Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #293 - Climate Struggles:
The Century of the Marches (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. US, black rose fed: THE ROUGH ROAD TO POWER: COMMENTS ON
"GOODBYE REVOLUTION?" By Patrick Berkman
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #293 -
Notre-Dame-des-Landes: We buy collectively ! (fr, it, pt)[machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Tract: By what to replace
this company ? (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Youth movement or NGOs, the steps for climate are increasing. But beyond the event it is
necessary to clarify the objectives sought and make the link with the struggles on the
ground that give concrete to an event to ensure that these mobilizations are not just "
wind ". ---- The march of 8 September 2018, initiative launched after the resignation of
Hulot, had already gathered a lot of people [1]. But numerically this gathering was far
surpassed on March 16 by the coordination of four big NGOs - Oxfam, Greenpeace, the
Friends of the Earth and WWF - supported by the entire green citizen sphere. Despite the
significant participation in this initiative, calling on the state to accelerate the "
ecological transition ", it is doubtful whether it will be effective in influencing
government policy.
On the other hand, the movements of middle and high school students who go on strike at
school on Fridays seem much more interesting. Strike to have an education that does not
lead only to promises of jobs, to claim a training leading to an emancipation of this
society of destruction, an egalitarian society ...
Here too, the movement has some controversial personalities (like Sweden's Greta
Thunberg), but the youth movements are building a new line of demands that promises a
future of struggle. The State - qu'Hulot and others beg to act - is not mistaken: he sent
the police to make a clean sheet on the first Friday of the high school students strike
[2]. We must believe that youth is always afraid of power.
Depoliticized politicization
The hallmark of this movement is the conjunction of demands for social justice and climate
justice. The link between the "end of the month " and the " end of the world " is indeed
essential in the construction of demands, and ecology finally comes out of the ghetto of
the total depoliticization in which it had been entering for two decades. If we can
congratulate ourselves and acknowledge the political work of a number of organizations, we
must be wary of the turn that this emergence can take.
The collective L'Affaire du siècle, which launched the March 16 march, still has two
former " green " ministers , NGOs that place money on the stock market, such as
Greenpeace, rich and famous actors and actresses, and head of a gondola. the king of
depoliticization: Cyril Dion, founder of hummingbirds and the movie Tomorrow .
Their video calling for the demo [3]has very clearly used popular arguments like taxing
kerosene in the same way as petrol for a reason of equality (since when is VAT egalitarian
?), And omits completely to speak of the question of the nuclear or the questioning of the
transports imposed on the proletarians. Nothing about the struggles against land
colonization by the wind, geothermal, photovoltaic, biogas or biomass industry. Nothing on
large private or state energy sales infrastructure projects. Nothing concrete about
biodiversity ... short wind. Regarding the essential questions, what habitat ? What work,
How are decisions made?? Nothing. Only a few measures are voluntarily chosen to be
consensual and ineffective.
The substance of the speech remains the same: the sum of individual practices will change
the system ! What changes is the mode of expression: exit Rabhi the prophet of voluntary
simplicity in his immutable Ardeche. Hello this pleiad of young people such as the band It
is still time that say to move in their corner with some shock phrases and smartphone apps
green.
If we can not ignore what is happening in this street, the climate emergency is not to
raise taxes and force the state to introduce unfair measures to install new
infrastructure. On this subject there is no debate and this movement is so close to power
that it is impossible to find a direct link with our struggles, despite the apparent
convergence of slogans.
Initiatives with substance
Yet ecological struggles - going beyond a trial or a march - exist and develop. Take the
example of the poppies movement, but also of the campaign " the involuntary glyphosate
pissers and pingers " [4]which concretely tackle the pesticide industry: petitions, town
halls and federation of local struggles, or again the urine tests accompanied by actions
to prove that glyphosate is everywhere.
The fight against the appropriation of territories by the energy industry today largely
exceeds the ZAD and the associations of struggle. Thus the peasant confederation pays
close attention to the future of peasants producing energy, and to the predation of land
by industrialists. The revival of the nuclear industry supposedly " pivot of the energy
transition " will probably also re-ignite the struggles, even if the pronucléaires are
much heard lately.
