Update: anarchist news and information all over the world - 29.0.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Car Workers Strike
      in US (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Chile - Rebellion
      and Repression (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #298 - The far right
      strengthens its grip (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #298 - The right to
      abortion between gains and setbacks (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Union Communiste Libertaire Bruxelles: Interview of a
      comrade of the Libertarian Communist Union (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Greece, Indignation turned into revolt - By Yannis
      Youlountas (ca, it) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Britain, Class War Scotland - An open letter to Ruth
      Davidson: (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
8.  Britain, AFED, organise magazine: Putting The A Back Into
      Admin | Knowledge Exchange (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
9.  Britain, AFED, organise magazine: The Leaderless Revolution
      | Review (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





As of October 23rd car workers in the Unites States have been on strike for 38 days. This
involves 48,000 workers at 50 General Motors (GM) plants. Demands put forward by the
workers included better job security, facilitation of temporary workers getting permanent
jobs, better pay and the retention of healthcare benefits. It is the first mass strike by
US carworkers in a decade. ---- The United Automobile Workers (UAW), the union
representing many carworkers, agreed a sweetheart deal to help GM recover from the last
recession, GM has indeed increased its profits but continues to shut down plants in the
USA and move production abroad. ---- Under increasing anger from workers, the UAW was
forced to call for strike action beginning on September 15th. In retaliation, GM withdrew
health insurance from 55,000 car workers on September 17th. They rescinded this nine days
later under pressure. Truck drivers refused to deliver cars during the strike in solidarity.

On October 16th the UAW and GM announced a new contract which would be put to car workers
in a ballot. This new contract is yet another sellout by the UAW leaders. Under the terms
of the contract, the Lordstown plant and three other workplaces will still be closed down,
the two tier system that discriminates between temporary and permanent workers in terms of
pay and benefits is not only retained, but a whole new set of tiers is created. That means
GM can hire temporary workers and third party contract workers at will.

The UAW has acted against rank and file workers organising for a No vote. In Spring Hill,
Tennessee it called in police against rank and file workers who called for a rejection of
the new contract and it is attempting to deprive the rank and file of any control over the
running of the ballot. The UAW knows that it faces rejection of the deal at the larger
plants, so started the ballot in smaller workplaces. The threatened plant at Lordstown has
been put at the end of the ballot process, whilst in the meantime the UAW bureaucrats are
trying to put over that there are more Yes votes than No votes in a salami tactics move.
It will attempt to rig the vote and sellout the carworkers to the GM bosses.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2019/10/23/car-workers-strike-in-us/

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Message: 2






Since the bloody coup by General Pinochet in 1973, Chile has suffered decades of
neo-liberalism, with services and pensions privatised, low wages and harsh labour laws.
The anger at these measures came bubbling to the surface recently. The final straw was the
big hike in the metro (underground) fares in the capital of Santiago which were announced
in early October. ---- Young workers and students organised protests via social media
against these fare rises. On Monday 14th October rallies were organised and large numbers
of people jumped the turnstiles. This was countered by brutal police attacks. The
following Friday, large demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands took place around
the country, and demands escalated from the protest against metro rises to broader social
demands. All 136 stations of the metro lines were shut down, and dozens burnt down. The
offices of Enel also went up in flames. This is a private Italian firm that owns 40% of
energy distribution in Chile. The offices of the pro-Pinochet paper El Mercurio were also
burnt down.

The following day the government led by the billionaire Sebastián Piñera used the 1980
constitution created by Pinochet to announce drastic measures, a state of emergency
including curfews in Santiago, Valparaiso and Concepcion. This was enforced by the Army
and the militarised police. In addition, the main border crossing to Argentina was blocked
over that weekend.

Thousands defied the curfews on the Saturday and Sunday. The tanks came out in Santiago.
They were surrounded by protestors carrying placards with photos of those murdered during
the Pinochet coup. Thousands of dockworkers took part in demonstrations as well as the
copper miners, historically the most militant sectiion of the Chilean working class.

Piñera was forced to withdraw the most recent metro fare rise, whilst blaming
"delinquents" for the unrest.

Despite this, the state of emergency continues, and over 2600 protestors have been
arrested. This is the first time since the Pinochet days that the military have been
deployed against protests and demonstrations.

As for the Stalinist Communist Party and the Broad Left coalition, they denounced the
attacks on the metro stations, Enel and El Mercurio.

Eighty eight people have suffered gunshot wounds as the result of machine guns deployed by
the military, sometimes disguised in plainclothes, At least two people have been shot dead.

The Stalinist controlled CUT union central called a general strike under pressure from
workers. Meanwhile the Communist Party and the Broad Left stated that they did not wish to
destabilise the Piñera government and only wished to make sure that it carried out reforms.

