Today's Topics:
1. sicilia libertaria: True war and false peace (it) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. sicilia libertaria: WE OVERWARD THE REVOLUTIONS --
ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE. A break is urgent (it) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. US, black rose fed: HAS SYRIZA'S "LONG MARCH THROUGH THE
INSTITUTIONS" COME TO AN END? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Poland, zsp.net.pl: KrakVet: an example of disregarding an
employee [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, anarchist communist grou ACG: Workplace Notes
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The winds of war blow like never before, and it could not be otherwise: war is the best
way to do politics, a more useful muscular exercise than words, a destructive machine much
loved by the markets (it raises the GDP, the price of crude oil). , profits), and it is
not clear how many still continue to underestimate its centrality in international
relations and in everyday events. War is a daughter of states, it is in their DNA, and no
one can ever change the meaning of either one or the other. ---- The recent US-Iran
skirmishes, with the control of oil routes at the center, always keep the world balance on
the razor's edge; in the abyss, however, there are all those peoples that the wars, the
real ones, suffer, in the complicit silence of Western societies: like Yemen, crushed
between Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies (the main oil suppliers of the West) and areas
Shiites (Iran, Syria, with Russian support); like Palestine perpetually under the yoke of
an Israeli state that has always been a destabilizing element in the area; like Northern
Syria liberated and self-governed by the Kurds and besieged by Turkey; like the Horn of
Africa and its "invisible" conflicts, like Libya, the terrain of another international
proxy war, like the many bloody conflicts surrounded by indifference, scattered around the
world. To which the attempts by Trump's America to resolve the Venezuelan question, the
situation of the Dombass on the border between Ukraine and Russia, Kosovo, etc. must be
supported.
Winds of war that stain the false peace that is all Western and respectable, which makes
us say the common place according to which this Europe would have given us 60 years of
peace: we should tell it to the Basques and the Irish, to the populations of the former
Yugoslavia; one should above all tell all those peoples who have had to undergo, at home,
the interventions of the European or American, or Russian, armies to all the former
European colonies in Africa passed from the military to the economic domain (always under
military protection). And then, above all, there is the great war of the century: the war
against migrants, which speaks only one voice from north to south, from east to west: that
of walls, prisons, rejections, deaths along the lines border, in the seas and in the rivers,
And it is no coincidence that military expenditures have continued to grow (in the face of
the economic crisis), the basis for strengthening, strengthening, restructuring, because
the military machine must always be fed, it is a monster that must be fed continuously,
and its favorite food is services to citizens, wages and workers' incomes, the
possibilities of a better life for many people. The military mortgage falls on the whole
society, and the politicians of every kind bow down and bow to this god, starting with our
pentastellars, which proved to be the servants of militarism without any delay (new
appropriations of over 7 billion, purchase F-35 , refinancing of 24 military missions,
next mission to Syria in the service of the USA, etc.).
The Italian military system, NATO and the USA in recent months is undergoing a profound
restructuring given its growing centrality in the international arena; the construction,
in Sigonella, of a new large US communications / information system (Mazzeo writes on page
6) is proof of this. With the MUOS, the existing bases, the upgrading of Lampedusa, the
"hub of the Med" of the Catania Plain is of fundamental strategic importance in the wars
of this century, in the American plans for control / intrusion / management of state
policies in many areas of the planet, in the US trade wars against major rivals China and
Russia. The US is also preparing to rule militarily the consequences of the upcoming
climatic catastrophes by positioning itself adequately and preventively in the areas of
the four continents where they possess about 5000 positions. Furthermore, the US military
remains the largest consumer hydrocarbon institutional apparatus in the world; it alone
consumes more fuel and emits more exhaust gases than most medium-sized states. How to say:
there is no need to use weapons to do damage, just exist!
Hence our insistence on never separating the military question from all the others that
affect the world of social struggles; real wars, which exist, are many, and continue to
increase, defense policies, the production of armaments and their trade, construction and
maintenance of military bases, represent an objective against which to turn our interest
and our battles more and more effectively.
