Anarchic update news all over the world - 1.12.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  A-infos; Keeping the torch burning for the 24th year - by
      Andrew Flood (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #288 - Read: Vidalou,
      "Being forests" (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  deliverunion fau: Don't believe the hype - the new fee
      system is a trap! Come together now! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Anarchist Federation of Rosario FAR: Against the G20,
      construction of Popular Power (ca) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Brazil, The FAG and Libertarian Socialism: Report of a
      militant who has found a place on the revolutionary left that
      does not yield to authoritarianism (pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 6.  "This year we decided to give a theme to the Fair: No State,
      No Boss, No Husband" By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





In 1994 Class War organised an international anarchist gathering in London under the 
heading of ’10 days the shook the world’. It provided a location that brought together a 
number of anarchist who had been working on the promotion of the anarchist idea online and 
set off a string of collaborations that would last in some cases to the present day. ---- 
Somewhat earlier in 1990 another international anarchist meeting in the Netherlands had 
seen the establishment of a physical printed international anarchist news sheet as part of 
a new A-Infos network designed to facilitate anarchist communications between countries 
which involved anarchists from Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the 
Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Spain and Uruguay.  Part of this work was each 
group producing a a-infos bulletin in the languages of the country it was in, in 1995 
there were 11 groups doing this.

In 1995 an electronic version of A-Infos was launched where individual news items were 
transmitted via email and archived on a website - this involved people, including myself, 
who had met at the London event the previous year.  Initially this was a single general 
multi-lingual email list but it soon because possible to subscribe to single language 
lists and to a digest version of the lists.  Essentially this is still the distribution 
structure of a-infos over 20 years later in 2018, indeed when you visit the webpage it 
still has something of the flavour of a page from the 1990s in terms of design.  A-Infos 
form and organisation has probably remained consistent since the round of changes that 
followed the 1997 Zapatista encuentro in Spain which also saw the launch of Peoples Global 
Action.

An important aspect of a-inofs in comparison with some of the other anarchist websites of 
the time was that it took anarchist practise seriously and a lot of effort was put into 
creating a collective system of direct democracy through which decisions were made. 
  Likewise those involved in running the collective were also involved in anarchist 
organisations and struggles offline.  Indeed Ilan Shalif who I believe is the longest 
running of those members continues to receive a regular dose of tear gas from the Israeli 
military at the weekly protests in Palestine against the building of the apartheid wall.

To put it mildly rather a lot happened in terms of internet development after those years 
but a-infos struck to its original format and publishing methods as countless other 
projects were founded, bloomed and in many cases ceased to exist.  As such one major point 
of value it provides today is an archive that probably includes any significant bit of 
anarchist news from the last 23 years, often translated into multiple languages.  That is 
one hell of a resource for anyone willing to put serious time into tracking the history 
and development of anarchism in that period.

Left organisational methods date from the period before the ‘many to many’ communications 
facilitated by the internet came into being.  From before the period when video and audio 
distribution became something that anyone could do at very little cost.  From before the 
period where one to many communications required a lot of money and often time to reach 
any substantial number of people.  From before the period when researching a daily obscure 
piece of history about a land far away could be instantaneous. From before the period when 
many people could watch in real time events unfold at a location across the planet and see 
and hear ordinary participants in those events.  From before the period where money could 
rapidly be raised from people you have no previous contact with at all.  This list could 
be longer but the point should be clear, the communications revolution that is the 
internet is, if anything, more profound than the printing press was and as such is 
remaking organisation and rebellion.

This isn’t simply a question of using new communication technology.  It’s also a question 
of understanding how that technology has already remade social relations to the extent 
that the society of 2018 is radically different from the society of 1990.  So different 
that a lot of the old methods simply don’t work very well any more as they required 
different sorts of people for them to work.  There is an extent to which the archaic form 
a-infos retained from the mid 1990s isn’t that much of a disadvantage in 2018 as the pace 
of change over rate years since has been so rapid that each new innovation has only 
remained current for a couple of years before it is replaced by the next.  During the 
summit protest period of the early 2000s a few of us had a somewhat serious conversation 
over drinks at a counter-summit event trying to work out if at that point we could provide 
live video news from the front line of protests.  It was technically possible but would 
have required about 50,000 euro worth of extra equipment and satellite hire, today almost 
everyone has all the needed equipment in their pocket.