As unrest emerges around the world, in Chile, Ecuador and Honduras, Hong Kong and
Catalonia, the ruling class turns to brutal violence and repression. Even the invoking of
Section 14 against Extinction Rebellion here in Britain is a taster of things to come, if
we decide that enough is enough and start to fight back.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2019/10/23/chile-rebellion-and-repression/

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Message: 3






Since the 1940s, far-right ideas have never been so present. In all political currents,
nationalism and populism make a worrying return to the rise to power of characters
claiming fascist ideology. From the United States to Brazil from Bolsonaro, from India to
the United Kingdom, the list of far-right governments is becoming irremediable as
capitalism continues to be in crisis. ---- Everywhere they muzzle social movements and
lead to an ever-increasing oppression of women and gender minorities, foreigners and
foreigners, with or without documents and, more generally, workers. Even if, for the
moment, the state institutions seem to resist the control without sharing of the power by
the nationalists, they are nonetheless incapable of slowing down the advance of the brown
plague when they do not prepare a boulevard by repressing them fiercely. the anti-fascist
activists. Overview of this widespread rise of the extreme right.

Nostalgia for South American dictatorships
Donald Trump is not the first populist to become president of the United States, but his
unfiltered wordless porridge and inhumane laws directed at foreign, non-binary, Amerindian
and more generally the oppressed are clearly distinguishable from him. his predecessors.
Behind him, the entire Republican conservative party assumes, promotes and applies its
racist, homophobic, patriarchal and liberal policies.

Proof of this is that, since his election, the rallies of the white nationalists have
become more and more urgent and, more recently, the manifesto of the mass murderer of El
Paso literally took up Trump's rhetoric about the migrants. · Mexican art. More worrying
still, the government's desire to target anti-fascist activists is reflected in the desire
to declare anti-fascist organizations as terrorists. While in the United States, the
number of deaths linked to far-right activities has been steadily increasing over the last
decade, and racist killings by the police have been on the news, the crackdown is still on
the front lines. those who fight against hatred.

In Brazil, Jair Bolsanero takes up Trump's campaign rhetoric word for word to win the 2018
elections. This former military officer, nostalgic of the dictatorship, has even declared
that he wants to annihilate all the organizations of the social movement by threatening
them with a purge if they did not leave the country. These threats are not in vain: the
number of police killings has exploded since the victory of Bolsanero. The watchdogs of
capital are therefore released and Brazilians are not the only ones to pay the costs.

The fires in the Amazon rainforest and the government's stated willingness to exploit
these lands are causing not only Brazil but the entire planet in a disastrous spiral of
ravaging ecosystems. Here again, the nationalist discourse is reinforced and serves as a
justification. The conspiracy delusions of the Brazilian president even push him to accuse
the NGOs of having turned on the fires to damage his reputation.

Hindu supremacists attack cashmere
Since 2014, and for the first time in 30 years, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, Hindu
nationalist party) has managed to obtain an absolute majority in the Indian parliament. In
2019, the most populous of modern democracies confirmed these results by reinforcing its
absolute majority of about twenty seats.

Violence against minority Muslim communities has exploded, and summary arrests of
opponents of the regime, once again based on false pretexts of terrorism, have become the
daily lot of people in conflict.

With its majority, the government implements the entire state apparatus to silence
disputes and violently repress anyone who tries to oppose the BJP. This violence is also
expressed by the expansionist will of Modi through the annexation of Kashmir last August.
This territory, which has been in conflict for over 60 years with Pakistan, has become an
Indian province after the repeal of its exceptional status. The escalation of tensions
between India and Pakistan, both of which have atomic weapons, is likely to provoke a
major conflict that could rush the entire region into war. Nationalism exacerbated by
hatred will cause the destruction of entire populations, and the first victims will be,
again, those who are the most oppressed.

In Europe, the salvini model
This dark picture would not be complete without mentioning Europe and the nationalist and
populist victories in the chain. In Germany, Alternative für Deutchland continues its rise
to power. After gaining a dozen seats in parliament, the far-right party is gaining ground
as local elections progress. In Italy, Salvini's maneuver to call early elections has
certainly failed, but he knows that time is in his favor. And the coalition between the
populists of the 5-star movement and the social democrats will not last long.

In Spain, Andalusia saw Franco's return to the local parliament, and in the United
Kingdom, it was Boris Johnson, ersatz of Trump who directs the government towards a Brexit
without agreements. Not to mention that in Poland and Hungary the fascists are already
well settled and do not seem to be backing down.

Organizing the international response
The rise of the extreme right to power is a phenomenon rooted in the violence of
capitalism, patriarchy, racism and all other systems of oppression. Fascism is the
culmination of this deadly logic that aims to "  purify "Everything that does not fit in
their shackles and he must fight here and now on pain of seeing the filthy beast come back
and with him his procession of war, genocide and misery. We must fight his ideas wherever
they speak, starting by supporting the fight against fascism locally and internationally.
We must continue to denounce this race of nationalism and populism, whatever the camp that
claims it, to establish a real solidarity with our comrades who fight oppressions and
aspire, like us, to an egalitarian society and solidarity Today as yesterday, the
anti-fascist struggle is international  ! No Pasaran !

