Today's Topics:
1. asr: anarshist Union of Iran and Afghanistan: The beauty of
anarchism, and the petty-bourgeois narcissism
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. anarkismo.net, South Africa - Workers' power not
bureaucrats' power: lessons from Argentina By Jonathan Payn
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Holand, vrije bond: Save the Buttercup Farm -
Lutkemeerpolder, Amsterdam (nl) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. anarkismo.net, South Africa: Renewed appeal for Solidarity
with the Boiketlong 4 by sifuna.zonke (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Australia, Anarcho-Syndicalist Network: Rebel Worker Vol.36
No.2 (231) Aug.-Sept. 2018 - Book Review (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Coldmankov, a Western thinker, says that I am sorry for those who were not anarchists at
the age of twenty. Jack London writes that the word utopia is usually enough to convey an
idea to enemies. Current anarchism claims that it is action rather than theory. There has
never been a clear difference between the pragmatist and the theorist, the intellectual
and the revolutionary. ---- Anarchist class war is a war against all classes. They have
even declared war on war, and instead of answering, they are asking questions. They have
given up the claim to political philosophers and charlatans, and are against all forms of
pressure that are specific to the modern bourgeois society, including patriarchy,
supremacy White race, capitalism, state communism, reactionary and religious dogmatism,
homosexuality, and so on.
Anarchists have entered social struggles since the 17th century to build a free and just
society, and since the beginning of the 19th century they presented themselves as the
creator of a political theory. They have played a significant role in social protests
since the French Revolution. Most of the anarchist demands relied on the slogans of the
French Revolution of 1789. In 1793, Goodwin wrote ideas for social, socialist, and
philosophical justice. For 150 years, commentators, historians and intellectuals have
discussed the definition of anarchism. In 1907, anarchist congress noted that the action
and struggle of the trade union led to anti-capitalist awareness. In 1909, Croppein
claimed that the root of all the anarchist and communist demands was in the French
Revolution of 1789.
Marx responded to Proudhon's book The Poverty of Philosophy, the book "Poverty of
Philosophy." Bakunin and Proudhon called Marx's state communism a government slavery.
Marx, who was ridiculous to Bakunin, said, "Muhammad without a Qur'an." He and Engels in
the book "German Ideology" criticized Max Stirner's anarchist views and named him "sacred
and petty bourgeois". At that time, insulting was not worse than the petty-bourgeois trait.
In the years 1905-1901, Lenin considered anarchism to be a pseudo-revolutionary,
semi-revolutionary individualist petty bourgeois theory, opposed to scientific socialism.
In 1919, Rooker, an anarcho-syndicalist theorist, expelled the book The Principles of
Trade Unionism. He said that socialist parties without a trade union movement were not
capable of building socialism.
Anarchists claimed that the anger was often the stimulant of history. Five thousand years
ago, the anger of the slaves began against the slave-owners and their masters. Bakunin
argued that freedom without socialism is private property, and socialism, without freedom,
is a type of slave. Anarchists consider the basis of their philosophy to be "absolute
freedom." Pomegranate, unity of freedom and socialism. The anarchist scheme of CROPETKIN
was adopted as communist anarchism by anarchist theorists.
Among the classical anarchists are William Goodwin, Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, Michael
Bakunin, Peter Croppin, Gustave Landoure, Leon Tolstoy, Rooker, and Goleman. Among the
anarchist theorists mentions horrific theoretical mistakes: Proudhon was anti-woman,
Stirner, anti-German, and Bakunin, and Crotine-anti-German, but Goldman was at the start
of the anti-feminist.
Until 1840, although philosophical anarchism was the most important intellectual and
creative work of literary works, it was not socially significant. The prevailing
assassination was monopolized by the class governments, later part of the anarchists used
it in their struggle. Anarchist assassination was only active during the years 1894 and
1891. Anarchist violence is considered by the anarchists to neutralize the opposite and
free violence. German philosopher Wolfgang Harsh does not consider the new anarchism as
revolutionary impatience as before.
