Anarchic update news all over the world - 19.06.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Britain, Meeting Report by No War But the Class War London
      section (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #284 - Kurdistan: Make
      Rojava Green Again: supporting the ecological revolution (fr, it,
      pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Greece, Libertarian Initiative of Thessaloniki: Solidarity
      intervention in the hunger strike of revolutionary Dimitris
      Koufondina at the American Consulate in the "Plateia" Shopping
      Center (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Greece, ELEFTHERIA FESTIVAL social, class and
      internationalist solidarity By APO Anarchist Political
      Organization - Federation of Collectives (gr) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  anarkismo.net: Rev. William J. Barber's Moral Movement north
      america / mexico | the left | review Saturday June 16, 2018 03:28
      by Wayne Price (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #284 - The survival of
      humanity in question! (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





Following a proposal by the Anarchist Communist Group which was supported by the Communist 
Workers Organisation and the Guildford Solidarity Group an inaugural meeting of this 
grouping was held on 2/6/18. ---- Presentations were given by speakers from the ACG and 
the CWO. Speakers pointed to the fact that the current international situation was one in 
which the drive to war was visibly increasing. The most obvious example of this was the 
present conflict in the Middle East where major powers were directly involved and the 
prospect of a wider war in which more local powers became directly involved and the major 
powers confronted each other was increasing. The conflict in the Ukraine and the standoff 
in the South China Sea were further examples. The drive to war was an outcome of the 
capitalist crisis which was driving the capitalist class to more open imperialist 
interventions together with trade wars and, of course, more vicious attacks on the working 
class. War was a direct consequence of the capitalist system and in the longer term the 
only way in which war could be avoided was the overthrow of the capitalist system and the 
establishment of socialised production. The only force able to do this was the working 
class acting on an international basis opposing all factions of the capitalist class. 
However the working class was weakened by divisions, divisions which the capitalist class 
was attempting to widen. The foremost of these was nationalism which was clearly used in 
the Brexit referendum, the US election and the small nation nationalism of the likes of 
Scotland, Catalonia, and Kurdistan. Nationalism would be used to justify future wars and 
recruit workers as cannon fodder. The only route to preventing war was the class struggle, 
and this means a struggle against the national ruling class in all nations. The slogan 
under which this struggle should be conducted was, "No war but the class war!"

Following the presentation there was an hour of discussion after which the meeting agreed 
to set up a group of facilitators. One was nominated from each of the organisations 
supporting this initiative. An email list of those supporting the London No War But the 
Class War was compiled and facilitators were tasked with keeping supporters informed of 
further meetings or actions. Further publicity would be agreed by the group of facilitators.

London NWBCW

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/06/14/no-war-but-the-class-war-meeting-report-london/

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Message: 2






Since 2012, Rojava has been experiencing political and social emancipation, driven by the 
Kurdish left. It is in this context that agricultural and ecological projects are 
implemented to build food and energy autonomy, a crucial issue to preserve and develop the 
revolution. ---- From the French colonial domination of the Mandate over Syria (1920-1946) 
to that of the Ba'ath Party regime, Rojava, a predominantly Kurdish territory in northern 
Syria, was subjected to the agricultural policies that served the interests rather than 
those of the people. Monoculture of wheat in Cizirê, olive in Afrin and a mixture of both 
in Kobanê. These agricultural policies have been accompanied by almost complete 
deforestation ; to such an extent that trees were even banned, consuming water for crops. 
It is within this framework that the Internationalist Municipality of Rojava, which brings 
together activists who have come to learn from the revolution, has started the ecological 
campaign " Make Rojava Green Again ", Focused primarily on reforestation in cooperation 
with the Ecological Committee of the Canton of Cizirê. While the Revolution of Rojava, 
which began in 2012, continues with the slogans of liberation of women, the 
democratization of society and the coexistence of peoples within the system of democratic 
confederalism, that of ecology. has not yet been fully implemented. The ideological basis 
of the Kurdish movement's ecological thinking, largely inspired by Murray Bookchin and the 
principles of social ecology, is very rich. It is by following it that important efforts 
are already made to diversify the crops, to replant deserted zones of vegetation or the 
avenues of the big cities, and especially to try to develop a food and energy autonomy. 
But agriculture, like the rest of the flora, remains subject to meteorological hazards and 
to the active policies of drying up put in place by the Turkish state. This, by dams in 
Northern Kurdistan or underground water pumps along the border, significantly reduces the 
flow of the Euphrates and Belix River and is responsible for the dramatic lowering of 
groundwater levels. .