The pace of innovation has slowed down, each years new phones or computers are now pretty 
similar to the previous years.  So it would be an interesting project to consider what 
a-infos might look like if it were to be built in the light of all the important 
developments in the years since, from Social Media through to everyone having a pretty 
good video camera on their phone and the ability to live stream.   There would certainly 
be considerable value in a ‘one stop shop’ anarchist new service that provided not use 
written reports but also audio and video, originating in multiple regions and languages 
around the globe.  This is something we very much need going forward, Climate Change has 
added a comparatively short count down to the old ‘Socialism or Barbarism’ slogan.

A-infos today remains a useful way of getting a direct email every day (or even per item) 
that will probably contain any significant anarchist news from the previous few days and 
which isn’t reliant on a Facebook algorithm deciding this is something you might be 
interested in.  You’ll find the list of subscription options at:
http://www.ainfos.ca/options.html

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Message: 2






Owls in Bure, tritons in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, an indomitable Aveyron wind ... Nature 
awakens in the countryside, it is not a nature without humanity, it is the people in 
struggle who become nature  ! Or rather forests. ---- Jean-Baptiste Vidalou tells us an 
ugly story in this book: that of the war that the planners launched against the 
territories and their inhabitants. It shows us that all the great planning practices of 
history are part of a logic of oppression and even fascism, the goal being to build 
something (which resembles the needs of the industry) to the detriment of space and 
existing inhabitants and inhabitants. ---- The actions of developers Saint-Simon, Colbert 
and many other lesser known characters, are described but also given in their historical 
context. In thought, we could stop there, and this very informative vision could leave us 
unarmed.

But John the Baptist takes us to the areas of friction, those which make meet the " great 
  " actors of "   History   " and the people who defend themselves. Camisards who defended 
themselves in the Cevennes three centuries ago against the construction of roads for 
logging purposes to the zadists of Notre-Dame des-Landes, there is one thing in common. 
The state does not just modernize, improve or exploit, these territories are doomed to be 
smoothed until disappearing and thus make disappear those who live there.

It is then inhabitants and inhabitants of apparent disorder who will fight, people who do 
not want to be smoothed, forces from the earth: "   We are the nature that defends itself. 
  If the Camisards knew little about the society of planners, they defended their way of life.

Nowadays, we know too much the developers and want to recreate a life in connection with 
the elements. This is not a belief, it is a field materialism that is proposed here.

Reinette reinette (AL Aveyron)

Jean-Baptiste Vidalou, To be forests, to live territories in struggle , Editions Zones, 
October 2017, 144 p

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Essai-Etre-forets

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Message: 3





Colleagues and fellow Deliveroo riders! ---- Deliveroo is about to implement a new fee 
system in Germany. This new pay scheme is already in place in most other countries in 
Europe where Deliveroo operates. The company has told us that we can now choose to 
participate the experiment for a new fee system, if we like. Do not be fooled by this! In 
France, for example, all the old contracts were eventually terminated, and everyone was 
forced to take up the new system. ---- The new fee is partially based on distance, so 
longer deliveries will be paid better. Surely we would like to be paid more for longer 
distances? Don't believe the hype, it's a trap! Our fellow riders in UK are telling us 
that the company will start to tamper with the fees, changing the minimum pays according 
to their whim. The odds are, that eventually we will have to work even harder to make the 
same income as we do now. As if we didn't work our asses off already! Nothing guarantees 
that our earnings will not fall. In fact, that seems very likely.

Interested in the long-term vision for the future of this system? We could take a look at 
what is happening in the US - this is where platform economy businesses have developed 
their policies furthest: in New York, the fees for food delivery with UberEats are below 
two dollars!

Fellow riders, falling payments will most likely be our future - unless we resist! We are 
calling riders to come together now! Let's share experiences and information, let's look 
at what the company is really doing, lets plan what we can do - and let's act against the 
worsening of our conditions! If we stand together, it will not be that difficult to 
pressure the company. As independent contractors, we can simply decide to stop working 
whenever we choose. If we do this together, the company will fail to deliver its service 
to its customers. They do not want to lose their customers to their competitors.

If we fail to stand together, the company will do with us whatever they please. You can be 
sure that they will think of their investors' interests first. They will continue to claim 
that they give us what we want, while behind the obscurity of the new system they will be 
cutting our payments and making our lives more difficult.

