Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #296 - Call of
Christchurch: How to save the soldier Zuckerberg (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Manifesto of the Union Communist Libertaire UCL -
Counter-power, double power and revolutionary break (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Libertarian Socialist Equality By Bangladesh
AnarchoSyndicalist Federation - BASF (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira - CAB: On August 8,
1879, 140 years ago, he was born in the state of Mexico, Emiliano
Zapata Salazar. (pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Russia, avtonom: For freedom and direct democracy:
anarchoblock at a rally on August 10 [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. anarchist communist group ACG: Workplace Notes
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The attack on two mosques in New Zealand has sparked a lot of criticism of the Web giant's
inability to moderate its content. Two months later, Emmanuel Macron and Jacinda Ardern,
the New Zealand Prime Minister, launched from Paris a " Christchurch Appeal " against
online extremism. Behind the facade of laudable intentions and reassuring speeches, what
credit can we give to the word of the rulers and GAFAM ? ---- On March 15, a white
supremacist was committing an Islamophobic mass murder by attacking two mosques in the
city of Christchurch, New Zealand. ---- The author of this racist massacre - adhering to
the so-called " grand replacement " theory promoted by the entire fachosphere following
the racist and conspiracy writings of the French essayist Renaud Camus - innovated by
using social networks not only upstream his massacre but also by putting himself directly
on stage during his first attack, broadcast live via his Facebook account. This has
obviously been pointed out by many critics.
GAFAM and the spread of hatred
In recent years, social networks have been heavily used to disseminate hate content.
Recall only that before the Facebook Live of March 15, the massacre of Parkland high
school in Florida in February 2018 (17 victims) had been filmed and live-tweeted. If
emotion is legitimate in the face of the drama of Christchurch born delusions of the white
supremacists, the reactions calling for the empowerment of Gafam and a better filtering of
the diffused contents are they at the height of the stakes ? Is there a call for increased
accountability from GAFAM to end the spread of hate speech and other content via content
social networks ?
Firefighters
Reacting to this " call of Christchurch ", the association La Quadrature du Net has
evoked an image that could not be more explicit: " ask[r]the arsonists to extinguish the
fire ." Behind the appearance of a takeover by the " public authorities ", this call
only endorses practices validated by the European Commission in recent months: give Gafam
only the power to judge what are hate content and unlawful. By making believe a change in
practices, we maintain the essential: the capitalist model of Facebook et al. This is the
model that should be criticized ! In fact, the interests of some, the states, are not in
contradiction with the interests of others, the Gafam.
Behind the promises of modification and reinforcement of the operating rules and
moderation hides the real problem, that of a capitalist model that fructifies on the
accumulation of personal data for commercial purposes. Which data can also be used in the
context of a generalized or targeted state surveillance (and we could well be or become
its targets !).
We learn this Wednesday, June 26 that Facebook will now accept to provide the justice IP
addresses of hate speech writers. A great world premiere some of which pretend to rejoice.
But will the IPs of the hate capitalists also be disclosed ?
David (UCL Greater Paris-South)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Appel-de-Christchurch-Comment-sauver-le-soldat-Zuckerberg
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Message: 2
The revolution is not due solely to ideological maturation, nor only to "objective"
economic conditions . It can occur at the end of a dynamic based on social practices that
allow a collective awareness and the emergence of a project of shared society more and
more widely. ---- After the popular uprising of 2001, Argentina saw many companies (here,
the Zanon factory) spontaneously taken over. ---- cc Sebastian Hacher ---- The libertarian
revolution is not the substitution of one leadership team for another: it is a global
revolution of the economic, social, political and cultural forms of society. ---- The
revolution is not due solely to ideological maturation, nor only to "objective" economic
conditions . It can occur at the end of a dynamic based on social practices, the real
practices of the masses and individuals, their struggles, which unfold in the material
conditions of each era, and which allow a collective awareness and emergence a shared
social project more and more widely.
