Anarchic update news all over the world - Part 1 - 8.10.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #287 - Genres: In France,
      intersex still rhymes with mutilations (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #287 - International:
      Thinking and acting concretely across borders (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
3.  Greece, liberta salonica: Bake the honest ones in the sprats
      Anarchist Federation [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation Statement on
      Kavanaugh and a Feminist Movement Fighting to End Capitalism
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  wsm.ie: Video - all of 2018 March for Choice as it passes
      down the Dublin quays - Author: Andrew N Flood 
    (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1






In September, the intersex and Allied collective (CIA) launched the first campaign to stop 
mutilations for intersex children and adolescents ; in France, nearly 2  % of births would 
be affected, so many people still suffering medical violence. ---- Intersexuation is the 
presentation of sexual characteristics that do not correspond to those of the binary 
classifications of men or women. When this happens, parents will have to decide to assign 
a sex to their child, with all that it will involve ; in fact, the medical profession will 
then practice various interventions, whether from hormonal treatments or surgical 
procedures, so that the child enters the desired space. ---- The vast majority of the 
children concerned are in good health, and there is no justification for constructing 
these interventions from a medical point of view. Conversely, the consequences of these 
protocols are often cumbersome, physically but also dramatic for the identity construction 
of the people concerned, who have been imposed an identity and unnecessary bodily changes.

The current justification for these acts is that they would promote the child's good 
psychological and social development by allowing him to identify with peers and not be 
stigmatized. stigmatization is produced by medical professionals, for whom these children 
are above all "  abnormal  ".

The appeal launched by the Intersex and Allies collective 1 highlights these elements, 
recalling that these practices have been denounced internationally and by many rights groups.

In France, the report of the Council of State published last June preparing the revision 
of the bioethics law puts forward the question of the consent of the child as a 
prerequisite for any intervention, if its state of health does not require intervention of 
'emergency.

No longer see intersex as a pathological condition
The idea of waiting for the child to express a choice has emerged, with all that implies. 
On the one hand, all professionals should be trained not to see intersex as a pathological 
condition to be remedied, but as the existence of variations in the construction of sexual 
characteristics.

It must also be possible to implement this right to expectation, with the possibility of 
postponing the attribution of sex to civil status for the children concerned, until a 
decision has been taken by the person herself. However, if recommendations could be 
formulated in this sense, nothing has yet been proposed in a concrete way.

The campaign [1]proposed by the collective, which has created a dedicated site, an online 
petition and tools to disseminate, aims to federate around the stop mutilation and the 
possibility of choice, but it also allows to give visibility to intersex and all related 
issues, being carried by people directly concerned.

Flo (Lorient)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Genres-En-France-l-intersexuation-rime-encore-avec-mutilations

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Message: 2






Last month, we made an inventory of international trade unionism. It is only interesting 
if it is coupled with militant activity. So what to do, in international matters, in our 
trade union organizations ? ---- Internationalism is one of the values traditionally put 
forward in the congresses of the workers' movement, especially the trade unions. But what 
is it really ? In the last century, we know the catastrophic example of the war in 1914 
with the massive - but not unanimous, fortunately - rallying to the Sacred Union  [1]. The 
anti-colonial struggles also found a syndical movement with different attitudes ; the 
majority did not provide full and frank support to the struggling peoples. We still see it 
today, vis-à-vis the situation in Kanaky, Guadeloupe or Corsica, for example.

Although capitalism has been largely globalized for decades, trade union resistance and 
offensives have not followed the same path: too few strikes and international events, 
because of too little coordination on this scale ; both professionally and professionally. 
Yet, many things can be done.

For this, the international must not concern only militant groups furthest from the field, 
(federations, union, confederations). Each and every one of them, within their union 
section, has the opportunity to contribute and instill a dynamic that can then be extended 
to the entire organization.

Common leaflets and tours abroad
Contacts can be made with foreign unions in the same professional sector, through the 
international networks mentioned last month.

It is within the reach of all to make leaflets common to unions in several countries, 
talking about the concrete problems of employees by resituating them in the international 
business logic. The same goes for posters or for tours abroad, like the one organized by 
the American unions in 2002 with the winning strikers of McDo France, to learn from their 
struggle. Contacts and implementations are easier when working in a multinational company 
and / or network, or a public service, because correspondents and correspondents are 
easily identifiable.

Around unions which are clearly in the field of the class struggle, there are 
co-ordinations of this kind, with various contours, in the rail, education, call centers, 
automotive, health, logistics ... This can lead to "  Eurogroves  ", such as those 
organized in the European railways, in October 1992, by the European Transport Federation 
(linked to the European Trade Union Confederation), or in March 2003 via what will then 
become the Rail Network Without Borders  [2]. But we can also mention the attempt of 
Eurogrève at Renault against the closure of the site of Vilvoorde in 1997. Sailors and 
dockers have a long habit of solidarity without borders, punctuated by some active strikes 
where direct action takes its place.

Get to know each other upstream to act at the right time
Like the interprofessional, the international dimension is often rediscovered only during 
a conflict: "  Against the closure of our factory or job cuts, let us contact colleagues 
from other countries  ." But, as for the interprofessional, it is often too late. The 
links must be woven before, the common work makes it possible to anticipate, to create 
confidence.

