Anarchic update news all over the world - Part 1 - 18.05.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Britain, AFED: Organised #91: We Won't Be Stopped - Spanner
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Greece, dwarf horse [APO]: UPDATES FROM OUR PARTICIPATION IN
      THE PANELELIAN STREET IN GIANNENA AGAINST THE EXCURSIONS        [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  cgt aragon la rioja: CGT AND CASA PALESTINA SIGN
      COLLABORATION AGREEMENT (ca, it) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  [Spain] Interview with Mark Bray: "A true antifascism must
      be feminist" By ANA (ca, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Placement of the Anarchist Political Organization in the
      political memorial for the anarchist comrade Lorenzo Orséti By
      APO [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  [Kazakhstan] Anarchists are sentenced to 15 days in prison
      for "illegal street action" By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #294 - Unemployment
      insurance: a carefully orchestrated failure (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
8.  US, black rose fed: TOWARDS MASS MOVEMENTS: 
     PRESENTATION ON INTERMEDIATE ANALYSIS 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1




Fans will welcome the first full length release from Bristol's finest ska'd up anarchist 
punk export, Spanner, since 2011's Crisis, but there is plenty here for new comers as 
well. Into their existing sound they have woven elements of folk, dub, spoken word, French 
hip hop, and on one track Bad Religion style ‘oozing ahhs' accompanying a melodic hardcore 
intro. The musical changes are accompanied with a shake up of vocal duties, with every 
member of the band and numerous guest vocalists taking a turn on the mic, and joining 
together for choruses. It all combines to form a sound that feels like it was created as 
part of a real community, much like the best of Chumbawamba's records. ---- Its certainly 
a sound that is well earned, as Spanner have always followed up their words with deeds. 
Track 10, ‘All Over the Place', is all about their experiences throwing themselves into 
the DIY music scene, long stretches of touring and a thriving ‘resistance culture'. You're 
also likely to find the band members anywhere there is a demonstration to be had, 
solidarity funds to be raised, or trouble to be caused. It's this direct involvement that 
lends weight to the lyrical content, and allowed them to successfully sue South Wales 
police to raise funds for making the album!

‘Property Wrongs' features perhaps the most instantly infections lyrics, after all who 
could resist joining in with a shout of ‘SCUM LANDLORDS'? There is certainly a lot of 
anger at the state of the world throughout many of the tracks, something which any of us 
paying attention will share. Other targets of the band's wrath include the alienation of 
having our social interactions mediated by online companies in the more ‘traditional 
Spanner' ska-punk opening track ‘Immobilised'. ‘Always Antifascist' aims its anger at not 
just the fascists but the self appointed leaders of the left who would rather we politely 
protested away from the fash. The spoken word and folk laden ‘Apotheosis' takes aim at 
organised religion, and Jeremy Kyle gets his comeuppance in the eclectic ‘The Peoples 
Trial of Jeremy Kyle'.

Beyond all the insight, and well directed rage is something much rare, and far more 
important. Optimism. It's not often any of us can manage to be earnestly positive, instead 
we use self deprecation, cynicism and sarcasm as the tried and tested coping mechanisms 
(very British of us!). Loudly exclaiming that we can, and will, win is something we need 
more of, and is a running theme here, most notable in the energetic harmonies of ‘Impossible'.

We Won't be Stopped is a great edition to any rebel's record collection, and I highly 
recommend banging it on before you head out on your next direct action. Don't just take my 
word for it, you can listen to the album in full on Spanner's bandcamp, and order a copy 
on Vinyl or CD. Despite their many valid critiques of social media, you can also like them 
on facebook, and find out when they are coming to a town near you. ?

spannerintheworks.net
Categories: Burn After Reading, Edition 91

http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2019/03/18/we-wont-be-stopped-spanner/

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Message: 2





The giant design of the Greek state and major multinational companies for the exploration, 
extraction and transportation of hydrocarbons includes marine and land areas throughout 
the territory of Greek territory by large oil companies (Repsol, Total, Edison, Hellenic 
Petroleum). Already in the coming months, the first research drilling in the West Patras 
Bay will be planned, which will reach a depth of 2,800 meters. It is a gigantic plan of 
plundering the natural environment and society to serve the interests of local and global 
political and economic elites and the energy needs of the bankrupt state-capitalist way of 
organizing society, ---- On Saturday 11 May, we participated in the massive pan-Hellenic 
campaign that took place in Ioannina against hydrocarbon mines. In the block that was 
formed after a joint call from the anarchist group, "a dilemma horse" from Patras, the 
collectivity for social anarchism "Black and Red" from Thessaloniki (members of the 
Anarchist Political Organization) and comrades- involved about 40 people. The central 
banner read: "From Acheloos, Halkidiki and Agrafa to Epirus ... against the looting of 
society and nature - GAME FOR GREEN AND FREEDOM", while the anarchist collectivity of 
Kirara from Arta banner that read:"AGAINST THE RESEARCH, EXERCISE AND LIFE OF THE NATURAL 
WORLD FROM THE STATE AND CAPITAL | FIGHT AGAINST LAND AND FREEDOM ".

The plans for extraction of hydrocarbons in most of the Greek territory (from the Ionian 
and Epirus to the Peloponnese and Crete) are adding to the unprecedented aggression 
towards society and nature, which has evolved over the last few years, the restructuring 
of the political-economic system, in the name of the state-capitalist development, which 
in "periods of crisis" appears as a matter of national interest. Thus, in addition to the 
large-scale criminal projects currently under way, such as the giant Y / A dams in 
Acheloos and the open gold mines in Chalkidiki, a series of other destructive nature and 
local planning societies are already being announced in a number of locations in the country .

The only answer to the continued plunder, to the destruction of nature and society by the 
state and capital can not be but their own destruction and the rebuilding of a world of 
social self-organization and solidarity in every aspect of social life. The precious 
struggles and the resistances against the pillaging of nature that pop up in every corner 
of Greece show that the prospect of struggle and resisting the plans of capital is still 
visible. From Lefkimmi Corfu, Epirus and NE Chalkidiki to Agrafa and Acheloos connect the 
struggle against the pillage of nature with the most comprehensive struggle against the 
main actors of the disaster, namely the state and the capital.

Against the mining, pillaging and destruction of nature and society by the state and the 
capital

 From Acheloos, Halkidiki and Agrafa to Epirus, and wherever the state and capitalist 
aggression manifest itself ...

AGAINST THE NATURE OF THE GAME OF LOVE FOR GREEN AND FREEDOM

anarchist group "dwarf horse" / APO.

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Message: 3





Today, May 14, just one day before the anniversary of the Nakba, CGT Aragon-La Rioja and 
the Palestinian Association of Jerusalem "Jerusalem" we have signed a mutual collaboration 
agreement to work in areas of common interest. ---- This commitment focuses on 
dissemination and visibility of the situation of oppression and apartheid of the 
Palestinian people by the Israeli Zionist entity, as well as the commitment by the 
Palestinian Association of Jerusalem in actions such as translation of Spanish documents 
to the Arab, cession of the space of the house of Palestine or participation in acts of 
solidarity with the workers summoned by CGT. ---- There is also a commitment of joint 
action for the delivery of talks and Conferences as well as the elaboration of didactic 
materials for educational centers and universities that make known the culture, traditions 
and history of the Palestinian people.

During the event, which has lasted an hour, and in which some twenty people have 
participated, the current and future situation of Palestine has been discussed as well as 
possible solutions to this conflict.

