the CNT-AIT, against an
anarchist Ateneum and 3 individual people. Each lawsuit seeks 50,001 euros in so-called
moral damages. The lawsuit mainly rests on supposed slanderous statements against the CNT-R.
Several anonymous people from the CNT-R, who do not have the courage to publically reveal
their identities, appear in some popular internet forums and have tried to imply that
these suits are something normal, similar to the lawsuits brought in 1985 against what was
then the CNT-U (later the CGT), regarding the use of the acronym CNT.
There are numerous reasons why this is not true.
* The CNT-R did not sue the CNT-AIT. It sued several of its unions. Thus this cannot be
seen as a case against the CNT-AIT.
* The CNT-R did not bring a suit to declare that the CNT-AIT has no right as a whole to
use the initials CNT. The CNT-R brought a suit against individuals unions, claiming money
for "moral damages" citing various articles on the internet and they claim monetary
compensation for damages caused by using the initials CNT.
* The CNT-R does not claim exclusive rights to the initials CNT. The CNT Catalunya, which
was expelled more than 20 years ago has been freely using those initials for decades but
is not the subject of any lawsuits. Likewise, numerous organizations throught Spain use
this name and have not been subject to lawsuits. The lawsuits relate to organizations that
the CNT-R want to destroy.
Thus these suits are quite different than the suit initiated by Gomez-Casas in 85. The
earlier suit was against an entire organizational entity for the name and attached rights
but did not include any punitive elements.
The current suits are not against the CNT-AIT, but against individual unions, an anarchist
group and even individuals and the bulk of the case hinges on the so-called slander to the
CNT and its reputation. Instead of simply trying to demand that the initials CNT not be
used, it is using extreme coercion against individuals. Under Spanish law, if said union
does not have funds to pay debts or judgements, the Secretaries of these organizations
will be held personally liable. Failure to pay can result in imprisonment.
However one assesses the suits of the 1980s and their results, the fact is that these
legal battles were not against individuals or individual unions and thus were not
attempted vendettas. They did not seek the financial ruin of the other party, they did not
attempt to violate the right to freely express opinions nor did they involve the possible
loss of freedom of any people. Finally, the CNT-R has appealed to the state in these
current cases to act as a Co-Plaintiff.
Worst of all, the suits were not the subject of an agreement made by any national assembly
of the CNT-R, but were the result of an executive decision, under the pretext of
"defending the CNT". Not that such suits would be any better if they had been made by the
general membership.
Defense of the CNT-AIT
The IWA Secretariat considers that the defense of the CNT-AIT is more than just the
natural defense of our Spanish Section, which results from the practices of solidarity the
International has always shown when our Sections are being repressed or attacked.
The defense of the CNT-AIT is also a defense of many other issues. Like the defense of
liberty. It is absolutely not acceptable that punitive measures be taken against
libertarian people for the "crime" of staying true to their believes and expressing their
opinions.
Many people and organizations have expressed their opinions or misrepresented the IWA or
its membership thereof. But the IWA has not sought to use the state to punish such people.
The comrades of the IWA who have written criticisms for which they are being sued have
agreed these texts in assemblies and have signed them. This should stand in stark contrast
to the practices of some who pen long histories anonymously but imply they are positions
of organizations. Those people do not take responsibility even for their own words.
The defense of the CNT-AIT is also the defense of a libertarian form of organizing in
Spain, based on solid principles, as opposed to the current drift in the CNT-R, which
draws it in the direction of verticalism, professionalism and executivism.
Finally, the defense of the CNT-AIT which is based on the anarchist ethic, as opposed to
only the class ethic, is a defense of the values which the anarchists expoused against the
Marxist orientation of the first international. A set of values which does not seek to
reduce the struggle to the material field and includes a stress on anti-statism and freedom.
Current tendencies have been undermining these points in new attempts to combine various
tendencies, both statist and anti-statist, in more neutral "class" organizations. These
seek to do this to increase their numbers but while striving to become more numerous, they
have been succesively giving in on clearer positions.
The CNT-AIT, like the IWA itself, continues to hold up its ideals, despite the recent
attacks of the CNT-R, which have been shamelessly supported by proponents of neutral
syndicalism.
The IWA Secretariat sees this situation as a disgrace in which the CNT-R has continously
tried to strongarm the IWA and its Spanish Section. Instead of simply leaving the IWA or
organizing a faction within it, it tried (unsuccessfully) to take it over and ended by
attacking the comrades who showed solidarity with them for years. Instead of leaving the
CNT-AIT to go about its business, they attempt to financially destroy them. And after
years of disgracefully harrassing organizations that it considers "too small" or "too
anarchistic", they look for support from tiny anarchist-specific organizations for their
parallel project.