Pippo Gurrieri
Published in Editorial
http://www.sicilialibertaria.it/2019/07/12/guerra-vera-e-falsa-pace/
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Message: 2
The imminence of an unprecedented climate catastrophe, considered certain by a growing
(albeit minority) number of people, runs the risk of fueling new millennialisms from the
end of the world, with presumable apparitions, in the short term, of saviors and sellers
of false medicine . There are not only negationists and uncaring members (most of them),
but also advocates of anemic and functional solutions to the perpetuation of the current
dis-order of things. ---- If it is a fact that a "change" is taking place in the climate
(this is the negative sense of change that we have learned to appreciate in the exploits
of the current government in Italy), it is less clear how much the influence of human
activity affects this deterioration , which would then be better defined as "capitalist
mode of production" to avoid a comfortable genericism so beloved by the bloodsucking lords
of humanity and the Planet Earth. How it affects, not if it affects.
A dangerous direction provides a reading of the meteorological phenomena in act detached
from reality, from the causes, from the responsibilities and therefore from the
possibilities, as also from the urgency, to intervene immediately, putting us in the
hopeful expectation that the experts, the science, the politicians find the adequate
solutions to prevent the announced catastrophe. But the years go by, and if you look
around, you can't really see where the reduction of that CO2 that is contributing to the
fast warming of the planet should begin. A rather immense and almost unknown theme in its
scientific implications, within which, however, something concrete and very linked to our
daily lives exists. Something that has certain origins in the industrial development that
began in the 1800s and increased at an irrepressible pace until today,
If we dwell on each of these aspects, all closely linked together, we can see how much the
social structure in force in the vast part of the Earth influences the possibilities of
humanity to be able to live happily: there is therefore a lack of freedom and social
justice, the way in which it is produced to the detriment of the possibility of the earth
and the environment as a whole to regenerate itself.
It cannot be an Al Gore, therefore, to indicate a solution; nor the little Greta (and the
skilled directors who made it a brand) to lead a global response; it is instead necessary
to concretize a path of non-tame responses to the bastard logic of the globalized
exploitation system. The gentlemen who hold the financial and economic power, and
therefore also the political, media and military power, have been forced to include the
environmental theme in their agenda, but continue to pursue the pursuit of profit day by
day, regardless of the nefarious and lethal consequences on people and the environment,
because this is and will continue to be the philosophy of these people, that is, of
capitalism. It is no coincidence that its consequences immediately fall on the poorest
peoples (those who have not the slightest responsibility), they strongly affect the living
conditions of the oppressed classes, proving to have an essentially classist character.
Even if we face a new "universal flood", one thing is certain: we will not all be in the
same boat! Indeed, probably the rich minority will be on the boats and everything else
will be agitated in the waters without life jackets and rubber boats to which to cling.
But let's face it: we live immersed in a daily political fiction where we live: the fable
of the "whole s'agusta", of the absolute faith in the science that resolves everything,
and of the minimal commitment, that useful to wash our conscience, which manifests itself
in small daily gestures: healthy eating, intelligent consumption, differentiating waste,
etc. A fable that does not affect the capitalist predatory method, rather it feeds it with
new illusions that paralyze us and new market outlets.
To reduce CO2 by some half a degree, everything that revolves around the fossil should be
blocked: deposits, mines, power plants, means of transport, industries; but can we think
of blocking all this without a definitive stop to the capitalist system? Or do we have to
let the system itself pretend to regenerate with a new great deception and blows of
blackmail that concern the habits and comforts of that richer part of the Planet where it
rightly craves to land the other poorer part?
The task of anarchists, radical ecologists, coherent anti-capitalists, true friends of
life, remains that of being able to trigger even in the most modest battles and the most
immediate objectives the germ of a more global vision, fighting the attitude of those who
will continue to bask in their own little world, forgetting or pretending to forget that
instead the world is one, and is sick, and that the cure lies for the most part in the
hands of the oppressed, wherever they reside.
Urgent is therefore a break with everything that has contributed to the disaster:
capitalism, industrialism, the pursuit of profit, exploitation of nature and the
environment, animals and human beings. An urgent struggle without a quarter with all that
is related to this system: states, banks, governments, economic and financial bodies, and
with all that contributes to the life of this system: military armies and bases, parties,
churches and religions, conditioning tools mass, schools, traditional and modern media,
etc. An urgent break with the fundamental ideas of this system: authoritarianism,
patriarchy, racism, democratic mystification, cult (and trap) of an increasingly
unmanageable technology.