 From CGT as part of the international trade union network of Solidarity and Struggle, we 
support the BDS campaign according to the call of the Palestinian civil society to the 
cultural boycott, to the sanctions and divestments as soon as Israel does not comply with 
the resolutions of the United Nations, the decisions of the international court of Justice 
and the universal principles of Human Rights. We can not forget that the trade union 
section of this union in RTVE has requested a letter addressed to Rosa María Mateo, the 
provisional administrator of public television, who asks the Corporation to "not 
participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 organized by Israel to avoid being 
complicit in the violations of human rights and the occupation of the Palestinian 
territories by that State»

http://www.cgtaragonlarioja.org/cgt-y-casa-palestina-firman

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Message: 4





The convergence between feminism and antifascism is a powerful combination that provides 
tools to stem the advance of the populist extreme right. We explored this possibility in 
an interview with Mark Bray, author ofAntifa, the anti-fascist manual. ----  For at least 
a decade, there is a wave of conservatism that travels the planet. Beginning with the rise 
of Hindu retrograde nationalism, even many forms of Islamic fundamentalism, through the 
coming to power of xenophobic parties and candidates in Western countries, there is a 
tendency for many societies in very different contexts to close themselves. There is no 
doubt that a phenomenon of such magnitude, each case presents unique characteristics, but 
we can say that all of them are oriented around an identity discourse, which aims to 
return society to some atavistic values and strengthen the sense of belonging to the 
community . Not surprisingly, there are a number of common factors, despite differences, 
as an exclusionary definition of the group based on nationalism, religion or race, or the 
supposed return to "authentic" conservative values and the rejection of modernity and all 
that the local imagination can associate with it: women's rights, respect for minorities, 
racial equality, individual freedom ... Respecting distances, if not Fascism strictly 
speaking, it looks a lot. Too much.

The causes of this process are complex. Although it is a global phenomenon, it has moved 
to the local scene, with its own dimensions, depending on the particularities of each 
society, country, economy, culture, etc. In the case of the United States brought to power 
a xenophobic populist like Trump and led to the emergence of an extreme right telluric, 
racist and fundamentalist Christian. In the UK, the sovereign and anti-immigration 
concerns of much of its population crystallized in Brexit. In many European countries, it 
has put far right parties in the government. Without leaving the sphere of the West, in 
the Spanish state meant the irruption of the Vox, from the Andalusian elections, on the 
national political scene.

The latter is an example worth mentioning. Not only because of its obvious proximity to 
our particular context but also because this party has launched an offensive against what 
little has been achieved so far in terms of gender equality and prevention of sexist 
violence. It is paradigmatic in that sense. For all the reactionary movements on the 
planet, the defense of patriarchy and heteronormativity are central pillars of this 
recovery of conservative values. But let's not fool ourselves. Certainly, in the case of 
Vox, there are also many political calculations. It is intended to attract a part of the 
electorate, mainly male, but not only, whose fears are appealed. And there is no doubt 
that the recent advance of feminism and its demonstrative power of mobilization has left 
many people nervous ...

There is, in fact, a constant tension between the advocates of these conservative turns 
and those who oppose them, from all possible areas. Including, of course, feminism. In 
this particular case, the convergence between the two struggles is evident. Above all, 
taking into account the cavernous hatreds that the Vox includes in its political program 
in relation to the genre. From this point of view, all the women and men who took to the 
streets on March 8 (8M), all the people who supported the general feminist strike, refuted 
them by acts. Hundreds of thousands of voices that do not fit into an urn. This does not 
escape anyone, let alone the spokesmen of the most virulent machismo, that took a great 
rejection in all the noses. Feminisms are marking the way, through mobilization,

Mark Bray is an American author and scholar who analyzes precisely this opposition in his 
last book " Antifa, the antifascist manual" . The book was published in the United States 
shortly after the events of Charlotesville in August 2017 in which a far-right member 
murdered an anti-fascist demonstrator. This gave the book an undesirable notoriety and put 
the author at the center of a media swirl, converted into an unofficial mouthpiece of 
American antifascism.

First of all. How are you now, personally? Are things a bit calmer since the publication 
ofAntifa?

Mark>I'm fine, thank you for asking! Yes, things have calmed down a lot. The media frenzy 
surrounding the book abruptly ended and interest in the subject disappeared in the 
mainstream media. During the summer of 2018 there were several clashes between 
antifascists, police officers and the far right on the North Pacific coast of the United 
States. At the height of interest in the subject, they would have been front page news, 
but in that case they were completely ignored. Past waters. These dramatic fluctuations in 
media attention had a lot to do with the fact that the launch of Antifa in the summer of 
2017 was so surprisingly timely.

I know you've received countless death threats. Have they stopped? How did you react?

Mark>Yes, it's true. They have almost completely ceased, although my editor receives most 
of my emails and does not forward the nasty ones to me. It was very disconcerting. 
Fortunately, none was so concrete as to be reliable and worrying. Moreover, I am told that 
such threats tend to be much more serious when they are received by women.

On one occasion, a department of my university received a suspicious package and called 
the police. Tedax came to investigate him, but they were just books sent by a teacher. In 
one of my presentations in Northern California, right-wing militants came armed with 
knives, but fortunately nothing happened.

Entering the subject, among other things,Antifacrosses the history of antifascism in 
several countries to this day. One of the conclusions of this historical panorama is that 
the tactics used to stop the advance of the neo-Nazis in the 80s and 90s of the last 
century, what you call militant antifascism, often based on direct confrontation, had a 
limited effect on philophobic or xenophobic. Do you think a proper debate is taking place 
within the antifascism about tactics and strategies?

Mark>This conclusion, that antifascism by itself is not enough to stop the extreme 
right-wing populist parties, is something that activists in almost every country have told 
me where these groups have recently emerged. No wonder. The strategies and tactics that 
the antifascists have developed in the last decades were designed to oppose small or 
medium right-wing extremist formations with the least popular support. The militants I 
interviewed for the book were very aware of this problem. However, most were not sure how 
to adapt to dealing with these more conventional and "respectable" enemies.

If so, what to do? Identified with an effective strategy?

Mark>Some have focused on creating anti-fascist organizations increasing in the form of 
open sets or groups designed for the general anti-fascist work or used to challenge a 
particular act of the extreme right. Such initiatives often include or are initiated by 
militant anti-fascists, being bridges between their activity, which is often dominated by 
considerations of security culture, and a more open popular politics. Sometimes such 
initiatives can unite a community against fascism, at other times they break up or end up 
excluding the most radical elements.

For example, in Portland, Oregon, anti-fascist militants, primarily from Rose City Antifa, 
Antifa Eugene, and other groups formed a black bloc to oppose a concentration of far-right 
organizations called Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys. A broad popular formation, called 
Popular Mobilization (Pop Mob, for short) also focused on the fascists. The militant black 
block stood in front of the police who protected the ultra right, while open-minded Pop 
Mob protesters were behind, singing, dancing, and so on. After a while, the police 
attacked the antifascists with anti-riot gear, seriously wounding a militant.

Likewise, a militant formation of Washington DC, called Smash Racism DC, has joined the 
Black Lives Matter campaign groups, unions, leftist collectives and others to form a 
coordination called Shut It Down DC, which oppose right-wing concentration Unite the Right 
2, on the anniversary of the infamous Charlottesville demonstration of 2017.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have launched another proposal with their General 
Committee on Defense (GDC). Its aim is to shape a popular, militant and class antifascism, 
on the basis that workers' self-defense against fascism is a necessary component of social 
revolution.

Precisely, that is the question worth a million, how to stop this right-wing populism. I 
think we can not give a definitive answer here, but can you write some ideas?

Mark> An anti-fascist in London I interviewed for the book, he said, "we can not hope to 
defeat an extreme right-wing electoral project just as we would with a fascist street 
group no more. Instead, our political proposals need to be better than theirs. " This 
points to a very interesting aspect of the anti-fascist debate. The more we talk about it 
in a broad sense, the more we begin to have to talk about undermining the social and 
economic factors that make fascism possible: austerity, xenophobia, capitalism, 
hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy, capacitism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, 
etc. Ending fascism and ensuring that it can not re-emerge means creating a world from 
which its possible "attractiveness" has disappeared.