Together we will be strong. Riders unite!

https://deliverunion.fau.org/2018/11/27/dont-believe-the-hype-the-new-fee-system-is-a-trap-come-together-now/

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Message: 4





Imperialism has a new agenda for Latin America. As so many times has happened to us in 
history, imperial policies have a very important impact in our region. Specifically, the 
North American interference in local affairs once again has considerable weight. The 
anti-imperialist rhetoric of the so-called "Socialisms of the 21st Century" has been left 
behind; everything indicates that there is a much stronger alignment with the White House 
in the region. ---- We can think that the return of the US to control its "Backyard" is 
given in different planes such as the geopolitical, military and economic. Accentuating 
the extractivism and neoliberal agenda at the same time that it projects more ambitious 
objectives such as the promotion of the fall of unruly governments (such as Venezuela and 
Bolivia) and the installation of an imaginary of regional political instability in order 
to further militarize the territory and encourage repressive policies to stop any attempt 
at resistance.
In our country, this new period has as a fundamental feature adjustment and repression. 
And the mark of primordial epoch is the external indebtedness and the re-entry of the IMF 
to the daily agenda of economic and political subjects. It is that the recipes distributed 
by Lagarde and company not only consist of the wheel of indebtedness but also bring 
political and economic conditions that are absolutely disastrous for those below. The 
resistance of the popular sectors will require more organized articulations from the 
grassroots level and with a clear combative content in front of such a huge number of 
dismissals and suspensions, with an inflation that leaves millions of families below the 
poverty line and that enlarges the already bulky numbers of excluded and poor.
A few days ago the budget for 2019 was approved in the National Congress, a measure that 
proposes to redouble the bet in the attack that is being carried out against the popular 
sectors. The great marches carried out by the most diverse sectors of the people in 
struggle, such as workers, students, social organizations among many others, could not 
stop it. The dogs of the state played again the well-known repressive practices against 
those we fought and the political parties that are in the parliamentary game "lost" the 
fight that takes place in that court and with the rules of the domination system.
It is in this framework that the G20 summit takes place between November 30 and December 1 
in the region. Ten years ago, the group of 8, made up of the main powers, decided to 
incorporate into the discussion of the world economy, in the midst of a financial crisis, 
countries that they considered strategic for their strategies of domination. Thus, 
Argentina began to participate, with Cristina Kirchner at the head of this high-level 
policy space.
Two years ago the just assumed Chancellor Malcorra announced that Argentina would be the 
seat, which demonstrates the approval given to the new political orientation and 
particularly to the Macrist government from the outskirts of the empire. It is not 
necessary to make a very deep analysis to foresee the possible political and economic 
decisions that will be taken in such encounter, it is enough to see the actions of the 
governments of the region to know that they will go against the oppressed sectors and they 
will be oriented to fine-tune the pencil in different aspects (labor flexibility, 
efficient infrastructure for the extractivist model, food production according to the 
needs of the powers) enhancing the privileges of a few and seeking to control or 
exterminate those at the bottom.
We know, on the other hand, that decisions are already being made and executed, and that 
in some way this is nothing more than a staging full of symbolism. A gross theatrical work 
where the main "kings" meet in the colonies to have talks and where from the colonies 
there are demonstrations of submission and condescension in order to appear on the world 
map. Where they also try to hide the poverty and rebelliousness of the place, for which 
they do come doing systematic "clean-ups", such as the persecution and imprisonment that 
were being developed in recent days, or the mega-operation of emptying and military 
control of The city of Buenos Aires.
That is why we believe that we must be on the street, making visible the resistance of the 
people who do not resign themselves to the fact that millions of the poor and hundreds of 
thousands of the unemployed are the result of adjustments and neoliberal policies. Because 
the struggle is also ideological and the symbolic has weight. Student organizations, 
unions, neighborhoods, peasants, etc. we must give clear signs of repudiation. The 
realization of multisectorial meetings in the different cities announce that the answer 
will be overwhelming. There we must be, always contributing to the popular organization.
Now, we know that the G20 will happen and in a few weeks it will no longer be on the 
agenda, but the struggle continues and the important thing is to generate popular power 
with the ability to face the power of domination of those at the top. But that work, of 
building a disruptive social force with the system will not happen overnight, it's a 
long-term work that takes root from below. This is where our militancy differs from other 
expressions that seem imported along with this summit, where European activism prevails as 
a cathartic response to these events. Our proposal (and response to this event) is 
collective, organized and long-term.
OUTSIDE THE G20 OF ARGENTINA!

FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STRONG PEOPLE!
Put up and fighting!

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Message: 5





When I discovered the left, it was to understand that many people in many historical 
moments fought for a just world, without exploitation and oppression. I identified myself 
and knew more or less where to channel my sense of indignation at injustice. He was 15 
years old and was looking for information where he thought (at the time that there was 
hardly dial-up internet). In the same process, I moved away from the Stalinist statist 
model, probably part of a post-Berlin Wall movement, packed with PT-based work and then 
world-wide social forums. When I understood some of the disputes, I thought that the only 
revolutionary alternative to Stalinism was Trotskyism. At the same time, it was in the 
student movement, creating things locally collectively with incredible people, in the 
fight against the FTAA, against the scrapping of education in the FHC government.

This militant "beginning" reminds me of the struggle for public transportation in the city 
of Pelotas and my first clash with the left in power. It was in the municipal government 
of the PT in Pelotas, back in 2000, when I experienced being left of what was the 
government of the "popular front". Although my "entry into the militancy" was largely done 
through the PT before the government in the city, I soon understood that there were 
alternatives.
I also saw in the teaching strike during the state government of the PT an example: the 
struggle does not stop why a government is elected with slogans or left history. In a way, 
I never knew how to be a leftist without having to face the left-wing bureaucracy in the 
power of governments, trade unions, student councils, or student directories to some degree.

Since then, I've been in two matches to the left of the PT. With both my problem, without 
knowing how to conceptualize very well, it was centralism (democratic saying), the hard 
hierarchy, the method of decision by summits, electoral tactics and personalities. A 
destructive authoritarianism that is difficult to disintegrate. The media did not close 
with the ends. Therefore, I also tried military without being organized in party (although 
very close
to these parties).

For years it has been difficult for me to find myself as a socialist, a defender of 
organization and radical democracy. And that's when 2013 came, this year that is not over 
yet. When Lulism in crisis and the PT transformed once and for all into a party of order 
... Everything was put in check and the traditional leadership of the left little knew how 
to intervene. After all, there was life outside the institutions, outside the traditional 
parties, outside the horizon
governmental, outside the methods and repertoires of the institutionalized and 
domesticated left. It is true that we did not have permanent organizational gains. But, 
even if asleep, there still exist the longings of those rebellious, yet latent, confused 
streets. Many people formed or reinvented themselves during this period. The occupations 
of schools and universities may be (until now) the great legacies of 2013.

But in the crisis of representation, of parties and institutions, there is also a crisis 
of personal forum. And I was lost. That libertarian climate in 2013 enchanted me, but it 
made me think that I could not abandon socialism by an anti-organization or immature 
ideology. Because the traditional Left made me believe for years and years that this was 
what it was all about that smacked of anarchism. Either it was disorganization, or it
was childish, or it was individualistic. For this, he had to deny the history, the 
political disputes at stake since the nineteenth century in the socialist camp. He needed 
to affirm from the top of pride who is mature and who is childhood, who is science and who 
is not, who is organized and who is not. All to destroy plurality on the left.

Not everyone on the left knows, but anarchism has been socialist since it was born as an 
organization in the First International - with the Alliance of Socialist Democracy (even 
the term "anarchist" consolidated thereafter). And the problem of the federalist wing with 
the Marxist wing was - see! - centralism, personalism, electoralism with a stake in the 
state, hierarchy, authoritarianism, opportunism. I, who was well educated on the left, did 
not know that my personal crisis was to a large extent the crisis that produced the 
dissension between libertarian (anarchist) socialism and other socialisms, both more 
reformist and social democratic than the most revolutionary. It was a profound difference 
on which means to use. But in the common organization of the history of socialism in the 
militant milieu only the divergence between revolutionary Marxists and social democrats is 
cut. And then between pro and anti-Stalinist Marxists. The history and theory of the left 
is erased to build a unique way of understanding (and fighting) socialism. And so, on a 
macro-scale, follows the Marxist confusion between social revolution and seizure of power, 
between class and party. And so it follows in every micro-space, authoritarian methods, 
personalistic worship, sectarianism and dogmatism.

