Today's Topics:
1. Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Euromania
Intensifies - Deal or no deal? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #289 - 1810: a pollution
management is set up (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. [Mexico] Libertarian communiqué regarding death projects in
the Yucatan Peninsula By ANA [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. vrije bond: AKSIE-café #2 - The Action Fund organizes: the
second edition of the AKSIE café! (nl) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. anarkismo.net: Requiem for Rojava by Khaled Aboud
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Holand, vrije bond: How the FSB is Manufacturing a Terrorism
Case Against Antifascists in Russia. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
No deal apparently. Theresa May's much vaunted Brexit deal didn't even get to the Commons'
vote. Two years in the making and, as was made clear by the European Commission, the only
one on offer, it was too Euroey for the Brexiteers and too Brexity for the Euromaniacs.
Ostensibly, the sticking point was the interim ‘backstop' arrangements to keep the
intra-Ireland border open - necessary to keep May's DUP support on board. The Prime
Minister, having survived a vote of no-confidence from her party, then headed back to
Brussels for further negotiations, hoping in vain to gain further concessions to make the
deal more palatable to her stroppy colleagues. ---- What is behind the seemingly endless
rounds of talks, the quibbling over minutiae? Could it be that the government, the
capitalist organ grinder's best monkey, really doesn't want the UK-EU split at all? After
all, there's a lot of big money at stake here. Given that no settlement seems possible and
that the Commission is willing to put off or terminate Article 50 as required, the most
likely scenario is that another referendum is in the offing. Which this time, after two
years of jolly funny jokes about the post-Brexit Dark Age, is likely to deliver the
required status quo result.
In the meantime, the government must be seen to be making an effort. Not just to appease
its own, mostly Brexit happy, voters. But because, otherwise, the whole notion that we
live in a democracy, that our opinion counts, that we, the people, rule, would be brought
into doubt. If what we said was blatantly disregarded, the discrete veil which is the
circus at Westminster would be irrevocably torn and the brutal reality of class rule would
be made plain for all to see.
Bugger Brexit
We do not give a toss about Brexit. And neither should you. "Take back control"? Don't
make us laugh. The good old British billionaires, those who through their taxes pay the
government, regardless of political colouring, have no interest in our welfare. To them,
we are just hands and brains to be used to make money.
Fuck EU too
The European Union seems some sort of advance on a stand-alone UK. Free movement of people
exists within its borders. And its laws offer real benefits to working people. But how
long will these benefits last? Given the pasting given to Syriza in Greece and recent
threats of the same treatment to Italy, the answer is "not long". And such freedom of
movement applies only to Europeans - the EU's whites only Fortress Europe policy accounts
annually for the deaths of thousands of helpless migrants.
The real deal
Why should we be interested in their trading arrangements, the relations between their
governments, the ‘deals' they make between themselves? Our business is what concerns us,
our lives, where we live and where we work. In or out we will still be under the thumb of
our bosses. In or out, the destruction of the National Health Service will continue. In or
out, sickness and unemployment benefit will be eroded. The only fair and sane deal is the
destruction of capitalism and all states - including potential super-states such as the
European Union. Settle for nothing less than total freedom.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/12/21/euromania-intensifies/
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Message: 2
The decree of 1810 claimed to regulate polluting industrial activities. But it was much
more important to legitimize industrial development than to control the consequences, even
if the issues discussed, distribution of pollution and risks for the population, seem
modern. ---- Between 1800 and 1850, the big establishments and factories develop. The
created pollution is causing growing discontent among residents. The prefects, confronted
with the problem, ask the Council of salubrity [1]to produce its opinion on each
establishment. We are entering the era of technicians and decisions are centralized in
Paris. ---- Read: " 1791: the polluters legislate, the people pay, " November 2018
The elaboration of the new standards is legitimized by the setting up of a collection of
statistics. They allow industrialists to build their facilities closer to the people
without being worried. There is then predation of vacant lots, market gardening or any
other large vacant space in the cities. The state favors the process by making available
the ecclesiastical goods nationalized by the Revolution.