When union sections, unions or local unions are twinned with similar structures in other 
countries, the point is not to stick to the symbol, but to exchange publications, organize 
militant exchanges, and support each other. struggles. On this last point, numerous 
testimonies of comrades attest to this: in many countries, the messages of protest to the 
institutions and the employers weigh in the resolution of certain strikes and against the 
repression. It's far from negligible !

In addition to ad hoc reactions, several French trade union organizations are conducting 
long-term unitary campaigns: support for trade unionists in Iran (CGT, CFDT, Unsa, 
Solidaires, FSU) ; release of Koltckenko and Sentsov in Russia (Solidaires, CNT-SO, CNT) ; 
Boycott Divestment Sanctions against the Israeli state (Solidaires, CNT, some CGT 
structures) ; etc. There were things of the same type at the World Cup in Brazil, others 
start (collective Nicaragua).

 From supporting independent unions persecuted in the Soviet bloc countries or South 
American dictatorships to assisting Maghreb trade unionists facing repression by their 
states, the trade union movement in which we find ourselves has a long tradition behind 
him. It's up to us to perpetuate it and renew it. This is done through the European 
assembly of bicycle deliverers (which meets at the end of October in Brussels), the 
coordination of the workers of Amazon (a meeting with delegations from Germany, Poland, 
France, Spain, United States ... was held at the end of September). One can thus give a 
resonance to certain struggles for which collectives act with abnegation, persistence and 
... too little echo.

International trade union action makes it possible to act on issues as important as 
women's rights, which can not be dealt with in the national context alone ; likewise for 
the respect of migrants. It is also the opportunity to exchange and learn about workers' 
control, self-management ... Information plays an important role for international trade 
union training. The CGT publishes a newsletter ; Solidarity likewise with also a magazine 
whose each issue is devoted to countries (the last ones on Tunisia, Mexico, Algeria, 
Brazil, Kurdistan  , the next on China) ; the CNT-SO also has a more irregular 
international bulletin; the CNT, a dedicated website. Extracts from these publications can 
be found in section or union newsletters.

Christian (AL Southeast Suburbs)

[1] Guillaume Davranche, Too young to die. Workers and revolutionaries facing the war 
(1909-1914), The Insomniac / Libertalia, 2014.

[2] The Rail without Borders network is composed of British (RMT), French (SUD-Rail, 
Solidarity-RATP, Solidarity-Transport), Spanish (CGT, Intersyndical), Moroccan, 
Senegalese, Malian, Tunisian, American, Canadian, Brazilian and Swiss ...

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?International-Penser-et-agir-concretement-par-dela-les-frontieres

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Message: 3






a young man - from what he later learned was a retrograde fighter of the lgbdqia + 
community, a seropositive and drug user - enters a jewelery store in Omonia (either to 
steal or to find shelter from the fight, little importance here), the door automatically 
closes behind it and locked in. In his panic about being trapped and having already 
received a stone, he tries to break the door with a fire extinguisher he finds and, after 
failing to do so, tries to get out of the window. Trying to escape, he gets the kicks of 
the jeweler owner, which at the same time breaks the window glazing literally on his head, 
while he also receives kicks on his head and body and is cut off by glasses in many 
places. His "effort" is supported by another "passerby" who, having found the opportunity, 
kicks the helpless person. Not at all, when the second killer is identified, it is 
understood that the "random passerby" is a labeled fascist, a member of the far-right 
organization "Patriotic Front". The man comes out of the shop with multiple attacks from 
the two men, and panic busts a piece of broken glass from the window to defend himself 
from the unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) Intervening: cops stop it, kick it all 
the more, despite being heavily injured and full of blood, and it gets handcuffs. So, 
beaten by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie Zackie dies before he even gets to 
the hospital. since he found the opportunity, kick the helpless person. Not at all, when 
the second killer is identified, it is understood that the "random passerby" is a labeled 
fascist, a member of the far-right organization "Patriotic Front". The man comes out of 
the shop with multiple attacks from the two men, and panic busts a piece of broken glass 
from the window to defend himself from the unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) 
Intervening: cops stop it, kick it all the more, despite being heavily injured and full of 
blood, and it gets handcuffs. So, beaten by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie 
Zackie dies before he even gets to the hospital. since he found the opportunity, kick the 
helpless person. Not at all, when the second killer is identified, it is understood that 
the "random passerby" is a labeled fascist, a member of the far-right organization 
"Patriotic Front". The man comes out of the shop with multiple attacks from the two men, 
and panic busts a piece of broken glass from the window to defend himself from the 
unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) Intervening: cops stop it, kick it all the 
more, despite being heavily injured and full of blood, and it gets handcuffs. So, beaten 
by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie Zackie dies before he even gets to the 
hospital. it is conceivable that the "random passerby" is a labeled fascist, a member of 
the far-right organization "Patriotic Front". The man comes out of the shop with multiple 
attacks from the two men, and panic busts a piece of broken glass from the window to 
defend himself from the unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) Intervening: cops stop 
it, kick it all the more, despite being heavily injured and full of blood, and it gets 
handcuffs. So, beaten by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie Zackie dies before he 
even gets to the hospital. it is conceivable that the "random passerby" is a labeled 
fascist, a member of the far-right organization "Patriotic Front". The man comes out of 
the shop with multiple attacks from the two men, and panic busts a piece of broken glass 
from the window to defend himself from the unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) 
Intervening: cops stop it, kick it all the more, despite being heavily injured and full of 
blood, and it gets handcuffs. So, beaten by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie 
Zackie dies before he even gets to the hospital. The man comes out of the shop with 
multiple attacks from the two men, and panic busts a piece of broken glass from the window 
to defend himself from the unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) Intervening: cops 
stop it, kick it all the more, despite being heavily injured and full of blood, and it 
gets handcuffs. So, beaten by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie Zackie dies 
before he even gets to the hospital. The man comes out of the shop with multiple attacks 
from the two men, and panic busts a piece of broken glass from the window to defend 
himself from the unprovoked attack. And there's the Law (!) Intervening: cops stop it, 
kick it all the more, despite being heavily injured and full of blood, and it gets 
handcuffs. So, beaten by the cannibals and cops and tied up, Zackie Zackie dies before he 
even gets to the hospital.

