Anarchic update news all over the world - 17.02.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Anarchist group Freiburg: To the cuckoo! Open Anarchist
      Meeting on "Women's Strike" -- February 28 // 19:00 // Kyosk
      (Eagle Street 2) (de) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB): THE LIFE OF WORKERS
      IS NOT SUITABLE: TERRORISM OF CAPITAL AND THE STATE! (pt)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 3.  wsm.ie: Brexit & a border poll - an anarchist view on the
      possibilities and consequences (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  wsm.ie: Huge march for the nurses but serious concerns over
      proposed deal (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Czech, afed: The documentary NETWORK -- Anarchists in Russia
      have filmed a documentary about their friends who are accused of
      making a "Network". [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Afganiststan and Iranian Anarshism - Part Six: Raging
      Letters, Memoirs of the Prison and Anarchist Campaigns in Iran -
      Notes on December 27th [machine translation] 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Greece, liberta salonica: Solidarity with hunger striker
      Spyros Christodoulou [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





The open anarchist meeting in February will deal with the planned women's strike on 8 
March. First we will have a short documentary (~ 30min) about the women's strike 2018 in 
Spain. Afterwards there will be an input to this year's strike. Among other things, we 
want to talk about the following: What are the demands? Why a strike? How can Frau * 
participate? How to deal with reprisals? How to organize yourself permanently? Etc. 
---------- "To Cuckoo!" - the open anarchist meeting for Freiburg and region - should 
provide a starting point for people who are interested in anarchist politics or who 
already understand themselves as anarchists and want to organize themselves. At the 
regular meetings, we want to ask ourselves what we hope for an anarchistic exchange, what 
common goals we share and what conflicts and social struggles are of particular interest 
at the moment. For those interested in anarchism, we recommend reading the short booklet 
"Anarchism - An Introduction" for a first overview. We look forward to seeing you!

The anarchist meeting takes place on the 4th Thursday of each month in Kyosk (Adlerstraße 2).

https://www.ag-freiburg.org/termin/zum-kuckuck-offenes-anarchistisches-treffen-zum-thema-frauenstreik

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Message: 2






The Brazilian Anarchist Coordination deeply regrets the hundreds of workers killed and 
wounded by the rupture and overflow of two tailings dams at the Vale do Feiga mine mine 
and sympathize with all of them affected by this absurd crime ---- Three years ago, the 
biggest environmental crime occurred in Brazil and one of the largest in the world 
throughout history. The disruption of the Mariana / MG Dam beyond incalculable losses to 
Nature and to local cultures left, not counting animal losses, 19 dead people. The company 
Samarco, controlled by mining companies Vale and BHP Billiton, has not paid any fine or 
compensation, and even the reconstruction of the Bento Rodrigues village is practically 
halted. All this with the full agreement of the public power, with the mayor of Mariana, 
Duarte Júnior (PPS), the government of the State of Minas Gerais, Fernando Pimentel (PT) 
and the Presidency of the Republic, also the leader, Dilma Roussef.

No fine or indemnity paid, no rebuilt house, no repairs performed. Subjugated and 
oppressed continues the working class before this act of terrorism perpetrated in a 
terrifying pact between the Political State and the Great Capital. This time, a new 
tragedy occurred during the governments of Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) and Romeu Zema (NOVO). The 
President of the Republic, for several moments declared the environmental activists as 
obstacles to economic development and even within the hypocritical logic of capitalism, 
threatened to leave the Paris Agreement. Subsequently it ended up retreating influenced by 
political and economic losses to the bourgeoisie and to agribusiness, which such an act 
would provide. The Minas Gerais government does not fall behind in its destructive sanha. 
He promised to facilitate environmental licensing and open the door for mining and 
agribusiness exploration - a process that had already begun in Pimentel's PT government. 
He also promised to fight with the weapons he has, what he called a "of the biggest 
problems faced by MG", social movements. Finally, he declared full support for the lackey 
who occupies the presidency of the republic.

Another disaster announced and planned by the capital

A torrent of mud has hit the company's administrative area and a residential village, as 
well as dozens of houses near the river. Hundreds of company employees are missing and the 
possibility of survivors is very difficult, hit in the middle of lunch in facilities 
inexplicably built on the mud path. Just over three years after the human and 
environmental tragedy that broke out of the Fundão dam in Mariana, the state of Minas 
Gerais and the country are perplexed by the great mining company's involvement. There have 
been few warnings made by popular movements, academics, engineers and environmentalists 
since 2015 for the permanent risk of more than 400 ore tailings dams in the state of Minas 
Gerais alone. The dam complex around the Córrego do Feijão mine has been the subject of 
denunciations of 2015, however, the State Council for Environmental Policy of MG approved 
the expansion of the mine at the end of last year. According to the National Water Agency, 
there are another 45 dams in critical situation in Brazil, of these 5 are in MG.

The dam of Feijão, broken on 01/25/2019, was not on the list of dams in the most critical 
conservation condition.

At that moment the cities of Serro and Rio Acima are the subject of dispute. At first a 
new mine, only four kilometers away from the historic city threatens the entire water 
system of the city, not to mention other serious consequences. In the second, the 
installation of a new mine tailings containment dam, has a tenfold capacity of the Fundão 
dam in Mariana. Upstream, by the way, it's
responsible for a large part of the potable water abstraction of the metropolitan area of 
Belo Horizonte. Once again, Capital, eager for profits and always scorning life, provokes 
another disaster of gigantic proportions, reaping not only human lives, but razing 
cultivated lands, animal creations, dwellings, rivers that supply cities and impacting the 
environment in hundreds of kilometers away from the accident site. Once again, the 
agro-exporting model, typical of dependent and peripheral countries of the capitalist 
system like ours, is insensitive to the needs of the indigenous, peasant and poor 
population. Two tragedies occurring in different governments (PT and PSL). Demonstrating 
that the policy of destruction of natural resources and exploitation of our country by 
multinationals is a policy of State, not merely government.

