Anarchic update news all over the world - Part 1 - 7.07.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  US, black rose fed: ON MAGICAL THINKING VS SOBER ANALYSIS OF
      THE OCASIO-CORTEZ VICTORY IN NY (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  black rose fed: THE STATE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE: RESPONSE
      TO CHRISTIAN PARENTI (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Poland, WORKERS' INITIATIVE: Congress of Women - Social or
      Neoliberal? Department: Trade union strategies [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Czech, afed.cz: Emotional first aid - The traumatic
      consequences of police (and other) violence and how to absorb it.
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Greece, ANNOUNCEMENT OF APO FOR MOVEMENTS 
      OF INTERNATIONAL
      PROMOTIONAL SOLIDARITY OF THE PREVIOUS PERIOD -- AGAINST 
      THE NATIONAL DISASTER WITH REGARD TO THE "MACEDONIAN              ISSUE" (gr)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





We reprint this post as part of our ongoing efforts to critically look at left 
electoralism and to pose an alternative vision of movement building and popular power from 
below. In this piece Black Agenda Report editor Bruce Dixon gives a critical assessment of 
the primary victory of New York congressional candidate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez which 
stands in contrast to pieces such as "Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Won" by Jacobin 
magazine. This a more detailed follow up from "Sure We Can Elect The Occasional Democrat 
Progressive. Then What?" ---- By Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report ---- Being the only 
sober guy at a victory party isn't fun. After writing earlier this week that we can 
sometimes elect progressives but we can't hold them accountable, friends and comrades are 
all over Facebook accusing me of negativity, saying I got no analysis and I'm a magical 
thinker. I dunno, let's see.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez won the NY 14th district Democratic primary earlier this week with 
only 16 or 17 thousand votes, a strikingly low number that wouldn't carry most such 
primaries. According to Democrat chairman Tom Perez, she has no Republican opponent in 
November, so she's in. That's a victory for sure. At least for a while, she'll be able to 
put out her message which includes abolishing ICE, free tuition and Medicare For All in 
places that till now have rarely given a professed socialist the mic. That's a good thing.

But there are four points to look at here, which I touched on in my previous piece and 
posts on Facebook. I'll dive into them just a little deeper here.

1. THE OCASIO-CORTEZ NUMBERS AND WHAT THEY MEAN
Historically NY authorities have rigged primary elections for low turnout. You can only 
vote in a NY primary if you're pre-registered a party member months in advance, so only 
271,000 voters were eligible in the first place. The low 13% turnout in that contest was 
actually higher than in some neighboring NYC districts. The engineering of low turnout 
primary elections allows Machine politicians to monopolize their party's nominations by 
getting out their relatively small and dependable vote and not getting the masses too 
excited over much of anything till the November general election when their numbers are 
needed to defeat suburban and upstate Republicans. Except for New York's partisan 
registration it's the same system used by the Daley Machine in Chicago until 1980, when we 
broke it open to elect Harold Washington in 1983.

Still, 16 or 17 thousand votes in a congressional district of 750,000 is far from a 
socialist landslide. Winning a congressional seat with that small a vote is a rare feat 
made possible by some local features that seldom occur outside New York City. While the 
Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez crew no doubt worked their asses off to get what they got, the 
same money and effort in most other places would not have done the trick in a 
congressional race. The 14th NY CD was a target well chosen by the folks at Brand New 
Congress , whom Ocasio-Cortez says asked her to run.

That's running and interpreting the numbers through the lens of history, and applicability 
to other contests, not negativity or magical thinking.

2. JOE CROWLEY PRETTY MUCH GAVE UP THE SEAT
After 10 terms in Congress and with lots of corporate friends, Joe Crowley knows he can 
start at seven figures, at least six to twelve times his congressional salary plus bonuses 
as a lobbyist. That had to be a powerful motivation not to campaign too damn hard, and 
another circumstance unique to this particular contest.

The career path from legislator to well paid lobbyist is also not magical thinking, it's 
an American tradition. Ignoring this tradition and its likely effect on Crowley's campaign 
might be magical thinking though.

3. DEMOGRAPHICS MATTER, MESSAGING MATTERS
Ocasio-Cortez correctly portrayed Crowley as an arrogant lazy white boy deep in the 
pockets of corporate contributors allegedly representing a majority Latino district. That 
was a necessary and highly potent message needed to raise turnout enough to make the 
difference in a contest with historically low voter participation. A former Bernie 
campaign staffer, she also ran to the left of most Democrats, campaigning on free college 
tuition, Medicare For All, unambiguously denouncing the Gaza massacres and jumping with 
both feet on the massively unpopular Trump policies of tearing families apart at the 
border. This too is classic US left electoral strategy aimed at raising turnout among the 
folks who ordinarily pay little attention to elections, a tactic the electoral left has to 
repeat everywhere.

The phenomenon of white politicians representing minority districts is not as common as it 
was a generation or two ago. Neoliberal black and Latino politicians have moved into most 
of those spaces, and are far less vulnerable to attack purely on representational grounds. 
So that part of the Ocasio-Cortez playbook is not something that leftists will often be 
able to duplicate.

Assessing the relative importance of demographic factors and the messaging they enable is 
not magical thinking. Gauging the applicability of the strategy that achieved victory in 
the NY 14th CD to other contests across the country isn't legerdemain or sophistry either, 
it's the kind of common sense we must employ if we intend to achieve leftist victories 
elsewhere.

4. US LAW AND CUSTOM MAKE CANDIDATES ENTREPRENUERS, NOT RESPONSIBE TO ANY LEFT 
CONSTITUENCIES OR INSTITUTIONS
I caught flack too for pointing out that under US law and custom candidates and office 
holders are free to do pretty much do what they like. This is true even in the Green 
Party, let alone the Democrats. Political campaigns are top-down affairs in which the 
candidate gets the final word on everything. Anybody who's actually worked a campaign 
knows this.