And Law continues his "job": the cops let the assassin literally sweep all the elements. 
As it appeared later, they do not exclude the scene of the crime, they do not collect 
evidence and do not take deposits from the dozens of passers-by who witnessed the murder. 
For days it is assumed that the second killer has not been identified. The murderers walk 
through the courts without handcuffs and eventually leave them free until the trial.

It does not matter for us if he went to steal the jeweler or not. For us, the people of 
this society, the most impoverished and impoverished, whether they are the immigrants or 
the addicted drug users, whether they are the scribes or all or none of them, are sure to 
be the most underestimated part of it of our class, and that is why it is flesh from our 
flesh. It is they and those who can not meet the basic needs, those who live in the 
street, those who sometimes have no access to clean water, those who are forced to steal 
to take their next dose. They are the ones who are, in the most obvious way, left in the 
world of bosses, in the world of Capital. Why, too, would we be left out, if we were not 
productive, if we were not, therefore, worthy of exploitation. Unfortunately, for all of 
us and for all of us, the rest - who are in better shape, but in a similar degree - are 
constant reminders of the merciless nature of capitalism and that we too, we are perhaps 
at most a breath of this barbarity, say "let's, lucky we are ... and again good to say!". 
So, instead of raging and fighting against injustice, against the exploitation and 
oppression that we exist, we spit our bosom, bend our head and continue our work. we 
usually prefer to say "let's, lucky we are ... and again good to say!". So, instead of 
raging and fighting against injustice, against the exploitation and oppression that we 
exist, we spit our bosom, bend our head and continue our work. we usually prefer to say 
"let's, lucky we are ... and again good to say!". So, instead of raging and fighting 
against injustice, against the exploitation and oppression that we exist, we spit our 
bosom, bend our head and continue our work.

In contrast to the world of solidarity and mutual help among the exploited and the 
oppressed, there is another world: the world of the Pan-eldeans, the world of those who 
have reduced their property (s) to sacred value, the world of the bosses with class 
consciousness, and worse still the world of workers who think and feel like their bosses. 
In short, the world of cannibals, those who are always willing to hunt and strike only 
those who are at a lower level than the social pyramid, and always equally willing to 
prove themselves to the will of their strongest. Those who are able even to kill simply 
because they want to protect their property, those for whom human life does not count as 
much as one (stolen and resold to be honest) chain. The two beating cannibals murder a 
person who considered themselves a thief and rather a user who was not in any way a threat 
to anyone, and then they washed their hands from the blood and simply turned home or went 
to wipe out, embodying the most material - and not necessarily consciously - the slogan 
that a few days later the neo-Nazis shouted out of the shop: "You do not need presses and 
gay." Fascism in its most formal form. Capitalism in its most sincere version. Social 
cannibalism in its most ominous aspect. And the "event" would be forgotten, as much as so 
many, if the assassin was not to be a known activist of the gay and seropositive 
community, and that barbarity would come to be added to a series of other barbarities, 
which can not immediately but surely be indirectly related. Law in a way, because the 
drop, though seemingly irrelevant - and certainly random - is actually deeply and 
essentially related to the overflowing glass. Adjusive, however, in another way, for all 
the other myriads "anonymous" drops that are lost and are lost every day like tears in the 
rain.

Capitalism is a system of organizing society, building on exclusion. It uses the various 
power relationships (based on gender, color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, 
appearance, regularity, etc.) in order to organize all social relations in the direction 
of (re) production and circulation of value. Exclusions are no deviation and will never be 
eliminated within the existing system: it is its tool, it is its stripped essence.

