Anarchic update news all over the world - 31.05.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Holand, vrije bond:[Brussel]No fascism in Belgium or in
      Europe! (nl, fr) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  ait russia: IT IS NOT IMPORTANT WHAT A CLIC WILL FORM THE
      GOVERNMENT - IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO LIVE BETTER!                      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  ait russia: The victory of CNT-AIT in conflict with the firm
      "Gindola Manchega" [machine translation] (ca) 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  [Canada] Montreal: Macdonald Monument and Statue of Queen
      Victoria vandalized again By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Britain, WHAT CAN ANARCHISTS LEARN FROM THE EU ELECTIONS?         by
     Bristol AFed (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  fda-ifa: Analysis of the European and local elections in
      Freiburg from an anti-fascist perspective from Anarchist Group
      Freiburg (de) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





We, citizens with and without papers, organisations from the social movement in all its 
diversity (workers', antiracist, feminist, LGBTI+, antifascist, youth and defense of human 
rights movements), launch a call to action against the rise of the far right. At the 
federal and regional level in Belgium, the far right party Vlaams Belang has realised a 
dramatic breakthrough. In many countries of Europe, like in France, Poland, Hungary, and 
the United Kingdom, the far right parties are also the great winner of the European 
elections. ---- This rise of the far right at the elections of the 26th of May does not 
come from nowhere. Indeed, the multiplication of repressive, racist, sexist and antisocial 
measures have been witnessed these last years: the withdrawal of nationality creating 
second class citizens, the criminalization of the solidarity with migrants and the hunt of 
the exiled in the Mediterranean sea, numerous impediments to the right to strike or 
attacks against the professional secrecy for the social workers... These constitute as 
many direct attacks against our fundamental rights that lead us towards a more 
authoritarian and unequal regime.

We affirm that the far right has no place in parliaments and governments, nor in our 
streets, and that our united front will mobilize, as long as necessary and on all the 
possible fronts, to prevent it from harming. We call you to stand up with us against the 
far right this Tuesday 28th of May at 6pm at Place du Luxembourg.

https://www.vrijebond.org/brussel-no-fascism-in-belgium-or-in-europe/

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Message: 2





Statement by the Russian Regional Section of the International Association of Workers ---- 
We demand real freedom of assembly, rallies, strikes, trade union activities! ---- We 
demand an end to the antisocial policy: the policy of low wages and the systematic 
reduction of the real incomes of wide sections of the population, the destruction of 
social guarantees, the commercialization of education and medicine, privatization, the 
constant increase in prices ... ---- We demand to stop the "economic reforms", from which 
businessmen, bankers and officials get richer, and ordinary people become poorer more and 
more. All these measures should be canceled immediately! ---- We demand to abolish the 
shameful law against "extremism", to stop the arbitrariness of the open and secret police, 
the petty and big authorities: people need rights, not repressions and extortions!  Our 
cities and villages are for residents, not for officials!

We need not "fair elections" in which "Putinists", liberals, "pseudo-red" and brown ones 
are fighting for who will tear up three skins from us. We need a decent life!

We demand:

- increase the level of wages to the average European level

- automatic salary increase, in accordance with price increases

- 6 hour working day and 5-day working week without a reduction in earnings

- paid leave for a period of at least 1 month and paid sick leave for all workers

- reduction and freezing of prices for basic goods and services

- prohibition of dismissals without the consent of the labor collective

- free medicine, education, urban transport and utility services

- the complete abolition of the "pension reform" of 2018

Any authority that does not accept these demands must leave immediately!

We do not believe that representative democracy with its elections, presidents, 
governments and Dumas will be able to solve our problems. They have no right to decide and 
speak for us. Only with a system of universal self-government and "direct democracy" at 
the place of residence, work and study, can we all become the masters of our own destiny.

Take your life in your hands!

Resistance - Self-organization - Self-government!

Russian Section of the International Association of Workers

https://aitrus.info/node/1800

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Message: 3






The interprofessional union of Albacete CNT-AIT (section of the International Association 
of Workers in Spain) reports on the successful completion of the labor conflict with the 
restaurant La Tagliatella and the firm Gindola Manchega, which owns it. ---- The cause of 
the conflict was the violation by the company of the established working conditions and 
the rights of employees. The company refused to grant and pay for vacations, providing 
working clothes, etc., finding fault with the workers, establishing an unbearable internal 
regime, etc. During the conflict, the trade union reminded all these problems with pickets 
and actions of solidarity. demanding that the firm pay the money that it detained or did 
not pay to the employees.
After several months of protesting against the restaurant "La Tagliatella" and campaigns 
of solidarity that engulfed other cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Salamanca, Alicante, Manresa, 
Granada, etc.) and in the face of upcoming new direct actions, the company contacted the 
union and offered to negotiate about the amount of compensation due to a friend. As a 
result, an agreement was reached.

