Update: anarchist news and information from all over the world - 2.12.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Slovania, priama akcia: An example of a strike against
      climate change [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Anarchist Comrades Report on November Uprising and Complete
      Disarmament of Riot Police in Iran (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Czech, AFED: Commons - A little introduction to the topic of
      generally shared goods [machine translation] 
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Whoever wins the
      election, prepare to fight! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  [Chile] Santiago: 38th Day of Social Uprising By ANA
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Canada, ucl-saguenay, Collectif Emma Goldman -[Iran]Down
      with dictatorship and US and Iranian imperialism! (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Whoever wins the
      election, prepare to fight! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 8.  Canada, ucl-saguenay, Collectif Emma Goldman - Publisacs:
      Town halls of Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean defending bullshit jobs (fr,
      it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
9.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - Iran burns and the
      world left looking elsewhere (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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

Message: 1






In our opinion on the September climate strike,  we considered production for profit as a cause of the current crisis and the challenge facing the workers'
movement in relation to the fight against climate change. Before the November protest, we bring an interesting example of the mobilization of workers from
Canada. Although we do not consider it to be a recipe for all situations and sectors, it can be an incentive to expand the imagination of existing
possibilities. ---- As seven thousand workers in Quebec came out on a strike against climate change ---- Half a million protesters gathered in Montreal, Canada,
as part of the Climate Action Week between 20 and 27 September, the highest participation worldwide. However, the protest was also remarkable for another reason.

Although labor legislation in the province forbids unions to strike when it comes to political issues, eleven core organizations representing 7,500 workers have
officially voted to participate in a one-day strike.

In January, several ordinary teachers with experience from the environmental movement started to organize. François Geoffroy and Frédéric Legault had poor trade
union experience, but when they received the call from the international Earth Strike climate strike network on September 27, they decided to do their utmost to
organize a real climate strike.

They teamed up with a network of regular and union members of the Lutte Commune to establish contacts with people active in the unions and find out how.

They devised a strategy to achieve a mandate to call a strike through voting at the level of local trade unions. This mandate was to be 'conditional': it was
only to be implemented if the necessary minimum number of people, ie at least 10 local organizations representing 5 000 workers, agreed. This would ensure that
local organizations do not strike alone and avoid repression and marginalization. They would coordinate their activities without having to go through the
official trade union channels, which are usually used for communication and policy-making.

Coordination outside the formal structures was important because trade unions, which the organizers thought might even enter the strike, fell under several
federations. They did not expect most trade unions in any federation to join the strike, expecting the federations to reluctantly refuse their efforts or to
reject it directly.

By

June, three organizations had united the strike, bringing together teachers from postgraduate schools and colleges of pre-university type known as CEGEP.
Information on climate strike action spread rapidly among workers, and several local organizations planned to vote on joining the post-summer holiday period.

The intention was to put the CEGEP founders in an unpleasant situation with this vote. They did not want to act as "against the environment" and so did not rush
into repression against the strike movement.

Many founders, under pressure, decided to cancel their lessons on 27 September. Instead, they announced a 'thematic day' to discuss climate change issues.

Many local trade union officials have therefore withdrawn the vote on the strike scheduled for early school year. They argued that since the teaching was
canceled, the aim of allowing trade union members to participate in the march was also met.

STRAIGHT, NOT CANCELLATION TEACHING However, the

six leading figures who were the driving force of the movement responded with a short leaflet entitled Eight Reasons to Vote on the Strike anyway. First of all,
not all CEGEPs canceled teaching. At the same time, abolishing teaching did not necessarily mean that workers would be free and able to attend the march.

Most importantly, teachers started to mobilize. It was their movement, not a movement organized by the founders. They did not intend to march on the planet
because their boss "allowed" them. Not to go to work was their decision.

This small group called people, contacted colleagues in other institutions, sent a leaflet to the facebook group for CEGEP teachers and discussed this topic on
every possible occasion.

This convinced eight other local organizations to join the movement. The majority represented workers from CEGEP, but people from the ranks of office workers
and university teaching and scientific assistants voted on the strike as well. Finally, eleven local organizations from three different trade union federations
joined.

NECESSARY MINIMUM NUMBER

Around 20 September, the goal of having at least 10 local organizations representing 5,000 workers was met. Ordinary and union members quickly called a meeting
of these organizations. The aim was to exchange information: How do the founders react? Have there been threats to strikes? What is the legal status of a strike
if teaching is canceled? Does anyone need help with a strike?

