Anarchic update news all over the world - 22.05.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  London Anarchist Federation: Anarchy at the AU
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Britain, solfed: Northern Festival of Resisting Borders &
      Prisons May 19th (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  wsm.ie One week out and poll shows 16 point lead for Repeal
      but its going to be close (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  a-radio-network.org: 20-05-18: A-Radio Network 8 Hour
      Broadcast (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  wsm.ie: 100s of Yes posters torn down by organised gang in
      County Cork (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  [Greece-France] Solidarity with Giorgios and Andreas of the
      anarchist group Rouvikonas By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Poland, ozzip - WORKERS' INITIATIVE: Report from the
      Workers' Union OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza (12-13.05.2018)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 02:26:23 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) London Anarchist Federation: Anarchy at the AU
Message-ID: <mailman.3047.1526945199.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

The antiuniversity now festival has some amazing events this year. The full programme is 
available at http://www.antiuniversity.org/ but here is our rundown of anarchist events at 
the AU! ---- Radical Ecology ---- The Anarchist Federation will present ideas from their 
new pamphlet on an anti-capitalist view of environmental issues, including both the root 
causes (spoiler alert: it's capitalism) and the false solutions offered up as ways out of 
the crisis. We will have an introductory talk followed by a participatory discussion. 
http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/radical-ecology ---- Decoding Chomsky: Making Sense 
of the Politics and Science of the World's Best-Known Intellectual ---- 
http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/decoding-chomsky:-making-sense-of-the-politics-and-science-of-the-world's-best-known-intellectual

No Gods, No Masters

Religious belief is still very strong in the world today, despite predictions that it 
would disappear with science and the development of a secular society. For many people, 
this is not a problem- we should be tolerant of the beliefs of others. After all, these 
beliefs are about things that we can't prove or disprove and don't really affect what 
happens in our society. Anarchists believe differently. Just as we reject other ‘masters' 
such as the bosses or the State, so we reject any belief that looks towards an external 
authority for what to believe and how to live. In addition, these beliefs very much do 
affect society, eg views on abortion, homosexuality, gender and race. Throughout history 
people have used religion as a justification to oppress others, often with extreme 
violence, eg the slave trade, the Crusades and ISIS today. But how do we argue against 
religious beliefs? It is especially a problem when these beliefs are held by persecuted 
minorities and people who we are working with in unions and community campaigns. This 
discussion meeting will consider what anarchists reject religion and then open up the 
discussion about what strategies we can adopt for challenging religion in our society. 
http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/no-gods-no-masters

Whatever Happened to the Revolution?

Most of our time is spent having to resist attacks on all fronts- bosses, the government, 
and all the general injustices of society. But many of us hold in our hearts a hope for a 
completely different society. Isn't it time we put Revolution back at the top of the 
agenda? What do we need to do to make it a reality rather than just a vague hope at the 
back of our minds? Anarchist communists believe firmly in the possibility of working class 
revolution. This talk/discussion will first present anarchist communist ideas on 
revolution before opening up to general discussion about revolution today. Some of the 
questions to discuss are: What do we mean by revolution? What steps can we take now? What 
are the obstacles? http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/whatever-happened-to-the-revolution

Anarchism and Class: Is it still Relevant?

The division of society into two main classes, the ruling class and the working class, has 
always been fundamental to an anarchist analysis of capitalism. However, this basic 
division is now considered to be too simplistic and many now argue that there are other 
divisions in society that are more relevant. This meeting will consider what class 
struggle anarchists mean by class and why we think it is still a fundamental concept in 
understanding how society works and for building a movement for a revolution. It will also 
consider how the concept needs to be up-dated to fit with global capitalism today and not 
be used to mask other crucial societal divisions such as gender and race. 
http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/anarchism-and-class:-is-it-still-relevant

Anarchism for Beginners

Anarchism is often represented in the media as meaning chaos and disorder. But nothing 
could be further from the truth. This meeting, presented by a long-term active anarchist, 
will explain in simple terms what anarchism is, its different forms, what it wants to 
achieve, and how it might deal with difficult issues for a future society such as police 
and prisons. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion. 
http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/anarchism-for-beginniers

Anarchist Fitzrovia: Walking Tour

Visit all the hot spots of anarchist Fitzrovia. See where Frank Kitz, a leading light in 
the Socialist League, met with others and downed a pint or two in the process. Visit the 
sites of Louise Michel's Free School, the German anarchist Autonomie Club, Lilyan Evelyn's 
anarchist Ferrer School, the haunts of the celebrated Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, 
the soup kitchen set up by refugees from the Paris Commune. Goggle at the building that 
housed the (in)famous Malatesta Club of the 1950s. See where anarchist sympathiser and 
artist Augustus John drank. Stand outside The grocer shop of Albert Richard, hero of the 
Paris Commune, who sold only red beans and rejected reactionary white beans. Linger at the 
newsagents run by Armand Lapie, scene of doctrinal disputes. Pause at the spot where the 
colourful anarchist Xo d'Axa played his barrel organ. All this and much more. 
http://programme.antiuniversity.org/id/anarchist-fitzrovia:-walking-tour

https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/anarchy-at-the-au/

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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 02:26:32 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) Britain, solfed: Northern Festival of Resisting Borders
        & Prisons May 19th
Message-ID: <mailman.3048.1526945224.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

In Manchester, Empty Cages Collective, Manchester No Prisons, Smash IPP, & Unis Resist 
Border Controls felt the urgency of not only discussing and pushing against border regimes 
and the hostile environment policy, but also fighting prison injustice. As it was reported 
in Corporate Watch, the current Conservative government are pushing to build 6 mega 
prisons, one of which has already been built in Wrexham, North Wales. The crisis of 
violence and overcrowding inside prisons is causing huge damage to communities across the 
UK. Likewise, as the research of Luke de Noronha notes, the combination of border 
violence, the hostile environment policy, prisons, and secret charter deportation flights 
are disproportionately affecting Black and Brown minority communities in the UK.