We accuse the Judiciary of criminal complicity with the big mining companies. The disaster 
of Mariana, whose defendants are the miners Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton, has been 
dragging in the Federal Court since 2016. We remember that the former Companhia Vale do 
Rio Doce (CVRD), a state-owned company founded in 1942, was privatized in May 1997 during 
the FHC government for $ 3.3 billion, when only its mineral reserves were estimated at 
more than $ 100 billion. One of the neoliberal allegations for CVRD's felony delivery was 
that the state-owned company was incompetent and inefficient ... Since then, Vale, 
controlled by domestic and foreign financial capital, has adopted an aggressive export 
model, with crude ore sales unprocessed; intensification of production aimed at the 
accelerated depletion of mineral deposits, generating a huge volume of tailings that clog 
hundreds of poorly constructed and poorly monitored dams. Vale, as well as other major 
mining companies operating in the country, overturns already fragile labor legislation and 
exercises anti-union practices. In this type of financially-driven economy model, those 
responsible (majority shareholders) are hardly punished because they are protected by 
their home capitalist countries and by the criminal labyrinths of the international 
moneylender system. The loosening of the environmental legislation registered in recent 
years, and which should increase even more in the current government as a requirement of 
Capital, foresees new disasters in the future, whose victims will be the same as always. 
All this debris will go to the Paraopeba River, from there to the Furnas Plant and from 
there to the São Francisco River. The Minas Gerais Sanitation Company (COPASA) has already 
interrupted the collection of water that supplies part of the metropolitan area of Belo 
Horizonte. Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CEMIG) is in a state of absolute tension 
since the Furnas Power Plant, where all the toxic sludge will flow is the main generator 
of electricity for MG. With mud turbines can not run. The scenario of chaos in Minas 
Gerais is eminent.

The scenario, therefore, is terrible and corroborates so that the anarchist critique 
elaborated from last 150 years is still completely current. The State is only the other 
face of Capitalism and its antihuman streak of destruction and domination.
It does not interest the people who occupy the direction of state, nor the party. The rot 
is in the perverse structure of this single currency with two horrible faces, Capitalism 
and State. On the other hand, there is the people with their actions of immediate 
solidarity before the horror. Hundreds of potable water, food, clothing and medicines are 
spontaneously emerging to benefit those affected by yet another act of terrorism. A clear 
demonstration that, despite everything, we still carry within us the seed of a new world, 
of Mutual Support, Self-Management and Solidarity. Only the collectivization of all 
environments of social life from the mobilization and organization in social and popular 
movements will distance us from barbarism.
The Brazilian Anarchist Coordination repudiates more this terrorist act of the mining 
company VALE. We stand together with everyone affected by crime and we call on them to 
organize themselves socially to fight for a world where all and all fit!

Our life in front of the Capital is worthless!
Get out Samarco! Off It's Worth It!
For the building of a STRONG PEOPLE! For the construction of the POPULAR POWER!

https://anarquismo.noblogs.org/?p=1033

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Message: 3






"Every exclusively political revolution that is in defence of national independence or for 
internal change...[and]that does not aim at the immediate and real political and economic 
emancipation of people, will be a false revolution. Its objectives will be unattainable 
and its consequences reactionary." Michael Bakunin. ---- With less the two months until 
the Brexit deadline, the North of Ireland remains on edge as the British PM announces 
plans to deploy police reinforcements to six counties echoing past images for many of 
aggressive border checkpoints and control stoking up conflict. ---- In the the midst of 
this Brexit spectacle the real war continues to ravage the streets, housing estates and 
workplaces across the North in the form of a brutal austerity agenda of class warfare in 
cuts to public services and social welfare under the Stormont Fresh Start Agreement 
resulting in misery and deprivation for the many while the wealthy few have never had it 
so good on a local and global level. According to a recent report released by Oxfam in 
January this year ‘Billionaire fortunes increased by 12 percent last year - or $2.5 
billion a day - while the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw 
their wealth decline by 11 percent' (1)

While sections of reactionary unionism led by the DUP vigorously campaigned for UK exit 
from the EU, sections of Irish republicanism remained ambivalent and viewed this through 
the prism of ‘England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity.'

The current political impasse emerged in June 2016 after the majority of the people in the 
UK voted in a referendum 51.9 percent to leave the European Union against 48.1 per cent to 
remain in the EU. In Northern Ireland 55.8 percent of voters opted to remain in the 
European Union and 44.2 percent to leave it, with similar results in Scotland.

In March 2017 the current British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 
beginning negotiations on the terms of UK exit from the rest of the UK and its 
relationship to trade, goods and services etc. To date, no comprehensive agreement has 
been reached that has been endorsed by the House of Commons or EU officials. It is highly 
unlikely any deal will be reached before the brexit deadline between the Conservative 
Government and the EU leaving a No Deal a strong possibility and according to some recent 
media reports British cabinet ministers discussed the possibility of a border poll if a no 
deal emerged.

According to a Belfast Telegraph report, One Cabinet source told Politics Home: "The view 
was that a border poll in Northern Ireland was all-but inevitable if there is a no-deal 
Brexit because Sinn Fein would demand it straight away. The Secretary of State would have 
no choice but to call one."(2)

Whether this is merely Cabinet scaremongering to get the DUP in line and support any 
Brexit deal remains unclear however this is entirely feasible under the Good Friday 
Agreement, as a referendum on Irish unity can only be called by the Northern Ireland 
Secretary if there is evidence that a majority in the province would support a United Ireland.