Activists in the fields
The Internationalist Municipality of Rojava therefore decided to get involved, or rather 
to land, and started a tree nursery on the grounds of the Internationalist Academy being 
built in the Cizirê region. Vines, fig trees, olive trees and others are maturing in a 
non-profit cooperative, and will be mainly replanted in the Hayaka Nature Reserve, located 
next to Derik, but also sold at cost to all structures who will ask for trees. When the 
academy receives the next activists, those in addition to the ideological formation on the 
principles of the revolution - including ecology - and learning the language, will do the 
necessary physical work in nursery, ! But the campaign does not stop there, the goal is 
also to make the place of the academy a model of ecological village: sorting of waste, 
compost and possibly recycling on the spot ; sewage separation and reuse system for 
watering and fertilization ; construction of autonomous energy production means. But 
today, the future wind turbine is still a rusty iron tower waiting in the grass that we 
come to give it life. For all these projects to emerge, more hands, brains and funds are 
still expected.

Maria (Internationalist Municipality of Rojava)

More elements and information await you on the website of the Commune: 
Internationalistcommune.com
A complete brochure on the campaign will be published soon in French.

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Kurdistan-Make-Rojava-Green-Again-soutenir-la-revolution-ecologique

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Message: 3





"Because all this goes beyond the simple issue of a permit, aiming at the core of the 
conscience of the political prisoner and his personal dignity. And for us this is our 
invisible red line. And because nothing has ever been given to us, and what is called 
rights are nothing more than the conquest of long and long-lasting struggles, I answer 
with what corresponds to the political prisoner. "  ---- D. Koufontina  ---- D. Koufodinas 
is in prison for 16 years for his participation in the revolutionary organization November 
17, for which he has assumed political responsibility. For years his self-evident right to 
his regular licenses was deprived of a mechanism that laid down the declaration of 
repentance and the denial of the armed struggle as a prerequisite for him to offer.

On the basis of the Dendia law (2009), any negative vote of the prosecutor would freeze 
the license even if the other two members of the three-member Prison Council (the 
representatives of the directorate and the social service of the prison) vote in favor. In 
this way, the prosecutor may veto the granting of regular leave to detainees for an 
indefinite period. After many years of refusals received by Koufontina, he finally 
received two 48-hour regular licenses in November 2017 and February 2018, during which he 
was subjected to restrictive restrictive measures. A new terrorist campaign has begun. The 
profound state of rage has cast every facet of democracy: both the prosecutor of the Court 
of Appeals Savvaidis and the Prosecutor of the Court of First Instance Spiliotas were 
faced with disciplinary prosecutions, because they dared to give a positive vote to the 
fighter's permission by simply applying the law. The new Prosecutor of the First Instance 
of Piraeus, I. Chatzoglou, took office only on 8/6, although he was appointed by PD. by 
Kontoni on 10/5. As if that were not enough, the existing Prison Council has not yet met. 
Faced with the unprecedented approaches of the Deep State, D. Koufodinas decided on May 
30, 2018 to start a hunger strike with demands:
a / granting of regular leave
b / abolition of the prosecutor's veto

We are in the two weeks of hunger strike and the striker has lost 7 pounds while his state 
of health is characterized by unstable and increased risk by the doctors of the General 
State Hospital of Nicaea.

As a sign of solidarity, Thursday, 14th of July, we took part in the "Plaza" Shopping 
Center, which houses the American Consulate in Thessaloniki with banners, triciks and slogans.

Against the revenge of the state, no fighter alone.