For this reason we are organising an event in Manchester, to strengthen the links across 
migrant rights, labour rights, and prison justice campaigns.

Come join us on SATURDAY 19th MAY, at The Powerhouse Moss Side where we will be having 
workshops and talks by the following invited groups:

Anti Raids Network
Schools Against Borders for Children
Manchester IWW
JENGbA
Wast Manchester
Safety4Sisters North West
No Borders Leeds
United Families and Friends Campaign
BLMUK
Shut Down Morton Hall
We Will Rise - Shut Dungavel and many more groups!

LOCATION
The Powerhouse Moss Side

140 Raby Street

Moss Side

Manchester

M14 4SL

http://www.solfed.org.uk/manchester/northern-festival-of-resisting-borders-prisons-may-19th

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 02:26:43 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) wsm.ie One week out and poll shows 16 point lead for
        Repeal but its going to be close
Message-ID: <mailman.3051.1526945244.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

Its just over a week before Ireland will have a referendum to remove the clause in the 
constitution the equates the life of a women with that of a foetus. The Irish Times/MRBI 
have published a poll showing Yes has a 16 point lead over No with one week to go to the 
referendum. The detail of the poll also reveals a surprisingly large soft No vote still 
exists. 22-35% of No voters should be voting Yes according to their opinions on wanting 
more abortion access for women. ---- But we also continue to warn that if a similar last 
minute drop in support fort Yes happened as occurred with the Marriage Equality referendum 
the strong lead in this poll would reduce so that the vote was too close to call. In other 
words there should be no room for complacency, its likely every vote will count as 
happened with the 1995 divorce referendum which pass with a tiny margin of 50.28% Yes, 
equivalent to a couple of votes per ballot box.

No still has a significant soft vote with;
A. 35% of No voters feel access to abortion up to 12 weeks on request is a reasonable 
compromise. Presumably because they know proving rape cannot be made conditional on 
accessing abortion - trial take weeks, not months and conviction rates are low. The recent 
Belfast trial is probably in many peoples minds. But 12 weeks on request can't happen 
without a Yes vote to Repeal, its completely impossible with the 8th in place.
B. 22% of No voters say the law needs to change to recognise a women's right to choose to 
have an abortion. This is a VERY soft No indeed as clearly Repeal the 8th has to happen to 
make this possible, there is no way this 22% should, be voting No while holding this opinion.

These detailed figures are available here https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/poll

Both these large soft No blocs suggest that if people fully understood the referendum and 
the implications of a No vote as a continuation of cruel regime of the 8th then there 
should be at least a 10% switch from No to Yes with the referendum then passing 63% Yes to 
39% No. This may explain why No has fallen back on distrust, fear and confusion messaging 
along with trying to make referendum campaign as toxic as possible. They need not to allow 
the 22% to 35% soft No voters to consider the implications of a No victory.

Overall the Irish Times / MRBI poll has responses as follows
44 Yes
32 No
17 Don't Know
5 Won't Vote
2 Refused to say

The poll was collected Monday & Tuesday of this week, the controversial Clare Burns Live 
shows which has a strong No bias in speaker section and time was broadcast Monday night so 
No might have expected a much stronger showing in this poll as they were very loudly 
declaring a victory after than broadcast. This poll however shows no significant change in 
comparison with the KMB poll taken a couple of weeks beforehand.

Dublin remains strongly Repeal with Ulster/Connacht which has seen large scale suppression 
(tearing down) of Yes posters being the weakest, close to 50:50. It's also the smallest 
regional bloc of voters.

The detail of the poll also reveals that the Urban V Rural divide has close a lot during 
the campaign, according to this poll
Rural V Urban
Yes 39% V 46%
No 36% V 30%

Age remains the biggest dividing line, over 65s are the only group strongly intending to 
vote No
18 to 24 V 65+
Yes 52% V 30%
No 27% V 47%

Older voters won it for both Trump & Brexit, will the same happen here and the same sense 
of a betrayal of grand children's futures by their own grand parents - in this case where 
ether consequences don't even directly effect them? Talk kindly to your grandparents about 
this.

With this question its interesting that with the 65+ and 18-24 age groups the Don't Knows 
lean towards No strongly but all the in between age groups lean towards Yes. With the 65+ 
we can say this is the influence of clerical ideology over a life time. With the 18-24 
this is the group most likely to see the enormous No spend on misleading online adverts 
and which doesn't necessarily have the life experience to measure this against. In terms 
of voter mobilisation it may be that No's early contempt towards younger (student) voters 
may hurt them here.

The IT/MRBI last polled in April, this is the shift between their April poll and this one
April->This poll
Yes 47->44
No 28 ->32
DK 20->17
Won't vote 3->5
Won't say 1->2

It's unusual for Won't vote and Won't say figures to rise in the course of a referendum. 
This very much reflects the hate and fear messaging of the No campaign along with the 
widespread attempts to sow confusion and doubt. It's clearly scared some intending voters 
from voting and made others fearful of speaking. This also happened in 1983 leading to a 
tiny turnout of 53% on the day. No have been busy in the last few days setting the ground 
for declaring the referendum to be a fix, a low turnout would also help them in that 
respect so its useful to be aware that they are trying to engineer a low turnout. At times 
this has been blatant, as with releasing press releases saying colleges should not close 
on the 25th to allow students to vote.

A lot of people are very sure of how they will vote, this is obviously good for Yes and 
bad for No as it suggests the pool of voters who can be shifted is not large. Yes has very 
much larger canvass teams so they are much more likely to be able to sway this pool in the 
final week.
65% never change
22% extremely unlikely
9% unlikely but open
4% possibly

We presume there will be at least another 2 polls out in next few days if all major 
polling companies are polling. The MRBI 'weekend before' poll was closest to being correct 
for the Marriage Equality Referendum result, more on this important comparison for the 
previous polls and how we do this calculation

That said in bad news for No and going somewhat against our Marriage Equality ref 
comparison more Don't Knows are leaning to Yes than No

Lean Yes 31%
Lean No 24%
Not leaning 44%

But if we assume all No leaning Don't Knows become No votes this poll becomes one very 
close to what happened with MRBI and their Marriage Equality referendum polling, bringing 
us back towards a too close to call result. Again we say this is a warning and not as a 
prediction of actual outcome, there is far more for the No campaign to sweat over in this 
poll which is why they are preparing the ground for their defeat and claims of a rigged 
referendum.

