#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Update: #anarchist #news and #information from all over the #world - 8.03.2020

Today's Topics:

   
1.  US, black rose fed: The Case for Building New Unions By Tom
      Wetzel (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Poland, rozbrat: COMMENTARY ON THE EVENTS OF MARCH 2, 2020.
      THE EFFECTS OF DEHUMANIZATION AND CRIMINALIZATION 
      OF MIGRATION.
      EUROPEAN STATE OF EMERGENCY. [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #302 - Ecology,
      Institutional ecology: A draw for the climate (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - STRUGGLES WILL NOT
      WIN WITHOUT WOMEN! (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  icl-cit: [Spain] Militant as always stronger than ever --
      This 8th of March and always: anarcho-feminism spearheads the
      fight against fascism (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  wsm.ie: Movement of Freedom - An overview of the current
      situation in Lesvos (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





In this piece veteran activist and writer Tom Wetzel builds the case on the need for creating new unions and returning to the radical
traditions of the labor movement. This piece is a shortened version of a chapter from the forthcoming book Overcoming Capitalism which will
be published by AK Press. ---- The British writer R. H. Tawney once described capitalist management of the workplace as "autocracy checked
by insurgency." And, indeed, a kind of insurgency takes place when workers band together to form unions. Worker unions are a key working
class organization because of the potential power workers gain from collective resistance but also because of the potential role of unions
in social transformation.
However, unionism in the private sector in the USA has been on a long decline - from roughly one third of workers in the early 1950s to only
6.2 percent today. To build unionism into a larger, more effective and worker controlled movement, I think we need to build new unions,
independent of the bureaucratized AFL-CIO-type unions.

Two Episodes of New Unionism
History is instructive here. Unionism in USA has not grown in a gradual way but in cycles that are tied to working class insurgency. The two
greatest periods of union growth came in large strike waves - in the World War I era and again in the early 1930s.From 1909 to 1921 union
membership doubled through a vast insurgency that saw thousands of strikes every year. Nearly a million workers organized themselves into
industrial unions outside the AFL. The hardest edge of the new unionism was the Industrial Workers of the World. But the IWW was just the
tip of the iceberg.

To take an example, the American Congenial Industrial Union was a major independent union in Pittsburgh. A group of militants of the IWW,
Socialist Party and Socialist Labor Party had formed a kind of "united front from below" to organize the ACIU. Ultimately the union focused
on organizing at the large Westinghouse complex in East Pittsburgh. Even though the organizing there was initiated by skilled tool and die
makers, the workers rejected the AFL craft unions. A cross-craft unity was built through an organization based on elected shop steward
committees. In 1915 this independent organization carried out a ten-day strike of 40,000 workers. As with the 1913 IWW dock workers strike
in Philadelphia, there was an elected rank-and-file negotiating committee and the agreement hammered out with management did not contain a
"no strike" pledge. The committee typed up the agreement and tacked it to the workshop bulletin boards so everyone would know what
management had agreed to.

During 1918-1919 David Saposs travelled around the country doing extensive interviews with rank-and-filers and militants in the new
independent unions. In Left-wing Unionism Saposs reports that workers in the independent unions regarded the AFL's conservatism as "abhorrent":

 From these interviews it was quite evident...that the mass of immigrant workers had become inculcated with the IWW passionate distrust of
the AFL and possessed a religious reverence for revolutionary industrial unionism....The local leaders felt that the rank and file would
follow their advice provided that they did not override the current prejudice by affiliating with the[AFL]or discarding the idea of
revolutionary industrial unionism.

Despite this widespread support for the IWW approach among the independent unions, few were willing to affiliate to the IWW after the
federal government began its repression of the IWW in late 1917. According to Saposs, the militants were afraid they'd be putting a bullseye
on their backs if they joined up with the IWW.

The new unionism of the World War I era shows how the tendency towards renewal of struggle was enhanced by building new unions not
controlled by the bureaucratic layers of the AFL. A vast growth in worker unionism also occurred through another working class insurgency in
1933-37. There were thousands of strikes every year. In 1933 a million workers were on strike. As in 1909-1921, hundreds of thousands of
workers built new unions outside the bureaucratized unions of the AFL. Between 1933 and 1934, 250,000 workers built new grassroots
industrial unions. For example, the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers was a militant outfit with about four thousand
members - organized at the shipyards along the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey, Chester, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware.As with
the shipyard workers, other independent unions in Camden had a strong radical presence. This included an industrial union at the Campbell
Soup plant and the 2,600-member Radio and Metal Workers Industrial Union at Victor Radio, which was able to force the company to recognize
it. Another 65,000 workers joined the Communist Party-controlled Trade Union Unity League between early 1933 and the spring of 1934. In that
year the IWW also gained several thousand members, organizing workers at twenty metal-working plants in Cleveland. This local union would
form a stable base for the IWW through the 1940s.

Throughout the early 1930s both the Communists and the IWW agitated against reliance on Democratic Party politicians, AFL officials, or
government arbitration. Both groups agitated for industrial unionism, rank-and-file control of unions, class-wide solidarity, and disruptive
collective action. This agitation fit in with working class mood at that time and helped to contribute to both the new unionism and the
victories that would be achieved in that decade.

In both of these periods workers built new unions outside the AFL unions because the layer of paid officials who had developed control of
those unions by the World War I era formed a kind of fetter on struggles by workers, and made those unions less effective as vehicles of
worker struggle. Back in the early 1900s syndicalists had coined the term "militant minority" to refer to the more active workers who do
organizing, have influence among coworkers, and are more committed to the struggle, to building unionism, and often are motivated by
ambitious ideas of radical change. In the 1930s the thousands of labor radicals on the scene were an important factor in the organizing that
took place.In the account of that era in The Labor Wars, Sidney Lens points to the support of the militant minority for the tendency to
worker-controlled, class-struggle unionism in that era:

The radical unionists of the 1930s brought to their work a number of apriori political concepts. They opposed in principle any collaboration
with capital ... such as William Green had[practiced]in his attempt to win support from General Motors for unionizing the auto industry. The
employer and the state were...implacable enemies to be fought to the death. Moreover, the new radicals felt that the "labor fakers"
who...headed the old[AFL]unions...unless challenged, would undermine any legitimate labor struggle. The ultimate defense, then, against
employers and labor fakers was to vest control of the affairs of unions in the rank-and-file membership.