After a broad discussion, it was clear that people were not afraid of fines for an "illegal strike". Legitimacy and scope of mobilization drove the bosses into
the corner. Given that the founders agreed in many places to abandon teaching, it was not clear how they would legally 'prove' that teachers would not perform
their usual work tasks.

In a sense, therefore, the vote on the strike was 'recognized' and entry into the political strike was to take place despite existing labor legislation.

On September 27, operations in a large part of the province were closed. Students at universities, colleges and universities voted to participate in the strike.
150 operations remained closed and workers could participate in the march. Thousands of workers have taken a day off.

And in this uproar, one group was striking in the true sense of the word. The 7,500 workers were proud to be able to get into a climate strike.

The author of the text is Alain Savard, a PhD student in political science and a combat unionist involved in the environmental group La Planète s'invite au
Parlement.

https://www.priamaakcia.sk/Priklad-strajku-proti-klimatickej-zmene.html

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

Message: 2






Anarchist comrades report on the November Uprising in Behbahan, Gachsaran and Shiraz, as well as the complete disarmament of dozens of riot police. ----
November 25 Daily News ---- Gachsaran ---- Just two nights ago, all the people in Gachsaran attacked oppressive forces. We have two dead and many injured, but
the riot police and guards suffered the brunt of the violence. We crushed them. ---- A group of twenty-seven or twenty eight police were stripped next to the
Lebanese neighborhood after they passed near the people. Several kalashnikovs, a riot gun, a bandolier of seven gas canisters, and batons fell into the hands of
the people. A similar situation has not occurred in Gachsaran, even during the ‘79 Iranian revolution. The children of the 2000s are fighting. ---- Our only
injuries were due to poor combat experience, though it wasn't very obvious.

There has never been a time that the system was so desperate. Until you see it, you can't believe it-but it was brutal.

Shiraz
In Shiraz, our lungs burned and our eyes bled when we swallowed gas. My hands blistered when I picked up gas canisters to throw back at them and my body is
bruised from stones and ceramic shot.

Behbahan
There was a fierce attack in Behbahan, yet the people did not suffer any injuries or deaths at all.

From: http://asranarshism.com/1398/09/05/anarchist-195/

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

Message: 3






Commons - a foreign word that probably doesn't say anything to many of our readers. And yet it means something that is so important to all of us. In short, it
indicates what is accessible to all. In Czech it is most often replaced by the equivalent of "shared goods". ---- We are convinced that it is important for the
anarchist theory and practice to adopt this word. It is important for our analysis of relationships in society and for understanding how these relationships are
transformed through understanding and claiming ownership. ---- Commodification ---- We often reiterate that capitalism is characterized in particular by private
property, from which social inequalities and exploitation, which inherently belong to capitalism, are derived. We also often oppose the commodification of
various areas of our lives, public services, nature and living creatures. Commodification is the process of turning something that we take for granted and
common into commodities. The utility value and the equal approach change to the exchange value and the exclusive approach. Common is turned into private. The
company must be robbed in order to create private property. Ownership is theft, one would say with Proudhon.

So when we talk about commons, about common, we are talking about its theft, fence. Since the description of privatization of common, municipal land, the
concept of fencing has been passed on to other victims of commodification. We are talking about a new enclosure.

New fencing

In a way, this is synonymous with neoliberal policy, which destroys societies in the name of privatization, cuts, the introduction of a market environment, the
abolition of workers' rights, etc. It is a mistake to understand neoliberalism as a duel between the welfare state and the market. Behind all this is the almost
taboo concept of commons, which puts the reflection on the new enclosure into play. It is precisely the supporters of capitalism that tend to ignore or
misinterpret commons and thus create arguments for privatization.

A new enclosure has been talked about (but not in the mainstream media) since the 1980s, when large-scale structural adjustment programs dictated by developing
countries by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund began to be introduced. Their real goal was not to help poor countries, but to expand capitalist
relations and the world market. Their consequence was the liquidation of local commons (privatization of land, water, education ...). The manifestations of new
enclosures can also be seen in Europe, for example, in the process of gentrification, where public space is privatized and the character of cities is
transformed from places for people to places for generating profits.

Pillars of new enclosure

The new fencing can be introduced by five basic characteristics that enable it. The first is to reduce people's access to land and other basic living
conditions, thereby losing their joint control over their livelihoods. The second instrument of the new enclosure is debt, which allows corporations and
multinational financial institutions to control entire states. Similarly, debt works at the individual level. The third manifestation is the creation of a
mobile and flexible workforce. Keeping people moving, separating and individualizing them makes 'human resources' more adaptable. The whole process leads to the
undermining of the ability of workers to organize and to the destruction of popular communality. The geopolitical transformation associated with the collapse of
the "Eastern Bloc" continued to foster new protections. Markets / corporations could, through the policy of supranational financial institutions, as a last
resort, with military intervention, to expand unlimitedly around the world. The fifth pillar was the development of genetically modified organisms, technologies
of all kinds and business with so-called intellectual property, which started to expropriate common knowledge.