NIKI IN THE BURNS OF THE HUMAN RETURN DIMITRI KOUFONTINA

IMMEDIATE SATISFACTION OF ITS REQUESTS

RESISTANCE TO THE NEW "ANTI-TERRORIST" WAR

Occupation Terra Incognita
Eleftherial Initiative Thessaloniki
Collective Anarchists from the East
Occupation 111

the video of the intervention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-su4yu3WouI&feature=youtu.be

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Message: 4





ATHENS 5 - 6 - 7 JULY 2018 ---- Zografou University Campus, MITHE School (entrance to 
Ulouf Palme) ---- * In the Festival there will be a kinematic bookstore, anarchist printed 
materials & poster and photo exhibitions ---- * playground Saturday 17.00-19.00 ---- 
ORGANIZATION AND FIGHT AGAINST WORLD SOCIAL REVOLUTION, ANARCHY AND FREEDOM OF 
COMMUNICATION ---- THURSDAY 6 JULY ---- 18.00 Discussion:  The social and class resistance 
of the bottom ---- 18.00 Discussion:  What does it mean to be an anarchist student  from 
the Student Assembly from the Anarchist / Anti-authoritarian area ---- 19.00 Narration of 
fairy tales  for children and young people of all ages "A Smile of Butterflies" ---- 20.00 
Discussion:  From Greece to Turkey, women's struggles for freedom ---- 22.00 Music Evening 
  With American  Worker Songs With The Dudettes

PREPARATION 7 Julius

18.00 Discussion:  Contemporary totalitarianism, war, nationalism, fascism. The anarchist 
movement and international solidarity

18.00 Discussion:  Restructuring in Education  by Anarchist Student Assembly "Arodamos"

20.00 Discussion:  Squats and self-managed combat venues

20.00 Book presentation:  "Mujeres libres, free women in Spain. Anarchism and struggle for 
female emancipation " by the libertarian publications Nautilus

22.00 Rebetiko night  with Zevinki

SATURDAY 8 JULY

16.00 Discussion:  Games against the destruction and looting of the natural world by the 
state and the capital

18.00 Discussion:  State repression, Terrorists, Emergency

18.00 Information  from the 1st international meeting of struggling women held in Chiapas 
at the invitation of Zapatista women

20.00 Presentation:  Revolutionary Anarchist Action (DAF) from Turkey

22.00 CONFERENCE for the  financial support of the Eleftherias Festival

ANARCHICAL POLITICAL ORGANIZATION - FEDERATION OF COLLECTIVES

site:  www.apo.squathost.com , email:  anpolorg@gmail.com

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Message: 5





A Radical Review of William J. Barber The Third Reconstruction (2016) ---- Rev. Dr. 
William J. Barber is an important organizer of North Carolina's Moral Monday movement and 
now of the national Poor People's Campaign. He and his co-workers have organized large 
scale demonstrations and civil disobedience at statehouses across the U.S. He has worked 
to build a fusion coalition of oppressed and exploited people. This book provides a view 
of the political and religious thinking which has motivated him and many others.
"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness[mercy], and to walk 
humbly with your God." Micah (Quoted frequently by Rev. Barber) ---- The Reverend Dr. 
William J. Barber became nationally known in 2013 for his role in organizing massive 
demonstrations of African-American and white working class and poor people in North 
Carolina. "Tens of thousands of people came for thirteen consecutive Moral Mondays" to 
rally at the statehouse. "By the end of the legislative session, nearly a thousand people 
had been arrested in the largest wave of mass civil disobedience since the lunch counter 
sit-ins of 1960." (x)

Now he is the co-chair of the effort to re-build Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign, with 
demonstrations at state capitals across the country. Thousands of people have been going 
to their statehouses to take part in the largest coordinated civil disobedience action 
across states in US history. This is an effort to mobilize a vast "fusion movement" of a 
wide range of working, poor, discriminated-against, oppressed, and exploited women and 
men, together with people concerned about war and ecological destruction.

This book was written after Rev. Barber had organized the Moral Monday movement and before 
he had begun to build the new Poor People's Campaign. It is an excellent introduction to 
his strategic and ethical thinking and to the faith which motivates him. The book covers 
parts of his family and personal history. That includes the physical ailment which has 
afflicted him for years but which did not stop his organizing efforts. However, I will 
focus on his overall thinking.

He calls for a "Third Reconstruction." The first Reconstruction followed the Civil War, 
and was a time of unprecedented opportunities for the ex-slaves. It was destroyed in a 
violent conservative backlash which established Jim Crow. The "Second Reconstruction" was 
the result of the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, which ended Southern legal 
segregation. Now Rev. Barber is calling for a "Third" Reconstruction which will finally 
end racism and other forms of oppression.

The Fusion Coalition

Two things stand out in what Rev. Barber is doing. One is the kind of "fusion coalition" 
which he is working to build. The other is the moral/religious basis on which he is 
building it.