The militants understood the importance of worker control of the struggles and organizations in rebuilding an effective unionism. This
illustrates the way unionism has always had two conflicting "souls" or tendencies. In certain times and places, the rebel, grassroots soul
of unionism comes to the fore. In other periods, a paid bureaucratic layer consolidates its position and looks to restrain the level of
conflict in order to ensure the survival of the union as an institution in the hostile terrain of capitalist industry. This contradictory
character of unionism is also expressed at times in the conflict between the rank and file of unions and the paid officials at the top.

Striking teachers in West Virginia that kicked off the #Red4Ed strike wave.
The Role of the Bureaucratic Layer
Today the paid bureaucratic layer in the AFL-CIO-type unions is deeper and more entrenched than in the AFL of the early 1930s. Moreover,
this layer has been unable to reverse the long decline in union membership - from roughly one third of workers in the private sector in the
early 1950s to 6.2 percent today. The absence of unions in large areas of the economy presents us with both the need to "organize the
unorganized" and the possibility of building new worker-controlled unions, independent of the bureaucratized AFL-CIO-type unions.

Even if paid national or local officers started out working in the unionized shops, they no longer do. Their career in union office provides
a different way of life. Rank-and-file members may face autocratic supervisors, chemical exposures or job stress from speed up, but the
full-time officials no longer face these conditions. Because the union official's way of life is bound up with the union institution, they
tend to oppose strikes or other courses of action that may risk fines or risk the union's destruction. Thus, we see officials adopting a
mentality of subservience to the law and court rulings. Also, strikes are a lot of work and this extra stress doesn't increase their pay.

More than 90 percent of union contracts in USA nowadays have a clause that prohibits strikes during the life of the contract. This has been
a factor in post-World War II union bureaucratization. The elite federal judges have interpreted these clauses as banning any kind of
collective struggle - slow downs, sick outs. This creates legal handcuffs, making it harder to build a strong in-the-shop worker
organization to push back against day-to-day power of bosses.

No-strike contracts get in the way of unions engaging in solidarity actions with other workers on strike. For example, in 1999 the 300
workers at the 143-year old Domino Sugar plant in Brooklyn attempted to prevent the company from laying off a third of the workforce. The
workers were members of ILA Local 1814. They challenged the Lyle & Tate conglomerate by going on strike on June 15. While the workers held
out for twenty months, workers at other Domino Sugar plants worked overtime to make up the difference. At Baltimore there was another plant,
represented by UFCW Local 1101. The head of that local explained why he refused to consider a sympathy strike: "If my contract were expired,
I would have joined them 100 percent."

Most contracts nowadays also have stepped grievance procedures. A distant grievance hearing makes it harder for workers to bring leverage to
bear on beefs since their leverage lies in their ability to gain solidarity of co-workers and disrupt work. This also contributes to the
lack of shop floor presence for the union because it means issues aren't dealt with through worker self-organization on the job. Grievances
are often handed over to lawyers which encourages a narrow legalism and the view that beefs should be "handled by professionals" - not
workers themselves.

The pervasive "no-strike" clauses and stepped grievance procedures of today go back to World War II and the efforts of the National War
Labor Board to force "industrial peace." In the wake of the many hundreds of sit-down strikes in 1936-37, brief stop-work events or "quickie
strikes" were a common way for workers to push back against management on the job into the early ‘40s. Issues would be resolved directly
with supervisors in the workplace. The National War Labor Board developed the stepped grievance procedure as a way to suppress this kind of
direct struggle.

I'm not saying the officials will not mobilize workers for fights with the employers. In fact, they do so at times because it's necessary to
force the employers to negotiate. But they try to do this without blowing up their established relationship with management or risking the
open hostility of the state. This means there is a tendency to place limits on how far the struggle escalates. They justify this because
they tend to confuse the union institution with working class interests. They make this confusion since the union institution is the basis
of their power and way of life.

In the words of historian Robert Brenner: "From the end of the ‘30s through the whole postwar period, the labor officialdom ... made every
effort to confine the union to non-confrontational methods of struggle that would not get out of hand and threaten employers." This makes
the paid hierarchy of the unions into a roadblock to the revival of the kind of widespread struggle and solidarity that are needed to build
worker power, grow unionism in new areas or mount a fundamental challenge to the capitalist regime. Rather than look to building wider
direct struggle to push for change, the bureaucratic layer encourages workers to look to politicians and electoral politics as the solution
to their problems.

Depending on the Democrats as an avenue for social change creates a limit to union action and politics. Electoral politics is a poor avenue
for building working class power. A majority of working class adults don't vote. Meanwhile, business owners, high-end professionals and
managers vote very regularly. Democratic Party politicians will tend to shy away from radical proposals for fear of losing middle class
votes or withdrawal of funding from people with money. We can win some gains through electoral coalitions, such as a higher minimum wage.
But this is not where working class power lies.


Self-Managed Unionism
The existence of major workplaces without unions means that "organizing the unorganized" needs to be a priority for the radical left. The
huge surges of union membership during the World War I era and early 1930s illustrate how union revival is tied to the renewal of direct
struggle. The rise in strikes was linked to the emergence of grassroots unions outside the inherited, bureaucratized AFL unions because the
AFL bureaucracy tended to get in the way of effective struggle. The absence of unions in strategic areas of the economy today presents the
possibility of building new worker-controlled unions - independent of the bureaucratized AFL-CIO-type unions.

There is a long-standing conception of how unions can be built as worker-controlled organizations. This is the concept of "self-managed
unionism," developed by the syndicalists of the pre-World War II era. This wasn't a frozen "doctrine" at the time but an evolving practical
approach to building a direct form of working class power. As updated for our present situation, this approach would have several features.

Member control of a union starts with the way unions are organized. Through conversations with coworkers we find out what is important to
people, and find people who can come together as an organizing committee. As an initial group are gaining participation of coworkers,
persuading them to "join the cause," this means getting people to act together, "in union." This can mean encouraging small scale forms of
direct resistance, building the union based on active participation of workers in the shop, not just passive voting for a distant
"bargaining agent" through an NLRB election. The organizing group makes the decisions, not outside paid organizers.