Anti-fascism and anti-racism commission of the UCL

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?L-extreme-droite-renforce-son-emprise

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Message: 4






In September, on the occasion of the International Day of the Right to Abortion, the
question of voluntary interruption of pregnancy was put at the center of the debate. The
moment to take stock of the abortion abroad, this right constantly questioned and unequal
in its conditions of access. ---- Every year on 28 September, the International Day of the
Right to Abortion, is a new opportunity for women around the world to demonstrate for this
fundamental right to dispose of their bodies. The attacks of anti-choice are multiplying
everywhere, including where abortion seemed definitively acquired. The right to abortion
is not just a feminist issue, it is also a matter of class for the poorest women who can
not afford to go abroad or to private clinics.

A disparate international situation
In the world, only about fifty countries allow abortion, without condition to fulfill
(except legal deadlines). For other countries, the situation ranges from total prohibition
to extremely restrictive legislation (in case of rape, danger to the health of women or
fetal malformation).

Since the beginning of the year, in the United States, no less than 300 laws have been
passed by the states. Among the most prominent are Alabama (where doctors performing
abortions are up to 99 years in prison, except in cases of life-threatening maternal
urgency or " lethal abnormality " of the fetus). Georgia, which now prohibits women from
having an abortion beyond the sixth week of pregnancy. The arrival of Trump in power is
not for nothing in these offensives. The US president has appointed many conservative
judges in federal appeal courts to end anti-abortion laws. Their clear objective: to seize
the Supreme Court and to question the 1973 decision ( Roe vs Wade ) authorizing the abortion.

In Latin America, very few countries allow abortion, and many demonstrations of women
claim this right. They are particularly massive in Chile and Argentina. In the latter
country, things are progressing (a decriminalization law has almost been passed in 2018)
and it seems that it is only a matter of time in this conservative country and homeland of
the Pope, who recently compared abortion to a mass murder. In Asia, the picture is a
little more contrasted. Reversal of the situation in South Korea which prohibited since
1953 the abortion except in case of rape or incest. The Constitutional Court of South
Korea invalidated last April the law penalizing voluntary abortions in force for more than
65 years. In North Korea, India, China, Nepal, Viet Nam and Taiwan,

In Africa, legislation can also be very different from one country to another, but with a
majority of states totally or partially prohibiting abortion. However, the misuse of
certain drugs (which cause miscarriages) allows Latin American women in particular, but
also Asian, to have access to a more secure abortion despite the prohibitions.

A Europe moving forward but ...
The situation seems more favorable for European women. Thus Irish women now have the right
to abort (following the referendum of 2018 which saw the "yes " Two-thirds), as well as
the Cypriots. Nevertheless, abortion is still prohibited in Malta, Monaco and Andorra. In
Monaco, the injunction contradictory with the announcement of the government last August
that says that the principality will soon be ready to decriminalize abortion but without
allowing it. Monegasque women who had been facing a prison sentence of six months to three
years and a fine of 9,000 to 18,000 euros could go abroad to abort. As for Poland or
Hungary, they are regularly on the point of completely banning this right. As in Spain a
few years ago, it is the women's struggle that is pushing back reactionary governments.
But until when? Especially since European MPs are unable to agree to have abortion
included in the Constitution as a fundamental right.

For even in countries where it is legalized, abortion is often a path of combatants for
those who would like to resort to it: lack of local structures, clause of conscience of
the doctors, not taken in financial charge by the States, making them run the risk of
ending up in outdated deadlines and no longer being able to abort according to the
country's legislation.

Debate restarted in France
Recently, as part of the Health Bill, an amendment proposing longer delays (from 14 to 16
weeks of amenorrhea) was adopted by the Senate, before being put again to the vote (with
the approval from the Government) and rejected. This episode has revived the debate in
France, where deadlines have not changed since 2001. Certainly there have been some
progress (deletion of the reflection period for the majors, supported 100% by the social
security, possibility of abort out of hospital). However, all women can not abort in
France: this is the case of those who discover their pregnancy beyond the twelfth week or
who have not found a solution before this time. In this case, the only recourse is to go
abroad (generally in Spain or the Netherlands, where the delays are much longer). But this
solution has a cost (800 to 2000 € intervention) that only those who can afford it can
afford. Exit therefore women in situations of precariousness (RSA, stay-at-home mothers,
in an irregular situation ...) or victims of domestic violence who have a hard time
justifying an absence of at least two days.

A fundamental right to defend
Whether legal or not, abortion has always been and is practiced all over the world. Each
year, more than 50 million abortions take place, nearly 50% of which are insecure, with
all the risks that this entails for women's health (risks of infections, bleeding,
sterility), even on their lives (as was the case in France before 1975 and legalization).
For if those who can afford to abort in expensive private clinics (even in countries where
abortion is prohibited or severely restricted), the others find ways to abort anyway at
their own risk. Thus, it is estimated that about 10% of maternal deaths can be attributed
each year to unsafe abortions.

In countries that allow abortion, the battle is now around the resources allocated (places
for abortion, doctors trained, financial support) but also on the delays to extend or even
eliminate - as is the case in Canada (see insert). Such a measure would allow women to
have abortions free of charge in their country of residence and eliminate inequalities of
access between women of different backgrounds. On the other hand, it is necessary to put
an end to the speeches that infantilize women, who would need laws to know when they can
or can not abort. Women know what is good for them, they do not need lawmakers deciding in
their place (and without any medical reason to come to support such or such delay) for
moral, religious or philosophical questions.