Anarchism is not a single movement because there is freedom in its nature and freedom is
not military uniform. Anarchism is divided into environmental branches, trade unions,
anti-authoritarian training, armed struggle and peaceful means. Among anarchists, there
are religions, atheists, mystics, materialists and idealists. In contrast to the
150-year-old Western anarchist movement, the modern democratic state has a hundred-year
history. Most anarchists are atheists and are denying religion, but religion and freedom
are free to the extent that they are not deprived of freedom from others. For this reason,
anarchists are more anti-religious than anti-religion. They oppose the pillars of the
capitalist system, such as capital, the police, the church, the judiciary, the patriarchal
system, the government's reactionary compromise media, traditional education, and small
and classical families. One of the reasons for the power of anarchism is the rise of the
anti-global movement that attacks neoliberalism.
Anarchists for some time in power in Argentina, India, Germany, Ukraine, Spain, Manchuria
and northern Russia. None of them was destroyed because of their internal contradictions,
but they were subjected to an internal and external organized military attack. Anarchists
are the amount of the economy that is in need and consumption, which considers the
environment as more important than the economy and the needs of humans, more important
than profit. They say human morality is higher than official government regulations.
In the United States, since 1996, the College and the Anarchist Research Center have been
inaugurated. Until American anarchism is anti-Marxism and anti-class struggle, it is not
possible to be revolutionized, and as long as Nietzsche and Noam Chomsky's views are taken
into account in America's anarchism, its anti-Marxism will be obvious. Anarchists should
have a strong contribution to the struggle of the anti-imperialist movement.
Private property is free to anarchists to meet the private needs of individuals and it can
not be a means of exploitation or an economic monopoly to increase private capital. The
anarchists in connection with the present neoliberal movement claim that the capitalist
state is under the title of the welfare state and the social government and the state of
national security, because they want to cover the social and popular clothes of the
capitalist government, and the state of capital's order and security is the same repair
workshop Is capitalism. The most important anarchist demand was the slogan of
self-government. They want federal military instead of the central authority in social
affairs.
Anarchists write about Western democracies - only ignorant calves determine their
butcheries through free elections. A group called liberalism anarchism without socialism.
The Marxists claimed that the evolution of the state would liberate man from the state,
and socialism would not be the removal of the state, but its evolution, and the workers
would approach socialism when they approached the state. Anarchist critics ask whether it
is an alien dream with the world or a feasible project?
https://asranarshism.com/1397/05/13/anarchism-140/
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Message: 2
Around the world the ruling class (capitalists, politicians and state managers) is trying
to restore its profits by making the working class pay for the economic crisis. One way
capitalists do this is by retrenching workers and making the remaining workers work harder
to meet production targets, as well as by attacking wages, working conditions and
benefits. States help capitalists do this, among other things, by increasing interest
rates while giving corporations tax cuts, commercialising and privatising state owned
enterprises and outsourcing the provision of basic services. States also help capitalists
by undermining workers' rights, such as the right to strike, in order to make it more
difficult for workers to resist these attacks.
Unions have failed to defend workers from the immediate threat of these attacks (by
preventing dismissals and defending jobs, wages and conditions), as well as to mount an
effective resistance that can prevent further attacks and begin to roll back the
devastating effects of neoliberalism. Moreover, union bureaucrats are often complicit in
these attacks through deals they make with governments and bosses. A recent example in
South Africa is the National Minimum Wage and amendments to the Basic Conditions of
Employment Act and Labour Relations Amendment Bill - all of which represent an attack on
workers yet were agreed to at Nedlac (the National Economic Development and Labour
Council) by the leaders of the three main federations: Nactu, Fedusa and Cosatu.
Faced with this ruling class threat and with union bureaucracies that are either complicit
or unwilling to fight, workers in Argentina have begun a process to build unity in
struggle and a democratic worker-controlled alternative.
In July 2017, workers at a PepsiCo factory in Buenos Aires arrived at work to find a sign
posted on the factory entrance announcing its closure and the dismissal of over 600
workers. Production would be moved to another plant - where workers would be expected to
work harder and longer to make up for production lost by the closure of the Buenos Aires
factory.