While there are no institutions under US law and custom that can hold leftist candidates 
and officeholders accountable to left constituencies or organizations, it's a fact that 
there are a galaxy of institutional levers and pressures operating inside the Democratic 
party aimed at flipping progressive elected officials rightward.

In my previous piece and Facebook posts I never touched on how socialist Ocasio-Cortez is 
or is or is not, nor on her foreign policy stands if she has any, which Berniecrats 
frequently don't, something that ought to make us a little uneasy. Bernie Sanders calls 
himself a socialist too, just with an imperialist foreign policy. I did say that 
progressive candidates and officeholders do sometimes flip, a little at a time or all at 
once, and when they do we have no institutions with which to punish them. "Feet to the 
fire" and "holding them accountable" are actually the phrases of magical thinkers because 
no means have yet been devised which enable the left to do those things.

I got in trouble for observing that while we can elect progressives from time to time we 
cannot compel them to remain that way. Until we figure out how to build institutions that 
can, we are at the mercy of their individual moral and political compasses. The need to 
develop left institutions to which progressive candidates can be held responsible is an 
acute one, which the Nation in its slavish devotion to the Democratic party predictably 
ignores. Noting this truth got me accused of being a petty, lazy purist and ultraleftist. 
Oh well. Sober analysis may not be what some people wanna hear at a victory party where 
everybody's popping champagne corks, dancing the electric slide and toasting the universal 
lessons of the Ocasio-Cortez victory without the bother of real analysis.

Being the sober guy at a victory party kinda sucks that way. But real talk, we're all 
gonna have to sober up eventually and figure out which parts of the Ocasio-Cortez playbook 
are peculiar to and which ones are applicable outside a majority Latino New York City 
district, and we have yet to devise any means of holding progressive politicians truly 
accountable. Those who think we don't need critical analysis or institutions to enforce 
accountability are the magical thinkers.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report where this article originally 
appeared.

If you enjoyed this piece we recommend the similarly themed pieces: "The Lure of 
Electoralism: From Political Power to Popular Power."  Additional articles can be found in 
our "Electoralism" and "Strategy" tags.

http://blackrosefed.org/dixon-sober-analysis-ocasio-cortez/

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Message: 2





A response to Christian Parenti's assertion that the state is the only way to meet the 
challenge of the climate crisis. ---- By BRRN Radical Ecology Committee (REC) ---- In the 
concluding chapter of Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence 
(2012), author Christian Parenti suggests that those seeking to mitigate and adapt to the 
disastrous effects of global warming can do so best by taking power of the State to 
implement the necessary changes to bring about a transition to a post-capitalist global 
society powered by renewable energies. In an address to the 2013 Left Forum, "What Climate 
Change Implies for the State," in which he develops these ideas, Parenti asserts that the 
Left should adopt a strategy of recovering and reclaiming the territory of the State, 
"reshaping" it toward the end of an all-out short-term mobilization to resolve the 
impending threat of climate destruction. Though Parenti recognizes that the State's 
primary role within the rise of capitalism to have been to facilitate the exploitation and 
destruction of nature, he somehow believes that this same mechanism could now serve the 
opposite end. He claims that climate change can be resolved simply through fiat by the 
Environmental Protection Agency: "we're[just]waiting for numerous rules from the EPA." He 
insists that the Left desperately needs to come up with "realistic solutions" to the 
gravity of the climate crisis, and that any strategy of merely "being outraged" or 
"invoking the righteousness of our cause" will utterly fail.[1]

What Is the State, and Is It Neutral?
To begin to respond to Parenti, we first have to ask, what is the State? Peter Kropotkin 
distinguishes between the State as bureaucratic despotism imposed from above and 
collective self-governance from below, otherwise known as self-organization or 
self-management.[2]Examples of the latter can be seen in the soldiers', peasants', and 
workers' councils of the Russian Revolution; indigenous Latin American assemblies; the 
Paris Commune of 1871; the Gwanju Commune of 1980; the cooperatives, communes, and free 
cities of medieval Europe and today's Rojava Revolution; and the Local Coordinating 
Councils of the Syrian Revolution, among other examples. Therefore, when we mention "the 
State," all that is meant on the philosophical level-leaving aside for a moment the very 
real physical presence of the State, as embodied in militarism, prisons, and the police-is 
just centralism, or the concentration of decision-making power, whether that be a monarch, 
emperor, One-Party State, or modern multi-party western democracies.

In terms of ecology, it is clear that the State is not a "neutral" arbiter but rather, as 
Parenti argues, the facilitator of ecocides global and local. The EPA's laws and 
regulations are often not enforced, even when the ruling class believes they should at 
least be on the books, and are currently being decimated due to the Trump Regime's 
affinity for fossil capital. If enforced, these standards are too-often observed along a 
racial-territorial basis, exacerbating environmental racism. Centralism in practice leads 
to bureaucratic lack of accountability and popular dis-empowerment, among other problems, 
as Kropotkin specified. So then the question becomes, do we need centralism for a 
successful transition to a post-capitalist, "ecological" future? The answer to this is of 
course not.

Facing Global Ecocide
To be clear, the need for a revolutionary transition beyond capitalism and global ecocide 
is absolute, given how seriously climate change, species' extinction, chemical pollution, 
and several other environmental disasters threaten the future of humanity and, indeed, 
complex life on Earth. That is not under question. Rather, this is a question of strategy. 
In this sense, Parenti's statism is a dangerous distraction from the necessary struggle of 
organizing a broad-based international popular movement against the factors impelling 
catastrophe: that is to say, capitalism and the State themselves. Parenti's short 
concluding chapter to Tropic of Chaos and his Left Forum address do not consider this 
possibility; yet it is a surer way of resolving the problem than deferring to the State.