To date there is has been much debate and speculation on how Brexit (if it will even 
finally happen) will impact on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and subsequent peace process 
that has delivered little prosperity beyond a huge reduction in institutional 
discrimination and a substantial reduction in violence for those who have suffered the 
most from over 30 years of ‘conflict' and sectarian division.

With over 300 border crossings between North and South (which today is largely invisible 
to the naked eye), there has been an attempt to whip up fear and anxiety over a return to 
a ‘hard border' in the form of physical infrastructure such as checkpoints, watchtowers 
etc impacting on trade and investment. However any backstop or hard border that hiders 
normal cross border trading and movement does not serve the interests of the ruling class 
at Westminster, Stormont or Dublin.

On the other hand ‘dissident republicans' continue to wage sporadic attacks and noise such 
as the recent courthouse bombing in Derry that poses no serious challenge to the status 
quo and are liable to eventually result in tragedy if civilians happen to be in the wrong 
place at the wrong time.

Border Poll?
The last time there was a border poll in the North of Ireland was in March 1973 that was 
boycotted by even conservative nationalists such as the Social Democratic and Labour Party 
(SDLP). The voter turnout was 58.7 percent with 98.9 percent voting to remain part of the 
UK. Moving on over 30 years the political landscape has evolved with those in republican 
ranks who were threatening poll canvassers in nationalist areas now defenders of British 
Rule in Ireland. The institutionalised ‘Orange State' maybe dead and buried but partition 
and injustices remain in place.

At the moment, the DUP may have a ‘confidence and supply' with the Tories that gives ultra 
right wing unionism a say at the heart of the Government; but this has not lessened fears 
from some prominent unionists that a Border Poll is on the agenda. Even former DUP leader 
Peter Robinson raised the specter of a future border poll at the MacGill Summer School in 
Glenties late last year and Sylvia Hermon, Northern Ireland's only anti-Brexit unionist MP 
claimed she is ‘worried about the consequences of Brexit. In my lifetime I never thought 
that I would see a border poll and I am now convinced that I probably will see a border 
poll,"(3)

In the wake of this unionist tension and a referendum on Scottish Independence in 2016, it 
shouldn't be any surprise shades of republicanism have recognized this potential 
opportunity to push for a border poll.

Indeed, according to a poll conducted in March 2018, more people in the North of Ireland 
prefer a United Ireland over a hard Brexit. The findings, published from results of a poll 
carried out by LucidTalk on behalf of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) 
group asked "More than 2,000 Northern Irish were asked if they would rather stay in the UK 
or join a United Ireland "in the context of a hard Brexit... leaving the EU with no deal 
on the border, the Good Friday Agreement or citizens' rights...Of those polled, 47.9 
percent voted in favour of a United Ireland, while 45.4 percent voted to stay as part of 
the United Kingdom. On top of this, 6 percent said that they were undecided, and fewer 
than 1 percent didn't vote or spoiled their ballot."(4)
Republicanism & Border Poll

While Sinn Fein have been arguing for a border poll for some time, recently the Irish 
Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) somewhat returning from the political wilderness have 
been emerging as a key voice in campaigning for one under the banner of Yes for Unity. 
Learning the lessons from independence movements in Catalonia, Brittany and the ‘Basque 
Country' they are in the early stages of building for a border poll organizing discussions 
and polls in ‘nationalist areas.' In fact it was the unofficial referendum in Catalonia in 
which a majority voted in favour of independence from the rest of Spain that reignited the 
debate of local elites taking back ‘national sovereignty' but this remains questionable. 
What do we mean by ‘national sovereignty' and is it even really possible in a globalised 
capitalist world run by imperialist powers?

Despite some staunch objections from various shades of disaffected republicanism such as 
Saoradh and the 1916 Easter Societies, one of the IRSP key organizers Ciaran Cunningham 
writing recently in the Pensive Quill in ‘Defence of the Border Poll' points to the 
changing demographics in the North, popular mobilization on the streets and the 
utilization of all tactics as key ingredients in securing a border poll.

Arguing that "The Left cannot afford to abstain from this fight to do so not only hands 
the field back to the British state (literally) but to the right wing, economically.

But let us never forget, that even following a successful Border Poll, national 
independence without Socialism will not be independence at all, this requires a further 
push to get Ireland out of the European Union as a necessary step towards creating a 
Socialist Republic, the IRSP are the only party in Ireland saying this and ‘Yes for Unity' 
is confident in that analysis.

Time will tell, either way, considering all of the above, we have nothing to lose." (5)

What is striking is that republican arguments from public meetings appear to be focused on 
the changing demographics of the north, the most reactionary approach possible to the 
winning of such a poll rather than the weakening of the once strong connection between 
being from a protestant background and being unionist. That is occurring because of the 
threat of a hard Brexit and perhaps the overwhelming progressive victories in the south in 
the marriage equality and abortion access referendums. Irish unity on the basis of 
catholics outbreeding protestants has very little, if any progressive content. Unity on 
the basis of northern protestants abandoning unionism because of its reactionary social 
agenda would be a positive outcome.

Guerrilla Doctrine & Elections
‘Never be deceived the rich will never permit you to vote away their wealth'- Lucy Parsons

The ‘Guerrilla Doctrine' and the utilisation of tactics over principles is a key component 
of the wider IRSP analysis for pushing for a border poll. Quoting the future founder of 
the IRSP Seamus Costello at at the United Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in January 1970 that , "I 
favour guerrilla tactics in parliament, the same as I do in many other respects... And I 
see no reason why with a few TDs or a few MPs of the right calibre, pursuing the right 
policies, why they cannot destroy the confidence of the people in these institutions and 
bring them tumbling down in ruin."

