Today's Topics:
1. Russia, avtonom: Varlamov: "Do not be afraid of terrorists,
be afraid of the state"[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Australia, Debate on Industrial Organising & Strategy -
Rebel Worker Anarcho-Syndicalist Network Vol.36 No.1 (231)
April-May 2018 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, afed: COUNTING US IN, COUNTING US OUT
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #282 - CHSCT: We lose a
point of support, not our determination (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, afed: NEW STATEMENT ON TRANSGENDER STRUGGLES AND
ACTION - 15/4/2018 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. 1mai.xyz: A Revolutionary May 1st in Brussels!
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - AL Tract, To roll back
Macron and his world: strike, democracy, direct action (fr, it,
pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. Li (e) beration joins the Anarchist Federation Rhine-Ruhr
and thus also the FdA-IFA! from FdA and IFA (de) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. wsm.ie: ICBR get the SPUC off treatment after they target
LGBTQ spaces during Repeal referendum (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
10. Greece, vogliamo tutto: DECLARATION OF SOLIDARITY to the
anarchist-communist Tassos Theofilos-Saturday 5th of May, ISAP
Thiseio, 1pm (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
11. Poland, zsp: Schaffa Shoes and the fight for overdue pay
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
One of these days videoblogger-urbanist Ilya Varlamov released a video entitled "Do not be
afraid of terrorists, be afraid of the state." In this video, Ilya talks about the
so-called "security theater", a phenomenon that is characterized by the fact that the
state spends a lot of money on the fight against terrorism, playing on the fear of the
population before the attacks. At the same time, the absurdity of the situation is shown
by the fact that there are few victims of terrorist acts in comparison with victims in an
accident, in fires, from HIV and other causes of death, and at the same time how much less
the state invests in combating these causes than with terrorism. Ilya released this video
on the occasion of the blocking of the messenger "Telegram". It is worth noting that all
these arguments are by no means new. About "the theater of security" as early as 2003,
Bruce Schneier wrote in his book "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an
Uncertain World, which is a reflection in response to US government anti-terrorism
measures after 2001.
Interestingly, the video survived a fairly active attack of the "troll factory". It still
has more dislikes than hounds (which makes it difficult to promote the video in the
recommendations and getting into the YouTube trend). The video was twisted by the view
counter on YouTube, which is often complained about by the owners of the opposition channels.
This video in a simple and understandable form is a fairly radical criticism of the
actions of the state. The audience of Varlamov is not marginal and not entirely
pro-Western oppositionists, but rather a broad public. Therefore, this video received so
much attention from the "troll factory". I think that for the same reason it will be
interesting to the participants of the anarchist movement. This criticism falls well on
the anarchist agenda, especially in the light of recent events. Perhaps you want to share
it with someone from your less critical friends.
https://avtonom.org/freenews/varlamov-ne-boytes-terroristov-boytes-gosudarstva-0
------------------------------
Message: 2
From a Discussion meeting on March 25/3/18 organised by The London group of the Anarchist
Communist Group ---- Organising Workers in west London ---- The speaker from Angry Workers
presented the work they are doing with the IWW in west London. They consciously chose an
area of London where there is a high concentration of factories, in this case food
processing, with hundreds of workers who are poorly paid, have difficult working
conditions and little or no union organisation. ---- Their strategy consists of leafleting
factories and helping to organise meetings with workers who are interested in fighting
back. Some of them are also working in the factories. They do not necessarily promote the
big actions such as strikes. These would be difficult to organise and could lead to
victimisation. They think that power in the factory can be changed in more subtle ways,
e.g. working to rule.
They are not against working with any union structure that is there but their experience
is that the union itself is ineffectual. In addition, they have set up neighbourhood
solidarity networks to help people with issues such as unpaid wages. They have had some
successes with this.
