Today's Topics:
1. anarkismo.net: The Social cannibalism ESE/ESU on the murder
of Jacques Kostopoulos (gr) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Pan-Hellenic Announcement of the ESE/ESU on the murder of
Zak Kostopoulos. (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Greece, dignified horse - APO: Poverty, misery and
cannibalism. It is the State and Capitalism! Notes on the murder
of Jacques Kostopoulos (gr) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Britain, anarchistcommunist group ACG: Wetherspoons strike
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. bangladesh asf: Question & Answers with BASF by: akmshihab
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #286 - Mail of a reader:
Porn, capitalism and sexuality (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. wsm.ie: Long term empty houses highlighted in Kildare
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
We call on every worker, unemployed, to take a stand against the fascist plague. Within
our unions, workplaces, neighborhoods, schools and schools, we defend our right from the
bottom to life! In order not to overcome fear and hatred! To bloom the colorful working
communities and solidarity towards barbarism! ---- On Friday, 21 September at noon, Zak
Kostopoulos falls dead in a pawnshop of homonymy after merciless beating by the owner of
the shop, another shopkeeper and police presence and other people who just look at the
spectacle (with the brilliant exception of a man trying to make them prevent). In the case
file that is passed to the prosecutor, nothing is mentioned of all of this, nor the
testimonies of the police and the owner. The murder space is not enclosed and the owner
cleans the space by destroying every element. The media are killing the memory of the dead
by spreading falsehood.
Until the perpetrator's identity is revealed, journalists and peaceful citizens are hating
their hatred for the low levels of society, justifying the self-righteousness and
linguistic practices against micro-drug addicts and drug addicts at the same time that
drug dealers and public money thieves either have their own media or are glorified from
those. After revealing that he is a well-known and highly respected militant for the
rights of the community and so it is more difficult to conceal the truth, a more indirect
targeting begins and the Nazis who gather with eerie slogans against homosexuals and users
drugs at the point of killing.
Do not get used to Death and social manhunts! Defend the memory of the murdered Zac
Kostopoulos from his everyday abusers!
We call on every worker, unemployed, to take a stand against the fascist plague. Within
our unions, workplaces, neighborhoods, schools and schools, we defend our right from the
bottom to life! In order not to overcome fear and hatred! To bloom the colorful working
communities and solidarity towards barbarism! The Union of Liberals calls for
participation in all the gatherings and demonstrations that take place across Greece
against the efforts to cover up the murder of Zak Kostopoulos.
ELEFTHERIA SYNDICALISTIC UNION (ATHENS, THESSALONIKI, RETHYMNO, IMATHIA, IOANNINA)
Related Link:
https://ese.espiv.net/2018/09/28/panelladiki-anakoinosi-tis-ese-gia-tin-dolofonia-toy-zak-kostopoyloy/
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31146
------------------------------
Message: 2
On Friday, September 21 at noon, Zak Kostopoulos falls dead in a pawnshop of homonymy
after merciless beating by the owner of the shop, another shopkeeper and police presence
and other people who just look at the spectacle (with the brilliant exception of a man
trying to stop them ). There is no mention of all of this in the case file to the
prosecutorand the testimonies of the police and the owner. The murder space is not
enclosed and the owner cleans the space by destroying every element. The media are killing
the memory of the dead by spreading falsehood. The same and far-right elements that write
organized comments (mainly through fake profiles) in social media and in the profile of
Jacques Kostopoulos, where they cheer on the murder and humiliate the dead, not respecting
even the mourning of their own people.
Until the perpetrator's identity is revealed, journalists and peaceful citizens are hating
their hatred for the low levels of society, justifying the self-righteousness and
linguistic practices against micro-drug addicts and drug addicts at the same time that
drug dealers and public money thieves either have their own media or are glorified from
those. After revealing that he is a well-known and highly respected militant for the
rights of the community and so it is more difficult to conceal the truth, a more indirect
targeting begins and the Nazis who gather with eerie slogans against homosexuals and users
drugs at the point of killing.
Do not get used to Death and social manhunts! Defend the memory of the murdered Zac
Kostopoulos from his everyday abusers!
We call on every worker, unemployed, to take a stand against the fascist plague. Within
our unions, workplaces, neighborhoods, schools and schools, we defend our right from the
bottom to life! In order not to overcome fear and hatred! To bloom the colorful working
communities and solidarity towards barbarism! The Eleftherial Union of Unions calls for
participation in all the gatherings and demonstrations that take place across Greece
against the efforts to cover up the murder of Zak Kostopoulos
ELEFTHERIA SYNDICALISTIC UNION
(ATHENS, THESSALONIKI, RETHYMNO, IMATHIA, IOANNINA)
------------------------------
Message: 3
A banner that hanged on Tuesday 25/9 in Olgas Square during the concentration for the
murder of Zak Kostopoulos. It was followed by a massive course on Patra's main streets ...