States, capitalism, armies, indiscriminate development aimed only at producing profits for
the privileged few, and all their priests, however disguised and everywhere positioned,
have produced what for many peoples is already a catastrophe. To still have a chance, in
order to desire a better world, we must immediately do without them, activate new
organizational processes from the bottom, egalitarians and self-managed, forms of
self-government and new ways of producing respectful of the earth, water and air and above
all of the future, of those to which we will leave every little corner of this planet.
The dream of a world free from exploitation, oppression and social parasites, and the
revolution necessary to achieve it, can guide us and save us, but we should also assume
the spirit to which Errico Malatesta recalled us back in 1913: "Today, tomorrow and
always, we must act, think and behave as if the revolution could be possible at any
moment. It's the only way to make it really possible. "
http://www.sicilialibertaria.it/2019/07/12/1783/
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Message: 3
A supporter of SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left in Greece) waves a party flag at a
2015 election rally in Athens. Photo: Michael Debets ---- Greece's Syriza was a beacon of
hope to many parts of the left when they came to power in 2015 but the party's quick
capitulation to the austerity measures they campaigned against was a forceful affirmation
of those critical of electoral strategies. With the party set to lose power after
experiencing a heavy defeat in the early July 2019 election, Athens based Yavor Tarinski
offers an assessment of outcome and it's lessons. ---- By Yavor Tarinski ---- On July 7th
the SYRIZA party (Coalition of the Radical Left) lost the Greek national elections to the
conservative New Democracy with a bitter 8% difference, allowing the latter to form a
self-reliance government (something which had not happen since the beginning of the crisis
in 2008).
This defeat comes shortly after the package of elections of May in Greece, during which
the Coalition of the Radical Left lost the EU elections (with 10% difference!), along with
the regional and the municipal ones, to New Democracy. Most people, including the
parliamentary opposition, were surprised with the significant difference between the first
and the second party. But what led to SYRIZA's loss of power to one of the old Greek
parties, currently headed by the Mitsotakis dynasty, which had been ruling the country for
many decades and is among the parties responsible for the ongoing Greek crisis?
Many rushed to blame these series of defeats on the Prespa agreement, which resolved (at
least to a certain point) the so called "Macedonian name issue," but which was also used
by right-wing populists and certain patriotic sections of the Left in the country to
provoke the lowest chauvinist and nationalist instincts within the Greek society in their
strive at attracting the electorate. Others blamed the tax increases initiated by SYRIZA
leader Alexis Tsipras's government, which alienated many of those who initially voted for
his party to put an end to the politics of austerity.
There were also the images of lawlessness in urban centers that were portrayed by the
mainstream media (sympathetic to the conservative opposition), which were either enormous
exaggerations or utter lies, aimed to undermine the left government's ability to enforce
order. These factors surely played an important role in the increased support for New
Democracy, but it does not show the whole picture for SYRIZA's defeat.
Also notable was a significant increase in abstention rates: in the 2015 elections it was
36%, while now it soared to 42% (the highest in the country up to date). Many of those who
decided to abstain from voting, were among those who voted for SYRIZA in previous elections.
From the streets to the halls of power: SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras appears above with
circle. The image shows a clash between Italian police and 1,000 Greek radicals traveling
to the 2001 G8 protests in Genoa who were refused entry at the port of Ancona. In response
the group of Greek radicals staged an all-day protest which ended with hundreds of arrests
and injuries. Photo: Bobo Antic
What Changed This Time?
SYRIZA came to power after series of popular uprisings and social movements in Greece,
among which the most significant was the movement of the indignants in 2011. It is a
mistake to believe that these movements openly supported the Coalition of the Radical
Left. It was more like a "protest" vote for many enraged Greeks. With popular assemblies,
cooperatives, and demonstrations taking place all over the country, many thought that they
might pressure the system further by voting for "anti-systemic" parties like SYRIZA and
even the fascist Golden Dawn (which also saw increase in votes in this period).
What has changed since then is that voting for SYRIZA (as well as Golden Dawn) is no
longer seen as "anti-systemic", as the party had presence in the halls of power (as
opposition, as well as government) for almost a decade without initiating any significant
change. That's why now it lost its position (while the neo-Nazis remained outside
parliament as they were also present for almost a decade in the Greek parliament). The
Left's "long march through the institutions" (to use Rudi Dutschke's famous slogan) once
again proved to lead to a dead end.
