Anarchic update news all over the world - 15.03.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #292 - Digital,
      Technologies: emancipation or enslavement ? (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  CONCENTRATION IN THE ITALIAN CONSULATE OF 
     PATRAS: SOLIDARITY WITH ANARCHIST FOOTBALL IN 
     TORINO AND TRENTO by dirty horse [APO]
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  avtonom.org: Belarusian anarchist action on the day of
      international women's solidarity [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Britain, ACG: Capitalism Is Killing The Earth: An Anarchist
      Guide To Ecology. Anarchist Federation. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  avtonom.org: Promotions March 8 in Moscow [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Britain, brighton solfed: Fox & Sons dispute concludes with
      second landlord quitting the agency (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





While public-private partnerships in the field of digital technologies are constantly 
strengthening GAFAM at the expense of basic research of public interest, an interesting 
initiative is emerging in France in March 2019: the Upsilon project . ---- What makes a 
technology emancipatory or on the contrary enslaving ? ---- It is a complicated question, 
which we want to answer intuitively: a technology is emancipatory if it is at the service 
of individuals and collectives, if it allows more independence, freedom, security (in the 
sense of protection his personal data for example) ; technology is, on the contrary, 
enslaving if it serves the interests of a company or the state, if it makes its users 
dependent, if it facilitates surveillance. To continue the reflection, one wonders if 
these properties are intrinsic, ie will a given technology always be classified on one 
side or the other. Of course the answer is no, it would be too simple. Let's take a very 
concrete example from the common history of computer science and the labor movement.

Canuts from Lyon to computer technologies
The ancestors of computers can be divided into two categories: calculating machines and 
programmable machines. The first programmable machine is a loom, the Jacquard loom, named 
after its inventor. At the beginning of the XIX th century in Lyon that Joseph Marie 
Jacquard develops a loom semi-automated and programmable, which needs to be implemented as 
one or two workers, against three or four before. For Jacquard, it will be an emancipation 
tool for the canuts since the children, released from work that can now be realized by 
single parents, will be able to go to school.

Only here: few canuts are owners of their loom, and for those who are, we are rather in a 
situation of exploitation similar to the couriers and bike couriers who own their bike 
today. As a result, in this period of rising capitalism, increased productivity does not 
benefit workers, but the owners and traders who, since there are only working parents, pay 
only their wages, thus obliging children to work elsewhere, most often in factories where 
working conditions were more difficult. This is largely the cause of the revolt of the 
Canuts of the 1830s. Jacquard regret all his life the social consequences of his invention.

With this story we see that at least in some cases, a technology is not intrinsically 
emancipatory or enslaving. In the case of the programmable loom, it seems almost obvious 
that the collective use of the means of production and the self-organization of the 
workers would have made this invention an extraordinary tool for the emancipation of the 
working class. It is not a coincidence that it was at this period on the slopes of the 
Croix-Rousse that the prud'hommes, the cooperatives, and mutuellism were born.

Today, it is on the computer side that the development of technologies that influence our 
lives is mainly played out. Since the 1980s, the free software movement has offered a form 
of collective use property applied to software technologies based on legal bases via free 
licenses. However in recent years, with the explosion of so-called " cloud computing" 
"(Cloud) and the concentration of these services in some large private platforms, the 
simple free software is not enough any more since the software, free or not, are in any 
case no longer executed by the user but manipulate his data directly at home. big 
platforms. This new paradigm raises new questions. How to protect yourself from the 
surveillance capitalism that comes from the concentration of data and services on some 
lucrative private platforms ? How to allow people to maintain control of their personal 
data ? How to influence the development of new technologies so that they are emancipatory 
? It is to think collectively about these issues, especially in the area of computer 
security, that we are launching the Upsilon project.

The new paradigm of the Cloud
As civil servants with a public service mission and as a computer science teacher, we have 
a dual role. On the one hand, to advance computer security at the service of the people 
under their control, ie emancipatory security as opposed to enslaving security offered by 
major platforms such as Gafam. On the other hand, the training of technicians and 
engineers who will develop the technologies of tomorrow, which we inherit in anticipation 
of part of the responsibility.

At present, the main means of transferring research to society, which are the publication 
of articles that are most often inaccessible to the public, and market valuation in 
partnership with companies, do not allow the creation of emancipatory technologies: the 
commodification of a computer technology requires making its users dependent on 
proprietary (non-free) software or centralized platforms. It therefore seems necessary to 
get rid of these constraints in order to accept others such as the need for the 
decentralization of security services, in order to eliminate the dependence of users.