Canvassing and leafletting for Yes is going to have a massive impact in the remaining week 
of campaigning. So too will talking to your friends, workmates and relatives. Divorce 
passed in 1995 by a tiny fraction and its looking like it could be very close for Repeal 
so do have those conversations. No want a low turnout, we want a high one so vote early on 
the 25th, and post to social media that you have done so to encourage others to do likewise.

20th April - Three additional opinion polls this April have shown that the anti-choice 
campaign has failed to reduce the number of people intending to repeal the 8th referendum 
at all, despite 3 months of frantic campaigning that has involved an enormous spend on 
misleading billboards, posters, online ads and glossy colour leaflets.  With the Together 
for Yes campaign only gearing up last week this means the No may may well decrease between 
now and the referendum.  However as our reports and analysis of these poles show the 
pro-choice Yes campaign cannot be complacent.

Two of these polls appeared on 28th and 29th April, the Daily Mail one had a very loaded 
to the No side question, the Red C seems to continue to over estimate the Yes relative to 
other polls.

The Red C poll in Sunday Business Post 29th April confirms little change against their 
previous poll since campaigns started in February.

No vote static at 26%,
Yes vote at 53% down 3% since last their poll but 3% is margin of error.
Don't Know up 3 to 19%
Won't vote static at 2%
The image above shows all 6 polls and demonstrate that despite Save the 8th & Love Both No 
campaigns spend of millions the No vote has not increase at all.

With Don't Know excluded that Sunday Business Post / Red C poll has

68% Yes
32% No
Note this is a higher Yes than that which other companies are finding but the Yes to No 
ratio has remained close to 2:1 in all polls, all variation appears to be down to the 
company polling with Red C polling yes the highest.

But please also read our we explanation of why Yes needs not to get complacent on the 
basis of our adjustment of polling figures on the basis of previous referendums and in 
particular Marriage Equality.

Sunday 22nd April saw the appearance of yet another opinion poll of the referendum to 
repeal the anti-choice amendment added to the constitution in 1983.  As with all 5 opinion 
polls that have appeared during the campaign it showed little change at the national 
level, the strong lead for Yes remains.  But when the full data was published Monday we 
had a look and discovered some interesting trends within it.

The Sunday Times teased everyone Saturday night with tweet pointing out the Dublin Yes had 
fallen 8%.  They probably a sold a good few papers the next day off of it but in doing so 
they buried the lead that otherwise no significant change in voting intentions had 
occurred in comparison with their previous polls.

You can view this Behaviour & Attitudes poll reported in the Sunday Times.  In this poll 
928 people were questioned  meaning the margin of error is 3.3% error.  Once that is taken 
into account we see the tiny changes in voting intentions are not significant despite what 
the Save 8th  and Love Both spokes people initially tried to claim.

People were also asked if they supported unrestricted access to abortion in the first 12 
weeks of preganancy, the period in which the abortion pill can be used.  Despite the No 
campaigns huge huge spend on misleading posters, billboards, online ads & leaflets there 
was no impact on voter attitudes on this question. There is certainly an argument that the 
Save the 8th campaign being caught multiple times with its dirty tricks campaign at the 
start of the campaign rightly did permanent credibility damage to the No side. There was 
also no change in attitudes to allowing abortion to protect womens health & where there is 
fatal foetal abnormality detected.

This 3rd B&A/ST poll was done from 15-17th April .  This was right at the end of the 
period when only Vote No posters were up, and in considerable numbers.  Since then the 
Together for Yes & other Repeal the 8th posters are appearing in increasing numbers.  The 
failure of the anti-choice organisations to erode ‘soft Yes' votes when they were the most 
prominent voice by far is a serious setback for them.  Now the question is whether the 
‘soft No' vote will be eroded by arguments for compassion & protection of health as  the 
referendum  approaches in 5 weeks.

‘Soft No' votes can be understood as No voters who also want to protect womens health & 
allow abortion for fatal foetal abnormalities. Doing either however requires Repeal.  The 
No campaign is in trouble here, this B&A poll on page 17 shows 33% of No voters want 
abortion in such cases & 11% don't know.  In this context 44% of the No could be won to 
Yes by the Together for Yes campaign as it unfolds.

Pages 16+17 of this B&A poll shows that the ‘Soft Yes' is proportionately small, less than 
half  as a proportion than the ‘Soft No' so even apart from their  failure to date the 
anti-choice campaigns are in a weak position.  To illustrate

For voters who intend to vote Yes to repeal some 12% are against unrestricted access to 12 
weeks and 8% don't know, so you could say 20% of the Yes vote was soft.  On the allowing 
access to abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and where the persons health is 
threatened some 9% of Yes voters are against and 5% don't know.  This is a 13% ‘soft' vote

Here its worth noting that although the 3 months of (mostly No) campaign have not effected 
voting intentions on repeal pages 16 & 17 does show both Yes and No soft votes have 
reduced between February & April polling, presumably as people educate themselves on these 
topics.
Soft Yes i.e. against 12 weeks fell from 21% of Yes to 14%
Soft No i.e. for health & FFA fell from 49% of No to 44%

So as an exercise if we take soft votes into account the unrealistic worst cases, assuming 
all Don't Knows go against them as
Yes falls to 40% if all ‘soft yes' lost
No falls to 16% if all ‘soft no' lost

This sort of complete loss is very unlikely but this exercise demonstrates what a bad 
situation the anti-choice campaigns are in.