In the meanwhile we declare that we will let none of this impede our ongoing work.
The Secretary also would like to thank the numerous libertarian collectives in Spain and
in other countries which have been supportive to our comrades and refuse to go along with
the drift.
http://www.iwa-ait.org/content/iwa-general-secretary-lawsuits-brought-cnt-splitters
------------------------------
Message: 2
We are young workers from shopping malls, cafes', bars, restaurants, fast food shops, and
other working places. We are waiters, clerks, carriers, cleaners, stand stuff... We are
young workers in service sector. We are workers exploited with the fastness and the
intense of the work of capitalist system. ---- This May Day, we were in the streets as a
selforganisation to shout our rebel. We were in the street to remind May Day is not a
celebration but a day to fight. A fight against capitalism, exploitation, bosses, mobbings
for justice, for our lives and for freedom. ---- We came together behind our pancard
"Full-time struggle, for not to live part-time". We shout our anger against bosses, chefs,
administrators as " Bosses are in palaces, young workers are in the streets." With our
halays, with our marches; we show our strength and passion in the struggle of bread,
justice, freedom.
We have to unite. We are in everywhere, but we are seperated. We are producing service. We
are not servants of capitalism, we are workers in service sector. We know who invent this
system; the ones who want rich to prevent his position and forced poor ones to be in the
same position.
Now is the time to organise. Now is the time to remind the sturggle of the anarchist
workers who started the fire in Haymarket in 1886. Now is the time for the young workers
fight against capitalist system.
Young Workers Association (GIDER)
Related Link: http://www.gencisci.org
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30969
------------------------------
Message: 3
In the summer of 2012 in Paros, a robbery takes place at a branch of the alphabank, during
which a taxi driver attempting to prevent the escape of the bandits was fatally injured. A
few days later, Tasos Theofilos is arrested in Athens with major accusations of homicide,
involvement in robbery, and participation in the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei. Categories
that he refuses from the first moment. The only element that led to the arrest of
Theophilos according to the anti-terrorist service was an "anonymous phone call" to GADA,
which he pointed out as the perpetrator of robbery. The conviction of Tassos Theophilos
(no witness recognized him either in the first trial or during the appeal court) was based
on a DNA sample found in a hat supposedly worn by the robber. However, In the summer of
2017, Theophilos was acquitted in the appeal court for all charges (while he was already
in prison for 5 years in prison).
From the time of his arrest and until his liberation, a multiform solidarity movement
(from student clubs and associations, political collectives and organizations, to trade
unions) was set up to target the whole of the repressive mechanisms of the state
(terrorism, political prisoners, judicial arbitrariness) and the manipulation-schemes he
uses against the fighters. As I said, "my discharge from all classes is much more
important than a personal vindication. It is a victory for the world of the struggle
against repression. A victory from the bottom towards the deep police state. A victory of
the kinematic and alternative media to the dominant media. A victory of anti-information
against the regime's propaganda. A victory of the movement against the decline of power.
"The theofilos' acquittal demonstrated in the most clear way that the known system of
plotting and constructing guilty and conscientiousness (state, police, media, judges) does
not convince society and these cases turn boomerang, as instead of deepening repression,
they simply reveal the absence of social legitimacy in these authoritarian state
manipulations. At the same time, in practice, the use of DNA as a valid evidence, in the
absence of anyone else, was overturned and the role of the police and counter-terrorism in
setting up squads against militants was once again highlighted.
The rematch seems to want to get the anti-terrorism department since March 27 brought in
the Supreme Court appeal of the decision of the appeal court by the deputy prosecutor I.
Angeli (its relation to counterterrorism service is widespread). On 11 May, the appeal
will be examined in the plenary of the Supreme Court. If accepted, it means that
Theophilus returns to prison with the original charges until the Court of Appeal has
resumed by other judges, since the majority of the 1st Pentamelius who freed him has
finally proved to be unwilling of "counter-terrorism".
Yet another characteristic case of state-building and revivalism - within the wider
climate of paranoiling and criminalizing social and class struggles, persecution of whole
villages with a terrorist, persecution of unions and students, and the targeting of people
known for their actions - is the case of Herannas and Pericles. Recently they were
sentenced to 13 years in prison for their personal relationship with an accused for
joining the "Kernels of Fire" organization and even though he was acquitted! Hirana VL was
found in the home of the accused in 2011, but her persecution began much later in 2013
when a partial sample of DNA was found to be an aggravating factor. On the basis of this
partial sample, and without any testimony or any other element of the investigations made,
the court sentenced her on June 1. In July, the Appeals Council rejected Herrian's release
on the grounds that her PhD is at an early stage, and "there is no evidence of excessive
and irreparable damage" and that "if left free, she is very likely to commit new offenses
of the same kind." Approximately one month ago, in the First Five Penal Court of Appeal,
the second instance of the case began. There, the judge constantly attacked both
Hieran-Pericles and their relatives, and after the criminalization of relatives and trips,
he was criminalized as well by the origin of the "Dermatos Thessaly".