One undeniable problem of a reliance on the State to combat climate change is that the 
"progress" supposedly made by the State is eminently reversible upon the entry into power 
of a new administration: hence Barack Obama, a notorious climate criminal who effectively 
continued George W. Bush's approach while presenting the same as just and reasonable, is 
followed by the Trump Regime, which in power has closely implemented the 
anti-environmental de-regulations announced by candidate Trump, ranging from the opening 
up of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling to the US's withdrawal 
from the Paris Agreement, intensified bombardment of different Middle Eastern countries, 
privatization of public nature reserves, and suppression of climate science, ad nauseum. 
While the gains of the revolution can similarly be reversed-for indeed, what we are 
witnessing on the part of the State across the globe is an unprecedented 
counter-revolutionary mobilization-they should also be considered closer to the interests 
of the people, the soul of the revolution, who ensure the progression of the necessary 
social changes by fighting autonomously for them-and for the collectives of humanity and 
all life on Earth behind them.

An Anti-State Ecological Transition
Concretely, we know what has to be done: to avert the worst of capital-induced climate 
change, we must transition away from our dependence on fossil fuels right away, with the 
proviso that, in Peter and David Schwartzman's view, we should set aside a given amount of 
petroleum for the construction of renewable-energy infrastructure.[3]According to Jeremy 
Brecher, achieving a transition beyond fossil fuels implies undermining several "pillars 
of support" for them, including the cancellation of the trillions of dollars in subsidies 
for these fuels; the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energies; direct carbon 
sequestration; the discrediting of the "climate destroyers," or those principally 
responsible for the problem; the increasing of the negative consequences of continued 
fossil-fuel extraction and burning; and developing of dual power.[4]

None of these goals requires the State, but they can be achieved through dual power. We 
can imagine workers and communities coordinated across borders to shut down fossil-fuel 
industries, thus revealing the simplicity of the problem. Rather than divert our struggle 
into the State, where it becomes lost, we can do this better ourselves. It is only a 
conscious working class battling with the interests of the youth, future generations, and 
the planet at heart that provides hope. To rely on the State and the bourgeoisie is sheer 
folly, given that they're the reason we're in this mess. While the example of taking 
matters into our own hands can be expected to provoke a concerted backlash on the part of 
the privileged, it can also open the horizon of possibility that is currently veiled by 
the ethos of capitalist "realism," which denies the very destructiveness of bourgeois 
society while prioritizing production and consumption above all else.[5]

To close, let us summarize the argument. Is the State necessary for the struggle against 
climate change? No; instead, we see that the State is, alongside capitalism, our principal 
enemy in contributing to global warming and other environmental catastrophes. Due to its 
functional role in defending and expanding the capitalist system, the State cannot be a 
means for true climate justice. Let us not concern ourselves with reformist false 
solutions to environmental problems, but rather get on with organizing a broad-based 
popular global movement that implements the solutions we need.

Footnotes
Javier Sethness Castro, "Reform and Revolution at Left Forum 2013," CounterPunch, 14 June 
2013. Available online.
Jim Mac Laughlin, Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition (London: Pluto, 
2016), 137-141.
Peter D. Schwartzman and David W. Schwartzman, "A Solar Transition Is Possible!" Institute 
for Policy Research and Development, 2011. Available online.
Jeremy Brecher, Against Doom: A Climate Insurgency Manual (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2017).
Stefan Gandler, Critical Marxism in Mexico: Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez and Bolívar Echeverría 
(Leiden: Brill, 2015).

http://blackrosefed.org/climate-change-christian-parenti/

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Message: 3





Radoslaw Sto. The text was written by the initiative group of the Social Women's Congress, 
appeared on the web page dailynikfeministyczny.pl ---- In recent days, it has become loud 
around the Congress of Women in connection with the case of security workers. Although the 
employees employed by Congress were women of flesh and blood, the organizers did not treat 
them as a nephew - if the orders to stand at attention and insults "idiots, idiot" we do 
not consider typical relations in a woman's family. ---- Both the disclosed working 
conditions of people employed at the service of the Congress, as well as the public 
reaction of the organizers of the CC, are difficult to consider as exceptional. Modern 
models of work management in companies often force the illusion of family loyalty. Harder 
work is to be done "for the good of all", "dirt is washed at home". Organizing around your 
own interests and fighting for decent conditions is suppressed as an act to the detriment 
of a joint company whose profits are no longer shared together. In the majority of such 
companies, the bosses and bosses treat employees and employees of the lower level 
similarly to the employees of KK protection. What is unique in this story is that these 
employees have decided to oppose and speak. The struggle for their rights, i.e. labor 
rights, had to fight with the organizers of the Congress, who allegedly fights for the 
rights of all "sisters" in Poland. The above dispute, in our opinion, is part of a wider 
problem: KK has many dimensions - among them there is also a strictly anti-social 
dimension. We do not undermine the huge work of many ordinary determined women in 
organizing this event. However, we are indignant as this work is appropriated for 
anti-social purposes.

Over the last 10 years, the Congress of Women allowed the organization of panels about the 
situation of employees alongside discussions about veganism and even the healing role of 
magnets. KK decision-making circles have not yet dealt with improving the economic 
position of the least-paid workers. Despite the fact that KK gathers a multitude of women, 
its basic, programmatic message shapes the shadow office. It consists of min. activist of 
the Confederation of Lewiatan, or an organization associating employers, who consistently 
fights for the weakening of the role of trade unions, deterioration of working conditions 
and cutting social security. Minister Teresa Kaminska - the president of the board of the 
Pomeranian Special Economic Zone is responsible for internal affairs. The minister of 
foreign affairs is the president of General Electric. The owner of Solaris Bus is 
responsible for the infrastructure, for gender equality - the chairwoman of the 
Supervisory Board of Allianz Bank Polska. And so on. If the Congress of Women came to 
power, his ministers would create the most pro-business, neoliberal government in the 
history of the Third Polish Republic. He would have a promil of public support. Such a 
social base would also have feminism in the version of Congress, if it were not 
embellished with panels of precariat or bio-magnets, deprived of influence on the Cabinet 
of Shadows.