It is also a date of international solidarity between all women, whatever the legislation
of their country. Not one of us will be free until we all are free !

Canada, an example to follow ?
Since 1988, abortion has been decriminalized in Canada. It took many mobilizations and the
relentlessness of a doctor practicing abortions for the Supreme Court to break the law
prohibiting abortion. At the time, judges relied on section 7 of the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, which guaranteed women's rights to "the life, liberty and security of
their person" to arrive at the conclusion that the abortion provision of the Criminal Code
conflicted. In 1989, the Supreme Court will rule that only one person has constitutional
rights and that these rights only begin at the moment of birth.

For 30 years, Canadian women can therefore abort, without delay and without being able to
oppose the primacy of the life of the embryo or the fetus on their will to interrupt a
pregnancy. However, the vast majority of abortions take place during the first trimester,
most often in early pregnancy. We are far from the images conveyed by the anti-choice of
women aborting a few days of the term of pregnancy !

In addition, a 2019 study in Quebec showed that the number of abortions had dropped by 21%
since 2003, with a historically low level of 2018. This decrease can be explained in part
by better access to contraception among young people (with a large increase in the use of
the IUD). These figures defeat the conventional wisdom that the lack of time would
increase the number of abortions. However, the difficulties persist in rural areas in
Canada where women sometimes have to travel thousands of kilometers to get to a clinic or
hospital.

Gaëlle (UCL Saint-Denis)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Le-droit-a-l-IVG-entre-gains-et-reculs

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Message: 5






Born in June of the marriage between Alternative Libertaire (AL) and the Coordination of
Anarchist Groups (CGA), the Libertarian Communist Union (UCL) wants a "direct democracy,
self-management and federalism", all obtained through the struggles. Théo Roumier, member
of the UCL, is the guest of the Midinale. ---- VERBATIM ---- On libertarian communism ----
"Libertarian communism, as we understand it, is a project of society based both on
egalitarian relations of production, between men and women, a society free from racism and
a society where everyone has their own place and can decide. " ---- "The two terms are
important: we are both communist because we want to break with capitalism that continues
to structure our world - private interests control our lives and destroy the planet - and
libertarian because our communism is not the same. communism of the USSR, nor of Maoist
China. It is communism where the functioning of society is horizontal, federal and based
on direct democracy. "

"Our libertarian communism is also a practice of activist engagement. We come from a
historical current: libertarian workers 'and anarchist workers' movements. We do not have
a red and black flag by chance, it is in this current and in this filiation that we
register. "

"Our desire is to succeed in embodying in a revolutionary organization, this libertarian
communist practice, this way of thinking about breaking with the dominant order. "

On the struggles

"We are immersed in the struggles. One does not build a revolutionary organization next to
the struggles, which would be overhanging. We, the model of the enlightened avant-garde,
it's not our cup of tea, it's outdated. "

"Our strategy is immersion in social movements and the construction of a political project. "

"Our organization is a tool, not to guide struggles, but to be a useful tool to develop
struggles in a sense of counter-power. "

"Our project is global: there is no secondary front. It is thought that class struggle
exists and it is confirmed every day. "

"Patriarchy and racism still deeply shape our society today. "

On the Republic

"The idea of Republic does not interest us. The French Republic was built on the feeling
of a kind of common interest that would unite social classes. We can not think like that."

"The state is a serious problem, including from a perspective of emancipation. "

"If you take the example of the Lubrizol accident, we have a failed state that vouches for
private interests, the powerful and the rich. The state is never neutral and the Republic
can not be neutral. "

"The way the state builds itself as a centralized power favors the rich and the powerful."

"We believe that it is on the terrain of popular struggles and social struggles that we
must go to build a revolutionary break. "

On the left

"We are in the field of the extreme left: we are a revolutionary organization,
anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal and anti-racist. "

"We have no problem to discuss with anyone. We are in an open process. However, we are not
in relation to other organizations. "

"When we were created, we sent broad invitations to meet a number of organizations: we met
the NPA, Union Syndicale Solidaire (...). We will soon meet the workers' struggle, ATTAC,
the revolutionary syndicalist committees. "

On populism

"Populism as it is incarnated, especially through France Insoumise, is not our cup of tea."

"The reading of populism, as if there were some kind of overhanging people, it erases and
it denies the class struggle reading of society. There are exploiters and exploited: there
are still two camps on either side of the barricade. "

"Populism is neither our vocabulary nor our strategy. "

"Our strategy is to build popular struggles to build a people's power. "

On the agenda of the organization

"We have a goal is that the month of December is as hot as possible with as many strikes
as possible. "

"We, we say, must build unionism as a tool of resistance and struggle. There are not many
political organizations that say it. "

"We must bring the balance of power where it is needed with a power that is more and more
authoritarian. "

"We must block the country's economy. "

"We must fight Islamophobia and denounce it. We must face the Islamophobic offensive. You
have to be on all possible fronts. "

https://bxl.communisteslibertaires.org/2019/10/24/interview-dun-camarade-de-lunion-communiste-libertaire/