---- Poverty, misery and cannibalism. It is the State and Capitalism! ---- Notes on the
murder of Jacques Kostopoulos ---- Banks generate "robbers". ---- Their prisons
"terrorists" ---- Their loneliness "inappropriate". ---- The product the "need" ---- The
border armies ---- All the property. ---- Violence raises Violence. ---- Do not ask. Do
not stop me. ---- It is now for us to restore ---- moral justice to the supreme act. ----
To make a poem Life. ---- And the act of Life. ---- I defend Anarchy, Katerina Gogou ----
On September 21, 2018, Jacques Kostopoulos is brutally murdered in the center of Athens,
in the center of Athens, when he is beaten by the Di Angelo jeweler owner and at least one
other person (known as a right-wing party). A little earlier, he had entered the store for
unknown reason and was trapped in it, in an apparently bad mental and physical condition.
The two men are making murderous blows on the head (while lying down in broken glasses) in
an attempt to escape, and then DIAS cops attack him again and hit him wildly as he tries
to escape. In the next few days, a police spokesman, publicly defends the beating of
Jacques, tellingly that "so we operate for anyone who likes."
Jacques was an active LGBTQ + community activist , known for his action against the
patriarchal world, the fascist threat and social discrimination. His assassination was yet
another moment of the constant "war of all against all" declared by the sovereigns with
the main objective of isolation, exclusion and ultimately extermination of the most
impoverished and marginalized part of the social base.
At the same time, the media assume the role of misinformation about the fact, masking,
distorting the reality and legitimizing the murder in the consciousness of society by
defining the meaning of life and the limits within which it is worthwhile to experience.
They do not hesitate to vote in favor of the shameful crime. In this context, the most
abhorrent features of the imposed social model of life are attributed to the assassinated,
so as to distinguish it from the accepted social model, underestimate its own existence
and slip into the category of those living a life that is not worth living you do. Toxic
addicted, homosexual, seropositive and aspiring robber ...
Today, the organization of social life by the state and capital is designed in such a way
that a part of society is excluded according to economic, cultural, religious, gender,
sexual, physical or social standards promoted by sovereignty. Regardless of whether these
exclusions are institutionalized or operate informally at the expense of specific
population groups (addicted, homosexuals, immigrants, homeless, seropositive, mentally
ill, non-productive-unemployed, etc.) what they achieve is the deprivation of the basic
freedoms and possibilities provides them with the result that they are unable to integrate
in the imposed lifestyle and marginalize. This marginalization serves the aims of the
domination of demonization and repression of certain social parties so that they can
discipline the rest.
We are convinced that the murder of Zak Kostopoulos is a state and capitalist
crime, a part of the extermination operation that has been taking place for years at the
expense of the poor and the excluded. The poor and excluded that the power itself
"generates" either through political poverty and misery, or through the introduction of an
exemption regime for those who are overstated or considered dangerous for it.
At this juncture, the occasional alliance of various social parties with the state and the
bosses is the result of the dissolution of the social fabric and the conditions of social
zyngla that it brings about.It is the result of the hegemony of the predominant ideology
that seeks to break down and digest from the bottom, but also the backwardness of the
movement and the absence of a visible alternative proposal for the final crushing of the
world of power. This is because the social dissatisfaction that arouses the fierce attack
of state and capitalism is attempted to be dealt with - in spite of the intensified
repression - by the cultivation of the social order, by the promotion of ideologies that
lead to survival by any means, socially weak, individualization and competition. Immediate
consequence of the dissolution of social ties,The revolving violence between the slaves of
society, which we define as social cannibalism. A condition desirable and promoted by the
masters, since they disorient and manipulate their anger from the down to the real
responsible for the misery of this world and channel it into an unbroken war of all
against all within the ranks of the exploited.
In this reality there is an alternative and realistic answer. And of course this is not
the collective condemnation of society, the prevalence of antisocial and self-referential
discourse within the movements. It is not the overwhelming and fortification around
ourselves.On the contrary, we must today struggle even more to break the conservative
reflexes and cannibal behavior in the social field. We must not allow social cannibalism
and fiction to be established and legitimized in our cities. We owe the righteous anger
and indignation that overwhelms us to turn it in the right direction, to the real
responsible, and not to disperse it in a vacuum. Let's not hunt any other windmills
anymore. This is the moment when we have to go out on the streets and show that no other
killing will be tolerated, to show the prospect of solidarity, mutual help and common
struggles of all those affected.
