Update: anarchist news and information from all over the world - 22.12.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  vitoria.cnt.es: 30E GENERAL STRIKE U30 GREBA OROKORRA --
      Because living with dignity is our right! (ca) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #300 - Nike: A
      marathon strike and victory at the end (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  US, m1aa: Report Back From Chile Uprising (Detroit 11/10/19)
      by Miriam of M1 Michigan Collective (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Czech, AFED: Kawakami rice No. 5 / Raw zine No. 4 - Review
      on split of two Pilsen zines [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 5.  Britain, north-east anarchist group: The end of Corbynism
      and the re-emergence of the worker's movement? 
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  ait russia: Strikes in France expand [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  CGT announces a new strike of 23 h. on December 20 in
      RAILWAYS (ca) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1






The CNT calls for an active participation in the call for a General Strike on January 30 in Euskal Herria, and appeals to the unity of the
trade union and associative movement to give a strong response that manages to empty the work centers and fill the streets of dignity On
January 30 we join the demands of our elders, an example of tenacity and dignity. We call a General Strike where all struggles, in their
diversity, come together in a single shout: a deafening shout of social justice. ---- On January 30 we will also tell the banks, their
private insurance funds and their puppet governments, that there is a people willing to defend their rights and that these basic rights are
not for sale. ---- A strike day in which the active working class has a good opportunity with the pensioners, the feminist movement and all
social movements to go on the offensive, before an insatiable employer.

Together and together, as a single fist, in the face of the injustice and social inequality generated by neoliberal policies, which only
benefit a tiny minority, the same one that aims to bring the majority of the population to a future without rights.

That is why the companions and companions of the CNT go on strike, to demand a dignified life, to claim the most basic, until we reach a
more just and egalitarian society.

For decent public pensions!
For the repeal of all labor and pension reforms!
For real, economic and social equality!
For the distribution of work and wealth!

http://vitoria.cnt.es/blog/2019/12/18/30e-huelga-general-u30-greba-orokorra/

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Message: 2






A first, and a beautiful one: three weeks on strike in the biggest Nike store in France, on the Champs-Élysées. That's what it took to bend
the American juggernaut. ---- From 8 October to 1 st  November, the largest Nike store in France on the Champs Elysees, had its first
strike. Exasperated by the behavior of managers and their poor working conditions, the stock staff, followed by almost half of the store's
employees, stopped work. ---- The quarantine of strikers, often under 30 and with a low seniority given the turnover, demanded among other
things an efficient follow-up by occupational medicine, the improvement of night hours to 100% - and no longer to 15% - according to the
law, an adapted schedule (most of the sellers are also sportsmen, hence their nickname of "  athletes  ") but also the increase in wages.
It was through an activist from SUD-Rail that the strikers got in touch with SUD-Commerce, which helped them to prioritize their demands and
formalize them by leaflet, to meet regularly to conduct their struggle, go to see their colleagues in Les Halles and La Défense then hold a
daily picket on the Champs-Élysées from October 17.

In parallel, a semblance of dialogue has opened with the Director of Human Resources Europe. But the latter refused to discuss with SUD,
which had nevertheless designated a union section representative, wanting to speak only to the CFDT, the house union which was not even in
action !

An agreement that opens up prospects
After two weeks, the HRD put on the table an end-of-conflict protocol, suggesting that it was take it or leave it. Small period of floating
then, on the part of the strikers who saw coming with apprehension the first month of strike and the deductions of wages. To cross this
milestone, SUD helped them to publicize their media and militant struggle and to launch a strike fund.

Their tenacity will have paid off. An additional week of struggle, and the European management gave in on all the demands specific to the
store. It also plans to immediately initiate the negotiation of an agreement on evening work, and to compensate for the withdrawal of wages
by the payment of the target bonus over the last three months ... including to non-strikers.

It was therefore with their heads held high that the strikers resumed work on November 2, after approving the agreement. The following
December 4, they had an appointment with the industrial tribunal with SUD, to request the regularization of their night hours. If the
management refused to negotiate, they were ready to join the December 5 interprofessional strike !