Thus, a law purporting to regulate industrial nuisances has, on the contrary, made it
possible to bring urban centers among the most polluting establishments closer to one
another. In the Paris region, this vision of the distribution then produces a strong
pollution, breaking with the pre-revolutionary management. [2]For smaller towns or rural
areas, the distance to settlements is easier. But again, when there is " consultation ",
it takes place in the capital and not with the concerned citizens.
Read: " Ideas: The company facing the industry ! » , October 2018
Classroom layout
The Safety Council has served the interests of industry for decades, ignoring the health
issue. The liberal chemist Darcet, [3]very influential in the Council, has worked hard to
admit a distribution of industries in poor neighborhoods, legitimizing this act by
bringing them closer to the workforce, or " that the property value would increase in
these poor neighborhoods .
The beautiful neighborhoods are out of reach, since the presence of factories there would
devalue the properties. Let us quote one of the good words of Darcet: " the populations of
the workers are very tolerant ... more difficult to offend for vapors than the voluptuous
inhabitants of Choisy ". It is also in favor of the concentration of unhealthy
establishments in Paris towards the Bièvre valley, a working-class and working-class
suburb of southern Paris. This tributary of the Seine will be so polluted during the XIX
th century that it will eventually be covered to make it disappear in the eyes of Parisians.
Reinette reinette (AL Aveyron)
[1] Read libertarian Alternative , November 2018
[2] See Libertarian Alternative , October 2018
[3] Thomas le Roux, " The distancing of insalubrity and industrial risk in the city: the
decree of 1810 put in perspective (1760-1840) ", in History & measurement 2009/2.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?1810-une-gestion-de-la-pollution-se-met-en-place
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Message: 3
Extractivism is once again news, now in communities of the Yucatan Peninsula where it is
worth remembering that extractivism also presents an ecological facet as renewable energy,
when, in fact, they are an even greater exploitation of Mother Earth and all beings
inhabiting it or its forced displacement or death. In this context, they send us the
following communiqué and hope that it will continue to stir up the flame of insurrection
against extractivism. ---- We reproduce the text below: ---- All the independent and
subversive media ---- To all xs individualities and collectivities with anarchism affinity
---- Anyone who is interested ---- As a group of individuals related to libertarian
thought, we intend to share our perspective on the brutality of expropriation, repression
and persecution that we are living today in the Mayan communities, with which we are
creating a solidarity bond accompanying their resistance and struggle.
Extending our anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist anti-reformist positions, we make it
clear that we are not willing to have any agreement or get involved in policies that come
from governmental bodies, however, we respect and stay out of decisions about strategies
used in the Mayan communities in their processes of autonomy and self-determination, in
specific solidarity with which we have affinity.
That said, it is important to disseminate information about its decentralization,
extending ties of solidarity, serving as a bridge between the Maya organization and the
individuals or groups that want to join forces to fight the communities in resistance and
their demands the defense of life, land and all living beings before a system operating
under the damaging logic of neoliberal capitalism that plundered any living organism that
gives any benefit or wealth in the name of the country's "progress" and "economic
development."
From our perspective, we condemn the imposition of megaprojects that have consequences
such as pollution of groundwater, the use of transgenic and pesticides that corrode the
soil becoming infertile, and the destruction of biodiversity in human hands causing
extinction, such as land for hydrocarbon extraction, expropriation, supply or auctioning
of land for exploitation by transnational and national companies.
Filled with anger at these bloody actions, but motivated by the fact that there are
communities organizing to confront these atrocities, we were able to meet the Muuch
Xíinbal Assembly of Defenders of the Maya People, a community organization where
representatives of different communities in the Península meet occasionally to share their
problems as a community and discuss possible solutions to be taken. This set comes from
the publication in networks of a meeting with residents in the municipality of Peto (Mayan
community) to alert them about the consequences that green technology companies promoted
in the Yucatan Peninsula.
After the implementation of the energy transition plan in 2015, the accelerated imposition
of projects in this area in recent years, along with the granting of land grant licenses
without consulting the inhabitants of the communities, caused great discontent that is
channeled through the current gestating organization in southeastern Mexico.
