Today's Topics:
1. US, 1May: Against the borders by K., M1 Minnesota Collective
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Britain, Glasgow Events Autonomy Update 12th June 2018
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. iwa-ait: ZSP Keeps Fighting in 2018. New victories and
challenges. (ca) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. iwa-ait: Brighton Solidarity Federation: the first five
months of 2018 (ca) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. London Anarchist Federation - Anarchist Reading Group #3
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Announcement on the latest events in Lefkimmi, Corfu by
dwarf horse APO (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Greece, Initiative of Thessaloniki: On 27 June we set up a
anti-fascist block: we defend the battlegrounds (gr) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. US, black rose fed: THEORY, IDEOLOGY AND POLITICAL PRACTICE:
THE FAU'S "HUERTA GRANDE" (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
The national borders that exist today haven't always existed. They weren't made by any god
or decided democratically by regular people like us. They are imaginary lines imposed on
the earth by rich landowners, ethnic cleansers, slave holders and empires. They are there
for a reason - but not any reason that makes our families or communities or jobs any safer
or more secure. ---- I know for a fact that the city I grew up in - a city built on stolen
land - is a better place, a more interesting place, a more dignified and stronger place
because of the thousands of working-class people that have come here from Southeast Asia,
Mexico and Central America, East Africa and elsewhere. ---- We need to be very clear that
these vampires like Trump, Bannon, Sessions, and Miller and Nielsen - do not give a damn
about regular working-class people - and the moves they make are never in our interest.
But the moderates and liberals with their "humane" borders, jails, cops and bosses - offer
us nothing either. Clinton brought us mass incarceration, Laura Bush's husband
institutionalized war and torture, Obama had an assassination list and set deportation
records.
The rich and their political class have no moral authority to rule - through their greed
and incompetence they have led us from one set of crimes and disasters to another. Letting
their system continue risks a catastrophe for us all. Don't be a sucker for them, don't
let your friends and families and co-workers be suckers.
Why can't we take away their power and dismantle their system once and for all? We can
redistribute the resources so that all people can have safe and secure homes, healthy
food, real education & healthcare, useful and meaningful work, recreation and vacations.
Power can be decentralized and in the hands of all kinds of self-managed communities,
workplace councils, student unions, and co-operatives - so no new boss can bogart it.
We can start seriously getting our society in sync with nature instead of being a cancer
infecting it. We can make room for an explosion of culture developed by free people.
Many languages can flourish (though in Minnesota I'd be for giving a special, honored
place to Dakota and Anishinaabe).
Yeah - this can sound impossible - but its been tried before and there are many lessons to
learn from the history and present struggles of workers and peasants from around the world.
And is it any more impossible than to keep looking at ourselves in the mirror every
morning, knowing we are letting this shit go on?
http://m1aa.org/?p=1525
------------------------------
Message: 2
Hi comrades! ---- Here's your latest Autonomy Update. If you have any events coming up let
us know, and we'll include it in the next update. ---- 1. Are Workers Being Exploited? -
Wednesday 13th June ---- 2. Banner-making: Justice for Grenfell - Thursday 14th June ----
3. Grenfell Solidarity Vigil - Saturday 16th June ---- 4. Ubuntu Women's Shelter
fundraiser - Saturday 16th June ---- 5. Red and Black Song Club: German Songs - Wednesday
20th June ---- 6. Living Rent: tenants' action & organising meeting - Thursday 21st June
---- 7. Where are you really from? Refugee Festival Scotland - Friday 22nd June ---- 8.
Scotland, Surveillance and Spycops - Saturday 23rd June
9. Glasgow Against the Arms Fair - Tuesday 26th June
https://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/
------------------------------
Message: 3
As ZSP prepares for its annual Congress, it looks back at victories and challenges it
faced in the first half year of 2018. ---- The Congress, which normally takes place a
little earlier in the year, is delayed due to a number of factors, including the pressures
of repression for the union activity. The Union continues its campaign to improve working
conditions at supermarkets, in particular, the battle with PoloMarket. Again, workers with
disabilites have played a huge role in a labour campaign in our organizations, fighting
for the rights allowed to them under law, but denied by many workplaces which use such
workers to get subsidies and which think they cannot defend their rights. Already a direct
action resulted in a worker receiving good compensation and a number of judgements were
made against the company, in favor of the workers. But in order to discourage working
people, bogus criminal cases have been brought by the chain - there is a case against one
individual and 2 cases against 8.
Despite this, the union has no intention of giving up. It does however need to discuss
strategies for organizing in the workplace when faced with such repression. Such actions
of the bosses are given the green light in Poland and even supported by the state, such as
in the case of the Post Office, where a number of dismissals were made as reprisals. In
one case, a worker has won very large compensation but does not want to return to work
their, due to the very poor working conditions and the large possibility of being
harrassed and discriminated against in working assignments.