Laurent Degousée (SUD-Commerce)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Nike-Une-greve-marathon-et-la-victoire-au-bout

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Message: 3







This report of the events in Chile was presented at a fundraiser on 10 November, 2019, organized by Detroit Solidarity and Defense and
Chileans now living in southeast Michigan.  From the first demonstration against subway fare increases, the popular uprising gained the
support of the Chilean people. The swiftness of events and massive changes in consciousness surprised all the organized groups.  We are
reminded of Frantz Fanon's observations that the necessary psychological revolutionary transformation of people's understanding of
themselves changes through struggle. V., following a recent visit to Chile, discusses how people organized themselves for the struggle as
well as how their understanding of their struggle developed.  The social questions of food, pensions, rents became the concern of all;
individual concerns moved to a collective set of actions.

Within this, the demand for a new constitution and a popular assembly plays into the hands of the government.  They have already "agreed" to
this demand and have set April for a meeting date. This allows the movement to be co-opted.  The energy for revolutionary change is now
being channeled into support for a continuation of the capitalist system under a new name.  The current fate of Bolivia shows where this
road will lead. There is no democracy within capitalism. They use the words and gut them of meaning.  The people of Chile must continue to
organize themselves and take the resources they need for themselves. The working classes of the world must rise up to defend them and to
organize themselves as well.  It is international working class revolution that provides a way forward out of neoliberalism and this current
world capitalist crisis.

-Miriam of M1 Michigan Collective

http://m1aa.org/?p=1689

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Message: 4





It is necessary to support the wine production, especially when you are so loyal to the reader that you have it with home delivery. But
don't worry, it's not another import service, as is common with food and shopping today. This is just a reflection of a well-functioning
local hc / punk community where friends respect that everyone does not have to have a facebook where there is "everything" today and let you
know through other channels that they are hosting a concert or have released another zine issue. ---- I still found it strange that in
Pilsen people from a de facto one party issue more zines. I have always been a supporter of rather collective actions, as they refine the
practice of cooperation, joint decision-making and responsibility to others. And that is more than necessary. And as if I might have
summoned it by my thoughts, Kawakami rice zinc and Raw zine came out in November. The former is the fifth issue and the second is the
fourth, but according to the editorial, typically called Epitaph, it also looks like the last. In my opinion, however, there is no need to
be sad, the very end of Troy's work in the zinc world will certainly not be, and certainly we will ever read something from him again, even
if on another zine site. And maybe it is just that step to make a hc / punk magazine created by many people who are already very close to
each other in Pilsen. And it doesn't matter who finally cuts and sticks, as well as how many paragraphs they stick twice.

And as we stand over the tomb of Raw Zine , dug three years after the last issue, let's start from it. But before we get to the text, I
would like to point out great full-page collages on the themes of life in capitalism, surveillance, political "representation", social
networks or consumerism. So: a few nutritious memories of 2010; a trip to Ukraine where you often have no idea whether hospitality is not
just a way to frighten you; report from the 13th annual anti-nationalist DIY hc / punk festival in Dresden; the biography of the Barrel
band, which by its existence irradiated us in the years 2007-2013, even with a "band pedigree"; a story of how the Nazis met bad at the
Napalm Death Pilsen concert; one page about the activities of the Czechoslovak castration program.

If I have to write more than five words about something, then it is a summary report "Once upon a time: garage". Stories of one garage on
the outskirts of Pilsen, more precisely reports from concerts that took place in 2015-2018, including beneficial events for the Refugee Fund
of the autonomous social center Klinika, the aforementioned Czechoslovak castration program or Fousky, the association caring for abandoned,
abused cats. And believe that not exactly negligible amounts were collected. Often these benefits are preceded by a benefit run, so even a
little bit of sport into the punk. There is a barbecue and other delicacies, sometimes distra, and when it comes to you, you can listen to
the garage among them a lecture. Although I was preparing several times, I was "in the garage" only once. And I have to admit I had a very
nice feeling that this was punk as it should be, 100% DIY

Let's turn the workbook and look at the remaining two-thirds of the pudding that they put together by Lazy Cuns and Asta. He warned me that
I might not like the introduction, which promotes the position that everyone should rather start riding alone. But when reading the whole
zine it does not sound so clear. The inherent crust misanthropy here is mixed with systemic criticism, an appeal to local activities and the
message that, like having positive attitudes and doing something for them, it is also necessary to enjoy life here and now.