The speaker's analysis of the challenges was very insightful. Their experience of
organising shows the concrete obstacles faced when trying to build a revolutionary working
class movement. For example, the divisions within a workplace, created and exploited by
management, are a major problem in workers effectively organising. For example, in one of
the factories there are people on ‘permanent' contracts and agency staff. The ones on
permanent contracts tend to be Asian women from the subcontinent who have been in the
country, and in the job, for some time. The agency staff are mainly east Europeans. They
even have to wear different coloured hairnets! There are also conflicts over religion.
Another problem is that people often put forward their own individual issue so it is
difficult to gain unity around collective issues. Even though they have had some successes
in getting people to meetings and saying they want to do something, it is another thing to
sustain this, often when there are communication problems and immense pressure on workers
not to get involved.
A discussion followed with one person raising the successes of unions like the United
Voices of the World. However, the speaker pointed out that in those cases the workers had
already decided to take action and came to the UVW for support. It is much harder to start
from scratch. Nothing can happen until the workers themselves decide that they are willing
to take risks. All anyone ‘outside' can do is offer ideas and support.
There is no doubt that this organising project faces big obstacles. However, if we are
ever going to build a working class revolutionary movement, this focus on the factories
and surrounding neighbourhoods is essential. It will not give quick results, but it will
be the foundation that will make it possible to transform, rather than just tinker with,
the current system.
https://angryworkersworld.wordpress.com/
https://iww.org.uk/london/
COMMENT: This whole focus on small workplaces organising highlights a lack of industrial
experience and historical research. Superficially organising in these areas may seem
easier than more strategic sectors in the economy. However, due to workers low morale and
lack of major industrial muscle in the sector, any organising initiative faces major
obstacles. In reality this focus leads into leftist activoids being drawn into the orbit
of the corporate unions affiliated with the TUC (Trade Union Congress - similar to the
ACTU) Playing at pseudo social workers/lobbyists to "service" workers in these peripheral
workplaces for free. Similar to the role played by the corporate unions on occasion funded
by union dues and under the counter payments from the bosses and the Govt.
A strategy focusing on strategic sectors in the economy, affecting the arteries of the
capitalist system, particularly transport sectors remains of critical importance to
organising in these peripheral sectors. Although this sector is facing major changes such
as driverless vehicles. Still this sector is of massive importance for syndicalist
organising. Big actions in this sectors defying the Govt. industrial relations setup and
winning major victories in the class struggle would raise the morale of workers in lesser
important areas. Solidarity by transport workers would be critical to successful
organising drives in the above small workplaces via cutting off supplies at busy times
e.g. Xmas, etc. Ensuring quick victories and avoiding long drawn out struggles which
often end in defeat and creating an expanding syndicalist union movement which would wipe
out the base of corporate bureaucratic unionism, establish a major syndicalist pole of
attraction in the labour movement and turn the tide against the employer offensive.
Mark
------------------------------
Message: 3
The Windrush scandal has only highlighted the brutal and racist nature of state power
which is managed by a partnership of public and private institutions. Control and
bureaucracy is fundamental to the running of a nation state, whilst an increased
facelessness and complexity has resulted from the commercialisation and outsourcing of the
functions of government departments since the 1980s. ---- The willingness of the British
state to control and count individuals to an ever finer degree has developed alongside the
politics of Brexit with the fierce and racist campaigning at the expense of the ‘other'
from the No camp. But state control has been a constant feature of Fortress Europe, where
the effects of hostile immigration policies continue to be felt daily in the camps and
immigration prisons on Mediterranean islands and the North African coast, and on the seas.
The UK has supported the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) which is
responsible for running border controls in other European countries. The UK has also been
involved with training the Libyan coastguard which last year opened fire over the heads of
refugees being rescued by boats of charities SOS Méditerranée and Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF).