In non-revolutionary period: build counter-powers
Revolutionary awareness is usually based on concrete experimentation through class
struggle, emancipatory struggles and their self-organization. Wrestling unions, private
employment committees, homeless committees, feminist organizations, anti-racist groups,
committees denouncing police violence ... All are part of a logic of counter-power against
capitalism and the State.
These counter-powers are potentially the embryos of a political and social alternative,
but potentially only. They can become so if they adopt self-management practices and
anticapitalist, anti-patriarchal, anti-racist, ecologist, revolutionary perspectives ...
The libertarian communist current must contribute actively, and be careful to oppose
speeches and dirigiste practices, because freedom is not for us a distant end allowing
recourse to any means, but it is the goal and the means.
On the other hand, strengthening the people's power also means strengthening our autonomy
from the capitalists and the state. Thus, it is useful to participate in initiatives to
reappropriate production, distribution, education, etc., by bringing our analysis and our
anticapitalist struggles and by impulse self-directed and emancipatory practices.
During a pre-revolutionary period: push to double power
A pre-revolutionary period begins when the state is overwhelmed by the rise of the class
struggle to the point that it begins to disintegrate, and its authority is questioned. If
certain places of production are taken over by the workers, the employers themselves see
their reason for being directly threatened.
Active counter-powers upstream can then form the backbone of a network of democratic
bodies - be they local federations, industry federations, municipalities, councils,
neighborhood or factory committees, popular assemblies - who are beginning to take over
economic and social activities. The progressive federation of this ensemble draws the
contours of a popular power competing with the state power.
By "popular power" we mean not a "labor state" according to the Leninist conception, but a
dynamic of direct, federally controlled, grassroots democracy.
During this process - where capitalist power is openly challenged - the libertarian
communist current does not seek to form a "staff" aspiring to seize state power. On the
contrary, it encourages popular power to become aware of itself, consolidate itself,
expand, and consider replacing state power.
The libertarian communist current must help to orient the revolutionary process towards a
self-managing solution, avoiding the pitfalls of bureaucratization, without relying
completely on spontaneity. It has already shown, in history, its extraordinary creative
power, but also its instability.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Contre-pouvoir-double-pouvoir-et-rupture-revolutionnaire
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Message: 3
An approach to economics centered on equality as a regulative idea is in no way contrary
to approaches that center around the mechanics of exploitation. It is not necessarily
contrary to the labor theory of value or the theories of unequal exchange. Putting
equality at the forefront also does not commit us to the kind of ultra-egalitarianism that
are criticized by anarchists. Obviously, there are certain cases where some inequalities
are necessary and, even, desirable. It does demand that we act to greatly reducing the
gaps between wealthy and poor populations, especially the gaps between the First and Third
World societies. Equality demands the global social product be distributed evenly amongst
the world's population as best as possible.
Some might object that a socialist distribution is not an egalitarian distribution.
Rather, a socialist distribution is one where wealth is spread out, not evenly, but to
those who do the work and those countries who do the work: she who does not work, shall
not eat. Whereas some have argued that the labor theory of value is necessary for
explaining the mechanics of exploitation, the distribution principle associated with it is
not adequate to rectify the problem of inequality between countries that has been
generated by imperialism. Such a distribution principle does not address the problem of
underdevelopment. Surely populations in the most underdeveloped parts of the Third World,
that have been rendered unproductive by imperialism, should not continue to remain in dire
poverty under a global libertarian socialism. Whole countries of the "industrial reserve
army" in the Third World may not currently be productive, but should not resources and
development be directed to such populations under socialism? According to demographers,
for the first time in history, the majority of the world's population is living in cities.
The new "global countryside," the base areas of the Global People's struggle, will include
the slums of Third World megacities. These slums are less sites for production then
blights that show just how capitalism's disorder of production has failed to bring huge
segments of the human population into production. Surely socialism must speak to these
vast populations that will be the people's warriors in the decades to come.
