#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Update: #anarchist #information from all over the #world - 25.04.2020

Today's Topics:

   
1. On the Indonesian Witch Hunt for Anarchism and the "Normal
    Activist Mindset" By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
    (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  US, black rose fed: Labor Organizing During Covid-19: A
     University Janitor's Account By BeauJon McNally 
    (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Greece, vogliamo tutto: In the face of individualism and
      fear, life and solidarity will prevail [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - Webdito, Covid-19:
      Deconfinement, second wave, transfers and summer break (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - AL #304 -
      Antipatriarchy, March 8 in Montpellier: A new start for the
      feminist struggle (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  icl-cit - Coronavirus: Let's not go back to normal! (ca)
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Coronavirus and the
      police (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1




In the midst of a global pandemic, as if humanitarian crises had never occurred before, and right on the verge of economic recession,
politics made a statement saying that anarchists are planning looting on a national scale on April 18, "The Year of the Corona ". This
idiotic (and also strategic) pronouncement made by the authorities in a false way has the clear intention of looking for those to blame in
these times of crisis while the lower stratum of Indonesian society is already tired of the conditions and no longer sees looting as a
taboo. The anger grows, but as the media and the police try to sensationalize with the recent arrest of four anarchists accused of graffiti
that says: "It is already a crisis, time to set fire" (see photo); they try to mask the crisis and the incompetence of the State in the face
of the situation in the search for a "public enemy", who are now "the anarchists". As if the impact of some graffiti and the recent
situation were comparable, the response of the middle class and internet users and also of activists, whistle-blowers and cowards who are
manipulated to turn against a small group of anarchists in Tangerang, a few kilometers from Jakarta, it turned out that they were arrested
for graffiti.

Who are these anarchists?

While false public indignation grows against anarchists, the common narratives are that "anarchists are provocateurs". Even some left-wing
activists go so far as to want to cooperate with the state to crack down on anarchists or to label their actions as stupid. And this is
nothing new. Activists, the middle class, who fear everything in a time of panic, are easily manipulated. It's because? In addition to its
binary logic of thought and its banalities in the field of action, and, of course, clandestinity signifying the loss of its illusion of
security. This same category of people compromises many anarchist projects during these times of crisis and pandemic, such as donating free
food, creating shelters for homeless people and other grassroots struggles, while many of the so-called activists just sit and watch and
echo the state's "stay home" position, while public discontent is on fire and intensifying. The same anarchists who were arrested are young
activists who run a cooperative cafe, and are active in spreading counter-information, and the large-scale idea of "a market reallyfree "at
the grassroots level. It is clear that the middle class and the activist mentality mirror the same stupid thinking orchestrated by the State
to make them part of the society of control. This brief briefing is also a "fuck you" for all activists, and even some "anarchist" leftists
who are blaming or accusing any direct action and being complete idiots just because some people have been arrested. It is also a "fuck you"
for the state that set up this false situation by blaming anarchists. Perhaps anarchists do participate in looting and it will almost
certainly happen! But, dear State, you know so well that your structures are decomposing and that we will help you to rot. FUCK YOU.

Solidarity with the anarchists of Tangerang!

The Individualist Circle

Translation> Schwartz

anarchist news agency-ana

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Message: 2


A University of Washington custodian gives their personal account of workplace organizing under Covid-19 and the importance of labor
organizing in this time. ---- I love working but I hate jobs and I hate capitalism. The state of our modern economy is such that even after
squeezing in a Bachelors in Anthropology, I work in custodial building sanitation at the University of Washington. I clean the offices and
bathrooms of my former professors while earning almost half below the poverty level in my city. As of this writing on April 1st, we just
lost our first UW custodian to the Coronavirus, roughly two weeks after a prominent professor from the Department of Pathology succumbed to
the virus. With rolling infections, fevers and deaths, we can expect case spikes every two to three weeks until there's a vaccine, or we
"flatten the curve" through physical distancing.
Unions in the Time of Crisis
Custodial workers and others like me are on the front line of flattening the curve. In the wake of this Covid-19 crisis I'm considered
essential staff and one of the few who still have a job during the virus outbreak. I'm not thankful I still have a job, I'm thankful that I
have a union that I'm active in.