Consequently, Congress is fighting for the interests of the best-placed women associated 
with large business and influential political circles. For this reason, feminism is 
sometimes associated in Poland with parities in supervisory boards, professional 
activation regardless of pay conditions or a glass ceiling (blocking promotions), but not 
with a fight for higher wages and lower rents.
Both in the past and in the context of recent online discussions, the organizers of the 
Congress are doing a lot to hide the contradiction of interests between businesswomen 
focused on increasing profits and employees or tenants who often struggle for physical 
survival. Congress appeals for sisterhood, solidarity, the necessity of dialogue between 
women, and at the same time his ministers from the Shadow Cabinet support a policy that 
aggravates the situation of workers' households. In our opinion, it loses credibility.

So far in the dispute between the KK organizers and security guards, the 
ministry-presidents of Lewiatan, Allianz and the Special Economic Zone are silent. In 
exchange, in the defense of the good name of the Central Committee, the public voice is 
taken up mainly by members or congress sympathizers associated with the left. Agata 
Szczesniak, Agnieszka Grzybek, Magdalena Sroda alternately accuse us - organizers of the 
Social Congress of Women - that we are breaking up the unity of women, pitting a poor 
Congress and supporting PiS. Their sensitization to the lack of unity among women is 
either selective or completely ignored by the most influential figures of Congress. One of 
his faces, the president of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, during the speeches at KK at 
the turn of the year used to point out that "Warsaw is a woman". "We are as brave as the 
Warsaw Mermaid. I wish that we would live well in Warsaw! " If the unity of women is taken 
seriously, it is the best moment to add: "in my city, brave sister Jolanta Brzeska was 
brutally murdered fighting for good living conditions." Waltz, however, did not use the 
KK's pulpit to appeal for solidarity with Brzeska to reach the ears of representatives of 
the US Congress, politicians from Europe, the duchess of Saudi Arabia, and regular guests. 
Magdalena Sroda, however, does not accuse President Gronkiewicz-Waltz that at the Congress 
she lost many chances to take PiS's initiative away. Reprivatization in Warsaw is still 
gathering its harvest, on the first front of the fight there are women associated, among 
others in the Warsaw Association of Tenants - they co-create the postulates of the Social 
Congress of Women. Instead of supporting them and influencing the Cabinet of Shadows, 
confronting KK ministers with these postulates, Szczesniak, Grzybek and Sroda limit their 
public role on the left and in the Congress of Women to pointing out to us - the trade 
unions and tenants' organizations - adventurism and disruptive activity. This role is part 
of the tradition of the Polish left as a façade that beautifies neoliberal projects. It 
also widens the huge gap between the postulates of the Social Congress of Women (announced 
in March this year) and the series of demands of the Shadow Cabinet at the last liberal 
Congress of Women.

WSL organizers - tenants of extremely expensive current apartments are struggling with 
debt, frost and poisonous fungus. High bills condemn them to more intense work, women from 
their districts live 5-10 years shorter than women in the elite Warsaw Wilanów. In 
addition to immediate connection to the municipal heating network, members of the Social 
Women's Congress demand real electricity subsidies or strong price reductions. The 
minister of energy of the liberal Congress of Women and former member of the board of the 
PGE corporation, Elzbieta Matuszewska, is lobbying for a reduction in electricity prices 
for entrepreneurs. The elite ministers apparently do not deserve serial employees and 
pensioners as privileges of the elite.

The parliamentary lobby of the Congress is silent about reparations for the victims of 
reprivatization. In the same way, the Shadow Cabinet remained silent for years when the 
government and the president of Warsaw transferred a total of nearly two billion zlotys to 
the beneficiaries of this procedure, forcing a series of social cuts to hit women and 
children. For example, the privatization of school canteens in the capital has taken 
stable employment for cooks, and on poorer mothers, it required more free work at home. 
Today, the president of Warsaw - one of the important faces of the Congress - decided to 
block bad compensation for reprivatization for Magda Brzeska, daughter of Jolanta - a 
murdered WSL activist.

Will Grzybek, Sroda and Szczesniak ask their friends from KK to convince Gronkiewicz-Waltz 
to change this completely antisocial decision? Or will they be satisfied with the knight's 
defense of the Congress's good name from the "wichrzycielkami" from the WSL and the 
Employee Initiative?!
At the turn of 2017 and 2018, the City Hall in Poznan protested against the feminized 
local government sector, in which hundreds of people took part. President Jacek Jaskowiak 
did not keep his previous promise, which was to guarantee a pay rise by 400 zlotys. 
Jaskowiak decided that women employed, among others in the care sector, social welfare or 
culture can wait. The National Congress of Women did not prevent him from granting him the 
prize of diversity, describing him as a proctor's policy. A few months later, the 
Wielkopolska Congress of Women recognized him as a leader in the promotion of equal 
opportunities for women and men.

We have no doubt that the leaders in terms of promoting equal opportunities are actively 
and organizing in Poznan (but not only) local government employees. For years, they have 
been fighting with successive presidents of cities, now with Jaskowiak, that their wages 
should be even if they pay their average wages in Poland. They actively participate in the 
Manifa, and from 2016 also in black protests, thus building a grassroots feminine 
movement. Their salary can not be compared with the incomes of the Wielkopolska Women's 
Congress supporting Jasiek. Promoting the neoliberal solutions that they stand for strikes 
women by maintaining the lowest wages in feminised occupations, the lack of social 
security, the lack of municipal housing, crèches, canteens and non-school activities, etc.