When you add the 2 other polls in the 3 month campaign period in (see image in 1st 
comment) and exclude Don't Knows we see some differences probably due to different MRBI 
and Red C methodology but confirmation across all these polls that there have been no 
major changes in voter intention at the national level.  Including  Don't Knows and Won't 
vote makes little difference, again there is very little change over the three months of 
campaigning.

But to warn against Yes complacency. The 1995 Divorce referendum was almost lost despite a 
strong showing at start when the Yes vote fell sharply in the last days of the campaign. 
That said the fall was between the polls before the campaign started with a big drop 
during the campaign itself.  The three B&A polls above are all taken with the campaigns 
underway.  There does seems to have been a small drop before the campaign started as 
recorded in the MRBI and Red C January polls. Divorce data from the Irish Political 
Ephemera page

We are going to move on to looking at the B&A/ST data on regional voting intentions & how 
much can be said about the data on voting intention by age, gender, 'social class' and 
political party support.  This is complex so you may want to have a look at what we wrote 
comparing their previous two polls where we discuss the issues around doing this, in 
particular then increase in the margin of error.

The change in voting intentions by region from the 3 polls carried out by B&A/Sunday 
Times, February to April show the urban V rural divide collapsing.  In other words the Yes 
falls in Dublin & other urban areas but this fall is balanced by a No fall in rural areas 
so that there is no overall change of significance.

Yes has shifted from being well ahead in Dublin & other urban areas to being well ahead 
everywhere
Even in Connacht/Ulster Yes is now 13% ahead
The reduced Dublin Yes lead is still 27% ahead
Overall the Rural Yes is now 14% ahead, it was 1% behind back in February

With all the sub group discussions its important to keep in mind that as group size 
decreases the margin of error increases substantially.

When to look at this poll by region, gender & social class we see strong variations here 
as with the previous two B&A polls but no significant movement between these polls. Repeal 
the 8th remains the choice of every group except the over 55s which are Save the 8th by 
4%, really with the margin of error included this makes them 50:50.

Another reminder that because these sub populations are small when looking at the raw B&A 
tables its important to keep an eye on sample size as what looks like a change may not be 
when margin of error for small sample is considered.  For instance sequentially across the 
3 polls it looks like the under 35s No vote goes from 25 -> 18 -> 23 but a lot of this may 
be because the margin of error for that sub sample size would be plus/minus 6%. So the 
first month drop is real but the subsequent rise may not be.  On the other hand the under 
35 Yes at 59% and No at 23% is a difference of 36%, many times the margin of error, so its 
real.

Keeping the margin of error in mind
-Yes does better than average with under 35s & ABC1s
- No does better than average with over 55s & C2DEs but pensioners are probably tilting 
that C2DE average towards No because of the over 55 effect.  C2DEs are still voting Yes by 
a margin of 6%

A word of warning for Together 4 for Yes - when asked if they would vote in a general 
election (p31)  79% of the over 55s will definitely vote as against 60% of the under 34s. 
If the Yes vote falls and the referendum was close that higher over 55 turnout could 
defeat repeal the 8th.  But of course intention to vote in an  election isn't the same as 
intention to vote in a referendum - anarchists vote in referendum only rarely if at all in 
elections, see https://www.wsm.ie/elections  for why

Finally we look at the ST/BA poll and the data on how the vote  breaks down by political 
party. And here we see the reason for Fianna Fails  self destructive opportunism of trying 
to ride both horses at once,  their voters are split 50:50,  41:42 to be precise.  Rural 
Fianna Fail will want to be visibly No but that could spell the doom for urban Fianna Fail 
who already face decimation from the growing urban Sinn Fein vote that is hovering up what 
used to be the Fianna Fail youth vote/

All the other parties have far more Yes voters, the lead of Yes over No for each of the 
major parties is
Fine Gael 24%
Labour 30%
Sinn Fein 30%

Of  these Labour & Sinn Fein are both actively campaigning for Repeal while Fine Gael is 
halfhearted with little on the ground activity and an intended spend that is a fraction of 
Together for Yes.  We may have forced the establishment to call a referendum but they 
certainly do not intend to win it for us, indeed a victory will be a defeat for the spot 
of politics of control they held for the last 90 years.  And not too soon.

The Irish Times with MRBI published an opinion poll on the Repeal the 8th referendum 20th 
April that once more showed a strong Yes lead and a static No.  It is the 6th poll of the 
year so we thought it useful to generate a side by side comparison of the Yes & No votes 
for all 6.  The polls were carried out by MRBI, Red C and Behaviour & Attitudes.

20/April IT/MRBI

  poll has

Yes 47%
No 28%
Don't Know 20%
Won't vote 3%


With undecided excluded that come down to
63% Yes
to
37% No

With the chart above we eliminated undecided from all 6 polls.

Other significant finds from this mornings poll included;

A narrow majority of Fianna Fail votes favour repeal
39% Yes
37% No

This is very bad news for No campaigns as it suggests there will be no further opportunism 
from Fianna Fail TDs who might otherwise think campaigning for a No would damage their 
Fine Gael or Sinn Fein rivals.  This is now only the case in some rural areas and the 
advantage would be small but the Fianna Fail party nationally would have to be conferenced 
that any further prominent opportunism from rural Tis would further damage their chances 
of an urban recovery rather than the permanent loss of seats to Sinn Fein.  Fianna Fail 
did a press stunt yesterday where several party members appeared with a Together for Yes 
banner, cynically we suspect this was because they were forwarned of todays poll showing 
No had failed to gain.

Most importantly the Yes vote appears to be very very solid with 80% of Repeal voters 
saying they would never change their mind.  Its probable the sheer toxicity and 
disinformation of the No campaign as well as the saturation coverage in terms of 
billboards and online ads has backfired and solidified the Yes vote.

Also of great significance undecideds are leaning 2:1 towards Repeal - this is unusual in 
a referendum where the assumption is that a majority of undecided would opt for the status 
quo and vote no.