Left to their fate by union leaders that could or tried to do little to help, workers had
no hope but to try defend their jobs through direct action. They collectively decided to
occupy the factory to prevent its closure and keep their jobs. The occupation was
violently evicted by a massive police operation after a few weeks; but the dismissed
workers continued to fight for their jobs. They organised working class cultural
‘festivals of resistance' to build solidarity, had mass marches and demonstrations,
blockaded roads and even camped in tents in front of Argentina's legislature to keep their
struggle visible.
At this camp the PepsiCo workers made an open call to all organisations that wanted to
join them in building an independent pole of worker organisation and resistance. In
contrast to the union bureaucrats, this initiative would be based on democratic
decision-making by workers them-selves in open assemblies, and combative class struggle in
opposition to years of conciliation by union bureaucrats that try to make workers believe
they have something in common with the bosses and government. Instead of being bought off,
they chose to rely on their own collective strength; and they took it beyond their won
struggles to fight for other demands. Thus they turned their struggle into an example for
the entire Argentine working class.
One group that heard the call, at a meeting in February, was that of 122 workers dismissed
at the beginning of 2018 from the Posadas Hospital. As a dismissed nurse put it, "We are
dismissed workers from different companies and establishments. The leaders of the big
unions and federa-tions have left us to fight alone. We have had strikes, blockades and
mobilisations. Now we are uniting to fight, no matter what province or union we are from.
We all struggle together and de-mand a national plan of action so that we can get our jobs
back."
Another step was on 11 April when mineworkers from Río Turbio, dismissed PepsiCo and
Posa-das Hospital workers, workers from ‘recovered' (de-bureaucratised) sections of the
education workers' union, outsourced aeronautical and rail workers, drivers, call-centre
operators, dock-workers and others shut down a main avenue in the centre of Buenos Aires -
demonstrating the possibility of coordinating struggles and building unity from below.
They demanded an end to the stillness of the union leadership and raised the need for a
national general strike and a real plan of action.
This action was followed two days later by a general meeting where workers agreed that the
central problem confronting them is the role of the bureaucratic union leaders that are
either complicit in attacking workers, turn a blind eye or do everything they can to
encourage conciliation and compromise. In opposition to this the meeting decided to
continue the call for a national general strike and a plan of action; but also to develop
a plan of action now specific to the various sectors in struggle, from below, through
general assemblies of affected workers.
The PepsiCo workers' call responded to an urgent need - in South Africa as much as in
Argentina - for workers to exchange experiences, discuss strategies, tactics and ideas and
decide collectively how to build genuine unity and coordination of struggles from below.
To take immediate steps to strengthen each local conflict, but also to take steps towards
formulating a joint plan of action and compelling the leaders of all the union federations
both to adopt the joint plan of action and call a national general strike.
http://ideasandaction.info/2018/08/workers-power-bureaucrats-power-lessons-argentina/
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31106
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Message: 3
The Boterbloem Boerderij is the last organic arable farm in the city of Amsterdam. Since
1996 this century old farm has been organically certified. At this moment it is being
threatened with eviction. To be replaced with more warehouses! This is unacceptable. ----
As citizens of Amsterdam we play a crucial role in how our city expands. If you want to
see the city grow in a thoughtful and conscientious way, not just allowing private parties
to profit from the land, then now is the time to make your voice heard! ---- You can
simply copy and paste the message below and email the four members of the Spatial Planning
commission, listed below the text. Each of these council members have been chosen because
they are part of the coalition parties. Demand them to take action to protect legacy
agricultural land. ---- The city is ours! Together we can show the council that we are
watching.
"Amsterdam is a rapidly expanding city with hopes of growing in a sustainable and green
way. This coalition has promised a more fair and sustainable city, with plans to be gas
free by 2040. In order to accomplish this, green spaces, especially agricultural spaces
that can be used for growing food close to the city, must be protected.
The ability to grow food locally is a fundamental pillar of building a fossil-free city, a
city of the future. If we let this fertile organic soil be wiped out we will lose a
legacy, one that we cannot get back. It is dangerous and short-sighted not to protect
healthy agricultural land.