Employees of Poznan nurseries associated for 7 years in the labor union Employee 
Initiative are struggling to shorten the time of the press, improve health and safety 
conditions, a fairer pay structure, but also to increase the financing of the care sector, 
including the development of public care institutions. KK Magdalena Sroda, belonging to 
the shadow cabinet, said in her entry on Facebook that the Workers' Initiative is a 
Bolshevik organization. More than once we have heard this kind of opinion from the right 
wing, for which everything left on Opus Dei is Bolshevism. However, for the first time we 
hear it from the "feminist". Contrary to Sroda's claims, that our identity was shaped by 
mixing with the mud of the Congress of Women - our identity shaped over the years against 
the exploitation and humiliation of men and women from the elite of business and politics. 
An example of such a humiliation was a letter from the previous president of Poznan that, 
for the employees of nurseries, "according to the financial forecast, there are no hikes 
in 2012-2032". Our experience shows that elitism represented by politicians and Magdalena 
Sroda is the last thing that the women's movement needs in Poland.

Over the last years, the Congress of Women has become a symbol for us to push Polish 
feminism into business and politics. Thus, such feminism became alien to the working or 
storage environments. Undoubtedly, the Black Protests and the Women's Strike began to 
change the face of Polish feminism: both the language and the nature of the demands 
(strike, denial of work) and its class composition changed, as the working women and small 
towns that were not participants of the feminist movement were massively on the streets. .
This wave and the involvement of activists in the movement of tenants and employees, who 
themselves saw that women are often on the frontline of grassroots organization, led to 
the formation of the Social Congress of Women. It was initiated by Poznan nurseries, 
cultural institutions and tenants from Warsaw and Poznan. We wanted to expand the fight 
for higher wages and lower rents, which we have been rolling together for years, find 
common points, exchange experiences, learn from each other.

Regardless of whether men or women rule us, the current form of democracy does not defend 
us against work, which often changes our lives into a nightmare and a high price that 
forces us to work even harder. We do not want to be on the open market, we do not want to 
be businesswomen or deputies. We want to realize our needs on our own, not business needs. 
If the Congress of Women continues to be influenced by neoliberal positions, it will 
remain hostile to working people, regardless of their gender.

As the initiator of the Social Women's Congress, we are ready for a public debate about 
the nature of different varieties of feminism and our postulates in the light of the 
demands of the Cabinet of Shadows of the Congress of Women.

http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/strategie-zwiazkowe/item/2393-kongres-kobiet-socjalny-czy-neoliberalny

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Message: 4





A small guide for political activists and activists focused on how to cope with traumatic 
experiences before, during and after action ---- What's going on? ---- Those who are 
politically active can get into situations where they, their friends or loved ones are 
exposed to repressive violence. When we experience police violence, clashes with neo-Nazis 
or persecution by secret services, we can take away the consequences of anxiety, long-term 
stress and internal anxiety, and the tendency to withdraw from our activities into 
isolation. The consequences of such experiences can affect us long after the visible 
wounds disappear. ---- Not every experience of violence causes trauma. Long-term 
consequences are more likely to involve a variety of different factors. Everyone cope with 
violence in their own way - human responses and tolerable boundaries are as different as 
nature. That is why we have to respect the fact that each of us needs what he has lived, 
to cope differently and to support one another and to focus on individual needs.

If this is not the case - for example, because emotions and fear in our group are taboos - 
people who are hard on their experience often leave their former political and social 
circles in passivity.

One of the goals of violence and repression is to scare people and make them feel helpless 
against the power of the state. To learn fear, anxiety, stress and other negative emotions 
should be an integral part of our personal and political radical identity.

Theoretically, trauma can cause any difficult situation in which one feels lonely and 
without help. Lack of help from friends and comrades can then have a worse impact than the 
traumatic experience itself.

The consequences of repression - even the psychic - are not just personal matters of the 
individual. They touch us all. What we need is to be truly solid and supportive of one 
another.

Possible responses to challenging situations

Re-use of experience

Inability to stop thinking about thoughts, insidious images and thoughts, "flashbacks" 
(the feeling that you are literally experiencing the same again), nightmares.

Avoiding experience

Increased consumption of alcohol (or other drugs), pulling away and isolation from friends 
and family, avoiding a common meeting and anything that reminds of a happening, trying to 
distance yourself from everything that has happened. Changes in eating habits, sleep and 
sexual behavior, memory loss.

Continuous disturbance

Insomnia, restlessness, mood swings, angry outbursts, concentration problems, 
irritability, uncontrollable crying, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, muscle tension, 
anxiety, extreme alertness.

Other possible reactions

panic attacks, feelings of guilt and shame, accusations of self

the inability to find joy in life, the feelings of loneliness and abandonment, the feeling 
of numbness, the inability to make decisions

a sudden skepticism about political engagement and common experiences

feeling a senseless life

still fresh memories of what happened; the feeling that it will last forever and the 
inability to plan for the future

Sometimes these reactions are delayed and can only occur after weeks (and sometimes even 
years) of the event. However, we can learn how to work with them and help each other. One 
of the goals of emotional help is to incorporate a difficult experience into life - and 
accept that it can change man, as well as that what has happened can not be tainted. It is 
essential that we understand and remember that each person experiences this process 
differently.

What you can do against the trauma as a group

BEFORE the event, talk about what you are about to do and tell yourself what your limits 
are. Decide who will support you in case of unexpected circumstances. Just figure out who 
will escort you if you have to leave the event. Organize yourself in affinity groups and 
be careful.

AFTER the event, find time to discuss what happened. Provide space for everyone who has 
participated in the event and wants to talk about it. Let everyone talk about where they 
were, what they were doing, see what they think and how they feel about it. Thanks to 
this, we are all better understood by experienced events.

Support may not only require injuries but also support people. They should also be aware 
of their limits and that they may need support.

How to support your friend

Do not wait for the help to come - try to be active and make it clear that you are and 
will be for him.

Days after a stressful situation are the best opportunity to talk and listen. Later many 
people will not talk about things - and those who have suffered deeper trauma will often 
be isolated.