This answer is obvious, while it is also vague. If it were so easy to start a successful 
social revolution, we would have done it. At the very least, we must recognize that the 
growth of the far right in Europe, Latin America, the United States and elsewhere has been 
largely based on the inability or unwillingness of left-wing political parties to 
adequately meet people's needs. Often they have accepted or even initiated austerity 
measures, accused the migrants or fallen into nationalism. In part, Trump came to power in 
the United States because he knew how to exploit the opposition to free trade agreements 
and the war in Iraq. People are looking for a solution, and if the left does not provide, 
they turn to the right.

In any case, is militant antifascism still necessary? Is it incompatible with other forms 
of opposition to the far right?

Mark>Yes, militant antifascism is still needed. Not only because there are still small and 
medium groups of Nazis and violent fascists who must be controlled and opposed, but also 
because it is important to expose the links that exist between the main parties of the 
extreme right and the Nazis. In addition, it can be very useful and sometimes necessary 
that broader anti-fascist initiatives have militant groups that are ready to fend off 
attacks and have the knowledge to monitor their opponents. The antifascist work is 
dangerous because fascism is inherently violent and aggressive. Therefore, self-defense 
should be part of the equation.

Although there have been conflicts between more militant and more moderate and centrist 
groups in the struggle against fascism, there have also been numerous examples of 
collaboration in which all have benefited. I do not believe that militant antifascism is 
incompatible with other forms of opposition to the far right. On the contrary, I believe 
it is an essential component of a broader anti-fascist movement, which is needed to 
prevent right-wing organizations of all sizes.

The militant antifascism received criticism because it sometimes degenerated into a cult 
of confrontation and exaltation associated with a certain type of masculinity. Faced with 
this, feminist antifascism was raised, especially in countries such as Germany. Could you 
tell us about his characteristics? In what ways do you focus the difference with 
conventional antifascism?

Mark>It is true that machismo is a problem in antifascist organizations and the left in 
general has long been. I believe that this was the case, especially when violence played a 
major role in any activity on the left. These dynamics were exacerbated at a time when 
antifascism and football were associated.

As you mentioned, in response to this dynamic, some and some militants struggled to 
develop a different kind of antifascism, called "fantifa" in Germany, from the eighties. 
Similar initiatives were undertaken in the 1990s in other parts of northern Europe. I have 
the feeling that such developments are parallel, in a broad sense, to the level of 
feminism's relevance to the left of a country or region in general. Where this was 
important, this type of initiative occurred, but not where it was not. The Antiracist 
Action group in the United States had some particularly serious issues with gender issues 
in the 1990s.

What development has feminist antifascism had in other parts of the world or more recently?

Mark>In recent years, queer liberation has also gained more prominence within militant 
circles. For example, in Frankfurt there is a group of anti-fascist feminism 
"queerfeministische". In May 2016, a congress of anti-fascist feminism was held in 
Hamburg, "open to all genders." In the United States, queer, trans and non-binary people 
are very well represented in the ranks of the militant movement. Also the initiative 
"Madrid para todos", with the use of pink flags and black antifascists, was another 
attempt to broaden the spectrum of the movement to include opposition to the patriarchy. 
Last year, militants in the UK created an Antifascist Feminist Assembly.

It is a fact that a good part of the conservative involution of which we speak at the 
beginning revolves around the rights of women. In general to try to restrain them, but 
there is also the case of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, who uses them as an excuse for 
their Islamophobia. Because it's like this? What is intrinsic to the idea of women's 
liberation that puts it at the center of the debate?

Mark>Gender has always been central to fascism. This emerged as a reaction against 
modernity, while adopting elements of it. In other words, fascists used modern forms of 
politics (mass concentrations, radio, political party structures, youth organizations, 
uniforms, etc.) in an effort to go back in time to an idealized "natural" past in which 
traditional hierarchies were respected. The "decadence" of the modern world was often 
understood in terms of gender. Men became effeminate, according to them, and became Jews, 
bureaucrats, leftists, Freemasons, and the like, while the "real men" fought and died in 
the trenches of World War I.

At the same time, women became too masculine when they joined the workplace, going out 
alone at night, and so on. That is, the message of fascism always revolved around the 
genre, which they understood as the foundation of the family, which they considered as the 
basis of the nation in whose interest the state should function.

But there is a second part of the story. Fascism has always been able to appropriate the 
images, slogans and ideas of the left and transform them, so that they have an 
authoritarian and nationalistic sense. After World War II, this sometimes included the 
superficial adoption of certain progressive ideas, such as the equality of the sexes, to 
attack Muslims, for example. The same goes for some extreme right-wing groups who use 
animal rights to condemn the Jews' kosher rituals or Muslim halal rituals. It has also 
been done with policies in favor of the LGBTQ collective, which have been used to demonize 
Muslims and revitalize Israeli apartheid as a pro-homosexual regime.

With this in mind, is the development of a feminist antifascism necessary or even 
inevitable? In what direction can this development point?

Mark>Given the centrality of patriarchy to the extreme right, a true antifascism must be 
feminist. To a certain extent, I believe this is reflected in the development of the 
revolutionary left after World War II, in a broad sense, with the transition from an "old 
left" to a "new left", as some authors have characterized it. This includes a greater 
focus on feminism and racial equality, anti-imperialism, and more general issues that can 
not be completely reduced to a traditional notion of class. This dynamic has become more 
intense in recent decades. Hopefully, the rejection of patriarchy will soon become so 
ubiquitous in anti-fascist circles that it will become the norm, regardless of whether 
groups call themselves feminists or not.

You are well versed in the Spanish case. Here we move from hundreds of thousands of people 
on the streets in 2011 to an extreme right-wing party like the Vox, anchored in 
institutions in 2019. What do you think change can be attributed to?

Mark>There are many factors to consider, but ultimately the destiny of the left is 
completely tied to its ability to meet people's needs. In times of crisis, do we organize 
with our co-workers and neighbors or blame immigrants? Or the Catalans? Of course, the 
"national question" is also part of the conversation. The legacy of nationalism, 
patriarchy, racism, xenophobia and islamophobia is so strong that to promote true 
internationalism from below is very difficult.

As often happens with the rise of the far right, the failures and failures of the left are 
partly to blame. We must criticize it, as well as our social movements, for not going far 
enough. There can be no compromise with capitalism or the state. While seeking 
accommodation with exploitation and tolerating the detention and deportation of migrants, 
fascism can feed and grow. Until we take the necessary steps to end the shortage, meet 
needs or break borders, fascism will continue to reappear, especially in times of severe 
crisis.

Is it similar to the process experienced in the United States on similar dates since it 
has gone from the presence of movements like Occupy Wall Street or Black Lives Matter to 
the Trump presidency?

Mark>Yes, it's the same fundamental dynamic. The last decade witnessed a blossoming of 
social movements unprecedented in recent US history. From Occupy Wall Street to Black 
Lives Matter, through opposition to the pipeline in Standing Rock, the #MeToo movement, 
the fight for the federal minimum wage or the rise of queer and trans liberation movements.

But when the movements of the left grow without abolishing the system of oppression to 
which they oppose (as is almost always the case), sometimes they also provoke a recovery 
of the activity of the right. In general, rightists have little reason to mobilize, since 
they are in favor of the status quo. But the initiatives I mentioned earlier, combined 
with the first black president in US history, have led the right wing of the country to 
feel the need to activate. Did something like this happen in response to 15M in Spain? Do 
not know.

Can we reverse these ultra-rightist drift processes? As?

Mark>I think something fundamental to being able to do this is never accepting your 
organizations as a normal component of political life. Each time they try to manifest or 
organize an act, this should be considered a problem of extreme gravity. The methods that 
should be used to respond to this problem may vary, but the seriousness of the situation 
should always be recognized.