We, as citizens of Amsterdam, demand that the Boterbloem Boederij and the larger Lutkemeer
Polder, be protected."
Here are the e-mails of the Spatial Planning council members we would like to petition:
Zeeger Ernstig zernsting@raad.amsterdam.nl - Council leader, GroenLinks
Marijn Bosman m.bosman@raad.amsterdam.nl - D66
Carolien de Heer c.de.heer@raad.amsterdam.nl - PvDA
Tiers Bakker tbakker@raad.amsterdam.nl - SP
If you are interested in learning more about the Boterbloem Boerderij, or getting more
involved, you can follow this link. Also, come to the action camp between 14 and 16 september!
Sharing is caring.
actiekamp, boterbloem, ecologisch
Vrije Bond Secretariaat
https://www.vrijebond.org/red-de-boterbloem-boerderij-lutkemeerpolder-amsterdam/
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Message: 4
On the 21st April 2015 the Magistrates Court in Sebokeng sentenced 4 community activists
from Boiketlong, to a total of 16 years in prison. The activists are: Dinah Makhetha,
Sipho Mangane, Dan Molefe and Pulane Mahlangu. Key witnesses could not even identify the 4
but the courts sought to use the apartheid law of ‘doctrine of common purpose' to jail
them. They were found not guilty of ‘public violence' but guilty of ‘assault, arson and
malicious damage to property'. ---- Pulane Mahlangu has run away and no one knows where
she is or if she is in good health. Either way, she cannot come home. ---- Dan Molefe died
of stress-related illness in December 2017. ---- Although released for a short period
while the appeal process was underway, both Dinah and Sipho are back in prison as they
lost the first level of Appeal. The magistrate is prepared to consider shortening the
sentence but not the sentence itself. The appeal process remains underway.
There is now an opportunity for a mediated process that may assist in a process of early
release. There is an urgent need to cover the costs of mediation which we estimate could
come to about R40 000. Appeals have been made to the community to raise funds as well to
the broader movement.
What is at stake?
The state has used an apartheid law, the ‘doctrine of common purpose', to attempt to crush
the resistance of the masses. The law of common purpose is deliberately broad so as to be
used to target leaders in the community and working class movement. If left unchallenged
it extends the attack on the democratic right to protest. To petition for full Leave to
Appeal and the higher processes are all very expensive and time-consuming. This places a
huge burden on the families and community of Boiketlong. Ironically, sentences for murder
and rape are quite often less than what the activists received. If you are rich and
famous, you are likely to get a much reduced sentence but working class activists bear the
brunt of this injustice. The infamous Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to only 6 years in
prison, for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The sentence was later increased to
15 years, still less than what the Boiketlong 4 were sentenced to. He had been released on
parole after serving only 10 months in prison. How many men, who kill their partners, are
even locked up? Comrade Dinah's granny passed away but the state denied her the
opportunity to attend the funeral.
The increase of repressive methods against community activists is part of a world-wide
trend. As traditional leaderships are discredited and no longer able to control the
masses, so there is an increase in repressive measures against the masses.
If you are rich, the wheels of the ‘justice' system turn. If you are a worker, you are
locked up and the key thrown away. Thus the state is exposed as an instrument of big
capital, an instrument of violence, to control the working class.
This marks a new stage in the desperation of imperialism to control the masses- the same
dropping of the democratic mask of the state and the criminalization of protest, is seen
across Africa, from Cape to Cairo. Special fascist gangs such as the Chrysalis black
shirts are springing up like mushrooms. The fascist attacks on immigrant poor are also
similar signs of desperation by imperialism to use terror and force to attempt to break
the resistance of the masses.
The community of Boiketlong have long suffered from broken promises of the ANC government.
Since the elections in 2006, the ANC has come with empty promises to upgrade the area that
by then had already long suffered a lack of sanitation, lack of water, lack of electricity
and lack of housing. The 4 are part of the collective leadership, assigned by the
community to lead their struggle for houses. This is their only ‘crime'. They are
political prisoners of the capitalist state. They are not criminals.