Ciaran argues that "whatever the context of that year's gathering, Seamus' principled 
rejection of abstentionism that night, could not have simply referred to participation in 
the elected chambers, North, South or other?

Costello was of course making a logistical (and ideological) declaration of faith in the 
ability of principled republicans to appropriate and utilise mechanisms of the state to 
ultimately bring down the state itself; a formidable doctrine of Guerrilla politics."

However, Ciaran misses the point when he confuses ‘referendums' or border polls with the 
parliamentary circus because both are quite unique in their trajectory. One can give 
people a real say over their lives while the other disempowers the majority and we should 
know by now that the state apparatus apart can never be used as a tool for fundamental 
social transformation especially in the context of increasing voter apathy from growing 
alienation from the political class. Why rechannel this widespread disillusionment back 
into the harmless channels of the parliamentary game that we know in the long term never 
rocks the boat?

The movement for social transformation has to contain all the key values of the society it 
wants to create internal democracy, self-management, and as far as possible, social and 
economic equality, and its goals cannot be achieved through authoritarianism and 
hierarchy; a mere reflection of the statist and capitalist society we live under.

The question you need to ask yourself is how many times have you listened from so-called 
left parties that they can somehow ride two horses at the same time for us to realise that 
the parliamentary path always ends up as the gravedigger of any revolutionary movement. 
 From the Workers Party in the 1980s to the Provies ‘armalite and ballot box' mantra and 
more recently Syriza in Greece are all a logical conclusion of trying to use the master's 
tools to bring down the master's house that ends in failure.

The reality is that instead of so called ‘destroying the confidence of the people in these 
institutions and bring them tumbling down in ruin' to paraphrase the words of IRSP founder 
Seamus Costello they actually strengthened the status quo becoming gamekeepers instead of 
poachers because all ruling minorities eventually have an interest in maintaining their 
position as such and the failure of previous left republican projects to recognize this is 
apparent.

Any newly installed ruling minority will use its power and authority to further justify 
and entrench its own power and authority. As Ron Taber states, "The very revolutionaries 
who claim that they are against the state, and for eliminating the state...see as their 
central task after a revolution to build up a state that is more solid, more centralized 
and more all-embracing than the old one."

This transformation is not just simply the result of a ‘sell-out' a ‘betrayal' or a 
‘crisis of leadership' for this change, implying that a better set of leaders could of 
done better but flows from the failure to build of a different type of organization built 
on popular self-management and direct democracy from below that removes top down 
centralized control (democratic centralism). In other words bureaucratic centralism!

The dominance of authoritarian, statist and hierarchical organizational praxis on some 
shades of ‘dissident republicanism' that have emerged from the Provisional movement where 
‘loyalty' and ‘discipline' to the movement was placed more highly than critical debate and 
internal democracy is a recurring legacy within all shades of republicanism and needs to 
be challenged. There are too many generals in search of an army, for whom recruitment 
figures are the main yardstick of success. For us revolutionary change is a question of 
consciousness: the consciousness that would make generals redundant.

Indeed if you look back at the period from the early 20th century when the universal 
franchise started to become common such as the civil rights movement you can observe a 
cycle of the energy of revolutionary upsurges and uprisings being channeled and cop-opted 
through institutionalised power and corruption that go nowhere part from a few crumbs at 
the masters table. Sometimes they win a reform for a period that are subsequently rolled 
back, frequently by the same party as it ‘matures' and becomes ‘pragmatic' bound by the 
invisible hand of the market and the dictatorship of global finance.

Something Alexander Berkman warned on the pitfalls of the parliamentary path over a 
century ago when he argued, ‘nothing is truer than the means you use to attain your object 
soon become your object... There is a deeper reason for this constant and regular 
betrayal[than individual scoundrels being elected]... no man turns scoundrel or traitor 
overnight.

"It is power which corrupts... Moreover, even with the best intentions Socialists[who get 
elected]... find themselves entirely powerless to accomplishing anything of a socialistic 
nature... The demoralization and vitiation[this brings about]take place little by little, 
so gradually that one hardly notices it himself...[The elected Socialist]perceives that he 
is regarded as a laughing stock[by the other politicians]... and finds more and more 
difficulty in securing the floor... he knows that neither by his talk nor by his vote can 
he influence the proceedings... His speeches don't even reach the public...[and so]He 
appeals to the voters to elect more comrades... Years pass...[and a]number... are elected. 
Each of them goes through the same experience...[and]quickly come to the 
conclusion...[that]They must show that they are practical men... that they are doing 
something for their constituency... In this manner the situation compels them to take a 
‘practical' part in the proceedings, to ‘talk business,' to fall in line with the matters 
actually dealt with in the legislative body... Spending years in that atmosphere, enjoying 
good jobs and pay, the elected Socialists have themselves become part and parcel of the 
political machinery... With growing success in elections and securing political power they 
turn more and more conservative and content with existing conditions. Removal from the 
life and suffering of the working class, living in the atmosphere of the bourgeoisie... 
they have become what they call ‘practical'... Power and position have gradually stifled 
their conscience and they have not the strength and honesty to swim against the current... 
They have become the strongest bulwark of capitalism."