In addition, we should not fall into the trap of supporting political parties at the 
center (or, in my view, any political party) as part of a "pragmatic" effort to prevent 
the far right from reaching electoral gains. This dynamic not only reinforces the elements 
of oppression behind the rise of fascism, but often leads central parties to assume 
explicit elements of the ultra-right program to undermine their electoral base. This is 
the case with immigration, for example. In fact, Hillary Clinton has recommended doing so. 
The state uses the electoral farce of "good cop, bad cop" to gain stability. It is 
presented as a victory for the extreme right to be defeated, but from an anti-state 
perspective, these dynamics are part of the state's survival mechanisms.

In turn, one of the ideas ofAntifais that there is no need to have many fascists for 
fascism. That is to say, it can give an explosive growth of the extreme right from 
minority or marginal groups. Do you think Vox is a good example?

Mark>Yes. Vox was null before the Andalusian elections in December. Who knows how they 
will do in the next election. But there are two factors to consider, I think. The first 
has already been mentioned. How will it affect your success in the broader political 
landscape on issues related to migration, nationalism or the legacy of Francoism? There is 
no doubt that the extreme right demonstration on February 10 in Madrid with PP and the 
Citizens demonstrates how the Vox was normalized and accepted. But it is also known that 
these same parties will try to win Vox votes on future occasions by copying points from 
their program.

The second important point is that when Hitler and Mussolini came to power, they did not 
have parliamentary majorities. Both were leaders of the precarious coalition government in 
which their parties were in the minority. The number of Germans and Italians who joined 
fascist parties before they came to power was very small. This, of course, does not mean 
that exactly the same will happen, but it does show that a Vox (or any other far right 
party) leader can make a similar, ultra-authoritarian assault on power without having a 
majority.

Is there any way to avoid these bursts of growth?

Mark>It's easier said than done! While there are factors fueling the growth of the far 
right, it will always resurface. I think the key is surveillance. In the United States, 
from the mid-2000s to the beginning of Trump's campaign, the left did not take 
anti-fascist organizations seriously because the far right seemed irrelevant. I know of 
similar cases elsewhere. It is essential to take these ideas seriously, and the small 
groups that promote them, before they grow. So it is expected, you will not have to deal 
with them when they become meaningful.

We need an approach that considers this scenario and treats its parties as if they could 
become mass organizations. This is no guarantee of success, of course, but one has to take 
this approach. Of course, this must be done in parallel with the need to reach a new world 
without any commitment to the forces of exploitation and suffering that fascism feeds on.

Thank you very much, Mark.
--
Mark> You'rewelcome.

Source: 
http://nosotras.cnt.es/textos/entrevista-a-mark-bray-por-que-vox-tiembla-ante-la-huelga-del-8m/?fbclid=IwAR3_zIekW-GDQaWGowyJA-DEw3U_nlhY429KLAwESzqeVSw8_xe1wG6IFGs

Translation> Liberto

Related Items:

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2019/02/07/lancamento-cinco-licoes-de-historia-para-antifascistas-de-mark-bray/

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2018/10/23/espanha-antique-antifa-de-mark-bray/

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2018/09/03/canada-a-hq-antifascista-100-anos-of-fascismo-e-movimento-antifa/

anarchist-ana news agency

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Message: 5





Placement of the Anarchist Political Organization - Collegiate Confederation in the 
political memorial to the anarchist comrade Lorenzo Orséti ---- As Anarchist Political 
Organization, we responded to the call of the Comrades of the Anarchist Struggle to 
commemorate Lorenzo Orseti, who fell on 18 March 2019 battling in Baguis fighting the 
Islamic State, defending the ideals of equality, solidarity and freedom. ---- Lorenzo 
Orseti, Italy's "Bear", the "Tiger" in Kurdistan, mobilized us and inspired us through the 
words he left behind as a legacy to the movement for global social emancipation. Worker, 
Anarchist, Internist, Lorenzo honored each of his attributes in a unique, unique way, 
devoting himself, his life, to the revolutionary affair. As a worker who denied the false 
visions of "social advancement" and fought exploitation, as an anarchist who continued the 
long tradition of unselfish offer to humanity against omism, states and capitalism, as an 
internationalist who abandoned the "comforts" of the Western world to find himself at the 
side of his brothers with whom he gave a series of battles in very difficult conditions.

According to the words of his close companions, Lorenzo was distinguished for his courage 
and fellowship as part of a wider effort for social emancipation; he was a member of the 
International Liberation Order and a committed supporter of the development of the 
anarcho-communist battalion "Tekosina Anarsist" Anarchist Struggle). An effort based on 
the principles and values of anarchist movements attempts in the real world, with the 
contradictions and difficulties that this entails, and creates revolutionary social and 
political structures.

The presence of the comrades who came from Rotava is important for us to listen to and 
learn about how the ancestral fighters of Rotza are actively involved in a fluid socially 
revolutionary field. For the combination, in the words of Tekosina Anarsist, of 
participation in social self-defense and the wider struggle, with organized discrete 
anti-liberal and libertarian position in order to strengthen and spread the anarchist 
tendency.

We understand that in a broad social revolutionary process the struggle against incumbent 
power structures goes along with the struggle to create new structures of social 
emancipation and their content. The presence of anarchists in the area is both a 
supportive of the struggle there and of its aims, but also part of the wider anarchist 
presence in every corner of the world. It is a part of the struggles given in the 
neighborhoods of the metropolises, in the working quarters, in the prisons. It is an 
integral and flagship part of the effort to liberate human societies from the power of 
bondage and building a society of equality and freedom.

This effort enlightened with his exemplary action, Lorenzo and his words warming up our 
hearts, is for us, as Anarchist Political Organization, a beacon in the corners of the 
social, class and libertarian movements. The movements that have been forged on the anvil 
of the Paris Commune, the social and class revolt around the world, the Spanish Revolution ...

«Nosotros. We. Nothing is death. Nothing is our individual lives. That is why we are "we". 
As long as there is even one, "we" will continue ... "

Juan Garcia Oliver, at the funeral of Buenaventura Durruti

With the above words, comrades and comrades farewell to Buenaventura Durruti. Perhaps 
there was no better way to briefly describe faith, dedication and stubbornness to the 
continuation of the struggle. For a fight in which thousands of fighters have spent their 
lives in the passage of time. Because "we," the commitment, the collective dedication to 
the cause of social revolution and liberation, partnership and solidarity are the 
materials with which we will struggle to form another society

In today's circumstances, where modern totalitarianism attempts to impose oppression and 
exploitation as the only feasible living conditions, the example of Lorenzo and the 
comrades fighting in Rozzava has the dimension of the material expression of the 
revolution we are envisioning, in a process where Kurds, Arabs and Westerners, women and 
men, fighters with different origins, fighting and building.

But History with capital, we are told, is definitely exhausted. That process, which is 
treated in the denial that challenges the predominant discourse of the past, for the 
present and for its act envisions a different future, this History that will overturn what 
has been so far known and written as history, this an act that is born and developed not 
in future textbooks but in the daily struggle of the oppressed in all the lengths and 
backs of the world, this History because it comes from the future and can sweep the past, 
ignite the present, they want to end reduce - at last.

And this act that gives birth to our History, no matter how many attempts to bury it with 
a thousand theories for its name, it emerges even under the most adverse conditions. 
Through the darkness of modern totalitarianism it will again come back: "I was, I am, I 
will be the REVOLUTION, THE WORLD SOCIAL REVOLUTION".

This is the eternal fear of the rulers, all of whose theories, from the raw and reactive 
repressive orders to the most progressive and sophisticated academic voices, were aimed at 
it. Why is the possibility, the army, and the belief in the case of living in a completely 
different world that does not want to think of powers and "intellectuals." Why is the 
social revolution and the prospect of sending all their theorems, the whole savage of 
their arguments to the basket of waste. The Revolution asserts the total overthrow, that 
is, it claims victory, it does not only think locally but globally, global, that is, not

does not fit in with anything piecemeal, partial and integrable. It breaks the dividing 
line, violating just the national and any other separations. It does not hesitate to 
engage in the commitment to take possession of every struggle of the oppressed of the 
earth. It is voluntary and therefore unselfish participation in the world struggle, in 
direct conflict with the world of privacy and self-interest, of these huge pillars that 
rely on the whole "vision" of the capitalist world.

