Today's Topics:
1. avtonom: "Left turn" in Russia and the anarchists [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #294 - Read: Emancipation
and Critical Pedagogies (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Czech, afed.cz: How it goes in Food not Bombs [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, vogliamo tutto: Public participation means
abstaining from the elections! [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. zabalaza.net: Rebuilding the workers' movement for
counter-power, justice and self-management: A contribution to the
debate by Lucien van der Walt - ZACF (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Britain, Red and Black Leeds: Trans Pride 2019 by RABL
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. luta fob: Presentation of the FOB in Recife (pt)[machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
I still remember how one of the comrades at some gatherings told me: "Yes, what do you say
that our people were saturated with capitalism and its ideology? The society in Russia is
deeply left in its worldview, people are anti-market, with great antipathy towards the
nouveau riche. " I then agreed. ---- Indeed, there are many anti-capitalist sentiments in
the people of Russia (although there is also quite a lot of bourgeois consciousness). And
yet, this understanding of Russian society remained, as it were, a dormant hidden
knowledge until recently. ---- In the past couple of years, hidden understanding has begun
to take on visible forms. After pension reform, gradually more and more public people
suddenly started talking about the "left agenda" in the political moods of Russians. Many
commentators from different camps and spheres agree on this: sociologists from the RANEPA
are echoed by respectable liberal Alexei Venediktov. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny,
without saying anything out loud, even a year before the pension reform filled his
election program with a social democratic element, promising a twofold increase in
spending on health care and education, salary increases, tax increases for gas companies,
and the like.
What does this mean for Russian anarchists, who are often referred to as radical leftists?
In our reasoning, we will rely on the research of the RANEPA of the autumn of 2018.
It is important to say right away that the definition "left" in itself tells us too
little. This is too broad and conventional concept. Not all of this spectrum is close to
anarchism.
Sociologists have found that a large percentage of our compatriots support high taxes in
combination with a high level of social protection, as well as support for workers and the
nationalization of wealth (that is, their transfer to state ownership).
We quote RBC to reveal the details: "The party ideal for many respondents must fight for
an increase in payments, pensions, benefits (32%), against corruption (29%) and for
justice (27%). Also popular are requests for control over price increases (22%) and
appearances in defense of the poor (21%). Other distinctive features of the desired party
are dialogue with the population (34%) and accountability to the people (32%), nomination
of ordinary people in elections (21%) and the creation of the party itself on the
initiative of ordinary people (20%), the fight against officials (17% ) and the purity of
the ranks - the absence among its supporters of oligarchs, officials (15%) . "
For the most part of the above, the hope is that the state will acquire more equitable
forms and become the patron of the people. Anarchists understand the falsity and
meaninglessness of such hopes: the state as an instrument of power of high officials is an
oppressor and exploiter.
Does this mean that the left turn in modern Russia is the wind not in our sails? No, the
opposite. And that's why.
First, we must understand that the organizers of opinion polls inevitably program the
answers themselves, offering to choose from pre-prepared options. We can see that in the
survey of the RANEPA, all formulations are determined by the framework of the state
ideology. The respondent is deliberately pushed to think in categories of statehood, to
choose what the "good state" looks like. Also imposed on the category of partisanship. The
party is traditionally understood as a hierarchically organized elite group fighting for
power. Not every political organization should be in the form of a party.
But even through the statism given by sociologists of answers, ideas living in the people
that are close to the anarchist spirit are overlooked. So, many believe that a deserving
political organization should appear "at the initiative of ordinary people", not have
officials in their ranks, but rather, fight them (that is, the living embodiment of the
state apparatus, as they mean clearly not ordinary civil servants and managers). Many do
not want to see in the ranks of "their" party also oligarchs - that is, big capitalists.
Support for "dialogue with the public, accountability to the people and nomination of
ordinary people at elections" can be considered as a request for direct participation in
the political process, in decision-making.
Finally, pensions, benefits, control over price increases, nationalization of wealth - all
these decisions are within the narrow framework of the state and market system. But behind
them are deeper values and principles. The fact that today people speak out in support of
these measures, in a broader sense, means their request for equality and social justice.
These two root values can be offered to people in a much more consistent and authentic
form than government regulation. It is this form that preaches anarchism with its social
ideal of an equal and self-governing society, united by mutual aid.
If we formulate more specifically, then in a free society that has escaped from the
Procrustes bed of the state and the market, decent social support will be provided and
corruption will be eradicated. Just for this, other tools and system solutions will be
used than those that can be offered by supporters of hierarchical institutions. For
example, social support and its forms will become the responsibility of the entire
community and of direct self-government bodies. Corruption will be stopped by the
principle of constant social control from below and the constant accountability of any
executive bodies and officials to the community that authorized them.
