Anarchic update news all over the world - 18.09.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Greece, liberta salonica: Discussion: DEMOCRACY IN FREEDOM -
      THURSDAY 25/9, 20.00 (gr) [machine translation] 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

2.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Jackdaw #3 --
      Internationalism in Practice (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  [Greece] No kings in the square By ANA (pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #285 - History: Police
      sometimes, justice nowhere (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1





The  CRIMETHINC  collectivity from the US in cooperation with  KENO NETWORK organize a 
series of speeches in Greece. ---- FROM THE DEMOCRACY TO FREEDOM ---- SPEAKERS - OPEN 
PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS ---- with the anarchist publishing and activist college   CRIMETHINC 
(USA) Coordination - introductory placement:  TASOS SAGRIS / KENO NETWORK
ATHENS ---- THURSDAY 20/9/2018 ---- TIME 20.00 ---- POLYTECHNIOU-ETHRIO Architecture
HERAKLION ---- SATURDAY 22/9  ---- TIME 20.00  ---- STORAGE EVANGELISM  ---- FOLLOWS PUNK 
PARTY  ---- organization: anarchist collectivity OCTANA ---- THESSALONIKI ---- THIRD 25/9
TIME 20.00  ---- STEKI in BIOLOGICAL ---- FOLLOWING PUNK BAR --- organization: Eleftherios 
Initiative of Thessaloniki ---- Democracy is the universal political ideal of our time. 
George Bush used it to justify the invasion of Iraq, Obama congratulated the Tahrir 
insurgents on setting up Egypt, the Occupy Wall Street movement claimed to have distilled 
its purest form. In fact, from the Democratic Republic of North Korea to the autonomous 
region of Rosawa, every government and popular movement calls itself democratic.

And what is the cure for the problems posed by democracy?  Everyone agrees: more 
democracy! Since the beginning of the century, we have seen a multitude of new movements 
that promise real democracy, as opposed to the seemingly democratic institutions they 
describe as exclusive, coercive and alienated. Is there a common thread linking all these 
different kinds of democracy?
Which of these is the real one? Can any of them achieve participa- tion and freedom, 
concepts related to the term "democracy"? These concerns have emerged through the 
experience we have gained by engaging in direct democratic movements. Our conclusion is 
that the dramatic imbalances in economic and political power that have prompted people to 
show off the streets from New York to Sarajevo are not due to accidental defects in 
specific types of democracy but to their structural characteristics that are dated from 
the beginnings of democracy and appearing in almost every example of democratic governance 
over the centuries.
Representative democracy retained the mechanism originally invented to serve the kings, 
while  direct democracy tends to replicate this mechanism on a smaller scale, even outside 
the official structures of the state. Democracy is not synonymous with self-determination 
. Of course, many good things are often referred to as "democratic".
We do not argue against  dialogue  and  assemblies ,  networks ,  federations  or  people 
with whom we do not always agree. Our disagreement, we would say, lies in the fact that 
when we participate in such practices and we perceive what we do as a form of "democracy" 
- as a form of participatory governance rather than as a  collective libertarian practice 
- then, sooner or later, we will all reproduce problems associated with less democratic 
forms of government. This applies both to representative and to direct democracy, as well 
as to the consensual process.
Instead of supporting democratic processes as an end in itself, let us return to the 
values that originally led us to it:
equality, participation, the idea that every person  should be free to control his destiny.

If democracy is not the most effective way of realizing these values, then who is it? As 
social disobedience is constantly increasing in today's democracies, this debate is 
finding an increasing amount of space. If we insist on trying to replace the ruling class 
with a more participatory version of the same thing, then we will continue to end up where 
we started and those who share our disappointment will turn to a more authoritarian 
alternative. We need a framework that will be able to fulfill the promises that democracy 
has betrayed.

In these discussions, we examine the common issues that link different forms of democracy, 
we trace its evolution from its classical form to its modern variants (representative, 
direct, participative) and we examine whether democratic speech and democratic processes 
serve the social movements that adopt them. In this context, we describe what it means  to 
pursue freedom directly , and not through democratic sovereignty. We are looking for 
collective passages  to Anarchy!

This study is the result of a multi-year intercontinental dialogue. In addition, we have 
relied on case studies from participants in movements promoted as direct democratic 
models: the 15M movement  in Spain  (2011), the  occupation of the Constitution Square in 
Greece  (2011), the  Occupy movement in the United States of America  (2011-2012) the 
Slovenian uprising (2012-2013),  the Plenary Session in Bosnia  (2014) and the  Rosawa 
Revolution  (2012-2016). .

Envisioning how  a horizontal and decentralized society  could be , we can imagine 
interdependent networks of collectives and gatherings through which people will organize 
themselves to meet their daily needs free of charge - food, shelter, medical care, work, 
recreation, discussion, companionship. Being interdependent, and having been freed from 
the laws of the market and profit, they will have every reason to settle friendly disputes 
without being able to force the other to remain in a morbid or unfulfilled agreement. The 
beauty of such moments goes beyond every political system. It is not about the functioning 
of democracy, but  about the experience of freedom - taking our lives in our hands. No set 
of procedures could have institutionalized this. It is a loot that we must extract from 
the jaws of habit and history, over and over again. The next time we see the opportunity, 
instead of recreating "real democracy" once again,
let us aim at freedom. The freedom itself!

