Anarchic update news all over the world - 13.03.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Britain, Solidarity Federation: Organiser training: how to
      win at work (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB): On this 8th of
      March, we once again raise our voice and our fists for the lives
      of women! (pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Czech, afed.cz: MDI in Chiapas [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  wsm.ie: Ode to ARC - a video love story by Andrew N Flood
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Anarcho-syndicalism in Puerto Real: An account of resistance
      to shipyard closures (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  [Turkey] We are the women of Anatolia and Mesopotamia By ANA
      (pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Anarchistische Groep Amsterdam: IMS Group loot staff!
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





The Solidarity Federation runs two workplace organiser training courses which have 
recently been updated. The first is a general course aimed at all workers and a second is 
specifically aimed at women. Details are set out below. ---- The Solidarity Federation has 
been organising workplace organiser training days for a number of years. The training came 
about partly through disillusionment with courses offered by the traditional unions and a 
need to offer an alternative, and partly from the recognition that, given the dwindling 
number of unionised workplaces, there was a need to offer training to an increasing number 
of workers who have little idea or experience of how to organise against the bosses.
The SF training takes a practical, democratic approach to organising. Based on real 
disputes and workplace experiences, it aims to show how workers can come together, take 
action and win. In putting together the training, we have taken into account the fact that 
in many workplaces management has the upper hand, which can make organising difficult and 
often pretty scary.

In the course we therefore not only cover the more militant forms of action but go into 
detail about how workers can go about taking imaginative, but less risky forms of action, 
as a means of winning disputes and in the process build confidence, self-belief and a 
common identity among the workforce.

No experience of workplace organising is necessary as the training takes people through 
the whole workplace organising process.

The training takes place in a fun, relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Rather than talking at 
people, the course aims to get people talking to each other and to share their worries, 
problems and experiences.

Aware that people often feel nervous in these situations, no pressure is placed on 
attendees during the course, with people breaking down into small groups to discuss things 
making it easier to talk.

This more democratic approach has not only proven popular, it has been a tremendous help 
in developing the course. It allows us to take the experiences of people attending and 
incorporate them. This ensures that the training is constantly developing based on 
people's practical experiences.

Over the last year the Solidarity Federation has also developed a workplace organiser 
training course specifically aimed at women.

The course not only covers basic workplace organising but also takes into account that 
women in the workplace not only face exploitative and oppressive managers, but far too 
often the sexism of the men they work with.

Again using a direct action approach to workplace organising and using real examples, the 
course sets out how

https://freedomnews.org.uk/organiser-training-how-to-win-at-work/

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Message: 2






Our history has always been marked by repression and resistance. In recent years, however, 
we have seen the consolidation of a resumption of conservative forces in Brazil, which 
have never ceased to constitute the patriarchal structures of the State and the imaginary 
of our society, but which have now been strengthened by voices that insist on they affirm 
- among other things - antifeminists, they fight a fight against the rights and 
organization of women. ---- Attempts to socially delegitimize feminism and feminists 
attack the achievements and struggles of women as a whole. The right / extreme right 
constructs a discourse that undermines our urgencies and guidelines and denies the reality 
of violence suffered by us women. All this offensive has repercussions on concrete 
effects, such as the retrocession of our rights, the precariousness of existing public 
policies and the impediment of new public policies. Barriers to any advancement in our claims!

It is, therefore, that the defense of feminism is necessary today as a way of defending 
the struggle of women in the broad sense.

Show of cruelty and violence: the "Messiah" against women

The penal state for poverty has always been the norm of the institutions of bourgeois 
democracy. The PT governments, since Lula, have increased the criminal machinery of public 
order with a legislative-judicial apparatus that reproduced the super-imprisonment of the 
poor and the blacks and the repressive paraphernalia that attacks social struggles and 
empowers the magistrate bourgeois as a reactionary actor. In this new conformation of the 
power arrangement of those from above, the pact was broken and collaborationism torn to 
give way to an aggressive agenda of financial capitalism over social rights, partial 
freedoms and public goods that were historical achievements of the popular movement . And 
in this scenario, we women are in the sights of these conservative counter-reforms and 
attacks, which take away our hard-won rights.

The campaign of the current president, who was launched in the media as a "messiah" of the 
national extreme right, became popular thanks to his racist, macho, intolerant and 
intolerant position forms. It gained visibility with threats of rape, racist speeches and 
homage to torturers, bloodthirsty and pedophiles like Ustra, Stroessner, Pinochet, the 
generals of the dictatorship, the militias. Their speeches of hatred were fulfilled both 
in the streets as well as at the polls, for they found fertile soil in the misogyny that 
pervades our relations. The antipetism and fear of a supposed communism that surrounds 
Brazil (or we can say, fear of any attempt of social repair) were fundamental pieces of 
the presidential campaign. The so-called '' gender ideology '' was a central motif of the 
Bolsonaro campaign, especially the fake news of the gay kit advocated by the candidate.