A separate major note sounds the opinion of the Russians that a decent life and
development in the country is more important than "preserving the state system". So people
are ready to change the notorious Putin's "stability" for the future and a wide bright
horizon. Of course, the revolutionary changes will not do without th
https://avtonom.org/news/levyy-povorot-v-rossii-i-anarhisty
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Message: 2
Several recent books provide an overview of critical pedagogical currents by focusing on
their objects and practices. Stimulating. ---- Pedagogies and alternative schools, that
probably causes you. If I mention critical pedagogies, this is immediately less obvious
and for good reason, since the work of these critical currents of education have long been
ignored or even viewed with suspicion in France unlike the Anglo-Saxon, Hispanic areas. ,
Portuguese or Scandinavian. This is illustrated by the low number of written translations
in this field from these same areas. Even currents claiming alternative pedagogies and
libertarian ideas have not fully integrated them into their critical thinking and practices.
For some years now, Irene Pereira, a philosophy teacher and also known as a feminist and
libertarian activist, has been working to fill this void. He is credited firstly with
articles published in several journals and on the site Questions de classes [1]and since
2018, some books that will make date. [2]
What is it? Critical pedagogies aim to make teachers and students aware of social, gender
and racist oppressions and their interactions. We can speak of anti-oppressive pedagogies.
Moreover, they do not only concern the school public and have their place in popular
education. This awareness should help develop the capacity to act (empowerment) .
Limitations of alternative pedagogies
What are the links between critical pedagogies and alternative pedagogies ? The so-called
alternative pedagogies cover very different realities. Those of the Steiner and Montessori
currents are often aimed at a more or less well-off public who can finance studies in
private schools claiming them. It is also in this field of alternative pedagogies that we
find attempts at instrumentalization by capital, which not only needs to exploit the labor
power but also the capacity of innovation and reflection of the workers and workers. Among
them, the pedagogies which aim at social transformation claim rather of the thought and
the practice of Célestin Freinet. Irène Pereira emphasizes the essential contribution of
the latter to social criticism and the project of emancipation.
It offers more broadly a panorama of critical pedagogies in which Paulo Freire takes pride
of place. Paulo Freire is a Brazilian pedagogue known for his method of adult literacy.
The notion of awareness is at the heart of his thought and his steps. It is about becoming
aware of the social relations of power that make up system. In the 1970s, Freire focuses
primarily on social class oppression. Subsequently, it takes into account feminist
critiques of the limits of its work and integrates the notion of gender. We understand a
little better why Bolsonaro and the reactionary bloc that brought him to power make him
one of the privileged targets of their sexist, racist, homophobic and classy policies.
* Laurence de Cock and Irène Pereira (under the direction of), Critical Pedagogies ,
Copernic Foundation, Agone, 2019, 139 pages, 12 euros.
Freinet and Freire have laid down essential milestones. Critical pedagogies, however, are
not limited to their contribution and integrate other currents and sensibilities
(Marxists, libertarians, feminists, queer, decolonial ...).
Concretely, critical pedagogies emphasize the dialogue between teachers and learners and
aim to desacralize the master's word. It is a question of starting from what the learners
know and to develop their capacity to reflect by themselves, where the school institution,
especially in France, tends to privilege the feeding of knowledge and the formalism. And
yes, particularly in France, the formalism of a number of exercises such as composition,
dissertation or composite commentary is as important if not more than the substance and
therefore the critical sense ...
The reading of the world can not be limited to deciphering, it implies a critical
dimension. It is the condition " to finally develop the learners'ability to act ... so
that they can fight against injustice". More broadly, critical currents question and
question the school form. But some of them do so by aiming at authoritarian and elitist
methods of learning without calling into question the social relations of power. Thus they
cultivate the illusion that it is possible to fight against school failure without
changing society.
Thoughts and networks in construction
If both books give many references and work tracks, they show thoughts and networks being
built. This is for example the case of feminist pedagogies.
And it is to make them progress that some teachers come together and organize themselves
to share, collectivize their reflections and make live a real network. This is, for
example, what allows to develop the meetings of feminist pedagogies that are held each
year, or the site Questions of classes that covers a wider field.
* Irène Pereira, Critical Philosophy in Education , Éditions Lambert Lucas, 2018, 192
pages, 15 euros.
Moreover, many actions are carried out each year in schools against discrimination against
sexism, homophobia and racism, related to disability or the development of precariousness
and the texts of the National Education push to give them a significant place. This may
seem contradictory to an institution known to strongly reproduce social inequalities. But
in fact it does not come from nowhere and results from militant struggles more generally
in the public space.