We see that the PO has been forced to raise wages due to the ongoing campaign carried out
by our comrades. This is definitely a victory. But a partial one as it does not fulfill
the wage demands brought forward by the workers who organized outside of the mainstream
unions.
The Post Office is also fighting against recognition of the union, even of groups of
workers who decided to register themselves. However, this formal recognition is not what
gives workers power or not - it is their militancy (or lack of it).
These long-term campaigns have required our focus, so in the past year there have been
fewer actions related to issues such as wage theft - but are few successes took place in
this area also, such as against wage theft in a Warsaw shoe shop chain and against denial
of pay for sick leave in companies such as Amazon and a number of small firms. Dialogue
has been opened with Indian workers who have started to take small steps to assert their
rights in the workforce.
Finally, the union maintains its activities in other areas, such as tenant organization,
where there have been very concrete victories, including decisions to deprivatize and
remunicipalize some buildings.
http://www.iwa-ait.org/content/zsp-keeps-fighting-2018-new-victories-and-challenges
------------------------------
Message: 4
A summary of the activity of Brighton Solfed in the start of 2018, showcasing the cases
we've dealt with up to May. ---- After a busy 2017, ending with a string of victories,
2018 looks set to be even busier for Brighton Solidarity Federation. In the first 5 months
of the year, we've had many cases, both with our housing union and workplace disputes.
---- With a task as huge as that which we've set ourselves, it always seems like there's
more to do, and so it's often easy for our disputes along the way to be forgotten. With
this in mind, we felt it important to catalogue and bring attention to some of our results
so far - if only to show that when we fight back against rip off landlords and
exploitative bosses, we can win.
The year began with a successful end to our long running case against Café Plenty, which
saw several pickets at the end of last year (we haven't had time to write up this case
yet, but here are articles from earlier in the dispute , resulting in the best part of the
£7500 in unpaid wages going to the worker. This set the scene for the year to go on!
As well as Café Plenty, we carried over 2 cases from 2017 - first was a housing case
against G4 Lets , which we concluded less successfully in March - tenants felt at this
point the research that accompanied our campaign, which proved the agency had ignored a
council environmental health report would give them enough leverage that going down a
legalistic route as opposed to a direct action one, would have a higher chance of success.
At this point we wished them well in their new direction. Coming out of this, a well
attended housing rights workshop specifically aimed at other G4 Lets tenants (G4Lets are
one of the larger student letting agents in the city) was organised with the support of
the tenants. Since concluding the dispute, we have been approached by several G4 Lets
tenants for advice, a group of which were able to get back part of their deposit.
The other case we carried on from 2017 was against Youngs. This case involved tenant, who
due to major damp issues was unable to use his bedroom for months, and had spent
significant amounts of money and time repairing the damage, with the promise that this
would be refunded. This case has been a major focus of the local this year so far - in
January we held a march on the agency as a show of strength against this treatment. The
case is currently ongoing, with major escalations on the part of the agency and landlord
including an attempt at revenge eviction of the tenant , and recently violence from the
agent against solfed members. Solfed have extended the campaign to Halls letting agents,
who rent Youngs their office, demanding they evict the evictors. We are determined to show
we can't be bullied down, and the campaign continues, intensified. More information on the
case can be found here and an interview with the tenant can be found here .
Alongside these major cases, we've had a number of shorter cases throughout the year. In
February we opened a dispute with one of Brighton's more corporate lettings agencies after
part of a tenant's deposit was withheld, alongside other issues. Despite attempts by the
agency to threaten us legally, our escalating campaign had the desired result, with the
tenant getting the money she wanted.
We also had a series of shorter cases - winning £1200 in unpaid wages from a sushi
restaurant after a single picket, winning against a major hotel chain again after one
picket (dispute not yet written up - we just won last week!) and over £1000 owed from a
local dry cleaning firm, with just the threat of a picket.
However our goal is more than just helping individuals and winning cases: as an
anarcho-syndicalist union, we want to build a culture of solidarity and resistance amongst
working class people. Every dispute that ends in success takes us closer to that goal
because it shows that when we stand up to bosses and landlords, we can win. But disputes
that are not a clear-cut victory - such as the G4 Lets campaign - are important in
building that culture of solidarity and resistance too: they send a strong signal to
lettings agencies that even in difficult cases we are prepared to campaign for months. It
is through fighting back regardless of the prospect of winning that we are beginning to
change what landlords and bosses can get away with in Brighton - and nothing is more
gratifying than the emails we occasionally receive of tenants or workers telling us that
they were able to resolve a housing or workplace problem by threatening to approach SolFed
for support.
