Today's Topics:
1. [Italy] Chronicle of the first day of the International
Congress By ANA (pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Anarchistický kemp 2018 - Invitation to the Anarchist
Summer Camp in Austria (de) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. US, WSA, ideas and action: May Day (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #283 - SNCF: What are we
waiting for to fire ? (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - Clash Mai 2018! by Youth
Secretariat / 1 views (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Britain, brighton solfed: 'We taught them a lesson' - a
tenant who successfully fought a deposit deduction tells her
story (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Comments on 12th May
TUC demo (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The journey on Friday (11/05) of the International Foundational Congress began in a
relaxed way. USI's hosts organized a tour of the city's revolutionary points of interest
in Parma. In the middle of the morning, delegates and delegates were accredited.
Subsequently, the collective "Cucine del Popolo" organized a social buffet in which it was
possible to have lunch, snack and drink throughout the day. ---- The afternoon began with
the official greeting and welcome to all participants by USI. The first panel consisted of
members of the IWW, USI and FAU, who started the presentations, beginning with the GGBO of
Germany, organizations that fight for the labor rights of the prisoners. They continued
"Cucine del Popolo", of Italy, a libertarian, anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist
organization that defends the principles of freedom, solidarity and internationalism and
function in a joint and independent manner.
The presentations were retaken with the ARS - the autonomous trade union of Bulgarian
workers -, CNT France-Vignol - with a very intense activity with the struggles against the
labor reform, Deliveroo or AMAZON sections - the Popular Movement Rifeño - that is in
period of constitution -, and the Brazilian Workers' Organization / Association - which
focuses on the precariousness of the education, oil and health sectors. The greetings
continued with WAS Vienna, IWW UK, FORA Argentina and Vraije Bond, Netherlands and Belgium.
With a view to the next day of the congress, plans are being made to set up a committee to
define the statutes and a working group that will be developed according to the
agreements, and a hard and certainly fruitful task is foreseen by the delegations.
Source: http://cnt.es/noticias/cr-Category-of-the-first-international-conversion
Translation> Sol de Abril
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Message: 2
After the successful Year of the Year (our report can be read in Existence 4/2016 ) this
year, another Anarchist Summer Camp will be held in northern Austria, from 1 to 8 August
2018. Below we bring the Czech translation of the invitation; more details and the ability
to register and participate in the preparation or program can be found at www.a-camp.net .
---- The Anarchist Summer Camp is a jointly formed camp that should allow people
interested in an anarchist way of life to meet, exchange experiences and reflect events
within the movement. ---- It is an experimental site that links self-perpetuating,
anti-authoritarian theory and practice and creates the possibility of building solidarity
networks and mutual help, as well as consciously finding and eliminating all forms of
discrimination.
Because similar moments and possibilities are too rare, we want to make the upcoming
A-Camp even more versatile, more intense and more creative.
Experiment of living anarchy ...
A-Camp 2018 is for anyone who is in favor of anarchist ideas or is interested in these
ideas. The intention is to experiment with anarchy during the week on the basis of
solidarity, mutual assistance, free association and self-organization. Especially in the
current authoritarian social climate, which is getting worse, it is important to bring
into our everyday habits the pursuit of freedom, the lack of domination and personal
autonomy. Our ideas here will be tested and we will learn from these lessons.
... to strengthen the struggle for freedom
A-Camp will consist of days full of lectures, discussions, practical workshops, sports,
creative activities, and anything that will involve the participants actively and what
they create. Emphasis will be placed on exchanging, meeting and deepening the
relationships we already have with each other to find perspectives and ways to speed up
the overcoming of the established order.
Creating individual and social freedom, which is not defined by certainty
Life at this time, when the rulers identify security as the highest of all feelings and
the premise of a good life, requires us to question certainties as such. Without ruling
violence - without a state - freedom can not be defined in terms of certainty, because it
is no longer the authority to guarantee it. The freedoms that the state grants to us are
the conditional freedoms we have only when we behave obediently and which the ruler can
withdraw at any time.