Anti-capitalist perspective

The notion of a new enclosure allows a different view of neoliberalism in class struggles, environmental struggles, as well as the alterglobalization movement,
initiatives against water privatization, or student protests against the introduction of tuition fees. This perspective still has the potential to be a unifying
element and to interconnect many at first sight unrelated struggles. Especially in poor countries, these struggles are about preserving commons.

Anti-capitalist demands must not stop on the left-wing demand that the public and collective be placed under state administration. The anarchist perspective
goes beyond the state and rejects the intermediary administration of the commons. We must not confuse the state sphere with the sphere of generally shared
goods. We would not change anything about the fact that we lost control of the common, and commodification took only a different form. The anti-capitalist
struggle should therefore not be fought for the preservation or resuscitation of the welfare state; on the contrary, as a struggle for commons is a vivid
alternative that brings us closer to the principles of autonomy, self-government and organization from below.

Commons half way

Commons need to be contemplated, both in view of its forms and transformations on the long journey of the human race, and of its manifestations today. In this
way of thinking, we come across the question of the constraints of various communities or projects that internally act as egalitarian in access to
decision-making and ownership. However, these principles are applied only within a given group, which may be, for example, a production cooperative. Outwardly,
however, such communities act like any other private entity and are co-opted in capitalist relations.

A nationalist view of the commons, which necessarily leads to discrimination and excludes anyone who does not meet ethnic and racial criteria, can become
dangerous. However, discrimination may also occur according to social standards, as we might have experienced during the municipal elections (2014), when one
candidate in Pilsen promoted "free public transport, but not for the homeless".

Small steps

But enough theorizing. Let us ask ourselves what we can do for the commons here and now to take back what we have been stolen from the common and to re-generate
and shape the common.

In addition to the "big" battles, we can do it in small steps, each alone and in cooperation with others. Let us establish autonomous social centers that create
a common space in the broadest sense of the word. Let's occupy empty houses, let's take back the expropriated space for living. Let's fight for the public space
of cities, which is occupied by commercials, sterility and cars - let's fight graffiti, street art, billing, damaging and altering commercials... Let's make
food and eating a common thing - gardens, recycling waste, providing surpluses, community boarding... education - free lectures, screenings, workshops, folk
universities... Let's refuse intellectual property and copyright institutions, use free software, make our own and everyone else's pleasure... And other
examples could be continued.

Even small steps can be taken a long way. And perhaps we will learn to take great steps to guide us towards a society where material and mental values are not
concentrated in the hands of a privileged minority, but become truly shared assets.

https://www.afed.cz/text/7071/commons

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

Message: 4






"Jeremy Corbyn and I are the stabilisers of capitalism," John McDonnell in 2017.
Whoever wins the election, whether the Tories, Labour or a coalition government, we can expect one thing, that whichever faction of the ruling class controls
government, we, the working class, will be under attack. In the context of the worsening economic crisis of capitalism, every party will be impelled to launch
yet more attacks like austerity packages and legislation against strike action, the most recent example of the latter being the High Court decision to override
the postal workers' ballot which came out massively for a strike. ---- Whether we have the present electoral system or proportional representation, or however
many people vote or don't vote in an election or referendum, as we have seen in Scotland, capitalism is at the driving wheel globally. As working class people,
we are exploited whether we can take part in ‘free' elections or live under an authoritarian regime. Capitalists and property owners continue to control the
wealth that we create, and they protect it through the police, legal system, and military.

All the political parties have made big promises, and we can expect that most, if not all of these promises will not be kept. The Tories, obviously, will carry
on as before if re-elected, with further attacks on the NHS, pensions, workers' rights, etc. The Liberal Democrats will seek to build a new centrist party with
elements from both Labour and the Tories in the mix. Their politics will remain the same, that is, a party in favour of neo-liberalism, and the memories of
their coalition with the Conservatives and the breaking of their pledge to reduce student tuition fees are still vivid. Their leader, Jo Swinson, an admirer of
Thatcher and someone who is prepared to use the nuclear option, will most likely prefer to go into alliance with the Tories once again rather than one with
Labour. The nationalists of Plaid Cymru and the Greens, have cobbled together an electoral pact, the Remain Alliance, with the Liberal Democrats. They will be
damaged by this. The Liberal Democrats voted for fracking and received funds from a major fracking company. They voted for the bedroom tax, cuts in benefit and
the introduction of Universal Credit, in favour of zero hours contracts, and have done little on climate change, with an advocacy of nuclear power. This is
causing disgruntlement in the left of the Greens and Plaid Cymru. The Greens in particular may expect a haemorrhaging of members.

