Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #289 - Migrants and
Racism: The Global Challenge of Class Struggle (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire - AL release: Macron crumbs
crumbs (fr, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Call from the Yellow Vests of Commercy to set up
popular assemblies (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland): On the apolitical
labelling of the Yellow Vest movement (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, brighton solfed: Fox & Sons dispute escalates,
while agency engages in goofy counterinsurgency
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
AL claims the free right of installation for everyone in the country of their choice and
we fight against these borders that kill. This should not prevent us from having a
political reading of the situations opened up by migratory movements on a global scale
while the ecological crisis will increase the number of displaced people and, as a result,
racist, religious and nationalist tensions. . ---- In 2016, it is estimated that 250
million people live in a country where they are not born, or 3.3% of the world's
population. This does not seem to be the case at all, but still represents a 41% increase
over the year 2000. In 2013, 38% of migrations were South-South and only 34% South-North.
This does not prevent the Mediterranean from being the cemetery of 70% of migrants who die
on their way across the vast world, in profound indifference. These migrant and migrant
arrivals everywhere provoke violent rejections among the welcoming populations, rejections
fueled and used by the nationalists who progress everywhere, dangerously, in Europe and
not only.
Crises and mass migrations
If revolutionaries do not separate political exile from economic migration, international
institutions and governments do so. Thus, they tell us that climate crises alone will
generate 250 million more refugees in the next thirty years. So much pretense to build
walls ! So many state crimes announced. So many predictable intercommunal massacres ... A
thought for the Rohingyas.
When the old imperialist metropolises that shared the planet during two world wars still
question the " positive aspects " of colonialism, let us remember that in 2015, the
total amount of international aid to South was limited to 132 billion while money
transfers by migrants climbed to 432 billion ! Thus, Malian families will undoubtedly
continue to send their children to seek their fortune despite all the dangers and laws
that block their way.
There would be to write a history of humanity through the history of human migrations.
Atlases exist on this subject. Voluntary or forced migrations, slavery, desperate leaking
or colonial conquest, they drew in the blood our planispheres. And mixed in our DNA the
most surprising genes. But they remain so many time bombs. Our solidarity is neither a
good religious conscience nor a silliness about the so-called riches of " multiculturalism
". Our solidarity is built on class bases to defend the interests of peoples against
imperialisms ; and the interests of workers against their bosses.
In the context of globalization, it is necessary to make a special place for the students
who are the new Marco Polo, ensuring at a fast pace the transfer of new technologies. When
it took centuries to share the silk, the powder or the wheel, the economists estimate at
three years maximum the technological advance of the great powers between them. In the
United States, two out of three doctoral or doctoral students in computer science,
engineering or economics are foreigners, and most of them are Asian. Note that France,
because of the low cost of university fees (compared to the Anglo-Saxon world), is the
third world destination with 70,000 foreign students.
But if we put aside studies, arts, commerce and adventure, the great majority of
migrations are first of all the fact of people on the run who are trying to escape misery,
war, ethnic, religious or political persecution. Beautiful spirits may sing that we are
all wanderers on this earth, the reality of the suffering of those who tear themselves
away from their native lands is easily measured when the question of where we are going to
be buried: in the country of origin with his parents or in the host country with his
children ? It often takes several generations before this nagging question fades.
A class anti-racism
The last and last arrivals are looking for a job or land and housing. They are de facto in
competition with the poorest, often from the previous wave of migration. When employment
is scarce and social housing policy is non-existent or collapsed, the shock is quickly
brutal. How often has it been necessary to remind descendants of Portuguese or Algerian
immigration that their families have arrived in shanty towns, like the Roma ? How often
do we hear descendants of African immigrants explain that Chinese or Tamils have no place
in France ? And how many times will it be necessary to remind the descendants of Italian
or Polish immigration what they have suffered in the not-so-distant past? ?