The ongoing destruction of the social wage (welfare benefits) has resulted in unemployed
and people living with illnesses and disabilities being hounded with various techniques of
control, such as forcing you to apply for x jobs per week or judging your health using a
scoring system. To implement this, Job Centres were given the power to give penalties
(‘sanctions') for not doing exactly what you were tasked to do each week. Tricky ‘Work
Capability Assessments' were put into place, run most notoriously by ATOS and now other
private firms. Many of these bureaucratic setups have not-so-hidden quotas to deny
support, similar to what is in the news about the Home Office having a 10% target for
increasing the number of ‘enforced returns' of migrants. These quotas are fuelled by
‘payment by results' contracts of the companies involved and by individual pressures on
contracted staff (such as job centre workers or medics) to limit the number of people who
meet the criteria to get support. The complex rules of Universal Credit are making the
situation worse for many others, for instance forcing women back to abusive households
because of the level of proof required to get a ‘split payment' independent of their partner.
The draconian use of Detention/Removal Centres for migrants in the UK has been in place
since the end of the 1990s. Some of the Windrush complainants have recently found
themselves detained or denied re-entry into the country, as well as being denied basic
services or work after checks were made. It's important to remember that biometrics were
first added to migrants' identity cards as a test for rolling it out to everyone in the UK
as identity cards. Although ID cards to be carried around by everyone were not eventually
introduced, it is clear now that not having papers is no longer acceptable; if you are a
person of colour, this is the case even if you have lived here almost all your life.
Because of Brexit, a similar situation is facing EU migrants who have not got ‘qualified
residency' status due to gaps in employment or not fulfilling other rules. Non-EU migrants
have found themselves ineligible to work due to rules about minimum earnings, including
those already working in the UK. Educational establishments, GPs, hospitals and care homes
have since been added to the front line of border policing.
The Windrush persecution has revealed the colonial and racist underbelly of the British
state. The people who came from the Caribbean who made their homes in the UK since the
1940s and 50s came explicitly as workers. As workers, they faced racism and disadvantage.
This has become compounded and now makes navigating the bureaucratic systems of the state,
whether health, employment and the immigration system that much harder. Couple this with
the extra level of racism that Brexit has created, it can pile on demoralisation, fear and
feelings of being unwanted and this makes it harder to fight. Can anyone imagine this
going so far without political intervention if it had involved a white community?
One thing is certain. Anarchists have long opposed the introduction of these policies with
strong action taken against ID cards, immigration detention centres and raids. We have
been involved with action to defend benefits, opposing the Job Seekers Allowance (with its
Job Seeker Agreement) and Workfare schemes which brought in the use of sanctions for not
following the rules. Organisations such as Disabled People Against Cuts and Black Triangle
and the many refugee support groups and centres are testaments to activism against the
excesses of the state. Docs Not Cops and Schools ABC (against borders for children) are
currently leading the struggle to stop public services and education being the front line
of border control.
It is clear a lot more needs to be done to reverse the current ‘norm' of surveillance and
control which has been made possible by the policies of successive governments. Both
Labour and Tory governments have created and passed the laws that have made the situation
the way it is right now. A fundamental change in society is needed to make the Windrush
persecutions impossible again. But to do this we must push back against state control in
all of its guises.
http://afed.org.uk/counting-us-in-counting-us-out/
------------------------------
Message: 4
In many companies, the Committee Health, Safety and Working Conditions (CHSCT) had become
one of the most useful forums for trade unionists of struggle, as a counter-power against
employer arbitrariness. With the Macron prescriptions, it will disappear. But his object
does not disappear. How to make it live in the new configuration ? ---- After a rickety
mobilization, the orders on the work were thus definitively adopted on February 14, 2018
by a vote of the Senate. By a real pestling of the Labor Code, the principle of a right to
variable geometry, adaptable to each company, is endorsed. Among the novelties, the
creation of the Social and Economic Committee (CES), is far from a detail. ---- In 1982,
the Auroux laws created the Health and Safety Committee (CHSCT), which became one of the
representative bodies of staff, with the works council (EC) and the staff representatives
(DP). If the CHSCT never had the power to block a decision, it had to be consulted on
certain topics, such as the introduction of new technologies, or a plan for redundancies.