Building the resistance to management in the shop is important because of the way this focuses control in the hands of the workers
themselves. Advocates for self-managed unionism are opposed to no-strike clauses, stepped grievance systems and management rights clauses in
contracts because of the way these get in the way of building the struggle in the shop against management power.An important type of
on-going organization for the struggle in the shop is an elected delegates council. Unlike appointed shop stewards, election creates
accountability to the rank and file, assuming this is not just a pro-forma election of the local supporters of a union political machine.
The elected delegates can act to collectivize grievances and mobilize and coordinate the struggle in the shop.

A core part of rank-and-file self-management of a union is the importance of face-to-face assemblies of the members. Union assemblies are
the place where we, the members, call the shots. This comes into play in a variety of ways, such as the meetings where workers discuss the
union's direction and agenda, decide on and control strikes, elect rank-and-file negotiating committees, or discuss and vote on proposed
settlements to strikes. I don't mean committees that are mere sounding boards for officials in negotiations, but committees to do the
negotiation of a settlement to a struggle. When paid officials of top-down American unions control negotiations, they often prefer to keep
the members in the dark. Member control over negotiations also means direct feedback - keeping the members informed about what is going on
in negotiations.

The direct deliberation and democratic decision-making by workers in assemblies is indispensable to self-managed unionism because unions are
likely to be more effective to the extent they are controlled by the workers who are affected. The development of worker participation in
direct struggle is central to self-managed unionism because of the way that strikes and shopfloor actions are worker centered and crucial to
building worker power.

Strikes are crucial because of the way they build working class power. To be effective, a strike needs to bring the operation to a halt. An
effective strike cuts off the flow of profits to the employer...or shuts down the operation of a public agency. If a "strike" consists of
people picketing in front of a store while the cash registers go on ringing up sales, this is more of a PR action that doesn't do much to
build worker power. To the extent that workers organize strikes and other worker actions themselves and control the struggle against the
employer, this is a form of worker counter-power. Counter-power means that people are organized independently in a struggle against those
who hold institutional power over them.

Self-managed unionism needs to be able to take on coordinated actions and solidarity among large groups of workers - such as in a city-wide
or industry-wide strike, or action throughout a corporate chain. Coordinated action on a larger scale creates greater worker counter-power.
The need for coordinated action among larger groups of workers has often been an argument for centering control of unions in a paid
professional layer outside the workplace. For self-managed unionism, delegate democracy provides a different answer. Meetings of delegates
elected by the worker groups at different facilities can be a way to organize solidarity and campaigns among workers throughout a company or
industry, or a major struggle in a city such as a city-wide general strike.

Another aspect to rank-and-file control over a union is control of the administration of the union - maintaining the union and carrying out
tasks the members want the union to do. Rather than the "strong leader" model, the self-managed union model proposes tactics such as term
limits, or limiting pay for officials to what one made on one's last job for an employer. In the 1930s veteran IWW organizer Fred Thompson
described how the IWW avoided long-time office holding:

We have officers, some voluntary, some on the payroll...None of them are officers for many years. The various terms of office vary from
three months to a year, and in no case can a member serve more than three successive terms. Thus our members are elected in and out of office.

If they were to stay in office for life, Thompson says, they would begin to identify defense of the union's financial state as their
priority. "But they don't stay," he continues, and thus "they look at the problems of organization in much the same way as the members do."
He also points out that a "good portion" of the decision-making takes place in general member meetings and in district or industrial union
conferences of delegates.

I'm not saying that building new worker-controlled unions in strategic sectors is going to be easy. The employers have evolved various
tactics to keep a union-free workplace. For example, the United Electrical Workers union has found that as many as 70 percent of workers in
warehouses they've been working to organize in the Chicago suburbs are temps. In one of these counties it's hard to find a job other than
through temp agencies. In South Carolina, more than half the workers at BMW's huge factory are temps. This creates a divided status among
workers and a roadblock for NLRB elections. The approach being used by UE is to build an in-shop union even if only an on-going "minority
union." Workers can act as a union without going the NLRB election route. Eventually workers will have to develop the unity and organization
to smash the temp labor regime.

The ability to develop and sustain self-managed unions depends on the commitment and organizing abilities of workers who are prepared to do
the organizing and keep the organizations going. These kinds of skills can be learned. Sharing of skills - and learning about the system
we're fighting - needs to be an organized effort. People can work at this either through one-off workshops or on-going participation in a
grassroots popular education program. A union - or other organization - might have its own "worker school" to develop organizing ability and
share skills among the members. A more effective grassroots unionism is possible if more working people have the skills and confidence to
act as organizers and to participate in the running of their own union. This is why many syndicalists have stressed the "formation" of the
worker as organizer and activist.

The Spanish unions of the 1930s CNT were a case where the self-managed union approach had been developed extensively over a period of years.
The Spanish syndicalists worked to develop working people as activists and organizers. Activists in Spain built many storefront popular
education centers, called Ateneos. They existed in all working class neighborhoods in Barcelona and Valencia. Some CNT unions ran their own
school. The centers hosted classes on public speaking, debates, and workshops on social studies and the politics and practices of the CNT.
Workers acquired confidence and skills that enabled them to be organizers on the job and participate actively in the movement. Spanish
syndicalists of that era called this capacitación - building the person's capacity to be a factor in social liberation.

In the USA at present, organizations such as the IWW conduct one-off organizer training workshops and the IWW has annual sessions at Work
People's College. Labor Notes also puts on one-off "troublemaker schools" which provide workshops with useful examples, and their magazine
and books provide useful information for organizing.

Just to be clear, I am not here suggesting that the radical left should ignore the situation of workers in the inherited AFL-CIO-type
unions. Any strategy for building a more effective and worker-controlled unionism needs to have a strategy for these unions.We can work to
build rank-and-file committees and networks in workplaces where these unions are exist, independent of the paid bureaucracy - to build the
struggle in the workplace, to encourage broader solidarity, and push for rank-and-file control of the union.

Picket lines of the UAW auto workers strike in 2019 in Rochester, NY.
Class Formation
Rebuilding worker-controlled unions, production-halting strike action, and a process of growing cross-sector solidarity between the various
segments of the oppressed majority are crucial to the process of class formation - the more or less protracted process through which the
working class overcomes fatalism and internal divisions (along lines of race and gender for example), gains political insights, and builds
the confidence, aspirations and organizational strength needed to pose an effective challenge to the dominating classes.