In this context the call " For a Constituent Assembly of Popular and Social Ecology " [5],
published on March 23, 2019, proposes to create a broad front of the ecology against green
capitalism. The call makes the fact that an ecologist party like the Greens has no more
reason to be, but that a coordination of the progressive forces, today scattered, is
necessary. And even today the challenge of yellow vests has made its entry into the
eco-friendly demonstrations.
Political attempts, occupations, unionism ... The initiatives are not lacking. Let us
build the struggles, and " feed " the youths who move before the soufflé falls. Perhaps it
is time to build a common political foundation behind the facade of grand declarations.
Nipple Reinette (AL Aveyron)
[1] Libertarian alternative of October 2018.
[2] " High school student and climate student strike: a successful mobilization, a
repressive state " on attac.org.
[3] " The Case of the Century # 2. Filing the appeal to the court ! " on Youtube.
[4] See www.campagneglyphosate.com .
[5] " For a Constituent Assembly of Popular and Social Ecology " on Mediapart's blogs.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Luttes-climatiques-Le-siecle-des-marches
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Message: 2
A commentary by Patrick Berkman on the essay "Goodbye Revolution?" by Tim Horras which
grapples with various debates around power and the path to socialist transformation. ----
In a new essay for Regeneration, Tim Horras examines just how fraught the alleged
parliamentary roads to socialism are. Taking aim at debates within and around Jacobin and
DSA, Horras goes after two general variants. The first is the suggestion that all we need
to do is elect enough socialists, who will then be able to enact their platform and
transition society away from capitalism: ---- The more sophisticated democratic socialist
will grant that capitalist class power deforms the functions of government, but argue that
the existing constitutional order is indestructible and/or a neutral, objective tool which
can be made use of by any class. Thus, the existing state apparatus could be either used
on behalf of the working class and the oppressed, or peacefully transformed from an
apparatus of capitalist rule into an instrument of the working-class sovereignty. In other
words, the idea is that if the Left wins enough elections to possess a majority in
Congress, the capitalist state (with its courts, police, prisons and military) can then
implement "full-throated democratic socialism" with the consent of "voters." Thus,
reformists generally posit a scenario whereby the capitalist class and their military and
career civil service cede power in a relatively peaceful process to the working class
majority.
To that Horras asks, "do we really think that the most powerful and ruthless ruling class
in human history will quietly acquiesce as they find their ill-gotten wealth
expropriated?" Ever since the dawn of the modern socialist movement those privileged few
at the top of capital and state have worked tirelessly to ensure that, by hook or by
crook, they hold onto their wealth and power. They won't let a silly formality like
elections get in their way: socialists in power must either submit to the will of capital,
or bad things can happen.
The second variant critiqued is one that at least attempts to take seriously the real
problems of capital strike, intransigence and sabotage from the permanent state apparatus,
and violence from the armed forces and reactionary groups:
Immediately upon winning the election, capitalist resistance to the democratic mandate of
the masses begins: this could take the effect of juridical interference, capital strikes,
and violent fascist provocation.[...]
To their credit, left reformists do not try to minimize these problems. However, given
that their sole recourse to counterrevolution is mass mobilization and vague appeals to
the ability of "movements" to stymie the bloody tide of reaction. This is wishful thinking.
Mass mobilizations, broad popular support, and the weapon of the general strike certainly
ought to be tactics in the arsenal of any socialist movement. But in the face of the
ruling class's trump card - a full-blown military coup d'etat - it is likely even these
powerful forces will prove insufficient without an armed and organized resistance. And
since these very same democratic socialists reject out of hand the possibility of
insurrection (and, presumably, also dispense with the need to make preparations today for
the eventuality of armed struggle), we are faced with the ironic prospect that democratic
socialists will not prepared to defend their own reforms.
If civil war is likely to be an inevitable component of the transition to socialism, our
movement must make every preparation necessary - psychologically and in practice - to
ensure that the forces of the working class and oppressed come out on top in such a contest.
Presenting an existential threat to the capitalist class is a deadly serious affair, and
historically, socialist parties in parliament have not been up to the task: "In the
context of a revolutionary situation, defensive measures will need to quickly pivot toward
an all-or-nothing struggle for power or else face utter annihilation. Halfway measures and
equivocation will lead us straight to the graveyard."
The critique in this essay is thorough, well-reasoned, and worth a read.