Fascism, in turn, is the embodiment of the absolute form of all power relations: racism, 
nationalism, chauvinism, misogynyism, homophobia, militarism. That is why fascism is the 
birth of this world of oppression, exploitation and exceptions. This is why our struggle 
against fascism must be inseparable from capitalism. Fascism is the intensification of the 
capitalist treaty of the exception, intensifying the deregulation and militarization of 
the labor, setting conditions for extermination in the "overwhelming" labor force. 
Similarly, socializing is the grasp and familiarity of the social base with fascist ideas 
and practices. It is the imposition of the law of the strongest in the most blatant and 
open-minded terms, both from the class of the bosses to that of the workers, and in the 
very interior of the working class. And as well as its organized political version, so 
also as a social phenomenon widespread in the time of the economic crisis (and before it 
of course, but more or less concealed) must be ruined by those who realize that the 
exploited and oppressed (s) have common interests which they have to defend jointly. That 
is why we should not forget that the antisocial and cannibalistic outbursts are a 
consequence of the class contradictions, the central position occupied by individual 
property in the capitalist social formation, but also the alienation, the assimilation of 
a wide portion of the subordinate strata from sovereignty, through micro-fascism. 
Therefore, our response to social cannibalism must be annexed to the most comprehensive 
struggle for social liberation, denaturing the reactionary reaction to class 
consciousness, which connects individuals with dominant social and productive relationships.
The world of the struggle, the exploited and the oppressed, all and all that we have not 
forgotten the brutality of the historical past, we must drastically curb any attempt to 
develop fascism and social cannibalism in the world of the social base. We must crush 
these attitudes and behaviors across the social field in which we move and live: the 
streets, the work, the schools and the schools, our neighborhoods. We naturally 
acknowledge that simply invoking a class unity in itself is a wish-card, which strikes 
against the bitterness and very real fragmentation of the oppressed. We can not ignore, 
for our part, the terrible shortcomings of acts of mutual aid and kinematic, 
self-organized solidarity structures responding to the destruction and abandonment of 
state decisions. We do not overlook the fact that there is a big gap between the 
politicized parties and other more marginalized groups. Also, unity does not mean 
unanimity. If something looks after the assassination, there are different tendencies 
within the struggling people, and more so among the oppressed in general. The common 
interests remain to be found in practice, and that is certainly not easy. It is important, 
however, that we can recognize, along with the many disputes, sometimes unchecked, the 
existence of some common denominators that bring us virtually close against the camp of 
maintenance, reaction and subordination. So where cannibalism overflows, where instigation 
becomes a rule, we respond with class unity and solidarity among the oppressed. And, yes, 
and with violence. Against reactionary and diabolically disciplined voices condemning 
violence wherever it comes, we find that proletarian anti-violence is a means of social 
and class self-defense and counter-attack in order to prevent social conditions of 
generalized violence and enforcement. It is a response of the oppressed to their 
oppressors. in order to prevent social conditions of generalized violence and enforcement. 
It is a response of the oppressed to their oppressors. in order to prevent social 
conditions of generalized violence and enforcement. It is a response of the oppressed to 
their oppressors.

DO NOT HAPPY THE DEATH - TO LOVE FOR LIFE

MISCAL DOCUMENT REPRESENTS LARGE AND SMALL OFFICIALS

REAR CABINETS

Anarchist Federation anarchist-federation.gr anarchist-federation@riseup.net twitter: 
twitter.com/anarchistfedGr fb: facebook.com/anarxikiomospondia2015 Youtube: Anarchist 
Federation

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2018/10/03/

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Message: 4





Last week, survivors of sexual violence and their supporters rose up in solidarity as the 
moving testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford called the impunity of wealthy white men 
into question. Touching on issues of male entitlement and the silence of survivors, this 
cultural moment reveals the growing societal tensions around who has the power to define 
"truth" when it comes to narratives of sexual assault. ---- Supreme Court nominee Brett 
Kavanaugh reflects an archetype of how entitlement and privilege breed violence in all 
areas of life, from the university to the workplace to the home. Kavanaugh's consistent 
appeals to his elite background and Yale education reveal the misogynistic assumptions 
pervasive among the ruling class, namely that one of the privileges of wealth and power is 
the ability to use and abuse women with impunity. Like the "founding fathers" of this 
nation who ruthlessly raped enslaved women without consequence to their fortunes or 
legacies, Kavanaugh assumes his status entitles him to silence those he's exploited on the 
path to power.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford grew up in a world of power and privilege, but despite her 
background her story resonates with many survivors everywhere. As Kavanaugh and his 
equally inebriated friend used her body as a prop in a perverted game of male bonding, 
Ford's screams were silenced by a hand over her mouth. This silencing did not end with her 
assault, since trauma and fear of social consequences compelled her to keep her story 
private for decades to come. During the hearing her teary eyed description of the assault 
was met with a line of questioning that sought to cast doubt on every aspect of her 
account: "Are you sure this happened?" Pro-Kavanaugh sources proposed Ford's legitimate 
trauma was being exploited by Democrats for political gain, while less generous sources, 
President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. included, didn't hesitate to paint her as a 
vindictive woman set on ruining the predestined professional ascent of one of the 
country's chosen sons.

Her deeply personal but equally political testimony made many survivors recall moments 
when they felt violated or invalidated and encouraged them to share their stories and 
validate others. This overflowing of feminist solidarity holds the potential to spark a 
movement like those seen around the world, where survivors challenge their abusers and the 
systems that protect them, manifesting both their discontent and desire to heal in their 
schools, workplaces, and communities.

Kavanaugh's defenders argue that he should not be judged for "youthful indiscretions" or 
for "one incident." Such defenses echo debates when people attempt to confront rapists and 
physical abusers. Rape culture means the deflection from holding those accountable by 
centering the conversation about preserving the "future" of promising athletes due to 
their social and economic value. The fact that Kavanaugh has already lived out his 
"future" means that the hearings must re-establish his potential and youth in order to 
create a sympathetic public character. Kavanaugh's youth is frozen in time while Dr. Ford 
is painted in a different light; delusional, desperate, vindictive, and a joke.