If the two findings above are accurate the No campaign has no chance of winning on polling 
day.   This along with their failure to significantly increase their share of the vote 
since February suggests outside of some major Yes mishap it's over for them.

In this MRBI poll voters also reported a high degree of knowledge of post referendum 
legislation - only 15% said they were unaware - and Repeal voters showed the highest level 
of knowledge.  This means the No strategy of fake claims and misleading posters has not 
only failed but probably backfired and instead is motivating Yes voters and alienating 
undecided's.

But while there are strong grounds for optimism it's not over yet. Dangers include the 
attempts by No to make the campaign bitter and nasty, particularly in Dublin, to try and 
drive down turnout, particularly of younger voters. They probably hoped to provoke a 
response in kind from the Yes campaign but it has stayed focused on compassion and women's 
health.

The Irish Times headlined this as a slippage in the Yes vote in comparison with their 
January poll, something that is present until undecided are excluded when the apparent 
shift is then smaller than the margin of error.     RED C showed a similar slippage 
between their January and March polls which we discussed in depth at 
https://www.wsm.ie/c/repeal-8th-opinion-polls-analysis but at this point we'd acknowledge 
that its likely there was a loss of soft Yes votes back then before there was significant 
campaigning.

The weakest point for Yes remains the 12 week unrestricted access which is why No will 
continue to try and centre that discussion and avoid the discussions being centred on 
protecting womens health and fatal foetal abnormality. There the No vote is very soft 
indeed, half of No voters in the B&A poll actually wanted abortion access in those cases, 
meaning No could lose half their vote if protecting women health becomes the main issue 
under discussion.  The other half are the core 15% ‘let women die' - a figure that has 
remained constant for the last few years.

 From their messaging its clear that the No campaign recognise that they are not likely to 
erode many Yes votes on the 12 week issue and the Irish Times poll confirms that.  The 
percentage saying 12 weeks goes too far (41%) is almost identical with the percentage 
saying abortion is wrong and should not be more widely available. (40%).  56% said they 
had reservations on 12 weeks but it was a reasonable compromise.  Presumably a recognition 
that there is no other way of providing abortion in the case of rape and that 12 weeks is 
the current reality in Ireland because its  the end of the period where the abortion pill 
can be used.  The abortion pill may be illegal right now but the reality is women are 
taking it every week and that usage is increasing.  Unless the state starts prosecuting 
women for its use - and that would carry a 14 year jail sentence without repeal  - women 
will continue to use it regardless of the outcome of the referendum.  Most voters want 
these women to be able to access medical care with the risk of jail.

This mornings poll should have been the strongest by far figures for No campaign as they 
were organised to campaign earlier and are spending huge amounts on billboards & ads while 
#Together4Yes was still in the process of raising funds. Two weeks back No spokespeople on 
Twitter were crowing that the Yes campaign was nowhere to be seen - and this poll would 
have been collected in that period.  Last week saw the enormous crowdfunding drive by 
Together for Yes with 550,000 being raised through over 10,000 small donations, many with 
names and indeed moving stories attached.  Just who is funding the No campaign on the 
other hand is murky and unclear - its widely understood that huge quantities of dollars 
have flowed in over the last years because extreme US christian groups see Ireland as a 
key battleground in their ‘crusade'.

What has also been striking on Twitter is that the No canvass groups remain smaller and 
appear to have become less frequent, particularly in Dublin while the Together for Yes 
canvass groups have appeared everywhere, including rural areas that didn't see Marriage 
Equality canvassing and some of the groups are enormous.  We've seen photos of canvass 
groups in individual Dublin constituencies that have had 50-70 people on them.  We suspect 
the early start of the No campaign and the enormous amount of money they are spending on 
achieving saturation advertising everywhere from billboards to children's computer games 
has really motivated Repealers to donate and canvass.  A massive rebellion against the 
hated 8th amendment is very much in full swing and the status quo looks like its going 
down to a major defeat, and not just in the cities.

These are the 4 polls carried out since Repeal 8th referendum was declared. They show the 
impact of campaigning, mostly of the No side as Together for Yes got underway later. So 
both anti-choice groups, Save the 8th and Love Both have had no real impact on voters 
despite the enormous spend on posters, billboards & online ads.

Incidentally we have seek the claim that todays MRBI poll was the first time the Yes vote 
when don't know are included fell below 50%. This claim is false, the yes vote was at 49% 
for both the B&A polls here, ie for the period of the campaign it has remained just under 
50% for all but one poll.

There was also  a poll in the Daily Mail but because of the loaded way the question was 
phrased (opposite) to include unrestricted access to 12 weeksthis means its not comparable 
with these other polls.

That Daily Mail question is not standard. In fact its what reputable polling companies 
have been using to see how soft the Yes vote is.

Behaviour & Attitudes for instance ask how people intend to vote on the 8th as one 
question and what their attitude to 12 weeks as a follow on - in their April poll 47% are 
for Repeal but only 43% in favour of 12 weeks, the gap showing how important the question 
asked is.

To combine the two isn't just a loaded question, its most of the basis of the No campaign. 
It's why reputable polling companies also have a soft No question about protecting health 
& cases where foetus will not survive (FFA).  So if you are paying for a poll and the 
question you pay for is set up as the Daily Mail poll was then in effect you are paying 
for a result. If NO canvassing teams are demoralised it might fool them to have some hope 
to keep going

In that context the Daily Mail reported

Yes 46%
No 31%
Don't Know 16%
Not Say 8%
Even in that context though when you account for margin of error and compare with their 
previous poll only this is the 7th poll to show the No campaign has had no significant impact

The polls to date

Pre-campaign

MRBI January - 
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/clear-majority-backs-abortion-on-request-up-to-12-weeks-poll-shows-1.3368816
Red C January - https://www.redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SBP-Jan-2018-Poll...
Polls during campaign