The response on the part of the movement must be the sharpening of the
struggle to overthrow the real guilty for exploitation, oppression, poverty,
impoverishment of fake social discrimination, and the total looting of our lives. The
emergence of collectivization and solidarity against fragmentation, competition,
fraudulent segregation, and the constant fear of power. Organized social-class struggles
against exploitation, poverty, racism, and cannibalism. The awareness of our common class
position and the need for a harmonious and free coexistence of all with a view to mutual
assistance and mutual respect, away from capitalism and its state, the institutional and
non-devotees of mediation and interdepartmentalism. Creating common class and social
relationships and developing a collective and fellow struggle against our daily dynasties,
capitalism and the state. Overcoming the imperative way of organizing society by the state
and capital. The creation of a society of equality, solidarity, justice and harmonious
coexistence.The social revolution and the creation of a world that will fit many worlds ...
AS TO COMPETITION, COLLECTION
AGAINST SOCIAL CHILDHOOD, CHALLENGES
AGAINST THE STATE AND CAPITAL, THE ORGANIZATION AND THE FOOT OF OUR RACE
SOLIDARITY IS OUR OWN FUN!
anarchist group " " / member of APO and companions - companions
Patras, October 1, 2018
------------------------------
Message: 4
Wetherspoon workers are calling on their colleagues to Unionise and strike for increased
wages and better working conditions. Wetherspoon workers who are members of the Bakers,
Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU) held successful strikes earlier in the year and
have further action planned for the 4th October. They are demanding £10's an hour, and are
calling on fellow workers to Unionise. How can you help? By leave copies of their strike
bulletin in your local spoons (downloadable for here: notesfrombelow.org/article/spoons)
---- ACG offers its support to the strikers and the groups members will be dropping off
copies of the bulletin in their locals soon. The growing number of strikes in low paid and
insecure work (information about UBER strikes available here) is a response to the on
going attacks on the working class. They represent growing mutual aid and solidarity among
normal people and that is what terrifies owners and bosses.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/09/30/wetherspoon-strike/
------------------------------
Message: 5
We do not know anything about an anarcho-syndicalist movement in Bangladesh. Please tell
us, how everything started. Had there been anarchist traditions or a union movement for a
longer time? Had there been contacts to organizations in other countries? ---- Answer: The
Bangladesh anarchist workers' movement is less than five years old, born out of the ashes
of failed Marxism-Leninism. ---- The author of this answer recalls the antecedent period
in Bangladesh history where Marxism-Leninism held hegemony. This was a time of deep faith
and affection for the thought of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tsetung, and Trotsky.
---- As far as the author understands, none in the movement knew of anarchism as a
political ideology and would not know of it until decades later. We revered the hanging
portraits of Marxist leaders, we studied their books, and we integrated discussion of
their ideas into our daily lives. Our life's pursuit was to become socialist
revolutionaries. We were so fervent in our beliefs of a better world that we sacrificed
clothing for books, food for paper.
The socialist movement was already active in Bangladesh when my generation moved from
studying socialism to helping develop a mass socialist movement. In Dhaka, the capital, we
helped in the dissemination of pro-Soviet papers, we joined student organizations, and we
participated in interviews. We explained socialism to the people, to workers, from the
factories to the fields. Our path was guided by science and freedom of expression, and we
spread our ideas without imposing on others. But we faced public rejection and death in
our efforts.
When speaking in Muslim-dominated areas, many condemned us as atheists and unrighteous.
And where we were not simply denounced, many of us were murdered. Our struggle has been
the history of bloodshed. We have lost many of our companions. And although the oppressive
apparatuses tortured and killed us, we proceeded ahead with the dream of revolution and
continued to take those steps to make the revolution. Our work increased the number of
socialist organizations and supporters across cities and villages. These bodies were
intent to fight against the tyranny of oppression, against the national military
dictatorship and against imperialism.
As early as 1980 we were able to hear about the Soviet Union and China's authoritarian
nature and contradictions. We did not believe this was the truth, that "scientific"
socialism could be false. Rather, we believed this was imperialist and CIA propaganda. The
subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union and the breaking of Lenin's statue greatly shocked
us all. Together with the eastern bloc, the socialist countries of the world changed. They
moved away from having even a veneer of socialism and openly embraced a capitalist
restructuralization.
This produced a tremendous shock in the thought of our movement. We re-read Marxism's
fundamentals over and over. But none of this helped us to better understand the failure of
"socialism".
We did, however, take an interest in the revolutionaries who criticized Marxism-Leninism.