Accomplished lawyer Anita Hill and Dr. Ford fell victim to the same forces of male 
violence, but the juxtaposition of their hearings also illustrates how antiracist and 
feminist movements both failed women of color by refusing to grapple with the 
intersections of race and gender violence. Anita Hill famously challenged Supreme Court 
nominee Justice Clarence Thomas, and sparked a national discussion about sexual assault. 
Yet, as a Black woman, she was particularly vulnerable to the intersections of racism and 
misogyny. Thomas defended himself by accusing Hill of betraying her race and infamously 
referred to her testimony as a "lynching." Despite facing racist stereotypes that 
rationalized violence and disbelief as well as a colorblind feminist movement, her 
testimony provoked what became known as The Year of the Woman in 1992, in which more new 
women were elected to Congress than in any previous decade.

Hill's allegations against Thomas began on a similar note to Ford's Testimony: "What 
happened next, and telling the world about it, are the two most difficult 
things-experiences of my life." Thomas persisted in asking her out even though she had 
turned him down multiple times, and would share explicit sexual encounters and pornography 
with Hill during work even though she repeatedly expressed discomfort. Unlike Ford, Hill's 
trauma often went unacknowledged and the public saw her as less "credible" because of 
cultural myths that once rationalized sexual violence against enslaved women, and continue 
to make women of color targets for predators of all races.

Although the Kavanaugh hearing was a powerful moment that inspired solidarity, it was also 
a display of patriarchal state power. Even as Dr. Ford gained political leverage and 
credibility from her race and class status, male politicians and some media outlets still 
questioned the authenticity of her intellect. Dr. Ford's decision to come forward was 
traumatic and has marked her a class traitor. Dr. Ford, an upper class white woman, must 
appear near-perfect yet is still torn to shreds. It demonstrates that women really mean 
nothing to the state as long as patriarchy is upheld.

A Global Feminist Tide is Rising - Where Are the US Feminists?
Feminism has clearly been surging on a global level. From the women's strike in Poland to 
Chile's wave of feminist university occupations to a variety of anti-sexist hashtags 
calling thousands to the streets, movements are coalescing around putting an end to 
gendered violence and instituting or expanding access to abortion. Arising in 2015, the 
#NiUnaMenos (Not One[Woman]Less) campaign in Argentina has waged a public battle against 
femicide, proclaiming that every victim of patriarchal violence (be it at the hands of an 
individual or the state) is a life worth remembering. Chile also took up the call for 
#NiUnaMenos, resulting in massive mobilizations throughout 2016 and 2017. This was 
followed by a shocking wave of feminist students strikes and university occupations, 
provoked by general outrage against the sexist culture that pervades the country's 
educational institutions and specific complaints related to cases of sexual harassment and 
assault and how they were (or weren't) handled by university administrations. Students 
have carried the demand for an #educacionnosexista (non-sexist education), but do not 
restrict their activity to the classroom. Mobilizations in favor of expanding abortion 
access beyond the current three exceptions (#nobastantrescausales - three causes are not 
enough, a reference to the woman's life being at risk, when the fetus is unviable, and in 
cases of rape) have been picking up and feminist activity has been breaking out in 
surprising places all over society.

On the morning of September 28th, as the US Senate Judiciary Committee prepared to vote in 
support of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, feminists around the globe mobilized to defend 
and expand reproductive and non-reproductive rights. Feminists rallied across Latin 
America and the Caribbean, calling for the legalization of abortion in conjunction with 
September 28th: The Day to Legalize Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean. Abortion 
is only legal in Cuba (1965), Puerto Rico (1973), and Uruguay (2012). In Argentina, after 
years of a growing feminist movement that called for the right to interrupt unwanted and 
dangerous pregnancies, the Argentine House of Deputies voted to support a bill to legalize 
abortion in May that was later rejected by the Argentine Senate in August. On Saturday the 
29th of September, thousands of women across Brazil said "Ele Não!" or "Not Him!," 
opposing the presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, a former military leader and supporter 
of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, who is currently leading 
in the polls. In Ireland, women also gathered on Saturday for their annual pro-choice 
march chanting "The North is Next!," referring to taking the fight to legalize abortion to 
Northern Ireland. Abortion was legalized earlier this year on March 25 through the repeal 
via referendum of the Eighth Amendment. Abortion will now be free and accessible in all 
public hospitals in Ireland.

While the #MeToo movement has had substantial repercussions in the United States, taking 
down famous and powerful men in Hollywood and the government, US mainstream feminists have 
been more politically conservative than Global South feminists by not committing 
themselves to social movements such as the massive teachers' strikes, Black Lives Matter 
and immigrant rights. The most prominent voice for the US feminist movement has been the 
Women's March, representing the politics of liberal feminism, tied to the Democratic Party 
and upholding the political legitimacy of the US government as a beacon for imperialist 
democracy. In the same vein, the Time's UP coalition - spearheaded by famous Hollywood 
women - underscores a particular type of feminism that calls for change within the 
confines of governmental politics and individual achievements. While we recognize that 
these liberal feminist coalitions seek to transcend the differences of survivors, they 
also represent a certain wing of liberal elite feminism that seeks equality with men in 
their own class and the maintenance of current capitalist social relations. They represent 
a feminist movement that holds at bay those who are attempting to bring down the economic 
and political system that sustains patriarchy and white supremacy altogether. While we 
have points of agreement with the Women's March and Times UP, we also wish to highlight 
that their political message and influence are an obstacle to building an anti-capitalist 
and anti-racist feminist movement that is politically autonomous and working class in 
character.