However, after offering a compelling case against the parliamentary road to socialism,
Horras still leaves the door open to it, seemingly in spite of himself. Aside from citing
Lenin and writing that revolutionaries must "leap into political openings when they
present themselves," no justification is offered. How "political openings" themselves are
identified is no straightforward matter, and depends on both real-world conditions and the
theories, analyses, and strategies that animate those of us examining them.
As anarchists we've concluded that the history of revolutionary socialist struggles points
to electoral and parliamentary engagements as methods that do not move us closer to
achieving a successful break with capitalism and the state, and indeed are actually
detrimental to that goal. Horras' critique of socialists in power who have rejected armed
resistance to capital's backlash (or rarely, those who have supported it weakly or
ineffectively) implies that this was a voluntary choice - that different socialists in
office could have done things better. But the demobilizing effects of parliamentarism are
baked into the project itself. As Rudolf Rocker, a one-time German SDP youth activist
expelled for criticizing the reformism of the party leadership, put it when he examined
socialist parties in Europe in the 1930s:
These very parties which had once set out to conquer Socialism saw themselves compelled by
the iron logic of conditions to sacrifice their Socialist convictions bit by bit to the
national policies of the state. They became, without the majority of their adherents ever
becoming aware of it, political lightning rods for the security of the capitalist social
order. The political power which they had wanted to conquer had gradually conquered their
Socialism until there was scarcely anything left of it.
The advancement and defense of the working class must be done by the working class itself:
those who wish to get beyond capitalism should firmly place electoralism among the many
other tactics and strategies the socialist movement has rightfully abandoned over the past
two centuries.
Patrick Berkman does graphics design work and is a member of Black Rose/Rosa Negra based
in Burlington, Vermont. The piece was originally published here.
http://blackrosefed.org/rough-road-to-power-goodbye-revolution/
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Message: 3
After the abandonment of the airport project at Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique),
the anti-airport movement wants to continue the fight by experimenting with other ways of
living and working. To consolidate this dynamic movement has created an endowment fund and
calls all its support to contribute financially. ---- The announcement by Édouard
Philippe, on January 17, 2018, of the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport
project has created a new situation on the ZAD, symbolized by its agricultural, economic
and social experiments and its resistance. fiercely, from an insubordination to the
capitalist order. The opponents who remained united, despite some vicissitudes - the Acipa
dissolved in June 2018, but a new association was created on its ruins: " Pursue Together
" - today bear a project that wants to anchor resistance to the capitalist order in the
long term within the ZAD.
A coherent territory
The land occupation of the ZAD for nearly a decade has not been limited to being an
obstacle to the concreting of land. Alternative experiences have developed there, whether
they are agricultural (agroforestry, beekeeping, farming in ecopaturing, market gardening
bio), craft (canning, brewery, bakery, woodworking, forging, sewing), cultural (library,
spaces of meetings, concerts and exhibitions) or political (popular assemblies, working
commissions).
But beyond these experiences, it is the development of life-forms based on mutual aid,
mutualisation and solidarity which was and remains sought after. It is this wealth of
experience that the movement wants to continue to develop today.
After a year of tension, on the future of the lands, the peasant projects resulting from
the movement are being stabilized on several hundred hectares. The common experience
continues, but in many ways the future remains uncertain, especially with regard to the
possibilities of collective management of the buildings and the land of the ZAD so that
they remain in the long term a good common.
The endowment fund
To give it a head start and strength, the movement was projected since 2015 in a future
without an airport. Among the principles that emerged were the willingness of the
anti-airport movement - and not the usual institutions - to determine the use of the land
and that the land be moved to new facilities and not to expansion. But after the
abandonment, the state vetoed fiercely any idea of collective management of the territory.
The debate thus continued: How to perpetuate the collective use of the lands of the ZAD
without fear of tomorrow, in front of the State which announced the return of the property
to the departmental council on a part of the lands of the ZAD and its intention of to sell
the rest ?
The Assembly of usages [1]has chosen to acquire land, forests and buildings through an
endowment fund, a legal structure halfway between association and foundation, without
system of shares nor actions. In this fund, the Assembly of Usages will remain in control
of the guidelines, through the commissions from this assembly (Land, Housing, Allocation,
Monitoring and Analysis ...). The fund is also designed to finance projects and to lease
or contract the use of land and habitats to structures organized collectively.