Labour has produced what is portrayed as their most radical manifesto in history. In actual fact what is being offered is a package of mild reforms, and Corbyn
and McDonnell have both promised big business that they have nothing to fear. This document, It's Time for Real Change, shows how far to the right the situation
has swung in the UK, where such piddling reformist measures are regarded as dangerously radical. Socialism is only actually mentioned once in the manifesto, in
relation to the NHS as being ‘socialism in action'. Labour affirms its role as a capitalist party by sending out the message to the ruling class that
"Businesses are the heartbeat of our economy, creating jobs, wealth and innovations." Other promises are the re-nationalisation of rail, energy, water, and
postal services. But this is re-nationalisation, not socialisation of these services under the control of those who work them, but a state management of them,
with all the problems that workers faced under previously nationalised industries.

Labour says it will reverse some of the cuts to corporation tax, but this would result in a corporation tax at 26%, still the lowest in Europe. It will do
nothing against executives of corporations receiving huge salaries in the private sector, in fact they will be allowed to continue enriching themselves. In the
public sector bosses will still be able to make as much as £350,000 a year whilst public sector workers remain on low wages.

Corbyn has a long record of supporting anti-militarist and nuclear disarmament initiatives. But since he has become Labour leader, he has capitulated to the
Labour right, and the new manifesto confirms this, with a commitment to NATO. It states that a "Labour government will undertake a Strategic Defence and
Security Review to assess the security challenges facing Britain, including new forms of hybrid, cyber and remote warfare." It says that at least 2% of Gross
Domestic Product will be spent on defence and that Labour will contribute £100 million to UN operations. In future, immigration will be based on work visa
systems relating to the requirements of the economy, fudging the issue of open borders and giving sustenance to those in Labour like Len McCluskey who are
developing anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In order to prove how much of a friend to the State Labour is, the Labour manifesto states that it will "rebuild the whole police workforce, recruiting more
police officers, police community support officers and police staff. We will re-establish neighbourhood policing and recruit 2,000 more frontline officers than
have been planned for by the Conservatives."

These are the police that will be used against us if we rise up in civil unrest as seen recently in Chile, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Hong Kong and Hungary, Iraq,
Lebanon and Somalia.

As for the Scottish National Party, it will push for independence and will make deals with Labour to help this come about. But the SNP is just another
capitalist racket and it can promise the Scottish working class little, apart from the ending of Trident, which has been a source of discontent for many years.

Whoever gets in, we must be prepared to develop organisation in the neighbourhood and workplace to resist cuts, to carry out rent strikes, occupations and
strikes, to requisition the many empty buildings that exist whilst thousands sleep on the streets. This will be a long hard struggle, but it is the only real
alternative to the sham alternatives offered by the election.

We will be told, "If you don't vote you can't complain", and if Labour gets in, that we shouldn't rock the boat. As anarchist communists, we will not be
deterred, and we will work towards the development of a revolutionary alternative, based around the struggles of everyday life, whether it be rents, housing,
wages, poor working conditions, pollution and climate change.

anarchistcommunism.org/2019/11/26/whoever-wins-the-election-prepare-to-fight

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

Message: 5






REVOLUTION WILL BE FEMINIST OR WON'T! ---- With this cry, numerous marches went through the cities of the country. On a day of struggle marked by the day
against patriarchal violence. The demonstrations were filled with green scarves, purple flags and anarcho-feminists. ---- A performance, called "A rapist on his
way," by the Lastesis collective, took place at Passeio Ahumada, the Courts of Justice, the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, Plaza de Armas and Santiago's
First Police Station. ---- Demonstrations are decentralized and diverse, violations of footmen (with or without uniforms) and political-sexual violence are the
main and most urgent cause of the protests. ---- Feminists expel a group of special forces police officers to the shout of "Paca is not my partner."

The names of the dead during the Uprising are heard aloud: Daniela Carrasco, Paula Lorca Zambrano, Mariana Diaz Ricaurte, Valeska Lopez Carmona and Albertina
Martinez Burgos.