Anti-capitalist feminists in the US - which includes socialists, anarchists and other 
radicals - have been able to discuss the importance of anti-capitalist feminist 
organizing, but have not been able to properly facilitate or intervene in mass feminist 
organizing and mobilizations. Without an organizational counter weight the 
overrepresentation of the Democratic Party and their liberal discourses within the state, 
media, demonstrations, and in public life generally go unchallenged. Dialogues about 
abortion rights across the world are forcing public debates about gender and patriarchy. 
Calls for non-sexist education have opened debates about pedagogy and curriculum. In 
Ireland, feminists are moving to expand abortion rights to Northern Ireland at a time when 
Brexit threatens the remilitarization of the border. In the US, we continue to rely on 
private clinics whose availability is limited and non-existent in many parts of the 
country. US feminists have shown reserve, willing to only fight for the limited 
reproductive and non-reproductive rights that we currently have, rather than fighting for 
bold and expansive demands.

The growing divide between liberal and anti-capitalist feminism within the #MeToo movement 
exposes ideological differences and diverging positions in how to fight patriarchy and 
expand reproductive and non-reproductive rights. There is a liberal desire for solidarity 
across class lines against patriarchy, but there are limits to a cross-class alliance that 
reveals the movement's failure in connecting to working class women even when fast food 
workers, farmworkers, and domestic workers are the ones involved in concrete organizing 
around these issues. If we want our feminism to address working class and marginalized 
women's needs, demands must be made and an anti-capitalist presence must be built. 
American women have not been able to catch up to the global feminist wave.

Since the Supreme Court Roe v Wade (1973) decision, access to legal and safe abortion has 
been severely restricted and made non-existent in many parts of the country. Evangelical 
religious activists have waged a steady assault on abortion from harassing women entering 
clinics to the murder of abortion doctors. The appointment of Judge Kavanaugh to the 
Supreme Court has been highly contentious due the real possibility that he might be the 
swing vote to repeal legal abortion. Abortion should be a social right not dependent on 
who is in office nor a nine-person panel. In order to transform abortion into a social 
right and work towards an end to patriarchy, we need to build a mass feminist movement 
that challenges public perception and transforms social relations in our neighborhoods and 
workplaces. Feminism cannot be a topic discussed in isolation with our friends; it has to 
enter the public dialogue of our everyday lives. In many ways, #MeToo has accomplished 
that to a certain extent. We want feminists and feminism to not remain an outside or 
merely something online, but an active force inside social movements that are fighting for 
housing rights, labor rights, immigrant rights, and against white supremacy. If our 
feminism is anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial, feminism can be a harbinger 
that rallies these movements to fight a common enemy.

Abolitionist Feminism vs. Carceral Feminism
At this crucial moment in history, developing an abolitionist feminist framework in our 
organizing can help us confront the carceral feminism growing out of the #MeToo movement 
that also seeks the state to put abusers "to justice." We need to emphasize that state 
institutions are not a vehicle for addressing patriarchy but one of the main purveyors and 
enactors of women's subjugation. Queer groups like No Justice No Pride exemplify this 
approach by challenging the LGBT establishment and confronting the state's complicity in 
the murder of queer and trans people, imperialism with the language of gay rights, and the 
abuse of gender non-conforming people facing incarceration.

We also wish to express our disagreement that an FBI investigation into Dr. Ford's 
testimony will settle the matter or bring about justice. The FBI has never been a neutral 
arbiter of truth and justice but was formed as a reactionary institution to work against 
the progress forged by people's movements from below. The FBI developed largely under the 
direction of J. Edgar Hoover, whose attacks on radical women stand as bookends to his 
career. He began his career enforcing the xenophobic Espionage and Sedition Acts of 
1917-18, used to deport working class immigrant women like Molly Steimer and Emma Goldman 
(who he called "the most dangerous anarchist in America"). He led the persecution of 
communist workers, including the "Rebel Girl" Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Trinidadian 
communist Claudia Jones, through the Smith Act in 1948. He ended his career going after 
radical Black women such as Assata Shakur and Angela Davis. The FBI has always stood on 
the side of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and can never be an institution that 
supports feminism. The FBI works for, not against, the Brett Kavanaughs of the world.

Our Feminism is Working Class And Decolonial
Our feminism is not separate from the struggles of working people. It is true that as 
feminists we share certain experiences across class lines due to patriarchy being part of 
our economic, political, and social structures. Over the last several years we have seen 
important social movements erupt, including Black Lives Matter (#BLM), native resistance 
to the Dakota Access Pipeline (#NODAPL), and the teachers' strikes that swept across the 
US (#RedForEd). Our feminism transverses these struggles, forcing us to test our theories 
through solidarity in action and as we fight to improve our material conditions.

Women, trans, queer, and non-binary people, especially Black and indigenous and 
differently-abled, are most likely to experience gender violence due to cis white 
heteropatriarchy. There is no example more apparent than the murders of Black transwomen 
and the continuing disappearance of indigenous women. Femicide is the structural murder of 
women by patriarchal gender violence. Femicide is a political term that underscores the 
structural nature of gender violence rather than terms such as domestic violence that 
presents the issue as a personal and familial dispute. A recent Center for Disease Control 
(CDC) study demonstrated that in more than 55 percent of homicides committed against women 
they were murdered by their partners. That statistic does not even consider the inclusion 
of former partners or male family members as perpetrators in their study. In the majority 
of cases, men murdered women. The study also noted that Black and indigenous women are 
murdered at much higher rates and Latinas are more likely to be killed in connection to 
partner violence.