Means and Ends
"The end justifies the means: we have spoken much ill of that maxim. In reality, it is the 
universal guide of conduct. One could say better: each end contains its means. It is 
necessary to seek morality in the end; the means is fatally determined."- Errico Malatesta

For anarchists the means in terms of how we organize in the present must be consistent 
with the principles with the society want to create in the shell of the old. The 
repression, social inequalities, and militarism of the self- described regimes of 
"actually existing socialism" and "people's democracies" of the last century are not 
temporary "distortions" or a "degeneration" of an otherwise-emancipatory Marxist practice. 
They are the logical outcomes of an authoritarian and statist politics.

The means shape the ends and there should be no surprise that an authoritarian strategy, 
based on centralisation, dictatorship, and militarisation, necessarily leads to a 
centralised, dictatorial, and militarised regime. A self-managed and popular revolution 
from below, on the contrary, has the real potential to create a new and radically 
democratic society.

Revolutionaries that embrace "means" that are in contradiction with the kind of society 
they wish to create will consistently fail to create that society. Instead of wasting 
time, money and resources on electioneering, we believe it is essential to build and 
cultivate a culture of resistance and grassroots organising because an organized and 
empowered community based on direct action and self-management in all aspects of struggle 
is stronger than depending on some party or leader to fix things for us. At the end of the 
day radical social transformation will only be possible when the majority of people 
understand the need for -social change, become aware of their ability to transform 
society, decide to exert their collective power to this end, and know with what they want 
to replace the present system and can never be imposed from above.

Central to this debate is whether the state can be utilized as an instrument of 
working-class emancipation and liberation. As the last century proves the state cannot be 
captured by the popular classes, used by the working class to revolutionary transform 
society, because it is a centralized institution of minority class rule, inextricably 
allied to the private corporations and a bureaucracy with its own in interests.

This means that any left-wing republican party, aiming at state power, is a dead-end, no 
matter how well-intentioned, no matter its size, no matter its program or rules.

Imagine if all the time, resources and finances wasted into a getting a few crumbs from 
the masters table was instead put into building a our own institutions of mass, collective 
self-organisation in our housing estates, communities and workplaces replacing the rule of 
governments, landlords and bosses.

Afterall, the establishment of No Go Zones in the early 1970s when entire communities took 
back control for a short time was to some extent probably considered more of a threat to 
the authority of the British state than armed struggle. This in no means devours the 
tactical use of armed resistance in self defence particularly when it complements a mass 
movement rather than seeking to control one.

Although it is dangerous to pin any aspirations on a nod and a wink from any British 
Secretary of State, from an Irish republican perspective it probably makes sense from a 
practical and strategic outlook to use this ‘Brexit crisis' to push for a border poll 
because they have more to gain than to lose apart from shedding a few republican puritans 
and militarists who still remain wedded to the 1916 Easter Proclamation as their only hope 
of salvation without looking at the bigger picture.

It also remains unclear whether the Irish yes for unity campaign will be able to replicate 
the same type of popular mobilisation in the Basque Country and Catalonia because these 
left independence movements have pushed struggles around gender, ecology and women's 
liberation to the fore than the unique challenges of a sectarian divided society and 
partition. These are not just secondary aspects, that must wait until ‘Independence' is 
achieved. On the contrary they are essential parts of the whole process of social 
transformation, for without them no genuine social transformation will have taken place.

Changing Population Demographics
A YouGov Poll commissioned by the BBC in May 2018 found Brexit causing growing support for 
United Ireland. Brexit has made 28 per cent say they are more likely to support a united 
Ireland, 27 per cent say they were already likely to support a united Ireland before 
Brexit, and 40.6 percent say they still support union with the UK. Just 0.85 per cent of 
the public say Brexit has made them less likely to support a united Ireland.

Support for the cause is more popular among the younger generation than the old, with 49.4 
percent of under-45s backing a break with the UK compared to 37.7 percent who want to stay 
in it.

Though Catholics are significantly more likely to support joining a United Ireland than 
Protestants, a minority of the latter, 8.5 per cent, say they support leaving the UK. An 
overall majority (50.2 per cent) in Northern Ireland's capital, Belfast, support a united 
Ireland. (6)
However, on the other hand during this period in May 2018 another found there has been no 
evidence showing a shift in attitudes in favour of a United Ireland after Brexit. The 
Ipsos MORI poll commissioned by academics at Queen's University Belfast for a major piece 
of research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, entitled Northern Ireland 
and the UK's Exit from the EU: What do people think?, found that not even half of 
Catholics would vote for a united Ireland, with just 42.6 percent of Catholics favouring 
that option - although a large percentage, 26 per cent, were undecided. Queen's University 
Belfast professor John Garry, who led the research team, said that on the possibility of a 
united Ireland "there is not currently a groundswell of opinion in favour but there is 
evidence that, in the Catholic community, there could be a sizeable increase in pro-unity 
views in the context of a ‘hard Brexit'" (7)

This is a reflection in a trend of a growing Catholic middle class that is content with 
the status quo and less alienated from state institutions as Liam O'Ruairc refers to in 
his forthcoming book Peace or Pacification,"From a social and economic point of view, the 
new Catholic middle-class clearly appears as the winner of the peace process. As Paul Bew 
noted, this has led to a shift in the nationalist population from a mood of ‘rage' to one 
of ‘vanity' and the development of what he calls a kind of ‘kulak mentality'. The richest 
part of Belfast, the Malone Road, now has a nationalist majority, and the majority of 
customers for private jets came from that community, which made one commentator 
pertinently ask: ‘What did Bobby Sands kill himself for anyway? Was it so that his fellow 
northern Catholics could own jets? Drive BMWs?" (8)

The Irish PM Leo Varadkar has ruled out any support for a Border Poll claiming it would be 
‘defeated' and ‘very divisive' adding ‘I think the focus should be on getting the 
institutions up and running again, rather than focusing on a border poll." (9)

Therefore we have a quite conflicting picture emerging from opinion polls with everything 
up in the air depending on evolving negotiations between the political classes As they say 
a week is a long time in politics!