The working class does not "automatically" have the capacity to transform the society. This capacity has to be built. So long as people are
isolated and don't see people around them supporting each other and exhibiting collective social power such as in strikes, they will be more
inclined to think "You can't fight City Hall," "I'm on my own," and make decisions on that basis. Fatalism continues unchallenged. In this
situation people may tend to regard ideas of radical social change as "a nice idea but unrealistic."

When workers develop power through disruptive collective action, this encourages the sense that "we can change the society." To the extent
workers control their own struggles and organizations, this develops confidence and skills among the rank and file. Control of unions by the
paid officials and staff doesn't do this. Self-managed worker mass organizations provide a bridge where radicals in the situation can
connect the grievances of their coworkers to the more ambitious agenda for change that socialists offer. Developing stronger class-wide
solidarity is important to the process of building a force for social transformation because the working class needs to "gather its forces"
from the various sectors of struggle to form a united social bloc with both the power and aspiration for change. In this way the working
class "forms" itself into a force that can change the society.

Tom Wetzel is active with Worker's Solidarity Alliance (WSA) in the San Francisco Bay Area and has organized around housing and transit
issues in San Francisco.

https://blackrosefed.org/the-case-for-building-new-unions-wetzel/

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Message: 2





What is currently happening on the borders of Turkey with Greece and Bulgaria is another result of the policy of militarization of Europe,
the growth of which has been observed since 2015. The beginnings of the current state can be found, among others in the actions of March
2016 - then, without much political debate and little public awareness of possible future political effects, an agreement was signed between
the European Union and Turkey, under which the so-called "Balkan route". The "Balkan Route" was a "humanitarian corridor", thanks to which
the constantly growing number of people could escape the war conflict from Syria to Europe for several months. It did not work properly and,
as a consequence, gradually imposing further restrictions (including segregation by nationality), it was finally closed completely, while
promising to introduce the so-called relocation programs in cooperation with Turkey.

Turkey, under the 2016 agreement, is called the so-called "The third safe country", i.e. one in which immigrants are not only tolerated, but
in which (theoretically) human rights are not violated. Europe's public opinion can therefore sleep soundly. Official media and politicians
have been ignoring all reports of state violence used in Turkey and abroad for years (including cooperation with ISIS, Afrin and Rojava
military actions, and the killing of civilians). At the same time, international opinion does not raise the topic that Syrians can not even
apply for refugee status and any form of protection in the country of Ergodan. On the other hand, the international agreement benefited from
the "agreement": Syrians without the protection of employees' rights, without being able to benefit from the protection of the Geneva
Convention or Human Rights, quickly occupied the black labor market, literally ousting him from cheap Turkish workforce. In order to
survive, they had to organize means of subsistence, while private owners are in no hurry to give their "cheap" employees access to employee
rights. Several articles have been published in e.g. Guardian and BBC, among others on children sewing clothes for international producers,
thanks to which the profits of companies and factory owners increase. However, the subject of slave labor in Turkey is rapidly losing its
"freshness", becomes less relevant to journalists, and eventually becomes quieter. For public opinion, numerous reports on forced
withdrawals, i.e. push-backs, involving the forced expulsion from the border, when trying to cross it. Not infrequently, these activities
are associated with beatings, taking things and other forms of violence used by border guards and soldiers against migrants. Violence,
widespread hatred and even murders are not new to Erdogan's country. Some shops in Istanbul have signs: "Syrians are not allowed." Explicit
segregation is not a problem. If it were otherwise, the owners of places marked in this way would face the consequences.

A European state of emergency has been systematically introduced since 2015. Rights are "suspended by law." Giorgio Agamben considers the
figure of a "refugee" in the context of the functioning of human rights. In his opinion, under generally accepted legal provisions, human
rights are a list of "natural" rights that everyone can enjoy without exception. Current social conflicts reveal the lack of naturalness and
generality of human rights, and show numerous exceptions to this rule of "naturalness". Contemporary examples of the imposition of a state
of emergency can be summarized as "suspension of law by law." Because they allow suspension of specific rules while maintaining their
validity (e.g. when we are not speaking, language as a system of signs does not cease to exist and apply). In a state of emergency, specific
legal provisions are suspended, but the law - not rejected, but only suspended - still makes it possible to subject life to the power of
violence. " (Agamben pp. 12-13). The provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1951 do not apply to refugees - despite the fact that the
Convention itself was not abolished. Instead of being able to apply for asylum, people arriving at the Greek (and not just Greek) border
have to take into account the risk of being shot by the military. An example is what happened on March 2 on the border with Greece, where
Syrian Ahmed Abu Ema was killed while trying to cross it. An officer of the Greek border guard shot him. The provisions of the Geneva
Convention of 1951 do not apply to refugees - despite the fact that the Convention itself was not abolished. Instead of being able to apply
for asylum, people arriving at the Greek (and not just Greek) border have to take into account the risk of being shot by the military. An
example is what happened on March 2 on the border with Greece, where Syrian Ahmed Abu Ema was killed while trying to cross it. An officer of
the Greek border guard shot him. The provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1951 do not apply to refugees - despite the fact that the
Convention itself was not abolished. Instead of being able to apply for asylum, people arriving at the Greek (and not just Greek) border
have to take into account the risk of being shot by the military. An example is what happened on March 2 on the border with Greece, where
Syrian Ahmed Abu Ema was killed while trying to cross it. An officer of the Greek border guard shot him. where Syrian Ahmed Abu Ema was
killed while trying to cross it. An officer of the Greek border guard shot him. where Syrian Ahmed Abu Ema was killed while trying to cross
it. An officer of the Greek border guard shot him.

These events are the result of a political game between the EU, Erdogan, Russia and Assad for influence and control over Syria and Idlib. In
retaliation for the killing of 34 Turkish soldiers by the army of Bashar Assad, in the city of Idlib in northern Syria, the Turkish
government opened its borders and decided that it would no longer maintain the agreement between the EU and Turkey. Earlier, Turkey received
from the EU countries a transfer of several million euros, thanks to which it was supposed to keep refugees and introduce relocation
programs. It was financially beneficial for Turkey, and at the same time convenient for the EU, as it freed the immigration policy and
implementation of the provisions of the Geneva Convention ensuring the right to protection of refugees. This agreement also legitimized the
end of the "Balkan route" by closing the so-called "Humanitarian corridor".