Education in dispute: the new era of colonization of our bodies and minds

These ideas have further strengthened the '' ideological indoctrination '' discourse, 
raised by the No-Party School movement that, since 2015, has been trying to propose or 
inspire draft laws in the municipal councils, legislative assemblies and the National 
Congress against freedom of education , secularism and the introduction of important 
debates in education, such as initiatives against lgbtqfophobia and sexual abuse. The 
right-wing offensive and the entire Bolsonaro government place Education at the center of 
a state dispute, a struggle for society to be controlled by conservative forces, receding 
at any minimum progress we have made. The control of education is aligned with the control 
of our minds and our bodies. In the general framework that is gradually defined, we 
observe the assumption that the State has, even more rigidly, control of our lives; 
starting from the retrograde ideas of the right, of a whole conservative bias and 
exclusionary. And these movements have made it even more evident to us how the policies 
and debates related to sexuality and gender are presented as priority issues in the name 
of a moral that has guided our political processes since colonization and which aims to 
maintain well-defined relations of domination.

Stimulus to violence, precarious work and rising cost of living: who are the first victims?

All this discourse does not go alone, it is the actions that show their destructive 
onslaught on the bodies and subjectivities of women, especially black, poor and LGW women. 
The policy that is being constructed is increasingly an attack on women workers, from the 
labor and welfare reforms, from the widespread outsourcing, from the precariousness of 
formal and informal work, especially since women are the leaders and families. These 
families mostly do not fit into the heteronorma's nuclear pattern and vice president 
Mourão called the "misfit factory" because they did not have a "male figure." Attacks 
against natives, quilombolas and landless women through the theft and exploitation of 
their territories with denial or removal of demarcations,  Attacks on all black women who 
deal with the genocide of black youth and the violence that intersects race and gender. 
Attacks on our health and autonomy regarding the criminalization of abortion and other 
denials of reproductive rights. Attacks against our ways of living and loving, 
intensification of lesbophobia and transphobia. Finally, against our existence as a whole, 
especially with regard to the release of possession of weapons, leading to the likelihood 
of an increase in feminicide already so prevalent in our country. The numbers of the 
Feminicide are blatant and we are charged to look closely at this pattern of struggle for 
all women who are daily dying victims of the oppressions of the system of domination. 
According to the CNJ's gender violence map, feminicide increased in Brazil. Between 2003 
and 2013, it went from 3. 937 cases for 4,762 deaths. In 2016, a woman was murdered every 
two hours in the country. At the same time as it decreased its occurrence in white women, 
it increased among black women.  In the same year the Public Safety Forum points to almost 
50 thousand rapes, which represents an average of 135 rapes a day.

Classical, antiracist and non-excluding feminism: by the construction of popular power

On this March 8th, as we look at the memory of the struggle of women, a struggle that goes 
on for centuries, we see that a classist, antiracist, non-exclusionary feminism is an 
urgent defense of our rights and our own lives. The construction of this feminism must be 
strengthened by all the corners of Brazil. This scenario is not limited to the current 
government, which is much more like a result, since this violence and the construction of 
a repressive movement are part of the reaction of the oppressors to the organization of 
and below, to the movements of women, indigenous populations, poor and marginalized 
communities. Repression against all and all who move, resist and build a new social 
horizon, threaten the system of privileges that sustain our oppressions. Since our rights 
can fall at any time with the pennants of deputies, senators or the federal government, it 
is also clear that our feminism must be rooted in the everyday struggle of women. A 
feminism that fights State, Capitalism, Racism and Patriarchy! We women need this feminism 
to be a combative and active feminism in the construction of popular power.

Adding to the agenda for women's day, this month marks a year of the murder of Marielle 
Franco. On March 14, 2018, they executed a militant, a woman, a black woman, a lesbian, 
born in Favela da Maré, a human rights defender, PSOL councilor and rapporteur of the 
commission responsible for overseeing military intervention in Rio de Janeiro. We will be 
on the streets, claiming the memory of this social fighter and fighting for justice! 
Marielle, gift!

With the ones underneath, underneath.

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination

https://anarquismo.noblogs.org/?p=1043

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Message: 3






A Look at the First International Political, Artistic, Sports and Cultural Encounter of 
Fighting Women ---- Last year, from 8 to 10 March, Morelia was the first international 
meeting of struggling women. It was a unique event and an opportunity for women to meet 
from all over the world and the opportunity to learn more about not only the fighting 
women in the autonomous territories of the mountains of south-eastern Mexico. The main 
goal was to meet all " women who fight, defy and rebel against chauvinism and the 
patriarchal state ." The event aroused an unexpected response, so organizers who did not 
have any experience of organizing a similar event had to deal with a large number of 
visitors who were finally between 5 and 9thousands (the exact number is not known), 
although they counted around five hundred women to visit. The meeting was strictly guarded 
so that no one could reach the camp within three days. In front of the main entrance, a 
smaller men's alternative to the festival was held, and men and women from all over the 
world, together with Zapatista and children, helped keep a safe area for all women who 
shared their experiences of fighting in zapatistic territory.