This led us to read the works of many anarchists, such as Mikhail Bakunin, William Godwin,
PJ Proudhon, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Errico Malatesta, Alexander Berkman, Max
Stirner, Élisée Reclus, and Noam Chomsky.
Their works are not in print form, nor are they in Bengali. So our medium of learning has
been through reading anarchist texts through the internet in foreign languages.
By 2012, many of us former Marxists acquired a clear idea of anarcho-syndicalism from our
continuous internet studies.
Because I have been involved in tea workers' struggles since 2000, it was among tea
workers and close, political friends that we first introduced anarcho-syndicalist
practices through the development of The Tea Workers' Council. This council did not bear
the name of any specific doctrine or party. Because old, authoritarian ways persisted, a
clear articulation of anarchism and a regrouping along anarchist principles was necessary.
As a result, on 1 May 2014, many militants formed a twenty three-member committee of those
committed to the principles of anarcho-syndicalism. This committee has fostered the
development of anarcho-syndicalist organizations in across 60+ places in Bangladesh today.
Presently, we are receiving help from the Anarcho-syndicalist Federation of Australia to
improve our organization. With their help, we are also trying to become members of the
IWA-AIT.
We seek solidarity from sister and brother comrades all over the world. We want to work
together with everyone.
Why do you think anarcho-syndicalism is a good idea for your live in Bangladesh?
Answer: I think that capitalism is based on the subordination and exploitation of the
working class. Workers are oppressed because they are forced to work under a coercive
management regime and they are denied the right to control the use of their own abilities
or control their own work.
For the working class to liberate itself from this situation, it is necessary to have a
strategy. The strategy needs to be workable and show how it has a chance of achieving
liberation. This means that the strategy needs to have a good "fit" with the goal or aim.
If the masses are to fight to replace capitalism with a form of socialism, it is not worth
the struggle if the result is just a new form of oppression, run by some new boss class.
Thus it's necessary to think about how our strategy can lead to a form of socialism where
the masses are actually in control of the society, and workers control the places where
they work.
The advantage to anarcho-syndicalism, as I see it, is that it has the best chance of
creating a form of socialism where there will not be a new ruling class, and where workers
will be in control.
The anarcho-syndicalist strategy means building unions that are controlled by their
members, and building broader solidarity throughout the working class. The idea is to
build a labor movement that isn't narrowly focused on only fights with an individual
employer but has the capacity to fight for more systemic change, and can work in alliance
with other social movements. This means that workers have to build solidarity between
different sectors, different groups of the oppressed. Only a labor movement of this kind
would be able to be a force for basic change in the social structure. Building unions
controlled by the members foreshadows workers managing the industries.
The problem with other socialist strategies is that either they don't seem able to get
beyond the present society (as with electoral socialism and cooperativism) or they end up
putting power into the hands of state leaders, and tend to create a new bureaucratic boss
class. Anarcho-syndicalism, on the other hand, is built to avoid creating a new
bureaucratic boss class by avoiding concentration of power into a state bureaucratic machine.
How many groups are there and in which industries / workplaces are they organizing
people? In which cities are they placed?
Answer: Bangladesh Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (BASF) organizes workers at the lowest
levels of diverse industries. Workers in BASF represent sectors from tea garden to food
processing to rickshaw making to ceramics to brickfields to construction to transportation
to maintenance work to domestic/factory guards to loaders to sweepers to employed salesmen
to grocery shop workers to metal workers.
BASF, already organized about 60 groups in different places, whose membership currently is
over 1,600+ with 45% women, only accepts employees as their members.
Despite working in some of the largest and most important industrial sectors, workers
receive extremely low wages. For instance, working women in food processing receive 45
Taka (0.54$) after an 8-hour work day. Ceramic workers receive 55 Taka (0.66$) per day.
Moreover, factories don't have proper ventilation, cooling, and supervisors mistreat
workers. BASF, through sectoral associations, is organizing workers to demand higher
wages, paid holidays, and better working conditions. Sectoral associations (shomiti/?????)
allow BASF to form struggles depending on specific needs and maintain sector specific
autonomy. Each sectoral association has a secretary and a treasurer, and the secretary
functions as a delegate to BASF in federation level decision-making. BASF's student
association is working on developing demands for free education for all, while the tea
garden workers' association is developing demands for land rights in addition to better
wages and working conditions. Patriarchy pervades everyday life and hinders organizing
when, for instance, women do not speak up in men's presence in association meetings. This
happens less among tea garden workers since men and women work together in the hills. In
order to address lack of women's participation, BASF has made efforts toward building a
separate anarcho-syndicalist women's federation.