This is why our anti-racism can not be a simple moral anti-racism, nor an anti-racism
based on only community solidarity. It must be a class anti-racism. This is because the
migration of an illiterate lawyer, architect or peasant is very different. When one has
education or a qualification, one quickly leaves the ghettoised HLM cities of the 93 to
find, in more peaceful sectors, the North Africans and Maghreb who progressed in the
social scale of the wage-earning. But the others remain assigned in cities where the last
" long-time French " who live there are shattered by life.
So we denounce those who, including on the left, hold a line favorable to a " chosen immigr
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Migrants-et-racisme-Enjeu-mondial-de-la-lutte-des-classes
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Message: 2
On December 10, Macron spoke in his palace, in front of his large desk of varnished and
gilded wood. His goal was to extinguish the social anger that has been brewing in the
street for four weeks. But the president bosses is not ready to let go and it will be
necessary to increase the pressure, by the strike and the blockages, so that it ends up
bending. ---- The announcements made by Macron were intended to calm the mobilization but
it will not be enough. It is not by throwing a few crumbs and trying to smoke the
population that he will push the yellow vests to go home and at home. ---- The first
announcement is the increase of Smic. Or rather, that's how he wanted to present it.
Because in reality, there will be no increase in wages. There will be only an increase in
the activity bonus that some Smic employees receive. And again, this increase includes the
increases in the activity premium that had already been announced for 2020 and 2021. The
reason for this smoking is that Macron does not want to reduce the profits of the bosses
or cut corners rich. That's why this small increase will not be paid by the bosses but by
public spending, by raising taxes elsewhere (but especially not on wealth, it would be too
unfair for the rich: it's hard to be rich) or by further destroying public services.
Sarkozysme recycled
Second measure announced: the tax exemption for overtime. So it's still fantastic: to try
to calm the anger, Macron recycles a " gift " of Sarkozy. And of course it's a
double-edged sweetheart because it boils down to working even harder and it's driving
bosses to hire even less. The real solution would be the reduction of working time without
a reduction in salary.
Finally, Macron announces a suppression of the rise of the CSG for smaller pensions. But
it does not return the money already stolen in 2018. And it is a measure that will
probably also be funded by tax increases elsewhere or by new job cuts.
In short, nothing about the ISF, nothing about salary increases, nothing about working
time, nothing about public services, nothing about the retirement age or the revaluation
of pensions.
Bosses and the rich can continue to sleep peacefully, Macron takes good care of them.
In any case, even if it continues to misunderstand the workers in struggle, these new ads
show that Macron has cold sweats and the power trembles. This is the time to move up the
scale by boosting the mobilization by blocking the economy and the strike.
Libertarian Alternative, December 11, 2018
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Macron-balance-des-miettes
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Message: 3
"We will not be ruled. We will not be divided and bought off." ---- NO TO RIP OFF! LONG
LIFE DIRECT DEMOCRACY! ---- NO NEED FOR REGIONAL ‘REPRESENTATIVES'! ---- For nearly two
weeks the movement of yellow vests has brought hundreds of thousands of people in the
streets all over France, often for the first time. The price of fuel was the drop of
diesel that set the plain on fire. The suffering, the enough-is-enough, and the injustice
have never been so widespread. Now, all across the country, hundreds of local groups are
organizing themselves in their own different ways. ---- Here in Commercy, in the Meuse, we
have been operating from the beginning with daily popular assemblies, where each person
participates equally. We organized to block entrances to the city and service stations,
and filtering road blocks. In the process, we built a cabin in the central square. We meet
there every day to organize ourselves, decide next actions, interact with people, and
welcome those who join the movement. We also organize "solidarity soups" to live beautiful
moments together and get to know each other. In equality.
But now the government, and some parts of the movement, propose to appoint representatives
for each region! That is to say a few people who would become the only "interlocutors" to
public authorities and summarize our diversity. But we do not want "representatives" who
would end up talking for us!
What's the point? At Commercy a punctual delegation met the sub-prefect, in big cities
others met directly with the Prefect: they ALREADY have conveyed our anger and our
demands. They ALREADY know that we are determined to finish off with this hated president,
this detestable government, and the rotten system they embody!