The program of the whole festival was overwhelming. The participants had the opportunity 
to move between the many areas where a very diverse program took place from morning to 
night. In the center of the campus where the opening and closing events took place, 
football, volleyball and basketball tournaments were held concurrently with artistic 
performances, meditation and yoga classes, gender violence workshops, screen printing 
workshops, menstrual bowls, alternative medicine, cyberfeminism, abortion , sharing 
experiences of fighting in different parts of the world or lectures. The meeting was also 
attended by Marichuy, the first presidential candidate elected by the National Indigenous 
Congress to the elections that took place in the autumn of last year. The heroines of the 
festival were the festival organizers themselves who shared their experiences with a 
twenty-five-year struggle not only against the Mexican government,Death of the Patriarchate! "

Although the euphoria of the first international meeting was great and during the final 
speech, women from all over the world agreed to meet again , recently on the 
Internetrevealed the expression of Zapatista women about their decision to cancel this 
year's meeting. The main reasons are the plans of the Mexican government, headed by the 
new President Obrador, to get to the poorest parts of Mexico where the Zapatistas are 
located, to get the industry and facilitate tourism through the so-called Mayan Railroad. 
Zapatistky must now focus on the struggle for the survival and retention of Zapatista 
autonomous territories, as the threat appears to be more than realistic. In their 
statement, they say it is time to defend their freedom, and they call on other women to 
organize similar gatherings similar to those of last year in their struggles. And if 
anyone asks why he does not take part in forgetting, we have to tell him that " zapatistic 
women are fighting in their part of the world for their freedom ."

https://www.afed.cz/text/6962/mdz-v-chiapasu

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Message: 4






To mark International Women's Day 2019 we are releasing this video that celebrates the 
grassroots womens organising responsible for victory in the 2018 abortion referendum. We'd 
heard the text at the ARC Christmas party and immediately felt it would make a fantastic 
video, hopefully you will agree. The authors introduction is below, we've also recorded a 
background interview with her about the campaign which gets further into the grassroots 
organising themes expressed in the video, see link at end. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P_i5TgUiyA ---- The author Mary writes "On International 
Womens Day two years ago we gathered on O'Connell Bridge and in towns all around Ireland 
as part of Strike 4 Repeal, demanding that the government call a referendum on the 8th 
amendment. On International Womens Day last year, we marched under the banner of Votes for 
Repeal. We had a proposed referendum date, the structure of a campaign, energy, commitment 
and determination. But the result was far from certain. On International Womens Day this 
year, Ireland is free of the 8th amendment. Barriers to access remain and the work of 
ensuring free, safe, legal and local abortion care for everyone who wants and needs it 
continues. But we are in a place we did not think we would be a few short years ago. We 
have moved out from under the shadow of the 8th. We got here through collective action, 
hard compromises, exhaustion, friendship, compassion, determination and grit.

I wrote this piece partly as a reaction to frustration at the praising of politicians as 
the champions of the campaign, and the blanking out of the campaign as a grassroots women 
led movement. I wrote it partly out of wanting to pay tribute to the women I met and 
worked with over the past 2 years or so in ARC. I also wanted to pay tribute to the quiet, 
mundane, essential work, to the sheer scale of the work, to the support and solidarity, to 
the feeling that washed over me on the 25th and 26th of May. I wanted to pay tribute to 
the fact that so many people in so many ways did their absolute best.

Maybe it will make you think of people you organised with. Maybe your experience of the 
campaign was different but some of the sentiment may be similar. I wrote it with respect, 
admiration and love for the women I saw making huge sacrifices and compromises daily, 
working with skill, drive, commitment and determination, the women who held me together, 
the women who did their best and so much more. And, in ways, I wrote it for every person 
in every county who was part of getting us to 66.4%.
---
Words at https://marymcoogan.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/an-ode/

Listen to the background interview about this video at 
https://www.mixcloud.com/workerssolidarity/whose-the-manager-ode-to-arc-background-interview/

For more on the campaign see http://www.wsm.ie/repeal-8th and 
https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie

Author: Andrew N Flood

https://wsm.ie/c/ode-arc-video-repeal-8th

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Message: 5






In Puerto Real, Spain, that lead to community wide involvement, with the 
anarcho-syndicalist union CNT playing both a prominent and decisive role. ---- Foreword 
---- Rationalisation and Resistance ---- Direct Action and Direct Democracy ---- 
Organising beyond the workplace: Community-wide action ---- Interviews ---- After the 
Strike . . . Foreword ---- The recent struggle in and around the shipyards of Puerto Real, 
Spain, in both workplace and community, against threatened closure witnessed the 
anarcho-syndicalist union CNT playing both a prominent and decisive role. ---- The CNT's 
involvement meant that the methods of organising and the forms of action taken departed 
from those common to reformist unions - with dramatic consequences.
When the PSOE government (socialist in name, but Thatcherite in practice, announced a 
programme of ‘rationalisation' at the Puerto Real shipyards, the workforce came out on 
strike. The CNT was at the forefront in spreading the action to the surrounding 
population. Not only was the government defeated, but a number of pay and condition 
improvements were secured.