Consistent with the prophet's instruction to "walk humbly with your God," he prefers to 
call himself an "organizer" rather than a "leader." From his first days organizing, he 
believed in a joint struggle of the African-American movement and of union organizing by 
workers (of all races and ethnicities), both supported by progressive forces in the 
church. "Civil rights could not be separated from workers' rights...." (48) "Is the real 
issue today race or is it class? We answer: Yes, it's race and class." (128) But like his 
inspiration, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he came to expand this conception while building 
a "fusion coalition" movement in North Carolina.

"We had folks who cared about education, folks who cared about living wages, and others 
who were passionate about the 1.2 million North Carolinians who didn't have access to 
health care. We also had groups petitioning for redress for black and poor women who'd 
been forcibly sterilized in state institutions, organizations advocating for public 
financing in elections, and historically black colleges and universities petitioning for 
better state funding....Groups concerned about discrimination in hiring, others concerned 
about affordable housing, and people opposed to the death penalty and other glaring 
injustices in our criminal justice system. Finally, I noted the movements for 
environmental justice, immigrant justice, civil rights enforcement, and an end to 
America's ‘war on terror'." (49)

Over time, people with these varying concerns pulled together. "Moral Mondays...resulted 
from the efforts of 140 organizations that had worked together as a grassroots coalition 
for seven years." (xi) Through conferences and joint actions, the groups came to realize 
some things: "We all recognized the same forces opposing us....{But]there were more of us 
than there were of them." (50)

At times, Rev. Barber had to finesse in order to be as inclusive as he wanted. For 
example, there was a state referendum on same-sex marriage, deliberately raised by the 
right to split the LGBTQ community from religious African-Americans. His movement took the 
position, "it wasn't our job to endorse same-sex marriage....But the fundamental principle 
of equal protection under the law was a constitutional and moral principle which our 
movement had not only to endorse but also to defend....The codification of hate is never 
righteous. Legalized discrimination is never just." (91) This argument was persuasive in 
the Black community.

Another issue arose when discussing with Janet Cohn, the president of Planned Parenthood. 
"I'd told her that with our broad coalition we could not endorse abortion, so she asked, 
‘Can you support women's rights and access to health care?' Absolutely, I told her." In 
turn, he asked if she would "speak up for a black women's right to vote?" (108) She was 
very willing to do so-and did. The coalition expanded.

However, this agreement seems unclear to me. The question of "abortion" should not be 
whether the movement calls for abortions, which it does not. It is whether to support 
women's right to chose whether or not to have abortions or other procedures. It is not 
over what opinion anyone (in or out of church) has about abortion. It is over whether 
anti-choice people should use the courts, the legislatures, and the police-the power of 
the state- to enforce their opinion on all women (which, among other things, violates the 
moral value of humility!).

How far this effort of coalition-building by Rev. Barber and his allies will go on a 
national level is yet to be seen. But it is a vitally important effort. In the time of 
Trump and the rising of the extreme right, this is a major effort at organizing a real 
resistance and fight-back by the oppressed, exploited, and endangered. That has been 
described as "intersectionality"-understanding the ways in which different oppressions 
interact and overlap with each other, and the fights against them interact and overlap. 
This sort of fusion coalition building is essential.

However, a coalition can be too broad. He writes, "We needed to come together with banks 
and businesspeople...." (38) Of a unionizing drive, he states, "The factory owners could 
not simply be our enemy. the community needed them as much as they needed us." (17) But 
what if the rich are the enemy? What if they benefit from poverty, weak or no unions, 
super-exploitation of the workers, the extra oppression and poverty of People of Color, 
the divisions among whites and African-Americans and Latinos, and between straight and 
LGBTQ people, and among religions, and between genders? No doubt there are personally 
decent business people, but overall, as a class, it is in their interest to maintain all 
the evils which Rev. Barber and his coalition are fighting. And he says so:

"The people most frightened by our fusion coalition were the elites who had inherited the 
spoils of white power and had run North Carolina by proxy for generations....What they had 
on their side, they knew, was money.[They are]shrewd businessmen...." (62) In North 
Carolina, the coalition faced "an avalanche of corporate funded extremism." (93)

It is one thing to have a nonviolent approach to racist white workers. It is really in 
their self-interest overall to work with African-American and Latino working people, and 
they can come to see it. But it is against the self-interest of the capitalists to join 
with their workers. It is a weakness of nonviolence as a philosophy that it does not see 
this (I am not speaking about nonviolence as a tactic). Further, the view that "the 
community needs" businesspeople shows a lack of imagination, especially for someone who 
once discussed "establishing worker-owned co-ops." (5) Under present conditions workers 
have to live with their bosses, but it is possible to think of an alternate, radically 
democratic and cooperative, way to organize an economy (see Price 2014).