If the capital intends to make the school one of the key instruments of its domination, as
evidenced by the counter-reforms carried by Blanquer, this one is always worked by
contradictory forces and Irene Pereira does not fail to recall it.
The quality of the work of Irène Pereira and the authors who contributed to the book
Critical Pedagogies should be commended . They are valuable because they provide us with
reflections and useful tools for the construction of another relationship to knowledge and
make it possible to know the works of authors and currents by emphasizing their
contributions but also their limits.
Laurent Esquerre (AL Aveyron)
Laurence de Cock and Irène Pereira (under the direction of), Critical Pedagogies ,
Copernic Foundation, Agone, 2019, 139 pages, 12 euros.
Irène Pereira, Critical Philosophy in Education , Éditions Lambert Lucas, 2018, 192 pages,
15 euros.
[1] Questions of classes , alternative site of education, fight and pedagogy:
www.questionsdeclasses.org
[2]Inaddition to the two books reviewed here, Irene Pereira also published Breviary of
Teachers at Editions du Croquant and Paulo Freire, Pedagogue of the Oppressed at Libertalia.
https://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Lire-Emancipation-et-pedagogies-critiques
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Message: 3
Food not Bombs (FNB) is a worldwide grouping of collectives of people reporting (or having
a close relationship) to anarchist ideas. The main activity is cooking and distributing
food, or. other needs, to people who are interested, most often to the homeless. ---- This
activity is a protest against a social system that, on the one hand, is able to spend
enormous amounts of armaments and subsidize or implement other nonsensical antisocial and
harmful things, and, on the other hand, is not willing to unconditionally impose
fundamental social rights on many people, such as eg. the right to food, housing or
dignified treatment of a person as a person who has his or her individual needs. ---- The
purpose of this activity is to strive to realize a society based on solidarity,
cooperation and equality and space for the free development of individual people and
collectives.
Social environment of FNB activities
When working within the FNB, one encounters different people across the class spectrum of
society.
First and foremost, it is the FNB's "cookers" team itself, in which many of us have first
encountered similar people, the practice of non-hierarchical collective decision-making
and voluntary group collaboration, the issue of food (ethical food, surpluses - which are
often wasted by unnecessary bureaucratic regulations and willingness - often out of fear -
to abide by them, dumpster diving ...) and the practice of direct solidarity.
Another group of people is needed, most often people who are in a bad social situation,
usually referred to as homeless people. With this group, the FNB's activity, thanks to its
non-authoritative approach, will open the way for people from the collective and show them
the reality of their daily lives against the background of today's society.
The third group is the various, mostly hidden, opponents of our efforts among (especially
municipal) politicians and their henchmen - urban or state police.
Then there are different people who express you admiration, support you differently, ask
questions and so on.
FNB team and a few observations from practice
Interpersonal collaboration can be seen as one of the most important creative elements at
the beginning of the effort to create a freer (for life-friendly) society, and it is
crucial to realize this idea.
The FNB is largely based on anarcho-collectivism, ie. on voluntary interpersonal
cooperation and mutual assistance.
Through voluntary engagement in such a FNB collective, one learns, explores and can
experiment with the common functioning of the principles of freedom, equality and
friendship, that is, anarchist principles.
The ability to experience these functional principles is personally provoked by many
people to think about why the same principles do not work in more spheres of the majority
society and how to integrate them (ie into the life around them). "Why, then, should I
live by the existing depersonalized principles, when what I experienced was more
enjoyable, more enjoyable, more expressive of individuality, and more effective in my
endeavor?"
The reality is sometimes not that pink. Much depends on people and their responsible
attitude. It happens that people sometimes argue, do not feel well, someone does not do
something or does not want to continue to engage. However, it is crucial for our efforts
to ask why this is so. This happens if one does not feel enough joy in the collective
activity - it may be due to the fact that he / she doubts the meaning of the collective
activity, is not able to establish deeper contact with people in the collective, or is
busy with another, more important activity for him / her.
The presence of these phenomena may, in part of the collective, give the impression that
they are doing something extra or for someone, they are throwing their sticks, etc. The
only solution is to talk about the problems together, to recall the principles of equality
and voluntaryism, ie the basic principles of the group the activities of satisfaction
itself - joy, fulfillment and meaningfulness. These phenomena always have a traceable
reason that is good to discover and know to learn from.
It is never a mistake just the individual or the rest of the team that something is not
working. It is always a mistake of the team as a whole, because it is not able to notice
the possible problems and solve them in time.