It has been demonstrated that companies must comply with environmental impact assessments,
but in most cases they have many irregularities or in some others there is no such
assessment, and the expropriation, deterioration and destruction of nature are ignored in
thousands of hectares . This shows the unsustainability of these projects, which as a last
drop promote mechanisms of "participation" such as consultation and evaluation of social
impact, which on their facade are painted to take into account the decisions of the
community, however, in reality they are tools bureaucratic practices developed to benefit
the interests of companies that in turn divide, pacify, struggle and exacerbate the
differences that arise between communities and even in some cases,
"These Mayan lands of the Yucatan Peninsula and the natural resources we have today are at
serious risk of contamination and deforestation, since the date on which federal and state
authorities authorized megaprojects of high impact on the environment, as they approved 6
solar parks , 9 wind farms and 1 farm for 49,000 pigs in our territory. wind and solar
energy companies that invade us with their projects are: Wind from the Gulf, Strength and
Clean Energy of Yucatan, Consorcio Energía Limpia, BHCE, Renewable Energy of the
Peninsula, Vega Solar 1 and 2, the wind energy company Elecnor, the company Lightenning PV
Park and Jinkosolar, the sustainable company Photoemeris, the PV development company
Yucatan and the company Aldesa Energías Renovables. "
In this context of extractive projects, our contribution from our libertarian position is
of solidarity and direct action respecting the decisions of the struggle of the
communities, without leaving aside our organizing and operating individually, which is
immanent in our life, we extend the information so that since other positions can
contribute to this struggle in defense of life, land and its elements, and we urge you to
join in this struggle and follow up by maintaining direct communication with the people of
the Assembly, keeping them alert to what may happen . Without further ado, for now, we
extend a fraternal greeting from the lands of the Mayab.
We leave the links where the Múuch Xíinbal organization can be contacted for more
information and to clarify any doubts, just as we shared the audio of a presentation by a
member of the Assembly of Defenders of the Maya People, which was exhibited at the Meeting
of Studies and Anarchist Reflections organized between affinities, this year.
https://asambleamaya.wixsite.com/muuchxiinbal/single-post/2018/09/20/DEAMPLES-DEL-TERRITORIO-MAYA-M%C3%9AUCH%E2%80%99-X%C3%
8DIMBAL
http://lazarokan.wixsite.com/pedrouc?fbclid=IwAR2VHZ7bglPlim73ngnr0W_NvwZtT0slRQkIHZk-3VEunnhsuV59g0dUwX8
https://www.facebook.com/MuuchXiinbal/
Source:
https://noticiasdeabajoml.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/comunicado-frente-a-los-proyectos-de-muerte/
Translation> Liberto
anarchist-ana news agency
------------------------------
Message: 4
Do you suffer from neoliberalism? Do you have a climate depression? Does the global
come-back of the extreme right frighten you? Do you want to do something but you don't
know what? Then come to a new edition of the AKSIE-café! An evening to discuss the
problems that we face today and, especially, what we can do about them. ---- We believe it
is time to dust off the old ideals of commitment and activism and to take action for the
things we find important. The AKSIE-café serves as a platform for informing people about
how they can contribute to the struggle for a just world and how they can organise actions
themselves. We invite activists and speakers who represent different action groups and
movements in the Netherlands and we'll talk with them about how you can join in. We'll
have drinks afterwards!
The programme will be announced asap.
The first edition of the Aksie-café was a success! We heard interesting and inspiring
stories from different Dutch activists. Lily told us about her work for fugitive children,
Twister spoke about the importance of climate activism, and Tom spoke about his action
group that fights against the militarisation of EU-borders. Time for the second edition!
The most important purpose of the Aksie-café is to inform and mobilise people. Activism is
that kind of politics that does not accept the false contradictions we are presented with
but acts against the wrong status quo out of solidarity. This is more important than ever:
problems like climate change or the re-emergence of right wing populism are not likely to
solve themselves.
The Aksie-café is the place where we can discuss these kinds of issues en where can learn
from activists and from each other. About the struggle many people, not only in the
Netherlands but all over the globe, are engaged in, and how you can join them.
So we hope to see you at the next edition!