And that's what scares the government! Because he knows that if they begin to give in on
taxes and fuels, they will also have to back down on pensions, the unemployed, the status
of civil servants, and all the rest! They also knows VERY WELL that they risk intensifying
a GENERALIZED MOVEMENT AGAINST THE SYSTEM!
It is not to better understand our anger and our demands that the government wants
representatives": it is to supervise and bury us! As with the union leadership, they look
for intermediaries, people with whom they could negotiate. On whom they can put pressure
to appease the eruption. People that they can then buy off and press to divide the
movement to bury it.
But that's without counting on the strength and intelligence of our movement. It's without
counting that we are thinking, organizing, developing our actions that scare them so much
and amplifying the movement!
And above all, there is a very important thing: everywhere the movement of the yellow
vests demand in various forms, something that is well beyond the purchasing power! This
thing is power to the people, by the people, for the people. It is a newsystem where
"those who are nothing" as they say with contempt, regain power over all those who stuff
themselves, over those who rule, and over the money powers. It's equality. It's justice.
It's freedom. That's what we want! And it starts from the grassroots!
If we appoint "representatives" and "spokespersons", it will eventually make us passive.
Worse: we will quickly reproduce the system and act from top down like the scoundrels who
rule us. These so-called "representatives of the people" who are filling their pockets,
who make laws that rot our lives and serve the interests of the ultra-rich!
Let's not put our finger in the gear of representation and hijacking. This is not the time
to hand over our voice to a handful of people, even if they seem honest. They must listen
to all of us or to no one!
From Commercy, we therefore call for the creation throughout France of popular
committees, which function in regular general assemblies. Places where speech is
liberated, where one dares to express oneself, to train oneself, to help one another. If
there must be delegates, it is at the level of each local yellow vests people's committee,
closer to the voice of the people. With imperative, revocable, and rotating mandates. With
transparency. With trust.
We also call for the hundreds of groups of yellow vests to have a cabin as in Commercy, or
a "people's house" as in Saint-Nazaire, in short, a place of rallying and organization!
And that they coordinate themselves, at the local and departmental level, in equality!
This is how we will win, because that, up there, they are not used to manage it! And it
scares them a lot. We will not let ourselves be ruled. We will not let ourselves be
divided and bought off.
No to self-proclaimed representatives and spokespersons! Let's take back the power
over our lives! Long live the yellow vests in their diversity!
LONG LIVE PEOPLE POWER, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE!
If you agree with the basics of this appeal where you are, in your local group of yellow
vests, or other, contact us at giletsjaunescommercy@gmail.com and let's coordinate
ourselves on the basis of popular and egalitarian assemblies!
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Message: 4
Many of us have been following the Yellow Vest clashes on the streets of France with great
interest and trying to understand this movement that appeared to come from nowhere. It is
another story the pressures of late stage capitalism collapsing the center of politics, a
center no longer able to fool more of the people most of the time. A movement made
possible by social media but which also reflects the often chaotic ‘apolitics' of such
movements. And worrying in the context of the millions being poured into far right
propaganda a movement in which the far-right have made some progress in infiltrating, even
if our comrades in France are physically driving them out of the protests. ---- There is
no such thing as an apolitical movement, all there can be is a movement with internal
contradictions as well as internal struggles to resolve those contradictions.
There is no way for a movement to be both anti-capitalist and in favour of capitalism,
anti-authoritarian and authoritarian, against borders and anti-immigration, anti-racist,
anti-sexist and ‘'anti-SJW'', anti-state and statist, anti-Europe and pro-Europe or
neither. Saying that none of this matters is still an ideological statement because it
suggests the economic insecurity we face is not related to any of the above.
Whether we hold one of these positions outside of any party affiliation doesn't make these
opinions less political. Politics and party politics are different things, and some
political ideologies are fundamentally opposed to party politics as a strategy.