Tsipras and his party formed their government with promises to put an end to austerity, to
drastically reduce social inequalities, to halt extractivist projects in Northern Greece,
to legalize the occupied Vio.Me factory, which currently operates under workers control,
and much more. But they did nothing of the above, while implementing new austerity
measures. The main difference with previous governments was that they expressed their
disagreement with what they were implementing, but this was not enough. It is not a
question of the sincerity of SYRIZA's initial intentions, but rather a confirmation of the
historic trend, according to which the state and capitalism cannot be made to work for the
many.
The most negative aspect of SYRIZA's hold on power was the increased sense of political
cynicism and hopelessness among the Greek population. Many submerged into the so-called
Left melancholy and descended into apathy. But not all. Many social movements and
struggles continue to this day to fight for a direct democratic and ecological future.
Among the major such movements is the one against oil extraction in Northern Greece, where
locals have established a dense network of popular assemblies, through which they direct
their struggle, without the means of hierarchy or electoral politics. Another is the
self-managed factory of Vio.Me., which was threatened by previous governments, as well as
by the SYRIZA's, but continues its struggle, with the support of solidarity committees in
all major Greek cities.
People in many other areas in Greece, like those in Agrafa, continue their fights for
dignity, direct democracy and ecology, against the plans of the Capital-Nation-State
complex, and beyond any logic of political representation and parliamentarism. It is this
refusal of theirs to depend on professional politicians and political parties, which have
allowed them to build resilient communities, which to successfully resist the socially and
environmentally destructive appetites of political and capitalist elites.
Check out our "Socialist Faces in High Places" reader which includes over a dozen articles
critically engaging with left electoralism in the U.S. and internationally.
http://blackrosefed.org/socialist-faces-in-high-places-reader/
An Object Lesson
SYRIZA may not disappear from the political landscape of Greece. It may remain significant
parliamentary force in the following years. But it will do so not as an "anti-systemic"
party, but as a replacement to the old social democratic PASOK, in a society where
increasing amount of people refuse to participate in the electoral spectacle (and
governments are being voted into power by increasingly smaller minorities).
SYRIZA's transformation from a radical left party into a classic social democrats is not
an exception but the rule, when trying to make institutions, which were initially intended
to concentrate power and wealth into the hands of a few elites, do anything radically
different from that.
Although history is filled with other examples of similar cases, we need to look no
further than the recent municipal elections in Spain, where the municipalist parties,
which in previous elections swept their electoral competitors, this time experienced major
setbacks. Once again, it was not "bad intentions," which led to the inefficiency of these
municipalists when in power, but the irreformable nature of local bureaucratic mechanisms.
Instead of entrapping ourselves in the current authoritarian institutions, we should build
our own from the ground up, which to resemble our desire for direct democracy and ecology.
Bright examples are the Zapatistas, who are doing just this for 25 years now, or the
communities of Northern Syria/Rojava, who have established a feminist democratic
confederation in one of the harshest environments imaginable. But even closer to us is the
movement of the Yellow Vests in France, which rejected negotiation with Macron's
government and instead established an assembly of assemblies (a confederal structure,
which sustains power at the local grassroots assemblies of the movement).
Nietzsche has said that he who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does
not become a monster. This is the lesson, which all efforts of the Left to change the
system from within, show us. Instead of altering it, they became part of it. It is time to
look away from how things currently are, and towards how we would want them to be.
Yavor Tarinski is an independent researcher and a militant in social movements. He
currently participates in the political journal Babylonia.gr, and
http://blackrosefed.org/syriza-long-march-through-institutions/
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Message: 4
For several years, employees from all over Poland have been contacting ZSP, who are
struggling with the problem of non-payment by the Social Insurance Institution of benefits
due to ZUS not receiving Z3 forms. Pursuant to the binding law, the obligation to submit
the Z3 forms to the ZUS Regional Organizational Unit lies with the employer. Many of them,
however, do not do it. ---- However, the employee bears the consequences of not fulfilling
the obligation by the employer. If the employer does not provide the printout, it is
impossible for the ZUS to pay the benefit. Regardless of whether it is sick leave or paid
parental leave. ---- One of the employers who are completely uninterested in complying
with regulations in this field is KrakVet.pl from Krakow. As a result of failure to
deliver the documentation used to ZUS, the employee of the company, having two children,
was deprived of livelihood for half a year, despite the fact that paid maternity leave,
and later sick leave, was fully eligible to her.