Writing about the English Civil War (of Cromwell and others), Lawrence Stone concluded 
that a necessary prerequisite to any revolution was "polarization into two coherent groups 
or alliances of what are naturally and normally a series of fractional and shifting 
tensions and conflicts within a society." (quoted in Foner 1980; 31). While not advocating 
a revolution, Rev. Barber is working at building a "coherent group or alliance" out of 
conflicted and fractionalized social forces. This is a deliberate effort, as stated in the 
book's subtitle, to "overcome the politics of division and fear." But people need to 
recognize that a "coherent alliance" of the people will necessarily be counterposed to 
another "coherent group" of the rich and powerful.

The Moral Movement

Central to Rev. Barber's approach is a fundamentally moral appeal. In the words of the 
prophet Micah, which Barber likes to quote, the aim is "to do justice[and]to love 
kindness" (often written as "mercy"). His views are rooted in the African-American 
prophetic tradition. Theologically, he presents himself as a Christian "conservative." He 
jokes that his politically conservative opponents are theologically "liberal," in the 
sense that they ignore or twist the large parts of the Christian Bible which speaks of 
doing justice and loving kindness, of helping the poor, of supporting the least among us, 
of rejecting riches and power, of being humble, and so on. Nor does he limit himself to 
Christianity. He specifically rejects the view that the Christian church should be the 
only champion of ethical values in society. He includes all religions, making a point of 
including Muslims. "My Holy Bible is not the only holy book." (105)

The Rev. Barber rejects what he takes to be "the liberal consensus that suggests that 
faith is either divisive or inherently regressive." Instead he advocates "a faith-rooted 
moral movement that welcomes people of all faiths, as well as those who struggle with 
faith. (66) As a radical humanist, I too reject liberal condescension towards religious 
views or the belief that religion is "inherently regressive." I respect all faiths. While 
some have used religion to justify the worst of oppressions (as Rev. Barber knows), 
religious faith has motivated great struggles for freedom and justice.

However I find his last phrase somewhat condescending toward atheists, agnostics, 
secularists, humanists, etc., as well as similar references to"people of no particular 
faith." (38) I do not feel that I am "struggling with faith" or have "no particular 
faith," since I have particular views of my own. In general, I have not found that 
non-theistic people are any less moral or ethically motivated than are believers in 
particular religions. (See Price 2009.)

Rev. Barber describes how he came to understand the importance of an directly moral 
approach when supporting a union-organizing drive at a North Carolina Smithfield 
hog-processing factory. "In the media as well as in the community, the story was simply 
one of workers' interests versus business interests." (69) It was difficult to develop 
community support. So they decided "to change the narrative by making the workers' 
struggle a moral cause for our whole coalition." (69) They exposed the hard work, the 
suffering, and the mistreatment of the workers and their families. "The public story was 
no longer one about workers versus bosses. It was about the moral challenge of people 
receiving the just fruit of the labor." (70)

It is completely correct to point to the moral basis of a struggle, of the need to do the 
right thing, to do justice and love kindness in all our activities. However, as expressed, 
this can lead to a certain kind of blindness. Morality (justice and kindness) should not 
be counterposed to the self-interest of the oppressed. The issue of the Smithfield 
workers' moral cause only became clear because they were struggling for their 
self-interest against that of the bosses. It is far easier for workers to see the justice 
of "receiving the just fruit of their labor" than it is for the bosses, whose financial 
self-interest lay in not seeing it. And it is easier for the community-and the members of 
the coalition-to see that justice if they realize that the struggle is in all their 
interests-because "We all recognized the same forces opposing us." (50)