While the majority of the ‘nationalist/catholic population' voted to remain, the 
‘Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist' (PUL) are to some extent more polarised with just over a 
one third voting to remain.

More significantly according to an analysis conducted by three prominent Queen's 
University Belfast Professors called ‘Northern Ireland: understanding the Brexit vote and 
its implications for the border' there is strong correlation between those who voted 
remain and having pro-immigration with those voting to leave in the ‘PUL community'. Those 
who voted to remain are mainly young and a more open in their outlook towards social 
issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage. (10)

Indeed rather than relying on the ‘sectarian headcount' of changing demographics or 50 
plus 1 as one way to securing a border poll (the irony considering many republicans 
opposed the Good Friday Agreement on the basis it institutionalised sectarianism), that 
fact that old Catholic Ireland is dead and that a significant minority in the PUL 
community particularly young people not only voted to remain but are more progressive on 
social issues in defiance of traditional loyalties provides a unique opportunity to 
excarberate this tension and smash unionist hegemony. Unfortunately this has been largely 
absent from the pro border poll republican discourse.

Conclusion
"There are revolutions and revolutions. Some revolutions change only the governmental form 
by putting a new set of rulers in place of the old. These are political revolutions, and 
as such they are often meet with little resistance. But a revolution that aims to abolish 
the entire system of wage slavery must also do away with the power of one class to oppress 
another. That is, it is not any more a mere change of rulers, of government, not a 
political revolution, but one that seeks to alter the whole character of society. That 
would be a social revolution."-Alexander Berkman

Throughout the world the vast majority of people have no control whatsoever over the 
decisions that most deeply and directly affect their lives apart from voting for some 
unaccountable clown every few years.

While anarchists have always objected to participating in the parliamentary route that 
over time always disempowers radical movements fostering a cycle of powerlessness, broken 
promises and betrayals, we have participated in referendums as it fits closer to our 
belief in direct democracy.

At the same time we still need to recognise the pitfalls of referendums that still take 
place in class divided society that will only ever deliver crumbs from the ruling class 
table and such polls usually come about through popular pressure from below.

For anarchists it matters how we win reforms and concessions from the state. We should 
have learnt by now that political parties may say they are fighting for your rights and 
your interests, but their central aim is to build for their own interests and election 
campaigns. Collective Direct action such as the rent and rates strike in the North in the 
1970s, to the more recent campaign against the water charges and household tax in the 
South teaches us to control our own struggles while building a culture of resistance that 
links with others in struggles in struggles. Solidarity and mutual aid find real 
expression and as our confidence grows so too does our ability to change our society.

Likewise, if the state concedes a border poll through popular direct action and 
self-organisation; this sends a more powerful message and glimpse of our potential power 
and of a new society we want to build.

It is important for anarchists and the progressive left to take part on the border poll 
debate as it provides an opportunity towards a reconfiguration of progressive politics 
beyond the narrow orange and green agenda.

As Bernadette McAliskey referred to when she replied in response to the border poll debate 
that, "Sinn Fein has no intention of moving forward to a united Ireland that it doesn't 
control....I can think of no state of human misery, either north or south of the border, 
at this juncture, that would not be made immeasurably worse by putting the idiots that are 
running the two sides together in the one state." (11)

Lets not allow political parties to set the agenda for their own interests. Lets not allow 
the ‘national question' to once again sidetrack or supplant struggles over housing, 
workplace and environmental struggles or provide a useful distraction for the our corrupt 
rulers who continue to impose a brutal austerity agenda of class warfare amidst this 
border poll debate.

We must recognise that imperialism is not only rooted in capitalism but in the state 
structure, and that simply replacing foreign elites with local elites will not solve the 
problem in a way that is fundamentally beneficial for any emancipatory project.

Imperialism cannot be destroyed by the formation of new nation-states. Even independent 
nation-states are part of the international state system, and the international capitalist 
system, a system in which the power of imperialist states continues to set the rules of 
the game.

This means that any new states - and the local capitalists that control them- soon find 
themselves unable to fundamentally challenge imperialist control and instead set about 
trying to advance their interests within the overall framework of imperialism.

In other words, external repression continues in new forms and that local elites are an 
enemy both within national liberation movements and even more so after the formation of 
new nation-states. Thus, most left nationalist movements that have achieved their goals 
have turned on the working class once in power, crushing leftists and trade unionists with 
equal vigor like their former masters because using bourgeois methods simply results in 
bourgeois ends. Establishment propaganda and policemen, prisons and schools, traditional 
values and traditional morality all serve to reinforce the power of the few and to 
convince or coerce the many into acceptance of a brutal, degrading and irrational system.

A firm anti-imperialist, Connolly opposed the nationalist dictum that "labour must wait," 
and that independent Ireland must be capitalist: what would be the difference in practice, 
he wrote, if the unemployed were rounded up for the "to the tune of 'St. Patrick's Day'" 
whilst the bailiffs wore wear "green uniforms and the Harp without the Crown, and the 
warrant turning you out on the road will be stamped with the arms of the Irish Republic"? 
In the end, he insisted, "the Irish question is a social question, the whole age-long 
fight of the Irish people against their oppressors resolves itself, in the final analysis 
into a fight for the mastery of the means of life, the sources of production, in Ireland.