We also know from practice that many problems can arise in the "sitting down" of a
collective, that is, before everyone finds what they enjoy and what they can do. Someone's
doing a breakdown, another is picking up donated vegetables, another is doing dumpster
diving, she just goes out to cook and hand out, she just goes to give away, because
cooking with the team doesn't like him and he prefers cake at home in the morning. to
discourage the beginning, respect the preferences of others and not try to force them into
something that is not close to them.
Solidarity
Solidarity is at the heart of FNB's activities. How to define it from our point of view?
It is about not holding back and wasting resources and energy to ensure living needs. It
is an effort to offer mentioned to other people, which it will help in life development.
Free, without "something for something". It is a huge difference from what the so-called
market in industrial civilization offers us. Although the market is oversaturated with
everything that can make life easier or more enjoyable, whatever it takes is to surrender
a large part of our energy and time to someone else, which is a major problem for people
with minimal energy that only worsen their situation.
Solidarity is not charity. It's not "I have more, so I have mercy on you and give you a
little". It is rather an open movement. A direct personal expression of support. In the
case of practiced solidarity (that is, it is not perceived as "something for something"
and it is not judged if it pays off in terms of money), one forgets how much "put" and how
much "returned". No matter. Its advantage is a personal, non-institutionalized contact and
the possibility of receiving back solidarity from someone completely different, as opposed
to business relationships where everything is fixed. As a result, solidarity is an
alternative to classical business behavior and has the potential to offer much more than
the market relationship between individuals, since the more people they participate in,
the greater the range of needs (even non-material ones) can be covered.
Thus, if the FNB does not place itself in the superior role of the donor and has the idea
of an unconditional right to receive food and essential means of life without the
"recipient" being perceived as "wreckage" and "parasite," slowly the solidarity will begin
to show itself from people on the street to us - maybe they smile at us in the street
(which is not a matter of course in today's accelerated machine-work-shop-work-life), swap
a few words with a man, want to share alcohol or goodness , they will show you some
interesting places where you will not normally get, or become good friends (what it is).
Putting a person in the peculiar community of people on the street also brings very good
opportunities to "study" this group, which may also be a huge advantage for some people
who are interested.
For my part, I think, for example, in the act of material solidarity, which is the
practical aspect of the FNB, it is worth mentioning that it is an effort to help a person
to overcome a bad situation while trying to establish cooperation and together to make it
no longer possible .
Teaching yourself and other people in solidarity is absolutely essential for the creation
of anarchist society. The experience and activity of Food Not Bombs is very helpful.
Published in Existence No. 4/2014 on the topic of War.
https://www.afed.cz/text/6994/jak-to-chodi-ve-food-not-bombs
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Message: 4
"Vote for us so that the right does not come", "vote for them to leave SYRIZA", "vote for
them so that the fascists will not be strengthened", "voted for them to strengthen your
voice in the European Parliament" , "Voted the boot, to strengthen the local community",
"or with the fascists or with us", "with us in order to get the place out", "populism or
reforms", "privatization or social state", " of the many or the elites? " ---- Numerous
pseudo-dilemmas once again bring back the bourgeoisie in the run-up to the forthcoming
elections (European, municipal / regional). Dilemmas that have been built and served by
citizens who are rehearsing for citizens. After the governments of national unity, the
appointed prime ministers, the referendum that re-socialized the institutions of
representation, parliamentary regularity reminds again the brilliant and bipartite 1980s /
1990s. Artificial polarization on non-existent issues such as citizens' security,
socialism, reform bids, black-out promises to solve local problems, blobs for democratic
intervention in the EU, fascist crowns for a nation of nations.The whole spectrum of
parliamentarism in election campaign parade. Leading role is played by the media, which
are a dominant means of manipulating the bottom. Through spectacle, propaganda, news, and
"events", they serve the interests of power. The countless contenders of power, both
locally and at European level, are investing time and money in propaganda campaigns
calling on all of us to "participate" in the fest of democracy by depositing a piece of
paper in a wooden box every four years. The institution of the elections is presented as
the top instrument of politicization where voters participate in decision-making and are
supposedly co-directors of power. Participation in the elections is the same as the
concept of politics. Voters in this way become members of the state and the government,
the European Parliament,Democracy, or just the celebration of mediation!
Election participation is a denial of your own self-management. The vote is suited to
passive consumers, who entrust professionals to "manage everything". Elected
representatives either in the European Parliament or in local communities are called upon
to legislate, produce and implement policies across the board. The EU's "democracy" is
limited to the elections to the European Parliament, but it also has limited competencies
under terms of delegation, since the non-elected European Commission is the one to do the
command. We have seen this in a blatant way in previous years when the important decisions
for the economy of both Greece and the eurozone were taken in closed meetings of the
European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund without
any control by the European Parliament. This is obviously not surprising. The EU is
another mechanism for supporting the strong ones and controlling them from below in Europe.