The issue opens an article on punk in Indonesia describing the events in Aceh in 2011, when about 700 punks were arrested and dragged to the
"cleansing camps". Describing how the de facto pro-system Punk Muslim began to come to the floor after the fall of dictator Suhart in 1998,
I incidentally remembered a couple of former acquaintances who had started punk as a commune to eventually become trouble-free for the
system conservatives and ultra-rightists. On the other pages of state terror, we will remain, just move to Russia to follow the fate of
anarchists and anti-fascists, which the Network case seeks to repress the authorities using various types of torture to identify as
dangerous terrorists. Asta very aptly complements her own observations from a short stay in the land of Tsar Vladimir. Here comes a thought
about the protests against Babis, which are found to be rather superficial when they beat most into its pre-revolutionary past. What matters
is the current situation and how it happened. The author's proposal to prevent economic elites from influencing politics is, consequently, a
proposal to abolish capitalism and bourgeois democracy as we know it.

 From politics to culture: interviews with the band Kosy Gen from Beroun, with Linda singing in Kibera, with Maria yelling at Lakka,
releasing MiZineria and holding zinfest in Eternia, or with Vicious X Reality from Poland. Do not worry, the interviews are not only about
music, but also about attitudes and non-musical activities. Reports follow to maintain order. The first is the European tour of the bands
Disavoir Vivre and Punctuation, where I was pleased to always dedicate space to the description of the places they performed and the
activities that normally take place there. Followed by reports from foreign concerts, which both zine publishers visited together, as well
as a demonstration against fox hunting, which they hit (as the demonstration) in Edinburgh. And to make it seem that nothing is happening at
home, there is a description of a Pilsen protest against the circus with animals. And if you had few of these, there are also a few readable
travel reports. It's nice to read when someone else's legs hurt. So: Bosnia (2018) with mined areas and robbery squirrels and Slovenia and
Italy (2019) concluding at the Distruggi La Bassa festival.

And at the very end of the review of the recordings and books, where I was pleased to find an assessment of Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloos.

Any word at the end? It has already been said at the beginning: Support those who issue zines, concerts or benefit events in your area. Or
even better: get involved according to your abilities and possibilities.

Kawakami rice No. 5 / Raw zine No. 4. 108 tent A4, 130 CZK. Piste na trojka007[a]seznam.cz.

https://www.afed.cz/text/7085/kawakamiho-ryze-c-5-raw-zine-c-4

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Message: 5






As with virtually everyone on ‘the left', I am disappointed with the results of the general election. I did not vote but I could appreciate
that the most recent iteration the Labour Party, arguably the most progressive for a generation, could have potentially offered some respite
to those who have suffered the most, not only from the last 9 years of Tory austerity which has claimed the lives of over 100,000 people but
from the neoliberal agenda set into motion by Margaret Thatcher and perpetuated by all subsequent governments since, including Labour. ----
But I cannot say that the result wasn't completely unexpected. Recent times have been notoriously difficult for social democratic parties as
they try to revive a bygone era of perceived prosperity which it saw post-WW2, looking back towards the Keynesian mixed economy, which was
ultimately a specific economic configuration, linked to a specific historical period under capitalism, that we will never be able to return
too nor should we want too[1]. Even if some did not expect Labour to fall at the first hurdle, I believe that we only have to look to the
historical failures of the parliamentary left movements, from the German SPD of the Second International[2]to the Greek Syriza[3], to see
that Corbynism was destined for failure. Many of the working class understand the reality of it, that the ruling class, regardless of their
promises and favourable rhetoric, are still the ruling class. It doesn't matter to them if they wear blue ties or red ties. They distrust
politicians and rightly so.

Anarchists have long known that electoralism cannot be an emancipatory vehicle for the working-class and that the State and the party form
are not the sites for a revolutionary socialist movement. The political party is fundamentally restricted by its own position in the system
(one of numerous parties, each twisted between a number of competing factions, all with different intentions), by the mechanism that grants
it authority (the ballot box, fundamentally separating itself from and alienating those it says it represents), and by the borders it
enforces (the working class has no country and socialism will only be possible if it is international).

Since Labour's loss in the general election, the finger-pointing from many on the left on who is to blame for the failure of Corbynism has
been incessant and appears to ignore the elephant in the room, reformism. The mainstream left doesn't want to talk about the limitations of
its own movement and inherently counter-revolutionary features of electoralism and modern democracy for that means it needs to confront the
prospect that they may have never stood a chance.