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Message: 6






Every day, all over the world, voices rise and barricades rise. Although our pockets of
utopias are under attack and the Earth is dying, people are going out, some for the first
time in many countries simultaneously ... ---- THE WHOLE WORLD IS A PRISON, LET US FREE!
---- What the hell is going on? Alerts arrive in all directions, alarms are triggered
every day from one continent to another, images circulate at full speed in confusion,
causing an unprecedented chaos sensation, mixing fear and hope, horror and emotion. ----
The summer of 2019 had begun in despair while the new Greek government was preparing to
"clean up Exarcheia in a month," the rebel and supportive neighborhood of Athens, while
enclosing even more refugees in the squalid fields built by the European Union. Meanwhile,
a few hundred kilometers further east, the American president extended the red carpet for
the Turkish dictator to settle his debt with the feminist, ecological and
anti-authoritarian enclave of Rojava, a true island of utopias in the Middle East. In
France, another ZAD was devastated under the attack of a police army, this time in
Aveyron. From one end of the planet to the other, gigantic forests burned in turn, from
Siberia to Alaska and the crucial Amazon, the essential lung for our survival. Other
symbols among these millions of decimated trees, 200,000 olive trees loaded with history
were beginning to be demolished by excavators in the high Minoan plain of Kastelli, Crete,
to make way for a completely useless new airport. It's all bad news!

The countdown was underway, both for our pockets of utopias and for the Earth itself. A
steamroller seemed about to crush us. Any resistance seemed illusory at the time, since it
could only provide a brief stay and, at best, a good example of dignity and perseverance.
Everywhere meetings multiply, messages of support circulate and protests try to be heard,
but they are of no use.

Then, surprisingly, the outrage turned into revolt and spread like wildfire.

A wind of revolt

With huge differences in both the causes and the media, millions of fists began to rise
from one end of the world to the other. Whatever the alleged trigger here and there: the
increase in the price of metro tickets in Chile or taxes on cigarettes and
telecommunications in Lebanon, the judicial prosecution of the Spanish State in Catalonia
or the Chinese State in Hong Kong, the precariousness in Indonesia and Colombia,
corruption in Peru, Bolivia, Iraq, Algeria, Uruguay, Egypt, Guinea and Haiti, in recent
weeks, the uprising against the government has not ceased to extend to the point that they
have now registered riots on all continents. From Guinea to Chile and from Algeria to
Ecuador, the revolt broke out in different ways, with the shared feeling of not being
alone on the rise.

What we are also seeing everywhere, as in France in recent months, is that power is
constantly hardening and is determined to commit all the atrocities to maintain its
pedestal. It represses more and more violently, eviscerating, killing, torturing, raping,
imprisoning hundreds of people without evidence, with some differences depending on the
country and the intensity of the fighting.

The spirit of the times

What does this particularly dense period tell us or confirm?

First, that capitalism will go ahead if we fail to stop it in time. It will destroy Earth,
life and humanity in their insatiable search for profit, that is, in their senseless logic
of accumulation: a source of inequality, misery, deprivation of freedom, suffering and
destruction. The massive disappearance of forests in 2019 is enough to diagnose the deadly
scourge that is eating us away: capitalism is a pandemic, a lethal virus that monopolizes,
transforms and destroys everything that exists on the face of the earth.

A second important thing that this historical sequence clearly shows us is that the power
will not yield - if not a few crumbs that it will recover later - if we do not eliminate
it once and for all. All power rests primarily on a carefully crafted symbolic
representation and the ancestral conditioning of voluntary servitude. Therefore, this
misery must be achieved both in our mind - in the social imagination - and in the way we
organize ourselves, without ever allowing anyone else to govern us, except ourselves.
Taking control of our lives is the key to success.

The third news that must be taken into account in these difficult times is that more and
more of us want to cross this step, this bridge, this Rubicon to move decisively to
something else.

The street lesson

Certainly, many protesters, troublemakers and insurgents may not be so ambitious at first
sight. Probably But, as with yellow vests in France and many other popular movements
around the world, it often happens that the initial demand is quickly exceeded (price of
gasoline, subway, bread in the past, telephone, or even mixed residence at university,
etc.) and that newcomers to the streets become politicized and explore the causes of their
problems. Occupying the street and other places allows to find, exchange and open the real
debate, that is, the horizontal discussion, from equal to equal, at the opposite end of
the spectrum of the debate proposed by the media of power with room thinkers who Sometimes
they pretend to be fighting when they essentially agree. Further, The violence of the
government and its officials against protesters sometimes leads newcomers, shocked and
even injured, to better understand the true nature of power and the servile complicity of
those who receive a pay to protect it. It is facing the State on the street that we better
understand its main vocation: to maintain and perpetuate the social order at the service
of the ruling class, under the deceptive appearance of a society for all and for all.

 From one end of the world to the other, from the banks of the Seine to those of the
Euphrates and the Andes Mountains to the hills of the Attica, newcomers to us, sooner or
later, understand that the challenge is not to get crumbs or a little consideration, but
to put an end to exploitation and domination.