BASF is working independently and is not yet affiliated with any larger anarchist
organization. BASF understands that capitalism is a worldwide phenomenon and has to be
addressed at a global level through solidarities across locales. However, such
internationalism requires developing a nation-wide organization-a major challenge for
BASF. Assembling while being unregistered as an organization can lead to 5-year prison
sentence for organizers in Bangladesh. BASF now has legal registration papers that they
can use as shield, however it does not have permission from the local police station to
assemble, despite having their organization registered. Anarchism still raises suspicion
among local powerholders. BASF is vigilant about imperialist/colonialist tendencies among
anarchist partners from the global north.
BASF is focusing on the challenges of eliminating entrenched domination in Bangladesh
culture. Dominance has been naturalized across society, from domestic partner relations,
to mullah-believer relation, to student-teacher relation to minister-citizen relation. The
person in the position of authority is seen as unquestionable and is allowed full of
exercise of their sadistic impulses. Our student organizers talking about the widespread
practice of "ragging", where upper class students sexually torture lower classstudents in
universities. When BASF organizers protested widely accepted sexual torture at
universities, thousands of people protested their questioning of upper class authority.
People are habituated to think of politics as partisan politics organized in hierarchical
bureaucracies. As soon as you talk to people about joining the organization (BASF), they
think of being the president, secretary, etc. When they don't get those roles, they lose
interest and leave.
Among the membership base, workers lose work hours participating at BASF events. These are
workers who live hand-to-mouth, unable to pay for food on days they do not work. BASF does
not have enough resources (from food to furniture) to bring all of its association members
together into long conferences and meetings. BASF has 60 associations and has received
interest letters from many more but is unable to integrate all of them or even meet the
interested persons in other parts of Bangladesh.
BASF is committed to moving from just wage struggles to building a broader social
movement. Opposed to vanguardism, BASF wants to create spaces for collective reflection
and action. It believes political praxis requires more education and consciousness raising
among wage workers across sectors, but at the moment BASF is only able to organize workers
in short durations for immediate needs. BASF lacks the infrastructure for further
political education.
It does not have an office, library, or community space. It lacks computers, original and
translated publications, and people capacity to take on popular education projects.
Despite resource drawbacks, BASF shomitis have generated collective "we feelings" among
its members, negotiated higher wages, and engaged in practices of mutual aid within its
sectors. After natural disasters in the region, BASF members work together to rebuild
fellow members' homes without any external aid. During health emergencies or family events
like weddings, members pull together their resources to support one other.
BASF encourages other anarchist organization and federations to develop translations of
publicly available literature for Bengali readers. There are a lot of people who are
reading online nowadays and we can reach them if we have more Bengali anarchist writings.
We should write in Bengali from now on.
Anarcho-syndicalism is an old, but still young:) idea out of the workers' movement in
Europe. The circumstances in Bangladesh - I guess - are different. Which parts of the
anarchosyndicalist historical / modern practices had been inspiring, which were not useful
and had to be dropped/changed? How could anarchosyndicalism be adopted to your economical
and cultural circumstances in Bangladesh today?
Answer: While any modern economy will be complex, the simplicity of a future
anarcho-syndicalist economy lies in the fact that it will be defined by a few basic
principles. It will be a true anarcho-syndicalist economy if:
1) There is no mechanism for profit, or for concentrating wealth and capital. 2)
Workplaces are collectively run and are controlled directly and democratically by workers.
3) Any organisational/administrative bodies are composed only of recallable, accountable
delegates who are elected by mass meetings in the workplace or community. 4) Property is
held in common (though clearly, we all have the right to our own living space, personal
possessions, etc.). 5) All work is voluntary, and goods and services equally accessible.
Money, wages and prices do not exist. 6) There is a significant level of economic
planning, but not centralised. Regional or wider-scale planning is for complex and larger
scale modes of production. Local production and consumption is not subordinate to regional
planning, but is on the basis of self-sufficiency.
An economy that operates under these principles is one that is a lot more desirable and
effective in ensuring quality of life than the current capitalist chaos.
There are lots of ways in which people will feel the incentive to work voluntarily, and
there are lots of different ways in which local and regional economies might work. Some
people may migrate to economies which suit them. Some economies may be simpler, based on
self-sufficiency more than anything else; others will be more integrated and produce
complex goods.
The options are many, but the principles will ensure that everyone has the time and the
inclination to get involved in planning and participating in their economy - a far cry
from the present rotten, corrupt, and cynically selfish system we have the misfortune to
be saddled with.
Getting from here to there is not going to be easy, but humanity created capitalism, and
humanity can replace it. The collective act of wrenching control of our own economic lives
from the hands of capitalism is the long-overdue revolution we so desperately need.