Corbynism, like all left electoral projects, wasn't equipped to deal with the contradictions inherent within party politics and
representative democracy, with the bourgeois media and with the imperatives and manifestations of capital and the power that it, and it's
facilitators, hold over all of us. Even if Labour had managed to obtain power, I suspect we would have seen it struggle to enact the vast
majority of its policies it promised, compromising with capitalists, and retaining its position as the ‘left-wing of capital'. We must not
underestimate or ignore the mechanisms of government finance that rely on the neocolonialist globalisation of capital and financialisation,
which burdens the working class elsewhere, predominantly in the global South. The State's role is as an instrument for the control and
mediation of the antagonisms between capital and labour and consequently, has no capacity to challenge capitalism or to bring about its
abolition. This is consistent with former Labour governments (including the ‘socialist' poster boy Clement Atlee's 1945 government[4]) and
something we see no more vividly than with the recent failures and subsequent collapse of European social democracy (Syriza, Podemos[5],
Partito Democratico), which has not only laid bare the inadequacies of social democracy and the parliamentary route but has facilitated
(along with the centrists) the resurgence of the far-right on the continent. Even in existing social democracies, we can see that capitalism
has eroded any last pretense that it is for the working people, as they continue to attack workers rights[6]. We must contend with the fact
that becoming the ‘left-wing of capital' is the goal of electoralism and that with the destruction of the last strongholds of the worker's
movements since the 1970s, that social democracy is no longer needed by the ruling class in order to control labour. The ruling class have
never had it so good.

For the last 4 years, the British left has been dominated by Corbynism. Committed socialists, anarchists and communists have provided
boundless energy and countless hours of unpaid labour for the ruling class. This, I feel, is time and energy that could have been spent
building a worker-led anti-capitalist movement that would be in a stronger position now to fight NHS privatisation, climate change,
disability cuts, and food poverty and that would have had the ability to empower individuals and allow them to forge new bonds in their
workplaces and communities. It could have been time spent educating people on the fundamentals of capitalism and on our relationship to
work, not just regurgitating useless rhetoric about billionaires, pandering to liberals and/or attempting to develop a media career or the
hippest aesthetic (Acid Corbynism!?). If the revolutionary socialist movement had had even a fraction of the people, infrastructure and
technology that the left deployed in pushing and supporting Corbynism particularly in the periods of a general election, I believe the
anarchist movement, as well as the wider workers movement, could have been revitalised.

It isn't enough to continue with the Labour party. It isn't enough for our goals to be simply stopping the Tories or stopping ‘Blue Labour'.
That is the darkest future timeline and one that we should not embrace. The worker's movements have been fighting on the back foot for too
long, trying to simply regain what concessions have been taken away. We must go on the offensive. We must demand more than what the Labour
party could ever have offered, and certainly much more than the Tories will ever give us.

Are we going to be condemned to repeat the same failures, to treading water for another century?

I don't believe we have the time.

It is time for us to break free from the constraints of electoralism once and for all, we must no longer hand over our power to others, we
must not be contented to work in the shadow opportunistic politicians and media personalities or to pursuing dead-end reforms that are taken
away much easier than they are ever granted, to fighting for scraps under a corrupt and undemocratic system of governance.

We must work to build a revolutionary socialist project founded on the self-activity of the working-class itself, on increasing militancy in
our workplaces and in our communities, towards the real empowerment of individuals and of our class, and a rejection of the alienation that
is imposed on us by liberal democracy and capitalist social relations.

The working-class is currently at its weakest point. Our organisations, unions and connections to each other have been completely
obliterated but we must rebuild and we will win.

"We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it
finally leaves the stage of history. We are not afraid of ruins. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this
minute."- Buenaventura Durruti

https://economicsofimperialism.blogspot.com/2015/10/origins-of-uk-welfare-state.html See also[4]
The voting of war credits to send the working class to their death, the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and subsequent crushing
of the German revolution, putting down of striking workers etc etc etc.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syriza-greece-election-tsipras-new-democracy-troika-austerity-varoufakis-a8993811.html
https://libcom.org/history/how-labour-governed-1945-1951
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/19/podemos-spanish-politics
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/04/class-war-in-sweden/

https://northeastanarchistgroup.org/2019/12/18/the-end-of-corbynism-and-the-re-emergence-of-the-workers-movement/