All criticisms of unions aside, and they're plenty to list, working class power in unions remains important. Union density makes up about
10% of the workforce in the US and 18% in Washington state. From the UFCW grocery worker keeping your food stocked to the SEIU, AFSCME or
WSNA nurse that takes you in at the hospital. The operator that transported the goods from the dock to the store or hospital was probably a
Teamster. Where would we be without the ILWU longshoremen that unpacked the medical freight? Or the IBEW electrician that keeps the power
on, the IOUE worker that maintains water treatment and operations, the ATU bus driver for emergency staff? And there's of course the AFT and
WEA teachers scrambling to turn their classes into online courses.

Organized labor might still be small, but unions can still do something not a lot of organizations can do, and that is punch well above its
weight. The union isn't collective bottom up rank-and-file power, it is the application of collective bottom up rank-and-file power. It is
what the members allow it and make it to be. When workers take control, or divorce economic and political will from power, workers can shake
the city.

Organizing in the Covid Crisis
To folks outside of workplace organizing, walkouts and strikes seem like events that burst from the seams of conflict. In actuality they are
grown over time from relationship building between coworkers. Management intentionally maintains confusion within the ranks and exacerbates
divisions along race and other lines for the purposes of labor management; if everyone is mad at each other they can't coalesce around
challenging power. Despite this, it is because of the past year of consistently showing up for fellow custodians that I can listen to their
stories and help them to take a stand with me.

Organizing during the Covid-19 pandemic takes extraordinary trust, political sobriety, and an honest understanding of what's at stake. For
over a year prior to the outbreak I had been organizing other custodians through walk-out pledges. Last December, I was voted in by
custodians to be on the next bargaining contract team. With social distancing in place I've been making use of remote communications, which
is a challenge because of the massive language and digital literacy barrier. Most of my organizing is over the phone in one-on-one
conversations or through text messages punctuated with phone calls.

Bosses Endanger Our Lives
As the Covid crisis hit in mid-March, all masks and eye protection were reserved for the University of Washington Medical Center and
Harborview Medical Center. Even though university classes were transferred to online formats, custodians were still considered essential
staff. Custodial regular Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were nitryl gloves and masks for those working around asbestos and eye
protection for our chemical station. When I asked my manager if I had missed any additional training, they handed me a list of new duties
and tasks. I clarified that I was asking for new safety protocols, and my managers told me "it's just like the flu," and to change my gloves
and wash my hands.

In addition to sanitizing our buildings, UW Building Services treated the health crisis like a snow day or summer break, an opportunity for
floor stripping and rewaxing, retiling and all sorts of other building services we typically do in the summertime. The first strategy when
organizing my coworkers was to get them to phone blitz the UW President Ana Mari Cauce. Our asks were simple, hazard pay, better PPE or put
us on paid leave. If you cannot inspire your coworkers to make some phone calls, you're not going to be able to convince them to walk out
with you.

In addition to the phone blitz there was state-wide pressure on Governor Jay Inslee who by March 25th, gave his stay-in-place order for the
state. The result is that our staff of thirty was reduced to ten per day with the other twenty on paid leave. I'm only working two to three
days a week but still at my regular minimum wage salary. We still do not have hazard pay or upgraded PPE.

Capitalism, Corona, and Workers Power
The US has built up over the last forty or so years a socio-economic tinder box that Covid-19 is burning through. About one month into the
Coronavirus crisis and over 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment. It has laid bare the inadequacies and contradictions of not
just capitalism, but capital oriented infrastructure. And we are now at a bottleneck with labor at the center. What we must continue to do
at my worksite is pumping the prime with organizing each other, digging up more coworker phone numbers until we have a tight web of
custodians in communication with each other. With the difference of five days being life or death during Covid-19, we have to have the
ability to pivot and grow our collective confidence together.