You may not be sure what to do to support your friend. If you want to better understand 
why it responds in some way, read more about trauma. In any case, it is very helpful that 
you are close and behave as usual without regretting or pushing the person concerned. Try 
to accept his reactions and make sure he feels safe and relaxed.

Talking about what has happened helps to absorb it. Encourage your friend to gently tell 
you what he felt, what he thought, what he had seen and experienced.

Be a good listener. Too often we tend to try to give advice instead of concentrating on 
listening.

When a person feels under pressure and is forced to talk about something, it often leads 
them to withdraw and move away.

Keep in mind that people can work perfectly well during the event and that the response to 
the traumatic experience is delayed.

When a person experiences a painful experience, daily activities such as cooking, cleaning 
or shopping can be very challenging. Help with them is very supportive, but it is 
important that it is not intrusive and does not bother the person concerned into privacy 
and independence.

Try not to be personally involved when your friend is irritable and distraught - and, 
above all, do not stop with his support. These are common reactions.

Be patient. All you have to do when you tell someone "you should get out of it and get 
up," is that you're going to steal one another.

Providing emotional support can be challenging. Make sure you do not overwhelm your 
strength and that you care about yourself. Be open to your friends and talk to them about 
how you are doing.

What you can do for yourself

Be aware that your reactions are normal and that it is absolutely okay to say your 
support. Be patient with yourself, stay on time, and do not despise for what you feel. 
Just as some body wounds heal for a while, even the emotional does not disappear right 
away. It can be a challenging period, but it will go.

Immediately after challenging experience, find a place where you feel safe and relaxed. 
Try to relax, rest and let others take care of you.

Physical motion helps to get rid of stress. Walks, jogging and dancing can be more relaxed 
than sitting at home.

Try not to insulate. Go for friends you trust.

A very common response to trauma is the feeling that others do much better. Remember that 
everyone manages stress differently and makes his emotions different.

The common reaction is also to blame yourself for what has happened. Remember that the 
traumatic experience is not your fault - they are blamed by those who have hurt you.

How strongly you respond may depend on previous traumas.

It is not a weakness after the injury (whether physical or psychological) that you feel pain.

Friends and family may not know how to help you. If you do not like how they behave, talk 
to them about them and ask them what you need.

Having good tea or food can be relaxing, just like a massage or a hot tub. Try to figure 
out what's helping you and get it done. Keep in mind that alcohol and other drugs may 
adversely affect recovery in the long run, even if they will be forgotten in the short term.

In order to better understand what is happening to you, read more text about trauma and 
recovery from it.

Z originálu A small reader for dealing with violent experiences / Out of Action: Emotional 
First Aid ( https://outofaction.blackblogs.org/?page_id=112 ) preložila Lacerta Nigra

https://www.afed.cz/text/6855/emocni-prvni-pomoc

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Message: 5






"In the constant international destabilization and turbulence of systemic political 
constants, the great potentialities of revolutionary emancipation are born. Against them, 
the counter-revolutionary far-right and fascist facet of modern totalitarianism is already 
constituted to become the ultimate barrier to the evolution of social history that 
advances through the unceasing struggle for freedom and equality. War and Fascism, this is 
the system's "response" to its total and profound crisis, to its own contradictions, 
caused by the irrepressible conflict imposed by its basic principle, exploitation and 
oppression of man by man. " ---- From the proclamation of the Second Congress of November 
[2016] ---- The disintegration and complete bankruptcy of the state of the state and 
capitalism, as it develops in the modern environment of the global systemic crisis, is a 
limit for the time of its global integration, and at the same time a precondition for the 
intensification of the intra-imperialist contradictions and the consequent increase in the 
threat of war .

Nationalism, in these times in particular, is called upon to play its special role 
dynamically, in the ideological preparation of societies, so that they accept a warring 
consensus and the oppressed masses be included in their strategic plan of interdependence.

The fascist partisan and his teams can undertake various dirty work, depending on the 
period. Forces that will set up anti-eradication fans as "gangs" as gangs that kill 
assaulted and slaughter refugees and immigrants by targeting them as internal enemies and, 
of course, as the vanguard of nationalist criticism. The new "vision" of domestic fascism 
is based on the attempt to tame the small Nazi groups together with their common matrix, 
the Golden Dawn, into a "mass" nationalist zombie, supposedly "anti-government" features 
that hold opposition, not of course in the classroom and against the oppressors of this 
world, but in the national question using the rhetoric of betrayal.

An indispensable prerequisite for the rise of the far-right is the diffusion of 
nationalist sentiment into large sections of society. In the management of the nationalist 
feeling of society, however, the upper hand, the first and final reason, was and would 
continue to be left to him by the state and the oppressive class at his helm.

The reappearance of "Macedonian" as a key national issue results from a synthesis of 
different power needs. The bourgeoisie of the country deserves the depth of relations with 
its traditional allies, namely the Euro-Atlantic / NATO axis. In particular, in a period 
such as the current geopolitical liquidity stemming from developments in the Middle East 
and other fronts, the need to bind Greece in even more direct and non-negotiable terms to 
the chariot of the West becomes imperative. Not primarily, as national geopolitical 
analysts assure us, because it is looking for a strong protector against Turkish 
expansionism, but because when the deck begins to re-share, then it is of utmost 
importance in which chair you will sit on the scraped sheet.

The "Macedonian" is, therefore, the best issue at the moment, which is used as a prelude 
to the ratification of Greek-NATO-EU relations.

This is the framework on which the AA's groups prioritized the assumption of 
responsibility in order to create resistance movements in state / nationalist plans.