In this not only did the great determination and ingenuity on the part of the workers 
bring results, but that of the communities too. Mass assemblies both in the yards and 
surrounding localities involved workers, their families, neighbours and all supporters. 
Initiating and maintaining entire communities' involvement in mass assemblies alone was 
fine achievement.

By all accounts the work of the CNT in and around Puerto Real established direct democracy 
as an inherent part of local political culture and resistance - people deciding for 
themselves, rejecting control by unaccountable politicians, union officials or ‘experts', 
ensuring control remains in the workplace and locality. Not imposed unchallenged from 
above, be it by boards of directors or government, local or national.

Since the 1987 strike in the shipyards, other disputes, campaigns and issues have been 
linked-up - struggles around health, taxation, economic, cultural issues and environment 
have all been drawn together into activities of resistance.

Here in Britain, as in Spain, we have the same problems, not only in shipbuilding across 
the whole spectrum of industry. Communities and livelihoods are decimated by the bosses' 
and government's self-perpetuating dogma of profit, profit, profit. Capitalism's ability 
to adapt in the face of change and crisis shows no re whatsoever for the consequences felt 
by the individual and society. We are, or rather we are encouraged to believe, that we are 
powerless to effect any real change in our lives. No political party or trade union has 
anything to offer but yet more bitter medicine and false promises. The crisis of society 
and grip of poverty only deepens.

The time has come for real resistance, the building of a labour movement fights not just 
for higher wages and better conditions, but against the whole capitalist system. The 
experiences and actions of Spanish workers have provided valuable lessons in the past, but 
today as we approach the 21st century new ideas are needed. It is to serve this purpose 
that this pamphlet is published.

Rationalisation and Resistance

Pepe Gomez, of the Spanish anarcho syndicalist union CNT's Puerto Real / Cadiz section, 
was the guest speaker at the "Trade Unionism In Crisis - Building An Anarcho Syndicalist 
Alternative" dayschool, hosted by transport, public service and education workers' 
networks in London, 30th October l993: (1)

"I would like to bring greetings from the Spanish anarcho syndicalist organisation the 
CNT. I hope that links between British and Spanish workers through this particular 
conference can be increased.

Today I would like to talk about the rationalisation of the shipyards in Puerto Real in 
the south-west of Spain and the kind of activities the CNT has been involved in.

First of all I would like to place rationalisation within its context in 1980's and '90's 
Spain. Rationalisation is a capitalist necessity, something which is in response to a 
permanent situation of needing to rationalise and change the mode of production. Capital 
changes its course throughout society and changes its destination in order to increase 
profits in certain industries, with capital not being fixed but moving around. I'd also 
like to point out that there is no solution to this ever-increasing process of 
rationalisation within the capitalist system, but rather we'll propose a revolutionary 
solution to the problem of rationalisation.

Within this context I'd like to point out that capitalism needs certain instruments to be 
able to achieve a status quo. Capitalism needs its political parties, it needs its 
reformist unions, which have become pillars of the capitalist system itself. Reformist 
unions have been bred by capitalism and the mainstay of the reformist has become one 
whereby any kind of rebellion or questioning from a working class perspective is 
essentially neutralised.

I don't think that I need emphasise the failings and the outrageous nature of reformist 
unions and the political parties, so I'll go on to talk about the specific situation in 
Puerto Real.

There are two points inherited from a marxist perspective. First of all, marxism separates 
the political and the economic to try and promote the idea of economic unions, unions that 
deal purely and simply with economic issues, whereas the political issues are tackled by 
the political party. Secondly, we are left with the need to struggle against the whole 
culture that has been built up around delegating activities, around delegating power to 
others. Anarcho-syndicalism is trying to oppose these negative legacies of marxism, so 
that people are actually re-educated in order to destroy this culture of dependency and to 
build up a new kind of culture that is based on activity and action for people, by themselves.

Real revolutionary organisations and real revolutionaries are not necessarily the first 
and should not be defined by whether they take up guns or weapons to fight against 
exploitation. What we are really concerned with is building an organisation whereby people 
can actually properly participate and make decisions on their own two feet. This we see as 
a much more valid form of direct action than resorting to armed struggle.

I would like to illustrate through slides that through many years of education and 
struggle, something like fifteen years in Puerto Real, we have managed to form an 
organisation that is in permanent dialogue. It is an organisation which has provided the 
possibility of solutions to particular problems which are outside of the parliamentary arena.