Since February 29, about 100,000 migrants have left Turkish cities and headed to the buffer zone to cross the Greek border. They are now
trapped. On the one hand, the borders of Europe are defended by an armed Greek army, on the other hand, the Turkish army does not allow them
to go back into the country. The Greek government states that it is once again 'suspending' EU law - inhibiting the processing of asylum
applications submitted so far and speeding up the deportation process. At the same time, the Greeks publish a strong statement in which the
Government says, among other things, that "Turkey, instead of fighting the networks smuggling immigrants and refugees, is itself becoming a
smuggler."

Alternatives to the current policy have been pointed out more than once. One of them was presented by Francois Crépeau, an independent
expert at the UN Human Rights Council. In his many speeches, he pointed out that if European governments want to have any real control over
migration, then they must implement a mechanism enabling them to cross borders legally. As one of the few, he said directly: "Let us not
pretend that what the EU and its members do so far works. (...)[B]pretending fencing, using tear gas and other forms of violence against
migrants and asylum seekers; imprisonment, denying the right to basic things such as shelter, food or water, and using the language of hate
will not stop people from migrating or using various migration routes (including those illegal) to Europe. " Crépeau spoke in the context of
the events that took place in 2015 and were called the "refugee crisis". He claimed that this was a de facto crisis of the European Union's
structures. As an alternative to the political state of emergency introduced by governments, militarization of borders, tightening control
or disciplining of migrating people, Crépeau proposes to create, for example, a visa system that will allow migrants and refugees to enter
the labor market in the host country. At the same time, he points out that such a solution would have to be accompanied by the introduction
of a system of sanctions against those employers who use the status of unregistered migrants as a cheap workforce on the black labor market
in sectors such as agriculture, construction, textile industry or cleaning services. Because - in his opinion - only such Clear rules can
break down smuggling and the use of migrants as cheap labor in any way. However, it seems that none of the representatives of the
Governments of the European Union intends to implement programs based on the assumptions of Crépeau, because the interests of states and
capital are significantly different than those of migrants. In addition, the debate on the so-called refugee crisis, effectively diverted
attention from the European crisis.

The situation is used by Greek neo-Nazis who came to the island of Lesbos wanting to intimidate refugees and residents. Today, March 2,
2020, they have been organizing round-ups for several hours - catching residents and activists of non-governmental organizations who favor
refugees. According to Greek ERT television, brutal "interrogations" and beatings occur. Police under the orders of ultra-conservative New
Democracy do not respond.

Ps.
We are witnessing a collapse of social values and norms that were to be and were the guarantor of stability and life in a democratic world.
The last borders of a more or less fake protective, common Europe have been crossed. There was segregation and dehumanization and ultimately
the desire to eliminate a group of people seeking help.

http://www.rozbrat.org/informacje/miedzynarodowe/4679-komentarz-do-wydarzen-z-2-marca-2020-skutki-dehumanizacji-i-kryminalizacji-migracji-europejski-stan-wyjatkowy

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

Message: 3





Following the movement of yellow vests, the government created a Citizen Climate Convention bringing together 150 citizens drawn for the
floor on the climate issue. This convention is strictly framed in its operation to focus on technical issues. But there remains an unknown:
the uncontrollability of the participants... ---- The Citizen's Climate Convention, whose work will end on April 4, 2020, is supposed to
provide six, three-day weekends, to provide concrete and legislative answers to the question: "How can we reduce by at least 40% our
greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 for the sake of social justice"? ---- These 150 people were actually chosen by a polling institute, Harris
Interactive, according to their age, gender, job or place of residence in order to "respect the great balances of French society". The
opacity of the choice procedure is already a first limit to the democratic nature of this Convention.

Several companies have been designated to control the debates as much as possible: Res Publica[1]and Public missions[2]. The governance
committee, which oversees the operation of the convention, is mainly a collection of experts and advisers appointed by the government and
close to it.

To guide them in their thinking, the participants listened to speakers. For example, on the weekend of October 5 and 6, 2019, the
climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Laurent Berger of the CFDT, the Minister of Ecological Transition Élisabeth Borne, the CEO of
Aéroports de Paris and Anne Bringault of the Network Climate Action. Participants can also ask questions to a team of researchers and
experts who must guarantee the technical feasibility of the proposed measures. In view of all this, it seems obvious that participants are
only asked to choose between solutions provided in the form of expert opinions. Obviously, the fact that the proposed objective is
notoriously insufficient to resolve the climate crisis is not addressed.

Despite this, many at LREM are afraid of the Convention. "If the copy is radical and does not pass under the caudine forks of representative
democracy before being examined, we will end up with inapplicable requests, worries a pillar of the majority[...]We can therefore fear that
on arrival they will load the boat, judge a pillar of the majority"[3]. The mission of the Convention must end on April 4, 2020, the date on
which the Convention must deliver its recommendations. But the debates that have already taken place allow us to have a vague idea of what
could come of it.

A very supervised operation
The participation of members of the popular classes, however, gives a particular tone to the debates. Here and there in the press we detect
the trace. In the first place for many it is a discovery of reality: "I did not think that the planet was also reached. Solutions must be
found to alert people, in schools, universities, factories"[4].

And the question of social justice seems to be essential: "During the first two sessions, we were told a lot about the carbon tax, which
gave us the impression that we wanted to encourage us to keep it. I am not in favor of it, because it penalizes the poorest"[5].

The questions are also tackled on the basis of concrete solutions. For example in the transport sector, the question of a hydrogen bus line
or the use of gases from food leftovers...

More problematic, some questions seem to emerge: Why do manufacturers make cars that are always bigger and heavier? Why is the train more
expensive than the plane? Why do we get our heads stuffed?

Halfway through its mandate, the first elements of proposals were made public: changing the Constitution in favor of the environment;
develop education and training; reform the common agricultural policy; regulate advertising; modify the use of the private car; fight
against the artificialisation of soils by limiting urban sprawl; obliging companies to carry out a carbon assessment; finance investment in
ecology to modify the industrial organization model; extend the durability of products; mandatory recycling of all plastic parts in 2025;
forward management of jobs towards the transition ; tracking the carbon impact, in particular thanks to the balance sheet... In short,
essentially a catalog of technical measures.

If Macron affirmed that the proposed measures would be taken up without filter, by regulatory means, legislative or by referendum, he wished
nevertheless to specify that this required that they be "precise, clear and detailed" . Édouard Philippe, meanwhile, clarified that the
proposed measures must be "fundable" .