When considering A-Camp as an experiment, as a time and space without ruling violence,
where individuals meet to test new forms of mutual relationships, it is clear that this
must be provided we learn something new. All of us are shaped by the world in which they
live, and problems, mistakes and conflicts will be part of the campsite. We can not
guarantee that A-Camp will be as enriching as it could potentially be for every
participant and participant. The basis for the camp that enriches us is that all the
participants will try to arrange a camp according to their demands and desires without the
use of power. Then A-Camp will be an adventure for all of us.
The A-Camp will be what they will do to him.
For anarchy!
If you want to participate, organize a workshop or help us, please let us know.
http://a-camp.net/
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Message: 3
May Day as we know it began as ancient pagan commemoration of the start of spring, the
season in which we reap the bounty of the Earth through cultivation of the soil, and
rejoice in fertility and the beauty of life born anew after winters onerous cold. The
Roman festival of the Floralia, in contrast to others dominated by the high-born and
aristocratic, was raucous and licentious, drenched in the spirit of the plebeians, and was
paid for by the fines levied for disturbing or trespassing on public lands. Even
prostitutes and slaves were allowed participation. ---- As Europe was Christianized and
finally secularized, these pagan holidays took on new meaning and expression, but retained
much of the old symbolism. May 1st eventually became a feast day for St. Joseph the
Worker, and although Pope Pius IX's prayer written for that day contains admonitions to
unquestioning obedience that most anarchists and revolutionary socialists would rightly
find contemptible, the Judeo-Christian tradition that the West inherited contains within
it the seeds of antiauthoritarian philosophy. Indeed Bakunin called Christianity "the
first intellectual revolt of the proletariat".
Today we circle the streets in lieu of the Maypole, celebrating the martyrs of Haymarket
Square and all that have fallen and sacrificed their freedom fighting for a society based
on free, non-hierarchical structures. Today we struggle to hasten the end of a system that
is wreaking havoc upon our planet, and in the ruthless pursuit of profit is depriving us
of our sacred birthright as human beings to manage the fruits of the commons in a just and
sustainable way.
The demonstrators in Haymarket Square in 1886 were struggling for the 8 hour workday,
something many people take entirely for granted. The repressive acts that followed
catalyzed an international struggle, nurtured solidarity, and shaped the revolutionary
consciousness of those who were to become important labor figures of the early twentieth
century, like Emma Goldman who called the reaction, "The events that had inspired my
spiritual birth and growth." For fifty years after the Haymarket Affair, state violence
directed at the labor movement alongside an extravagant propaganda campaign to demonize
those who identified with the ideas of socialism and trade-unionism was incredibly effective.
The spontaneous, radical unionism and organizing during the Depression scared the owners
and state managers, and there was palpable fear that the capitalist system itself would
collapse. The New Deal Coalition's recognition of labor unions and the National Labor
Relations board created to settle disputes, "would channel the workers' insurrectionary
energy into contracts, negotiations, union meetings, and try to minimize strikes, in order
to build large, influential, even respectable organizations" as Howard Zinn wrote. This
led to the co-opting and blunting of the radical energy that won the major labor struggles
of the early 1900's, and consequently to the paralysis, bureaucratization, and class
collaborationism we see in mainstream American labor now. The postwar period of American
history has seen increasing state repression and surveillance at home, continuous war
abroad enriching the defense industrial base, and the deregulation and
internationalization of capital, pitting a disorganized American working class against an
incredibly organized ruling class intent on maintaining its privilege.
The dominant systems of the twentieth century, corporate capitalism and state socialism,
have both proven wasteful, unsustainable, and hostile to human dignity. Now is the time
for the working people of the world to figure out what kind of world we want to live in,
dismantle the primitive edifice of domination and authority, and reap the shared harvest
of our planet and our labor in peace.
For a world without bosses, bureaucrats and states!
Workers Solidarity Alliance
https://workersolidarity.org
http://ideasandaction.info/2018/05/day/
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Message: 4
Since the submission of the Spinetta report in February and the confirmation that the
government took the main part of its recommendations, the anger rumbling at the SNCF. A
majority of railway and railway workers have participated in the strikes and actions of
recent weeks. However, the balance of power is not enough. Why ? ---- While a large
majority of employees have mobilized several times, including March 22, and April 3 and 4,
the strike continues at the SNCF is set in ways clearly insufficient to consider winning!