The most important thing that I would to point out, is that we managed to create a 
structure whereby there was a permanent assembly taking place. In other words decisions 
within this particular conflict were made by those people who were directly involved in 
the conflict:

Every Thursday of every week, in the towns and villages in the area, we had all-village 
assemblies where anyone who was connected with the particular issue, whether they were 
actually workers in the shipyard itself, or women or children or grandparents, could go 
along to the village assembly and actually vote and take part in the decision-making 
process of what was going to take place. So we created a structure which was very 
different from the kind of structure of political parties, where the decisions are made at 
the top and they filter down. What we managed to do in Puerto Real was make decisions at 
the base and take them upwards, which is in complete contrast to the ways in which 
political parties operate.

Anarcho-syndicalism, or as some people prefer, the term revolutionary syndicalism, is 
nothing unless it has an anarchist base. What we tried to do in Puerto Real is show that 
the anarcho-syndicalist union is not just an industrial organisation that takes on factory 
disputes, but rather has a much wider social and political aim. What we have done in 
Puerto Real so far is attempt to interlink various different disputes, taking on various 
struggles around education, around the provision of health services, cultural aspects, and 
we've been struggling against the proposed construction of a new golf course, the 
privatisation of a cemetery, we've been fighting against various local tax increases. In 
other words we have been trying to show that the anarcho-syndicalist union is much wider 
than just focusing on industrial issues.

What we've managed to do is organise a movement which is co-ordinated on an ecological 
level, in order to struggle against these various projects which are being talked about. 
We have managed to link together twelve different organisations within the local area that 
are all interested in fighting these various aspects, whether it's increased taxes or the 
golf course mentioned earlier, or the privatisation of the cemetery. So again, 
anarcho-syndicalism in Puerto Real is not just fighting on the industrial level, but has 
managed to interlink all kinds of disputes of a fairly diverse nature.

We have tried to ensure that this organisation, which is composed of twelve different 
bodies, is directed by a sense of consensus rather than any organisation imposing their 
particular ideas on the organisation. So we have tried to establish a system of direct 
democracy, whereby the organisations can put various points on the agenda and those points 
will be discussed. There is no central or overall control, or directing group which has 
the power over the rest, it is very much a federalist and openly democratic organisation.

Direct Action and Direct Democracy

The whole conflict kicked off as a result of people at the shipyard not having work for 
something like five years. What the government wanted to do was shut them down completely.

At the end of 1987, when the King of Spain was due to visit Puerto Real, the CNT in order 
to highlight the dispute, decided to block off the main road and only bridge linking Cadiz 
with Puerto Real - an important and strategic place. What the CNT did was to barricade the 
road to prevent the King of Spain from coming across.

Every Tuesday was dedicated to acts of sabotage and direct action; telephones were cut 
off, the whole province was without telephones every Tuesday; Every Thursday we used to 
concentrate on the assemblies in the villages.

Over a thousand police from different parts of the country came to Puerto Real to try and 
contain these activities. Accusations were made that a child who was on the way to 
hospital died because of the CNT barricades, but we always let ambulances through. They 
were the only vehicles allowed through.

Each Tuesday we occupied the offices in the shipyard from 7am until 3 o'clock in the 
afternoon. As the shipyard was very large, we were only able to build barricades in 
certain areas. Every Tuesday as the occupation finished, we had to protect people from the 
police as they retreated, so comrades were up on one or two of the ships armed with 
catapults and other things, to defend people as they retreated.

At one point when the barricades were set up on the outskirts of the town, of course they 
wouldn't let the police in. From the roofs of flats people would throw plant pots, 
fridges, tables, all old useless stuff at the coaches bringing in police. The railway line 
was also cut by building barricades and also felling the telegraph poles.

Also on Tuesdays were the assemblies in the shipyards themselves. Any decision that was 
taken in these assemblies of course was independent of any official union presence or 
official union ideas.

We managed to get a great deal of support from the rest of the CNT, of course. There were 
meetings that took place all over the country, from Galicia to Barcelona. There was also 
economic help which came across. One of the most important things, a key element in the 
dispute, was that the CNT was particularly strong in Puerto Real itself. So that was where 
most support came from. Workers who were in different industries and also different unions 
supported the struggle.

Another important thing was that of the four thousand workers at the shipyard, two 
thousand of those workers were members of the UGT (socialist union) and Commissiones 
Obreras (communist union), and in the workers' assemblies the proposals of the CNT, in 
opposition to the approaches of the other unions, were always carried bypassing completely 
any suggestions that were made by the other unions. A very important aspect of this 
particular conflict was that the CNT's proposals were always accepted unanimously.

After about six months of sustained activity, instead of closing they got some work for 
the shipyards. Eight ships came in to be refitted. That was one of the results of the 
sustained activity.

Another achievement was a decent early retirement package at 55, where the pension would 
be linked entirely with the wages of those workers still working - a 100% link, equal to 
that of those still in work, also linked to any increase in salary achieved over the next 
nine years up to the age of 64. So that was quite a remarkable achievement.

We also achieved a rotation of people, so that if there was not sufficient work some 
comrades would work for two months, others would not work for those two months. But 
everyone would receive 100% of their wage. After two months those people who had been 
working would come in. So there was rotation of work in accordance with what was 
available, but everyone received 100% of the wage.