The success of replacing capitalism will be measured by how much we take control of our
own destiny, rather than simply passing it on to some other power, as previous failed
revolutions have done.
Real progress is best made not by producing detailed blueprints (for that way lies the
slide into abstract politics and leadership), but by sticking to basic principles, and
concentrating our efforts on taking action for real change. Real democracy requires real
solidarity - and that means agreeing on the basics and then trusting ourselves and the
rest of humanity to get on with it. "Keeping it real" is the key.
Anarcho-syndicalism is a strategy for the working class to free itself from the capitalist
regime of class oppression and create a system of libertarian socialism based on
worker-managed industry.
This is possible in Bangladesh because it is possible for workers to form unions they
directly control. I realize that since World War Two unions became increasingly
bureaucratic. That was then, this is now. Unions have obvious problems.
What is needed now is for workers to form new unions they directly control, through
general meetings and elected delegate (or shop steward) councils. A more directly
worker-controlled and militant unionism, a unionism based on class-wide solidarity, would
be a much better form of unionism and it would provide workers with a vehicle for making
changes in society.
The basic idea is that unions that are self-managed by their members prefigure and
foreshadow a form of socialism where workers self-manage the workplaces, the industries.
This is a much better model of socialism than the failed statist models of socialism in
the 20th century.
However, the building of self-managed unions is only a starting point. The aim of
anarcho-syndicalism is basic structural change in society, doing away with the capitalist
regime, its system of class subordination, but also anarcho-syndicalism targets the other
oppressive aspects of the capitalist regime - its systemic forms of inequality as on
racism and gender inequality, its reliance on a top down repressive and bureaucratic state
machine. So the question of how possible anarcho-syndicalism is, has to be interpreted as
also asking about the possibility for the transformation of society into libertarian
socialism.
For this to be possible there would need to be an alliance of unions and social movements
of sufficient size, organizational strength and militancy as to pose this kind of threat
to the survival of the capitalist regime.
What do you and your comrades think about a bangladeshian/german exchange? A big part of
anarcosyndicalist practice is not only being organized in unions but to take the
production in our own hands. What about the possibility to raise a collective industry and
exchange of goods a labour between Germany and Bangladesh anarcosyndicalist movement? So
to say not only capitalist "fair trade" but collective "revolutionary economy". Is there a
possibility to built up anarcosyndicalist collectives for a future economy in our way of
thinking? (This point may lead to a bigger discussion, so take you time to answer it, please.)
Answer: It seems that the germs of a possible Bangladeshian/German exchange or the
"revolutionary economy" as mentioned are already present.
As of now we do not have the technical or financial means to start co-operatives by
ourselves, but we have already considered it as a possibility if the means were to be made
available. Funding co-operatives would be something we could do with surplus funds, if we
ever have them. It is difficult to have surplus funds when we are still having problems
just making sure people have food in their stomach.
As mentioned above, the BASF is currently in a period of rapid growth that it is
struggling to keep up with. The task of building anarchist-worthy workplace unions
consumes all our time.
But this is seeming all the more possible the more sisters and brothers from abroad talk
about this to us. And it is welcomed news that contrasts the immoral spending habits we
have seen our entire lives.
We have seen the terrible injustice of stronger nations and their peoples coming to or
using indigent nations such as Bangladesh to take advantage of the high purchasing power
of their home currencies that is made possible by our cruel impoverishment.
The proposal of such an exchange is in a completely contrary spirit to this. In the least,
its solidaric content excites us.
I know anarchists and workers in the USA would also like to use such an economy to turn
the weapons of the exploiters against the exploiters themselves here in Bangladesh.
I am glad to hear others from abroad wanting to do what little they can to help us.
If such collectives grew here, its participants would have to carefully chart their
development, so that they are in harmony with the general movement and add to its
revolutionary character.
I imagine they would socialize their resources, helping to meet urgent organizational and
material needs among our rank-and-file that could offer unique opportunities that are not
possible outside the framework of such a solidarity economy.
We are seeing successes in our union organizing, and it is difficult to concentrate our
efforts elsewhere, especially while our hands are clenched fighting in so many workplaces.
I imagine comrades from abroad would have to come here to offer us technical assistance to
make this possible since our hands are so full.
This is an idea and sentiment that I hope continues to grow. I thank all comrades who are
discussing this.
What about other aspects of a free society - for example how is the question of women
emancipation realized in your organizations? What do the female comrades think about it?
Answer: For the emancipation of women we already formed Bangladesh Anarcho-Syndicalist
Women's Union (BAWU).
The BAWU identifies the cause of women's oppression as the economic systems of feudalism
and capitalism, rather than in a perceived weakness in national character or culture.