It is reported in the Journal of Southern African Studies that the mining giants have
accelerated their theft through transfer pricing after 1994 to such an extent that in 2007
alone about R600bn was taken out by imperialism through illegal means. (This is about
$50bn, which is more than what is required to end world hunger for a year). The amounts
that imperialism has stolen over the years is in the order of trillions of dollars, and
this is from SA alone. If the entire Africa is also considered, we are looking at several
trillions of dollars stolen by imperialism.
Yet, across Africa, all the regimes, without exception, turn a blind eye to this and are
instruments of keeping the masses in check while imperialist plunder continues.
SA and Africa has enough wealth to meet all our needs, with decent housing, free
education, free, quality health care, decent jobs for all. Yet everywhere there is poverty
and suffering and only the imperialists and their paid hirelings benefit. Indeed, SA has
enough wealth to care for the whole of Southern Africa, but it is a giant prison for the
masses of Southern Africa.
Boiketlong is a symbol of the capitalist injustice that there is. The imperialist who
plunder and steal and cause the early death of millions, get off scot free. The masses and
anyone who dares raise a question, are brutalised and suppressed.
There should have been houses and proper facilities in Boiketlong but instead it is a
slum. It is being kept a slum by the ANC government. That is why the 4 comrades were
jailed: because they dared to challenge the slum conditions.
The SA government dares to blame the other African regimes for their ‘nationals' coming to
SA. The very same imperialism that plunders SA, also plunders the whole of Africa. All
these regimes are responsible for the enforced poverty of the African masses. The SA govt
has more blood on its hands. In the DRC imperialism funds the wars that have killed 6-10
million people. After the lands are cleared and imperialism opens up its mining operations
for Cassiterite (raw material for cell phones, tablets playstations and laptops- 70% of
the world's reserves are there). It is SA soldiers that are provided as a free security
force for the plunder. Each soldier is paid R50 000 a month for this work of protecting
Anglo American from the starving masses in the DRC.
The spread of HIV-Aids in SA, according to credible research reports, was largely due to
the collapse of the health system which led to the re-use of infected needles, among other
unsanitary practices. Thanks to the ANC government.
Yes, a lot of dwellings have been built but most of them are in the old group areas. In
other words, the ANC government perpetuated apartheid housing policies.
There is enough wealth for jobs for all, but due to the theft that the ANC (and DA)
governments allow, there is mass unemployment and starvation everywhere.
This is not peace but a sustained civil war against the masses which the ANC has continued
from the old NP apartheid regime.
We need to draw the lesson. Freedom will not fall from the sky. The working class needs to
be organised. We need to tear down the artificial barriers that separate us.
We call for a national and international programme of action against the criminalization
of protest, for the freeing of the 4 Boiketlong activists.
One more appeal
We salute the activists from the Boiketlong and Sebokeng communities, from WIVL, SRWP,
ILRIG, United Front, Giwusa, who have demonstrated their solidarity and/or visited the
comrades in prison.
We salute the cdes from various international groups, such as the Las Heras families and
prisoners, the FLTI, CWG, LITCI, CSP Conlutas, ROE, CAB and others, who sent messages of
solidarity and/or material support.
It is necessary for one final round of solidarity to be sent. We call on the broader
working class movement and the democrats in general to contribute, through renewed
messages of solidarity and through financial contributions.
