Today's Topics:
1. Britain, AFED, Organize!: Careful comrade, your class is
showing. XR has some problems. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. [Belarus] Police brutally sweep anarchist camp near Brest By
ANA (pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Overall information from the Anarchist Political
Organization's participation in the anti-war / anti-revolutionary
mobilizations of the past By APO [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Bogotá, Colombia. grup ovia libre: We are going to the
national strike on April 25 (ca, it) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. US, black rose fed - MAURICE BRINTON: SOCIALISM REAFFIRMED
-- Mi madre me enseño a luchar by Cesar Montero. IG: Prolemex
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. [CNT-Zaragoza aragon] On May 1, come with the CNT (ca, it)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
There has forever been this disconnect between the more radical and liberal anarchists
which keep us somewhat isolated from each other, even when our political positions more or
less mirror each other. ---- Radicals tend to make direct action and opposition with the
state and capitalism a core part of their life accepting that the politics and methods
aren't for everyone and have a crack anyhow, this means smaller numbers but often more
dramatic responses. Our more liberal comrades tend to seek numbers and so bring to the
table broad campaigns that next to anyone can get involved in, these invariably mean
maintaining the social mandate of being civil and avoiding conflict with the police. The
liberal position is almost universally the default of the middle classes who, removed of
the genuine threats to their existence the working class face, can often afford to be a
little more ... hum ... accommodating. That's not a rule of thumb mind, just an
observation and it doesn't mean that the working class are never more liberal in their
political actions, it's just a predisposition that seems to be set to repeat.
I should make clear here as well that "liberal" itself is bit of a poisioned term and one
very few people like being applied to them. I don't mean to use it with any of the
negatives attached to it, there are plenty of campaigns that have liberal appeal that do
amazing stuff from UK Uncut to No Borders. I'm using liberal as a catch-all term for those
whose core strategy is peaceful and via non violent direct action, this tends to be
campaigns of a large and and broad scope.
Radical and liberal are somewhat loaded terms, but they are at core simply a difference in
tactical and strategic intention methodology. So the term "liberal" is a poison chalice
and a label we shun and to be honest I think that's a shame coming from a community so
enamored with "a diversity of tactics". Now that I write this I realise "radical" is
probably a similar loaded term in certain communities and that's a shame too.
Ok, so it's not quite so binary, heck it's bit of a false dichotomy that I'm being a bit
flippant with in an attempt to describe the differences between those of us focused on
immediate radical action and those aiming to be more approachable and garner mass support.
I'm sure there are academic positions and deconstructions that could be taken by smarter
folk than me but let's be honest most of us are in both columns quite happily, I am a
radical and I am a liberal both. I've got nicked for doing actions that fit into either
category and despite having a favourite olive I'm working class through and through.
What's more in my daily organiser life I try and help folk equip themselves with both sets
of tools because a culture of resistance requires a diversity of tactical approaches.
Maybe we need some kind of kinsey scale between these poles ... but that's a tangent.Point
is, stripped of the attached politics and semantics we all tend to slide to one of the
other and have a dash of both, however sometimes this divide becomes very apparent...
sometimes there is a clear difference.
Sometimes the radical in us wins out, sometimes the liberal.
For me this was most highlighted a few years back when we blockaded Westminster Bridge in
aid of the NHS. It was all in all a great day but quite "fluffy" and little was happening.
The few pockets of black clad anarchos started talking about doing things ... We agreed to
respect the gathering and wait until the Citizens Assembly was done with and things were
winding down before putting the call out. 4:30pm we said we'd go. We spread the word,
talked to the samba band and after a short and fiery speech during the Assembly that
amounted to "fuck sitting around let's do this" by a random chap in a flat cap, energy was
high and like that we were off.
Only we weren't ... as soon as we rallied together one of the "official" organisers
shouted "Don't follow them, they're trouble makers!" The newly formed black bloc gave a
wave and started heading down the stairs to the the next bridge over, the police flew into
action and so did the organisers, two of which darted over the bridge and stood at the top
of the stairs down to the embankment in between the now mobile focused black bloc and the
casual attendees plus band now keen to follow them...
They formed a physical barrier in people's minds told the crowd that "this is the official
action, don't go with the hooligans". Stripped of numbers the black bloc got kettled on
Lambeth Bridge and we stood there watching the main demonstration get cleared out.
Without radicals to defend them, both with presence and capacity they were easy to sweep up.
Without the support of numbers and friendly faces we were easy to mark out and suppress.
There was a mutual disconnect that held both groups back and I think maybe we were
expecting too much. (Though is solidarity too much to ask for?)
The reality is you don't ask the RSPCA to go out sabbing, or the rainforest alliance to
molotov a digger. So we shouldn't expect Extinction Rebellion to result in a radical response.
We have to understand them for what they are beyond all the revolutionary patter, which is
a liberal middle class lobby group. I've always sort of had affection for Extinction
Rebellion's organisers, Rising Up and Compassionate Revolution LTD. Their approach is not
always for me or the direction I feel we should take but they are approachable and have an
effective degree of organisation that's often anathematic to the radical "spikey"
anarchists and results in our limited efficiency. Rising Up have a track record for
getting shit done and in a manner that's accessible to the very fluffy liberal groups and
some of the spiker folk too.
So the Extinction Rebellion is a lobbying campaign with an "in your face" vibe whose
stated aim is to have everyone arrested and force their way into the room with the
government. They appropriate the revolutionary lingo for catharsis and charge forward with
three demands revolving around asking the government to save the world and usurp
themselves by officially approving a Citizens Assembly on climate change. They make
themselves very appealing to the wet behind the ears democratic socialists and media
darlings from Chris Packham (who thinks there are too many humans ... but that's a
different ramble) to Caroline Lucas and Sian Berry, heck we're on day nine/ten, wild stuff
has happened, the news has been flooded and I've listened to a lovely talk by Greta
Thunberg and had a nice reminder of Beth Orton's music. That's all well and good, standard
liberal days out at the protest.
I'm not going to ramble on too much about the tactics, the validity of a road block or the
fetish for a celebrity voice, We shouldn't expect XR to uphold the value sets of
revolutionary organisations.
I want to talk about a few other things ... I want to about the things that changed a
friendly "this is how to get the anarchists onboard" opinion piece into one - just a few
days and questions later - set on position that even the briefest of critical assessments
should light up anyone's red flags and though some fantastic people are involved, there
are also some deeply concerning issues that people are turning a blind eye to.
I want to start with something important here.
There is this "code" in activism, specifically anarchism and direct action that, albeit
not always put into words, is pretty much an understanding amongst those of us with a
history of rabble rousing.
It's probably best summed up in the "The St. Paul Principles for Activists " which were
coined in 2008. They read;
1. Our solidarity will be based on respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of
other groups.
The actions and tactics used will be organized to maintain a separation of time or space.
Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media
denunciations of fellow activists and events.
We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration,
disruption and violence. We agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists
and others
XR break three of these principles, and I'm breaking the other.
What's really kicked this off is that I know a dozen or so people who feel locked into
relative silence because they know some tidy folk doing some awesome shit and because they
are genuinely afraid of being excommunicated from their circles if they dare to highlight
any of this ... instead keeping chit chat to a few small groups and threads with likely
minds - and that kind of social silencing isn't my jam. This is before we start on the
"Join us or you don't care about the children" stuff let alone the willful ignorance and
turning of blind eyes.
I believe there are elements here that are deeply problematic.
Actually I'll be honest, I'm tamping. you can tell when stuff is really hitting the bone
when I switch from "XR is" to "You".
Anarchists tend to loath criticising each other in public because it spreads divisions and
arms the oppressors, let alone all the numpties who just spit venom and hate out at
everything not right-wing enough for them. Fuck, watching the jumped up prats on the telly
scowl or in the papers, turns my stomach sideways and I really don't want to parrot their
twaddle or sit on the same side of this conversation as them. However, sometimes,
sometimes we need to pipe up.
We make a great deal about calling out the SWP coving up rape and generally utilising some
shitty methods for a shitty political agenda, we talk openly about the inherent flaws of
trade unions who seek to negotiate a softer whip and we sure as shit take issue with
revolutionaries and rebels echoing the capitalist state by living parasitically of other
activists or who trade political power and respect for personal gains.
If we aren't willing to sort out our own house, who will?
This isn't going to fix things, but I hope it leaves a few folk a bit more prepared.
These are just my opinions and those of the people I'm sharing, Accepting my concerns is
going to require disengaging your mind from the "flag fealty" which seems to come with
groups with such prodigious use of symbols, codes and mantras and it's going to require
you to understand that I am not just "jealous" of the numbers, money or days out in the
sun any more than I was "jealous" when pointing out that Elon Musk is an anti union,
worker abusing parasite. It's way to easy and flippant a way of negating someone's legit
concerns.
Mind you, It's gotta be said that I support any action my fellow working class comrades
take, the people on the ground, fighting for the future of the world in the only way
apparent at the moment, I fucking love you. Especially those of you who are scared of the
police and who are new to all this palavra.
Empowering yourself is the most beautiful and awesome thing you can do.
You have my respect and commendation. I hope you carry on using your energies to help
build a better world. The "Twelve Years" isn't hyperbolic rhetoric, we are at crisis point
and the XR folk on the ground are the vanguard of what I hope is an ever escalating
international environmentally focused anti capitalist front that in all reality is exactly
what we need to save our world from ourselves.
Please separate my concerns for the mob of voices that seek to weak the movement and
undermine you.
This is not an attack on you, I'm absolutely amazed by you all!
So...ya...
Let's talk about cops and security...
Let's talk about finance and business...
Let's talk about race and bigotry...
Let's talk about solidarity, autonomy and decentralisation...
Let's talk about security...
Let's talk about Roger, brand management and other problems...
TL;DR and some positives...
If you are with XR, first and foremost please stop seeing yourself as an "arrestable."
You are not just an "arrestable", you might get arrested, you might even be comfortable
with it but you should not have your individuality and character stripped away into an asset.
Please stop talking to cops and when the high energy of these actions dies down take a
proper look at the Extinction Rebellion network and make it better. I've written all this
not to attack you and stymie the XR movement but to bring light to some issue which are
will result in XR kneecapping yourselves. Only you and your fellow rebels can address them
and make the movement better. Despite all these concerns I recon we need to take the
passion that's so clearly here and build a wider reaching radical movement. That means XR
groups taking an honest assessment of the network they are within, it means getting behind
the Green Anti-Capitalist Front, Earth First and campaigns like Earth Strike. We need to
put fuel to this fire and provide a clear and visible next step for the people out there
doing the things.
Talk to people and get them involved.
Plan actions and do them.
Set up new affinity groups, sabotage networks and organise your friends.
Do not rely on some distant central core group to lay policy.
Distant demos at coal mines are difficult and even though I despise a set policy of "all
go to London", taking the fight to the heart of capitalism does seem to have a powerful
effect. So maybe more of that, google your city, see whose about. In Manchester you have
TOTAL, In Cardiff you have Fracking Companies and TATA etc etc. Don't sit idle waiting for
days of rage or syndicated actions.
Revolutionary struggle needs to be asymmetric, without predictable pattern or rhythm, this
was one of the brilliant aspects of Swarming and if road blockades are a tactic you
appreciate, then utilise them.
Radicals, anarchists, long in the tooth comrades who are just as frustrated...
We're failing here too.
When the fash turned up and started giving them shit, where were we?
We are that black bloc who bailed to go do some shit and then stood and watched them get
swept up.
We know how these things work and we left them to it, not wanting to sully their action
with our bandanna's and whole "not wanting to be arrested" malarkey but that doesn't mean
we couldn't have provided a better alternative. So how can we improve our response? How
can we be anarchists and help defend folk in future, if they heat things up we need to be
willing to be the Singh to their Gandhi.
The Green Anti Capitalist Front are doing this in a full on and righteous manner in my
opinion. They rocked up on the first day for a solidarity action which reflected the wider
XR strategy but distinctly in an anarchist tone. They did not inform the police, they
decided the direction on the fly as an autonomous and mutually respective group of people
and didn't line up for arrest. They spent Sunday talking to XR street rebels about the
need for anti-capitalism as a focus, it was a sunny day and people we're listening. It
very much feels like they are the enemy within to me at the moment, a group the organisers
would rather fuck off but accept the existence off.
They aren't "inducted" and XR sure as heck aren't acknowledging their presence publicly on
social media and such (hope that changes) however the more an anarchist voice is present,
the more the activists on the street have support in developing their groups and a
alternative network with which to work alongside. More of this please.
The XR leadership are spending the next two weeks capitulating to the state in the hopes
of getting into the room with a few MPs. Many on the street disagree with this step and
wanted to continue to full on pressure. Since I started writing we've seen a distinct
change in pace.
We shouldn't be sat idle.
Follow your comrades and talk to your local XR mob and try and make it better.
If not, set up a GAF/EF network hub and take to action.
We can all do more, we've only got twelve years... (apparently)
P.S. I'm yet to see XR talk about veganism, minimising meat consumption and the issues
with industrial land management ... I've left criticism around this out until I see
something on one side or the other, though it's absence it concerning ... I guess if you
tell people to eat a little less meat they might not come rebel ... it'd be annoying if
revolution required any personal development eh?
Rhyddical is just another pseudo bohemian revolutionary anarchist who expects better of us
all but does his mains in Tesco anyway.
http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2019/04/24/careful-comrade-your-class-is-showing-xr-has-some-problems/
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Message: 2
On April 20, a special police assault team stormed the country house where the anarchists
had gathered. The participants of the anarchist camp were beaten and detained. ---- A
total of 11 people were detained, wrote the activist of the anarchist movement Viachaslau
Kasinerau on Facebook the evening of April 21. ---- According to the activist, the
detainees were taken to the local police station, where "they continued to be beaten,
beaten and threatened." ---- "Some were tortured, their heads dipped in the toilet.
However, no evidence or explanation was requested. They just copied personal data,
"Kasinerau wrote. ---- Later, 5 people were released. ---- "There were about 15 to 20
people, all wearing bulletproof vests and holding machine guns. They ran into the house.
They forced everyone on the ground and handcuffed them. Everything was recorded on camera.
They recorded names, surnames and addresses. The people on the floor were repeatedly
beaten. Those who refused to speak were beaten harder. A guy was taken somewhere, and when
they came back with him, they said that now he would be shot down, since they had thrown
him into the bathroom. And then they pushed us into a police car and took us to the Kobryn
police station, "says Zmitser, an anarchist activist who was released.
According to the activist, in the police station all were extended and were called for a
"talk" one by one. "They were all photographed and, for refusing to do so, beat him and
threatened to put him 'in a bottle,'" said the activist.
The anarchist site "Revolutionary Action" also reported the attack on the anarchist camp
(in 2016, the Ministry of Information added this site to the list of extremist resources).
"Everyone was told to take a drug test. Those who did not refuse to do so had the device
showing a positive result even though none of them had used it, "the report says.
"These people do not even smoke cigarettes," says Zmitser.
According to "Revolutionary Action," drug testing was sent for review.
Three more anarchists were released from pre-trial detention without a protocol. There are
now three people in the temporary detention center.
Source: https://belsat.eu/en/news/police-brutally-clear-anarchist-camp-near-brest/
Translation> Remembrance of the Oppressed!
Related Content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2018/07/04/bielorrussia-policia-politica-armada-ataca-umen-encontro-informal-anarquista/
anarchist-ana news agency
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Message: 3
Earth and Freedom, Issue 15 ---- In the context of the Anarchist Campaign of Interfaith
Solidarity Against State and Capitalist Barbarism, War and Modern Integration, as
Anarchist Political Organization, we participated in a political call and constitution of
distinct political blocks in the anti-war / anti-NATO demonstrations held on April 6 in
Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras , as well as on April 13 in protests against the NATO
military bases in Alexandroupolis and Araxos. ---- In Athens , a gathering took place at
Klathymonos Square, followed by a demonstration to the US Embassy with the participation
of hundreds of fighters. The AP banner wrote "Anarchist Campaign of Internationalist
Solidarity against State and Capitalist Weakness, War and Modern Totalitarianism."
In Thessaloniki , we traded banners "against war, nationalism and modern totalitarianism -
a struggle for the global social revolution" from Kamara to the 3rd Army Corps, where the
NATO headquarters of Northern Greece are housed.
In Patras , a gathering took place in the annex and then a march on the main streets of
the city. In the block set up by the anarchist group "DILIEN HORSE" / FROM &
Comrades-Equals there was a central banner that read "Outside the Foundations and the
Nuclear - War in the States and the Bosses - Struggle for the Social Revolution.
Saturday 13 April
In Araxos Achaia , following a pre-concentration on the Patron Square of the Three Allies
of Patras, we protested at the gate of the air base where nuclear weapons are intended to
be installed. At the end of the course, involving about 100 anarchists and other comrades
- comrades, an attack was carried out with stones and red paints on the police forces
guarding the base gate. The cops replied by dropping chemicals into a straight shot that
caused the light injuries of two companions. The defense of the anarchist blocks that
called for the demonstration stood firmly against the police attack and retreated.
In the city of Alexandroupolis some 150 comrades and comrades were gathered and
demonstrated. During the pre-concentration, which took place at the Independence Square in
the city center, a lot of texts and propaganda material were shared. The demonstration was
on the main streets of the city but also in neighborhoods of the center. During her stay,
she passed from the Alexandroupolis Guard Officers Club, where tricky troops were thrown,
while we were followed by cops of cops. Our presence in the city center was felt through
anti-war, internationalist and anarchist slogans.
At a time when the bleak prospect of a global conflict comes back to the forefront and
planning of the military-political staff, we have a duty to organize our resistances.
Putting mounds on the plans of world sovereigns who promise only death, poverty, wars,
refugees, misery and misery. Drawing inspiration from the anti-war mobilizations of the
past, building a strong internationalist movement from the bottom up against the war,
against modern totalitarianism.
In the direction of building this movement, the resistance to the plans for expansion and
upgrading of the military bases inside, as well as the wider attempt to promote the role
of the Greek state in the international warfare, will be another important battle to be given.
This is the time when we must politically engage with comrades and fighters
internationally in order to confront the common assault that we accept. The world of power
is at risk only from the flames of racing around the world. And this flame remains alive
and dangerous for the sovereign ...
From the revolutionary Rutvawa who resists the attacks of the Isis and the Turkish state
and the fledgling Palestine that continues to struggle against the modern apartheid of the
Israeli state until the resistance to Erdogan's fascist regime in neighboring Turkey the
new battle that the rivals are preparing to give rebellious Zapatista communities in
Chiapas against the warheads of the sound of the state of Mexico, anti-war mobilizations,
military bases, and militarism that burst into the interior partial of the Western world,
while clouds of another great war thicken over mankind.
Against the attack of the decadent power world, we must confront the solidarity of our
common struggles. Faced with the dystopia of modern totalitarianism, where the vast
majority is impoverished and subdued, we can confront the liberal society that is
organized through the federal social councils "for Freedom of Everyone and Equality of All."
AGAINST STATE AND CAPITALISTIC VARIABILITY, THE WAR AND THE MODERN INTEGRATION
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY, ORGANIZATION AND RACE FOR SOCIAL RESPONSE, ANARCHY AND FREEDOM
COMMEMORATION
Anarchist Political Organization Federation of Collectives
apo.squathost.com | anpolorg@gmail.com
http://apo.squathost.com/
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Message: 4
The Duke government[1] ---- The government of Iván Duque seeks to approve its national
development plan for the period 2018-2022, the project "Pact for Colombia, pact for
equity"with the slogan of greater legality, greater entrepreneurship, filed since February
6 in the Congress. This plan, which entails the projection of the strategic lines of the
Uribist, conservative and evangelical coalition today in the government, deepens the
neoliberal economic policy that has just reinforced the enormous social inequality in the
country, subjecting public finances to the payment of the rule fiscal and external debt,
decreases the tax contributions of employers to socialize them among the popular
consumers, establishes extraordinary powers for an authoritarian president and
concentrates administrative functions in strongly centralist institutions, neglects the
specific resources for the peace process,
The neoconservative government is in need of continuing the economic adjustment that the
banking speculator and Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla, director of the economic
policy of the plan, has been promoting since last year. It also needs to recover the
political initiative after its fall in the polls, the collapse in Congress of its illegal
modifications to the JEP framed in its policy of gradual destruction of the peace process
with the FARC, and the partial defeat suffered before the student movement in last year
and the indigenous movement more recently. His speech of legality, supposes the continuity
of the Uribist program of democratic consolidation, and an open support to the leadership
in the Office of Néstor Humberto Martínez, lawyer of Odebrecht and of the Sarmiento Angulo
group,
Current struggles
The call for the strike on April 25, has been organized by the Coordinator of Social
Organizations (COS), former Union and Social Coordinator, which has tried to build on a
basis of a list of demands at national and district level, a mobilization agenda open to
the participation of different sectors, with modest results. The organization of this
articulation, after the failure of organizations such as COMOSOCOL or the routes for
peace, is a positive note of the panorama of popular movements at the national level,
although the forms of construction are still mediated by verticalism and bureaucratism.
most organizations, so the urgent task of building the real unit from below is still distant.
Este 25 de abril, se desarrolla la huelga de docentes del sector público organizadas en
FECODE tras el paro parcial del pasado 14 de febrero, y la convocatoria a los asalariadas
del sistema judicial agremiadas en ASONAL Judicial, que retoman su lucha contra los
decretos de la mal llamada descongestión judicial, cuyo última gran movilización viene de
noviembre del año pasado. Además se esperan movilizaciones de los sectores barriales
descontentos en Bogotá por la fallida política de la administración Peñalosa y de las
estudiantes universitarias que buscan reorganizarse tras su movimiento anterior, amén de
otros posibles sectores que puedan sumarse a la convocatoria.
The strike occurs in the middle of the mobilization of the workers of the USE of the
petroleum industry before the governmental projects of privatization of Ecopetrol and the
most recent protest of the workers of the EPS Sanitas, the strengthening of the women's
movement as it shows the important mobilization of March 8 and the reactivation of the
activity of dissidence against acts of hatred and exclusion, following the events of the
Andean commercial center. Its call comes in a year moved by the protest in defense of
peace agreements and against the murder of social leaders, the vindication of popular
organizations in the Caribbean region in February for poor public services and especially
the past development month, from the Minga de Resistencia Social in Cauca and other areas
of the south west. Its most immediate and significant precedent is the immense national
university strike led by UNEES in October-November of last year. From this movement, a set
of collective actions will be included, including new days of mobilization, the
humanitarian camp of threatened social leaders and the reinforcement of the convocation of
May 1.
The tradition of civic work stoppage
The national civic strike is a powerful protest tool of the working class, the social
sectors and the people, in the modern history of the country. Thus, we present important
mass strikes in the whole geography of the State, which have taken the name of civic
strike. This is noted with the general strike in 1945 in defense of the industrial union
documents, in 1947 against the divisionist labor policy of the Ospina Pérez government and
in 1949 against the conservative dictatorship. A few years later, the business strike of
1957 that forces the fall of the dictatorship of Rojas Pinilla and later the national
strikes of 1965, 1969 and 1971 against inflation, repression and authoritarian labor
policy of governments front nationalists.
From this period, important civic protests were developed in towns and intermediate
cities scattered throughout the national geography, from Mesitas to Pasto, Medellín and
Barrancabermeja. A new leap was the national civic strike of September 14, 1977, the
largest workers and popular protest of the second half of the 20th century, against the
social policy of the Lopez Michelsen government. The developments of the second civic
strike of October 21, 1981 against the repressive government of Turbay Ayala and the third
strike of June 20, 1985 against the labor policy of Belisario Betancur are also valuable.
Later they register against the neoliberal government of Virgilio Barco, the regional
peasant strikes of 1987 in the north-east in defense of human rights,
Great urban strikes have also impacted Bogotá, as shown by the movements of Suba in 1988
and Ciudad Bolívar in 1993. More recently we have the national civic strike against the
development plan of the Andrés Pastrana government in 1999, the 2002 protests, 2004 and
2006 against the labor and pension reforms of Uribe Vélez. We also recorded the failed
movements of October 12, 2012, as well as the limited movements of general support to the
second and third national agrarian strike of 2014 and 2015. In the last cycle of protests
we have the national strike attempt of March 17, 2017, the small movement of the strike in
the south of Bogotá on September 27 that same year against the expansion of the Doña Juana
landfill, and the protest on November 28 of last year, marked by the university students.
The strikes can then be guided by different political and social forces, be successful or
fail, and have different degrees of regional or sectoral membership. In relation to its
general background, it is clear that the current one is a small and localized movement.
However, on April 25th, it may suppose an overcoming of the previous immediate protests in
terms of its activity and deployment. Exactly to this we bet.
Perspectives on the current movement
As we already proposed 2013, it is still essential to organize a unitary strike of the
countryside and the city, which brings together the social movements of the rural and
urban world, paralyzing not only the roads, but the general process of production and
circulation of the entire economy. However, it is clear that the organization of the
working class and the urban popular sectors is notably weaker than that of the agrarian
population of peasant colonization zones such as Catatumbo or regions of indigenous
majority such as northern Cauca, which have with the strongest social movement in the country.
A sí mismo creemos, sosteniendo nuestra línea anterior, que es importante incorporar el
paro de 1977 ha nuestro acervo de experiencias colectivas. Esto implica no solo comprender
el contexto y el desarrollo del movimiento, sino también sus características originales,
aquello que lo puede asemejar o diferenciar de nuestro presente. Más que replicar con
exactitud el gran movimiento anterior, circunstancia por lo demás imposible e indeseable,
debemos analizar las líneas gruesas que llevaron al éxito de la convocatoria y a la
protesta colectiva y organizada a millones de personas.
The appeal to the national civic strike as a protest mechanism is still important, but we
must overcome the political and programmatic emptying that this concept has suffered,
putting in perspective the need to criticize the purely formal constructions and rituals
above and strengthen social work, broad and constant with the different social sectors,
discuss and elaborate the demands and the programs of action from the base, proposing
alternatives of action that interpelen and feed the popular discontent.
In conclusion we bet on work centers, neighborhoods, universities and other social spaces,
for the active and total unemployment of the activities, for their informed discussion
among the different social sectors, for deciding the common participation in deliberations
and grassroots assemblies, for their collective preparation and from below. We bet for a
strike with massive mobilization, extensive agitation and programmatic elaboration. We bet
a strike that is a link that connects and nourishes a cycle of multiple longer struggles,
led by workers, peasants, neighborhoods, women, sexual dissidence and environmental groups.
We are then going to the strike on April 25, to protest in the street against the Duke
government and to strengthen the organization, resistance and popular struggle.
To stop to move forward, let's go to the national strike!
Up those who fight!
Grupo Libertario Vía Libre
[1]We write intentionally in feminine, referring to the inclusive term of people.
https://grupovialibre.org/2019/04/25/vamos-al-paro-nacional-del-25-de-abril/
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Message: 5
Thinking through debates on defining a long term vision of socialism, whether "socialism
from below," or the traditions of libertarian socialism and anarchism, the piece
"Socialism Reaffirmed," written as a 1960 leaflet by the UK based libertarian
socialist/libertarian marxist intellectual Maurice Brinton, offers valuable starting
points. ---- By Maurice Brinton ---- We here outline certain ideas which might form a
basis for a regroupment of revolutionary socialists. ---- None of the traditional working
class organizations express the interests of the class. Their degeneration and
bureaucratization have been accompanied by a profound decay of socialist theory, of
concepts of struggle and organization and even of fundamental notions concerning the
nature of socialism. Agreement must be reached on what socialism is, if revolutionary
practice is genuinely to assist the working class and is not to result in further
confusion and demoralization. The following points are, in our opinion, quite basic:
(1) "The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense
majority, in the interest of the immense majority". Some of the "revolutionary" tendencies
pay lip-service to this idea. None take it seriously, or even seem to understand its
implications. "Self-conscious" implies that the class itself must understand the full
significance of its actions. ‘Independent' implies that the class itself must decide the
objectives and methods of its struggle.
(2) "The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves". The
working class cannot entrust its historical task to anyone else. No "saviours from on
high" will free it. The class will never achieve power, itspower, if it entrusts the
revolutionary struggle to others. Mass socialist consciousness and mass participation are
essential. The revolutionary organization must assist in their development and must
ruthlessly expose all illusions that the problem can be solved in any other way.
Moreover the working class will never hold power unless it is prepared consciously and
permanently to mobilize itself to this end. All previous attempts by the working class to
delegate power to specific groups, in the hope that such groups would exert power "on its
behalf" have resulted in the formation of bureaucracies and in the economic and political
expropriation of the working class. Socialism, unlike all previous forms of social
organization, requires the constant, conscious and permanent participation of the great
majority.
Socialism means workers' management, both at the level of the factory and of society as a
whole. ... As long as the working class holds economic power, its political power cannot
degenerate.
(3) The fundamental aspect of all class society is that a specific social group assumes a
dominant position in the relations of production. In this position it firstly "disposes of
the conditions of production" (i.e. organizes and manages production) and secondly
determines the distribution of the total social product. Individual ownership of the means
of production is but one of several possible ways in which a ruling class can legitimize
its domination.
Every ruling class strives to perpetuate its privileged status in society through its
control of the instruments of coercion, i.e. the State machine. No ruling class in history
has ever surrendered its dominant position in the economy and its control of the State
without ferocious struggle.
(4) The fundamental contradiction of contemporary society is its division into those who
own, manage, decide and direct, and the majority who, because they are deprived of access
to the means of production, have to toil and are forced to comply with decisions they have
not themselves taken. This contradiction is the basis of alienation, of the class struggle
and of the deep going crises which affect both bourgeois and bureaucratic societies.
The objective of the class struggle is to ensure, through the revolutionary accession to
power of the working class, the abolition of all antagonistic divisions within society and
of all the limitations these divisions impose upon men's lives.
(5) By its everyday struggle in capitalist society, the working class develops a
consciousness which has an essentially socialist content. The class struggle is not only a
struggle for surplus value (as "vulgar" Marxists would have us believe). It is also a
struggle for completely different conditions of existence. This struggle takes place at
the point of production, where it challenges both bourgeois and bureaucratic prerogatives
of management.
It is in the factory and the workshop that the workers counterpoise their wishes and
aspirations to the bureaucratic decisions of the bosses, and attempt to assert their own
forms of organization against those imposed upon them from above. This aspect of the class
struggle has the most profoundly revolutionary implications, for who manages production
manages, in the last analysis, society itself. The revolutionary organization must stress,
in its agitation and propaganda, this particular aspect of the working class struggle and
underline its fundamentally socialist content.
(6) The working class has repeatedly attempted to solve the basic question of its status
as an exploited class. It is untrue that workers are only capable of achieving "trade
union consciousness". The Paris Commune of 1871, the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the
Spanish Revolution of 1936-38 and the Hungarian Workers' Councils of 1956, all prove that
the working class is capable of rising to the greatest heights of revolutionary
consciousness, and of challenging the very basis of all exploiting regimes.
(7) Between its great revolutionary upsurges, the working class has attempted to create
political and trade union organizations to fight for both its immediate and long-term
interests. These organizations have all degenerated and now express non-proletarian social
interests. This degeneration has an objective basis, in the changing structure of
capitalist society, and a subjective basis in the imposition of capitalist methods of
thinking and organization into the ranks of the labour movement. Both facts therefore
reflect the persistence of capitalism.
The struggle of the working class for its social emancipation is not just a simple,
day-by-day struggle against capitalist exploitation. It also takes place within the
working class itself, against the constant rebirth of capitalist ideas and reformist
illusions. The fight of the revolutionary organization against all forms of ideological
mystification - and against those who disseminate them - is both essential and inevitable.
(8) Socialism means workers' management, both at the level of the factory and of society
as a whole. If the working class does not hold economic power firmly in its own hands, its
political power will at best be insecure. As long as the working class holds economic
power, its political power cannot degenerate. Factory committees and workers' councils are
the probable forms through which the working class will exert its rule.
"Nationalization" and "planning" can only have a socialist content if associated with
workers' management of production and working class political power. In and of themselves,
they can solve nothing. If the workers do not themselves manage society, "nationalization"
and "planning" can become ruthless instruments of exploitation.
(9) The class needs a revolutionary organization, not as its self-appointed leadership but
as an instrument of its struggle. The organization should assist workers in dispute, help
through its press to generalize working class experience, provide a framework for linking
up autonomous organs of working class struggle and constantly stress the ideas and
revolutionary potentialities of independent mass action.
The structure of the organization should reflect the highest achievements of working class
struggle (i.e. workers' councils) rather than imitate capitalist types of organization. It
should anticipate the socialist future of society rather than mirror its capitalist past.
In practice this means:
That local organs have the fullest autonomy, in relation to their own activities, that is
in keeping with the general purpose and outlook of the organization;
That direct democracy (i.e. the collective decision of all those concerned) is resorted to
wherever materially possible;
That all central bodies having power of decision involving others should be constituted by
delegates, these being elected by those they represent and revocable by them, at any time.
Maurice Brinton (aka Chris Pallis) was a distinguished neurologist and a libertarian
socialist writer and translator. He was the key figure of the UK based group Solidarity
(1960-1992) which developed in dialogue with the similarly leaning groups, Socialisme ou
Barbarie (1948-1967) associated with Cornelius Castoriadis, and the US based
Forest-Johnson Tendency whose leading figures included C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya.
http://blackrosefed.org/maurice-brinton-socialism-reaffirmed/
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Message: 6
As every year, we claim May Day as a day of struggle for the working class and that is
why, from CNT Zaragoza, we invite you to attend the demonstration that will take place on
the 1st from Plaza San Miguel at 12. ---- During this last year, our union has continued
to struggle to implement a modern union model, useful and independent of governments or
parties. Thus, in June we achieved an important sentence against temporary employment in
Arvato (today Majorel) and this October, before the call for strike, a company like
Alumalsa had to yield to all the demands of our section. Our union model makes the workers
protagonists of their own struggles, and that gives us strength where we are. A model that
was able, a century ago, to win the 8-hour day and which continues to win today.
We do not leave aside the fight for equality and against machismo in our work spaces,
because we change the world, as we demonstrated by calling a general feminist strike and
filling the streets on March 8 or in our fight against workplace harassment .
The CNT also showed its commitment to the defense of public services before the
dismantling that the different governments try to impose and with the struggle for decent
pensions , a right based on class solidarity .
As a revolutionary union, we have extended our solidarity with processes such as Rojava
through the Make Rojava Green Again campaign and in the struggle for historical memory,
with the initiative to call a march against the Valley of the Fallen for May 5 .
As you see, our union is in defense of the rights of the working class 365 days a year .
Therefore, this May 1, come with the CNT.
IN THE WORK AND IN THE FIGHT, ACCOUNT WITH CNT
http://aragon.cnt.es/cnt-zgz-el-1-de-mayo-ven-con-la-cnt
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