At a local level, recent fires and floods, which cost hundreds of lives and their
management by professional politicians, are indicative of what a state mechanism means:
cynicism of power, emetic real politics, bureaucracy, apathy, arrogance chair,
communication and tactical management of many crises. Municipal and regional authorities
are the long-standing arm of the state at the local level. As such, they faithfully follow
state policy, recreate competitive power relations, act as economic units of the state at
the local level, serving the interests of capital and guarantee the orderly functioning of
the capitalist market within their limited scope of competence.
Participation in self-governing elections acts as a means of legitimizing and passively
supporting the system of exploitation and oppression, and at the local level , a mechanism
of consensus-building by the power administrators. The only choice made through the
elections is that of the Force, even if the process is customer-friendly. Despite the
democratic feud, the fact is that most elected representatives are acting as
representatives of capital. It is not at all unclear how many professional politicians are
involved in interdependence scandals with private companies (Siemens, NOVARTIS, Actor,
THALES, Hellenic Gold SA, MEVGAL, Deutsche Telekom some examples), but also the phenomena
of extreme enrichment of so many members of the "National Delegation" and local
government. Whether small or large the forces that promote the assignment, they will
always cluster and serve the interests of capital. This is not a Greek accident or an
exception, but the essence of parliamentarism at local, national and supranational level.
As anarchists and anarchists, we consider incompatible the daily struggle against state
and capital with participation in the elections. The logic of "our inferior optimal" is
alien. Participation in electoral processes costs ideological consistency, but also
political dynamics. Our aim is not simply to abstain from the elections, but also to
re-pursue politics and to identify it with uninterrupted procedures, with
self-organization and anarchy. Moreover, the bottom-up story has shown that the
exacerbation of uncontrolled struggles far from and against institutional illusions is the
only way for oppressed and exploited to defend their interests and resist capitalist
barbarism.The solution for us is not to "bother them in democracy", but to abstain from
their feast and to resist their imperatives. Against the pseudo-dilemmas, antagonisms
between oppressed, social automation and falsified polarization imposed by state and
capital through parliamentarism, we respond in solidarity, popular assemblies, grassroots
societies, commune and the revolution of every day. Why the election outpouring for us
means civic participation.
Abstention from the elections
To sabotage the mechanisms of assignment and integration
anarchist collectivity Vogliamo tutto e per tutti
https://vogliamotutto.espivblogs.net/2019/05/22/antiekloges/
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Message: 5
We need a serious discussion on how to reform the unions - still the largest, formal,
class-based organisations - and what role they can play in a radical redistribution of
wealth and power to the popular classes. These are profoundly political questions. This
article argues against reliance upon the state and parties, and for re-building unions
(and other workers' movements) to maximise direct action, autonomy, and education, laying
the basis for direct workers' control over production and the economy. This requires a
serious, organised, non-sectarian project of democratic reform and political discussion
that spans the unions, including a rank-and-file movement, disconnecting from the state in
favour of working class counter-power and patient work to construct a counter-hegemonic
apparatus.
-------------------------------
A contribution to the debate
Don't abandon the unions, or take sides in inter-union rivalries. Build a serious,
organised, non-sectarian project of democratic reform and political discussion that spans
the unions, including a rank-and-file movement that fosters debate, and opens the
treasure-chest of union and left history and theory. Recover the politics of disconnecting
from the state as raised by, for example, Occupy and the Rojava Revolution. Replace
reliance on the state and parties with struggle, and destructive inter-union rivalry with
a serious project of working class counter-power.
------------------------------------------------------
Rebuilding the workers' movement for counter-power, justice and self-management: A
contribution to the debate
by Lucien van der Walt
From Amandla! magazine, number 63, pp. 24-25.
THE ROBUST EXCHANGE BETWEEN comrades Ronald Wesso and Mametlwe Sebei, in the pages of
recent issues of Amandla!, over the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu)
brings contrasting analyses of unions to the fore. Wesso favours a "new workers movement"
based on the millions of precarious workers. He argues that unions represent a small elite
enmeshed in a "neoliberal labour relations system," and are undergoing "terminal decline"
and "collapse."
For Sebei, by contrast, the organised workers and unions - Saftu especially - have waged
bitter battles, includinga "stubborn Stalingrad shop floor resistance," to casualisation,
and remain key to change. These positions have obvious political implications, with Wesso
at the Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO), and Sebei in Saftu's General Industries
Workers Union (Giwusa) and #OutsourcingMustFall.