Elections and the Democratic Party

Most U.S. left and "progressive" forces have a strategy of electing Democrats to replace 
the Republicans, especially Donald Trump. (I am not talking about how isolated individuals 
vote every few years, but about the strategy of a movement.) The "Resistance" to Trumpism 
has become primarily a support for the Democratic Party. This party represents a 
liberal-to-moderate wing of the U.S. capitalist class. It supports capitalism, the attack 
on U.S. working people, the imperialist national state, and military aggression around the 
world. In words Democrats recognize the looming danger of global warming, but in practice 
they propose only mild and inadequate programs. As the failures of the Republicans has 
driven people to support the Democrats, so the repeated failures of the Democrats has 
driven people to support the Republicans. This includes the poverty, economic stagnation, 
low wages, and industrial decline of much of the country. Over decades, liberals, union 
officials, African-American community leaders, and other "progressives" have supported the 
Democrats as a "lesser evil." The Republicans have consistently become more and more evil 
while the Democrats have become less and less good-that is, both parties have moved to 
their right. A minority of liberals have come to advocate a new, third, party as a 
strategy. This still relies on elections and the use of the government.

This is not Rev. Barber's strategy. He notes that his coalition-building began "when 
Democrats were in power" in North Carolina. (52) The biased drawing of voting districts is 
something "which Democrats had engaged in as much as Republicans in the past." (83) "No 
one was listening to poor people. Republicans and Democrats alike...." (88) He has worked 
for popular demonstrations and civil disobedience, rather than voting. Criticized for "not 
running...candidates who would champion our agenda.[He replied]...we will not win by 
starting a third party. We will win by changing the conversation for every candidate and 
party." (124) He wants to raise "a clear agenda that doesn't measure success only by 
electoral outcomes." (129) He has opposed any effort to tie the coalition to political 
candidates or parties. He reports winning over working class and rural white people who 
had supported Republicans in the past, but were impressed that the movement was not a 
front for Democrats.

Yet his approach is not all that far from the liberal pro-Democratic strategy. He and his 
co-workers focus on statehouses and electoral laws. They protest the unfairness of the 
Republicans' gerrymandering of electoral districts and their voter suppression efforts. 
These things are worth protesting because they are unfair and repressive. But even the 
purest, cleanest, representative democracy would still be dominated by the corporate 
elite. And even the best democracy would still be vulnerable to forces outside of 
elections as such.

For example, after the Civil War, the Reconstruction era had a wide range of 
African-Americans elected to state offices, he writes. "More blacks were elected to public 
office during the period from 1868 to 1880 than at any other time in American 
history....African-Americans wielded significant power in every statehouse." (56) There 
was a coalition between African-Americans and many white Southerners. But all this 
electoral power came to nothing. The Southern white upper class, former slave owners and 
businesspeople, mobilized racism among the poorer whites. They armed these people, built 
up the Klan, instigated "race riots," murdered and lynched Black leaders, used "violence, 
intimidation, and the passage of laws that, together came to be called Jim Crow."(116) 
They took away the right to vote and all other rights, by legal and illegal measures. The 
national government, led by Republicans, did nothing in the defense of democracy.

Could this happen again? Consider the history of fascist coups in democratic European 
countries in the 20s and 30s or in the military coup in democratic Chile in 1973. To a 
lesser extent, even now, we have seen an African-American president be followed by a 
reactionary, racist, authoritarian president (who lost the popular vote), who has 
encouraged fascists, who has blatantly served the wealthy, and whose party has worked to 
suppress the votes of African-Americans and others.

It is dangerous to rely on elections and government power. The government is an instrument 
of the corporate rich and their agents and cannot be anything else. A mass movement has to 
built outside of and against the government and its big business masters. Even reforms are 
most likely to be won if there is a militant and independent mass movement. Lyndon 
Johnson's "support for the Voting Rights Act was in direct response to the coordinated 
organizing of Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SNCC, and local leaders 
in Selma, Alabama." (119)

Along with every other issue, there needs to be a focus on workers and their unions. This 
is not because they are the most deserving but because they have an enormous potential 
power. If the working people decided not to work for even a day, the whole system would 
grind to a halt. And they could potentially start things up in a different, democratic and 
cooperative, way. This would truly be a moral transformation of society.