Most of the missing people in the last 38 days are young women, their bodies still seen by uniforms as spoils of war. Autonomous feminists add up to four
missing persons, the number must undoubtedly be much higher.

The Human Rights Watch report is clear and forceful, in Chile human rights are violated and emphasize sexual violence against women and sexual dissent. They
list denudations, touches and rapes in police stations.

The President of the Republic promotes a bill for the militias to take care of the "critical infrastructure". A clear proposal to continue militarizing society.

Senator Allamand (RN) states: "We will never support human rights violations, but without them it is impossible to normalize the country." Proving once again
that for many, private property is above life.

Dignity Square is clad in white and green, in a pathetic attempt to erase the graffiti of the Uprising. Police worshipers write slogans in support of the
police, the intervention ends with massive taunts.

People reject the forces of order in a popular restaurant in Franklin. Customers warn that if they attend the police they will withdraw. The police are assisted
and all customers leave without paying the bill, leaving them absolutely alone.

Several subway stations are closed by massive student dropouts.

Over the weekend, protesters storm the Portal de La Dehesa mall, wealthy customers show their hatred, contempt and classism. Blows and insults by managers and
businessmen against "ze-povinho and communists who want everything for free" generates wide repercussions.

On Monday, protesters protested again inside the mall, outside a police officer pulled his service weapon to threaten those protesting. In the same place, a
civilian fired a gun from inside his Audi car to scare the crowd. He will be prosecuted for attempted murder.

In Dignity Square the clashes with the lackeys continue. Attack on the Pudahuel police station reportedly left a policeman wounded by a bullet.

In Punta Arenas, a driver runs over a police officer and runs away. Follows fugitive. There was an unsuccessful attempt to burn down the house of Curicó's prawn
kingpin, two people were arrested.

Looting and destruction against the Recruitment Canton in Puerto Montt. The mausoleum of the Selknam genocide in Punta Arenas is attacked.

The documentary "Rio Sagrado" in honor of the young mapuche Camilo Catrillanca is available on the internet.

A rally by the prisoners of the Uprising is called for Wednesday, June 27, at 5 pm, outside the (in) justice center.

The Chilean Consulate in Munich, Germany, was slashed with the slogan "Fire to all states!", Along with an A of anarchy.

 From here, we reiterate...

FIRE TO ALL STATES AND LIFE IN ANARCHY!

NT

Related Content:

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2019/11/26/chile-santiago-35o-dia-de-revolta-social/

anarchist news agency-ana

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

Message: 6






Since November 15, 2019, a popular uprising is raging in Iran. Massive repression of protesters means that little information is filtered out of the country.
Still, we have some snippets about what's going on there. The straw that broke the camel's back is the government's decision to triple the price of fuel. As a
result, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in over 100 locations across the country. However, it would not be easy to understand the reality of
millions of people in Iran that to believe that a rise in gasoline would bring thousands of people to put their lives on the line. For 40 years, the Iranian
population has been subjected to authoritarianism of an oligarchy of privileged people. Millions of Iranians live in poverty, unemployment and extreme
precariousness, thus depriving them of basic living conditions such as education, care, food and housing. It is in this context that a rise in fuel, essential
product in everyday life for many people, becomes the spark that ignites the powders. As a Chilean poster on the uprising currently taking place in Neruda's
country expresses: "It's not a question of 30 pesos, it's a question of 30 years of neoliberalism"[1].

November 20, 2019: Bank burned in the district of Karaj in Tehran. Photo credit: Fatemeh Bahrami - Anadolu Agency
In the face of demonstrations to bring down the regime, the Islamic Republic uses extreme violence with the help of its Guards of the Islamic Revolution and
plain-clothed militias known as the Bassij. More than 200 protesters have been killed so far. The police shoot live ammunition and often target the head or
chest. In order to mask the massacre and prevent leaks of images, videos or information, the internet was closed for several days by the authorities. This
reality is even more true in the Kurdish and Arab provinces. These minorities, repressed and murdered for decades, are once again on the front lines of the
uprising. In front of a bloody repression, the protesters and protesters do not advocate the pacifist line, civil and legalistic that some try to impose on them
(some local media and fringes loyalists to the regime). To bring down a totalitarian and military regime that uses systemic murder, pacifism is not the way. We
must use "the great means".

Bank burned in Tehran. Photo credit: Reuters / Wana news agency

November 20, 2019: Stores burned in Tehran. Photo credit: Atta Kenare / AFP

November 16, 2019: Demonstration in Tehran. Photo credit: Reuters
No US imperialism, no Iranian imperialism!