The global economy is a causal nexus where value in various forms is transferred around
the globe from one person to another. So, if one person is receiving more than an equal
share, then somebody else is receiving less somewhere in the causal nexus. Likewise, if
someone is receiving less, someone else is receiving more. Imperialism has created a world
order where those who receive less and those who receive more correspond to populations in
the Third World and First World respectively. Using equality as a regulative idea, one
should be regarded as exploited when one does not receive an equal, a fair, a just share.
One is an exploiter when one receives more than an equal, a fair, a just share. A country
or region is exploited, is part of the Third World, when its population is largely made up
the exploited who have less than an equal share. A country or region should be regarded as
part of the First World when its population is largely made up of exploiters who have more
than an equal share. (1)
A quick look at global inequality
The income gap between the wealthy, imperialist countries and the poor countries of the
global countryside points to the tremendous parasitism of the former on the latter. The
income gap between the fifth of the world's people in the former and the fifth in the
latter was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 in 1990 and 30 to 1 in 1960.
Now, all of the population of the First World are in the world's richest 20% by income,
which owns more than 85% of the world's wealth. But if more than 50% of the world's assets
are own by the richest 2% of adults (most of whom live in the First World), the First
World majority (less than 20% of the global population) owns 35% of the world's wealth.
80% of the world's population must make do with owning 15% of the world's wealth. This
First World monopoly of assets translates into a hugely disproportionate share of world
consumption. In the 1998 study cited, 20 percent of the population in the developed
nations were reported to consume 86 percent of the world's goods. This astonishing degree
of parasitism is underscored by a more recent 2002 World Bank study that reports that the
richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion
poor people. (2)
After decades of "development" and market liberalisation, structural adjustment programs
and Washington Consensus neoliberalism, the average income for the Third World is still
only around 15% that of the First World in purchasing power parity terms, and more like 5%
in foreign exchange rate terms. (3)
Parasitism is reflected in consumption also. The fifth of the world's people living in the
highest income countries consumed:
86% of the world's GDP - the bottom fifth just 1%.
82% of the world's export markets - the bottom fifth just 1%.
68% of foreign direct investment - the bottom fifth just 1%.
74% of the world's telephone lines - the bottom fifth 1.5%.
93.3% of internet users - the bottom fifth 0.2%.
84% of the world's paper - the bottom fifth 1.1%.
87% of the world's vehicles - the bottom fifth less than 1%.
58% of total energy - the bottom fifth 4%. (4)
The majority of the increase in world consumption during the 1990s accrued to those
already in the top 10% of world income distribution. Between 1993 and 2001, some 50 to 60%
of the increase in world consumption accrued to those living on more than PPP$10,000 1993
- around 10% of the world's population. For this 10%, 4/5 lived in the high income
countries and most of the rest in Latin America. The remaining 40-50% of the increase in
world consumption accrued mainly to those living on around PPP$3000-$6000, of whom the
majority were in the burgeoning middle class of semi-comprador China. "Hardly any of the
increase accrued to those on less than PPP$1000 a year ($2.73 day). Most of the latter
lived in South Asia, Africa, and China." (5)
The First World worker does not gain under an egalitarian distribution of the world's
wealth. If a socialist order existed between peoples and regions, it is impossible to
ignore the fact that the First World populations as a whole would lose out in terms of
income, assets, life opportunities, etc. Thus the First World worker has little interest
in overthrowing the status quo in favor of socialism, in favor of equality.
The revisionist script is a predictable one. Whether the revisionists choose to justify or
explain these global disparities in wealth according to "productivity" differences or the
protestant work ethic, manifest destiny, white racial superiority or predestination makes
not one whit of difference. Like other imperialists, First Worldist revisionists will do
all sorts of ideological contortions to justify the current standard of living of First
World "workers. " Not only do they maintain that the current imperial standard of living
in the First World is deserved, but that First World workers deserve even more of the
global pie. Michel Bakunin would be spinning in his grave, Rudolf Rocker too, if they were
around to hear these scumbags justifying parasitism in their names. Reality matters.