The shipyards are still functioning and there is a lot of work especially from the 
building of double-hulled ships, ecological ships, from a joint project between Great 
Britain, France and Spain.

Organising beyond the Workplace: Community-wide Action

What we've tried to do is show people that various different problems are interlinked, 
such as the golf course, problems over taxes and other things. So what we've tried to do 
is show that for example ecological problems are not just ecological problems, but have a 
political and social basis. Over the last eight months we drew together these different 
forces and organisations for a combined project, and so far it's been very successful. 
It's really just a question of proposing different methods of struggle to different 
organisations, and the fact that they've been adopted.

We have also tried to create embryonic structures of direct democracy and participation, 
rather than the town councillors just making decisions about health and education. All 
these questions have been discussed in local communities and on estates, so that through a 
process of pyramid-type democracy (from the ground-up), we've managed to take ideas, 
questions and problems up from the base to form at the pinnacle a concerted idea of what 
all the local areas think."

Questions from the floor:

What percentage of CNT members are in the CNT because they are politically committed to 
anarcho-syndicalism? What advice can you give to us in Britain?
"First of all, most members of the CNT are there on a ideological basis and agree with the 
standpoint of the CNT, but mainly they will have come from different organisations into 
the CNT - different unions, etc. So what the CNT is also doing is providing evening 
classes on various different aspects, from ecology to liberalism, to democratic society, 
so there is also a large slice of education which people are participating in as well. On 
the second point, it's a bit difficult for me to say, but all I can suggest is that you do 
the work and you'll see the fruits".

Did the assemblies just occur during the strike, or have they carried on?
"There is a permanent dynamic role of the assembly, what we've tried to do over the years 
is build assemblies for every shift of whichever factory we're talking about that's on the 
industrial sphere. In the villages and in the town these assemblies still take place. 
About two weeks ago, around 2,000 people went to participate in the town assembly. So 
these do take place, but also we're concentrating very much on the estates and local areas 
- local assemblies, as well as the main larger one.

Every week the CNT visits different workshops, different factories, taking advantage of 
the morning break, about 11 o'clock, to go into factories and actually discuss different 
things with workers, that is something else we do, going as the CNT and talking with 
people on their breaks".

Do you have recallable delegates, and do have you ever had a case where delegate have not 
represented the views of the members and have had to be recalled? And we those individuals 
demoralised or pissed off about that? What did they feel about: being kicked off a task?
"No one has ever had to be recalled, however if any delegate did go against the decisions 
taken in the assembly they would be recalled and also expelled from the union. But each 
delegate is there for a fixed period of time, either six months or twelve months, but no 
one has ever been recalled because no one has ever gone against what's been laid down in 
the assembly".

Considering what you have been doing, what has the state done to stop you?
"One of the things that took place was in Adra which is further east along the coast the 
CNT was accused. - some of the members were, of having taken part in a hold-up in Adra. 
This was used as an excuse to arrest CNT members and try to crush the union, but since 
1977 when the CNT was again legal (following the death of Franco and the end of the 
dictatorship since 1939), it has been the victim of several different plots, and different 
acts of repression in order to eliminate the union.

What we concentrated on also was that any acts of violence, or direct action, would 
involve the whole village itself. We did not set ourselves up as a vanguard group that 
would go and do these things. We involved the whole village, the whole town or whichever 
people it concerned, to do that. We were not a vanguard organisation, any violence or 
direct action taking place was essentially carried out by everyone.

I was accused personally, and other comrades, of various things, having caused damage up 
to the value of 15 to 20 million pesetas, and also I had my telephone tapped and various 
things like that. But those were things that happened to me, and things happened to other 
comrades as well. So there was a concerted effort to criminalise the members of the CNT, 
especially those in prominent positions."

The CNT, Spanish section of the International Workers' Association, has been in existence 
throughout the 20th century. Up to the coup of General Franco in 1936, the CNT was with 
over 2 million members the largest workers' organisation in Spain. Following the death of 
Franco in 1976, the CNT re-emerged as a significant organisation despite being plagued for 
the following 15 years by many who would rather it did not exist. Today the CNT is well on 
the path to re-establishing itself as an effective workers' organisation across every 
region of Spain.

Interviews

(1). See following pages for further details.

Women's involvement:

(Taken from "Icaria", a CNT magazine. "Icaria" spoke to the women who had organised 
independently of the men and played a big-part in the struggle).

Icaria: How and why did the women of Puerto Real start to take part in the shipyards' 
struggle?

Spokeswomen: It started when a woman saw that we were all worked up because on Tuesdays 
our menfolk were confronting the police and suffering from repression at the shipyards 
while the media called them all terrorists. This woman took the initiative, contacting 
neighbours and friends. In turn, they contacted many groups of women and they went out 
with a megaphone every Tuesday to demonstrate, meeting other women affected by the 
shipyards problem. At that time the men carried on the struggle inside the shipyards but 
the problem affected us as much as them. They were not so much demonstrations of support 
but our own because we depended on the men's wages.