The oppressed classes of Iran and other countries in the Middle East are not fooled by the anti-imperialist role against the Americans that can be given to the
Islamic Republic. Protesters denounce both US imperialism through imposed sanctions and Iran's interventions in neighboring areas.

November 16, 2019: blockade in the city of Isfahan. Photo credit: AFP

November 16, 2019: Blockade of a highway in Tehran. Photo credit: Reuters
Latest news from Iran

On November 18, students from Tehran University clashed with the regime's repressive forces (Revolutionary Guards, Bassij militia, and riot police). The purpose
of the rally was to bring the students together to walk to Enghelab Square to join other protesters. During the clashes, several people were arrested, including
activist Soha Morteza'i -in November 17 to demand to continue his studies.

The students of Kachan University also organized a rally in solidarity with the general uprising, as well as students from the free universities of Gohardacht
in Karadj, Khorasgan in Isfahan, Orumieh, Radja'i, Tabriz, Sanandadj and Tehran. In total, there were actions in 117 Iranian cities.

We support the protesters who are fighting to end the authoritarianism and imperialism of the Iranian government and the militarization of their society and all
the systems of domination that limit their freedom and freedom. emancipation.

[1]The increase of 30 pesos of the subway fare generated a popular uprising in Chile.
Listed 16 hours ago by Collectif Emma Goldman

https://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2019/11/iran-bas-la-dictature-et-les.html

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

Message: 7






"Jeremy Corbyn and I are the stabilisers of capitalism," John McDonnell in 2017. ---- Whoever wins the election, whether the Tories, Labour or a coalition
government, we can expect one thing, that whichever faction of the ruling class controls government, we, the working class, will be under attack. In the context
of the worsening economic crisis of capitalism, every party will be impelled to launch yet more attacks like austerity packages and legislation against strike
action, the most recent example of the latter being the High Court decision to override the postal workers' ballot which came out massively for a strike. ----
Whether we have the present electoral system or proportional representation, or however many people vote or don't vote in an election or referendum, as we have
seen in Scotland, capitalism is at the driving wheel globally. As working class people, we are exploited whether we can take part in ‘free' elections or live
under an authoritarian regime. Capitalists and property owners continue to control the wealth that we create, and they protect it through the police, legal
system, and military.

All the political parties have made big promises, and we can expect that most, if not all of these promises will not be kept. The Tories, obviously, will carry
on as before if re-elected, with further attacks on the NHS, pensions, workers' rights, etc. The Liberal Democrats will seek to build a new centrist party with
elements from both Labour and the Tories in the mix. Their politics will remain the same, that is, a party in favour of neo-liberalism, and the memories of
their coalition with the Conservatives and the breaking of their pledge to reduce student tuition fees are still vivid. Their leader, Jo Swinson, an admirer of
Thatcher and someone who is prepared to use the nuclear option, will most likely prefer to go into alliance with the Tories once again rather than one with
Labour. The nationalists of Plaid Cymru and the Greens, have cobbled together an electoral pact, the Remain Alliance, with the Liberal Democrats. They will be
damaged by this. The Liberal Democrats voted for fracking and received funds from a major fracking company. They voted for the bedroom tax, cuts in benefit and
the introduction of Universal Credit, in favour of zero hours contracts, and have done little on climate change, with an advocacy of nuclear power. This is
causing disgruntlement in the left of the Greens and Plaid Cymru. The Greens in particular may expect a haemorrhaging of members.

Labour has produced what is portrayed as their most radical manifesto in history. In actual fact what is being offered is a package of mild reforms, and Corbyn
and McDonnell have both promised big business that they have nothing to fear. This document, It's Time for Real Change, shows how far to the right the situation
has swung in the UK, where such piddling reformist measures are regarded as dangerously radical. Socialism is only actually mentioned once in the manifesto, in
relation to the NHS as being ‘socialism in action'. Labour affirms its role as a capitalist party by sending out the message to the ruling class that
"Businesses are the heartbeat of our economy, creating jobs, wealth and innovations." Other promises are the re-nationalisation of rail, energy, water, and
postal services. But this is re-nationalisation, not socialisation of these services under the control of those who work them, but a state management of them,
with all the problems that workers faced under previously nationalised industries.

Labour says it will reverse some of the cuts to corporation tax, but this would result in a corporation tax at 26%, still the lowest in Europe. It will do
nothing against executives of corporations receiving huge salaries in the private sector, in fact they will be allowed to continue enriching themselves. In the
public sector bosses will still be able to make as much as £350,000 a year whilst public sector workers remain on low wages.