There is only one possible way out

Time is accelerating. The countdown indicates the threat of misery, the depletion of
resources, the extinction of species, the expansion of war, the annihilation of our bags
of utopias, stealthy fascism, omniscient totalitarianism and the destruction of the Earth.

We only have one possible way out: free ourselves. Around us, the whole world is a prison.
Not the world as the planet we live in, but as a model of society that has spread
throughout the planet. A society based on hierarchical organization, competition and
accumulation at the expense of others. A completely outdated society, or rather, a society
that must be overcome.

We have much to gain by choosing the query instead of domination, consensus instead of
arbitrary decisions of past leaders, horizontality rather than verticality. And the first
of these achievements will be collective intelligence. In the same way, we have everything
to gain by choosing cooperation over competition, mutual help over exploitation, love of
life over the morbid impulse to believe that we are superior to others. First, we will
gain harmony, that is, a peaceful and shared happiness. We have much to gain by sawing
together, as many as possible, motivated and tirelessly, the bars of the old world prison
that is dying: suffocated, devastated and mutilated by this society. We have a lot to gain
if we free ourselves and change the era.

What we are capable of

In this way, there is no reason for hope or despair. Hope and despair are two sides of the
same coin. In both cases, it means conditioning our actions to prospects of results,
borrowing them based on vain speculations about the future, instead of resolutely choosing
our actions based on our ethical and political beliefs. Remember that hope means "wait" in
many languages: wait for the moment, wait for the providential man, wait for everything to
change ... To despair is to forget too quickly what we are capable of, each and every one
of us together: the famous creativity of humanity that has already achieved so many
magnificent things in the arts and techniques, the genius of life, the beauty of the world
outside of This society that is necrotic.

It remains, then, to leave the prehistoric political history of mankind. End the hierarchy
and the endless forward race. End voluntary servitude and the desire for comfort. End
authoritarian society and capitalism. We are capable of this: history has proved it, even
if those who pretend to govern us are determined to make all our past and present attempts
disappear. We know that we are capable of it and, above all, that we have no other choice:
it will be freedom or death.

https://grupoanarquistahc.wordpress.com/2019/10/24/la-indignacion-se-convirtio-en-revuelta/

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Message: 7






If there is one thing, one person that sums up the utter hypocrisy of the Tory party -
it's you Ruth Davidson. Never mind the Tory slogan: ‘Work Pays,' or Esther McVey's pious
moto to those already financially struggling ‘Take on more work!' You recently quit your
role as Scottish Tory party leader, so you can spend more time with your family - don't we
all wish we could do other things rather than work! ---- You explained: ‘"The threat of
spending hundreds of hours away from my family now fills me with dread."' To use the
Tories 2013 ideology: ‘For Hardworking People,'' what's the matter Ruth - work shy? You
don't want to spend hundreds of hours away from your family during campaigns. Some people
already work ‘over' 100 hours a ‘week' in the UK, and never see their family. And unlike
most of us at the sharp end of Tory right-wing policy - we can't just leave our job
because of the ‘pressures as a working mother,' or father. What makes you so special Ruth
or should that be so privileged, elitist, and rich......!

And to top this arrogance, this double of double standards: you have secured a new job,
working only 25 days ‘a year'. While we are slaving our arses into a heart attack in a bid
to outlive our mortgages, you are earning £50,000 for 25 days work, that's two grand a
day. In addition, you still earn £63,579 (around 3 times the average Scottish pay) as an
MP. Ruth, last month you confirmed you're unlikely to seek re-election in 2021, and no
explanation is needed - who would vote for a complete hypocrite - who insanely thinks she
has the right (and life experience) to govern over us, to inflict her Tory party policies
onto us - when you do not live by any of these principals.

Class War Scotland.

https://www.facebook.com/classwarscotland/photos/a.1462215073842604/2661912253872874

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Message: 8





Here in the Anarchist Federation we sometimes joke that the revolution is 60% admin.
Although some of the most beautiful examples of resistance have occurred ad- hoc and "of
the moment", you can sure that for almost every on going campaign, network and social
movement there is a wave of meetings and bureaucracy that can be extremely daunting!
Whether it's the Paris Commune or The Free Territory there was no doubt, someone sat up
all hours, drinking way too much wine, trying to compile the minutes from the last
assembly. ---- Some of our members have put together three short lessons to help survive
the burdens and duties of democratic and accountable organising! These are "living" guides
which means you can expect them to grow and develop. If you'd like to contribute feel free
to shoot your thoughts over to us at organise@afed.org.uk and we'll pass them on.

HOW TO HOLD A MEETING

Having meetings is important, unlike what some people think actions don't "just happen".
They need a lot of organising. Meetings provide a way for us to do this as well as give us
space for discussion. They're also a great chance to see other people and to feel part of
a wider network. Meeting face to face also avoids a lot of conflicts that happen over
electronic communication as people can see others reaction more clearly and can respond
instantly. There are lots of things to consider when setting up a meeting such as the time
and place, who can make it? who does it exclude? Who will facilitate? etc.

Setting up the meeting
So your going to hold a meeting, great! You'll want to work out where the meeting will be
held and book it. Something to consider here is who can make it? Do you want to include as
many people as possible, or specifically those most able to follow through on certain
action points? Think about who you are excluding from the meeting by having it in a
particular time and place, are those people from a more marginalised group?