I: Why did the struggle develop independently of the men?

SW: Because the were not here - they were in the shipyards which the women weren't able to 
enter so our struggle was in the town. On Thursdays when the men brought the struggle into 
the town we went together to the demonstrations and in this way we could create quite a 
large group of autonomous and independent women.

I: What type of organisation did you have in the group?

SW: A co-ordinating committee of 6 women was elected but they didn't take decisions of any 
kind. Their function was only to co-ordinate. The decisions were made by the assembly on 
Wednesdays where proposals were made and voted on by a show of hands.

I: How many women were there in the group?

SW: The number varied - we started with 100 and grew to 500. The crossroads where the 
motorway, National IV, ends, was the symbol of our struggle and where we went to block the 
motorway.

I: Were there any women in the ‘collective' who were not dependent on the wages of a 
shipyard worker?

SW: The majority of women are from shipyard workers' families. However there are women 
from other backgrounds in the collective.

I: Was this the first experience of direct action the women had had in the streets?

SW: Yes, within the context of 6 women's collective.

I: What did they think of the violence reported in the media concerning Puerto Real?

SW: What did we think of the violence? The only violence here was that by the police and 
it was very heavy. It was heaviest around the ‘Cartabon', which was our ‘Hill of Martyrs'.

We were a totally independent and autonomous collective. We want to say that we weren't 
treated gently by the forces of repression because we were women.. Our struggle was not 
only on Tuesdays but a daily struggle with the ‘forces of order'. We tried to explain this 
to other women to get them to understand.

We received support and telegrams from feminist organisations, associations of political 
prisoners and the Assembly of Women in Cordoba...However there still remains a lot to do.

After the Strike . . .

(Interview with Pepe Gomez, summer 1987, from paper of French CNT)

Q: Now you've won some concessions notably construction of a ship, won't this risk 
demobilising the workers?

A: Since the last general assembly called by all union sections (CC.OO, UGT, CNT, CAT) on 
July 9th we've broken relations with the others as they wanted to sign a worse agreement 
than previously. We decided to continue the fight and prepare a general strike throughout 
Cadiz industrial zone. The following week we called an assembly attended by 1,500 workers.

Workers well understand the contract is due to their struggle. As other unions and the 
works committee no longer want to call assemblies the contract will give the CNT a few 
months' respite... to hold meetings throughout the district, with slides of the struggle 
and to denounce the agreements signed and other unions' refusal to organise assemblies. We 
want to show that 1 ship means nothing... Once we've covered all of Puerto Real we'll call 
a general assembly of the population - if other unions don't join us (we'd like to call it 
together) we'll denounce them and do it in the CNT's name.

We want it all to coincide with what will happen from October, November and December 
onwards with the thousands of workers whom 3 years ago the government promised and signed 
new jobs or reinstatement if they agreed to go on the FPE (National Fund for Promotion of 
Employment - workers would be paid 80% of basic pay for 3 years). As we know they can't 
keep their promises we can expect important struggles throughout the country.

Q: Nationally, what precisely do you see happening given the UGT and CC.OO remaining the 
largest unions?

A: We've prepared meetings with all minority unions like the Left Current in Asturias, a 
major force in small and medium yards with some prestige like the CNT in Puerto Real; 
INTGA, a Galician nationalist union which also has a good base; CAT of Euskalduna in the 
Basque country which is a significant force there... if we unite our potential we can 
mobilise 20-30,000 shipyard workers outside the bureaucratic unions. We'll have the 
meetings without the UGT and CC.OO who favour social contract with the state and bosses. 
Although they haven't signed the new pact, they'll reach a tacit agreement...

 From this the CC.OO particularly, will expose its contradictions. For example in the 
ASTANO yard (Asturias) the majority of workers are in the CC.OO, which will have to call 
an assembly and if, simultaneously, we do information work and our call is sufficiently 
solid and united, we can develop a strategy of direct action in the affected areas 
-something that is difficult to do alone.

Q: What makes the CNT's actions so difficult?

A: When for example, we called the last workers' assembly in Puerto Real alone there were 
cops from all over Andalucia, sent by the civil governor. From the start all acts of 
terrorism, vandalism, violence, etc have been blamed on the CNT. When we made a call alone 
the governor seized the opportunity to hit our organisation hard.

We must be careful, especially now, to maintain momentum, not to get isolated and avoid 
police set-ups as have happened before. Most importantly for the CNT in Puerto Real is 
that the struggle and radicalisation continues to be taken up by the workers' and 
community assemblies. Our role is to organise the means to defend all workers.

Our outlook is that after this summer the struggle will broaden but in the future, on the 
fundamental question of re-deployment, we won't succeed. The balance of forces today 
favours the Socialist Party who can rely on the UGT to dampen down social protest, and the 
CC.OO who give the impression that it's radical but in practice prepare the ground for the 
Communist Party and its electoral project within the ‘United Left'. Thus they need to 
demobilise workers so that they remain dependent on politicians and their sales-pitches. 
However they are in a deep financial crisis in maintaining their bureaucracy. Although, if 
on the fundamental question we don't succeed, the conflict creates a revolutionary dynamic 
- many CC.OO comrades have torn up their membership cards and joined the CNT.