I am working class because even though I could stop identifying as anti-capitalist, as an anarchist, at any time, I cannot change my
economic situation. I am one militant worker who cleans toilets for a living in a large union local attached to a massive employer,
associated with an even bigger state and national union. If I could cause as much change as I have this past year, but especially during the
Covid-19 crisis, imagine how much more could change if more political radicals reintegrated and deepened our involvement in labor struggles.

The times ahead are calling into question capitalist social arrangements and economic dominance. The system is on the skids but it's up to
us to actually change it into something diferent. If we're going to build the new world out of the shell of the old it's going to be labor,
like me, like us, that will build it.

BeauJon McNally is a University of Washington custodial worker.

https://blackrosefed.org/labor-covid-university-janitor-account/

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Message: 3



Following the actions against the health and economic crisis as an anarchist collective Vogliamo tutto e per tutti we placed banners in
central parts of the neighborhoods of Petralona, Koukaki, Thiseio, Neos Kosmos, Nea Smyrni and Exarcheia. Along with the placement of the
banners, the text of the collectivity "SELF-PROTECTION-RESISTANCE-SOLIDARITY-SELF-ORGANIZATION-SOLIDARITY" is shared and pasted at the
entrances of apartment buildings . ----  In the face of this unprecedented situation, we from below will not share the same responsibilities
as the state and capital, just as we do not share the privileges. We will not trust our lives and our health to government dignitaries,
omniscient experts, cops, the army and journalists. Because right now we have to protect ourselves from both the coronary and the state and
capital schemes for further control and enslavement of our lives. That is why we must protect our health and our freedom.

At this difficult time, we must seek the saviors of our fellow human beings and our neighbors, not the rulers. Everyone's health is health
for all of us. To promote solidarity with cannibalism. Mutual assistance against isolation and individualism. The resistance to the
discipline and tradition of our lives.

anarchist collectivity Vogliamo tutto e per tutti

https://vogliamotutto.espivblogs.net/2020/04/21/apenanti-stin-exatomikeysi-kai-ton-fovo-i-zoi-kai-i-allileggyi-tha-nikisoyn/

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Message: 4



While the government is organizing a gradual deconfinement for May 11, what about the measures envisaged ? What do we know about the
contagiousness of children ? What challenges around screening ? What to fear from future Covid-19 mutations ? Will he spend the summer ? And
the second wave ? Update on current scientific knowledge. ---- The government announced a general deconfinement on May 11, with a strategy
of exit of containment confirming that the priority is the maintenance of the profits, not the health of the population. A second wave of
contamination seems inevitable from the admission of certain specialists and nothing seems to indicate for the moment that the virus would
slow down its progression once the winter is over (whatever Donald Trump likes). Another fear which is raised would be the mutation rate of
SARS-COV-2 which would announce the appearance of a more virulent strain than the one we are currently experiencing. However, the link
between mutation (rapid or not) of the virus and its virulence is not proven and does not necessarily make sense if we refer to the natural
selection process of the theory of evolution.

What to think of the exit strategy of deconfinement announced by Macron ?
The number of new infections in France seems to be decreasing, we have passed the peak of the epidemic since the week of April 6. Macron has
thus announced a deconfinement for May 11.

It should first be noted that deconfinement will take place sooner for many employees, since now it is no longer a question of essential
activities, but of activities that can operate while respecting barrier gestures. Suffice to say that work will resume in many companies
from the week of April 20, with its share of contagions, at the workplace or in public transport. We refer here to the general press release
from UCL [1].

Then there is the question of protective equipment: will there be enough on May 11, and now for the sectors that are taking over ? One can
seriously doubt it when in many hospitals access to equipment is still in tension.

The reopening of nurseries, schools, colleges, high schools took everyone by surprise. It is recognized that children are in the majority of
asymptomatic cases, therefore that the virus is not dangerous for them (less than 10 children under 15 years have died of the coronavirus in
the world since the beginning of the epidemic. ), although it is transmitted very quickly between them since it is difficult to make them
respect barrier gestures.