Revolutionary Conclusions

Rev. Barber is aware that the racist capitalist system is facing a severe crisis. He 
quotes the radical economist Gar Alperowitz, "What we're really beginning to experience is 
a process of slow decay, punctuated by a recurring economic crisis, one in which reforms 
achieve only sporadic gains." (85) Barber adds, "Though we ended Jim Crow segregation in 
the 1960s...the wealth divide that is rooted in our history of race-based slavery is more 
extreme than it has ever been." (xii-xiii) He warns that "Anything less[than a Third 
Reconstruction], I fear, will mean the self-destruction of our nation." (xv)

The implication of these statements is that the struggle for reforms can only go so far. 
Limited gains may be won, and have been won, but they are harder and harder to achieve. 
"Only sporadic gains" are the order of the day. This poses questions for any popular 
movement of opposition, such as the Poor People's Campaign.

It is necessary to build a fusion coalition to fight for reforms, but this is not enough. 
What is needed is a moral vision of a new kind of society, based on justice and kindness, 
freedom and equality, radical democracy and cooperation, in all their political, social, 
and economic aspects. The wealth and power of the capitalist class must be taken from it. 
Ordinary people-the working class and all oppressed-must be empowered. The Third 
Reconstruction needs to be a new American Revolution.

References

Barber, William J., with Wilson-Hartgrove, Jonathan (2016). The Third Reconstruction; How 
a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear. Boston: Beacon Press.

Foner, Eric (1980). Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War. Oxford/NY: Oxford 
University Press.

Price, Wayne (2014). "Workers' Self-Directed Enterprises: A Revolutionary Program." Anarkismo.
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/26931?search_text=Way...Price

Price, Wayne (2009). "Religion and Revolution." Anarkismo.
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/12320?search_text=wayn...price

* written for www.Anarkismo.net

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31046

https://chat.cal-online.co.il/chat/leave_msg.aspx?c=out_of_open_hours&profile=1&subject=&ic=1

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Message: 6





According to the reports of the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on 
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, " Biodiversity and the contributions nature makes to 
people seem, for many, remote from our daily lives.[...]They are at the heart not only of 
our survival, but also of our cultures, our identities and our joie de vivre ". ---- The 
meaning of biodiversity is not necessarily understood by everyone. Let us first recall 
that biodiversity refers to the diversity of ecosystems - all plants, animals and 
micro-organisms that interact in the same geographical location -, animal and plant 
species and genes of individuals within the same species. ---- This extraordinary wealth 
of life forms on our planet is constantly evolving, renewing itself, adapting to changes 
in climate and physico-chemical soil data. Sometimes biological crises occur. Five massive 
extinctions have been recorded, during which at least 75% of the animal and plant species 
present on Earth disappeared in a short time at the geological time scale (a few million 
years maximum). These extinctions are the result of major disturbances: great glaciation ; 
strong reduction of oxygen concentration in the oceans ; meteorite impacts ; volcanic 
crisis ...

The last extinction, 66 million years ago, resulted in the disappearance of dominant 
animal species - especially dinosaurs - and plants, and the expansion of mammals and 
flowering plants. But today, a sixth mass extinction is at work and its origin is 
undeniably linked to human activity (see article opposite " Collapse of biodiversity ").

What is being played today is obviously not the destruction of the planet. Life on Earth 
touches only a thin layer on the surface of the planet, as well as surface water and the 
atmosphere. Life on Earth itself is not really threatened. After this phase of extinction, 
a new equilibrium will be established and allow new life forms to flourish. But on the 
other hand, the balance of life forms that we know today is likely to collapse.

Agricultural productions are threatened
The consequence is obvious: the current balance of life has allowed the development of 
agriculture and the expansion of humanity. Deforestation, overfishing, artificialization 
and poisoning of soil and water by pesticides, and today the rise of the climate crisis 
have triggered a collapse of biodiversity. In our countries, insects and birds disappear 
at a vertiginous speed, wild plants disappear in number, the microfauna of the soil, that 
is to say, what makes them alive, is very bad. With almost sterilized soils and 
pollination of plants in difficulty, agricultural production is threatened. Thus, the 
productivist logic that today orchestrates human activities is preparing a major 
agricultural crisis.

This scenario is not inevitable. Ecology can not be a supplement of soul within social 
struggles. It is necessary for us to put anti-productivism at the heart of all our 
actions, otherwise we will continue to dig the grave of humanity.

Jacques Dubart (AL Nantes)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?La-survie-de-l-humanite-en-question

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