Long neglected, it gradually turned into a place of counter-power, where trade unionists
could put the management face the consequences of their choices on the health of workers.
What employers do not like at all.
For a long time, particularly in the CGT, health has been an object of negotiation. Night
work, for example, has often been accepted but minted for bonuses or other benefits. The
prevailing motto today, however, for all union confederations is: health is not
negotiated. The labor law, which requires the employer to ensure the safety of employees,
has been an important resource in this fight.
With the orders, it is first to an attack in rule against all the representatives of the
personnel that one attends. During the next professional elections, the three bodies (EC,
DP, CHSCT) will merge and be replaced by one: the CSE. With a significant reduction of
means. For example, for a company of 100 employees, so far, there were 12 holders for 175
hours of delegation in the year ; with the CSE, we will increase to 6 holders for 126
hours. Where a company with more than 50 employees has to organize 22 meetings a year (12
DP, 6 EC, 4 CHSCT), it will have to organize only 12 for the CSE.
The counter-expertise, or the basket garnished ?
There is no need to be a great cleric to guess which subjects will suffer from these
restrictions. When the CSE elected officials will have to choose between discussing hiring
or working conditions, it's a safe bet that the seconds will go by the wayside. It will be
even more difficult for elected officials to learn about the health and safety issues they
will have at the same time to position themselves on the strategic orientations of the
company.
One of the most severe blows, with the disappearance of the CHSCT, is the possibility of
conducting counter-expertises. Today, before an important project - several redundancies
for example - the employer must consult the HSC, which may appeal to an independent
expert, at the expense of the company, to conduct a study. Admittedly, this is only a very
limited answer to the possibility for the employer to pay himself as many experts as he
wants to justify his project. The CSE, it will always be able to call an expert ... but
will have to assume 20 % of the cost. All the means " constant ", Ie with the budget of
the current EC, a small percentage of the payroll. This will force the CSE elected
officials to arbitrate between expenses. In other words, if the CSE is held by a wrestling
union, it will not hesitate to take in the budget of the CSE to finance expertise useful
to the mobilization of employees. If, on the other hand, he is held by a patronage
syndicate, he will probably prefer to limit the use of expertise to pay a nice basket to
employees just before the elections ...
Class struggle continues at low noise
So what to do ? The challenge is to get out of the lethargy that the government has
managed to create in the social movement. The attacks are massive ; it is the good old
strategy of the shock, version 2.0, that we leave Macron and his governmental start-up.
The appropriate response necessarily involves reappropriating the social agenda. Faced
with an opponent who moves constantly, we must aim precisely and bet on its instability.
But the issue of security and working conditions is a weak point of the employers. This is
why the CHSCT became threatening for him because they disputed his legitimacy to organize
the work, the way of producing, the rhythm of the activity. It is this consciousness that
will have to be reinjected tomorrow in the CSE, but especially around them.
Because after all, the only interest of the representative bodies of the personnel is when
they are used as points of support for the struggles, the point of departure of conflicts
and disputes. To play this role at CSE will require combative union structures. More than
ever, it is they that must be strengthened, even to jostle where they have degenerated and
are only aggregates of permanent. Although the battle for the defense of CHSCTs is now
lost (except in the public service), the fact remains that the class struggle is going on
in low noise in the offices and workshops. From them to the street, there is only one step.
François Dalemer (AL Paris-Sud)
An ersatz: the CSSCT
Within the Social and Economic Committee (SSC), there may be a Health, Safety and Working
Conditions Commission (CSSCT). This can be created by a company agreement.