I offer my points in a constructive spirit; let us keep our energy for the real enemy. I
suggest that Comrade Sebei's position is more convincing, but that both of them skip some
key issues. Specifically, I argue that we need a serious discussion on how to reform the
unions - still the largest, formal, class-based organissations - and what role they can
play in a radical redistribution of wealth and power to the popular classes. These are
profoundly political questions. I argue against reliance upon the state, and for
re-building unions - and other workers' movements - to maximise direct action, autonomy,
and education, so laying the basis for direct workers' control over production and the
economy, rather than nationalisation.
It comes down, fundamentally,to the issue of consciousness. I argue against a tendency,
common across the left, to continually substitute a search for new vanguard layers,
moments and movements, for serious, patient work to construct a counter-hegemonic
apparatus oriented to the big battalions of the working class.
THE COLONIAL WAGE
There are many areas on which comrades Wesso and Sebei agree: the ongoing centrality of
cheap black labour power to South African capitalism, and the racist oppression this
involves; the central role market-based, neoliberal measures like outsourcing play; the
reality of a huge, growing pool of insecure, low-wage workers outside unions and
collective bargaining; and the necessity of working class rebellion. I concur. But the
question is how to link immediate struggles to a profound transformation.
UNIONS RESILIENT
Overall, i do not find the notion that unions are in a state of collapse or demise
convincing. In terms of numbers, South African unions are astonishingly stable and
resilient. This is all the more remarkable given rising mass unemployment, the worst of
any semi-industrial country, and a neoliberal assault from the late 1970s.
In 1997, the state recorded 2,649,012 union members; in 2013, 3,261,900. Cosatu grew from
462,359 in 1985 to 1,258, 853 in 1991. It had 1,768,000 members in 2003, and 2,191,016 in
2012. Over one in four workers (29.1 percent in 2012, Comrade Wesso argues) are unionists.
Nearly a third of the workforce (31%, or 3.6 million in 2014) is covered by collective
bargaining. If we exclude domestic service - almost impossible to unionise - and
non-working class strata, like senior and managerial staff, the proportions would be even
higher.
Cosatu reported 1,568,910 members at its 2018 congress, but its losses were to other
unions. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) fell from 308,628 (2011) to 198,237
(2015), largely due to NUM splinter, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union
(Amcu), which currently claims 200,000, including beyond mining. The 338,000-strong
National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and 120,000-strong Food and Allied Workers
Union (Fawu) left to form Saftu (2017) with unaffiliated unions.
Some, like Giwusa, were rooted in earlier Cosatu splits. Like the Federation of Unions of
South Africa (Fedusa), which claimed 700,000 in 2017), Saftu (claiming 800,000) has grown
mainly by attracting existing unions. Then there is the National Council of Trade Unions
(Nactu), and the Confederation of South African Workers' Unions (Consawu), claiming
290,000, including Solidarity (140,000).
UNION WORK
These are huge figures, if not what any of us might wish. Comrade Wesso is right that
union density (the percentage in unions) has fallen because the workforce has grown. But
it is still high, not least for the neoliberal era and African context.
Politically, the ongoing reality of three million-plus union members has to be addressed.
This means, for me, an ongoing orientation towards unions, the largest formal
organisations in civil society outside churches. The facts of serious corruption, the
breakdown of workers' control, serious gender issues, as well as racial, ethnic and
national conflicts, intolerance, gulfs between resolutions and reality etc. are
undeniable. Precarious workers may be alienated by unions, but, not surprisingly, so are a
significant number of other workers, including some union members.
UNION CHALLENGES
But this does not indicate unions are hopelessly compromised or elitist. Rather, it
indicates the need for a serious, nonsectarian reform project. That many unionised workers
today are relatively well-paid, increasingly skilled, secure etc. is a victory, even if it
should not be exaggerated: Bischoff and Tame's survey data shows that 50% of Cosatu
members earn R11,800 monthly or less, with 40% earning R9,000 or below. The victory is
threatened by cheap labour, deeply resented by private and state employers, and does not
translate neatly into conservatism or defense of neoliberalism.
Even the most compromised unions and bureaucracies must address working class interests,
or face internal revolt, splits, or collapse - NUM was forced into major reforms to
survive Amcu.
Comrade Sebei is spot-on when hecharacterises unions as progressive but warped movements,
contested politically and between base and bureaucracy, the latter enmeshed in corruption
and prone to betrayal. Capitalism cannot concede in any sustained way all workers'
demands, so it's not possible to completely co-opt workers, whether or not they are union
members.
UNION STRUGGLES
Unions should have done more to fight the casualisation that threatens their survival, but
Sebei is correct in noting that Cosatu and Saftu were not absent, organising general
strikes and winning legal reforms.
I agree with Comrade Wesso that unions' resistance is profoundly compromised by
entanglement with the state - especially Cosatu's ANC/SACPlink. However, this does not
delete the resistance.