An alternative to capitalism
This endowment fund is the realization of a desire to remove permanently built, land and
forests to private morcellement as well as development plans of the State or departmental
council ; to anchor in the long term economic, cultural, political and social experiments
; in short, to set up other ways of living and working, to invent a collective and
supportive life that opposes capitalist individualism.
Beyond this aspect, the ZAD remains the melting pot of initiatives and solidarities with
the rest of the social movement. The inhabitants of the ZAD have concretely affirmed their
solidarity with the social movement, by participating in blocking actions during social
conflicts, by the solidarity movement with migrants or by organizing canteens during
workers' strikes.
Objective: 3 million euros to acquire the lands and buildings on which to continue the
collective adventure.
To ensure a future for the ZAD is to participate, on the one hand, in the popularization
of the utopian imaginaries necessary for the construction of the anti-capitalist movement.
And on the other hand - as long as these experiments will not live as " the " single and
complete solution, but will fit in a will of convergences with the social and ecological
struggles - to participate in the construction of the necessary counter-powers to the
fight for a new society.
Call for financial contribution
Baptized La terre en commun, the endowment fund launched its first donation campaigns,
with the aim of purchasing a first series of buildings. The first action targeted the
closest supporters. They and they were more than 500 to answer in a few weeks ... In
total, 250 000 euros were thus raised in less than two months.
This success reinforces the conviction that the objective of 3 million euros - to acquire
the buildings, and the lands on which to continue the collective adventure that is the ZAD
of Notre-Dame-des-Landes - is attainable.
Today, the call for donations continues. To contribute any necessary information and
contacts are available on the website of the endowment fund. [2]Finally, let us give here
a little additional information: by using a so-called general interest structure, this
project, which aims at anchoring an anti-capitalist protest in the long term, enables
donors to benefit from tax cuts of up to 66%. money paid.
Steph (AL Nantes)
[1] The Assembly of Usages is the " historic " collective of discussions and
decision-making concerning the life and activities of the ZAD.
[2] See " The endowment fund" land in common " " on https://encommun.eco
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Notre-Dame-des-Landes-On-rachete-collectivement
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Message: 4
No, capitalism is not an insurmountable horizon. No, indirect " democracy " is not " the
best possible system ". ---- To change society, you need collective struggles ... but you
also need a project. It must take stock of the failure of capitalism as Stalinist
communism, which have never brought emancipation, freedom, social justice. Let's dispel a
misunderstanding: RIC or not, there can be no genuine democracy in the context of
capitalism. ---- Why ? Because it places the economic field " out of democracy ", in the
hands of the market and a privileged minority, unelected, hereditary power. There can only
be democracy against capitalism. ---- Download PDF to download ---- In capitalism In
libertarian communism ---- The main means of production and distribution are the property
of big business. ---- Socialized, they would become common goods because they are too
vital to be controlled by a privileged minority.
In companies, work collectives must do despite the whims of a pest hierarchy . We would
evict unnecessary management to make room for self-management by workers.
The markets and the state decide everything: abysmal social inequalities, overproduction
on the one hand, mass unemployment on the other, and furious growth through the
destruction of natural resources. The major economic guidelines would depend on democratic
planning: we would choose to produce, how much and how, to preserve the planet.
The purpose of the economy is to generate profits for those who hold the capital. A useful
or unprofitable good or service is not supposed to be produced. The purpose would be
radically different: to find the balance between the needs of the populations, the
capacities of production and the preservation of the ecosystem.
The state is a separate power of society. The political caste, right and left, manages the
system in the direction desired by the markets. Without a capitalist straitjacket, a
direct, federalist democracy would be possible. The company could finally make its own
choices.
The capitalist system combines with the patriarchal system , which sees women, already
less paid, provide a large amount of free domestic labor. It conveys an ideology of
competition and domination that fuels racism and sexism. A feminist and anti-racist
struggle would remain necessary to reduce discrimination. But material and social equality
would facilitate this struggle to overcome a racist patriarchy and hierarchy that would no
longer have any reason to be economic.
Paris, December 8, 2018
cc Erick Goedde
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Par-quoi-remplacer-cette-societe
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