It will only be mandatory in companies with more than 300 employees, on nuclear sites and
part of Seveso classified sites, that is to say with a major industrial risk. But it will
have no way of acting on its own, all decisions being made at the CSE level.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?CHSCT-On-perd-un-point-d-appui-pas-notre-determination
------------------------------
Message: 5
Further to previous statements by the AF, a statement on transgender struggles was agreed
during the weekend of our Federation Delegate Meeting. Given the present situation in our
movements, in which trans people are made vulnerable and in need of solidarity, the
members at our Federation Delegate Meeting in April unanimously agreed the following. ----
"The FDM is committed to ensuring that the AF centres all forms of struggle against
oppression, within an anarchist and communist analysis. In the current context we
recognise trans struggle and combating anti-trans activism is a key part of this. We will
continually educate ourselves and ensure that we take these lessons seriously when
planning and taking part in all external actions."
http://afed.org.uk/new-statement-on-transgender-struggles-and-action-15-4-2018/
------------------------------
Message: 6
All over the world, the resistance of the exploited responds to the attacks of the
exploiters. Ten years after the "2008 crisis", these offensives succeed one after the
other, supervised by successive governments, either social-democrats, or liberals and
Flemish nationalists. Capitalism claims to lead us out of "crisis", while it has never
stopped causing it. ---- Each year, capitalism imposes harsher work rates, more precarious
conditions on workers, and an always more unsustainable marginalisation for those who are
pushed out of the life-raft. Whether it declares himself in crisis or not, he keeps asking
us for more work every week and more flexibility. When he achieves to terrorise the
exploited with the spectre of social exclusion, he replaces them with automatic checkouts
like at Carrefour supermarket, he forces them to transform themselves into false
self-employed as Deliveroo. For those who are excluded, it still reinforces controls,
marginalisation, precariousness, impoverishment and with the collaboration of trade union
bureaucracies.
Inside the Fortress Europe, the Islamist scarecrow allowed the imposition of a permanent
state of emergency, widespread surveillance, simplified judicial or extrajudicial searches
(such as new home visits), systematic filing of all those who resist the established
order. Only A few days were needed for Belgium to use its anti-terrorist legislation to
extradite Belgian-Turkish militant Erdal Gokoglu to Germany, where he will be tried for
fighting against Erdogan's fascist regime. States are increasingly systematising the
filing, jailing, and deportation of undocumented migrants, even when they are sent back to
hunger, torture, prison, war, and death.
Outside of the fortress, the imperialist forces keep tearing the "dominated" countries
apart. From Maghreb and Africa to the Middle East, they continue to sow desolation through
Libya, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen. The Kurdish, Arab, Syriac and many other peoples
are victims of the savagery of the Turkish state in its attack against Afrin and Rojava.
An attack waged with the blessing of American, Russian, and European imperialism, which
demonstrates (but nobody doubted it) that the brief conjectural alliance with the Kurdish
forces against Daesh was only a tactical episode. Its strategic alliances, imperialism
reserves them to the most reactionary forces, petro-monarchies or Salafist movements.
Reformists and social-democrats will organise -as each year- a May First "Festival" to
hide the fact that we don't need to party, we need to struggle. We need to build the unity
of the revolutionary forces through the unity of the class of exploited, denouncing the
exclusion of racialised, the deportation of undocumented migrants, and the male
domination. Dividing our class is a priority for the dominant class, and its governments
are borrowing from fascist movements a wide part of their agenda. The direct solidarity
movement towards the undocumented migrants and the liberation of the speech of women
confronted to sexist violence show us that the resistance is possible.
The time now is for solidarity, with all who struggle, all who are jailed for practising
their revolutionary ideals. They are thousands, buried alive, testifying every day to the
capitalist ferocity, testifying to the current search for new revolutionary advances.
Let's struggle against fascism, racism and patriarchy, against capitalism and its States!
Solidarity with the struggling peoples, with the struggling workers, with the political
prisoners. Let's organise the revolutionary side!