B&A February - http://banda.ie/wp-content/uploads/Sunday-Times-Report.pdf
B&A March - http://banda.ie/wp-content/uploads/J.8878-Sunday-Times-March-2018-Report...
Red C March - http://www.redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SBP-March-2018-Pol...
MRBI April - 
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/irish-times-poll-public-favour-repeal-of-eighth-despite-slip-in-support-1.3467503 
with a nice viewer of the data at https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/poll
B&A April - http://banda.ie/wp-content/uploads/J.9001-Sunday-Times-April-2018-Report.pdf
Red C April - 
http://www.redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SBP-April-2018-Poll-Report-GE16.pdf
Subject: Repeal 8th, Pro-choice
Topics: Gender
Geography: National
Source: News alert
Type: Analysis
Author: Andrew N Flood

https://wsm.ie/c/polls-yes-repeal-referendum

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 07:44:24 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) a-radio-network.org: 20-05-18: A-Radio Network 8 Hour
        Broadcast
Message-ID: <mailman.3103.1526964275.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

On Sunday 20th of May 2018 the participants of the Gathering of the International 
Anarchist and Anti-authoritarian Radio Network that is taking place in Berlin, Germany 
will do a live radio broadcast. ---- The broadcast will cover wide range of topics from 
the perspective of anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements: presentations of local and 
international projects, groups/networks and activities/struggles; discussions on current 
issues; announcements of the upcoming protests/conferences/meetings/bookfairs; radical 
music and much more! ---- Among the participants will be radio projects (radio stations, 
radio shows and podcasts) from all parts of Europe and the Americas participating (see the 
list of participants below) so interesting and politically up-to-date program is 
inevitable! The programme will be mostly in English.

The programme will be broadcasted through online streams (see below) and some of the local 
radio stations will air it as well.

Sunday, 20th of May 2018
+++ 14:00 - 22:00 (Central European Time) +++

ONLINE STREAMS (list will be updated):

* Radio Študent 89,3 MHz (Slovenia) - from 14:00 to 18:00; direct link to stream will be 
published later; www.radiostudent.si

List of participating radios and project (confirmed as of 14.5.2018):

A-Radio Berlin - Germany

98fm Athens - Greece

Motbrus - Sweden

Dissident Island - UK

The Final Straw Radio - USA

Bilda Kedjor -

The Ex-Worker - USA

InfoLora - Switz

Radio-A Karlsruhe -

Antena Negra TV - Argentina

1431am Thessaloniki - Greece

Crna Luknja - Slovenia

A-Radio Vienna - Austria

A-Radio Dresden - Germany

...and we hope many more member radio projects that are unable to come will share their 
content in the show!

Full schedule of the broadcast to be announced

This broadcast is one of the things organized by International Anarchist and 
Anti-athoritarian Radio Network that is being organized through International Meetings 
that take place once a year since 2015. First meeting (and radio programme from there) 
took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2015, second meeting (and radio programme from there) 
took place in Berlin, Germany in 2016, third meeting (and radio programme from there) took 
place in Athens, Greece in 2017 and the fourth is going to take place again in Berlin.

Anarchist and anti-authoritarian radios network

The multilingual network of anarchist and antiauthoritarian radios (shows, podcasts etc.) 
was established in order to strengthen the contacts among various collectives that 
actively work on producing audio materials with libertarian content. It presents a 
concrete method of exchange of radio materials, and establishing a platform of anarchist 
and antiauthoritarian radios, where you can search for the news, analyses, comments on 
important topics from different places across the globe. The material is produced by 
collectives, groups or individuals that share the antiauthoritarian or anarchist 
principles of organizing.

The idea is not necessarily aimed at creating new radio content, but mostly to make 
available the content we already are creating. The network of A-radios was created through 
a collective process - among comrades, who feel strongly about libertarian content on the 
radio and who gathered on the International meetings of anarchist and antiauthoritarian 
radios with the aim to exchange ideas, practices or materials and to coordinate our common 
struggle for more autonomous media.

You can check the programme and archive of the programme from 2015, 2016 and 2017 meetings!

More information about Anarchist Radio Network and individual project at 
https://www.a-radio-network.org/

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 07:44:37 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) wsm.ie: 100s of Yes posters torn down by organised gang
        in County Cork
Message-ID: <mailman.3105.1526964288.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

In a pattern all to common across rural Ireland hundreds of Yes posters were torn down in 
an organised fashion by what had to be No activists across Country Cork last night.  This 
anti-democratic rage typifies the No campaign which has has so much wealth that it is 
printing 10 No posters to every Yes.  All across Ireland the few Yes posters there are to 
distribute have been torn down, in one case we have heard of in the west they have even 
been discovered in the houses of No campaigners.  This is ahead of the May 25th referendum 
to remove the article of the Irish constitution that equates the life of a women with that 
of a foetus. ---- As well as being an organised assault on democracy, showing the contempt 
the No campaign have for the people of Ireland, the shortage of resources often means each 
of these stories is heart breaking.  We heard from the couple who had driven to Dublin to 
pick up the these posters which they had paid for themselves with donations they had 
collected.

She told us "This morning no fewer than 8 messages came in to our Facebook page telling us 
our posters had been cut down and destroyed all over the county.

We paid for those posters ourselves with donations. G. drove to Dublin to collect them, a 
6 hour trip. Himself and a lovely bunch of volunteers spent all Sunday putting them up 
right across the county. And the No side organised an attack on them right across the county.

Why, they have at least a million posters across the country. We put up about 500 at the 
weekend.

Can you please think long and hard what will happen if these people win and get more 
power. Do you want Mattie McGrath and Ronan Mullen, the Healy Rae's, the Sherlocks running 
the country? Catholic fundamentalism, is that what we want to go back to? Say goodbye to 
contraception, sex education, divorce, marriage equality so.

You might not care about this issue, you might not like abortion but this is not about 
liking abortion, it's about trusting women to make the best decision for them and being 
compassionate and not judgemental.

Don't let this be another Trump or Brexit. Please, please get involved in the final days 
of the campaign, vote yes, abstain if you can't but please do not hand any power to these 
people."