But what if the Convention does not meet his expectations? He said,"I didn't do this exercise to get there . " He will explain the reasons
for not repeating the measure[...]. "I will defend a free and open market economy and I think that it is compatible with ecology"" [6]. And
possibly then, the fears of his majority will be realized.

Above all, do not question the market economy
Because the real political stake for Macron is to give guarantees of conversion to ecology. And instead of brushing up on the government,
this initiative could cost him dearly politically. But to imagine that this Convention could inaugurate an ecological turning point of
capitalism in France is an illusion ...

Jacques Dubart (UCL Nantes)

[1] Res Publica is the company that was paid to lead the regional citizens' conferences during the "great national debate" .

[2] Public missions is this company which organized the debates around the driverless car and the city of the future.

[3] Le Monde for 22 November 2019.

[4] Le Monde for 18 November 2019.

[5] Reporterre of November 18, 2019.

[6] Le Monde for 11 January 2020.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Ecologie-institutionnelle-Un-tirage-au-sort-pour-le-climat

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Message: 4





A hundred years ago, on March 8, 1917, workers in Saint Petersburg (Russia) went on strike and demonstrated to demand bread and peace. Their
uprising thus initiated a historic revolutionary movement. The March 8 fight for women's rights was launched. Today as yesterday, the strike
is our shield. ---- WITHOUT WOMEN, NOTHING WORKS ---- We currently exceed in France the 60 billion hours of domestic work recorded in 2010
by the INSEE, that is to say a third of the GDP (paid in Smic). Women make 80%, which represents a wealth of nearly 730 billion euros. The
consequence is this: if we stop or get paid for this free work, then the economy can no longer function. ---- GOVERNMENT ATTACKS WOMEN FIRST
---- This is why high school girls and teachers organize against the Blanquer bac, women in yellow vests, unite and fight against
insecurity, nurses, nursing assistants and hospital staff have been fighting for over a year, women from lower-income neighborhoods mobilize
against educational deprivation and violence suffered by young people, women protest in front of police stations and state institutions
against feminicides for which they are responsible and silent accomplices, women are in strike and engaged in the pension battle.

WITH THE RETIREMENT RETIREMENT, IT IS THE MISERY WHICH WAITS FOR THE MAJORITY OF WOMEN
Today, 37% of women collect less than 1000 euros per month. With retirement by point it is more than 50% of women who will receive less than
1000 euros: no right to old age for women but subordination and dependence on men to survive. Point retirement will force women to work
longer to earn less. Lowering women's pensions means increasing the exploitation of women. These policies also acknowledge the macho
foundations of the economy: without the free work of women, the system cannot survive. To increase their exploitation is to guarantee the
survival of this system. This is the choice left by the pension reform by points to women: lose their freedom or suffer poverty if they have
the idea of separating or fleeing violence. " Patriarchy is a judge who judges us at birth  ", and our punishment is the violence you do not
see[...] " ("  A violador en tu camino  " Song of Chilean feminists) Social setbacks are accompanied by women under pressure and violence,
whether in the workplace or in the conjugal and family sphere.

Patriarchy is a judge who judges us at birth And our punishment is this violence that you see It is the feminicides, the impunity of the
murderers, It is the disappearance, it is the rape. And the culprit is not me, nor my clothes, nor the place The rapist was you The rapist
is you These are the police, the judges, the state, the president The oppressing state is a Macho rapist

Faced with this situation, the State is not the solution but part of the problem. The state is at the service of macho culture. While today
they need truth and justice, they are surrounded by macho and partisan policies for the very reasons of their misfortunes: patriarchy.

FEMINIST COUNTERPOWS EVERYWHERE !
Women must continue to bind themselves to and bring their demands to social struggles. In 2016, the mobilization against the El Khomri bill
was already an opportunity to highlight the specific casualization suffered by women. More recently, the yellow vests movement has also been
the privileged space for organizing and developing women's demands. This strike on March 8 should allow all women to forge long-term ties
and bring a feminist point of view to the current and future social struggles.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?LES-LUTTES-NE-SE-GAGNERONT-PAS-SANS-LES-FEMMES

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Message: 5




CNT calls to resist all forms of patriarchy, in the streets and in the workplace ---- On this 8M, International Working Women's Day, the
National Confederation of Labour (CNT) calls for all forces to be joined around the fight against fascism. This weapon of repression,
inequality and hatred is gaining strength in institutions and in the public discourse. Feminism will be the spearhead to put an end to it.
CNT stands for a class and radical feminism, based on diversity and gender inclusiveness. Only this will breach the walls of uniformity that
capitalism, patriarchy and fascism try to impose. ---- Domestic workers, migrants, trans, women of colour, pensioners, workers, qualified or
not ... all women must rally to this struggle. We're fighting for everyone's rights, but also for a better society. Feminism is a bulwark
against fascism. It has always been so but, today more than ever, that's something worth recalling. That doesn't mean we'll turn a deaf hear
to debates about priorities among movements, about our differences or what sets us apart. But we must be clear about one thing: we have a
common enemy. Those who want women silenced, with precarious working conditions, isolated and disenfranchised.

That's why this 8M, as in previous years, CNT will be taking to the streets to demand workplace equality and the repeal of labour reforms,
particularly harmful to working women. We will be denouncing exploitation and violation of labour rights, especially prevalent in mainly
female economic sectors. We will be demanding that health problems common in these sectors are recognised as occupational diseases,
something that is not happening now, as they affect mainly women. Also, that domestic service is included in the same social security system
as any other job, not a separate one. We will be denouncing the huge unemployment rates of trans persons, the defencelessness of our migrant
comrades, brought about by the Immigration Law, and the stigmatisation and discrimination suffered by persons of colour in their labour and
social interactions. We will be rejecting the lies of capitalist feminism, a hallmark of the largest companies in the country, and
supporting instead fair retirement pensions for working women both in the productive and reproductive economies. We will stand for all those
who have no option but to eek out a living in the informal economy.

We will continue in the first line of action and fighting hand in hand with the rest of the feminist movement, so reproductive work or
motherhood are not burdens on women. We believe that extending maternity and paternity leave is not enough to centre economy around life,
instead of the market. Therefore, in order to build a society with values, we demand that the market is adapted to life. We want real and
effective support for those looking after children, relatives or the disabled. Our male comrades should be equally responsible for
reproductive work and there should be more women acting as representatives, to gain visibility, in social and militant organisations, such
as unions. Including our own, to begin with.