On the teaching side, we ask ourselves a double question. On the one hand, integration 
into the computer science curriculum of the transmission of a critical social and 
political perspective on technology to its future designers. On the other hand the popular 
education necessary for the enlightened use of technology, an essential element of its 
control and therefore its possibility of emancipation.

The launching day of the project will take place on March 29 at the University Paris-VIII.

Pablo Rauzy

More information on Upsilon.sh website

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Technologies-emancipation-ou-asservissement

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Message: 2






SOLIDARITY WITH ASILO OCCUPATO FALLING AT THE TORINO --- LEAVES TO THE TORINO AND TRENTO 
FOOTBALL - On Thursday 7/2/2019 the police invaded and evacuated after 24 years of 
occupation, Asilo Occupato in the city of Turin. Asilo has played a leading role in social 
and class struggles against the eviction and reconstruction of the old working quarters 
from Turin's big cities, against immigration detention centers, against the construction 
of TAV, anti-fascist mobilizations. The police appeared not only for the evacuation in 
Asilo but also for the arrest of 6 comrades and comrades, who are accused under Article 
270 of the Penal Code for "subversive action", a repressive method used to strike 
anarchists for years Italy. Comrades and comrades are already jailed in isolation.

Under the same suppressive doctrine of the Salvini government against the "internal enemy" 
on 19/2/2019 in Trento, they are arrested and detained, following police invasion of 
homes, comrades, facing severe charges in the context of Italian counter-terrorism law.

TOWARDS STATE TERRORISM ... INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND STRENGTHENING THE GAME FOR SOCIAL 
RESPONSE

CONCENTRATION IN THE ITALIAN CONSULATE OF PATRAS (PP GERMANOU 63) - SATURDAY 16 MARCH IN 12 m.

anarchist group "dignified horse"

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Message: 3






On the international day of women's solidarity, the anarchist group "Friends of anarchy" 
held a rally, making an installation in the Chelyuskintsev Park area in Minsk, as well as 
distributing leaflets. The installation calls to recall the real meaning of the holiday - 
the struggle for equal rights and women's emancipation. "The place of the woman is where 
the woman herself decides"! - reads one of the posters. ---- We are convinced that just as 
the emancipation of women is impossible without a social revolution, so the revolution is 
impossible without the emancipation of women. Capitalism and patriarchy are intertwined 
with a strong chain, and modern liberal feminism only turns a woman into a "free" 
consumer, allowing capitalism to accept the struggle and make it another product. There 
are thousands of poor seamstresses in factories printing t-shirts with feminist prints for 
one conventional rich woman. Our response to this injustice is anarcho-feminism. First of 
all, patriarchy is a system of power, and as an anarchist, we intend to destroy it along 
with other power constructs - the state and capitalism.

March 8 is not a celebration of flowers, perfumes and gift certificates.

March 8 is not about femininity, simple female happiness and "stay as beautiful as ever!"

March 8 is a day of women's solidarity in the struggle for equal rights and emancipation!

Dedicated to all women: those who have ever experienced violence, economically and 
socially oppressed, fighting on the front of the revolution for their freedom and the 
right to be heard!

Event Reports , Feminism
Belarus , Minsk
Friends of Powerless

https://avtonom.org/freenews/akciya-belaruskih-anarhistok-v-den-mezhdunarodnoy-zhenskoy-solidarnosti

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Message: 4






Capitalism Is Killing The Earth: An Anarchist Guide To Ecology. Anarchist Federation. 40 
pages. £3.00 ---- This pamphlet from the Anarchist Federation is a well articulated and 
well written argument for the intrinsic link between climate change and ecological 
devastation and capitalism. As the pamphlet states: "Capitalism is a system reliant on the 
total exploitation of nature; whether that be sacrificing our clean water to frack for 
hydrocarbons or sacrificing our children for the production line." It goes on to say that 
the market cannot be relied on to fix C02 emissions and that the only way to achieve 
meaningful change is to abandon the capitalist model. ---- The pamphlet is divided into 
chapters looking at the following subjects: Climate change under capitalism; Case Studies: 
energy and housing under capitalism; False solutions; an anarchist ecology; and How Do We 
Get there?

It addresses the question of zero carbon homes and the fact that energy efficiency in 
housing under capitalism is not seen as a priority when so many people face homelessness 
and poor housing conditions. It also correctly highlights the factor of land ownership and 
soil exhaustion under the market, the most obvious example being the cutting back of the 
rain forests but also the less obvious. It concludes this section by stating: "We can 
manage limited resources effectively but only through production for need rather than 
profit, as well as a return to the commons and the creation of a truly circular economy" 
(i.e. one where the waste of one product is used as the input for the next).