The anarcho-syndicalist trade union to Albacete reminds us that in the class struggle 
there cannot be something like peace between exploiters and exploited. There are victories 
in it, there are defeats ... There are short breaks, but there is never a lasting and 
lasting peace.

The only thing you can sometimes allow yourself is a short rest. The moment when the 
forces of the adversaries - the capitalist class and the revolutionary movement - departed 
for respite, reorganization and rearmament in order to come together again in a fight - 
and so on until we can finally defeat and destroy the contradictions that engender the 
class struggle. "We are sure," the trade union statement says, "that the working class 
should not relax its vigilance; it should unite, organize, provide mutual support and show 
maximum social solidarity and mutual assistance in the social struggle. As soon as the 
working class relaxes, the capitalist class takes the opportunity select all conquests. It 
has been demonstrated that the working class has excellent weapons to fight its main 
enemies: most important here are direct action, unification and solidarity of the working 
people. Let the solidarity of the workers be a shield and a weapon against capital, the 
state and imaginary opposition to it. "

http://elmilicianocnt-aitchiclana.blogspot.com/2019/05/cnt-ait-albacete-finalizado-el.html

https://aitrus.info/node/5274

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Message: 4





Communicated -- As the holiday weekend of Queen Victoria begins, the Macdonald monument 
and the statue of Queen Victoria in McGill were once again vandalized. Montreal May 
anarchists (MMA) sprayed the Macdonald monument in anticolonial green and the statue of 
Queen Victoria in anti-imperialist red. ---- In the words of the group #MacdonaldMustFall: 
"John A. Macdonald was a white supremacist. He contributed directly to the genocide of 
indigenous peoples by creating the brutal system of residential schools, as well as other 
measures aimed at destroying native cultures and traditions. He was racist and hostile 
towards non-white minority groups in Canada, openly promoting the preservation of 
so-called "Aryan" Canada. He passed laws to exclude people of Chinese origin. He was 
responsible for the hanging of Louis Riel, a martyr of the Métis community. The 
Macdonald's statue belongs to a museum, not a monument occupying public space in Montreal."

And in the words of the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade: "The presence of 
Queen Victoria's statues in Montreal is an insult to self-determination and to the 
resistance struggles of oppressed peoples throughout the world, including indigenous 
nations in North America and in Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle 
East, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and everywhere the British Empire committed 
its atrocities. The reign of Queen Victoria, who continues to be laundered in the history 
books and popular media, represented a massive expansion of the barbaric British Empire. 
Collectively, his reign represents a criminal legacy of genocide, mass murder, torture, 
massacres, terror, forced famines, concentration camps, robbery, cultural defamation, 
racism and white supremacy. This legacy must be denounced and attacked. "

The Macdonald Monument and the statue of Queen Victoria must be removed from public space 
and instead placed in archives or museums where they belong as historical artifacts. 
Public space should celebrate collective struggles for justice and liberation, not white 
supremacy and genocide.

Source: 
https://mtlcounterinfo.org/macdonald-monument-queen-victoria-statue-vandalized-again-in-montreal/

Translation> Remembrance of the Oppressed!

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Message: 5





An election analysis from someone who spoiled their ballot, proving that if you don't 
vote, you can still complain with the best of them. ---- I'll start off with a look at the 
UK, and a sigh of relief that the worst of the worst failed to capture widespread support. 
In the North West, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon polled so badly that even the Labour/Tory 
splinter group ‘Change UK' ended up with more votes in the region. Meaning his only 
success was as a target for milk based goods. Likewise UKIP, who have in the past year 
pivoted towards a more openly fascist ‘Alt-Right' style of politics failed to secure any 
MEPs. UKIP learnt the hard way that just because a bigot like Carl Benjamin is popular on 
YouTube, doesn't mean he'll be popular out in the real world.

Of course we couldn't talk about the electoral failures of the right, without talking 
about their successes. Which all comes down to how this entire election was framed; 
Referendum 2.0 . Proving that UKIP were always a one man, one issue party, Farage stormed 
ahead in the polls with his ‘Brexit Party'. The Brexit Party positioned themselves as the 
only ‘mainstream' choice for leave voters, doing even better than UKIP had in prior 
elections. With no manifesto, and a leader who is better than many racists at hiding his 
racism behind a veneer of ‘respectability', its hard to say whether those who voted Brexit 
Party would've welcomed the more explicitly far right policies Farage has previously 
championed, but this could be a real concern if he ever cobbles together a party that can 
seriously contest a general election.