The "Revolutionary May 1st" demonstration will start from Saint-Gilles and walk to join
the "1st May of Struggle" called by CGSP-ALR.
http://1mai.xyz/the-call/
------------------------------
Message: 7
Macron remains inflexible ... It is that the resistance to its social demolition is not
yet up to par. If demonstrations are necessary to number and reclaim the street, they can
not replace the mobilization on our workplaces, studies and life. This is the record of
our previous failures against Labor laws 1 and 2. ---- March 15th for the hospitals, the
Ephad, the retirees ; March 22 for utilities ; April 19 for the public and private ; May
1 st and May 5 th ; May 22 for utilities ; Busy days, beaded strikes by the railwaymen ...
Dates are linked together and the employees are mobilized and hope for a general uprising.
But it is not with incantations that we will build the resistance and the possibility of a
counteroffensive of our social camp ! ---- Build and federate our struggles ---- The
movements that bring together and build a real balance of power are those that are built
on our work, study and life. We defend the strike as a means of struggle because it is it
that blocks capitalism by stopping the production and circulation of goods, and the
creation of economic value.
And that is why it is fought so aggressively by the government and the editors of a press
to the orders of power ! But for a balance of power, democracy in our struggles is a
condition. Let us gather in general meetings with colleagues to discuss our working and
living conditions, decide our demands and the means of action within our reach.
Let's work on coordinating the various professional sectors that want to act in this
direction. The dates of the demonstration and the strike can then serve to crystallize the
action taken closer to the field, and not be only outlets with no tomorrow.
Paris, March 22, 2018
Photo Daniel Maunoury
It is in this sense that the activists of our organization work closely with the dynamics
of the field, in the unions, with the co-workers, with studies ... But also in all the
forms of collective organization, by working for the unity of all, including union
structures willing to support the struggle of employees.
A need for an alternative
Public and private struggles raise the need for a different distribution of the wealth
created by labor. But our struggles make us reaffirm the questioning of the system of
accumulation of profits itself, generating ever more social inequalities.
Notre-Dame-des-Landes, February 2018
Photo Daniel Maunoury
We can see it everywhere, from NDDL farmland to rail transport, from hospitals to
supermarkets, there is the same objective: a crazy race for profit, private property and
selfishness. On the contrary, we need collective, solidarities, democracy ...
In the face of growing threats, the self-management of the economy, our common goods and
the self-government of society are a vital perspective !
Paris, March 22, 2018
Photo Daniel Maunoury
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Pour-faire-reculer-Macron-et-son-monde-greve-democratie-action-directe
------------------------------
Message: 8
Welcome also from the FdA. Below we document the entry of the Anarchist Federation
Rhine-Ruhr: ---- A hug to the companions of Li (e) beration who are now the eighth group
of the Anarchist Federation Rhine / Ruhr (FdA-IFA)! The group is currently active in
Witten and Wuppertal. Here you can contact the group: ---- * Website
https://lieberation.wordpress.com/ ---- * Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Lieberation-292943047857890/ ---- * Contact
https://lieberation.wordpress.com/kontakt/ ---- Here is the explanation for their
accession of the friends: ---- We are pleased that we have been organizing in the afrr
since the 16.04.2018 and thus are also part of the fda-ifa. ---- From our point of view,
there is no alternative to being networked with other groups and orgasms so that we can
learn from each other and grow together.
li (e) beration is understood as a merger with the focus on "total liberation" and thus as
part of the anarchist movement.
our self-image
we want to be free. many others want that too. for some, being free is more difficult than
for others. Why? in large part, because there are norms, laws, borders, species or gender
assignments on the world, which give one more disadvantages and offer advantages to the other.
While some people are kept small, oppressed and / or otherwise injured by repression and
other discrimination, and therefore have to do much more for a self-determined life or are
prevented from doing so, the others do not or only partially understand why they should
change something. they enjoy so many advantages - privileges - that they do not even want
to notice that others are suffering.
li (e) beration wants autonomy, self-determination and freedom for all. We consider
single-issue battles very important, as well as linking all of them to liberation. The
common term for this is "total liberation".