So I realized that my crisis was not with the parties or with the left, but with a 
paradigm that was not always hegemonic (it came to be something like this after the 
"victory" of the Russian revolution). It seems silly, but it is not easy, in militant 
circles, to have access to versions of history and theory that inform you that it is 
possible to be a socialist revolutionary without being Marxist, much less Leninist. There 
is in the Marxist left itself an embarrassing ignorance (there are those who do not even 
understand how anarchist party and federation can exist or that the achievements of labor 
rights in Brazil are fruits of much sweat and anarchist blood in the first decades of the 
twentieth century).

These processes of erasure and, often, of defamation (in addition to historical 
betrayals), however, failed to destroy principles and methods such as direct democracy, 
direct action, independence of bosses, parties and governments, and articulation from the 
bottom up. They continue to appear here and there, diffused or not, full of rebellion and 
dreams, constructed by those who realize that the means can not justify the ends, but that 
the means define the ends.

It was thanks to the defense of socialism and the freedom of many generations who gave 
their lives in various corners of the world that these methods and principles continued to 
exist. And thanks to this stubbornness of not letting itself be killed that the Gaucho 
Anarchist Federation - FAG could exist and become, together with the other organizations 
of the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination - CAB, a place for me and so many other militants. 
A place for those who do not bow to the electoral temptations that always lead us to the 
same problems of domestication and bureaucratization of social struggle. A place that does 
not yield to the temptations of conciliation with bosses or governments. A place from 
which one fights with principles that one wishes to be the principles of the dreamed new 
society.

Congratulations to FAG, who in this month completes 23 years of existence!
And thank you for being this place.

https://federacaoanarquistagaucha.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/a-fag-e-o-socialismo-libertario/

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Message: 6





Check out the "micro-interview" with the organizers of the second edition of the 
Anarquista Women's Fair, an event that runs on Sunday, 02/12, in the East Zone of São 
Paulo, at CDC Vento Leste. ---- Anarchist News Agency> How was the 1st edition of the 
Anarchist Women's Fair? ---- Anarchist Women's Fair <  It was amazing! We had many 
registrations, very cool proposals of wheels and workshops, it was very difficult to make 
a selection and organize to fit everything in one day. Many people passed through the Fair 
throughout the day, I do not have an audience estimate, but we already knew that it would 
be full by the number of people interested during the disclosure. This first Fair was in 
the Mauá Occupation and it was very nice to be able to strengthen a little such an 
important space of resistance in the Center[of São Paulo], with collection of toys, books 
and food. We are very excited and inspired to continue to make this annual meeting, many 
learning and mistakes to be corrected, a strong woman doing powerful, important and 
revolutionary things.

ANA> And what is the expectation for this year? Anything new in programming?

FMA <  Some news, yes. This year we chose to make the Fair outside the $ P Center, in a 
very beautiful and enduring space in the East Zone, the CDC Vento Leste (Rua Frederico 
Brotero, N ° 60 - Subway Patriarca of the Red Line of the Subway). It's a place full of 
trees, a court, a space that brought other possibilities for us to think. Also this year 
we decided to give a theme to the Fair:  Neither State, Neither Boss, nor Husband. 
Thinking about the legacy that the many anarchists left us and also locating us 
historically, thinking about the current Brazilian scenario and consequently the needs 
that we will have in the next years. We then invite the collective and individual to 
debate - thinking of these patriarchal and capitalist pillars - ways of organizing 
ourselves, defending ourselves and continuing to fight.

ANA> Will we have editorial releases during the Fair?

FMA <  We are not announcing the selected ones yet, but there will be a lot of legal 
material for sure.

ANA> Any message to finalize? Thanks!

FMA <  The Anarchist Women's Fair is a meeting place between libertarians, we seek to 
create a space of exchange where the internal political differences that we have - which 
are totally healthy and show how diverse and critical we are. We are all aware of what is 
to come next year, and it is very important that we remain active and attentive - 
including as we have always been in all previous governments.

We invite everyone to participate, talk and debate our moves and the directions we want to 
take.

Hugs and kisses!

Related Content:

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2018/11/14/sao-paulo-sp-ii-feira-de-mulheres-anarquistas/

anarchist-ana news agency

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