A good way of working out what these requirements are is by having a poll or sending a
text out to see what people would like to do. Ideally choose someone to co-ordinate this
and be the main point of contact. The easiest thing to do is make sure that the next date
is set at the end of the previous meeting. lots of groups meet at the same time and place
on a regular schedule, making sure people have it in their diary.

Make sure the space is accessible. This can mean a lot of things, so it's good to ask
people what issues they may face. If most of you have kids it maybe good to have it at
each others houses, rotating who does child care. If you live far away from each other
somewhere central with good public transport is important. Somewhere free or cheap is
important, not just for booking but also the cost of their food and drinks. It may also be
important for your group to make sure there is wheelchair access or somewhere not serving
alcohol is important. Finally, does the meeting need a lot of privacy? Somewhere quiet?
Many a meeting has been spoilt by trying to hold it in a noisy cafe or pub.

Structure: some things to consider
Before the meeting an agenda should be set up; this is a list of things the meeting wants
to talk about. The Agenda could be made by an email sent out or just a piece of paper
passed around that people can add to. It can include reports back from people with
different roles, report backs from other meetings and events. The agenda should include a
section for "matters arising"; these are the action points from the last meeting, chasing
people to make sure that they happened. It should also include things you want to talk
about during the meeting and upcoming events.

At the start of a meeting, particularly If there is a lot of people who don't know each
other present then a go round of names and pronouns (he/she/they etc.) and any other thing
that maybe relevant is pretty common. Some groups may do a member welfare round to see how
everyone is doing and if the group can help with anything and also to announce their level
of capacity for taking on new things. A facilitator and a minute taker should be appointed
before the meeting starts, It is good to share these duties rather than them always
landing on the same persons shoulders.

Sometimes it is useful to set allotted time slots to each point to be discussed and a
meeting end time. If the meeting is going to be long you may want to include breaks and
food. Try to keep on topic and leave drinking Alcohol till after the meeting!

HOW TO FACILITATE

The idea of facilitation is to ensure that no one controls the meeting and to ensure that
everyone gets to share their thoughts and ideas. It is also the facilitators job to ensure
that the meeting keeps to the time scheduled for it and does not run off topic. They need
to help pin point proposals and make sure there are people to carry them out.

Taking stack
This just means taking note of who is next in order to speak, creating a "stack" of the
those who want to chip in. Make it clear at the start of the meeting that people must put
their hands up so that you know they want to talk. If a lot of people want to speak then
it is useful to write it down on a piece of paper and cross them out after they have
spoken. If someone hasn't spoken yet, then their name goes to the top of the list.
Remember to add yourself onto the list and not be left out. If people jump the stack you
may want to cut them off and remind them to wait their turn.

Sometimes people have a direct answer to something that someone has asked, they may ask
the facilitator, or put both hands up to show that they have a response. In big meetings
it can be useful to split the role between two people, so that one person takes stack and
another does the rest of the facilitation. If you notice some people haven't spoken yet
then you can jump the queue and ask if anyone who hasn't spoken yet would like to speak.

Keeping Time and on Topic
Quite often people like to go off topic or like to talk about something in depth, or
repeat what others may already have said. To make sure not too much of this happens, as
facilitator, you can jump the stack order and remind people to stay on topic, what that
topic is and how much time you have left.

If people seem interested in another topic which has come up you can suggest scheduling it
for another time in the meeting or another day. It is OK for discussion to go off topic a
bit as it brings new ideas and makes it feel more relaxed, this enables less confident
people to talk too!.» It can be useful for the facilitator to set a time allowance at the
start of the topic and ask someone to introduce it.

A lot of the time this time keeping is quite ad-hoc and "loose" this is OK but try not to
stray too much least you end up talking about one thing for the entire meeting. Don't be
afraid to be a bit mercenary and keep things moving!

Proposals and action points
The facilitator can also help to find things within the conversation that can turn talk
into actions. this could be anything from someone looking something up, organsing an
event, contacting someone or a group, arranging travel etc. The facilitator can ask the
group if someone is willing to take on the idea as an action point or to produce a
proposal. This can help make sure that something actually happens. If no one is able to do
it then it could be noted as an idea to come back to at a later time.

Don't Panic
Facilitating a group can seem quite scary, but don't worry. If you're new to it then let
people know and they can help you and be supportive. If you don't want to facilitate any
more during a meeting then let people know and someone else can take over. It is important
to keep up facilitating meetings in order to let new people and for those who are less
likely to be heard have a space to speak, so don't give up on it! Also worth remembering
that as facilitator, you aren't in charge of the meeting and it is everyone's
responsibility to make sure the meeting runs smoothly. Share the load!

HOW TO TAKE MINUTES

Taking minutes in meetings is important. It archives what was discussed and allows others
who couldn't attend to know what was happening. It is there to help people remember what
they were action pointed to do, and can help people be able to construct arguments outside
of the meeting from what was discussed during it. The main things that need to be written
down are the key discussion points, action points and who was there. When you take minutes
it can mean that it is easier for you to be left out of conversation as your busy writing
down what everyone else has to say. Try to let the facilitator know when you want to
speak, It can also be difficult to keep up with the conversation, so feel free to tell
everyone to stop for a bit until you are ready so that you can catch up.