The urged employer would send the employee to an accountant who was unachievable and the
payment of due maternity leave was made only after the intervention in the ZUS
directorate. However, such action takes a lot of time, and most employees do not know the
rules and can not rely on them in the confrontation with private civil servants of the
Social Insurance Institution or the National Labor Inspectorate. The ineptitude or lack of
interest of officials is serious for employees.
The KrakVet case is not completed, because the employee has not yet received her due
remuneration for the period of sick leave.
https://zsp.net.pl/krakvet-przyklad-lekcewazenia-pracownika
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Message: 5
Stagecoach drivers in Lancashire ---- Stagecoach, the transport company, recently offered
the insulting 3p an hour rise over three years to its bus and coach drivers. A strike
followed with 150 drivers and their supporters gathering at Preston bus station on 25th
June., with a similar number at Chorley bus station. They are prepared to strike for
another 15 days this July. ---- Arriva bus drivers in London ---- Arriva operates a fifth
of London buses in the greater London area. It is increasingly putting pressure on drivers
to work on their rest days. This is not just a massive stress on them, but increases
health and safety concerns over tired drivers lacking concentration and losing control of
their wheels. At 15 bus stations, bus drivers voted overwhelmingly- 1,854 to 69 - to come
out on strike. Watch this space for further news.
Plymouth Academy
Plymouth Academy teachers and support staff went out on strike on 2nd July. They were
demanding an end to management bullying. Management backed down and agreed to an
anti-bullying policy and other demands. The workers have been treated abysmally, whilst
some managers are trousering between £70,000 to 90,000 a year. 40 people turned out on the
picket. This is something that needs to repeated throughout all the academies, schools and
further education establishments
Birmingham University
A one day strike on 28th June took place at Birmingham University supported by catering,
cleaning and security workers. They were acting against the removal of payments for
weekend and anti-social hours and the cutting of holiday entitlement by one week as well
as the refusal of the university to become a Living Wage employer and the expectation that
some stuff should start collecting work materials in their own time. Meanwhile the vice
chancellor is pocketing £447,00 a year plus £80,000 bonus and other perks. This obscenity
is insisting on a pay cut for his workers.
Sainsburys in Essex
A 24 hour strike took place at Sainsburys Waltham Point distribution centre on 27th June
when sick pay for 26 weeks was reduced to just 2 weeks. The warehouse workers responded
angrily with a solid strike.
Bradford
Over 300 workers-cleaners, domestics, porters, etc- at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS
Trust went out on strike for 7 days starting 8th July against outsourcing. They realise
that outsourcing will undermine their pay and conditions. Similar strikes in Wigan last
year forced NHS bosses to back down, followed by other NHS trusts.
Also in Bradford, workers at Bradford College struck for 3 days in early July against 131
compulsory redundancies and low pay.
South East London
Workers at John Roan School in south east London went out on strike against plans to turn
their school into a privately run Academy. This is the 17th strike so far, with further
strike planned. They are supported by school students, parents and local residents. This
decision to turn John Roan into an academy is being implemented by the Labour Council in
Greenwich. How many times must we point out that Labour is no friend of the working class?
Sussex
Meanwhile workers, parents, students and local residents in the working class district of
Moulsecoomb in Brighton are acting against similar plans to turn Moulsecoomb Primary into
an academy. Workers have voted to come out on strike whilst locals have set up a Hands Off
Moulsecoomb Primary Campaign.
At nearby Peacehaven, workers at Peacehaven Community School went out on a strike last
weekagainst plans to turn their school into an academy, Swale Academy Trust.
North Yorkshire
Workers at Drax power station near Selby in West Yorkshire went out on a 48 hour strike in
early July for a 2.8 percent pay deal for 2018 and 2019. Further 48 hour strikes are planned.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2019/07/13/workplace-notes-2/
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