---- Yet, despite the media hype, the signs of support from rail users are numerous, the
employees of many professional sectors rely on the confidence that could give the workers
the conflict of the railway !
An " innovative " strike ?
Since April 3, most general meetings of strikers have chosen to follow the terms decided
by the federations CGT, UNSA and CFDT to strike two days out of five. This can be
explained in particular by a lot of preparation work for this very cautious movement, on
the theme of the " strike that should not cost the strikers dearly ", but also by an
inaudible speech by the SUD-Rail and FO federations that could have be more offensive in
defending other modalities ! In addition, strikers subject to prior declaration (one of
the many restrictions on the right to strike that SNCF now requires more than one of three
railroaders to declare themselves striker 48 hours in advance) must make their choice in
advance on the notice of strike they plan to follow, which dispossesses the AG a little
more of their ability to decide their movement ! All union federations called for "
hardening the movement "While Macron and Pepy are daily overbidding: pure and simple
withdrawal of the special pension plan in 2019, subsidiary of the freight activity and the
management of stations, denunciation of all local agreements favorable to employees,
derogation the agreement on working time wherever possible by this summer, break career
events that had to take into account the seniority ...
A real setback in self-organization
But rather than " harden the strike " by announcing a renewable, the CGT railway
threatened to continue the strike two days out of five beyond June ! Yet many union
teams, including the CGT, are aware that this strategy will not win. Because it does not
allow a sufficient balance of power and has a limited impact on the economy. It is an
exhausting strike for all the union teams who must remobilize the strikers every week
without benefiting from the dynamics of the daily GAs or a renewable strike.
Above all, this modality of strike completely dispossesses the strikers of their movement.
Who better than the strikers themselves can decide the demands to be made and the renewal
of the strike ?
Entrusting the keys to mobilization to the union federations alone, while most of them are
only seeking a small step forward from the government to achieve an honorable exit from
the conflict would be unacceptable. Therefore, the only solution is to reinforce the
presence in dynamic general assemblies where each striker can express himself and make
proposals. MAs where delegates from other sectors can be involved to create real
convergences in territories. This reinforcement of the participation of strikers is
essential because it will allow the strike to hold and overflow. However, for the moment
in many general assemblies, too few initiatives are taken and the strikers are content to
follow the modalities defined by the federations CGT, UNSA and CFDT.
It is therefore an unprecedented situation that we are confronted with, where the general
meetings of strikers do not seek to free themselves from the slogans or modes of action of
the union federations and we can not resign ourselves to such a retreat. self-organization
of employees. " Harden the movement " and " converge struggles ", if they are just
slogans, must correspond to realities.
The interprofessional strike of April 19 has mobilized employees of many sectors but what
prospects for struggles beyond this day of action in energy, the RATP, public hospital or
public finance ?
Relaunch the mobilization to win
What common actions should be developed with the students involved and the union teams in
many sectors looking for a spark to explode the social anger that is smoldering ? Let's
multiply the initiatives to go beyond the frames that are imposed on us and give back the
confidence to the workers to take back their business in hand !
Mathieu (AL Saint-Denis)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?SNCF-Qu-est-ce-qu-on-attend-pour-foutre-le-feu
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Message: 5
Rather than increase the number of teachers and places in the sectors in tension, Macron
and his government make the choice to close the university to the high school students of
the neighborhoods and professional sectors by instituting the selection. at the entrance
to the license, which no government has managed so far. ---- The ORE law is also a
specialization even earlier in high school and 40% continuous control bac, so an increased
competition of high schools, to the detriment of less " rated ", such as high schools or
suburbs. For those who can go to college, a "contract" will be signed at the beginning of
the course. It will be a license in 2 years and modules of excellence reserved for an
elite, a license in 4 years and courses without means for others. In short, inequality in
higher education at all levels. To this is added the end of the compensation of the notes
in license, which will make their studies even more galère with the students who have a
job in addition to the courses for example
Mobilization is launched
The month of April saw the mobilization finally take off. High schools and many facs are
blocked or even occupied as Lyon 2, Marseille, Nanterre, Nantes, Saint-Denis, Toulouse.