These moves began in Thessaloniki, as the first nationalist rally was announced there. In 
the context of the preparatory / propaganda actions, posters of the "Black & Red" and 
"Libertatia" collections were printed, with corresponding texts, along with other groups, 
a rally and motorbike was organized before the rally, while the AP teams directly 
contacted comrades from the Balkans. The culmination of this campaign was the call of the 
AP teams to the anti-nationalist concentration of Kamara on Sunday, January 21, 2018, the 
day of the Nationalist rally.

 From the very first moment, we realized the need for an open call, the day of the 
rallies. The opponent against whom we were called to confront would not be limited to the 
small groups of Fascists and Nazis, but would be expressed by the state choices as a 
whole, with the implications and of course not just the police and a possible repression 
but the a host of the national torso that appeared (church, army, police, cultural clubs, 
ND, etc.).

By defining the goal beyond the fascist groups, since the diffusion of nationalism would 
be the river in which they could swim, we realized that the only way out to get a position 
of confrontation would be a call that would attempt to rally social forces, comrades, but 
also people beyond the anarchist groups and organizations that realize that the 
nationalistic and fascist characteristics of the rally are designed to deceive and 
cannibalize oppression serving only the interests of the powerful, and would thus be given 
the opportunity to support this call to express its opposition to nationalist rhetoric.

In other words, the AP's teams read in the situation that in the bulk of the rally, only 
another social anti-cluster could be countered. In order to serve this political 
perception, our public presence on the day of the rally was a necessary commitment for us 
to argue that the anarchist struggle can not always choose the days of conflict or 
confrontation. As a revolutionary movement, our absence from the streets on the "day of 
the crisis" we believe would not only signal the acceptance of political and 
organizational insufficiency towards the nationalist milieu that occupied the public 
domain but would have the prospect of creating the necessary rival awe, if we ourselves 
judged that we can not stand against the whole of the national / fascist cluster,

The magnitude of the response to the first rally call in Thessaloniki was an open bet, but 
it would be more a possibility, a path that can be opened by walking. However, this choice 
was not made in calculations but was inspired by a political direction: it is generally 
known that every revolutionary movement must be reconciled with the idea that - until at 
least the moment of its triumph, which is just one of many historical potentials - remains 
a minority stream in society. Reconciliation with this reality must in no case be turned 
into a logical defeat, fear or retreat. What can be a good criterion for our every move is 
to broaden the political and social impact through each of our choices.

Thus, based on this view, the concentration of Kamara is considered to have succeeded in a 
series of seekers, dominated by the shaping of a visible social, class and 
internationalist pole with the initiative of the forces of the anarchist movement, which 
in fact constituted the only political space that organized the public opposition to the 
whole of the nationalist / patriotic block. Also, the public concentration of Kamara has 
highlighted the virtually chauvinistic nature of various structures that want to refer to 
the Left, while demonstrating the overwhelming embarrassment and inaction of the Left in 
taking a direct stance against nationalist hysteria. At the same time, he exerted strong 
pressure on the leaders of parts of the extra-parliamentary left to at least follow / 
flank the corresponding anarchist / communist initiative, a few days later, in Athens.

Here we want to note that for us the concentration in Kamara also wanted to highlight the 
historical path of the direction of anarchist premisses in more widespread social 
audiences. If at the 1992 rallies the absolute adoption of the nationalist frenzy as a 
state policy by the bourgeoisie and its political staff did not allow the establishment of 
a public anti-demonization under the burden of overwhelming repression, 26 years later, 
the struggles that it has the anarchist movement managed to change a series of 
correlations and to define public intervention as a possibility. This is a conquest for us.

On the other hand, as is known when such state-of-the-art projects by the state and the 
partisan - such as the geopolitical upgrading of the Greek bourgeoisie - are exacerbated 
by nationalism as a counterbalance to a more advantageous solution, and the development 
within that framework the fascist discourse - the risk of a blow, especially against those 
who will try to openly open, has many chances. In the vacuum of the security plan (since 
Libertatia's comrades chose to strengthen the concentration of Kamara to stand with their 
comrades / peers on the road and commit themselves to an open and public move of total 
political confrontation with the national body) and given the impetus of police coverage 
and the fascist osmosis of the rally,

Burning a structure or even worse situations is always a possibility in the battle against 
the state and fascism. The only way that this, of course, of enormous significance, would 
not take destructive proportions (similar to the damage to the building) would only be 
with the unwavering and united solidarity of the movement against the occupation, leaving 
its first word account of the occupation group - who also accepted the blow and paid a 
heavy price - or at least dissociating possible criticisms (which would necessarily have 
included many speculations) from the non-negotiable policy solidarity in a struggle 
struggle of the anarchist movement that was fired by fascists.

The arson of some occupation was not an originality that had been unveiled on Jan. 21, 
many times, such attacks have been manifested, sometimes with devastating effects.

As a negative event, it is the destruction of a fascist occupation, yet in the days 
immediately following the burning of Libertatia, the brutal act of co-operation between 
state-partisan-nazi-bosses and cops could be a springboard for the upgrading the conflict 
of the anti-fascist movement with the fascists and the state. Before anything else, the 
course set up the next day by gathering about 2,000 protesters showed that anti-fascist 
reflexes can cluster the world of struggle. At the same time, the encirclement of the 
course from the beginning, its exclusion and its strike by the MAT in the first turn, 
revealed in the most blind the absolute connection of state, government and parastatals.

At the political level, two important processes emerged as a reaction to the burning of 
occupation, which served as a warning to all the anti-fascist forces fought: a) the 
exacerbation of the anti-fascist movement (many practical and various kinds of conflict 
movements with the fascists and the their allies took place in the immediate future), 
placing the whole world of the struggle in a state of not just alert but also 
counter-attack; and b) the political initiative to call for anti-concentration in Athens 
in view of the rally announced on 4 February.