Action points
These are what someone has said they would take on. This can be contacting someone,
organising an event, writing a proposal etc. It is important that Action Points are clear
in the minutes and who has said they would do them. Some useful ways of doing this are
writing them on a separate line by themselves, writing AP next to them with the person's
name, and writing them in bold. Some people put them at the end of the minutes so that
people can skip to the end to find what they said they would do.

It's good practice for people who have been Action Pointed to do something write it down
themselves as they are more likely to remember it and and it's a good precaution incase it
gets left out on the minutes by accident.

Discussion points
To get the basic points of what people say can be difficult. People like to ramble,
especially as they try to formulate what they are saying. Different minute takers go about
capturing the main points of a discussion in different ways. You may want to write down
everything that was said during a meeting and then edit it later, or wait until someone
finishes talking and write the main bits down. These are often written up as bullet points
or short paragraphs. If you do not understand what someone said you can ask them to repeat
their main points, feel free to speak out of turn for this! People may also ask the minute
taker to write down a point that they want added and to repeat something from earlier.

Post Script
It is the minute takers responsibility to get the minutes out as quickly as possible. The
group should arrange before the end of the meeting how the notes should be sent out, e.g.
they could be put up on a forum or sent by email. Make sure that everyone will have access
to the minutes. It is important to make the minutes not too long and try to keep them nice
and clear, otherwise people won't read them.

It can be better to write minutes onto a laptop or computer as it is easier to edit. Some
people write minutes directly into an email or onto the forum so they can send to minutes
out at the end of the meeting. It can also be good to write the minutes onto an editable
document such as Etherpad so that others can add in bits that were left out. If you are
worried about taking minutes it can be easier to write down everything then ask someone
else to help you to edit, this way you can learn what is important and what is not.

If the meeting has sensitive material then maybe leave out the names, sometimes leaving a
initial or similar. Given the fact that we live in the age of government tracking via
facial recognition and far right doxxing we highly recommend that if you share documents
publicly them you removed everyone's name and if you share a photo remove the faces! Yes,
even if your group is a nice and friendly one, security culture is a vital aspect to
organising in a manner which is safe for everyone.

Finally, have fun and brew up some trouble!

http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2019/10/25/putting-the-a-back-into-admin-knowledge-exchange/

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Message: 9





Carne Ross' The Leaderless Revolution is refreshing because of its atypical perspective.
Contemporary anarchist literature is often written by academics who have studied political
theory, or by working class people, who have struggled in a Neo-liberal capitalist
society, and understand the need for change. Ross is neither of these; a former British
diplomat, he was a lead official at Britain's mission at the United Nations in New York
dealing with Iraq. He was responsible for the policy on weapons of mass destruction and
the pre-war sanctions. Ross states that Britain and their allies knew that Saddam Hussein
did not possess significant WMD. Therefore, the sanctions and the subsequent invasion of
Iraq were unjustified, and led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary civilian deaths.
Rather than critiquing the establishment, their systems and institutions from the outside,
Ross has been enmeshed in the inner workings of the machine, and has decided it is broken.

This book is for those new to anarchism as a political theory, but who are dissatisfied
with the state of the world, and yearn for something better. Many veteran anarchists'
first reaction to Carne Ross might be one of distrust - he was part of the establishment,
he wears a suit, looks like a civil servant, and is still involved in international
diplomacy, albeit advocating independently for marginalised groups. However, the fact that
he is a non-conventional anarchist, might be Ross' greatest strength. Brexit and Trump
were arguably a result of people's dissatisfaction with current systems, and a desire for
radical change. Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion have engaged a wide range of
people not normally involved in radical politics. This seems a potentially fertile time
for enlisting people to anarchism, and many might be more easily recruited to the cause by
a well-spoken, respectable former diplomat, than a dreadlocked crusty with a black bandana
over their face. Ross' experience and former position afford him an air of respectability
and legitimacy that may make his messages more palatable for many people.

Ross eschews established examples of anarchism in action, such as the Paris Commune or
Spanish Civil War, instead presenting more contemporary examples, such as the autonomous
region of Rojava in North-eastern Syria, participatory democracy at the municipal level in
Porto Allege, Brazil, or even communities' abilities to respond to their own needs
following emergency situations more effectively than the authorities and institutions
entrusted to do so, as witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina or the Grenfell
Tower fire.

Where Ross' vision of an egalitarian society differs from many anarchists is his
commitment to non-violence, and his suggestion of a gradual transition to an anarchist
society, rather than through revolution. The belief that large worker-owned co-operative
institutions could be built within a capitalist state, and that they would be so
appealing, and productive, that the existing capitalist alternatives would simply wither
away, demonstrates a naivety on Ross' part. This book is a gateway drug, which will
hopefully lead people to seek out stronger substances in the future. ?

Stuart Barton

http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2019/10/26/the-leaderless-revolution-review/

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