For this, please contact us via:
Jonathan Payn ph/whatApp +27 619925339 Email: sifuna.zonke@gmail.com
Shaheed Mahomed ph/whatApp +27 822020617 Email: workersinternational@gmail.com 30 July 2018
Related Link:
https://zabalaza.net/2017/07/25/call-for-solidarity-the-boiketlong-four-and-the-criminalisation-of-poverty-and-protest/
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31107
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Message: 5
rising in France by Mitchell Abidor - A Furnace
for the Forging of Revolutionaries ---- The explosive events of France May ‘68 featured
the largest general strike in history involving 10 million workers, widespread factory and
educational institution occupations and massive student and worker demonstrations. It
inspired many of us around the world to take the revolutionary path without the slightest
hesitation. Following the sign post at this cross roads in one’s life which points to the
difficult road of personal sacrifices and the necessity of fastening on the buckler of
iron self discipline. Doing those terrible hard yards over many decades of grass roots
on-the-job organising and inspiring other comrades with one’s absolute dedication to the
cause to follow suit. Encouraging scientific processes and historical research and damning
the manipulative antics of today’s megalomaniac leftist sect and cult gurus. Defiantly
hurling back the gauntlet of the Neo-Liberal challenge. Holding in utter contempt today’s
middle class/student based leftist sub cultural groupings with all their organisational
navel gazing, identity politics infatuated, hypocritical “political correctness displays”,
oppression mongering and guilt tripping. Stoically aware of the necessity during
inevitable crises of taking terrible forced marches and then having to summon all one’s
reserves of commitment to work miracles “to take strategic hills” to assist militant
workers in the struggle against the forces of capitalism and the realisation of steps
toward revolutionary industrial unionism. Whilst ignoring that other sign post pointing to
the alluring mire of a soft life of normality and careerism in bourgeois society.
May ’68 & The End of Mass Stalinism
May 2018 is the 50th Anniversary of the France May 1968 Uprising, which became the
epicenter and catalyst of a wave of other failed uprisings and worker and student upsurges
internationally. A key historical precedent was the 1848 international wave of uprisings
against various Ancient Regimes. As in ’68, these revolts were unsuccessful and led to the
predominance in many countries labour movements of socialist parties and associated
bureaucratic unions adopting mostly the parliamentary road and the goal of state socialism
as the predominant current in many countries labour movements. Culminating in the
Bolshevik coup in 1917 resulting in a red dictatorship based on state capitalism in Russia
and the rise of the Moscow financed and manipulated Communist Parties internationally. The
events of France May ’68 also sounded the death kneel of state socialism and the
associated phenomena of mass Communist parties. However, the Stalinist legacy associated
with duplicity, hostility to scientific processes and underhanded practices continues to
heavily inform most leftist groupings. (1) The sharp decline of mass Communist Parties
particularly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, paradoxically has undermined the morale
and organisational ability of militant workers in many countries. As despite the Stalinist
agendas and collaboration with the Capitalist set up of the party bosses, the Communist
Parties also assisted grass roots on the job activity particularly via networks of regular
workplace papers. Consequently the employer and Neo-Liberal offensive has been assisted
globally.
France May ’68 & “The Ruse of History”
In retrospect the major long term legacy of May ’68 has been inspiring attempts to
perfect dimensions of bourgeois society – so called “Modernising of Capitalism”.
Involving the blossoming of identity politics informed movements to remove various
obstacles to these sectors to rise up in the capitalist set up, improve civil liberties
and enhancing the role of bureaucratic unions in the running of the capitalist set up. The
uprising at the time was confused with a generalised attempt to overthrow capitalism and
replace it with self managed socialism. The CIA and other agencies of international
capitalism seized on these movements to promote divisive and disruptive identity politics
amongst leftist groups of various stripes. Most significantly the so called Women’s
Movement. (2) Together with the cultivating and further integrating of the union
bureaucracy into the State to undermine and isolate workers struggles. In the Australian
case the union bureaucracy has played a vanguard role in promoting Neo-Liberalism via the
ACTU/ALP Wages and Incomes Accord of the 1980’s/1990’s and subsequently “Enterprise
Bargaining.” Whilst the interaction of outside-the-job organisation facilitating on-the-
job organisation, which leftist groups could play rather than being just student/middle
class leftist social clubs was often short circuited.