Crimethinc  (Former Workers Collective)  http://crimethinc.com

Empty Network (Theory, Utopia, Sentiment, Ephemeral Arts)    http://voidnetwork.gr

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2018/09/12

------------------------------

Message: 2





 From the mines around the world to the corporate power centres of London
Low wages and appalling working conditions, environmental destruction, corporate greed- 
all these are components of the mining and extractive industries. We have seen the 
treatment of miners in this country and also the problem with extracting fossil fuels when 
we desperately need to deal with climate change. Fracking is currently one of the main 
battle fields. However, the worst of the mining industry is seen abroad, in the global 
south, as companies benefit from the colonial legacy. Mining is spread to even the 
remotest parts of the globe, completely destroying the environment and cultures of 
indigenous peoples.
It is not just the mines but it is also the processing stages that pose problems. 
Communities in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nahdu have been fighting the expansion of Sterlite's 
copper smelter which is already causing toxic air and water pollution. However, the 
company has reacted to peaceful protests with extreme violence. Protests have been going 
on for months but the reaction of the company and the State has been extreme violence with 
many arrests. In May thirteen people were killed by the police during a protest. On 
Wednesday 23 May, a day after the massacre, a large and noisy protest dominated by 
traditional Parai drummers was held at the India High Commission in London.  Protesters 
called on the British government to launch an inquiry into the multiple legal, 
environmental and human rights violations by Vedanta Resources, the parent company of 
Sterlite, and consider de-listing the company from the London Stock Exchange.

Vedanta Resources is one of the worst examples of global resource and extraction companies 
with a history of human rights and environmental abuses. Their owner is Anglo-Indian and 
based in London. They have mining interests all over the world and everywhere they go 
there are problems and protest movements develop.

They came into the news a few years ago with their attempt to mine bauxite from the sacred 
mountain of the Dongria in Odisha state, eastern India.  Thanks to a concerted campaign 
with international support, Vedanta backed down 
(www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/dongria). Recently, Zambian farmers have organised 
resistance against the pollution caused by copper mining. They are aiming to sue Vedanta 
and managed to win the right to do so after Vedanta tried to stop them in the courts in 
London.

All over the world resource industry workers and local communities are struggling against 
the companies that are providing the minerals for our way of life, eg mobile phones and 
all other electronic devices. The aim as always is to maximise profits at the expense of 
people and the environment. However, those who are directly battling these companies are 
not alone. It is possible to organise practical solidarity for these resistance movements. 
Companies like Vedanta often have headquarters in London and are registered on the London 
Stock exchange. The London Mining Network was set up to take advantage of this in order to 
support anti-mining movements around the world.

 From the website of London Mining Network
London Mining Network works in support of communities around the world who are badly 
affected by mining - mining by companies based in, or financed from, London. Mining is one 
of the most polluting industries in the world. It is linked with conflict and human rights 
abuses. Most of the world's biggest mining companies, and many smaller mining companies, 
are listed on the London Stock Exchange, and on its Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Since the protests against Vedanta and calls for the company's delisting, Vedanta has 
delisted itself. Whatever the implications of this it is vital that we continue to show 
solidarity to those who struggle around the world against the extraction industry as well 
as fighting in this country against fracking.

For more information on struggles against Vedanta see: www.foilvedanta.org

Article from Jackdaw 3 
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jackdaw-Issue-3-RGB.pdf

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/09/11/internationalism-in-practice/

------------------------------

Message: 3





We are writing this text as anarchists and immigrants to explain an action we take in an 
open space and face uncovered against an immigrant, known as a trafficker and rapist. ---- 
This person used the squatter structures in Exarchia storing their drugs there, without 
the consent of the inhabitants, on several occasions. To satisfy his economic interests, 
he is complicit in state propaganda that describes squatters as places of drug trafficking 
and trafficking in human beings. ---- This person was denounced by a group that fights 
sexist attacks and sexual abuse for their acts of violence and rape committed against a 
woman. Despite the group's intervention and although this person had sworn that he had 
never performed such actions and would never do such things, he did the opposite and never 
stood by his words. He continued to harass the same woman and also used sexist discourse 
and violence against other women.

We do not tolerate or accept such actions and behaviors. Especially when they reappear 
after the warnings they received. For his traffic and his financial, personal and sexual 
interests he is using a position of conqueror, the "King of the Square", as he likes to 
call himself. To attract customers and goals, it is consuming and offering heavy drugs, 
openly in public spaces. It shows this type of consumption as something fun, as an 
activity that has no consequences.

We, too, as immigrants, are living in the neighborhood of Exarchia. Because it is a place 
of struggle in which we live, we participate and we can move even without legal documents. 
We can not accept that other people use the space of our struggle and our community for 
their own interests or the interests of others.

We want to live in equality, in respect and without violence among the oppressed. But when 
we face these people, their actions and behaviors, we are forced to use radical methods 
and participate in the cycle of violence.