It's clear redeployment is worldwide and that today's situation favours capitalism. The 
exemplary struggles waged by workers over the last 10 years and the fact they've seen in 
practice how they are manipulated, frustrated and betrayed forms a base from which we can 
grow and build real workers' organisation to resist the state and bosses.

https://libcom.org/library/anarcho-syndicalism-puerto-real-shipyard-resistance-community-control

http://awsm.nz/2019/03/08/anarcho-syndicalism-in-puerto-real/

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Message: 6






We have lived in the dark days of history. For decades the people of these lands have been 
increasingly oppressed. We have seen poverty, we have seen war, we have seen those who 
escaped and survived the state war, but are murdered in the war of capitalism or 
patriarchy. We have seen our sisters tortured, stabbed, murdered, dragged naked, 
shattered, burned alive. We have seen our children crushed and run over, we have seen the 
Mothers of the Sabbath (Cumartesi Anneleri) asking for justice and we have seen the 
killers trying to silence our mothers by attacking them or by arresting them. We have 
faced many cruelties and we resist them all, and we will resist to the end.
We are the women of these lands, we have witnessed the fall of many states, many kings and 
many sultans. While the story of "man" repeats itself, we are discovering and writing 
another story, our story, the story of rebellion and resistance. We know the women who 
have been fighting against the patriarchy, we know the women with their hands in their 
chairs, ready to shake their fists. Because we are all these women, and while we are 
creating another story, we create culture. A culture of empathy, understanding and 
solidarity, excluding relations of authority and obedience. A culture of responsibility, 
to have our lives in our hands, sustaining our struggle for our freedom.

Sisters, comrades, our struggle is the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressors. 
Any place where the hierarchy of power appears, becomes a combat zone. Any time the 
oppressor uses the tools of violence, we do not hesitate to resist and counterattack. 
Fighting against the "visible" and "invisible" patterns of authority and patriarchy, we 
will be able to renew the revolution from now on and from here.

Wherever we are, we know and understand each other, because it is the same light that 
shines in our eyes, it is the same cry in our voice.

Your struggle and solidarity gives us inspiration and strength.

Continue with your struggle, we will do it!

Anarsist Kadinlar

Source: 
http://nosotras.cnt.es/textos/struggle-and-solidarity-keeps-us-strong-la-lucha-y-la-solidaridad-nos-mantain-fuertes/

Translation> Sol de Abril

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Message: 7






Today, 8th of March, Inernational womans day we organized an action. ---- With 12 persons 
we picketed infront of the door of the office of IMS Group. We had banners, megaphone, 
black/red/purple flags with us. We distributed hundreds of flyers to the neighbours that 
were passing by. Also delivered the pamflets from door to door in every house on the 
street. Unfortunatly, there was no one in the office. The reason is there are probably 
more angry workers visiting the office to demand their pay. ---- The facade of the office 
was decorated with glue, pamfelts and some stickers. After 30 minutes of shouting slogans 
we stopped the picket and left. The neighbours where very interested in the matter and 
expressed their disgust of the praxis of the IMS Group.
For evrybody that is working or was working for IMS group that want to share information 
with us or want to demand stolen wages from them, please contact us at: aga@agamsterdam.org
This action whas organized by the
Anarchist Group Amsterdam - Vrije Bond.
https://agamsterdam.org

Below the text of the pamflet that we distributed.
IMS Group is exploitation!
Today on International Women's day we are doing our first action against
the abusive praxis of the company IMS Group in Amsterdam.

IMS group provides workers for several big hotels in Amsterdam to work
at kitchens, receptions and cleaning hotel rooms. They've been active
for several years in Amsterdam and they have their headquarters at
Agatha Dekenstraat 26 in Amsterdam Oud-West.

Since a few months ago, IMS group is not paying their workers and it's
providing bullshit explanations to the affected workers about why they
are not getting paid.

Our affected friend has worked for IMS for the last 5 months and in the
last month they didn't pay her salary. At this moment they owe her
1.000€ for several months already. After some attempts to get this
situation resolved, they still haven't paid her or made any progress
over this situation. IMS Group thinks they can get away with this
abusive behavior, but they won't!
We are aware of the fact that this situation is not a single person
problem. IMS attacks many of their other employees and their rights. We
call on them to stand up and fight back together for their labor rights
and their stolen wages.

The IMS group and the hotels it provides workers for, are disrespectful
and they just see them as anonymous numbers or as commodities that they
can just get rid of, exploit them, screm them over and kick them out.
Not this time! Not anymore!

For the record, this is just the very first action. We won't rest, as
many actions as needed will follow until this struggle gets resolved and
IMS Group pays every single penny they o

https://www.agamsterdam.org/ims-groep-buit-personeel-uit/

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