Internationalism, solidarity, mutual aid, forms of political and social expression that 
derive from the philosophical reservoir of anarchism, anarchist communism, which many felt 
that at last it had ceased after 150 years. They were laughing. They deny them the image 
of an armed anarchist who smiles under the banner of human freedom, thousands of miles 
away from his home.

The thousands of fighters who fight in the Kurdistan mountains with the weapon in hand for 
Freedom, they refute them, contradicted by the rebellious Zapatist communities that have 
been building their autonomy for 25 years, are falsified by the Palestinians who, for 
decades, have fought an adventurous struggle against in the modern Apartheid that has been 
established in the region. And still, the Turkish comrades who continue to resist the 
fascist regime under very difficult conditions, the indigenous peoples who are fighting 
against the plunder of their lives and their communities, still contradict them. They 
refute any insurgent on the road. Everyone who challenges the certainty of 
state-capitalist barbarity, which breaks the rule of domination and opposes the monopoly 
of state violence.

They are being denied by the thousands of people who continue to struggle by throwing the 
seed of resistance into the exploitative and oppressive system, the seed of social and 
class backlash, organization, the rebellion and the social revolution, while cultivating 
the values of reciprocity, solidarity, mutual assistance, mutual understanding and 
comradeship.

These are the struggles that are the only way out of the stupid present and future 
promised by the state and capitalism. The internationalist dimension and their connection 
is the crucial point for the oppressed to respond to the forthcoming generalization of the 
ruling war. And at this critical point, the presence of internationalists in the Kurdistan 
region demonstrates that internationalism, in addition to urgent and necessary political 
targeting, is already a process in motion. Our comrades and comrades from all over the 
world who are fighting there are battling in a small corner of the world, but it is a 
battle for the whole world. And this process of international solidarity,

The example of the democratic confederation is rooting in Rozeta by questioning in 
practice the state organization of society. It develops in the territory of the Middle 
East, based on the historical experience of society and its collective heritage, colonized 
by colonialism, imperialism and nationalism, by proposing an organizational formation 
where society is self-governing and where all social groups and all cultural, religious 
and ethnic identities can participate, express themselves and work together through local 
and supra-local, direct democratic decision-making structures, pursuing our unity in 
diversity. As opposed to the process of nation-state formation, through a four-year 
history of violence, wars,

The tough struggle that takes place in the Kurdish regions of Rotava with a project of 
democratic confederacy does not seek the founding of another nation-state and the 
replacement of old chains with new ones. Focusing on the local level, with pillars on 
ecology and feminism, today builds structures of social organization and self-defense 
against state, capitalist and fascist attacks and re-creates the political part of social 
life. It is now being demolished in Rotava and is attempting to find pressure in the 
countries inhabited by Kurdish populisms (Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran) with the aim of 
inspiring and influencing the Middle East peoples and, more broadly, building structures 
of a global democratic federal union of communities,

The example of the Confederal Democratic Organization of the Communities in Rotava 
demonstrates that self-organization of the bottom and social life through collective 
self-government is not an abstract or forgotten idea but a living story. The living story 
of the struggles that invades with momentum in the present to change the future, with 
vanguard all those and those who gave their lives for our common struggle. With Lorenzo 
and all the missing companions: "We are missing because they dared to suggest a life 
better than the cow. We are missing because they said bread would be there or for everyone 
or for anyone. We are missing because they light a light in the dark - bright or pale, it 
does not matter, because its glow drives us, but it will always be in everything that is 
missing for them. "

I WANT THE REVOLUTION - I WANT THE ANARCHY!

WE WILL WIN!

LORENTZO ORSETTI PARON!

Anarchist Political Organization - Federation of Collectivities

May 2019

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Message: 6





In Almaty, in a city marathon, two anarchist activists were detained and imprisoned for 15 
days for hanging protest banners. ---- On April 21, anarchist activists hung two lanes on 
the city's main thoroughfare during a marathon. The banners said "You can not escape the 
truth" and "I have a choice". Asya and Beibarys were found guilty of organizing an 
unpunished political demonstration and were arrested for 15 days. The next day, three 
witnesses were fined for filming what happened. The convinced activist Beibarys identifies 
herself as an anarcho-communist. ---- Dictator Nazarbayev recently resigned as president 
in Kazakhstan and the early elections were announced for June 9, however, it is clear to 
everyone that power will be passed from his hands to his successor, who is currently 
serving as president. So, on the eve of the election, everyone decided to favor the 
elections and silence the activists for "a political slogan in an illegal strip" (a quote 
from one of the police). This shows very clearly how much the authorities fear people, 
where even the word "truth" scares them.
Fonte: 
https://pramen.io/ru/2019/04/anarhist-iz-kazahstana-poluchil-15-sutok-za-banner-ot-pravdy-ne-ubezhish/

Tradução > Revanche dos Oprimidos!

agência de notícias anarquistas-ana

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Message: 7





On February 22, the unemployment insurance negotiations ended in failure, allowing the 
state to regain control. The objective of the government seems more and more obvious: to 
weaken the Unedic to put unemployment insurance under the supervision of the State. ---- 
The latest negotiations on the Unemployment Compensation Convention are the story of a 
massacre. If we take the history of these negotiations, we can easily see the government's 
strategy to end the Unédic. ---- When it was created in 1945, 80% of social security was 
managed by the unions - the CGT - and 20% by the employers. It is planned to include 
unemployment insurance but the need out of the war is not felt. The reconstruction of the 
country ensures full employment. Towards the end of the 1950s, the country was rebuilt. 
Added to this are the European construction and the decolonization process, which give 
rise to fears of rising unemployment. This is an opportunity for FO to double the CGT by 
offering employers to create a fund outside the lap of Social Security: it was the 
creation of Unédic in 1958. The employers took the opportunity to propose joint 
management: 50% for employers, 50% for unions.

The problem with the 50-50 joint management - which will also be imposed on the Social 
Security in 1967 - is that it suffices for a single union to vote with the boss, so that 
the latter wins every decision. And this is obviously what will punctuate the history of 
negotiations on unemployment insurance. In the beginning, the terms of compensation are 
generous: 90% of the previous gross salary for 3 years; everyone is compensated. But the 
creation of structural mass unemployment from the 1970s gradually worsens the situation. 
Today, compensation is equivalent to 57% of gross salary for a maximum of two years; the 
conditions of affiliation only allow to compensate 43% of the unemployed.

But Emmanuel Macron and his government have moved up a gear and want to end this system. 
We can identify three main steps in this process of setting apart: the abolition of 
contributions, the bankruptcy, and the trusteeship.

The bankruptcy of the system
In 2017, the government replaces employee contributions with a tax, the CSG. The Workers' 
Solidarity Fund, financed by the workers and for the workers, aimed at removing them from 
the arbitrariness of unemployment and the employers, is henceforth financed by the State. 
His independence is thus definitely trampled.

During the electoral campaign, the candidate Macron made a great noise of his will of a 
universal unemployment insurance. Once in power, it brings together the social partners 
who give birth in February 2018 to a national interprofessional agreement (Ani) which 
provides compensation to the resigning and independent. These devices will be included in 
the law of September 5, 2018 "for the freedom to choose your professional future". The 
social partners must therefore find a solution to widen the scope of the compensation to 
these new publics, even though more than half of the unemployed workers are not 
compensated and must be satisfied with the assistance scheme (RSA and SSA). The law of 
September 5, 2018 also provides for the financial supervision of the State on Unédic via a 
letter framing. After all, argues the government, nothing more normal now, since it is the 
state that finances via the CSG!