Alongside all of this, we've also held a series of fundraisers, a regular series of film
showings (sub.media's Trouble series) - and we are continuing to grow our membership. Our
members continue to organise in their own workplaces, often able to use the skills,
confidence and tactics we've developed in these cases into our own cases to build long
term workplace strength, and a culture of collectively standing up to improve our conditions.
All in all, we think it bodes pretty well for the rest of the year, as we continue to make
anarcho-syndicalism a reality in Brighton, and take the fight to the bosses and landlords
- we aren't going anywhere, and we aren't stopping any time soon!
http://www.iwa-ait.org/content/brighton-solidarity-federation-first-five-months-2018
------------------------------
Message: 5
This month we will be looking at anarchist economics and have selected three pieces which
cover this, including practical examples of anarchy in action. The meeting will be 7pm on
the third Tuesday of the month (17th July) at Freedom Bookshop, 7pm. ---- Chapter 3 of
Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloos
(https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works#toc21) ---- Eric
Buck: The flow of experiencing in anarchic economies. In: Contemporary Anarchist Studies,
p.57-69 (https://libcom.org/files/Contemporary_Anarchist_Studies.pdf) ---- Uri Gordon:
Anarchist Economics (https://philosophersforchange.org/2012/02/15/anarchist-economics/)
https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2018/06/26/anarchist-reading-group-3/
------------------------------
Message: 6
THE CULTURE OF THE PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SCULPTURES DOES NOT EXTRACT -
ANATREPETIA! ---- SOLIDARITY TO THE RUNNING RESIDENTS OF THE WHITE KERKEYRA WHICH ARE
RESPONSIBLE IN STATE PROJECTS AND INCIDENTAL ---- On Tuesday 26 June, a strong police
force (thirteen SAD squads and several IGC teams) made a trip to the island of Corfu in
order to transport and deposit bundled waste in the Lefkimmi landfill. The repressive
forces have been installed in Lefkimmi, the regional road network leading to South Corfu
and the landfill site of Lefkimmi landfill in Messorahia, where the first "full" waste
trucks are located. ---- The inhabitants of southern Corfu are once again massively on the
streets to block the transport of garbage to their area. Conflicts of the residents with
the MATs took place outside the landfill, resulting in the capture of 2 people, and in the
afternoon of the same day, marchs took place, which resulted in collisions and barricades
until late in the evening. In total, 4 arrests have taken place.
The issue of garbage in Corfu
The problem of waste management on the island of Corfu is very old and has been in the
hands of local society for at least the last 50 years. In 1960, the landfill began in
Temploni. This landfill was renamed as landfill in an effort to continuously accumulate
tens of thousands of tonnes of waste in the same place.
As long as the problem of depositing garbage is timeless, the resistance of the
inhabitants of South Corfu is so long lasting. An exemplary example is 2008, when they
gave a fervent and militant struggle from below, through popular assemblies in village
squares, with massive and massive mobilizations, conflicts with repression forces,
occupation of the town hall, clashes with the police, blocking of the construction works
and obstruction of the transport of the materials required in the landfill. The local
community realized in time that no savior would come and that only by trusting in its
forces, far from any kind of anathematic logic, could win the struggle. Their struggle
against the construction of the CYTA, the barricades, the constant clashes with the
suppression forces tainted dozens of arrests, beatings and persecutions. The village was
transformed into an occupied police zone for quite some time,while on May 29, 2008, Maria
Koulouri was assassinated after assault by the MTF on the resisting residents.
At the same time, the struggle of the Lefkimmians has demonstrated the real role of the
institutions of bourgeois democracy. The movement was slandered by the media, sold out by
the local rulers, the police were openly acting as the contractor's security company, and
the judiciary violated every pretext of civic legitimacy, turning a blind eye to hundreds
of irregularities of the project, giving the contractor freedom to trespass on fields to
open up roads where it needed, to destroy crops to pass its vehicles, and to operate as a
whale of the whole region. Everyone, the official institutions and institutions functioned
perfectly as a single body with the sole purpose of completing the construction of the
landfill at all costs.