The reopening of schools
The question still under debate is whether they are contagious, and this question arises globally for all asymptomatic carriers. Professor
Raoult, again, would have weighed with Macron on the decision to reopen the schools [2](remember that Macron visited him on April 10). Yet
his study on the subject says only two things: that children are not very symptomatic and that their viral load is not higher than that of
adults, which does not mean that it is lower !

Children could therefore massively catch the virus in schools and transmit it to their parents, grandparents, etc. Again Professor Raoult
favors communication, without the slightest scientific basis, with consequences that can be dramatic. And Macron is very happy to find
pseudo-scientific arguments to support this decision whose sole purpose is to send the parents to work.

While waiting to learn more about the contagiousness of children and asymptomatic patients in general, the precautionary principle should
have prevailed: schools should have been closed, which almost all scientists recommended. In addition, barrier gestures will have to be
respected within the establishments, which is more than complex and will probably not be ready for May 11.

The thorny issue of testing and screening
Macron announced screening only for symptomatic people. This decision is obviously guided by the lack of test production capacity. In all
cases, there is a scientific consensus that the tests of symptomatic people are almost irrelevant, since we already know that they are sick,
the tests just confirm whether it is Covid -19.

It is essential to engage in a screening of contacts of the infected person (family, colleagues, neighbors etc.) to determine if they are
sick before the symptoms appear, which saves precious time on the spread of the epidemic. The question also arises of massively testing
certain populations: caregivers, children, population in a "cluster" area, or even all those wishing to be tested.

However, the government is considering a contact tracing app to digitize, and therefore faster, screening surveys. This seems inconsistent
with testing only the symptomatic. But this poses above all a number of questions both on the efficiency and on the cost in terms of
individual freedoms [3]and we will come back to this subject in a future article.

Macron mentioned the serological tests, explaining that only a small part of the population will have been infected and will therefore be
immune, which seems to suggest that these tests are useless. The scientific council mentions indeed a proportion of immune "maybe around
10-15%" but on the basis of tests carried out in the Oise and the Grand-Est, therefore very affected regions. We are therefore probably very
far, nationwide, from the approximately 60% necessary to achieve group immunity.

How long are you immune ?
It should also be recalled that the duration of immunity is currently unknown, but probably on the order of a few months. There remains the
question of determining the proportion of asymptomatics. France is therefore not going to do it, for obscure reasons, but Germany is in any
case carrying out studies on the subject. The other interest of these serological tests would be to be able to "use" the immunized
populations for tasks near the patients, which could in particular have an interest among the nursing staff and the staff of Ehpad. Again,
no ads.

Macron said nothing about chloroquine, apart from the fact that all avenues were being explored, which is consistent with, for example, the
Inserm Discovery study, which tests 5 molecules.

A more virulent virus is not necessarily more dangerous
In connection with the questions surrounding the second wave, fears about possible mutations of the virus are sometimes expressed. The
SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, like any other virus, mutates rather quickly. Note however that, among viruses, the mutation rate of SARS-COV-2
seems in fact rather low: 2 mutations / month on average [4]. But the question should not be mistaken here: the challenge is not to know if
a mutation making the virus more virulent can exist (the answer is trivially yes) but rather to know if such a mutation (more virulent) has
a real chance to be the winner of the natural selection process.

Indeed, the resources available to the coronavirus - in this case, the world human population - are limited, and natural selection therefore
pushes the virus to adapt to survive. In other words, a mutation of the virus which would make it incapable of spreading, infecting new
humans, or replicating itself, would disappear as soon as the first infected case heals. On the contrary, for a mutation to have the most
probability of adapting and for its frequency in the virus population to increase, the mutation must confer what is called a selective
advantage: a better contamination rate, a faster replication, etc.

By approaching the question in this way, we can better understand why the virulence of a virus, defined as its capacity to make the host
sick, even to lead to its death, is never an advantage for the virus itself. A sick host will move less, be less in contact with other
potential hosts, and - in this case - may even end up in isolation in an intensive care unit. Quite the opposite of a successful adaptation.