Subject: Repeal 8th, Bigots
Topics: Gender
Geography: Cork
Source: News alert
Type: News
Author: Andrew N Flood

https://wsm.ie/c/100s-yes-posters-torn-down-cork
======================================================l
wsm.ie: A super canvass for Repeal in Swords
Date: Tue, 2018-05-15 16:10
On Sunday I was fortunate enough to have the time to spend canvassing Swords for a Yes in 
the upcoming referendum on the 8th amendment with great gang of volunteers. This was a 
weekend when Together For Yes was organising big canvasses in towns that we knew had to be 
covered. Naas, Swords and Navan along with other towns were all being canvassed this weekend.

The mood was very positive as I pulled into the rendezvous point, the car park of the 
original supermarket of the town, and there was already significant numbers there beside 
the bus that had brought volunteers from the city centre. I initially estimated that there 
was over a hundred there, but I now know from the photo that there was over 80. Unlike the 
anti side, we take our numbers seriously, and have no need to lie.

The mood was upbeat, we all knew there was work to be done. There were people I'd met on 
previous canvasses, there were old friends who've been working on this issue for decades. 
We were also greatly encouraged by the poor showing of the anti-choice side the previous 
day, when they mobilised about 2,000 people at a rally in Dublin. As one person said to 
me, sure we have 50% of that figure signed up as Doctors for Choice. Collective action 
like this brings with it a huge sense of empowerment, and confidence, all moving as a team 
towards the one goal.

We were divided up into teams, and two coordinators brought us out to seats that we had to 
canvass. Before we even left the car park there was sandwiches and crisps provided to us, 
so I stocked up. There was a few people who were inexperienced and they were encouraged to 
partner up with one who had experience of canvassing. The sun was blazing down and you 
could not ask for a better day. There was the usual thing of people not being in, even 
though this was a Sunday. But as one local lad explained to me, there are a lot of people 
who work at the airport.

On the doors the reception was overwhelmingly positive. Again, people might stop you 
before you even had the long winded introduction over with, and they would smile and say, 
it's alright, you have a yes here. People were positive and thanking us for canvassing 
their area. People would ask us how it was was going, and what was the reception like on 
the other doors. It appear to me that something has changed over the last couple of weeks. 
It could be to do with the Cervical smear scandal, but there appeared to be an acceptance 
that this is a woman's health issue, and we needed to get the 8th repealed as a massive 
step in the right direction for women's health.

We had a chat with one young father who was undecided, and was concerned because he said 
he did not trust politicians. I explained to him that at the moment, he was trusting the 
politicians of Westminster to provide the necessary care to Irish women, and that we 
needed to provide that care here and we needed the ability for Irish women to have 
abortions without being forced to Travel. I convinced him to take a leaflet, and then his 
partner arrived home, with a young child, but refused to talk to us.

There were some older people who said they'd made up their mind, and did not want to talk 
about it. Generally, I've found that even those who disagree with repeal, seldom will 
actively engage in terms of a conversation. But even those interactions were respectful. 
Other people said they'd made up their mind and did not want to discuss the issue, but 
took a leaflet. This canvass revealed far more yes voters, than any other canvass that I 
have been on.

In houses people were telling me that they had already done the work of convincing all the 
eligible voters, so we were being told of six votes for yes. There was plenty of older 
people, both women and men, who appeared to have been convinced by their children, or 
grandchildren. As we kept at the work, taking only about half an hour for lunch on some 
green surrounded by hundreds of houses, we talked to each other, and confided as to how 
we'd ended up here, canvassing for yes. And it is in those conversations that your faith 
is restored. In our ability to overcome the many problems we face, you begin to realise 
that solutions lie within the grasp of people coming together on issues like this. People 
want us to live in a better society and that starts by making it a better society for 
women by repealing the 8th.

The last door that we called into was a family, where the man and wife chatted with us, 
and informed us that their daughters had totally convinced them already. They, like so 
many others wanted to know how the campaign was going, and could not wait for the chance 
to vote Yes on the 25th.

Subject: Repeal 8th, Organising
Topics: Gender
Geography: Dublin
Source: News alert
Type: News
Author: Dermot Freeman

https://wsm.ie/c/super-canvass-Yes-repeal-swords

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 08:05:38 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) [Greece-France] Solidarity with Giorgios and Andreas of
        the anarchist group Rouvikonas By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
Message-ID: <mailman.3129.1526965548.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

PERSECUTED BY AN ACTION IN SUPPORT OF THE SPRING OF FIGHT IN FRANCE ---- The Greek and 
French authorities are determined to severely punish our comrades in Exarchia, Athens, 
because they fear the convergence of the struggle, especially at the international level. 
---- In fact, the lines of mutual support multiply between the regions of Europe and the 
world in struggle: ZAD (Zona À Defender) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, Kasteli, Rojava, 
Chiapas, Exarchia, colleges and factories occupied ... ---- It was in this fraternal 
spirit that, on 22 April, the members of the Rouvikonas group took action in broad 
daylight in front of the embassy and consulate of France in Athens. ---- They threw bombs 
of red paint all over the facades of the French diplomatic buildings to protest against 
the repression suffered by the French strikers, the zadistas, the students, the 
immigrants, the sympathetic, the precarious, the retired, as well as to protest against 
the bombings in Syria.

Our companions and companions of the Rouvikonas are already crushed by procedural costs of 
the Greek justice system because of numerous past actions (destruction of the archives of 
super indebtedness and of the office of privatization of the common good, blocking of 
negotiations with the Troika, invasion of Parliament, among other actions direct). And 
that is why we appeal to all our fellow combatants in France[and other places]to express 
their solidarity back by participating in numerous, even modest ways in this common fund 
to help them financially with their procedural costs.

If the sum collected is greater than the costs of the process, the difference will enable 
Rouvikonas to cope with its many other ongoing processes.

Thanks for them and them.

SOLIDARITY IS OUR GUN!

THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY AND SOCIAL EMANCIPATION DOES NOT HAVE FRONTIERS!