Greek state: a big dump - an opportunity for business
For the Greek state, in the last few decades, the issue of garbage management has been
left behind in a completely denial of nature management model, which consisted of a nasty
network of dumps - whether legal or illegal - across the territory and in a few Landfills
Waste (euphemistically, as they are landfills in which garbage is simply buried and buried
with soil) and is responsible for the natural necrosis of entire areas, for contamination
of subsoil and water and to cause a number of fires. The supersaturation of these
landfills within only a few years, the large fines paid for these by the Greek state in
the EU. and the highly profitable enterprise of building "modern" waste disposal sites for
construction companies according to the demands of "green" entrepreneurship in the name of
environmental protection led the state to design a new garbage management system. This new
management system imposed by the state and the construction and construction companies
provided for the construction of the HYT.A. throughout the territory to absorb the
European funds earmarked for this purpose. foresaw the construction of the HYT.A.
throughout the territory to absorb the European funds earmarked for this purpose. foresaw
the construction of the HYT.A. throughout the territory to absorb the European funds
earmarked for this purpose.
When state and contractor projects for CYTs were drafted, the necessary environmental
studies were overridden and the propaganda that wanted the CYTAs escalated. as the "green"
and "ecological" solution to the problem of waste management, for the withdrawal of social
and political consensus. It is a fact that the construction of the CY.TA. next to
inhabited areas, since it causes a multitude of environmental disasters by polluting the
subsoil, the groundwater and the air with toxic substances, creates direct risks to the
health of the inhabitants.
Throughout the planet, state and capital plunder and pollute the earth
On a global scale, the issue of waste management is directly linked to the uncontrolled
consumer frenzy that promotes the existing system, covering a series of human-made needs
that it has created to support the imposed economic model of life, destroying and
pillaging at the same time a range of natural resources and resources, entire areas and
ecosystems, due to pollution and contamination.
Therefore, the issue of garbage management is a structural element of over-accumulation of
goods, the logic of uncontrolled looting and profit-taking from the physical world,
ultimately the very way of organizing social life that the state and capitalist system
itself has created.
Against their criminal plans ... the unrequited social resistance
Throughout these years, a series of resistances have emerged that have succeeded in
redeveloping dikes in the machines of development and in the destructive, for the natural
environment and human, state plans (Lefkimmi, Grammatiko, Karvounari Thesprotia, Keratea,
Elliniko in Ioannina) as well to highlight the feasible and effective social and class
resistance, as well as the number of signs where the resistance to the attack by the
pundits on nature and local societies is manifested.
Characteristic is the example of the long-term and militant struggle of the residents of
Grammatiki Attiki, who in July and October 2009 faced with dozens of MATs that accompanied
the machinery of the contractor who has undertaken the construction of the HYATT. in the
area, battling bodybuilding, blocking barricades and barricades, causing disasters in the
company's machinery and tackling police violence and chemicals for many hours. In
addition, in Keratea (an area of particular environmental, aesthetic and archaeological
value), the state-owned enterprise and the big builder Bobola of a HYATT, has found a very
massive and militant resistance from the surrounding areas and solidarity from the very
first moment that, after the invasion of the machinery of the construction company and of
the MATs in Ovriokastro, took on the character of an all-out collision of thousands of
people with the uniformed murderers of the state. People with multi-faceted conflicts,
faced with violence, arrests, persecution, chemicals and the breeze of the police, refused
to subdue state terrorism and surrender their place to the plunder of the political and
economic bosses. Recently (seven years after the cancellation of the landfill
construction) the Joint Court of Justice found innocent the six accused residents who
defended their fight in the courtroom. took the character of an all-in-one conflict of
thousands of people with the state's murderers. People with multi-faceted conflicts, faced
with violence, arrests, persecution, chemicals and the breeze of the police, refused to
subdue state terrorism and surrender their place to the plunder of the political and
economic bosses. Recently (seven years after the cancellation of the landfill
construction) the Joint Court of Justice found innocent the six accused residents who
defended their fight in the courtroom. took the character of an all-in-one conflict of
thousands of people with the state's murderers. People with multi-faceted conflicts, faced
with violence, arrests, persecution, chemicals and the breeze of the police, refused to
subdue state terrorism and surrender their place to the plunder of the political and
economic bosses. Recently (seven years after the cancellation of the landfill
construction) the Joint Court of Justice found innocent the six accused residents who
defended their fight in the courtroom. refused to subdue state terrorism and surrender
their place to the plunder of the political and economic bosses. Recently (seven years
after the cancellation of the landfill construction) the Joint Court of Justice found
innocent the six accused residents who defended their fight in the courtroom. refused to
subdue state terrorism and surrender their place to the plunder of the political and
economic bosses. Recently (seven years after the cancellation of the landfill
construction) the Joint Court of Justice found innocent the six accused residents who
defended their fight in the courtroom.
It is obvious that the future that the state-capitalist culture of pollution and
development passes through the intensity of the attack on the environment and the local
societies, as well as its social and environmental deadlocks, preserves and imposes on us
all. Of course, the real social problem is not the management of garbage from any model
that green capitalism puts forward every time, and it imposes the culture of sovereignty,
but it is the very system that produces garbage for consumption, contaminating and
destroying nature and society at the altar of gain and control.