Article 57 of the law of 5 September requires the social partners to meet to define a new 
convention on unemployment insurance within the next four months. If no solution is found 
by then, then the government will resume. Negotiations must address five issues that were 
identified in the Ani February 2018 and included in the law of 5 September: resigned, 
independent, short contracts, control of the unemployed and governance Unédic. One could 
conclude that these devices justify an increase in the budget of Unédic ... Quite the 
contrary!

A biased calendar
The famous framework letter is published at the end of September and requires the social 
partners to address these issues by integrating a budgetary imperative: achieve 4 billion 
savings over three years. Everything was there to make the negotiations fail. The calendar 
itself seemed biased: four months to come to a convention ready to be approved by the 
State, on such explosive subjects, with significant budgetary constraints ... The 
announced program of a shipwreck.

Negotiations begin in October and should be completed by January 26th. For employers' 
organizations, the sole objective is to reduce the budget according to the letter of 
framing. They will compete inventively to reduce the amount of compensation by proposing 
to increase the length of membership, to reduce the days compensated according to the 
intensity of the period worked with a rate of payment of benefits aligned with that of the 
periods worked or to reduce the duration of compensation according to the dynamics of the 
regional labor market. Faced with these proposals, the unions will block: no question of 
further degrade the rights of the unemployed.

The challenge of short contracts
For trade unions, the major issue of negotiations is to put in place measures to fight 
against precariousness. After all, it was also a promise of the candidate Macron. Between 
2000 and today, hires on fixed-term contracts of less than one month increased from 1.6 to 
4.3 million per quarter. From the beginning of the negotiations, the CGT claims 
overcompensation according to the recourse of companies to short contracts, at an 
identical level regardless of the professions. But as early as February 2018, the Medef 
announced that it did not intend to accept a bonus-malus on short-term contracts and 
wished to refer to the professional branches discussions on the definition of 
precariousness and ways to limit it. It is this discourse that he systematically opposes 
to the unions during all the negotiations.

Deaf dialogue, budget constraints, biased calendar ... As expected, the government 
announced on February 22 that it was resuming control. He is expected to announce his 
plans next month for a publication of the decrees a month later. He could also wait until 
the European elections are over. Anyway, we can expect the worst ...

Franz Müller (AL friend)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Assurance-chomage-un-echec-soigneusement-orchestre

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

Message: 8






Below we present a transcribed talk by Pablo Barbanegra on the concept of "intermediary 
analysis." Pablo was a member of Miami Autonomy and Solidarity (MAS) which was one of the 
several groups that merged to found Black Rose/Rosa as a national political organization 
in 2014. While MAS did not originate the concept of the intermediate or intermediary level 
(which is used interchangeably as Pablo does within the talk below), the group contributed 
to developing the analysis and arguing for the level as a strategic site of struggle for 
the time period. While some of the political context has shifted since this was talk was 
presented in 2012, this piece provides context, definition, and the arguments around it's 
strategic importance.

The following is an audio transcription of a presentation by Pablo at the Los Angeles 
Anarchist Bookfair on September 8, 2012. The audio version can be found here.

Hi, well, thank you guys for coming and definitely thank the organizers of the LA 
anarchist bookfair for inviting me here. It's a real honor to be present here and be part 
of the LA anarchist scene and what you guys are doing.

Today, what I wanted to discuss a bit is, I'm a member of a specific anarchist political 
organization, like[event MC]said. And the organization I'm a part of - Miami Autonomy & 
Solidarity - has been together since 2008. Many of us came together after a long time of 
being involved in social movement work. I started off doing student organizing. And then 
some kind of paid organizing, community organizing, but after a while of doing that kind 
of stuff, you know, I kept on running into certain walls, right, certain walls with 
bureaucracy, certain walls with you know, the idea of where the executive directors of 
some of the organizations wanted to go. You know, all the limits that exist in trying to 
work in that world. So I was introduced by a couple of comrades to this idea of 
especifismo, which is a tradition that originates in South America, starts largely in 
Uruguay, and has spread out to several different countries in Latin America - Chile, 
Argentina - definitely has made its way around the continent, and it definitely emerges 
out of their particular situations dealing with dictatorship and repression and, you know, 
anarchists for a long period of time, you know, suffering from that kind of repression 
dealing with competing tendencies and all those challenges and sort of coming back in the 
1990s and trying to regroup and once again become a social force in the social movements 
that exist.

Pablo Barbranegra (left) at the 2012 Anarchist Bookfair in Los Angeles.
So those ideas kind of inspired me to start thinking about: well, what can we do as 
anarchists to ensure that we don't just become just a subculture, just a hobby, you know, 
just like a lifestyle, or a personal interest, but to actually have an impact and effect 
on social movements and to build with them and to grow with them. That was the purpose of 
forming a group like Miami Autonomy and Solidarity and taking that approach; but one of 
the things that we are starting to see as we formed this organization is that the context 
of the United States and of course of a city like Miami, which is renowned for its kind of 
reactionary, right-wing politics, makes it very difficult to operate like a specific 
anarchist organization. Whereas in some other parts of the world or even some other parts 
of the country, you have infrastructures of what we might call the left where people can 
plug into. You have a stronger history of mass movements and that memory of strong social 
movements is there. In Miami, that's largely non-existent, right? So we have to really 
think hard about how are we as anarchists going to begin to play a role in the almost 
either really small or non-exist mass organizations in Miami. How do we begin to work so 
we can have an impact and start to spread around more libertarian ideas, anarchist ideas, 
and become relevant again to the class struggle.

Part of what we've been thinking about for the past couple of years, since I‘d say 
2010-11, we've been thinking hard about how to do that. One of the things that we've 
identified where we're at and we think this is also relevant to many parts of the United 
States: there exists a layer which we recognize as the intermediate layer (and I'll 
explain what that is in a second). Just to give a little back story or you know theory, or 
sorry, an explanation of how many anarchists have been involved in mass movement work tend 
to think about how to go about carrying out that work. We tend to think about there's a 
revolutionary level, and then there's a mass level right? And as far as these two levels 
are concerned, we tend to express within the especifist tradition and other traditions 
that run concurrent with that particular tendency, we tend to think that anarchists have 
to be involved in both levels. So there's a need for revolutionary anarchist 
organizations; but we also need mass movements and these two things have to go together. 
Right? You can't just have a revolutionary organization without any mass movements and 
mass movements without revolutionary organizations who are in there working, agitating, 
you know, creating propaganda and kind of growing side by side with these movements, at 
times they can take many different directions - directions which we might feel are going 
to take us to that level of social revolution and eventually something like an anarchist 
communist society. So we begin from that point.

What I'm going to talk about today is looking a little bit at the nature of the period 
that we're in, and then thinking about some of the objectives that we would like to carry 
out and bring into effect, talk a little bit about the different levels that we see 
existing, and talk about why the intermediate level might be the most strategic site of 
struggle for movements in North America today. And then we can have some discussion about 
what people's experiences have been with things like that[asking if]this kind of analysis 
and proposal makes sense? We can talk about that stuff after the presentation.

The Nature of the Period
What's the nature of the period? If we're going to categorize the nature of the period in 
the United States, we are currently living through what we might describe as a period of 
low level of mass struggle and militancy, right? We don't exist, we don't live in a time 
where there are burgeoning social movements, where there is this very sharp class struggle 
that can be exhibited. So this is the condition that I think we are dealing with in the 
United States and especially in a city like Miami, where I live. In regards to mass 
movements, the mass movements that do exist during this time period, we find that either 
at times they are non-existent (again Miami is a good example of that) or they are highly 
bureaucratized mass organizations, right? So here we have a picture of course of SEIU, 
Obama, kind of one hand washes the other. Critiques of the non-profit industry have been 
something that have been put out with more and more force lately and that's definitely a 
good development. But we still haven't overcome that yet; we're still dealing with this 
issue of non-profit bureaucratized struggles, struggles that are largely co-opted or 
cooperativist, that work with capital instead of trying to overturn it. So often times the 
level of consciousness is also there. It's also like a funny, you know, kind of portrayal 
of the left in these times you know, everybody will talk shit about how the system sucks 
and, you know, lesser of two evils, but at the end of the day, you know, we're still going 
to vote for them; we're still going to support that, and that's what we have to do, right, 
to stay connected with the mass movements again that largely are either non-existent or 
very bureaucratized.