Actiefonds, aksie-café
Vrije Bond Secretariaat
https://www.vrijebond.org/aksie-cafe-2/
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Message: 5
The announcement of Trump that the US would immediately stop aerial bombardments and
withdraw their diplomatic personnel, while their troops would all withdraw within 3
months, officially signalled the end of the Syrian war, a war which has been portrayed as
a "civil war" but one in which all of the world participated. While major powers, such as
Russia, France, the UK, and the US, and regional powers such as Iran, Israel and Turkey
participated directly, they had their Syrian proxies to fight against one another. The
conflict, in the first place, wouldn't have erupted without the decisive funding and
support given by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Jordan to a frightful collection of
armed jihadist lunatics.
The prospect of the Syrian war and its unspeakable bloodletting to come to an end is good
news, no matter what the result. The amount of human suffering it caused by callous
foreign interventionism is not justified by any grand discourse of human rights or
democracy, which were rendered increasingly hollow and meaningless as the horror
progressed. However, the biggest losers in the aftermath of this horrible tragedy will be
the party which, at one point, promised the most: the Kurdish. When the US pull out from
Syria it will be the Kurdish who will be left exposed to Turkish aggression. Quite
possibly, the Syrian regime will push to recover all the territory acquired by the Kurds
with US protection over the past few years.
The dependency of the Kurdish from the US, expressed in angry protests outside US military
bases demanding that they stay, makes irrelevant their claims of "autonomy". The SDF
reacted to Trump's announcement claiming that it was a "stab in the back" (didn't they
know that imperialism doesn't have friends but interests?) and that it would leave "a
military and political vacuum" (
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria...OJ10F )... oblivious to the fact
that they were, indeed, describing the SDF minus US support as a "vacuum". But what was
Trump supposed to do? Prolong a costly war forever? Escalate regional tensions with all
countries that border Syria, including a NATO ally? Break with Turkey?
He flirted for some time with the idea of the US forming a Kurdish protectorate in Syria,
an idea favoured by the Pentagon, to access the oil fields in Deir ez Zor, to counter
Iranian and Russian influence, and to have military bases in a geostrategic region. As a
matter of fact, recently the Kurdish were calling in unequivocal terms for the US to
permanently occupy the Eastern region of Syria so as to form a protectorate in all but
name. However, the big elephant in the room is Turkey, a NATO member. In spite of all the
stupid claims that Trump is playing in the hands of Russia or that his decision will
benefit the geopolitical rivals of the USA, had he decided to create this protectorate,
the results would have been catastrophic for the imperial interests of the USA. This would
have caused a crisis in NATO, as Turkey would have likely escalated military actions
against the YPG, and it would have thrown Turkey into the arms of Russia, a scenario which
Trump wanted to avoid at all costs. Continued support for the Kurds, from the imperial
interests of the USA, was too costly.
The first signs of this shift appeared when some weeks ago the USA put a price on the head
of the top PKK commanders. Then, some days ago, the USA Syria envoy, James Jeffrey,
announced that the USA did not have "permanent relations with sub-state entities"
(https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/us-syria-envoy-syrian-kurds-future-lies-in-syria).
These two moves, coupled with a recognition that regime change in Syria was no longer in
the agenda, showed clearly that the USA was moving away from the idea of the protectorate.
The last sign, was when two days ago, the USA agreed to sell Patriot missiles to Turkey,
after they had agreed a deal with Russia to acquire S-400 missile systems
(https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/12/19/turkey-cleared-by-us-for-35-billion-patriot-missile-deal-despite-s-400-row/)
Now, the end of the protectorate dream means also the end of the "autonomy" project of the
Kurdish, who put all of their eggs in the USA basket. The Kurdish will not be able to
resist for a second a full-scale Turkish offensive. Afrin was the pilot experience -and
then the USA didn't move a finger to stop the invasion. Without USA military support, the
Kurdish proved as an incompetent army as Afrin fell like a house of cards. Eastern Syria
will fall even quicker: after all, Afrin was a region with an important Kurdish
population. Eastern Syria, on the contrary, is mostly Arabic, except for the Kobane and
Cizire cantons. They have gained the animosity of Arabs, who do not welcome them and see
them as USA proxies, they have gained the animosity of Christians in Qamishli and Hasaka
whom they have antagonised, they have earned the animosity of Syrian nationalists when
they have supressed the use of the Syrian flag, they have gained the animosity of the
elements of the regime with ambushed and skirmishes against the small pockets of Assadists
in Qamishli and Hasaka. They have made enough enemies inside Eastern Syria and outside it
to guarantee a quick fall in the likely event of a Turkish invasion. The Kurds
overstretched themselves out of the three Kurdish cantons, were they should have stayed
all the time. It is unbelievable that they didn't foresee this possible scenario and that
they were too overconfident of their "friends" in Washington. Quite possibly, Assad will
let the Turkish deal with the SDF in the north, and take advantage in the south of Eastern
Syria. The Kurdish have no capacity to resist: the PKK in Turkey and in Qandil in Northern
Iraq is decimated, and when the Syrian rear-guard is annihilated, Erdogan will be able to
decree his campaign against the Kurdish liberation movement as a complete success. The
world will turn away as they did in Sri Lanka in 2009. After the Kurdish resistance is
shattered beyond recovery, Assad and Erdogan will come to an agreement and the Turkish
territorial gains will be devolved to Syria, paving a stabilisation on terms acceptable to
Erdogan. Turkey failed on their goal of removing Assad, but will manage to end up the
Kurdish threat, at least for a very long time.