After our intervention, this person found shelter and protection in the arms of the 
well-known " Security Team ", a group that is supposed to protect the migrants, their 
places of living and acting against the drug traffickers, although he is officially a drug 
dealer, established in the Plaza. We know that this group does not act jointly, but they 
regulate the competition of the drug market in Exarchia. It is actively participating in 
this market and achieving many benefits. It is a group that uses, without worry, the name 
of anarchy and the fight against drugs to politically justify its actions. A group that is 
getting richer at the expense of movement.

Everyone knows this, but no one speaks. This time it's over, the fear is changing sides.

Anarchist Immigrants

Source: 
https://mpalothia.net/pas-de-roi-sur-la-place-kanenas-vasilias-stin-plateia-no-kings-on-the-square/

Translation> Liberto

------------------------------

Message: 4





The existence of a state body to maintain public order - and the social order - is a 
relatively recent invention. In the past, ruling classes have willingly used non-state 
forms of violence to enforce their law. ---- The lynching of blacks was a popular practice 
until the 1950s in the United States. ---- There is not always a need for the state to 
enforce hierarchy in a class society. ---- This is a commonplace: the police would be 
needed. Without it it would be chaos, and the social order would collapse, in favor of Mad 
Mad savagery . Human nature would be corrupt at the base, which would make any form of 
revolutionary solution based on equality and freedom doomed to failure. Yet the police did 
not always exist. His invention is even relatively recent. ---- Without police, but not 
without repression
The police in its modern form only occurs very late in the history of mankind: the XVII th 
century France appears the " high policy ", which has no other purpose than to monitor 
political opponents and imprison them. It was not until the XIX th century that such a 
policy as we know it takes shape. Most of the capitalist societies were inspired by the 
London Metropolitan Police, structured under the leadership of Sir Robert Peel. Its main 
purpose is to domesticate and monitor the growing working class neighborhoods of London.

Thus, during most of the history of humanity, whether in Europe or on other continents, 
societies organized themselves without police, even if there was a State: social control 
otherwise, whether it was the ruling class or the local communities (villages, city 
districts).

In the Middle Ages, in Europe, the state existed, but was rather weak and distant. For 
most crimes and social conflicts, recourse to a court was possible, but difficult and 
expensive. In this context, there were usually two remedies. The first was private 
vengeance that was tolerated or even encouraged. The German sociologist Norbert Elias 
showed that neighborhood quarrels were commonly solved with kitchen knives without anyone 
having anything to complain about ... The other way to regulation was the arrangement or 
composition, that is, to compensate for an offense or an attack, a party offered a 
material or financial compensation ...

Vigilantism and the law of the strongest
There have been other forms of social control, including within capitalist societies, for 
example in England or North America. The most famous form, and probably one of the most 
barbaric, is what is called vigilantism. In the XIX th century, the United States, while 
colonization was booming, all part of the territory in the West was far from the federal 
government, whose authority was exercised imperfectly. To combat thieves and crime, 
vigilance committees were created and exercised rudimentary and ruthless justice against 
offenders or suspected criminals, increasing summary executions and dramatically 
portraying the punishments handed out. his heart's content.

These groups were most often led by local notables: big landowners, merchants, etc. Their 
ultimate goal was not so much justice as to bring about a social order in the service of 
the great property and the expanding capitalist market. These groups could also violate 
the law cheerfully to defend the interests of the local bourgeoisie: in the Western Seven 
mercenaries, a whole village is threatened with eviction by a band of big arms stipendiées 
a large owner who wants to establish a mining.

In the southern United States, after the abolition of slavery at the end of the American 
Civil War, vigilantist groups will also serve the maintenance of a racist social order 
threatened with extinction. These groups, the most famous of which is the Klu Klux Klan, 
will organize violence against blacks in order to terrorize them and discourage them from 
all social demands and participation in the electoral system. The best-known example of 
this form of " justice " is the lynching of blacks in the southern United States, most 
often following fallacious accusations of " honoring " white women.

Collectively manage security
These various examples show that it is possible to have a perfectly functional society 
without a separate police force ... However, it goes without saying that it is impossible 
to reclaim on our account this type of crime management, which is certainly non-state but 
is a matter of seigniorial arbitrariness, of clan vengeance, or simply of violence 
directly exercised by the bourgeoisie and the local petty bourgeoisie.

The challenge for the libertarian movement is to imagine non-state and democratic forms of 
management of crimes and conflicts, as used by the Zapatist communes in Chiapas , the 
Rojava / Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, or certain feminist groups that promote 
restorative justice.

Matt Gallandier (AL Montpellier)

The other articles of the file:
Editorial: Security without the security
Judicial Reform: Towards court robotization ?
Europe: The fortress is also a prison
United States: Chained to Slave History
Big Brother: A real public-private partnership
Rojava: Security and local justice
Chiapas / Zapatistas: Repairing rather than Closing
Practices: Dealing with gender-based violence in a militant environment
Treat the sexual abuser through feminist education
And the " dangerous fools " ? And the " psychopaths " ?

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Police-parfois-justice-nulle-part

------------------------------