We want to be the last straw in breaking sexist violence. From our workplaces, at home and in the streets, we stand against harassment of
any kind and against any threat to the human rights of women, who make up more than half of the population. Something that CNT, as an
anarcho-syndicalist, working class, anti-militarist, anti-fascist and feminist organisation, is committed to.

https://www.icl-cit.org/es/espana-tan-combativas-como-siempre-mas-fuertes-que-nunca/

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Message: 6




Tensions have been growing amongst the migrant communities in Lesvos since the beginning of January when the new right-wing government (New
Democracy) implemented more aggressive migration policies with a view to "decongest" the Aegean islands and to stem the flow of migration.
Deputy minister Stelios Petsas announced that "the government, from the first moment, followed a different policy on the refugee-migration
issue. With a comprehensive plan based on four axes: guarding the borders, speeding up asylum procedures, increased returns and closed
pre-departure centers." What this translates to is increased spending on border controls, a staggering backlog of asylum claims, fast-track
border procedures that fail to protect people (including children) from deportation if they are rejected in the first instance, even if they
appeal, along with large scale confinement and detention.

People protest against the Pre-Removal Detention Centre in Moria Camp after an Iranian migrant was found dead, hung in his cell.

Soon after their election, New Democracy disbanded the Ministry of Migration and Asylum (in Greece of all countries) and so far the impact
of their harsh migration policies and the deteriorating situation on the islands has had fatal consequences. On 7th July 2019, when New
Democracy was elected into office, 5,685 people were residing in Moria camp with a total capacity of 3,100. As of the 5th January 2020 that
number has reached a staggering 19,467 residents with a decrease in capacity to 2,840. In August 2019 a fifteen-year-old unaccompanied minor
was killed in the "safe zone" of Moria camp by another unaccompanied minor. In September 2019 a woman and a child in Moria camp died in a
fire that broke out in their container, and in December 2019 a woman in Kara-Tepe (a smaller state-run camp 5km from Moria camp) died after
a heating device caught fire in her container. On 6th January 2020 an Iranian migrant was found dead, hung in his cell, in the Pre-Removal
Detention Centre of Moria after he was detained for two weeks in solitary confinement without access to medical or psychological support.
Since his death there have been three more reported suicide attempts in the detention facility. Due to the harsh circumstances in the camp
where people are forced to live without any protection, violence and exploitation escalate, and criminal structures develop. As such, on 1st
January, a 20-year-old man from Congo was stabbed with a knife after he refused to hand over his mobile phone to a small gang. While his two
friends were injured in the same incident, he died in hospital two weeks later. On 16th January, a 20-year-old Somali-Yemeni man was
violently stabbed to death during a similar incident. On 20th January, an 18-year-old woman was stabbed with a knife and is still in a
critical condition in hospital. These deaths, along with the complete lack of protection from the negligent Greek state, the rapidly
declining conditions in the camps, and increasingly restrictive migration policies have directly resulted in the recent protests on Lesvos
and have sparked a new liberation movement among the migrant communities.

General strike outside the Municipal Theatre in Lesvos in protest of the new Greek Governments migration policies.

On 22nd January the right-wing municipal party ‘Free Citizens' called a general strike on the Greek islands of Lesvos, Chios, and Samos to
protest against the Greek government's migration policy. In Lesvos approximately 9,000 locals gathered outside the Municipal theatre, which
had been draped with a Greek flag alongside a banner reading "Lesvos is Greek." While the call out appeared moderately center-right with
slogans proclaiming "We want our Islands back. We want our lives back", the underlying tone of the rally was nationalist, racist and
xenophobic. The populist rhetoric behind decongesting the islands is a strategic and vain attempt to show sympathy for the people living in
the squalid conditions in the camp, whereas in reality it is grounded in anti-immigrant sentiment and is far more violent. This was clearly
demonstrated as people exclaimed that they will throw the migrants back into the sea and shouted "Paki go home" at passing migrants.

300 Afghan women march to the Municipal Theatre in Mytilini

The following Thursday, 30th January, in imitation of the general strike, approximately 300 Afghan women marched to the Municipal theatre to
protest the inhumane conditions in Moria camp, to speed up the asylum process, and to demand a lift of their geographical restriction in
order to move to the mainland. In peaceful protest they blocked the road in front of the theatre for a short time but were soon surrounded
and restricted by riot police. During this time approximately 9 migrants and solidarians were brought to the police station where they were
detained for a short time, questioned, and had their ID's checked. The protest soon dispersed and some women gathered in a nearby squat to
regroup. However, the connection between the squat and the migrant movement was broadcast on local media who speculated over the involvement
of the "radical-left" in the demonstration. They went as far as questioning who wrote the banners for the women, as if all migrants are
illiterate and can't organise themselves.

A child runs from riot police as they violently escalate the situation.

On Sunday 2nd Feb, two more riot police units were brought to Lesvos to somehow control the spiralling situation. On Monday morning, 3rd
February, a group of approximately 2,000 men, women, and children from the Afghan community began the 8km march towards Mytilini to demand
their freedom. Upon reaching Kara-Tepe camp they were confronted by riot police who had formed a blockade to prevent the demonstration from
reaching Mytilini. As tensions flared the riot police violently beat back the protestors and fired teargas to disperse the crowd. The
protestors defended their position and their community as best as possible but after many injuries, arrests, and a heavy use of force by the
police, they fled the scene into the nearby fields and back down the road where they returned to Moria camp.

Simultaneously, a small group of approximately 200 people escaped through the fields towards Mytilini and blocked the road outside the
Municipal Theatre. The protest remained peaceful and they held their position without incident. Throughout this time they were surrounded by
riot police on three sides as the sea served as a natural barrier at their back. As the riot police encroached further into their space,
essentially pushing them towards the sea, a coast guard vessel docked nearby and two SAR RIBs were sent out to patrol the area. In Lesvos
there is a special branch of motorbike police who come from Athens and they are well known for being more aggressive and militant than the
regular police. They were dispatched to control and push back the solidarians who were present at the theatre to show support and monitor
the situation. Between the two protests this day, approximately 21 migrants and solidarians were brought to the police station where they
were detained for a short time, questioned, and had their ID's checked.

The protesters are escorted out of Mytilini by an excessive number of riot police.