Corbyn has a long record of supporting anti-militarist and nuclear disarmament initiatives. But since he has become Labour leader, he has capitulated to the
Labour right, and the new manifesto confirms this, with a commitment to NATO. It states that a "Labour government will undertake a Strategic Defence and
Security Review to assess the security challenges facing Britain, including new forms of hybrid, cyber and remote warfare." It says that at least 2% of Gross
Domestic Product will be spent on defence and that Labour will contribute £100 million to UN operations. In future, immigration will be based on work visa
systems relating to the requirements of the economy, fudging the issue of open borders and giving sustenance to those in Labour like Len McCluskey who are
developing anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In order to prove how much of a friend to the State Labour is, the Labour manifesto states that it will "rebuild the whole police workforce, recruiting more
police officers, police community support officers and police staff. We will re-establish neighbourhood policing and recruit 2,000 more frontline officers than
have been planned for by the Conservatives."

These are the police that will be used against us if we rise up in civil unrest as seen recently in Chile, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Hong Kong and Hungary, Iraq,
Lebanon and Somalia.

As for the Scottish National Party, it will push for independence and will make deals with Labour to help this come about. But the SNP is just another
capitalist racket and it can promise the Scottish working class little, apart from the ending of Trident, which has been a source of discontent for many years.

Whoever gets in, we must be prepared to develop organisation in the neighbourhood and workplace to resist cuts, to carry out rent strikes, occupations and
strikes, to requisition the many empty buildings that exist whilst thousands sleep on the streets. This will be a long hard struggle, but it is the only real
alternative to the sham alternatives offered by the election.

We will be told, "If you don't vote you can't complain", and if Labour gets in, that we shouldn't rock the boat. As anarchist communists, we will not be
deterred, and we will work towards the development of a revolutionary alternative, based around the struggles of everyday life, whether it be rents, housing,
wages, poor working conditions, pollution and climate change.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2019/11/26/whoever-wins-the-election-prepare-to-fight/

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Message: 8






While the city of Mirabel was the first to prohibit the systematic distribution of Publisac (owned by TC Transcontinental) for environmental reasons last
September, the town halls of Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean have been defending these days in the defense. forest industry by signaling the threat of job losses in the
region. A regional political power subservient to multinationals established there or a cry of the heart for the defense of bullshit jobs, know the motivations
that animate them ... ---- Resolute forest products, whose plants Kenogami, Dolbeau and Alma, could be touched of course rejoice in these supports. While paper
tends to disappear in all other sectors, the mayor Josée Néron, of Saguenay, tries to make us believe that publicisacs are ecological. "The paper that is used
to print flyers and other documents in the Publisac is made from wood chips. Should we do as before and just burn the chips instead of using them as we do now?
", She argues to defend the unscrupulous multinational[1]. It is to believe that there would be no alternative in the use of wood chips or recycled plastic, at
least for the multinational that she supports so zealously.

But a moment! Is it serious to wish to maintain such jobs whose production is useless and cumbersome (the famous "bullshit jobs")? Their production would
disappear that society would have absolutely no impact, if not positive environmental impacts. Economist John Maynard Keynes, who predicted in the 1930s that
technological advances would reduce working time to 15 hours per week before the end of the 20th century, must be turned in his grave. Great fortunes have only
stuck the jackpot and always ask for more.

Punk Duck

[1]https://www.lequotidien.com/actualites/au-tour-de-josee-neron-dutch-the-publisac-6e715246a03577a51a4b82a82ff5a997
Listed 15 hours ago by Collectif Emma Goldman

http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2019/11/publisacs-les-mairies-du-saguenay-lac.html

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Message: 9





While very little information has come to us since the closure of the Internet in Iran by the current Islamic Republic, Iranian comrades in exile are making an
appeal to the "world left" to get the door -voice of the revolt of the Iranian people against the theocratic regime that they and they undergo for 40 years. We
are signatories to this call, alongside academics and revolutionaries around the world, to not forget any of the peoples who are currently fighting for their
freedom around the world and to live up to this spirit of revolt " ---- Our world is on fire. Not only forests but also cities are burning around the world.
Social conflicts of all kinds erupt, spreading their flames everywhere on the planet. Algeria, Chile, Ecuador, Haiti, Hong Kong, Iraq, Rojava, Lebanon, Sudan,
complete the list. In this global context of struggles against the social hell of neoliberal and financialized capitalism, another mass uprising has started,
since November 15, 2019, in Iran.