The aggressive and devastating nature of the political and economic system on the natural
environment and society is tragically emerging every day. From building and attempted the
/ u dams and the diversion of the River Acheloos in parallel will mean the destruction of
the village Mesochora, wind farms in more and more areas, mining in DARK Halkidiki, the
oil spill in the Saronic Gulf and the extraction of hydrocarbons in Epirus and the Ionian
seems that the logic of "development", green or not, will pass through the flattening of
our lives and the destruction and looting of the natural world.
Against this treaty, an overall social awakening is required, the overcoming of
commission, mediation and inertia, the rise of social and class struggles, the formation
of broad, self-organized, counter-institutional resistance fronts, and the creation of
dikes at every point in the state and capitalist aggression.
Against the dystopian future they have, there is the choice of resistance and struggle.
Let's remind them what happens when society takes the situation in its hands and resists
massively and furiously in their designs. Social and class resistances are alive and they
will win!
SOLIDARITY IN THE LEVKIMMIS COLLABORATORS
GAME FOR THE REVOLUTION OF THE DISASTER AND LIBERATION SYSTEM OF NATURE AND SOCIETY
GAME FOR GREEN AND FREEDOM!
anarchist group "dwarf horse"
member of the Anarchist Political Organization
Patras, June 2018
------------------------------
Message: 7
THE DOLLARS DO NOT HAVE A PATRIDA ---- TOLERANCE TO THE NATIONAL FISIERS ---- The revival
of the Macedonian issue was a rare opportunity for every kind of nationalist and fascist
squat to take a place in public speech and try to promote its murderous political plans.
The January nationalist rallies in Thessaloniki and Athens served this very purpose. It
became apparent to the most naive, that the supposedly uncomplicated and non-political
character of the rallies, advertised with so much diligence by the media, was simply a
sheep that underneath it hid the beast - and as it turned out it did not take him much to
feel certain and to reveal his real face. Somehow, the useful idiots turned into dangerous
idiots. It is obvious that several tendencies of the far right and nationalist space
consider it time for a parliamentary party of the far right beyond the neo-Nazi Golden
Dawn. But it is also obvious that the ideology of national unity that seeks to instill
reconciliation with class and social inequality and oppression does not only benefit these
circles but almost all of the sovereignty, as the spread of the nationalistic poison
breaks the social basis and distracts it from its real problems and interests, especially
during periods of capitalist crisis.
For a number of years, we have from this side of the border an irrational requirement that
the Greek state has the main reason against the name of another nation-state, which,
unfortunately, is socially supported by a significant part of Greek society. A demand that
is now mitigated by the EU's willingness to integrate the Republic of Macedonia into it
and the need for NATO to expand its sphere of influence. On the other side of the border
we see a growing nationalism that aims to create and consolidate their own "national myth"
and often takes totally ridiculous forms, but clearly not even more ridiculous than our
"own" nationalism. A look at the photos of the two rallies confirms the verdict.
Now that the "consultations" between the "two" sides have ended up with the name "Northern
Macedonia" for the neighboring country, once again the national indignation overflows (!)
For the audacity of the neighbors living in the northern part of the geographical area
called Macedonia to "whisk" the name "Northern Macedonia" (!). What if the use of the term
"Macedonia" has long been accepted by the Greek side (Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia)? These are fine prints for patriots who will once again rush to present at
nationalist rallies at the same time that they are not fascists. The Macedonian uniforms
will come back from the wardrobe,
The oppressed and the exploited have nothing to divide between us. Our oppressors are
common and have the same name, regardless of their nationality, and they are the state and
the capital. The only thing that nationalism manages to do is to separate and distract
them from the bottom by facilitating the bosses, and that is precisely the service that
offers sovereignty, that is why it is systematically promoted and planted on the social
basis. We, for our part, will strive to dissolve every separation on the body of the
oppressed and exploited. So we must fight together with the oppressed and the exploiters
of all countries to create a common internationalist front that will raise a barrier to
nationalism and fascism, who will fight against the state and the capital, which will
thunder that it will not let our bosses separate us on the basis of nationality, color,
sexual orientation, gender, religion or any other line. Who will fight for an a-state,
a-class, non-national life.
Alongside nationalism, we will struggle to crush its most advanced form: fascism, whenever
he tries to raise his head. In this city, we saw the various fascists trying to appear on
the road with various occasions. We see them and now lead the a-colored rallies, the first
berry behind the banners, the first berries in the "episodes". But we, as anti-fascists
and anti-fascists, see the fascism as the long hand of capital, regardless of the
circumstances that the fascists invoke in order to get out of their hole and to assemble
various racists, Greek-believers, religious people. And that is why we are not separating
our struggle against the fascism from it to capitalism. Fascism is the intensification of
the capitalist condition of the exception. Our fascism wants slaves of the bosses. Fascism
intensifies the misappropriation and militarization of labor, placing conditions of
extermination on the "labor force".