As far as the left and many revolutionary traditions, I think that definitely anarchists 
will fall within this: there seems to be a disconnect in terms of being able to influence, 
being able to have an ongoing dialogue and discussion with mass movements or mass 
organizations. Often times the activities of anarchists and revolutionaries seems to be 
very disconnected from the daily lives of struggle of average people; you know, working 
class people.

Thinking Strategically
Alright, so as class struggle revolutionary anarchists which is how MAS sees itself, our 
objectives are to at some point work towards this point where we will have something like 
a social revolution initiated by the popular classes, by the working classes, by those 
most oppressed in a capitalist, in an imperialist system. So we definitely think that if a 
revolution is to happen and if something like anarchist communism is ever something that 
we might see or work towards, then we need to start thinking strategically. We need to 
start thinking strategically about how we do our work, how we come to have an influence, 
how we come to play a larger role, in mass struggles or mass organizations. So the primary 
goal of revolutionary organizations in the short, medium and long-term is to contribute to 
building an autonomous, self-managed, libertarian revolutionary consciousness, capacity 
and power of these movements so that they can create that revolution in the long term.

Most of us have the analysis that revolution of this sort isn't going to happen overnight, 
it's a long term struggle. Most of us will probably - I don't like to say this, I don't 
like to think about this - but we may not even see it within our lifetime. So we have to 
be committed to a long term struggle to keep on pushing and in order to do that we 
definitely need to be strategic.

So we think that in these moments where mass organizations are in the state that they're 
in, class struggle is in the state that it's in, we need to figure out a way in which 
again anarchists and anarchism can become relevant within these mass struggles and mass 
movements. What MAS is going to propose is that instead of just thinking about there's a 
revolutionary level and there's a mass level and that revolutionaries should be working 
within the mass level, we might even have to just start thinking about: how do we build up 
a mass level, right? And if mass organizations aren't in existence, then how do we do 
that? How do we as revolutionaries not become detached, disconnected, simply becoming a 
populist group,[or]a group that sits around just talking theory and not being able to 
create an action that actually challenges capitalism or being involved in struggles that 
actually challenge capitalism?

The Mass, Intermediary and Revolutionary Levels
So this intermediary level, it's not necessarily a new analysis. If we look at the history 
of many different revolutionary groups, they've come to similar conclusions, they've 
identified that we see not only a mass level and a revolutionary level; but there's also 
what I'd describe as an intermediary level and the intermediary level is basically the 
level where people are definitely more conscious, they're more militant; but they many not 
necessarily be united around a particular set of beliefs or ideology. But they are capable 
of working together for mid-term and short-term goals. So we see that largely as an 
intermediate level. And we want to be able to develop this level more, so that this level 
can in turn help to build up mass movements and build them up in a direction where you 
know, they're not going to become bureaucratized or they're going to try to fight those 
tendencies that are trying to co-opt them. So that little graphic is supposed to kind of 
show the complexity and interplay that exists between mass level, intermediate level and 
the revolutionary level. Of course reality is messy and, you know, we find that there are 
revolutionaries in the mass level, there are revolutionaries in the intermediate level, 
there are people who are from the mass level in the intermediate level. It's not 
necessarily kind of like a clean-cut situation.

Now, each level exists regardless, right, of whether there's an organization there. So the 
mass level exists, whether the mass level is organized is a different story, right? Same 
think with the intermediate and revolutionary level. These levels exist. There are people 
who are thinking about these things; there are people who are trying to fight for certain 
needs; but they may not be organized themselves yet. So it's important to draw that 
distinction between that and try to unify the level with organization. So the level as a 
theoretical concept definitely is full of a lot of gray areas and one thing I'd like to 
point out is that this is more of an analysis at this point that we are trying to develop 
into a practice and that is part of the reason that I am doing this talk today; because I 
want to hear what people to think about this and to see if folks have experience with this 
and are thinking about this on the same terms because we're still developing a strong 
practice that can either prove or disprove this analysis.

So the mass level, right, is the broadest level. At the mass level, usually it can include 
people from all types of backgrounds, all types of ideological backgrounds, right? You 
have people who are thinking very much within the system, Republican/Democrat, and you 
also have people who are thinking outside of it as well maybe in a more radical direction. 
So mass level organizations are open to anybody in those sectors, anybody who is trying to 
fight around particular needs usually can be part of a mass organization. A good example 
of this, of course historically, has been labor unions. Labor unions for the most part, 
members did not have to belong to a specific party. Again, you can be a democrat, you can 
be a republican, you can be no party affiliation, you can be an anarchist, a communist, it 
didn't matter. But the whole point of the mass level is that you're fighting around these 
struggles that affect your day to day life, it could be wages, it could be anything of 
this sort.

Now at this time, the mass level, is mostly associated with these very short term 
objectives. When we look at mass organizations, we're usually talking about short term 
objectives: a wage raise, you know, certain securities at work, for the most part mass 
level organizations at this point are not discussing a longer term strategy, are not at 
the point where they're talking revolution yet. So this is where we find ourselves in this 
moment.

Alright, now, when it comes to the intermediate level, we find people that tend to be more 
committed to struggles and are unified around a certain set of objectives. They may not 
have theoretical unity with each other. That means that they may not all seek the 
revolution in the same way; they may not all see it ultimately happening in the same way; 
but at least they have currently some unity around these short term and mid term strategies.

Now in the intermediary level, you could have multiple intermediary level groupings or 
organizations within a mass organization, right? Again, like I said, a good example would 
be unions. In a union you can find people of all stripes. So what are the kind of purposes 
for something like the intermediary level: to work on short term objectives as well as 
medium term objectives. And this can be struggling around wages; struggling around some 
job site grievances. It could be longer term, it could be related to bringing together 
people of different industries, right? So like for example, you have a workplace you're 
organizing in; maybe that struggle is successful, maybe it died down. What do you do with 
those people? Where do those militants go? They've just engaged in a struggle which has 
altered their consciousness and made them feel more empowered. They recognize that: 
alright this is limited, I need to go further. Where do they go? Do they go straight into 
a revolutionary organization? Maybe, maybe not. So the intermediate level can serve as a 
space where people can develop themselves further as they're going along that process and 
trying to figure themselves out.

Now the revolutionary level, right, is, it's a level where, when we say it's a "high" 
level, it doesn't mean that it's in a hierarchy above the mass level. It's simply that the 
level of unity required to exist within a revolutionary organization is usually higher. So 
people who are in revolutionary organizations tend to be on an ideological level, on a 
theoretical level, on a strategic level, and usually on a tactical level. So that's the 
people we're talking about. But again, in that revolutionary level, you're gonna have a 
variety of tendencies, you're gonna have anarchists, you're gonna have, you know, 
socialists, you're going to have all types of different groups. So that's what the 
revolutionary level is referring to. It just refers to that higher kind of level of 
commitment to coherent theoretical positions, coherent strategic positions and tactical 
coordination.

Ok. Now when it comes to the revolutionary level, the revolutionary level is going to try 
to push for these kind of longer term goals. So for the revolutionary level, it's 
important that we start looking again at this intermediary level in order to start to 
build towards that longer term struggle and start engaging folks in those conversations 
about not just the changes that we want today but the changes they'd like to see in the 
future. So the revolutionary level can meet within the same intermediary level 
organization. So what this is basically talking about is that as revolutionaries, right, 
the revolutionaries that may be of different tendencies may still be able to fight 
together, may still be able to work together at this intermediary level, where they would 
not be able to work together at the revolutionary level because of significant differences 
in the way that you - how these social struggles should be formed; how the revolution 
should come about. So this becomes a space for that kind of activity to happen as well, 
which we think that is important, that is necessary. And that's something that, you know, 
needs to be happening amongst revolutionaries of different stripes.