The ability to leave an abusive relationship is also tied to class and resources. In the 
article "As Rental Prices Rise, Women Stay in Abusive Relationships to Survive," it notes 
that class determines mobility and that the decision to live with a partner and stay in a 
relationship is determined by a person's paycheck. Lack of resources ultimately resolves 
the mobility of victims who remain in abusive relationships. This is why the feminist 
movement needs to consider the multiple avenues in which women are devalued in a 
patriarchal society that denies them agency. What resources are there for women who have 
nowhere to go?

How can we connect the feminist struggle in correlation with the student movement? Many 
women, people of color, transwomen, and gender nonconforming individuals in high school 
and college campuses experience a culture of sexism, toxic masculinity, bro culture, and 
abuse. In fact, 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted on college campus, and only 11% of 
sexual assault cases are reported. Nearly 1 in 4 undergraduate students identifying as 
transgender or gender non-conforming are sexually assaulted; while 80% of rapes are 
reported by white women, women of color are more likely to be assaulted than white women. 
We must hold patriarchal institutions in secondary and higher education accountable for 
their lack of support, policy inaction, and inability to dismantle patriarchal systems of 
power on campuses. Student solidarity must be built along with a feminist praxis. Women, 
WOC, trans-woman and gender nonconforming individuals rarely get the help they need after 
experiencing trauma due to a lack of mental health services provided in campus and/or 
insufficient training.

What is to be done?
We are calling for a mass feminist movement that is anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and 
fighting for a socialist society. Where we have common interests at stake it is 
strategically necessary that we be able to transcend the sectarianism and infighting that 
is so detrimental to the US left. But what we really need to strive for is a vibrant 
feminist movement capable of demanding reforms without compromising on our decolonial, 
anarchist-communist vision. We need to build a feminist movement that is transversal in 
political action, bridging struggles against state violence enacted by the police, class 
violence imposed by the neoliberal state, and genocidal violence legitimized by the 
colonial nation-state.

We cannot take a light-hearted approach to those who call for an "inside-outside" strategy 
within the Democratic Party. For example, the Democratic Socialists of America presents 
their position as a strategy that maximizes their reach - however history shows that this 
course of action weakens the working class and misplaces political energies. As 
anarchist-communists we call for building popular power, concentrating our social 
insertion work by fostering autonomous worker, tenant and student movements that are 
feminist and anti-racist. Popular power means building the confidence in the working class 
needed to realize our strength as the producers of society's goods and the class capable 
of challenging the entire system. We need to recognize that our political power and 
potential stretches way beyond electoral cycles, despite all attempts by the elite and 
professional classes to divert and siphon our power into traditional political channels. 
Indeed, no major changes have ever been won or maintained through mere participation in 
our country's bankrupt electoral system - but instead through disruptive protest and 
actions from outside. By prioritizing effective social insertion, base building work, 
direct action and mutual aid (rather than relying on professionals, advocates, and elites) 
we can build the kind of power from below that is actually capable of transforming our 
social, political and economic relations to suit the needs of everyone.

We joined the Black Rose Anarchist Federation because we realize we are more effective 
when united in a political organization. We want to move away from reactive politics and 
toward action-driven and offensive politics: to challenge the political power structure, 
making not just men but the entire ruling class tremble. To do so we need to leave our 
collective spaces and friend groups and reach out, create political alliances, and be part 
of building a mass feminist movement. We need to fight within the movement for our 
political vision and work hard to win over others to the anti-capitalist and anti-racist 
cause.

We urge those who share our position to join us in building an anti-capitalist and 
anti-racist feminist coalition across the US. Such coalitions can become a popular 
feminist voice powerful enough to eclipse the liberal feminist organizations and their 
narrow electoral blinders. We plan to initiate these efforts by rallying against the 
confirmation of Kavanaugh and joining the October 4th Walkout to Cancel Kavanaugh. We need 
to begin organization-to-organization dialogues, finding points of unity and a common 
demand to form an anti-capitalist feminist bloc at the next Women's March, on January 19, 
2019.

http://blackrosefed.org/kananaugh-feminist-movement-end-capitalism/

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Message: 5





This video shows all of the 2018 March for Choice pass down the quays in Dublin.  This 
year we had won the refrendum but much is left to fight for in terms of the details of the 
legislation and standing down the inevotable anti-choice attempts that will be made once 
the lefislation comes in to intimidate doctors,  as welll as women and pregnant who will 
finally be able to access free, safe and legal abortion in Ireland.[video] 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=-LRHXFiYaAY ---- [Approximate transcript] 
This video shows the seventh annual March for Choice passing through Dublin. The March is 
organised every year by the Abortion Rights Campaign. This year it happened in the context 
of winning the referendum to overturn the ban on abortion that was in the Irish 
constitution but it's happening right before the legislation is introduced that will 
implement that and allow for abortion access in Ireland.

We have major issues with this proposed legislation because the intention is to restrict 
access despite the fact that 2/3 of the people voted for abortion access in that 
referendum.  In particular the government intends to insist on a three day waiting period 
between when a woman first visits the doctor and between when she gets abortion pills 
prescribed.  That waiting period is going to affect some to the extent that abortion won't 
be accessible to them. Especially those who are in abusive relationships.