After approximately four hours and some negotiation attempts, the protestors agreed to walk back to Moria camp. A large contingent of
police, motorcycle police, riot police, and secret police escorted the protestors out of Mytilini in the direction of Moria Camp. Another
riot police unit was dispatched to protect government offices as the march passed by. After the protestors passed Kara-Tepe camp, the riot
police held back and the march proceeded without them. As the protesters neared Moria village (1km outside Moria camp) the residents of the
village erupted in protest and refused to let the group pass through. The situation grew tense as the protesters compressed into the narrow
street leading into the village and the motorcycle police wielded their batons as they tried to pass through the crowd. Some of the locals
threw empty plastic bottles at the crowd and the church bells rang to sound an alarm. The police intervened to separate the two groups and
ultimately forced the protesters to turn around. They circumnavigated the village and made their way to Moria camp without incident. The
group paraded through the camp in a victory march and to express solidarity to their comrades who had been beaten down and repressed by the
police earlier that day. As they exited the other side of the camp to return to the main gate some individuals at the gate tipped three
large wheelie bins over in order to block the road. Upon this potential display of escalation the camp police and riot police rapidly
mobilised and suppressed all further action.

The situation for the migrant communities living in the camp has become so desperate that many fall through the cracks and are left without
food, shelter, medical support, and cash assistance. As a result they are forced to forage for food, building materials, and other resources
in order to survive. Consequently, Moria village has been victim to a string of thefts and break-ins due to its proximity to the camp. This,
along with the ever increasing number of arrivals, the spread of misinformation, and New Democracy's failure to manage the situation, has
created a recipe for hatred, racism, and fear to fester within the local population.

Soon after the protesters tried to pass through Moria village, the residents held a meeting with the mayor of Mytilini to express their
anger and frustration over the spiralling situation and to condemn the NGO's who are perceived to be in cahoots with the migrant communities
and for profiteering from this "crisis." They demanded to decongest the islands and for full-time police presence in the village for their
own protection. That night they formed a blockade on the road going into the village to prevent migrants from entering and smashed the
windows of an NGO house. The police set up a check-point outside the village, presumably to prevent migrants from reaching the village and
to prevent further violence.

Afghan woman is left unconscious on the side of the road after violent police suppression

The following morning, Thursday 4th February, approximately 100 people from the Afghan community marched once again to the Municipal Theatre
in Mytilini and attempted to block the road. They were met by a small gang of far-right locals and were violently confronted by the riot
police who beat and chased them away. The far-right gang chased some of the migrants through the streets but it seems they failed to
confront them. Several people escaped the riot police with minor injuries, except for one woman who lay unconscious on the side of the road
after. As some migrants and solidarians gathered to attend to the woman, an older Greek man tried to beat and chase a young Greek woman who
was with the group. He implied that he was concealing a knife in his pocket but quickly fled the scene upon the arrival of an ambulance.
Once again, during this demonstration 4 migrants and solidarians were brought to the police station where they were detained for a short
time, questioned, and had their ID's checked.

The residents of Moria Village set up a blockade on the way into the village.

That night, approximately 40 locals in Moria village gathered to instigate a pogrom against the migrant community and those in solidarity
with them. They smashed the windows of an NGO car as it drove though the village towards Moria camp, carrying two migrants in the back. They
attacked a resident from the village who expressed opposition to the pogrom and they beat a migrant who managed to walk past the police
check-point without being warned of what lay ahead. Subsequently his head was "broken" and an ambulance was called.

Approximately 120 antifascists march towards Moria Village.

Late that night a group of approximately 120 antifascists marched from Epano Skala on the outskirts of Mytilini towards Moria village. This
action was called in direct response to the violent police repression against the migrant protests and to the pogrom organised by the
residents of Moria village. After marching over 2 kilometres, the group reached Kara-Tepe where they stopped to express solidarity to the
residents inside the camp by shouting "Azadi Azadi" ("Freedom Freedom") and as a symbol of defiance against the violence that occurred there
at the hands of the police the day before. In a vain attempt to mobilise and confront the antifascists, members of the far-right circulated
rumours that the aim of this action was to burn down the Public Power Corporation (PPC) power plant near Kara-Tepe. However, no-one appeared
due in part to the heavy police presence.

Riot police blocked the road with an armoured bus several hundred metres beyond Kara-Tepe. With no desire to clash with the police the group
turned around and headed back towards Mytilini where they assembled on Sappho Square (the main square of Mytilini and a historic location
for the antifascist and migrant liberation movement) to reclaim Mytilini's public space. In a final symbolic gesture, they marched to the
Municipal Theatre and pulled down the banner reading "Lesvos is Greek" which had been left up and tolerated since the municipality strike
two weeks prior.

In the following hours after this demonstration, the streets were tense as a small gang of young men roamed around on motorbikes wearing
helmets and wielding wooden sticks. It was reported that they were checking people on the street to see if they were migrants or NGO
workers. Upon seeing some suspected migrants and NGO workers they chased them into a nearby bar and beat one woman who was sitting outside.
They were quickly chased off by a large group of antifascists who were still patrolling the streets. Two days later the police arrested 7
people in Moria village and were searching for two more people on suspicion of planning or carrying out attacks on migrants on the island of
Lesvos. On the 10th February, the police announced that they were investigating 14 migrants (13 Afghan and 1 Iranian). The case filed with
the Public Prosecutor's Office of Mytilini includes charges of inciting violence, disturbing the peace, destruction of property, attempt to
cause grievous bodily harm, disorderly conduct, and violation of gun legislation.

An ideological war has been waged on the political left since New Democracy was elected into power. It started with the violent squat
evictions in Exarcheia, the militant repression of the antifascist movement, further militarisation of the borders, increased detention and
deportations (with promises to deport 10,000 people in 2020), restricted access to safeguards for asylum seekers, scepticism and suspicion
of NGO workers, and it has directly resulted in the confinement of more than 42,080 migrants on the Aegean Islands. With the recent events
in Lesvos, we are witnessing the normalisation of a violent fascist ideology along with systematic oppression and criminalisation of
migration, brutal suppression of resistance movements, and a ham fisted and pigheaded approach to dealing with migration in Greece.

Subject: Greece, Fascism, Border rebellion, Asylum
Topics: Migration / racism
Geography: International
Source: Opinion
Type: Analysis
Author: Dermot Freeman

http://wsm.ie/c/movement-freedom-overview-current-situation-lesvos

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