The implication for the Yellow Vest movement is that different ideological tendencies will
inevitably try to influence the movement one way or the other. A better way to put it is
that the collision of ideologies within the movement defines the course of the movement,
it is the movement.. In this context, the claim that the movement is apolitical is simply
an opportunity for different ideologies to wear a mask while trying to influence the movement.
This is why we will not shy away from labels. We also want to argue that influencing a
movement is not the same thing as co-opting a movement (to co-opt is to influence, but to
influence is not necessarily to co-opt). Co-optation is when the control of a movement is
taken away from the original grassroots organisers and into the hands of party/group.
Instead what we want to do is insist that the yellow vest movement push its core beliefs
to their ultimate conclusions.
Yellow Vests and Anarchism
While we recognize the diverse nature of the French Yellow Vest movement, it is worth
mentioning that the core realisations which gave rise to the yellow vest movement are very
much aligned with anarchism in the broadest sense:
1) Anarchism rejects party politics. The blanket rejection of parties and electoral
strategies is something that the French yellow vest movement shares with anarchism and
with anarchism alone. No other political ideology on the spectrum rejects party politics
as definitively as anarchism does.
2) Anarchism is anti-authoritarian. This term is admittedly rarely used by Yellow Vests to
describe the movement. Yet the refusal to have spokespersons endowed with the power to
make decisions or to negotiate with the state on behalf of the movement as well as the
widespread critique of the French State as a violent top-down institution concentrating
power and wealth in the hands of a few reveals a strong anti-authoritarian current within
the movement. In the same vein, Anarchists argue that the worker-boss, the landlord-tenant
and the lender-borrower relationships are also authoritarian. These authoritarian
relationship are made possible because the State and its police force historically emerged
as a means to violently enforce property rights (that is to allow concentration of wealth
and limit redistribution to what is strictly necessary to avoid insurrection).
Perhaps the Yellow Vest movement, like Occupy before it, lacks an authoritarian center for
reasons of tactics and spontaneity, there are no leaders to arrest and no need to wait for
a founding conference before acting. But for anarchists such structures are not just
tactical ways to act quickly and avoid repression. They are principles meant to defeat by
design the corruption that comes when the authorities can buy off the leaders of a
movement, or jail or assassinate the few who don't have a price.
Anarchists also believe States and the authoritarian relationships they make possible
could not have emerged without the creation of sexist, racist and ableist hierarchies,
backed by law, which serve as divide and conquer strategies. These mutually reinforcing
and intersecting hierarchies prevent workers from forming solidarity ties and from
politically organising against the State and the capitalist system that initially was and
still is imposed onto them by force. In other words, the social contract is a myth but
some people like to believe in it because they don't have the worst deal.
Knowing where to draw the line
It must be said that if anti-authoritarianism and the rejection of hierarchical top-down
structures are a core principle of the yellow vest movement, then the far-right's role in
the movement can only ever be to try to co-opt it and drag it away from this core
principle. The far right, everywhere and since ever has reinforced violent hierarchical
authoritarian structures rather than dismantling them. This is what they do and this is
where the movement should draw the line. This is all the more urgent that we have seen, in
the last few years how the far right's absolute disregard for truth (for the purpose of
gaining power) has allowed them to win over social movements through mass fake news
campaigns. If we do not want to follow the trajectory of Ukraine, Brazil and the United
States, we need to have no tolerance for the far-right within the Yellow Vest movement.
The end of centrism
The influence of the far right is being bought with the millions of dollars a few super
rich white men and pumping into personalities and social media channels. But while this is
why they have now become an organised threat it does not explain all. Late stage
capitalism is faced with crisis it cannot solve, in particular that of Climate Change
which at its worst threatens life on the planet. Automation and the huge reductions being
imposed on workers living standards through greatly inflating housing costs is another.
For 50 years politics in the advanced economics has been dominated by technocratic
centrist parties whose policy differences were not so much about the organisation of the
economy but pace and the extent to which the liberation of oppressed groups should be allowed.