Occupations sometimes violently repressed by the police, as in Nanterre and Tolbiac (P1)
where wounded people are to be deplored, or attacked by fascists like in Montpellier. The
AGs are counted now in thousands of students like in Toulouse and up to 4000 in Rennes !
Finally, in many ways, the blocking of exams is organized or is already relevant. We give
you a tip: you can even propose at the beginning of the exam to the whole room to vote its
cancellation !
For better coordination
These mobilizations, however, struggle to coordinate. Despite a more democratic
functioning than the previous ones, the CNE of April 21, 22 at P8 Saint-Denis was only a
sad arena of political battles between party activists and the UNEF. His cousin the CNL
that operates without warrants was just as disappointing, as the groups in attendance
refused to any form of organization. We encourage the various AGs to continue to invest
the CNE by commissioning students who are more attached to the future of the current
struggle than to that of their chapel or their personal political future.
And a convergence with the other sectors in struggle
It is now high time to get in touch with other sectors struggling, including rail workers,
civil servants, teachers, hospital staff. Mandate high school students and students at
their strike AGs, organize common actions, join us in demonstrations ! For this, the
strike and the demonstration of education and higher education on May 16 and those of the
civil service of May 22 are the next dates to invest massively! Because the 22nd is also
the day when Parcoursup will give his first results of assignments and where many his high
school students will be waiting before being denied and having no place at the university.
in September. It is also necessary to overtake jumping dates by mobilizing locally
permanently.
In May 2018, overflow general !!
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Le-1er-le-5-le-26
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Message: 6
Below is the write-up of a successful campaign organised by a tenant and Brighton SolFed
against a deduction to that tenant's deposit. The three month public campaign concluded in
April 2018 with a £450 payment to the tenant, who had had £390 deducted from her deposit.
Please note that the article contains brief discussion of post traumatic stress disorder.
---- I felt so neglected by my agency. The agent assigned to me was patronising and my
concerns were not listened to - I felt little. There were some difficult situations in my
house during my tenancy. I have PTSD, which was not helped by these situations or by my
complaints not being taken seriously. The house was hell to live in - agencies throw
students into houses with one another so they get their fees or their cut of the rent, and
then wash their hands of any responsibility. I would call the agency crying and they would
just tell me to pay my rent. It felt like they were trying to turn me against my flatmates.
At the end of my tenancy, the agency was attempting to deduct £390 for cleaning and
redecoration, in spite of me leaving the property clean. They were also trying to make
deductions for issues I had reported during my tenancy that weren't my fault. The £50 call
out fee for having to attend the flat after I reported one of these issues was indicative
of how bad they were.
Me and my Mum were going to take them to court, but then we realised they made a system
that effectively prevented that. I contacted SolFed through a drop-in at university. I
honestly had zero idea what to expect and I did not think it was possible to win via a
public campaign. It's not the kind of thing I had been involved in before. I would say I'm
a feminist and I debate and stuff but I felt like I didn't have a voice. I do now.
Around four SolFed members helped me to write to the agency in December 2017, outlining
the issues and demanding the return of the deposit, as well as compensation for the stress
of having to deal with these attempted deductions. The agency did not make an offer to
resolve the situation and instead referred the issue to the dispute resolution service of
the Deposit Protection Scheme. We started the public campaign after that, with a picket of
one of the local branches in January 2018.
My experience of the public campaign was quite nervous at first. I felt like I had to have
a pint before and like I didn't have a voice but I got more confident. At first, it felt
so silly if I'm honest because they were so blasé. When they realised it wasn't going
away, though, they were not happy. To be fair I loved it. You rarely get retaliation and
it felt so bloody good.
At first, the agency responded to the ongoing pickets by threatening legal action. SolFed
continued to offer them opportunities to negotiate, which they refused to do. Eventually
we escalated the campaign to pickets of multiple branches of the agency across the
country. After a final legal threat, which SolFed made public to show how the agency was
treating me, they started negotiating and we agreed a goodwill payment of £450 in March.
Winning feels fabulous. Such a relief. It's helped me to pay some bills that I needed to
pay, and the confidence I have gained from the case is kind of indescribable. The affect
it had on me changed my mother too. She's become much more politically active since this
all happened.