We need to asking the question of what type of society and how we want to get there, 
rather than the colour of the flag or putting any new ruling class in power; because let's 
face it any ‘national socialist republic' is a myth as we have witnessed during recent 
events in Venezuela. Nationalism is no solution to the globalised capitalist system run my 
imperialist powers or the ecological disaster of climate change.

As Michael Bakunin put it,
"We prefer the republic, we must recognise and proclaim that whatever the form of 
government may be, so long as human society continues to be divided into different classes 
as a result of the hereditary inequality of occupations, of wealth, of education, and of 
rights, there will always be a class-restricted government and the inevitable exploitation 
of the majorities by the minorities. The State is nothing but this domination and this 
exploitation, well regulated and systematised."

As anarchists we don't have all the answers or a blueprint, but as a former republican I 
believe it offers a rich revolutionary tradition from across the world that built mass 
movements of social transformation involving millions of people.

The lesson we must take from this Border Poll debate is that if we are to pose an 
alternative to the capitalist system, we need to think think outside the box and it cannot 
come through participating in elections or simply state sanctioned referendums but they 
may feature.

The fight against the state, against capitalism, and against all oppressions is one fight 
and socialism cannot come from above. It is a struggle for a society of freedom, 
individual self-development, the end of the state and of classes, self-determination and 
self-management in every area of living.

The alternative is to build popular organs of counter power, to organise in communities 
and workplaces and show how the world can be when we collectively take action providing 
glimpses of a world based on solidarity not greed, a world without leaders and bosses.

Any campaign for a border poll must not be limited to raising the flag but be part of a 
wider struggle of social transformation that is meaningful; increasing the confidence, the 
autonomy, the initiative, the participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies 
and the self -activity of the class. Ultimately aiming to remove all forms of human 
relations based on domination and exploitation because if there is anything we should take 
from the last century is that those who make a half revolution dig their own graves.

GUESTWRITER: Sean M

https://wsm.ie/c/brexit-border-poll-anarchist-view

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Message: 4






In the aftermath of the huge march in support of the nurses on Saturday[video]the 
government suddenly found a pay deal it could put on the table, leading to the INMO 
suspending the strike until that deal is discussed and voted on. ---- According to RTE the 
suggested deal, which some nurses have expressed strong reservations about, would see a 
"new grade being created including the Enhanced Nurse Practice Grade which is a pay scale 
that is higher than the existing scale, by an average €2,000 to €2,500 - around 7% - and 
will range from €35,806 to €45,841 per annum. Nurses would be eligible to apply for the 
enhanced grade after four years' service." ---- However the INMO tweeted last night 
warning members that "The only reliable source of information on these proposals is the 
INMO, so please pay attention to official communications".

Members unhappy with deal as reported in the media responded;
"We have got to stick to our guns. Pay parity and safe staffing. Say no to paltry 
allowances. Let's make this count for future generations of nurses."
"Absolutely no more ALLOWANCES. There must be significant increases to CORE BASIC PAY. 
Talk of a 'new nursing contract'-sounds like adding additional tasks on. This was meant to 
be unconditional! A stunt to stop the strike momentum? "
"From what I've read so far and I know there's still negotiations to be done it's a big no 
from me. This is way off what we were striking for and will only affect a certain amount 
of people. No No No"
"Having scrutinised this document I am appalled by every bit of it, we gain nothing, 
looking at 2010 payscales, it is insulting to say the very least and we have been as per 
usual let down dreadfully, it's an insult "

https://wsm.ie/c/huge-march-nurses-concerns-over-proposed-deal

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Message: 5






Under the designation "Network," the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) began 
investigating the alleged terrorist organization in October 2017. During the month, the 
first six people arrested Penza in the city. The arrest continued in St. Petersburg. Most 
of the people arrested in the case are anti-fascists and anarchists, a number of arrested 
have handled airsoft. The FSB says all the arrests were in an illegal Network organization 
and were intended to "induce the masses to destabilize the political situation in the 
country" during the Presidential and World Cups and to launch an armed rebellion. Network 
cells allegedly operated in Moscow, St Petersburg, Penzen and Belarus. The armed guards 
were subjected to weapons during the inspections. Most arrested described how they were 
tortured by electricity. Investigators claim that torture was legal with an arrested 
person, and that the torture marks of others were tortured by others.
The allegations are to be tried under section 205.4 of the Criminal Code (jurisdiction for 
a terrorist organization) where a sentence of five to ten years' imprisonment is set.

Go to HERE with the Czech subtitles .

We wrote about the story:
https://www.afed.cz/text/6787/airsoft-aneb-pripad-teroristu-z-penzy

https://www.afed.cz/text/6793/stop-muceni

https://www.afed.cz/text/6811/den-solidarity

https://www.afed.cz/text/6784/policejni-stat-rusko

Info in Russian:

https://avtonom.org/people/delo-piterskih-i-penzenskih-antifashistov

http://www.afed.cz/text/6956/dokumentarni-film-sit

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Message: 6






After a few days of wandering across the border between Iran and Turkey, we eventually 
managed to escape in a cold night. We were sure that if we could not escape quickly, they 
would find us ---- The political situation in Turkey was not better than Iran with a 
dictator like Erdogan, I preferred not to do political activity there, so we decided to 
run away to Greece. ---- Eventually, we reached the small island called Samos in Greece, 
near Izmir ---- During my stay in Samos, the Iranian regime, who had been informed of my 
escape, claimed that I had arrested two of my fellow comrades ---- They said that I am 
responsible for their arrest, in fact, they were indirectly planning to put me back to 
Iran with psychological pressure. ---- I even published some information from my comrades 
to prove to me

But I decided to return to Iran because I knew that my return to them would not help them 
and I just handed myself over to the Iranian regime.