In July, the Appeals Council rejected Herrian's release on the grounds that her PhD is at
an early stage, and "there is no evidence of excessive and irreparable damage" and that
"if left free, she is very likely to commit new offenses of the same kind." Approximately
one month ago, in the First Five Penal Court of Appeal, the second instance of the case
began. There, the judge constantly attacked both Hieran-Pericles and their relatives, and
after the criminalization of relatives and trips, he was criminalized as well by the
origin of the "Dermatos Thessaly". In July, the Appeals Council rejected Herrian's release
on the grounds that her PhD is at an early stage, and "there is no evidence of excessive
and irreparable damage" and that "if left free, she is very likely to commit new offenses
of the same kind." Approximately one month ago, in the First Five Penal Court of Appeal,
the second instance of the case began. There, the judge constantly attacked both
Hieran-Pericles and their relatives, and after the criminalization of relatives and trips,
he was criminalized as well by the origin of the "Dermatos Thessaly". Approximately one
month ago, in the First Five Penal Court of Appeal, the second instance of the case began.
There, the judge constantly attacked both Hieran-Pericles and their relatives, and after
the criminalization of relatives and trips, he was criminalized as well by the origin of
the "Dermatos Thessaly". Approximately one month ago, in the First Five Penal Court of
Appeal, the second instance of the case began. There, the judge constantly attacked both
Hieran-Pericles and their relatives, and after the criminalization of relatives and trips,
he was criminalized as well by the origin of the "Dermatos Thessaly".
We, for our part, stand by the side of Theophilus, Ireanna and Pericles, as well as every
persecuted fighter. Through the intervention in the schools and more widely at the
university, we are seeking to raise the issue of state struggles and avenues (a recent
example of the case of the education licenses of V. Dimakis) towards those who are
fighting. We want to highlight the issue of the terrorism and the widening of the
repressive arsenal of the state that aims to exemplify the punishment of those who
struggle, as well as the consolidation-spreading of fear to those who have every reason to
fight. Against the efforts of the sovereigns to cut off the struggles from every
social-workplace, we can respond with their empowerment.
SOLIDARITY IS OUR OWNED
The social and class GAMES IS NOT LAWFUL OR - OR ILLEGAL IS FAIR!
NO STATE STATIONS WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE
Libertarians of the University of Patras
https://ipposd.wordpress.com/2018/05/06/
------------------------------
Message: 4
On April 30, 2018, the IWA General Secretary visited the legal counsel of the CNT-AIT
concerning lawsuits brought against some of its member unions and later participated in a
press conference together with representatives of the Secretariat of our Section in Spain.
The purpose of this conference was to publically clarify positions and present facts
concerning this case. ---- Background ---- The CNT-AIT is the Section of the International
Workers' Association in Spain and the IWA has recognized it as the continuation of the
CNT-AIT. At the same time, there is an organization called CNT, which is split from the
IWA and thus the CNT-AIT. There are also at least a dozen other organizations called CNT
which are neither federated in that CNT Confederation, nor the CNT-AIT. These are mostly
organizations which left or were expelled - either according to the Statues or not - from
the CNT Confederation which currently is headquartered in Bilbao. We will refer to this as
CNT-R (CNT renovada or CNT reformed).
Almost a decade ago, the CNT-R began an ideological drift - one of many that occurred in
the history of the organization. As part of this drift and echoing the drift that took
place from 1979-1984, when what is now the CGT created a split in the organization, the
CNT-R began to reassess its relationship with the International Workers Association. The
CNT-R presented numerous proposals which would marginalize or eliminate the majority of
the international Sections, therefore they were rejected by 3 Congresses. The continual
attempts to split the IWA according to the size of the unions, combined with attempts to
create new networks with other organizations finally led the CNT-R to actions aimed to
undermine the IWA and to attempt to coerce it into accepting its positions. The results of
this will be presented further.
The Genesis of Splits in Spain
In Spain, in order to accomplish the ideological drift, a series of purges in the
organization had to be carried out. At the same time, increasing irregularities appeared
in the organization which on various occasions went against the statutes of the CNT-AIT.