Most of its ideology has been formulated by its founding members. They focus on the
class-based exploitation of women, singling out sex workers, domestic servants and female
factory workers as the most oppressed.
They condemn the unequal distribution of wealth and refuse to subordinate working women's
struggle to any other ideological cause. Declaring that "the goal of equality cannot be
achieved except through women's liberation", BAWU views women's freedom as something that
women must accomplish on their own, since relying on others to give them their rights has
not worked up to now and likely never will. Revolutionary change, not reform, is seen as
the only way forward.
At this point, BAWU and the ideas it represent is still a new phenomenon to Bangladesh women.
There is a mixture of joy, curiosity, and hesitation.
We hope that our liberatory vision and practices continue to grow.
The recent awakening of the anarchist spirit in the Bangladesh people is causing big
social changes that we hope can continue with the broadening of our experiences and education.
For decades we knew nothing of anarchism, very simple yet profoundly unique ideas that
resonate to the core of our essential humanity.
Some of us who have grown up in authoritarian society and discover anarchism later in life
have the least grounds to assume that our vision of freedom is the most comprehensive.
After all, we lived completely oblivious to something simple and innate for decades, in
some cases.
We will continue to be ready to receive and consider new or better ideas that enrich
individual liberty and dignity. Some will come from our interactions from other
societies. Perhaps we will discover pre-colonialist ways of life that have been hidden
from us and reclaim our heritage.
Being open to new ideas is the easier thing, of course. The task of spreading them and
defending those who wish to elevate them against innate conservatism in ordinary people
and institutions is the more difficult task.
We hope we are cultivating an anarchist generation that will be able to continue this work.
We are just the beginning, of course.
Are there any syndicalist research groups connected to your unions / syndicates?
Answer: Not yet.
What are your goals in the next future? How can european comrades support these goals?
Answer: Our main goals are as follows:
1) The Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation is a libertarian workers' movement organized
according to anarcho-syndicalist principles. We aim to create a society based on liberty,
mutual aid, federalism and self-management.
2) We believe the working class and the employing class have nothing in common. Between
these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a
class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage
system.
3) In the present we take an active part in the struggle for worker solidarity, shorter
hours, immediate wage increases and improved working conditions. And we actively oppose
all attacks on workers such as conscription of labour, strike breaking, drives for
increased production and longer working hours, wage cuts or unemployment.
4) We want worker/community self-education for complete self-management of production,
distribution, social organisation and preservation of a healthy ecological environment.
This will come about by worker/community expropriation of wealth and the creation of
alternative economic systems.
5) We are opposed to all economic and social monopoly. We do not seek the conquest of
political power, but rather the total abolition of all state functions in the life of
society. Hence we reject all parliamentary activity and other collaboration with
legislative bodies. We believe in fighting organisations in the workplace and community,
independent of, and opposed to all political parties and Trade Union bureaucracies.
6) Our means of struggle include education and direct action. To ensure the full
participation of all in both current struggle and the future self-management of society,
we oppose centralism in our organisations. We organise on the basis of Libertarian
Federalism that is from the bottom up without any hierarchy and with full freedom of
initiative by both local and regional groups. All co-ordinating bodies of the Federation
consist of recallable delegates with specific tasks determined by local assemblies.
7) We see the world as our country, humanity as our family. We reject all political and
national frontiers and aim to unmask the arbitrary violence of all governments.
8) We oppose all attitudes and assumptions that are harmful and injurious to working class
solidarity. We oppose all ideologies and institutions that stand in the way of equality
and the right of people everywhere to control their own lives and their environment.
European comrades can support these goals the following fields:
BASF seeks technical and financial support in the following areas:
1) We need some financial assistance to develop our communication infrastructure for our
organizing work. Funds left over would be spent according to our membership's discretion
toward necessary efforts, including education, union campaigns, co-operative
opportunities, transportation, and food.
2) Our movement is currently growing throughout the country. Improving our communication
infrastructure would help our organizing activities in over 60+[?]locals we have already
established and in different industries we currently have a footing in.
3) Translation costs from English to Bengali language:
The Bangladesh anarcho-syndicalist workers' movement is less than five years old, and we
are in dire need of printed material to educate and organize..
We are undertaking the "Bengali Translation & Publication Project" here in Bangladesh.
We have begun translating some basic books on anarchism written by thinkers such as
Bakunin, William Godwin, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Malatesta, Alexander Berkman,
Stirner, Élisée Reclus, Noam Chomsky, and so on.
Our initial plan is to translate and print ten books to build a strong knowledge base of
anarchism in our country.