Fascism is the birth of this world of oppression, exploitation and exceptions. That is why
it is treated in class terms, upsetting the system that rears it and which it always
serves. We will not leave our city to the fascists and the ultra-nationalists, as few as
they are, no matter how ridiculous they imagine.
NO NAME WATCHES US NONE NEITHER GIVES US
WHO MORE MIGHT YOU LIFE THE LIFE, THAT WAS DROPPED WITH NATION AND SEX
NO FAASTIC ATTEMPT WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE
PHASES BACK TO YOUR HOLES
MECHANICAL PROTECTION AGAINST PANANTHROPAL MANAGEMENT FROM ALL PIPES
On 27/06, we support the security of our occupations and hangouts. We defend the
battlegrounds by all means against the fascist - nationalist militias.
Eleftherial Initiative of Thessaloniki - member of the Anarchist Federation
lib_thess @ hotmail.com
libertasalonica.wordpress.com
------------------------------
Message: 8
Image: Chilean Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios (FEL) marching in 2013 with banner "10
years building popular power." ---- Huerta Grande, or "Large Orchard," was written in 1972
as an internal discussion document of the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya, after the
Tupamaros, a Guevarist group, had failed in their armed strategy of foquismo and right
before the brutal military coup of June, 1973. The piece looks at the nature of theory
and strategy asserts that an essential aspect of revolutionary political organization was
having a deep understanding of material reality informed by practical theory and political
praxis. This may not seem new or novel but the implications of this have since had a
profound impact on Latin American anarchism and become a seminal document of the
Especifismo current.
The Federación Anarquista Uruguaya, known as the FAU, was founded in 1956 and was the
first organization to promote the organizational concept of Especifismo (for more on
Espeficismo see "Building a Revolutionary Anarchism" and "Especifismo: The Anarchist
Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization in South America").
The FAU envisioned the purpose of their organization as the coordination of militants
towards strategic "social insertion," which is the mobilization of militants to work with
a common strategy both within and in building mass organizations. The intermediate goal
being the construction of popular power of mass organizations and ultimate being the
creation of a wide scale libertarian movement which could create a rupture with the state.
In the decade of the 1960s the organization was crucial in the creation of the Uruguayan
CNT, a national trade confederation which united 90 percent of organized workers; the
Worker-Student Resistance or ROE, a federation of militant workplace and student groups
which numbered around 12,000 members; and the FAU's armed wing, the OPR-33. More recently
in the last two decades the FAU has aided in the creation of several similar anarchist
organizations in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile and has inspired other anarchist
organizations around the world.
Note: The use of the term "party" here is consistent with how the term is used by Errico
Malatesta as a synonym for political organization: "by the word ‘party' we mean all who
are on the same side, that is, who share the same general aspirations and who, in one way
or another, struggle for the same ends against common adversaries and enemies."
Original English translation: Pedro Ribeiro (2009, Amanecer: For A Popular Anarchism,
California), revisited translation by Gabriel Ascui (2018, SOL, Chile).
"Huerta Grande"
To understand what is going on (the conjuncture), it is necessary to think correctly. To
think correctly means to order and adequately treat the data that is produced about
reality in huge bulks.
To think correctly is an indispensable condition to correctly analyze what is going on in
a country in a given moment of this or another country's history. This demands
instruments. For our task, the instruments are concepts and to think coherently, a series
of concepts coherently articulated between them is required. Thus, a system of concepts, a
theory, is required.
Without a theory one runs the risk of examining every problem individually, in isolation,
starting from points of views that can be different in each case, or examining them based
on subjectivity, guesses or presentation, etc.
The party was able to avoid serious mistakes because we have been able to think based on
concepts that have an important level of coherence. It has also made serious mistakes due
to insufficient development of our theoretical thinking as an organization.
To propose a program, we must know the economic, political and ideological reality of our
country. The same is necessary in order to create a political line that is sufficiently
clear and concrete. If we have insufficient or incorrect knowledge, we will not have a
program but only a very general line, difficult to implement at all the places the party
is inserted. If there is no clear line, there is no efficient political practice. The
political will of the party then runs the risk of getting diluted, "voluntarism" in action
ends up becoming just doing whatever comes up out of sheer good will, but does not
determine the outcome of events, based on its inaccurate previsualization. We are
determined by them[the events]and by them we act spontaneously.