Finally, the fatwa was issued to me, which means that anyone who kills me will go to 
Paradise. Soon after, we were attacked in the camp, my friend was wounded with a knife and 
I was beaten.

We asked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to help. Finally, after receiving the 
seriousness of this issue, the UNHCR introduced me to speak with Interpol. But no response 
was given to me except that Greece is a safe country.
Abtin Parsa 2019/1/17

Part One: The Rampage, Memoirs of the Prison and the Anarchist Campaigns in Iran

Part II: The painful letter, memoirs of the prison and the struggles of anarchists in Iran

Part III: Raging Letters, Memoirs of Prison and Anarchist Campaigns in Iran

Part IV: Sufferers, prison memories and anarchist struggles in Iran

The suffering and memories of anarchists in Iran - Part 5

--------------------------------

Addresses and pages of pages related to the Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan

Anarchist Union of Afghanistan and Iran, May 24, 2018

PS: The possibility of joining new people and groups of anarchists will be permanent

The Union has many social media and other communication channels. You will find them at 
the bottom of this page


1. Address of the Anarchism Age at the Instagram

https://instagram.com/asranarshism/

https://asranarshism.com/1397/10/27/anarchists-in-iran/

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Message: 7






Spyros Christoudoulou has started a hunger strike since 14/1, demanding that his sentences 
be merged, as stipulated in Articles 101 and 107 of the Penal Code. He is currently being 
detained in Larissa's prisons by serving bank robbery, punishments imposed without 
substantial incriminating evidence. ---- In 2016 he was accused, while in prison, that 
during 2007 during his leave he was involved in a robbery in Nafplio. He was sentenced and 
sentenced to 10 years in prison. Articles 101 and 107 of the Penal Code provide for the 
merger of sentences in the event of an offense while the accused is in detention. At this 
point, Pericles Drakos, the prosecutor of the Court of Appeals, intervened decisively, who 
carried on his back an entire history of vengeance of anarchists, in order to claim the 
abusive affiliation of Spyros Christodoulou to the criminal provisions of Article 108, 
which required cumulative punishment circumvents in this case the right of the prisoner to 
serve his sentences in a merger. Then, the Attorney-at-Home of the Athens Court of 
Appeals, Charalambos Tzonis, who rejected the latest application for the merger of the 
sentences filed last week by Spyros Christodoulou's attorney, with exactly the same 
arbitrary reason as his predecessor. At the same time, the seriously impaired health of 
Spyros Christodoulou does not appear to be of any concern to the supreme judicial staff, 
who whistle indifferently to the physical extermination of the prisoner, which they refuse 
to satisfy the demands of the hunger strike, faithfully implementing the checks the 
repressive strategy of the state.

The case of Spyros Christodoulou concerns the tangible implementation, once again, of an 
exemption clause from state mechanisms. The very legal framework of bourgeois justice 
itself is revived and revived in such a way that the state can avenge the one facing him.

The tales of the progressive left, the apparent champion of "democratic rights" and 
"humanity," are "stories about wolves" that can no longer be used for voting purposes 
either. We have no illusions about the institutional role played by the individual 
governor of state power, whether right-wing or leftist. Those who are the civilian staff 
of capital, the everyday craftsmen, will find us constantly against them, as they 
mercilessly hit the world of the struggle, as long as they continue to plunder the social 
majority as long as there is still oppression and exploitation of man by man.

Prisons are the culprits of bourgeois democracy. These are the places where violence and 
the imposition of the dominant system are a daily routine for the incarcerated. They are 
the warehouses where those who are left over from the productive design of capital, as 
well as the fighters who are confronted with sovereignty, aim to overthrow it. In prisons, 
the intensified processes of discipline, obedience and consolidation of sovereign social 
and productive relations are intensified. It is violent - albeit with the use of 
psychological and sometimes with the use of physical violence - the detachment of 
prisoners' consent to the tyranny of the state and capital. Prisons are the test 
environment of state authoritarianism. The state and its service staff, which manages 
prison staff, cut and sew against the powerful will, away from the public lights and the 
attention of the rest of the body. At the same time, however, prisons also aim to 
intimidate them outside the walls. They show what awaits them if they think of putting 
them with their state, their capital and their auxiliary mechanisms.

Where humanitarianism is leveled, there, in all sorts of prisons, the curtains of 
bourgeois democracy are closed for good; * there is the most powerfully applied Power; * 
there is a brutal demonstration of power in the state; * there the prison bars sometimes 
watered with blood.

The rights of prisoners were not granted by the state. It is the property of many and 
long-lasting struggles, first and foremost of the prisoners themselves and then of the 
solidarity movement. The case of Spyros Christodoulou, therefore, concerns all the 
oppressed. The further prevalence of state and prismatic authoritarianism will mean the 
creation of a negative stock for the whole social base and, above all, for the prisoners 
themselves, and that should not be allowed under any circumstances.

Solidarity is the strongest weapon of oppressed and exploited in their struggle against 
the state and capital. Let us therefore respond with common struggles inside and outside 
the walls against state and prismatic despotism. To exacerbate the conflict against the 
advancing state and capitalist totalitarianism, against the hardening of the repression 
and the conditions of imprisonment.

SOLIDARITY IN THE SERIOUS PAIN (FROM 14/1) SPYRO CHRISTODOULOU

IMMEDIATE MEETING OF THE REQUEST TO MERGER THEIR PENALTIES

COMMON GAMES IN AND OUT OF WAXES AGAINST STATE AND COMFORT INTEGRATION

Eleftherial Initiative of Thessaloniki - member of the Anarchist Federation

lib_thess@hotmail.com

libertasalonica.wordpress.com

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/

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