The 9th Congress of the CNT was already marked by irregularities. Following this, a
scandal occurred within the CNT which gave shape to many of the current problems. This
scandal started in 2008 and involved the buying of votes by the local Federation of
Seville and other anti-statutory acts, such as dual membership and helping a parallel
organization which participated as representatives in the work councils. The scandal led
to an internal investigation which ended in several expulsions of individuals from that
organization. However, as things progressed in Seville and the Andalucian regional
organization, it turned out that in reality, there started a conflict about the future
direct of the organization. Those who held positions of authority and leadership in the
Committees responded to growing criticism of what was happening by various expulsions.
One of the people involved in those internal conflicts was the lawyer, Escribiano, who is
now suing several unions of the CNT-AIT. This lawyer was one of the anti-heros of the
first series of purges which took place in the Andalucian region. He was inhabilitated by
the comrades of his union but after some while, the higher instances decided to give the
SOV of Sevilla an ultimatum: to fully accept Escribiano as a member, despite threats he
made against other members, or to be expelled from the CNT.
In such ways, several radical unions of the Andalucian region were expelled or decided to
leave. Following this, other unions of that Regional decided to maintain contacts with
those defederated unions rather than to deal with the unions which began to dominate the
Region.
Following the X Congress, more purges were in sight - some successful, some not. Various
unions left the organization and continue on as local groups. One entire Regional
(Levante) was later expelled, but in a way that is not in accordance with the CNT-AIT
statutes. Therefore it cannot be said that the Levante Regional was correctly expelled,
but only that the entities that dominate the current CNT-R yet again broke the statutes of
the CNT-AIT.
Anti-Statutory Actions against the IWA
At the same time, the CNT-AIT, which the CNT-R faction was member until recently, faced
various challenges to its statutes by the practices of the CNT-R faction which, by virtue
of purges and practices, slowly became the dominant faction. One of the numerous
violations of the CNT-AIT statutes was the incompliance of binding agreements towards the
IWA, which occured in an anti-statutory manner. The CNT-AIT statutes clearly state that
they are a member of the IWA and the budgetary agreements require the Treasurer to pay IWA
dues out of each members dues. Without any decision of the organization, the Treasurer, in
agreement with the Secretary, withheld dues that were paid by the membership on several
occasions. This was a serious breach of its mandate and statutory obligations for which
they only received consent in December 2015, during the XI Congress in Zaragoza.
During this time, numerous unions of the CNT-AIT complained to the IWA that the
organization had gone into arrears and faced expulsion from the IWA due to the
anti-statutory actions of the executive, which unfortunately could not be held accountable
to the organization. When speaking of anti-statutory actions, it should be specified that
the executives, which came from the CNT-R faction, broke both the Statutes of the
International Workers Association and the CNT-AIT.
The unions of the CNT-AIT consider that what is now the CNT-R created an anti-statutory
faction inside CNT-AIT, thus creating a split. The CNT-R ignored many of the statutory
obligations of the CNT-AIT and caused various organizations to be expelled or to leave.
The XI Congress in Zaragoza declared its hostile intentions to also split the IWA. It's
idea was to ignore the binding statutes and agreements of said organization and to hold an
anti-statutory Congress to "relaunch" the international federation. According to this
plan, the very fact of this agreement would mean that the CNT-R would refuse to recognize
the majority of Sections of the IWA as part thereof.
Upon publically declaring its intentions to ignore the binding Statutes and to attempt to
split and re-create the IWA, it became clear that this organization could not in fact
continue in the IWA or claim the legacy of the CNT-AIT.
In 2016, the IWA declared that CNT had both left the IWA of its own accord (by deciding
not to abide by its statutes) and had to be expelled (for trying to split it and create a
parallel organization). At the same time, we recognized that many comrades in Spain, both
in and outside that organization, still followed the statutes of CNT-AIT and wished to
remain as the Spanish Section. However, for that to happen, it needed to declare that the
reformist faction was not in fact the CNT-AIT.
The Extraordinary Congress of the IWA in 2017 declared that the CNT-AIT is the
continuation of our Spanish Section and indeed this means it is the continuation of our
historic organization.
Lawsuits
In 2018, lawsuits were filed against several organizations of the CNT-AIT, against an
anarchist Ateneum and 3 individual people. Each lawsuit seeks 50,001 euros in so-called
moral damages. The lawsuit mainly rests on supposed slanderous statements against the CNT-R.
Several anonymous people from the CNT-R, who do not have the courage to publically reveal
their identities, appear in some popular internet forums and have tried to imply that
these suits are something normal, similar to the lawsuits brought in 1985 against what was
then the CNT-U (later the CGT), regarding the use of the acronym CNT.