Without a line for the theoretical work, an organization, no matter how big it is, will be
bewildered by circumstances that it cannot affect nor comprehend. The political line
requires a program, understood as the goals to be achieved at each stage. The program
indicates which forces are favorable, which ones are the enemy and which ones are only
temporary allies. But in order to know this, we must know profoundly the reality of the
country. Therefore, to acquire this knowledge now is a task of the highest priority. And
in order to know, we need theory.
The party needs a clear picture in order to be able to think coherently about the country
and the region and the struggles of the international workers movements throughout
history. We must have an efficient framework to organize and rank the growing mass of data
regarding our economic, political and ideological reality.
We must have a method to analyze this data, to see which is more important, which ones
must come first and which ones later, in order to correctly marshal our forces in this
insertion front. A conceptual scheme that allows us to connect one thing to another in a
systematic and coherent order is vital to our goals as militants of our party. Such a
scheme must be able to draw examples of how to act using these concepts for others that
act in other realities.
But this work of knowing our country we must do it ourselves because nobody is going to do
it for us.
We are not proposing inventing theoretical schemes from scratch. We are not going to
create a new theory and all of its ramifications. The reason for this is the general
backwardness of the milieu and its specialized institutions and our lack of availability
to take on this task.
Therefore, we must take theory as it is elaborated, critically analyzing it. We cannot
just accept any theory with blind eyes, without criticism, as if it was a dogma.
We want to realize a complete transformation of our country and will not adopt as a way of
thinking theory created by the bourgeoisie. With bourgeois conceptions, we will think as
the bourgeoisie wants us to think.
We want to study and think about Uruguay and the region as revolutionaries. Therefore,
amongst the elements that are part of the different socialist currents, we will adopt
always those elements that aid us in doing exactly that: to think and analyze as
revolutionaries, the country, the region, and other regions and experiences.
We will not adopt a theory just because it is fashionable. To live repeating "quotes" that
others said in other places, in another time, regarding other situations and problems is
not theory. Only charlatans use it like this.
Theory is an instrument, a tool, that serves a purpose. It exists to produce the knowledge
that we need to produce. The first thing that we care about knowing is our country. If it
is not capable to produce new helpful knowledge for our political practice, theory is
absolutely useless, it is only a theme for idle babble, for sterile ideological polemics.
Someone who buys a big modern machine instead of working on it, that spends all day
talking about it, is playing a bad role, is a charlatan. Just like the one that, having
the machine available and would rather do it by hand, because "that's how it was done
before..."
Image: Rally of FUNSA members in circa 2004 , a tire workers union which FAU historically
played a strong role and which participated in various general strikes and factory
occupations.
Some Differences Between Theory and Ideology
It is important to point out a few differences between what has commonly been called
theory and ideology.
Theory aims for the elaboration of conceptual instruments used to think rigorously and
profoundly understand the concrete reality. It is in this sense, that we can refer to
theory as an equivalent to a science.
Ideology, on the other hand, is made up of elements of a non-scientific nature, which
contribute dynamism to action based on circumstance that, although having something to do
with the objective conditions, do not strictly emerge from them. Ideology is conditioned
by objective conditions although not mechanically determined by them.
The profound and rigorous analysis of a concrete situation, in its real and objective
terms, is a theoretical analysis as scientific as possible. The expression of motivations,
the proposal of objectives, of aspirations, of ideal goals - all of that belongs to the
field of ideology.
Theory refines and defines the conditioning elements of political action, as ideology
motivates, impulses, and configures its "ideal" goals and style.
Between theory and ideology there is a very tight connection, as the proposals of the
second are founded and supported by the conclusions of the theoretical analysis. The
efficiency of an ideology as a motor for political action is as much as it's firmly based
in the conclusions of theory.
The Reach of Theoretical Work
Theoretical work is always a work that is based and supported in the real processes, in
what goes on in the historical reality, in what happens. Nevertheless, since it is work
that is located completely in the realm of thought, and therefore, there are no concepts
there that are more real than others.
It is important to point out two basic propositions:
The distinction between the existing, concrete reality, between the real, historical
processes and on the other hand the processes acquired from knowledge and understanding of
that reality. In other words, it is necessary to affirm the difference between being and
thought, between reality as it is, and what we can know about it.
The primacy of being over thought, of reality over knowledge. In another words, the
sequence of events is more important - it weighs more as a determinant -in what actually
happens in reality than what we think or know about this reality.
Starting from these basic affirmations, it is important to understand the precise reaches
of theoretical work, that is, the effort of knowledge guided by the purpose of acquiring
rigorous, scientific knowledge.