On the other side of the coin, the Lib Dems, Greens, and both civic nationalist parties 
(the SNP and Plaid) had positioned themselves as options for the remain vote. The Greens 
did well, but how much this was due to there stance on Brexit, rather than the increased 
attention on environmental issues is hard to say. They did poll equally in both leave and 
remain areas. Plaid, and especially the SNP also polled well, both coming second in their 
respective countries, behind the Brexit party. However the big winners of this strategy 
were surely the Lib Dems. After their disastrous polling in both 2015 and 2017, they 
turned it around in this election as the default ‘neutral' choice for people who wanted to 
support ‘remain' in Referendum 2.0 . Returning from electoral oblivion the Lib Dems scored 
the second highest number of votes.

The conservatives have messed up the process to such an extent that the BBC aren't even 
sure if they count as ‘pro Brexit' any more, despite it being in their manifesto. The 
journos are, perhaps understandably, confused as to where Labour stand as well.
The big losers of the night were those who currently hold power. That the Tories would do 
badly in this situation, having made seemingly no progress on Brexit in three years, comes 
as no surprise. They've been on a downward trajectory for awhile, as it became 
increasingly obvious that their ‘period of austerity' was designed to be never ending, and 
that their rich mates certainly weren't ‘in it together' with the rest of us. What is 
impressive though, is how effectively they seem to have dragged Labour down with them. 
Many people seem to hold the Labour leadership and MPs almost as culpable for the mess of 
Brexit as the Tories. One thing that was clear, was anything but Labours policy on Brexit. 
Even when they had one, people either didn't know about it or assumed it would change 
soon. As to whether Labour would've done better with a stronger Brexit stance or a 
stronger Remain stance well.. hard to call. Judging by the arguments on social media that 
seems to be down to whether the individual party member or journalist is pro or anti 
Brexit already.

Looking at broader trends in the EU, as well as the UK results, it does seem to be a 
further ‘collapse of the centre', something which has seen more and more elections 
globally favour anything but the status quo. The Far Right made big gains in many 
countries, often off the back of an anti-EU stance, though not to the extent many had 
feared. Meanwhile it now looks as if the Centre-Right, Centre-Left, Liberal and Green 
MEPs, may form one ‘grand alliance' in the EU parliament. Effectively putting all of 
Europe in ‘Remain' and ‘Leave' camps.

So where does this all leave me as an Anarchist? Well, in the incredibly hypocritical 
position of being so god damn sick of everyone talking about Brexit. Perhaps I'm not 
alone, with turnout at less than 37% (though EU elections have never done well on this 
front). Sure, it's a big issue in politics, but the way everything from newspaper coverage 
to chats in the pub have gone, you'd think it was the only issue.

Should we as Anarchists be taking an active stance in favour of leave or remain? For one 
thing I think we've rather missed the boat on either, and for another we are taking the 
only consistent stance we can; Neither Westminster nor Brussels. The EU is a godawful 
capitalist institution, but the leave campaign is dominated by racism and patriotism. 
Remaining would be a more secure option for our migrant friends and comrades, but staying 
means our continued involvement the EU border. One of the most militarised and deadly 
borders in the world, where the only ‘enemy' are refugees. Brexit is somewhere between a 
quagmire and a minefield, and one that has already had every possible opinion, from the 
extreme to the nuanced, thrown at it, all to little effect.

The thing we should be doing instead, is making sure that those who continue to abandon 
the centre ground status quo find anarchists waiting. If we're not there, we will witness 
both the continued rise of the UK's Far Right, and a mad dash for the dead-end of social 
democracy. Anarchist communism is a clear alternative, but only if we manage to show it to 
people.

http://afed.org.uk/what-can-anarchists-learn-from-the-eu-elections

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Message: 6






In the European elections 6035 people in Freiburg voted for an extreme right-wing party. 
The most votes could be the AfD[national conservative to folk]with 5.3% (5,580 votes) to 
unite, far behind the NPD[Fascist](80 votes), democracy by referendum[conspiracy 
theory](90 votes), the rights[fascist](43 votes), 3rd way[fascist](16 votes) and Alliance 
C[Christian fundamentalist](226 votes). ---- Compared to the 2017 general election, the 
AFD has lost 3521 votes in Freiburg. The AFD achieved above-average results in Landwasser 
(235 votes), Weingarten (278 votes) and Hochdorf (148 votes). ---- In the local election, 
the AfD achieved a score of 3.6% (167,786 votes). Assuming that she received the full 48 
votes each time, she was elected by about 3,500 people, that is about 1.5% of the 
population of Freiburg. For the first time, she is joining the council with 2 candidates: 
Dubravko Mandic and Detlef Huber, both nationalist fraternities and settled on the extreme 
right of the party . Mandic was also involved in several attacks on left .

https://fda-ifa.org/analyse-der-europa-und-kommunalwahl-in-freiburg-aus-antifaschistischer-perspektive/

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