There are numerous reasons why this is not true.
* The CNT-R did not sue the CNT-AIT. It sued several of its unions. Thus this cannot be
seen as a case against the CNT-AIT.
* The CNT-R did not bring a suit to declare that the CNT-AIT has no right as a whole to
use the initials CNT. The CNT-R brought a suit against individuals unions, claiming money
for "moral damages" citing various articles on the internet and they claim monetary
compensation for damages caused by using the initials CNT.
* The CNT-R does not claim exclusive rights to the initials CNT. The CNT Catalunya, which
was expelled more than 20 years ago has been freely using those initials for decades but
is not the subject of any lawsuits. Likewise, numerous organizations throught Spain use
this name and have not been subject to lawsuits. The lawsuits relate to organizations that
the CNT-R want to destroy.
Thus these suits are quite different than the suit initiated by Gomez-Casas in 85. The
earlier suit was against an entire organizational entity for the name and attached rights
but did not include any punitive elements.
The current suits are not against the CNT-AIT, but against individual unions, an anarchist
group and even individuals and the bulk of the case hinges on the so-called slander to the
CNT and its reputation. Instead of simply trying to demand that the initials CNT not be
used, it is using extreme coercion against individuals. Under Spanish law, if said union
does not have funds to pay debts or judgements, the Secretaries of these organizations
will be held personally liable. Failure to pay can result in imprisonment.
However one assesses the suits of the 1980s and their results, the fact is that these
legal battles were not against individuals or individual unions and thus were not
attempted vendettas. They did not seek the financial ruin of the other party, they did not
attempt to violate the right to freely express opinions nor did they involve the possible
loss of freedom of any people. Finally, the CNT-R has appealed to the state in these
current cases to act as a Co-Plaintiff.
Worst of all, the suits were not the subject of an agreement made by any national assembly
of the CNT-R, but were the result of an executive decision, under the pretext of
"defending the CNT". Not that such suits would be any better if they had been made by the
general membership.
Defense of the CNT-AIT
The IWA Secretariat considers that the defense of the CNT-AIT is more than just the
natural defense of our Spanish Section, which results from the practices of solidarity the
International has always shown when our Sections are being repressed or attacked.
The defense of the CNT-AIT is also a defense of many other issues. Like the defense of
liberty. It is absolutely not acceptable that punitive measures be taken against
libertarian people for the "crime" of staying true to their beliefs and expressing their
opinions.
Many people and organizations have expressed their opinions or misrepresented the IWA or
its membership thereof. But the IWA has not sought to use the state to punish such people.
The comrades of the IWA who have written criticisms for which they are being sued have
agreed these texts in assemblies and have signed them. This should stand in stark contrast
to the practices of some who pen long histories anonymously but imply they are positions
of organizations. Those people do not take responsibility even for their own words.
The defense of the CNT-AIT is also the defense of a libertarian form of organizing in
Spain, based on solid principles, as opposed to the current drift in the CNT-R, which
draws it in the direction of verticalism, professionalism and executivism.
Finally, the defense of the CNT-AIT which is based on the anarchist ethic, as opposed to
only the class ethic, is a defense of the values which the anarchists expoused against the
Marxist orientation of the first international. A set of values which does not seek to
reduce the struggle to the material field and includes a stress on anti-statism and freedom.
Current tendencies have been undermining these points in new attempts to combine various
tendencies, both statist and anti-statist, in more neutral "class" organizations. These
seek to do this to increase their numbers but while striving to become more numerous, they
have been succesively giving in on clearer positions.
The CNT-AIT, like the IWA itself, continues to hold up its ideals, despite the recent
attacks of the CNT-R, which have been shamelessly supported by proponents of neutral
syndicalism.
The IWA Secretariat sees this situation as a disgrace in which the CNT-R has continously
tried to strongarm the IWA and its Spanish Section. Instead of simply leaving the IWA or
organizing a faction within it, it tried (unsuccessfully) to take it over and ended by
attacking the comrades who had shown solidarity with them for years. Instead of leaving
the CNT-AIT to go about its business, they attempt to financially destroy them. And after
years of disgracefully harrassing organizations that it considers "too small" or "too
anarchistic", they look for support from tiny anarchist-specific organizations for their
parallel project.
In the meanwhile we declare that we will let none of this impede our ongoing work.
The Secretary also would like to thank the numerous libertarian collectives in Spain and
in other countries which have been supportive to our comrades and refuse to go along with
the drift.
Laure Akai
General Secretary of the IWA
May 6, 2018
Source: http://www.iwa-ait.org/content/iwa-general-secretary-lawsuits-brought-cnt-splitters
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