The successful Propylaea concentration was a major movement of the movement, a point of 
reference and expression at the central level of the message of international solidarity, 
a valuable kin, as it became clear that the pole of opposition to states, nationalism and 
war can be formed in social clearing. The presence of more than 2,000 people in the 
Propylaea (in a period not characterized by the unraveling of large forces) has shown that 
the nationalist / fascist block will not play alone in the public space, forcing the state 
to operate once more as a champion of fascism against anti-fascists. So, it has just been 
discovered by a series of enemies and "friends" by clearing the landscape not in more 
general ideological terms but with politics on the pavement, where it finally seems to 
everyone who will go and who will leave. Who faced both the nationalist body and the 
SYRIZA primitive old man and who became the new fifth wheels in one or the other carriage 
of the unified, otherwise, bloc of power.

This design has been, as a way that has increased the potential of clustering forces. The 
defensive posture of space-saving but necessary if we consider it to be complementary to 
open-minded concentration could give (and gave at a central level) a picture of 
anti-fascist dynamics that contributed the most, so as to decisively impair the dynamics 
that the fascists wanted to show. The individual clashes then (EMPROS, Exarchia, etc.) 
showed that any attacks were not fortunate enough to expect a state and a partisan.

The next move, this time, would not only put a mound on the nationalist threat, but to 
reverse the political conditions, to show international solidarity as the only way for the 
peoples to fight against those who steal them life on any side of the border wherever they 
are and at the same time as a solidarity movement in the occupation of Libertatia that 
received the strike of a state-partisan was the Inter-Inter-Pan-Hellenic Solidarity course 
in the occupation of Libertatia summoned on March 10 in God Saxon.

The context with which the APOC invited and participated in the demonstration was based on 
two issues:

(a) internationalist solidarity against states, nationalism and war;

(b) solidarity without footnotes in the occupation of Libertatia.

The project of international solidarity was not just a slogan for our posters and banners, 
but a logical follow-up of the initiatives and collaborative struggles that OD attempted 
to set up with other anarchist and anti-political political organizations and initiatives 
in the The Balkans and around the world. The APA's participation in 5 consecutive IFA-IAF 
meetings in Ljubljana (April 2016), the IFA Conference in Frankfurt (August 2016), Rome 
(Spring 2017), the meeting of London (Autumn 2017) and the hosting of the corresponding 
meeting in Athens in late June 2018, the presence in two successive anti-fascist 
demonstrations in Sofia, Bulgaria (February 2016 and February 2017) the participation in 
political events in Constantinople after a call for "Anarchist Revolutionary Action" (DAF 
- Jan. 2018) and in Mexico after our response to the Women's Zapatista Women's Call for 
the First Women's Meeting (March 2018), as well as the meeting with Macedonian comrades 
and other Balkan countries in view of nationalist rallies. From the point of view of 
international solidarity, the course of March 10 was an opportunity for the oppressed 
Balkans and not only to protest together against war, nationalism, fascism, capitalism and 
modern totalitarianism.

Simultaneously, an obvious peak in solidarity squat Libertatia, not only for all the 
reasons developed above, outlining what we believe was the essential symbolism of burning 
occupancy during conduct of the nationalist rally, but why exactly 10 theMarch would also 
be an opportunity to bring together the anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement on a 
nation-wide basis based on the project of international solidarity, the defense of 
occupations and struggles struggling variously by a state and a partisan to form a dynamic 
policy response to the rise of fascism, nationalism and state repression. A demonstration 
that her volume would enter as a gear to the various dynamics that make up the mechanism 
of modern barbarism.

The demonstration was really massive, counting about 4,000 people, was a central anarchist 
political response, while moving virtually across the city center made its presence more 
than felt. The demonstration passed in front of SYRIZA's offices and approached the 
offices of Golden Dawn not only to demonstrate the responsibility for the cultivation of 
the nationalist frenzy and for the arson of occupation of Libertatia and the connection 
between the state and the partisans but only a few days after the attack on ESC Favela, 
the mobilization of the Great Powers of the Police to protect the Nazis from this course 
was indicative even at a symbolic level.

EPILOGUE

Today, about six months after the outbreak of nationalist hysteria on the occasion of 
Macedonian, and a few days after the ratification of the agreement between the Greek and 
the Macedonian states, we can say that the pursuit of the global political and economic 
elite still forms best conditions in the field of intra-imperialist competitions in the 
wider Balkan region, Eastern Europe and the South-East Mediterranean. Similarly, the 
binding of the indigenous bourgeoisie to the chariot of the Western block of sovereignty 
is overwhelmingly strong, and the emergence of an enhanced fascist and nationalist eum can 
be the "critical mass" the masters sought to function as their vanguard in the social and 
class conflicts that will occur in the coming period,

For our part, realizing that the prospect of warring societies, poverty and 
impoverishment, the resurgence of nationalism and social order, will have devastating 
effects on mankind, and being convinced that class and international solidarity among 
peoples, the organized counter-attack of the exploited classes and the overthrow of the 
world of capitalism and the state at world level can shape the conditions for the creation 
of a society of prosperity, equality, peace and self iosynis without exploitation, 
interstate wars and disorienting competitions, we found ourselves with all our strength to 
internationalist-fascist concentrations of all previous time and so we intend to do 
wherever necessary. Together with thousands of fighters,

We welcome the thousands of protesters of anti-fascist, anti-war and internationalist 
mobilizations throughout Greece and abroad. The struggles in every corner of the earth 
indicate that the international attack from the bottom, the International of Races and 
Anarchy is being sought in the face of the international attack on the state and capital.

We continue on the road of struggle, where the nationalist block and the fascist manhole 
that accompanies it struggle to lift its head. We send a message of international 
solidarity to our comrades in the Balkans and internationally. Only the strengthening of 
our common struggles can sweep the fascist threat.

Anti-fascist and internationalist barricades will remain the bright beacon of solidarity 
and struggle, keeping the flame of the Social Revolution on fire and living the vision of 
Anarchy and Liberal Communism.

ANARCHICAL POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

Federation of Collectives

JULY 2018

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