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Message: 6






At the beginning of the week, the strike movement against antisocial pension reform in France continued to expand. On December 16, at the
call of the unions, truck drivers joined the strike for the first time. Slowing down traffic and arranging traffic jams on roads and
highways, they disrupted traffic. In addition, truck drivers paralyzed toll points. ---- In Marseille and Lena, workers blocked access to
logistics centers. Blockades were also observed in the Greater Paris area. On December 17, unions scheduled protest marches across the
country (https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/368910.streiks-in-frankreich-weiten-sich-aus.html) ---- Trade union activists cut off electricity
to 100,000 homes and offices. Eiffel Tower employees left work and closed the facility. Even Opera workers joined the strike and protests on
December 17, singing the arias of anger ...
With waving red and multi-colored union flags, thousands of workers marched through the cities of the country from Brittany in the Atlantic
Ocean to the Pyrenees in the south. Hospital workers in white coats, Air France uniform employees, lawyers in long black robes -
representatives of various professions and occupations took part in protests on an even larger scale than during the strike last week. The
protests are directed against the friendly business of the president, who, according to his reforms, is believed to destroy the social state
in France.

December 17, members of the trade union of VKT held the so-called "targeted" blackouts around Bordeaux and Lyon to draw attention to their
demands and demonstrate their power.

In Paris, tourists abandoned their plans, and it took passengers long hours to get to work, as train drivers went on strike against pension
reform, which canceled their retirement at 50.

Police barricaded themselves at the presidential palace, fearing violent protests from the "yellow vests" and other radicals.

Schools were closed on Tuesday, key exams were canceled ( https://apnews.com/6e8881cfd9882fdfe90e50999c4bb342 )
+++
For the first time, all major mainstream unions, including moderate PDT, were called for protests. All of them reject the reform in its
current form, but if the CGT calls for its full withdrawal, the FTCT proposes, instead of raising the retirement age and introducing a
system of "points", to slightly increase the contributions of entrepreneurs and workers to the pension fund. However, authorities say that
even this "will hurt the economy" ...

According to trade unions, only 1.8 million people took to the streets, including 350 thousand in Paris. The capital was swept by transport
chaos: most metro lines did not work, only a few commuter trains and buses ran. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, museum workers, energy workers
went on strike ... In Paris, clashes with the police again took place, which the demonstrators threw at whatever came to hand. About 30
people were detained.

Pension Reform Development Commissioner Jean-Paul Deleuvaye resigned because his connections with private foundations that pushed the reform
were revealed ( https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/frankreich-streiks-105.html )

The trade union associations of VKT, Force Uvrier, FSU and Solidarity said the strikes would last at least until the end of December. They
intend not only to confine themselves to nationwide protest days, but also to deploy actions "on the ground." 62% of the French support the
strike against reform (https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2019-12/rentenreform-frankreich-streik-gewerkschaften-proteste-weihnachten).

https://aitrus.info/node/5386

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Message: 7






Contact: Joaquín García Nogales ---- TLF: 647007281 ---- sff@cgtburgos.org ---- CGT maintains its commitment to the defense of workers and
the public service ---- CGT maintains its strike call for December 20 and awaiting any negotiating gesture by the RENFE and ADIF companies
that will achieve the unlocking and possible revocation of the scheduled stoppage. ---- After the partial stoppages of December 5, there
have been small approaches by ADIF and RENFE, although the companies' approaches are far removed from the demands of the workers and the
union. ---- Neither for CGT nor for the workers , the attitude of the minister together with the president of RENFE inaugurating a future
low cost service that comes to tell us that the ministerial actions continue aimed at the maintenance of high-speed services and the
continuity in the abandonment of services of commuter and medium distances -majority in its use by citizens- and that from CGT we have been
denouncing for decades.

For its part, the management of the company maintains its work rhythms, also avoiding the conflict that it has over and that has the
obligation to deal with the elements at its disposal.

CGT will not tolerate this reluctance and pasotism of business and ministry, so we maintain the 23-hour unemployment day for December 20.

We can not stand still in RENFE , when the future they want is to sell to l @ s Ferroviari @ s and the company at a bargain price when still
denying the right to comprehensive internal promotion, when limit and cut wages while huge profits are obtained , when they lead us to the
uprooting with the increase of the permanence in the jobs, when the reduction of the working day is applied according to economic criteria
and not to the fulfillment of the objectives of the law regarding family and labor conciliation.

We can still stay in ADIF, when the future they want is to sell to l @ s Ferroviari @ s and the company at a bargain price when continue to
privatize all productive sectors, when they violate systematically the agreements reached when the various Employment plans do not reflect
the real productive needs.

http://www.cgt-cyl.org/2019/12/cgt-convoca-nuevo-paro-de-23-h-el-20-de-diciembre-en-ferrocarriles/

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