New formations like the Simunye Workers' Forum and NGOs like Casual Workers Advice Offce
can be complementary. There is enough space for a thousand initiatives.
Certainly, unions' heavy reliance on labour law amendments and court cases, and on
political parties (by Cosatu), should be criticised. But using the state's laws and courts
is also central to CWAO. If the laws can undermine some cheap labour mechanisms, then we
have more than a neoliberal labour relations system. Rather, it is imprinted with powerful
working class struggles - grave compromises but real concessions, forcing major neoliberal
labour market restructuring to rely on legal loopholes, and excluding precarious workers.
They are intended to contain unions, but can be used carefully, so long as they do not
compromise workers' control and autonomy.
MANY FRONTS
Perhaps eight million workers are outside the unions. So new formations like the Simunye
Workers' Forum and NGOs like CWAO can be complementary. There is enough space for a
thousand initiatives.
Given union neglect (decades of grand resolutions aside) it is hardly surprising many
precarious workers are alienated; the new forms of organising should be welcomed. Whether
such formations herald a new workers movement that can displace unions remains to be seen,
but it is unlikely. The new and the old are effectively operating amongst different
sections of workers.
UNION REFORMS
How then to reform the unions - and for what purpose? These are profoundly political
questions.
Comrade Wesso correctly highlights continuities between Cosatu and Saftu, and poor choices
unions have made.
Both come down to workers' ideas. Being willing to fight is a start, but not enough: Amcu,
for example, outflanked NUM with higher wage demands and more militancy, but has not shown
more internal democracy, nor a serious programme beyond bread-and-butter issues.
I suggest that what is needed is a serious, organised, non-sectarian project of democratic
reform and political discussion that spans the unions. This would include a rank-and-file
movement, and would allow multiple views and foster critical thought. This needs to engage
seriously with the treasure-chest of union and left history and theory, including debates
over the state, corporatism, and alliances, insights from the 1980s Registration Debate
and "workerism", and current debates, like disconnecting from the state as raised by, for
example, Occupy and the Rojava Revolution. It means replacing reliance on the state and
parties with struggle, and destructive inter-union rivalry with a serious project of
working class counter-power.
There is no short-cut, no new movement or moment. No new social movements, strike
committees, "Numsa moment", Cosatu renewal, EFF etc. can replace systematic, patient work
and building from the bottom-up, including in big unions. It is is a struggle for workers'
control and popular power, not mediated by laws, state ownership, or patronage, and
independent of all ruling class factions, state-based or private sector.
**Lucien van der Walt has long been involved in union and working class education and
movements and published widely on labour, the left and political economy. He's part of the
Neil Agget Labour Studies Unit and the Wits History Workshop.
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31426
https://zabalaza.net/2019/05/28/rebuilding-the-workers-movement-for-counter-power-justice-and-self-management-a-contribution-to-the-debate/
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Message: 6
On the 31st of March members of RABL attended the Trans Pride march in Leeds. There was a
really good turnout and it was a lovely day. ---- We used this opportunity to argue that
in a capitalist society, the bulk of issues effecting trans people disproportionately
harmed working class trans people and making transphobia a largely working class issue. We
did this by distributing a leaflet, written by trans members of RABL which drew
inspiration from articles by Shon Faye and Sadie Cash. ---- A5 copy of the leaflet given
out at Trans Pride. ---- We would encourage any groups who find this leaflet useful to use
it for themselves. Anarchist positions rarely seem to extend beyond trans inclusivity and
other groups seem sceptical about discussing anything that might be deemed "identity
politics", and in our opinion this leaflet bridges this divide. Obviously credit is
appreciated but when it comes down to it, spreading the message is more important.
Copy of the leaflet to be printed on A4 paper.
Below is a reproduction of the leaflet along with an image description:
[Image of a white leaflet with a pink and blue border representing the trans flag. The
title in cursive, with a trans symbol as the "O" says "Our Struggle Is The Class
Struggle". The rest of the text, superimposed over an image of a red and black star and
the trans symbol, says:
- As trans people we tend to be poorer, and the poorer we are the more vulnerable we are
to transphobia.
- We're more likely to be unemployed. A third of employers admit to being less likely to
employ us.
- We suffer worse working conditions than our colleagues. One in eight of us have been
physically attacked at work! We are often forced into precarious jobs such as sex work due
to this and fear of unemployment.
- When we try to access healthcare, at the GP or hospital, we're considered exceptionally
difficult to treat even for issues not relevant to being trans. A broken arm becomes a
"trans broken arm", and inadequately trained and understaffed healthcare facilities often
turn us away.