We are committed to mutual support of various struggles. Suppression forms complement each
other across structures. we do not want to work against eg fascism and to keep an eye on
sexism, we do not want to stand up for the liberation of humans and other animals. B.
overlook capitalism. we all hang together. everything is connected.
for all. liberation. total liberation. li (e) consulting support
https://fda-ifa.org/lieberation-tritt-der-anarchistischen-foederation-rhein-ruhr-und-damit-auch-der-fda-ifa-bei/
------------------------------
Message: 9
The afternoon of April 16th, outside Pantibar in Dublin, the so-called Irish Centre for
Bioethical Reform staged an anti-abortion protest targeted at LGBT people in particular -
planning to target well-known LGBTQ+ spaces Pantibar, Gay Community News, The George Bar,
and Outhouse (LGBT community/resource centre), with a bespoke banner including a Pride
rainbow flag. ---- The ICBR might be better known to people in Dublin as a small group of
people who display large banners with graphic imagery of late-term abortions intended to
shock and shame those have had abortions, who might have one someday, or who might defend
a person's right to make that decision. And, of course, those who have miscarried are
collateral damage in the process. ---- In response, Radical Queers Resist called a
counter-demonstration to show that queer/LGBT+ people do not stand for this reactionary
wish to control pregnant people's bodies - and the overwhelming response to the callout
made that message clear. Rather than being subjected to the possibly traumatising imagery,
passersby could see pro-choice placards defending the right to choose.
Unsurprisingly, the ICBR are the Irish spin-off of an American organisation, the Center
for Bio-Ethical Reform, founded by a former Republican politician.
With just a month left until the referendum on repealing the 8th amendment to the
(southern) Irish constitution, which equates a pregnant person and a foetus, amusingly the
ICBR's main organiser stated that the ICBR were not taking a position in the referendum,
Yes or No, but were merely intending to ‘educate' about abortion.
It would indeed be a bizarre method to ‘educate', not least because the late-term
abortions they exclusively focus on in their imagery constitute a tiny fraction of all
abortions (1-2% occur after 21 weeks, with ~90% before 12 weeks). But, as we all know,
this ‘educational' tactic is not about an accurate representation of reality so much as a
calculated emotional attack.
The giant banner, as visible in the video, has a Pride flag on the left, and a foetus on
the right, reading ‘Pro-Equality = Pro-Abortion?'. This is a reference to the marriage
equality referendum in this state which was won in 2015 by the Yes side.
In Ireland, the same theocratic regime has trammelled and denigrated women and queers
alike. Whether criminalising reproductive control or ‘deviant' sexualities, enforcing
women's subservient role as the helpless helper or stigmatising different ways of being,
we are bringing this regime crumbling down for the sake of human freedom, for everyone.
A very successful counter-demonstration followed on the afternoon of 17th April by Radical
Queers Resist - RQR and The George Bar in response to the innocuously named ‘Irish Centre
for Bioethical Reform'.
The George, in Dublin, was the ICBR's final stop on a grand tour specifically targeting
LGBTQ spaces. As said by a Radical Queers Resist member, not only is it crucial to defend
the right to choose to have an abortion, but it is crucial that queer people defend their
safe spaces that have been so hard fought for. Important places of refuge from exactly
these kind of reactionaries.
As can be seen, the response from pro-choice queer people was overwhelming, the
potentially traumatising imagery blocked by a stream of Pride rainbow flags even as their
characteristically large banner was lifted extra-high. When they planned their grand tour,
likely that was not the image the ICBR envisaged. This follows a similarly robust response
to the ICBR outside Pantibar just yesterday.
The ICBR is the spin-off of a US organisation, the ‘Center for Bioethical Reform', founded
by a Republican former politician.