My advice to other tenants would be: I admit that this way of getting your money back or
getting a company to listen to you must seem so weird. Be patient. You will get some form
of retaliation but you must be patient. We won and we taught them a lesson - I think they
will think twice about treating students a certain way again.
http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk/brighton/we-taught-them-a-lesson-a-tenant-who-successfully-fought-a-deposit-deduction-tells-her
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Message: 7
The demonstration organised by the Trades Union Congress in London on May 12th attracted
tens of thousands from around England and Wales. It included large contingents of postal
workers, rail workers, transport workers and seafarers, firefighters, health workers, shop
and store workers, white collar workers in the civil service and other government
agencies, teachers, etc., who marched under the banners of ASLEF, CWU, FBU, GMB, NAS-UWT,
NEA, PCS, RCM, RMT, UCU, Unite, Unison, USDAW. Mobilisation for this was done primarily
through union branches, the Morning Star paper and the various leftist organisations, with
little or no street publicity. ---- What is the significance of this, the biggest
demonstration in London in years? ---- The TUC pushed a New Deal in language reminiscent
of the American New Deal of the 1930s and the old "a fair day's wage for a fair day's
work". The demands of this New Deal are:
1. We need a minimum wage of £10 an hour, now
2. Ban those exploitative zero hours contracts
3. Fund our NHS and public services properly
4. Repeal the trade union act which makes it harder for us to stand up for working people
5. Crack down on tax dodgers who starve our schools and hospitals of funding
In addition, the leadership of unions like the postal workers union, CWU, who seem to be a
main architect of this New Deal, are talking about the end of zero hour contracts,
fixed-term contracts, short-term contracts and specific event contracts, as well as the
need to appeal to the young and organise unemployed workers.
The trade union bureaucrats in the TUC and allied unions are seeking ways of restoring
their importance within the Labour Party and dream of the good old days of beer and
sandwiches with Labour government leaders. They also wish to strengthen and reinforce the
hold of Corbynism over the Labour Party. They are also concerned about the shrinkage of
trade unions, which will affect their positions in the TU bureaucracies. They are
responding to this by the merger of unions and by recruiting drives. The talk about
organising unorganised workers is in response to the relative success of the base unions
(CAIWU, IWGB, IWW, and UVW) in organising workers often neglected and considered
"unorganisable" by the mainstream trade unions.
At the same time, the large turnout on this demonstration shows a mounting anger within
the working class in the UK against privatisation, wage freezes, work conditions and
attacks on pensions and social services. The trade union bureaucrats need to respond to
this by the usual safety valve of an A-B march. In addition they are talking about raising
the need for a day of action at the approaching TUC Congress. This day of action would
take place "early in the New Year"!
Cast your minds back to the TUC Congress in 2010 where there was much talk about militant
action and finally a day in March the following year (!) was assigned. There were half a
million on that march on March 26th 2011. Again it was the usual A to B march with nothing
achieved. The same thing happened in July 2014 with another A to B march, followed by days
of action and strikes called by trade unions on different days (!) in October of the same
year. The safety valve tactic was used once again and the TUC maintained a radical aura by
talking militant (and actually doing nothing). Meanwhile the attacks on the NHS, pensions,
wages and work conditions have continued without letup.
Workers have gone into action without waiting for the trade union bureaucrats to tell them
what to do and they have done this all over the world. The trade union bureaucrats and
their allies in the UCU Left sabotaged the recent university lecturers' strike. Workers
have to start organising at a grassroots level. We should not wait for a worthless day of
action or the possible election of a Corbyn government at some point in the future. We
need to rely on our own strength, solidarity and organisation.
Final thoughts
Apart from ACG comrades distributing propaganda there was no visible presence of
anarchists. This is not surprising taking into consideration the increasingly marginalised
and ghettoised "anarchist" "movement" in the UK. Nor was there the presence of a Radical
Workers Bloc as on previous TUC demos. Serious class struggle anarchists need to fight
this malaise, look for unity with those of a similar mind, and increasingly turn away from
the anarchist ghetto and face outwards towards our class.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/05/14/12th-may-tuc-demo/
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