Could have this been different? In late 2015 and throughout 2016, there was a real chance
of a pragmatic agreement between the Russians (who were in a deep crisis with Turkey after
the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey), Assad (who was in a much weaker position,
and likely to make more concessions than he is now) and the Kurdish who were still in a
strong position. This way the war would have finished long time ago, with a more
progressive result that could have guaranteed a minimum of direct democracy, and sparing
thousands of lives. Instead, the Kurdish overplayed their hand, flirting with the
opposition (until Afrin), rejecting any approach to the regime, acting in open hostility
and attacking Assad forces in Deir ez Zor, and throwing themselves into the arms of the
USA. Now, as the Turkish invasion of northern Syria seems imminent, they call for Assad to
defend the lands they declared autonomous, and they enter into quick negotiations to see
if they can save anything. But now it is too late. Assad is in a much stronger position
and he won't be willing to make any concessions at all. The Kurdish, indeed, are in no
position now to ask for any concessions, and should be thankful if Assad helps them just
enough to avoid a full-fledged slaughter. At this stage, however, both the international
community and the Syrian people, by and large, seem to agree that the war needs to end at
any costs. And the bulk of the cost will be paid by the Kurds.
As the demise of the Rojava project seems imminent, it is important to learn the lessons
left by this experience. Blind faith in imperialism can only lead to disastrous results
for progressives. But we should also remember the premises of the project, of gender
equality, of an ecological society, of direct and participatory democracy. Nothing should
obscure the merits of this utopian society that flourished in the middle of an atrocious
war, only to become the victim of its own success. In the end, the idea of the
protectorate signalled the demise of the utopian Rojava: the USA and Saudi Arabia, two key
allied of the Kurdish, would have never allowed such a society to exist. Although Rojava
will formally be finished in the coming weeks or months, its demise had already started in
2016 with the strategic partnership formed with the USA. Sooner or later, the USA was to
decide between the NATO partner and the "substate entity".
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31237
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Message: 6
In the run-up to presidential elections and the FIFA World Cup, repressions against
antifascists and anarchists started in Russia. ---- In Autumn 2017, 6 people were arrested
in Penza; several of them had weapons and explosives planted on them. FSB officers then
tortured the antifascists right in the detention facility: they applied naked wires to the
activists' various body parts and turned the electricity on, they beat them up, hanged
them upside down. While torturing them, the agents made the activists learn by heart the
story the FSB needed: they were supposed to confess of having founded and belonging to a
terrorist organization called "The Network". ---- In late January 2018, two more
antifascists were arrested in Saint-Petersburg. They, too, were beaten up, tortured with
electric current, and forced to incriminate themselves by confirming they were members of
the "Network".
Come to Book-Cafè the Barricade (at ACU, Voorstraat 71) to discuss and know more about
this case.
16:00 - Library opens
17:30 - Info talk starts
19:00 - Food from Barriccoons Kitchen
antifascisme, info-avond, repressie, Rusland
Vrije Bond Secretariaat
https://www.vrijebond.org/utrecht-info-talk-repressions-against-anarchists-and-antifascists-in-russia/
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