--
Photo Credit: Alan Byrne
Subject: Repeal 8th, Bigots
Topics: LGBT
Geography: Dublin
Multimedia: Images, Video
Source: News alert
Type: News
Author: Alex Amargi
https://wsm.ie/c/icbr-target-lgbtq-spaces-ireland-repeal-referendum
------------------------------
Message: 10
On May 11, the request of the Prosecutor I. Aggelis will be examined in the plenary
session of the Supreme Court, requesting that the acquittal of Tassos Theofilos be
dismissed and that he be brought back to trial again. ---- On 10 May, residents of
Thessaloniki are being tried in Thessaloniki. Halkidiki and solidarity because they are
fighting against the looting of nature. ---- In March, anarchists A. Dalios, D. Politis,
N. Romanos, G Michaelides, G. Tsakalos were sentenced to death sentences in 27 years,
launching the category of "atomic terrorists". ---- Herianna and Pericles continue to be
imprisoned on the basis of their personal and companionship. ---- Anarchist N. Maziotis
has been convicted of hitting the Revolutionary Struggle in the BT in life imprisonment.
What unites these assumptions is the anti-terrorist service and the terrorist 187 ? . The
state imposes an ever-expanding regime of exclusion so that the repressive and judicial
services can activate all appropriate means of political, mental and moral extermination,
as well as the decommissioning of those who are fighting for the defense of their lives
and the overthrow of the state and capitalism.
Against the terrorists, the use of DNA, the extraordinary terror trials and the exception
regime, inside and outside the cells, for a world of equality-solidarity-justice-freedom,
to the squeeze of the last prison.
SOLIDARITY DECLARATION Saturday, May 5, THESEIO ISAP, 1pm
national day of solidarity actions to Tasos Theophilos
Solidarity with the anarchist-communist Tasos Theofilos
Friday 11 May, 9am, gathering at the Court of Appeal (Alexandras)
anarchist collectivity Vogliamo tutto e per tutti
vogliamotutto.espivblogs.net
http://vogliamotutto.espivblogs.net/
------------------------------
Message: 11
On Thursday, April 26 at Warsaw's Ursynów at Al. KEN 97 Polish Syndicalists' Union -
Multi-branch Warsaw organized a picket under the "Schaffa shoes" store. We demanded
payment of overdue salary and holiday equivalent for the employee who was wrongly
dismissed. The next day, after the picket, we received information from the aggrieved
party about the payment of part of the money due. ---- Kasia was released from day to day,
after she took her leave on demand and dared to show her employer's ignorance of the
basics of labor law. The boss for a long time evaded the payment of arrears, sold and
tried to intimidate her. These types of practices are the norm in the company, which
results in many other abuses: notorious late payment, non-payment of ZUS to employees,
contracts of employment signed with a significant delay, or not at all, employment without
medical examinations. The official salary is the lowest national, and sales commissions
are paid out under the table or unpaid when leaving the company in a non-compliant manner
(which often happens - because there is a large turnover).
Kasia, however, was the first of those who had not been made redundant without payment,
and she began to consistently demand her benefits. Only after receiving the letter from
the pre-court demand for payment, the dishonest employer reluctantly paid out a small part
of the remuneration due.
The picket, despite the bad weather, met with very positive reactions of passers-by who
congratulated the employees of courage and determination. As the pedestrians said, the
owner of the company, Piotr Z., Was already famous in the area, avoiding paying the rent.
The company changed its names many times. In shops, there were often cheated customers,
which the company did not refund money for complaints, and the visits of court bailiffs
were also rare.
The boss behaved in a typical way: he did not go out to the protesters and hid in the
back, and after the end of the picket he tried to frighten and discourage the protesters
by writing false information about them. In the end, however, he transferred a small part
of the holiday allowance he owed and began to promise other dismissed workers the payment
of outstanding remuneration.
The next pickets are planned in case the dishonest employer still does not pay all his
debts. Appropriate lawsuits have also been filed with the labor court.
http://zsp.net.pl/schaffa-shoes-i-walka-o-zalegle-wynagrodzenie
------------------------------
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