Theory has to match reality, it must predict and explain, it must be scientific if it is
to be a guide to action. Libertarian Communism is a set of eye glasses whose lenses allow
the masses to see the world as it is. We can stumble around blindly or we can choose
reality, revisionism or Anarchosyndicalism.
Notes
In value terms, it is true that the poorest people in the world are often those who are
unable to find work and, hence, are not technically exploited. But since exploitation has
taken on profound geo-political dimensions after World War II, if a group of people lives
in an exploited nation (a nation which turns over the bulk of its surplus value to the
First World) and is paid below the international value of labor, then it is exploited and
its lumpen status ensures competition for wages drives down their value in their country,
contributing to superprofits.
United Nations Human Development Report 1998, ‘Consumption for Human Development' (United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York 1998) online:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1998/
Robert Hunter Wade, ‘Globalisation, Growth, Poverty, Inequality, Resentment, and
Imperialism,' in John Ravenhill, (ed.), Global Political Economy (Oxford University Press,
2008), p. 378.
United Nations Human Development Report 1999, ‘Globalization with a Human Face', (United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York 1998) online:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1999/
Wade, 2008, p. 380.
https://bangladeshasf.org/libertarian-socialist-equality/
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Message: 4
He was a distinguished military and farmer leader of the Mexican Revolution, which began
in 1910, in the wake of the fight against the dictatorship of porphyry In this revolution,
he was one of the great responsible for lift the flag "Tierra Y Libertad" and defending
not only social justice, equality, democracy and collective property of the earth, but
also respect for indigenous, peasants and workers in general . ---- Involved with the
popular struggles since youth, when the revolutionary process broke out, he began to joint
the armed combat of the dispossessed peasants of morelos and then became commander of the
Southern Liberator Army. The program defended by him and his supporters "Zapatistas" was
exposed in the plan de Ayala, launched at the end of 1911 and called for a radical
agricultural reform and an institutional transformation for the benefit of poor and
excluded, which should be conquered by Armed Revolution of a very social character.
The Zapatista Army, which in 1914 reached almost 30 members, fought enemies and traitors
of the revolution, LED open and guerrilla clashes, expropriated and returned land to
peasants and poor insurgents, supported by the notion that " the earth It's who works in
it "; created and strengthened joints and institutions in different spheres of life. His
influence was felt, not only in the Mexican, but also in the states of Mexico, Guerrero,
Puebla and tlaxcala.
He was not an anarchist, but a popular leadership whose influences of anarchism - through
the readings of Peter Kropotkin and the contact with anarchists such as Ricardo Flores
Magón and António Diaz Soto y gama - felt strongly. He was murdered at his battle post in
1919, doing justice to the motto he claimed: " it is better to die standing than to live
on your knees
On this date, we pay all our tribute and say that his fight remains alive in ours!
Yay Zapata!
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Message: 5
On Saturday, August 10, at 2 p.m., Moscow anarchists will take part in an opposition rally
on Sakharov Avenue under the slogans "For freedom and direct democracy!" and "Freedom to
Vladislav Barabanov!" In Moscow, protests against the denial of registration of opposition
candidates to the Moscow City Duma have long subsided. The authorities' response to the
protest activity was, in addition to the mass beatings of protesters, detentions and
administrative arrests, a new "swamp case" about the "riots" on July 27. One of those
arrested in this case was our friend, Nizhny Novgorod libertarian socialist Vladislav
Barabanov. ---- Anarchists and libertarian socialists are not supporters of parliamentary,
representative democracy. We believe that all important issues should be resolved at
general meetings of people interested in this, on a large scale - at meetings of
representatives of grass-roots groups, with peremptory mandates from the groups regarding
voting on a particular issue, with the right to withdraw at any time.
However, authoritarian Russian authorities do not want to allow even bourgeois
parliamentary democracy - with all the so-called "representative" bodies, there are
chances to pass, with rare exceptions, either pro-government candidates or pocket
"oppositionists".
In addition, many people went to mass protests in Moscow not so much for registering
opposition candidates for the Moscow City Duma as for protesting the policies of the
regime as a whole. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why there were many
non-Muscovites among the protesters, including the arrested Vlad Barabanov.