It argues strongly against false solutions like climate summits and national carbon 
budgets, carbon trading and carbon capture, green and ethical capitalism, state control, 
the divestment movement, primitivism and its opposite the use of technology to solve 
ecological problems, and population control.

The pamphlet argues strongly against productivism, that is, the advocacy of production for 
production's sake under capitalism. It contrasts this with "a shift in focus to production 
for societal need and products that can be repaired and maintained" and the ending of 
entire sectors of the economy like advertising and the military industrial complex.

As it says "the environmental crisis cannot wait for a revolution to destroy capitalism, 
nor will a post-revolutionary society be environmentally sound unless we manage to change 
the relationship between humans and the rest of nature". It offers several short term 
aims. One, that the link between capitalism and environmental degradation should be made 
explicit with a critique of the role of the State in facilitating this. Two, that 
anarchists need to get involved in the mass climate movements to shift the aims of these 
movements away from false solutions mentioned above. Three, to get trade unions to adopt 
an environmental approach. Four, linking up of different struggles, with as an example, 
land justice campaigns having a clear link to climate change as landowners decide how land 
is used etc. Also rising nationalism as the State's response to climate refugees. Five, 
the creation of networks of likeminded people, closer work with groups such as Earth 
First! Reclaim The Power and Rising Tide. Six, Actions and struggles independent of 
actions of politicians and NGOs.

A few criticisms of the pamphlet. Whilst car ownership is touched upon lightly, there is 
no deep analysis of the car culture and the effects of the internal combustion engine and 
linked to this the need for the increase in public transport systems and indeed for FREE 
public transport. In fact, campaigns against fare rises on public transport and from there 
the demand for free public transport and for its extension should be an essential part of 
the struggle against climate change.

Secondly, we find it a little strange that in the section How Do We Get There? There is 
talk of pushing "our unions to adopt an eco-syndicalist stance". This seems at odds with 
the AF's Aims and Principle which offers a correct critique of trade unionism. This 
sentence seems to imply that somehow the trade unions can be converted into fighting 
syndicalist organisations, something that should be seen as an illusion.

Despite these criticisms, the pamphlet is important in its linking of climate change to 
capitalism and deserves to be widely read and widely distributed.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2019/03/10/capitalism-is-killing-the-earth-an-anarchist-guide-to-ecology-anarchist-federation/

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Message: 5






On March 8, 2 actions will take place in Moscow, in which representatives and 
representatives of anarchist-feminist, anarchist and leftist groups will take part. The 
first of them - For women's rights and social justice! - will begin at the monument to 
Krupskaya on the square. Sretenskie Gate at 13 o'clock (attention! Time and place of 
action changed) , it will be attended by the Left Socialist Action (Union of Democratic 
Socialists), LeftFem, Narkprosvet, Revolutionary Workers Party (Avangard), Russian 
Socialist Movement, Left Resistance, anarchist and independent feminists. ---- "For us, 
the struggle for women's rights is inseparable from the struggle for social justice and a 
classless society. We believe that only a society with public ownership of the means of 
production, universal self-government, freedom of association for the implementation of 
any public projects will create the conditions for the final eradication of all types of 
discrimination.

Despite the fact that we set ourselves the ambitious goal of a fundamental change in the 
structure of society, we are already demanding from the state legislative and practical 
measures to achieve equal rights and opportunities for women and men, to prohibit 
discrimination against women, and to protect women from any kind of violence, "the 
initiator writes rally.

Facebook Encounter

Meeting in contact

Channel in telegram

The second action - "Resources for women!" - will also be held in Sokolniki and will begin 
at 16.30. In it are going to participate MFI Rosa, LeftFem, Fembband, RFO SHE, as well as 
independent feminists.

"Now in Russia, women are limited access to resources in all areas. Most women are poor, 
and even those who are in the middle class have no equal opportunities with men because of 
sexism."

Physical, psychological and sexual abuse are constant companions of our lives.

But we - and you too! - let's not dwell only on the identification of problems, We will 
propose solutions on how to seize access to resources, how to increase female power! "- 
the organizers report.

https://avtonom.org/news/akcii-8-marta-v-moskve

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Message: 6






We have concluded our dispute with Fox & Sons after a second landlord quit the agency 
following a short direct action campaign against their business. This follows another 
landlord who quit the agency in February after a similar campaign. Our campaign against 
Fox & Sons has been ongoing for four and a half months, and the loss of these landlords - 
from whom Fox & Sons would have taken 16% of the rent for a full management service, on 
top of all the fees they charge - coupled to the damage to their business caused by the 
campaign, is likely to have cost them thousands of pounds. ---- Our campaign against Fox & 
Sons in Kemptown began in November, after we were approached by a group of tenants who 
wanted to organise for compensation after the agency cancelled their tenancy five days 
after they were supposed to move in. Ourselves and the tenants delivered a demand letter 
to Fox & Sons in early November, demanding £2280 in compensation, which was the difference 
in rent for the year on the new house the tenants had to rent with no notice after their 
tenancy was cancelled. The agency didn't respond to the letter, so we began the public 
campaign with a well-attended picket one week later. This got their notice, as we received 
an email from the Area Manager the next day, who said he would be investigating the 
situation. We carried on our campaign regardless, since our demand was clear.

Unsurprisingly, the Area Manager's investigation found no wrongdoing by the branch in 
question. In response to this, we escalated our campaign to the Western Road and Lewes 
Road branches of Fox & Sons. They responded to this with the familiar bullying tactics of 
bosses, calling the police to the pickets and trying to intimidate the tenants out of 
taking action.

Shortly after this, we contacted the landlord of the property in question directly, and 
discovered that he had paid £720 compensation to Fox & Sons that was intended for the 
tenants when he cancelled the tenancy, which they had failed to pass on. We informed the 
landlord of this - in response, instead of paying this money and the rest of the 
compensation we were demanding to the tenants, Fox & Sons simply returned the £720 to the 
landlord. Clearly, they were concerned about the prospect of losing his business.

We escalated our campaign to a national level, with SolFed locals in Manchester, 
Liverpool, Bristol, Eastbourne, and London all staging pickets outside of Fox & Sons' 
sister agencies. Fox & Sons responded by getting the company that owns them - Connells - 
to investigate the complaint, who again unsurprisingly found no wrongdoing. We responded 
to this by escalating our dispute to Skipton Building Society, which owns the company that 
owns Fox & Sons, with pickets of Skipton in Manchester, Bristol, and Croydon, as well as 
solidarity pickets by our comrades in Surrey, Cut The Rent and the IWW in Dorset.

At this point, we also staged two further escalations: we delivered a demand letter to a 
landlord who rented a property out through Fox & Sons who also owned a business in the 
laines, and our sister section in Australia, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (ASF) 
began pickets of an IT business owned by Skipton in Melbourne. After a single, fiery 
picket of the business of the landlord in the laines, she quit the agency, with a scan of 
their website and a phone call to them confirming that her property was no longer 
available to let. We then escalated further by delivering a demand letter to another 
landlord renting out her property through Fox & Sons, who is also the director of a 
recruitment firm. The landlord quit the agency after a single phone picket.

Whilst this will have been costly for Fox & Sons, it's disappointing that these actions 
have not led to the agency paying compensation to the tenants organising with us. A total 
increased rent of £2280 for the year is a lot of money when you have very little of it, 
and it would have been really useful for these tenants if our organising with them had 
meant that they got this compensation.

Nonetheless, at this point, when our actions have cost Fox & Sons more than we are asking 
for in compensation, it seems as though they are willing to take the loss. This could be 
for a number of reasons, such as that they're a business with multimillion pound profits 
that can likely absorb these kinds of losses, as well as - and this is perhaps the main 
one - the fear of setting a precedent that they pay compensation every time they cancel 
someone's tenancy at the last minute. On email and on the picket lines, we have heard from 
a number of other Fox & Sons tenants with stories similar to this one: if Fox & Sons were 
to pay out, they may well create a situation that would cost them a lot of money in the 
long run.

With all this in mind, the tenants and ourselves have decided to conclude the dispute. 
There's been lots of positives from the campaign: the amazing solidarity from other 
locals, from Surrey, Cut The Rent, from the IWW, and from the ASF, showing that tenants 
across the country - and the world - will stick up for one another; the people passing the 
picket line who have seen that it is possible to stand up to the bullying landlords and 
lettings agencies; and the economic damage that has been done to Fox & Sons' business.

And, if anyone from Fox & Sons is reading this and thinking that the landlords who quit 
their agency can now return to it: we have our eye on your listings and will be back 
outside those businesses if those properties show up again.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk/brighton/fox-sons-dispute-concludes-with-second-landlord-quitting-the-agency

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