As capitalism proves unable to continue to deliver modest improvements to the many the
hold of the centerists is collapsing. Unfortunately this polarisation is not simply
pushing people to a genuine left alternative. As with the huge crisis of legitimacy
capitalism faced after WWI a entirely false and reactionary ‘revolution' is being promoted
in the rebirth of fascist movements that, as before, seek to protect capitalist rule by
instead directing anger at marginalised scapegoats. The false unity they seek to build is
that of ‘the people' rather than ‘the class' - a people defined in opposition to those who
are targeted for being different. A people that includes the billionaires who are the
cause of climate and economic disaster facing us. Indeed it is the money from those
billionares that funds fascist organising and outreach, all to protect their wealth and
ability to pollute for a few more years.
As was the case in the 1920s fascism is a disastrous band-aid for billionaires to preserve
their wealth and power that lasts only a brief while before it brings death and
destruction down on all. Those who fell for the scapegoating lies of Hitler & Mussolini
lived to see their children conscripted and slaughtered in the snows around Stalingrad,
their cities levelled and their choice remembered, perhaps for ever as the most criminal
moment in human history. The victims of their scapegoating were murdered in vast numbers.
80 million died in the slaughter that choice resulted in. This time the threat is such
that there may be no history to remember, we cannot afford to allow the mistakes of the
past be repeated in a new form, when it comes to the far right presence the Yellow Jackets
must make a choice and drive them and their bigoted scapegoating out.
As the center collapses all of us face the choices outlined at the beginning - for or
against capitalism, for or against social justice, for or against the authoritarian state.
Which choice we feed will determine the future of the planet, indeed will determine
whether humanity as we have come to know it has any future on this planet. The hour is
late and the pressures become more intense as the months pass, we cannot afford to allow
the rule of the wealthy few to continue much longer. Will the Yellow Jackets prove to be a
moment of contradictory rioting in the twilight of a dying planet or a moment when
contradictions are resolved and we set out on a global path to liberation?
-----
Want to find out more, listen our audio where two of the authors discuss the issues in
this piece in much more detail
https://www.mixcloud.com/workerssolidarity/yellow-vests-people-are-ready-to-go-onto-the-streets-because-they-have-nothing-else-to-lose/
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Message: 5
Here is another quick update about our ongoing public campaign in support of a group of
tenants demanding compensation from Fox & Sons for having had their tenancy withdrawn 5
days after their move-in date[link 1; link 2; link 3]. ---- After the success of our
triple picket staged on 1st December, last Saturday 8th December we escalated our dispute
by simultaneously picketing not only 3 Fox & Sons' branches in Brighton & Hove (Kemptown,
Hove, Elm Grove) but also one branch of their sister company in Peckham (London), Barnard
Marcus. The two firms are amongst many others owned by real estate mega-company Connells
Group. All pickets were again well attended and, unsurprisingly, we received again a lot
of support by people passing by, some of whom have since been in touch to share their
frustration and experiences with the agency - and of course with the housing situation in
Brighton as a whole.
Fox & Sons seem to have finally understood that employing police force as some kind of
private security service is not the best way of responding to people protesting against
their dodgy practices. However, this does not mean that they have decided to engage in
meaningful negotiations with their dissatisfied clients. Rather, they have been
experimenting with some goofy forms of counterinsurgency - obviously with disastrous
results. While the agency has received a flood of negative reviews from members of the
public that were informed of the situation, Fox & Sons' senior branch manager for the Hove
shop, Drew Bailey, has written a glowing review to his own company! As you can see in the
screenshots below, Bailey used the same account to comment on Fox & Sons' "fantastic
service" as well as to thank reviewers for their appreciation of his and his team's
"work". Additionally, while bragging about their "professionalism", they have tried to
spam our email account by making enquiries to other letting agencies on our behalf. This
would almost be funny, if we weren't talking about a company responding to a campaign
about their systematic indifference toward their tenants, resulting in a group of people
ending up homeless.
The fight continues!
http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk/brighton/fox-sons-dispute-escalates-while-agency-engages-in-goofy-counterinsurgency
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