On August 10, at 14 o'clock, an agreed rally will be held on Sakharov Avenue, after which
mass walks are planned in the city center. The agenda of the event includes not only the
admission of opposition candidates to the elections, but also demands to stop repressions
against protesters, release those arrested and close the criminal case of "mass riots".
Anarchists join the demands to release Vlad Barabanov and other political prisoners! For
freedom and direct democracy!
Entrance to the rally from the Komsomolskaya metro station. Look for us by the red and
black anarchist flags!
Social Media Meetings
on facebook
in contact with
UPDATE: In addition, on August 10, an agreed mass picket will be held in Nizhny Novgorod
in support of all those arrested under Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian
Federation . Come to pl. Lenin at 14:00, do not remain indifferent!
And remember - they don't give rights, they take rights!
https://avtonom.org/news/za-svobodu-i-pryamuyu-demokratiyu-anarhoblok
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Message: 6
BEIS Workers Out On Indefinite Strike ---- Cleaners and catering workers are on indefinite
strike at the Department For Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). So far the
workers have been on strike for 3 weeks. These workers work for outsourcing firms ISS and
Aramark and are demanding that they pay the London Living Wage and improved sick pay and
holiday pay and that be returned in house. The cleaners were joined on strike for five
days by porters, security and post room workers which boosted the confidence of the
strikers. ---- Hackney Transport Workers Strike ---- Drivers and passenger assistants
employed by Hackney Council have recently taken strike action on a number of days to get
proper pay for doing split shifts. On one occasion workers blockaded the entrance to a
private car park where the employers had put the buses normally stationed in the council
depot. They hoped in this way to foil pickets but this little ploy was spotted and cars
driven across the exit.
Hackney is a majority Labour council. Labour councillors have shown a distinct hostility
to the strike. One of them turned up to help with the strike-breaking and told strikers
they should be happy with their wages -some earning less than £800 a month- and that there
was no "magic money tree" (a direct quote from Theresa May!)
Sainsbury Distribution Workers
Workers at Sainbury's Waltham Point distribution centre in Essex went on a 24 hour strike
for the second time on 25th July against cuts to sick pay, reduced from 26 weeks to 2
weeks. A picket numbering several dozen strikers was put up outside the warehouse.
Bradford health workers
Hundreds of health workers at Bradford Royal Infirmary began a two week strike in the last
week of July against privatisation. This entails outsourcing cleaners, porters and other
support staff. Workers are strongly opposed to this which they see as a move to full
privatisation of the Infirmary. There is widespread distrust of management, seen as liars
ready to break promises on guarantees of NHS terms and conditions. 100 people were out on
the picket on the first day.
Lincolnshire Health Visitors on Strike
Health visitors employed by Lincolnshire county council went on strike for 48 hours from
July 15th. They again went out on 24 hour strikes on 19th July and 22nd July, and then
another 48 hour strike on 25th July. They are striking over not getting paid the rate for
the job and the erosion of their professional responsibilities. This is the first time
that they have taken strike action.
The health visitors are on the NHS Agenda for Change pay scales, but have had no
increases in pay since being transferred to the local authority which has different pay
rates - even though both council and NHS employees have received wage awards, these health
visitors have not.
NHS staff in England last year accepted a three year pay deal which, for the majority of
staff, meant a 6.5 per cent hike in pay over the three years.
The dispute only involves those 58 health visitors transferred from the NHS under Agenda
for Change terms. There are 111 full-time equivalent health visitor posts - and those
other health visitors are either on grade 10 contacts or were employed by the county
council since October 2017. There are also some student health visitors.
The latest figures from NHS Digital reveal the lowest number of health visitors in
England since September 2012. There were 7,694 health visitors in England in January this
year, a fall of 25 per cent since their peak of more than 10,000 in October 2015 when the
Health Visitor Implementation Plan came to an end.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2019/08/10/workplace-notes-3/
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