Most of our Bangladeshi comrades come from very poor family backgrounds, so although the
audience and organizers are there to share these books, but the means to finish printing
them are still lacking.
You can help us print books with a small donation at
http://www.bangladeshasf.org/#donation-button
Even just one euro would go a long way!
You can also contact us if you have any idea about inexpensive ways to print.
basfsylhet@gmail.com
facebook.com/basfsylhet
We will appreciate your help very much.
Perhaps anarchist, Bengali books will be useful for workers who live outside Bangladesh,
maybe in your places of action. If you want to organize conferences or pre-order books,
contact us through the same means shown above.
Here are the books we are working on printing,
The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin
What Is Property? by P.J. Proudhon
The Anarchist Revolution by Errico Malatesta
God and the State by Mikhail Bakunin
Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice by Rudolf Rocker
Nationalism and Culture by Rudolf Rocker
ABC of Anarchism by Alexander Berkman
Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin
Program of Anarcho-Syndicalism by G.P. Maximoff
Demanding the Impossible by Peter Marshall
Do you regularly publish any books or magazines with anarcosyndicalist content?
Answer: We have taken the initiative to publish a little magazine.
Is there the possibility to send one or two versed comrades for a rally/connective tour to
the anarcosyndicalist groups and unions of Europe / Germany?
Answer: Yes. It is important to share our news and ideas.
http://www.bangladeshasf.org/news/question-answers-with-basf/
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Message: 6
Following the article " feminist frames for a cinema X " in Alternative libertaire of
March, a reader wished to react. The monthly Alternative Libertarian publishes articles
that reflect the orientations of AL, but it is also enriched sometimes with other points
of view and analyzes, if they do not seem antagonistic. It is right that some articles are
debating. AL Commission Commission. ---- After reading the March monthly article titled "
Feminist Framings for a Cinema X ", I wanted to address the many weaknesses he suffers
from. ---- First by putting on the same level feminism says prosex and radical feminism,
which allows to read without flat " the essentialist theory according to which sex and
gender are clearly defined ". I remain in doubt about sex and what underlies the will of
transition, on the other hand no doubt the social sex (gender so) is a reality and we are
all built in a clearly defined role. That we can develop it, leave it partially
individually will not prevent women from being less paid and victims of violence. Until
today, it is the basis of the radical and materialistic feminism of libertarian Alternative.
Then with a poor analysis of porn. What is the porn for ? To make the men bandage (and
to wet the women if the images were more intended for them). How do we excite humans ?
With the representation of their fantasies, even the most unconfessed. Are fantasies
humanly and politically correct ? I let each and everyone judge in the secret of his
imagination. But fantasies are probably like the rest influenced by the social context.
Should fantasies come out of the intimacy of the brains ? In capitalism yes, anything
that attracts and allows to sell advertising or objects is desirable.
What are the other problems posed by porn ? They are colossal. First, teens learn about
sexuality and believe it's the real sex life. Combating this education with violence on
the one hand, and the submission of the other, requires sex education and real consent,
and is very present at all ages of schooling ; by condemning violence, social and
judicial ; by an education for the autonomy of girls and women and the normal variety of
bodies and vulvae. Then the actresses are mistreated. Because the situations filmed can
not be in good conditions for the body of the actresses. Porn is closer to the
prostitutional system than cinema. And here you need controls, regulations and penalties.
Maybe porn cinema will disappear in these conditions, it's okay, fantasies are intimate.
Can there be a feminist porn ? We come back to the question: what is the use of porn ?
Christine (AL Orne Sarthe)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Courrier-d-une-lectrice-Porno-capitalisme-et-sexualite
------------------------------
Message: 7
As part of the Take Back the City National Day of Action, housing activists with Housing
Action Kildare had a banner and leaflet drop in Newbridge on Sept 22nd, centred around a 4
bedroom house that has been empty for up to 7 years and is owned by a bank. ---- The house
is located in the Standhouse Rise housing estate in Newbridge and a yellow poster now
marks it as house that is lying empty during a time of desperate housing need. This kind
of artificial scarcity, enabled by State inaction, driven by property price speculation
and enforced by police violence, is completely unnecessary. ---- Local residents responded
positively to the action when organisers leafletted the surrounding houses. One woman
joked that she almost called the Gardaí upon seeing a group assembling around the vacant
house which she said has been empty for years and has been broken into by groups of youths
who have done minor damage to inside of the house.
This action is part of a growing housing campaign building in Kildare and nationally that
it is hoped will grow to such a strength that it can force the State to commit to building
public housing which is the only real option to solving the housing crisis.
https://wsm.ie/c/long-term-empty-houses-highlighted-kildare
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