It took the spark of tripling fuel prices to get tens of thousands of Iranians, from more than 100 communities around the world, out on the streets to protest.
Of course, it is not in itself the price of fuels that has generated a shared uprising as widely in the country and also massively. Rather, it is the
accumulation of thirty years of an authoritarian regime that relies on neoliberal principles and which eventually plunged millions of people into poverty,
unemployment, extreme precariousness, depriving them of conditions basic living (education, care, food and housing). Exactly the same way that an increase of 30
pesos on metro fares has shattered the rabies too long contained in Chile, the price of fuel in Iran has been the spark of the recent uprising in Iran (and the
same is true for the Whatsapp tax in Lebanon, the cancellation of fuel subsidies in Ecuador etc). As expressed in a Chilean poster, " it's not a question of 30
pesos, it's a question of 30 years of neoliberalism  . "

Since Friday, the people of Iran have courageously clashed with the heavily armed staff of the Revolutionary Guards Corps of the Islamic Revolution, as well as
the thugs of the armed militia in plain clothes (known as Basij) who economically depend on the regime. The people had every legitimacy and right to defend
themselves against systematic state violence, to build barricades in the streets, to block highways and to occupy roundabouts and public squares. The forgotten
and invisible people of Iran have made themselves visible to the world by setting fire to it. Fire is to all these people what is the yellow vest for the
proletarians and the marginalized and neglected population in France. Both are a voice for the voiceless. While the BBC in Persian and others, civil and
peaceful demonstration  ", the Iranian youth has understood the fact that"  a people does not triumph without hatred  "and that"  the material force must be
overthrown by material force  ", that it has the legitimate right to defend itself against state violence aimed at the systematic killing of citizens.

"  Too much is enough !  Is the message of those in the South[Global South]and beyond. As the students sang in one of the universities in Tehran, "  people are
fed up, enough of slavery ". Like our sisters and brothers in Iraq and Lebanon, the Iranian people can do no more and no longer want this authoritarian
neoliberalism that reduces their lives to an almost vegetative existence, this systematic corruption inherent in mafia capitalism and
regional[sub-imperialism]imperialism of the Islamic Republic in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and the region as a whole. It does not only oppose the
tripling of fuel prices but to the Islamic Republic as a whole. No other slogan, so well sung by our comrades in Lebanon, can better express the spirit of the
struggles in the current situation: "  All, that means all !  (??? ???? ???)


The iron fist was the response of the ruling class to this radical and concrete denial of all existing powers. The systematic violence used by the Islamic
Republic to paralyze the uprising has been of unprecedented intensity and magnitude in history. Authorities have completely closed the Internet for 4 days,
turning the country into a huge black box in order to massacre the people in peace. According to Amnesty International, hundreds of people were injured,
thousands were arrested and "  at least 106 demonstrators in 21 cities were killed  ", although "  the total number of deaths could be much higher, with
testimonies and reports mentioning the figure of 200 people killed ". Numerous videos show that the police are shooting directly and voluntarily at protesters,
aiming for heads and breasts, as has been observed before in Iraq. This is particularly the case in the Kurdish and Arab provinces, whose discriminated peoples
are once again on the front line of this uprising and are paying the highest price.

The Islamic Republic has so far been successful in achieving its objectives. They took advantage of the opportunity offered by the US sanctions to achieve their
neoliberal dreams, both to fill the current budget deficit and to increase military operations in the region. To do this, they closed the Internet and took the
opportunity to brutally kill their opponents. Internationally, there is no specific coverage by the media, no international condemnation of state repression and
very little solidarity of the global left. In other words, the bloodbath is silent. And things go this way because where the oppressed classes of Iran and
Middle Orien have no illusions about the so-called " anti-imperialist " role From the Islamic Republic, many on the left continue to believe in the regime's
self-proclaimed ideological veneer, which stands as an anti-imperialist force against the United States and its allies in the region.

We, signatories of the academic or militant world, invite the world left to break its silence and express its solidarity with the people of Iran and its
resistance. In our opinion, it is useless to ask anything of the Islamic Republic but we ask that our comrades of the whole world position themselves, by all
the possible means, like the mouthpieces of the oppressed in Iran which are suffocated by forced insulation. We also call on the international left to condemn
the regime's atrocities against its own people. Finally, we stand alongside Iranian protesters who claim their dignity by refusing austerity, authoritarianism,
the militarization of society, and all other forms of domination that limit their autonomy and freedom.

Translated from English by the UCL International Commission

Signatories:

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Alors-que-tres-peu-d-informations-nous

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