- Due to inconsistent funding many of us are left unnecessarily infertile. Gamete storage
is particularly inaccessible for those of us assigned female at birth.
- We are far more likely to face housing problems due to discrimination and parental
rejection.
Bosses, politicians, and landlords exploit us all, and are the ones with the power to
translate society's transphobia into problems in our daily lives. Our co-workers, fellow
tenants, and neighbours are our natural allies in fighting the exploitation we all face,
and the additional problems we face as trans people. We can see this in the case of a
trans person in Sheffield, who was sacked for using the toilet only to be re-hired as a
result of her union, the IWW, picketing the company. The solution is to organise with
other working class people for better working conditions, more accessible housing,
adequate benefits, a sufficiently funded healthcare system.
Fight sexism. Fight homophobia. Fight transphobia. Fight capitalism.
Facebook.com/wearetherabl
Twitter.com/wearetherabl
Rabl@riseup.net
Wearetherabl.wordpress.com
There's a circled A in the bottom corner.]
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Message: 7
The international and, in particular, the national context points us to an increase in the
economic-political crisis and the deepening of social inequalities and repression of the
people, we can already feel the effects on the withdrawal of basic rights (cuts in
education and increase of gas and bus ticket). We are witnessing increasing slum,
repression increase over universities and teachers, the dismantling of labor rights and
the sacred right to retirement. We know that these rights were not given by any
government, on the contrary they were uprooted with much struggle. The people are paying
dearly for the crisis created by the rich. ---- Much of the blame for not advancing in the
resumption of rights and the acquisition of new ones is due to the fact that social, trade
union and student movements in general (CUT, CTB, UNE, UBES) do not fulfill their function
in the struggle with workers and students, only presenting itself as a bridge to parties
that dispute positions in the Bourgeois State via elections. Preventing the radicalization
of struggles, and leading us to historic defeats and frequent discouragement and
disbelief. But, we know that another world is possible and it is up to us to build it.
Pernambuco and Recife in particular (like all of Brazil) has a strong slave and sugar
heritage, being considered one of the most unequal capitals of the country, which
demonstrates a high level of precariousness of workers' and oppressed lives. Informality
has doubled in the last period with the closing of dozens of jobs, the cost of living is
one of the largest in the Northeast, massive misery is visible on stilts. In education we
have schools with outdated structures, lack of equipment and teachers with lagged
salaries, just as in the universities we have cuts of scholarships, lack of vacancies,
lack of day care and student housing. In health scrapped hospitals and kilometer queues to
mark exams and be attentive.
However, there are also in Pernambuco and Recife a people of resistance, who
fight for their rights and for their culture. We have had in recent years:
The struggles against the world cup that demonstrated the elitist character of the event
and did not bring the benefits promised, enriching contractors and businessmen, and on the
contrary causing removals for the poor and police repression in the outskirts.
Fighting occupations of dozens of schools by students against the federal pec that limited
public spending.
The vibrant resistance occupation of Estelita Wharf (with national and international
repercussions) that unified artistic and popular patterns, and promoted massive cultural
events and events frightening the city and its dirty partnerships with mega contractors.
The autonomous occupation of the rector of UFPE in favor of the real university democracy
through the parity in the voting for the rector and in defense of the student guidelines
(breaking with the immobilism and fights of the UNE).
The creation of independent and autonomous fronts that demonstrated an alternative path of
struggle in the face of the fight and delivery of Cut and other central trade unions and
student organizations.
Redeeming this history shows that the people of Pernambuco are not passive and that a new
path of organization, revolts and victories is already opening up. The time has come to
organize the revolt through autonomous workers' organizations where we can resist and bar
current and future reforms and win rights.
For this reason, we, workers, students and the unemployed of the FOB announce that the
popular rebellion will only increase and for that it is fundamental to channel our forces:
workers, students, discouraged, favelados, unemployed, fighters of the to the rupture with
the existing associative, union and student models. Thus, we invite all Pernambuco people
to build a rupture with corporatism, bureaucracies, fights and immobility. Let us discuss
collectively and from bottom to top an instrument of struggle and resistance of the
working class for this moment of intensification in the struggle between classes.
BELOW MILITARIZATION AND THE REFORM OF
PURPOSES OF THE GOVERNMENT BOLSONARO / MURURO!
BUILD AN AUTONOMOUS FEDERATION OF WORKERS! Outside UNE and CUT pelegas!
IT IS BARRICADA, GENERAL STRIKE, RIGHT ACTION THAT DEFEATS CAPITAL!
BUILD INSURRECTIONAL GENERAL STRIKE!
https://lutafob.wordpress.com/2019/05/24/fob-apresentacao-da-fob-em-recife/
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