The marginalisation of syndicalism and anarchism as currents in the French workers
movement stemming from the impact of the Cold War and a CIA engineered split in the CGT
(General Confederation of Labour – Communist Party controlled union confederation) in
1947, quashed some promising steps toward a mass syndicalist pole of attraction in the
French labour movement in those years. Stemming from the mushrooming of a range of
breakaway unions and an explicit mass syndicalist union with an estimated 100,000 members
– the CNT-F in the wake of the post WWII strike wave. This factor must been seen as a key
cause for the May events failure to take a full on revolutionary turn, with even more
profound international ramifications. (3)
The book under review consists of interviews with a range of participants and comprises
the following sections: Veterans in the Struggle, Students in Paris, May outside Paris,
May and Film and Some Anarchists. It throws plenty of new light on aspects of May ’68,
dispelling many myths and confusion.
Interviewee Henri Simon, a veteran of the struggle, confirms the sudden explosiveness of
the May events, taking all by surprise. He outlines how the CGT bureaucracy and CP bosses
resorted to fraudulent practices to halt the events such as advising the Grenelle Accords
on May 27 (which provided wage increases, union recognition and a rise in the minimum
wage) at 11 am that a vote would be held on this agreement at 2pm! Preventing militants
from issuing flyers criticising the sell-out. Insufficient numbers of Action Committees
had formed in the factories to provide structures to organise outside the ferocious CGT/CP
bureaucracy tentacles. Simon also dispels the illusion of student and worker unity,
showing the lack of collaboration in most cases between these sectors facilitated by the
CP/CGT bureaucracy and the absence in most workplaces of a countervailing grass roots
militancy pole of attraction with an associated network of workplace papers.
Interviewee Isabelle Saint-Saen, one of the Students in Paris, shows the May events were
an outgrowth of other movements of the time – the Anti-Vietnam War movement and its
committees morphing into Action Committees. An area not focused upon is how a similar
process associated with pop music and pirate radio stations such as Radio Luxembourg
contributed to the spread and mass support for the movement and breaking though the Govt’s
media blackout.(4)
Another interesting aspect touched upon is the assistance by peasants for the factory
occupations. The interviewee, Joseph Potiron in the section May Outside Paris, looks at
how he and other peasant members of his family in Brittany helped supply food at cost to
the workers of the occupied factories.
In the volume there are several references to the Tianamen Square Events in China 1989 and
the bloody suppression of the associated student and worker upsurge by the Chinese Army.
An interesting point raised by interviewee Jean-Jacques Lebel, another veteran of the
struggle is that the May Events came very close to a similar outcome. However organisers
of the protest marches were warned by Free Masons amongst the French Police that if they
occupied the Hotel de Viche which was the heart of the Paris Commune of 1871, they would
face a massacre by machine gun equipped police. As a result they changed course and went
to the Stock Exchange and lit a small fire.
Interviewees involved in May outside Paris: Guy Texier, Bernard Vauselle and Dominique
Barbe, throw new light on the role of grass roots Communist Party factory militants
activity. Focusing on the events at the Saint-Nazaire shipyards where the occupation was
not completely “spontaneous” but involved an initiative of these militants, launched for
bread and butter demands. They were hostile to revolutionary students such as Daniel
Cohn-Bendit who agitated for generalised self management and the overthrow of the
Capitalist set up.
In conclusion, the volume does a brilliant job showing how the May events major outcome
was a push to perfect dimensions of bourgeois society associated with the appearance of a
range of identity politics informed movements and improvements in a range of civil rights.
Whilst, small improvements in workers conditions were granted. Showing the flexibility and
resilience of capitalism in that era. Whilst throwing new light on various important
aspects of the May events in France, providing important lessons for today’s syndicalist
militants.
Mark McGuire
Notes
1. See, Regarding the Stalinist Legacy and the Fake Anarchist Milieu in Sydney: A-infos
Rebel Worker Obituary of Jack Grancharoff 1925-2016
2. See, “Gloria Steinem, The CIA and the Women’s Movement” on the internet.
3. See, “How and Why the French Anarchists Rallied to the CGT-FO (1947-1950)” by Guillaume
Davranch in “New Perspectives on Anarchism, Labour and Syndicalism,” Edited by David Berry
and Constance Bantman, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
4. See, “1968 in Europe: A History of Protest and Activism, 1956-1977.” Edited by Martin
Klimke and Joachim Scharloth, Published by Palgrave.
www.rebelworker.org
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