Collective support for Rouvikonas

To collaborate financially, click here:

https://www.lepotcommun.fr/pot/mjj83sy2

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Tue, 22 May 2018 08:05:44 +0300
From: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
To: en <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Subject: (en) Poland, ozzip - WORKERS' INITIATIVE: Report from the
        Workers' Union OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza (12-13.05.2018) [machine
        translation]
Message-ID: <mailman.3131.1526965611.5332.a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"

On May 12-13 this year. in Poznan, the Workers' Union OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza was held. 
Several dozen people from various committees of our IP came to discuss the program 
problems and the current functioning of the union. ---- Demands - working time and 
increases ---- As stated in the Congress 'announcements, during the last year committees 
functioning as part of the Employee Initiative started two important discussions related 
to the condition of the workers' movement. The first concerned planned changes in 
collective and individual labor law. The second of the debates was related to the 
situation of female budget sector employees, who in March this year decided to extend the 
fight against anti-woman policy conducted by local government authorities by organizing 
the Social Congress of Women (SKK).

During SKK, members and members of the IP developed a joint list of postulates that are 
intended to improve the economic situation of working people. Although they have been 
articulated by women, they apply to all employees, regardless of gender. The findings of 
SKK in the part concerning the employee issue were the starting point for the discussion 
at the Working Party. Was taken, among others such issues as reducing the weekly working 
time to 35 hours, the problem of length of commuting to work, and finally planning work 
time on the premises (breaks at work, work schedule, etc.). After an interesting 
discussion on this subject, it was decided to start preparations for an independent 
campaign of the Employee Initiative to shorten working time, under which information 
materials based on the experience of our commissions in this field will be prepared. 
References for us here are the voices coming from, among others from nurseries employees, 
Amazon employees, Volkswagen, crane operators, industrial plant protection employees, etc.

 From the issue of working time, the discussion smoothly changed to the problems of wages 
and the construction of strategies for actions aimed at increasing pay. Once again, it was 
found that - despite the theoretically favorable macroeconomic situation - many groups of 
employees and employees continue to be rewarded at just above the minimum wage and 
definitely below the national average. In the fight for higher wages is not conducive the 
fact that employers conceal the remuneration structure in individual workplaces. For 
example, in Poznan, workers and employees of units financed from the municipal budget 
(communal services, theaters, cultural centers, galleries, nurseries, etc.), deem it 
necessary to require adequate, fairly uniform, quarterly reports for trade unions, which 
would allow tracking the pay movement and their comparison between individual bets and job 
positions. It is required to prepare a design template appropriate form for use in the 
daily activities of all committees. The issue of relations between the fixed part (base) 
and the variable (bonuses and rewards) of remuneration was also discussed - this issue has 
for the moment been the subject of preliminary discussion and requires a more detailed 
analysis based on the situation at individual workplaces.

In addition to reducing the length of working time and raising wages, there are also such 
demands as: employment under employment contracts, employee control in the scope of labor 
standards, general health insurance, social control over self-government finances, general 
retirement. They will be analyzed and supplemented by a union that treats these postulates 
as a starting point for program work, updating the current "Program Guidelines" adopted at 
the 9th National Congress of Delegates and Delegates in 2015.

Changes in the labor law
In the second half of March 2018, the Codifying Commission for Labor Law completed its 
activity. Shortly thereafter, the government announced that the collective and individual 
labor law it prepared would not be "proceeded in this form". The Minister of Family, Labor 
and Social Policy, Elzbieta Rafalska, stated that in the coming months, the ministry will 
prepare an assessment of the consequences of the regulation, and "some proposals of the 
Commission" will be presented "as proposals for the amendment of the Labor Code". Of 
course, it is not known when the amendment will be notified or how exactly it will look.

Parliament is already working on the amendment of the Trade Unions Act. It contains a few 
changes, the most important of which is the control of the number of trade union members 
by the court, excluding the possibility of familiarizing the employer with the list of 
union members. The amendment also assumes that the representative thresholds will be 
raised from 7% (representative organizations on a national scale) and 10% (small 
associations), to - analogously - 8% and 15%. The second change is clearly unfavorable for 
smaller organizations (including OZZ IP), to which approx. 1/5 of all members and members 
of trade unions belong; violates the principle of trade union pluralism and is a further 
privilege of large trade unions.

Unification of unions and current activities of OZZ IP
At the congress there was a three-member delegation of about 700 members of the Unitedeni 
trade union based in Belchatów, with whom the Inicjatywa Pracownicza has been cooperating 
for several months. expressed their will to cooperate more closely with the Initiative. 
The draft confederation's statute will be presented at the next congress, which will 
probably take place in March 2019.

The congress also listened to the extensive report of the National Commission on the 
activities of the association in the last year. During this time, min. many new committees 
have been registered. In addition, the following were discussed: the financial status of 
the union (they are satisfactory), international cooperation of the union, the operation 
of the legal group, discussed the functioning of environmental commissions and their role 
in the structure of the Workers' Initiative. It was deemed necessary to immediately revive 
the activities of both IP training and information training, in particular to intensify 
the issuance of the IP Bulletin as well as to make technical changes to the website. A 
similar reactivation is to take place in the case of the training working group, which is 
expected to resume work this year. On international issues, it was decided to present the 
next Congress of Delegates and Delegates with the question of joining the International 
Union Network of Solidarity and Combat, in which the IP has so far only participated on 
the rights of an observer. Past experience in cooperation within this Network was 
considered as important as the project of reactivation of an international organization 
associating anarchosyndicalist trade unions (we decided to join it at the congress of 
delegates and delegates in 2017).

Discussions started at the Workers' Meeting will be the starting point for the preparation 
of materials that will be published in subsequent issues of the bulletin, and the 
culmination of these discussions will be next year's National Congress of Delegates and 
Delegates.

http://ozzip.pl/teksty/informacje/ogolnopolskie/item/2373-relacja-ze-zjazdu-roboczego-ip-2018

------------------------------