Theoretical work is always based in a pre-determined raw material.[Theory]does not come
out of the real concrete reality as such, but comes out of information, data and notion of
that reality. This primary material is treated, in the process of the theoretical work, by
certain useful concepts and certain instruments of thought. The product of this treatment
is knowledge.
In other words, there are only real, concrete and singular objects (determined by
historical situations, determined societies, determined times). The process of theoretical
work seeks to know them.
Sometimes theoretical work aims towards abstract objects that do not exist in reality,
that only exist in thought, and however are indispensable instruments, a pre-condition in
order to know real objects (for example the concept of social classes, etc.). In the
production of knowledge, raw material is transformed (superficial perception of reality)
into a product (a rigorous scientific knowledge about it).
The term "scientific knowledge" must be defined in its relationship with the social
reality. Applied to reality, it alludes to its comprehension in rigorous terminology, the
best approximation to reality as it is.
It must be said that this process of comprehending the social reality, as with any other
real object of study, is susceptible to an infinite theoretical depth. As physics,
chemistry and other sciences can infinitely deepen their knowledge about the realities
that constitute their respective objects of study, in the same manner social science can
indefinitely deepen knowledge about social reality. Therefore, it is inadequate to expect
a "finished" knowledge of social reality in order to start acting on it in order to change
it. Nor less inadequate is trying to change it without profoundly knowing it.
Rigorous scientific knowledge of social reality, of social structure, is only achieved
through working with information, statistics data, etc., through the means of more
abstract conceptual instruments, given and constituted in theory. Through practice of
theoretical work we seek the production of these conceptual instruments, each time more
precise and concrete, leading us to knowledge of the specific reality of our surroundings.
Only through an adequate theoretical comprehension, profound and scientific, can
ideological elements be developed (aspirations, values, ideals, etc.) that constitute
adequate means for the transformation of this social reality with coherence of principles
and efficiency into political practice.
Political Praxis and Knowing Reality
An efficient political practice therefore demands: knowledge of reality (theory), the
harmonious postulation of it with the objective values of transformation (ideology) and
concrete political means for attaining such transformation (political practice). The three
elements are fused in a dialectical unit that constitutes the effort for transformation
that the party aims for.
One may ask: Should we wait for a finished theoretical development in order to start
acting? No. Theoretical development is not an academic problem, it does not start from
zero. It is founded, motivated and developed by the existence of ideological values and of
a political practice. More or less correct, more or less incorrect, these elements exist
historically before theory and motivate its development.
The class struggle has existed long before its theoretical conceptualization. The struggle
of the exploited did not wait for the elaboration of a theoretical work. Its existence
precedes knowledge about it, it was there before being known about, before the theoretical
analysis of its existence.
Therefore, from this basic statement, it becomes fundamental and essential to act, to have
a political praxis. Only through[praxis], through its concrete existence in the
established conditions of its development, can we elaborate a useful theoretical
framework. A framework that is not a worthless accumulation of abstract statements with
some coherence in its internal logic, but without any coherence with the development of
the real processes. To theorize efficiently, it is precise to act.
Can we do away with theory with the excuse of practical urgency? No. There may exist,
shall we say, a political praxis founded solely in ideological criteria, thus, unfounded
or insufficiently founded in adequate theoretical analysis. That is common in our environment.
Nobody can argue that, in our reality or the reality of our[Latin]America region, an
adequate theoretical analysis exists, that is a sufficiently conceptualized comprehension,
not even close. This ascertainment also applies to the rest of our reality. Theory is only
in its initial stages. However, for decades and decades there have been struggles, a
confrontation. This understanding should not lead us to disdain the fundamental importance
of theoretical work.
To the question previously asked we must then answer: The priority is praxis, but how
effective this praxis is depends on a more rigorous knowledge of reality.
In a reality like ours, in the social formation of our country, theoretical development
must start, as in everywhere, from a group of efficient theoretical concepts, operating on
data as massive as possible, that will constitute the raw material for theoretical
development.
Data on its own, examined in isolation, without an adequate theoretical conceptual
treatment does not adequately represent reality. It simply decorates and dissimulates the
ideologies in which service this data is functionalized.
The abstract concepts, in and of themselves, adequate background information, do not give
further knowledge of reality either.
The theoretical work that exist in our country usually fluctuates between these two
incorrect extremes.
For a related theory and strategy articles we recommend "Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis
of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization in South America," "For a
Theory of Strategy by CAB (Brazil),"
http://blackrosefed.org/huerta-grande/
------------------------------
We want to financially support activists with different opinions who fight against injustice in the world. We also need your support for this! Feel free to donate 1 euro, 2 euros or another amount of your choice. The activists really need the support to continue their activities.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten