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dinsdag 30 april 2019

Anarchic update news all over the world - 30.04.2019

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)


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

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/

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

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

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

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/

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

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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