Alright, so why is the intermediate level a strategic focus for our revolutionary tendency 
at this time? It goes back to this issue that there's this disconnect between long term 
and short term, right? There's a lot of disconnect between what revolutionaries are 
advocating for in the long term and then what's actually happening in the short term. We 
want to be able to bridge that gap, we want to be able to close that gap between our long 
term visions and how we operate and what we're doing at the short term level and mid term 
level.

Ok, now when we think about the intermediary level, it can also serve as a kind of 
autonomous force within social movements, one that can build mass level organizations or 
activate militants within the mass level or militants in mass organizations. To kind of 
put that into more concrete terms: I'm a member of a union, right? My union, politically 
speaking, is very conservative, sometimes downright reactionary. So in that space, 
sometimes our activity is going to be quite limited because when we try to push for 
certain things in the union there could be very serious repercussions to our jobs, to our 
livelihood. So we may not be in the type of space where we can push for what we'd like to 
see in the midterm and the long term. But the intermediary level, can operate 
independently, from that mass organization while still engaging people at the mass level. 
So in my case, what I'm currently trying to work on as a teacher is: I'm a member of my 
union, right, I'm a member of my union because I feel like even though I feel like the 
union for the most part, the leadership is pretty whack, they suck, you know, they don't 
back us up; at the same time there's people who joined that union who want to fight. So 
I'm going to try to find those people and group up with those people so that together we 
can start building up a tendency and start pushing within our union and we can do this 
both within and outside of the union. So where the union is limited by, say, legal 
questions these autonomous organizations, if they're powerful enough, if they're large 
enough, can potentially either push those contradictions to the forefront, right, and show 
them to the union membership - that ok, our union has these limits, we need to break 
beyond them - or simply act where the union or where the mass level organization would not 
be able to act.

 From the Intermediate Towards Mass Movements
Part of the goal or purpose of the intermediary level is for us to be able to build 
connections to broaden the dialogue to become pretty much a force multiplier because we 
need to be able to do that if we hope anarchism to once again become a relevant ideology, 
a relevant you know a relevant approach to revolution. If we're not able to do that, if 
we're not able to broaden these conversations to become a force multiplier, we become 
disconnected and often times wither away and die out. So that's why that's relevant and 
important.

So at the intermediary level, activists and militants that we meet, we get to know them, 
we build relations, and we learn to struggle together. I think a big part of building mass 
movements and building this type of work is about building relations. So we always have to 
be conscious of how we build relationships with other militants. And again, I feel like if 
we are going to be able to attract working class people to anarchism again, it's critical 
that we build relationships over a period of time so that when struggles do erupt, when 
things start to heat up, people see us as individuals who can be trusted, who are 
disciplined, who they can count on, and who they know are going to fight with them side by 
side when times get hard.

In order for popular class movements, they're going to be those responsible for really 
making a social revolution, the revolutionary organization needs to be able to connect and 
engage with the mass level and the intermediary level. This is an important point. Without 
mass level work, without mass organizations, revolutionary organizations or intermediary 
organizations pretty much are useless. If we cannot connect, if we cannot build relations, 
if we cannot, you know, activate militants in these struggles, if we cannot help push for 
our points of view and also grow - have our views grow alongside those who are actually 
engaged in struggle, we run the risk of becoming irrelevant. We run the risk of becoming, 
as it shows there, a head without a body, right? A theory group, a group that doesn't do 
much, talks a lot but doesn't get much done.

One thing to keep in mind is that these levels aren't static. So what is possible to a 
large extent will depend on what's happening at that current moment historically and we do 
have to keep that in mind. So again the intermediate level, the revolutionary level, and 
the mass level are always going to look different depending on where we're at 
historically, where the class struggle is at.

One thing we should do is try not to confuse the intermediary level for the mass level. 
Recognize that the intermediary level, we're talking about individuals who are starting to 
think more in the mid-term and long term, there are people who are actively involved in 
struggles, there are people who are looking to expand the struggles. They're starting to 
recognize the limitations of the mass organizations that they're involved with. So we 
shouldn't confuse that intermediary level for the mass level.

We have to also be careful with kind of becoming distracted by simply mobilizations, and 
starting to think that if we're able to mobilize lots of people we're actually doing 
something to build up the mass level, we may not be. And sometimes mass mobilizing can be 
very powerful but it can quickly disappear and we still have to ask ourselves what are we 
left with when that does happen. So we have to make sure that we're not just thinking in 
terms of mobilizations. This is not a question of numbers right, at least not only about 
numbers, it's a question about how are these mass struggles becoming more combative, how 
are they becoming radicalized? So a way that we find it useful to explain that distinction 
is massification vs. mobilization. And massification would be the kind of work that I'm 
talking about: which is deepening those struggles at the mass level and not just 
mobilizing a lot of people and having a lot of warm bodies, you know at a protest or at an 
event or something like that.

What we'd like people to consider is how this relationship is supposed to work and what 
we're saying is that, the um, kind of again, the purpose is to get people who are at the 
intermediate level to work at the mass level right, so we identify folks who are at this 
intermediate level then we should be trying to work together to get involved at the mass 
level and in mass organizations. I come back to the example of the union that I gave 
earlier. Which is you know, I identify teachers who are disillusioned with the union, that 
are disillusioned with the way things are working. Um so we're going to go and try to 
fight within the union but we're also open to working outside of the union if necessary.

For MAS we think that it's very important to try to get mass level militants to join the 
intermediary level or to kind of move up into that intermediary level and begin engaging 
other folks at the mass level, at the level of the mass organizations. Though, of course, 
the other one from intermediary to mass level is still important. So some examples of what 
we're talking about: workers networks, we see this often times in groups like IWW have 
played this role where there have been mass struggles at a particular workplace and for 
whatever reason, either because they were successful and they gained things or because the 
struggles were too prolonged, started falling out, but you still had folks who became 
radicalized through that process: what do you do with them? What can they do? So building 
up a network of militants across an industry, potentially, is one example of how that 
intermediary level might work. Again the teacher example I gave earlier, taking teachers 
who are members of the union and then fighting with them both inside and outside with 
teachers who have become more politicized is another example of an intermediate level.

So in a nutshell the intermediate level for us is the strategic sight for struggles today 
because again, we're facing a time period where class struggle in the united states even 
though recently there has been resurgences, there has been what we might call "moments", 
we're not in the time where we have "movements" yet perhaps. And so I think we're still in 
that process of building. So the question of how we build them and how we participate in 
the building up of movements so that they maintain an independent autonomous character, so 
that they don't become simply co-opted by you know, bureaucratic forces. It's a critical 
question and this is the type of question that we're trying to grapple with and we think 
that building up this intermediate level to do work at the mass level is perhaps the most 
strategic work that revolutionaries and members of anarchist political organizations can 
be doing today.

Pablo "Barbanegra" Avendaño (1983-2018) was Argentinian-American born and raised in Miami, 
FL. He became active in student organizing and occupy before joining Miami Autonomy and 
Solidarity, which would merge to form Black Rose/Rosa Negra. In 2013 he moved to 
Philadelphia and became active in struggles around police violence and joining Philly 
Socialists. Tragically in 2018 he was involved in a fatal bicycle accident while working 
for a food deliv

Read a biography on Pablo Barbanegra here 
http://blackrosefed.org/pablo-barbaranegra-biography/

An additional reading on the discussion of the mass, intermediate and revolutionary level 
is "The Problems Posed by the Concrete Class Struggle and Popular Organization" by José 
Antonio Gutiérrez D. http://blackrosefed.org/problems-posed-by-the-concrete-class-struggle/

http://blackrosefed.org/towards-mass-movements-intermediate-analysis/

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