Doctors should not be allowed to refuse to refer a women to other doctors for an abortion 
if they are not willing to do so themselves. In fact something like this situation already 
exists, some consultants refuse to prescribe contraception and indeed the anti-referendum 
campaign included some of those consultants as spokespeople. But what they do is they 
simply refer the person to the doctor down the corridor and they do their job.

Many people who voted yes in the referendum are unaware of these issues, indeed the 
turnout for the march this year was probably about a quarter of last year's match but last 
year's happened in the context of pressure really building for a referendum and a lot of 
people sensed that and so had a strong reason to turn out. As it was the five thousand 
people who did showed there is a very strong core to the pro-choice movement one that will 
be demanding legislation and will be combating shortcomings in it.

In all accounts it's important to acknowledge just how far we've come since the dark days 
of 1983 when the eighth amendment was passed. In the years after that the antichoice 
people tried to ban travel, they tried to ban books from libraries and magazines that 
carry abortion information and they prosecuted the students unions that continue to 
provide information on that basis.

They were relentless in their hounding of pro-choice activists, indeed the student union 
leaders who continued to publish information were taken to court and had at the time a 
massive judgement of costs awarded against him in the region of 90,000 which would've 
bought two houses in Dublin in that time period.

In the early 1990s in the aftermath of the X case when the state attempted to stop a 
14-year-old girl who was pregnant as a result of rape from travelling it was huge 
mobilisations  that forced the courts to allow her to go. Pro-choice activists were 
physically attacked by antichoice campaigners several times on the streets until they gave 
up that tactic because of it resulting in there own marginalisation.

The recent referendum saw all sorts of disgusting lies and smears used by the same forces 
some of them just on Twitter and hard to track down exactly who is responsible for them, 
these were some of the nastiest, but also they were able to use their huge access to the 
Irish media including opinion pieces in all major Irish papers to continually represent a 
point of view that today almost nobody continues to hold.

And in the last weeks we have witnessed them and other major spokes people starting to 
make pretty obvious racist dog whistles and indeed make a turn towards what could be 
called Alt-right politics in other countries like the US and Britain. That's probably 
because they've looked at the exit poll results that show between 8 and 9 out of every 10 
young people voted yes in the referendum and so their only constituency among the youth 
are going to be angry young white man who turn to racism. It's quite shocking on the one 
level to see them go to this position but then it's also not very surprising. The 
antichoice movement was always a movement very much connected to the far right with some 
prominent people even going as far as to speak at fascist rallies elsewhere in Europe!

The majority of the leadership with a hard right politics was sensible enough to recognise 
that the outward trappings of fascism, seig heil salutes etc, included lots of the stuff 
that wasn't going to help them but they are very much aligned to a more respectable 
Catholic hard right across Europe and indeed reaching into the United States. Something 
that looks much more towards Franco in Spain and the sort of repressive politics there 
then Hitler's Germany but is part of fascism all the same.

What has been noticeable and encouraging in the post referendum period is the number of 
activists have now got involved in the housing struggles and indeed reference to the 
recent violent eviction was made by one of the speakers from the north on the stage when 
she threw a balaclava into the crowd at one point. We have video of the different speeches 
going up over the next few days and you'll be able to catch up on them here.

The important thing is even though legislation is coming the struggle is far from over. 
The exact way it will be implemented and trying to improve it will become important as 
will monitoring the anti choice forces which will shutdown and limit access. We highly 
recommend getting involved with the Abortion Rights Campaign, they very much lead the 
struggle since 2012, and that was the group that more than anything else was behind the 
successful winning of the referendum.

As for us we been involved in pro-choice struggles since we founded in 1984 in the 
aftermath of the referendum and will be continuing that sort of activity into the future.

As anarchists we are involved in the struggle for the horizontal society, one without 
bosses and politicians, not one where everyone goes to work and faces a dictator with very 
little say or control over your own working life, what you do you or indeed what is produced.

Late stage capitalism has become a massive threat to the future existence of humanity 
particularly the threat of uncontrolled climate change that they seem incapable and now 
even unwilling to actually try and impact. At the same time we are seeing things like the 
housing crisis situation which is making landlords and property speculators richer than 
ever but which is creating misery for probably 80% of the population. The context now is 
one where if you don't already have a home it's almost impossible for 80% of people to get 
one by payment of a reasonable rent, reasonable been perhaps 20% of income. People working 
in Dublin at the moment and the other major cities are paying up to 50% or more of their 
income out in rent.

The successful campaign to demand a referendum was one that demonstrated that electoral 
politics isn't the way forward, after all when Labour was kicked out in the last election 
multiple commentators said that was there was no hope for a referendum, leaders on the 
left and the right joined in that particular chorus but they turned out to be wrong. 
Rather the reality is that mass movement on the streets and taking action like Strike for 
Repeal that threatened disruption were able to force the most conservative Irish 
government, Fine Gael are that, to go ahead and call a referendum after the pressure 
brought about by the citizens assembly and its recommendations.

This can be and should be a general model for change, a model that says that rather than 
looking to political parties to introduce change for us, and to be honest they never will, 
we can organise ourselves and bring pressure through protest action to direct action and 
change things. But our ultimate goal  is the abolition of capitalism and the introduction 
of a society that doesn't have bosses and doesn't have politicians, where we will be all 
are in control of our own lives.

Do you want to find out more check out www.wsm.ie

Or for a detailed look at anarchism Google anarchist FAQ and you will find pretty much all 
your questions answered.

https://wsm.ie/c/video-2018-march-choice-dublin

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