On the contrary, a successful adaptation for a virus consists in being as virulent as possible, in order to go unnoticed and to be able to
quietly replicate and spread. This is one of the big "advantages" of SARS-COV-2. Not all people with the virus have symptoms, which makes it
easier for people to spread.

Virulence is an undesirable secondary consequence for a virus. When this increases, it is because it is linked to another property of the
virus which is itself selected by evolution - such as the fact that HIV, by replicating itself in the body, weakens the immune defenses.

However, the continuous mutations of the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus have no reason for the moment to evolve towards more virulence or lethality:
its "success" is remarkable for the moment and very few obstacles stand in the way to him. Virologists and epidemiologists currently
consider that "anew, more virulent strain Is unlikely to appear in the near future. If evolution and selection there must be in the short
term, then we should rather expect that these will push towards a better rate of transmission (the average number of individuals that the
virus contaminates in a day). Indeed, the coronavirus is still far from having infected the entire world population and, in a sense, is
still bathed in a pool of potential hosts. A mutation that would allow it to accelerate its spread would have a real selective advantage.

A summer break from the Coronavirus ?
On the other side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump said several weeks ago that the virus could not survive the summer, supported by a handful
of Chinese scientists, and echoing the rumor that the virus can't stand the heat. Would the virus actually disappear in summer, and what are
the elements behind this hypothesis ?

Antoine Flahault, director of the Geneva Institute of Global Health, and the infectiologist Anne-Claude Crémieux already declared, in
February, that it is not possible to predict whether or not the virus will be influenced by the seasons as d other known viruses [5].

For other viruses, there are many reasons for this seasonality. First, they keep better on hands and inert surfaces in a cold and dry
environment, as suggested by Olivier Schwartz, director of the Virus and Immunity unit of the Institut Pasteur, and Frédéric Tangy, head of
the viral genomics laboratory and vaccination at the Institut Pasteur. Jeremy Rossman, professor of virology at the University of Kent in
the United Kingdom, adds that the duration of sunshine in winter causes deficiencies in vitamin D and melatonin, and that the dry air of
this period decreases the efficiency nasal mucus, which weakens the immune system and makes it more susceptible to viruses and infections.

Anne-Marie Moulin (researcher at the CNRS SPHERE laboratory) explains that these are only reflections, by analogy with known viruses,
without hindsight on the behavior specific to Covid-19. It also seems that other parameters, such as wind, significantly influence the
large-scale spread, which complicates the analysis of the seasonal behavior of viruses and infections. Scott Dowell (epidemiologist who
leads vaccine development and surveillance for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) says that the seasonality of viruses is not really well
understood and that this is a major area of research in the 'epidemiology.

For Covid-19, a study by the University of Beihang (China) on March 3, 2020 would indicate that a hot and humid environment accelerates the
evaporation of the microdroplets responsible for the spread of Covid-19, which would considerably slow down contamination. [6]. David
Heymann, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, relativizes by indicating that the data specific to the pandemic which we
undergo are not sufficient to draw conclusions on its seasonality. In addition, tests conducted on the coronavirus indicate a relatively
high resistance to heat compared to other viruses [7]. The authors also point out that contamination in Singapore, Australia, or even on the
African continent clearly shows that the virus spreads whatever the climate. When the two hemispheres of the globe are affected, one cannot
expect a significant effect of the seasons on its speed of propagation.

In conclusion, we can hardly think that summer will slow down the virus, the various scientific speakers indicate that history does not
include any epidemic or pandemic of great magnitude that stopped with the change of seasons [8]. Relaxing health vigilance in the face of
the virus on the pretext that the heat of summer would reduce its spread would be a risk-taking that would not fail to bring disastrous
consequences.

And the second wave ?
On January 23, China declared the containment of its population following the catastrophic acceleration of the epidemic of Coronavirus
(Covid-19, SARS-COV-2) in particular in the province of Wuhan, considered as the first infectious focus. Two months later, on March 25,
deconfinement began, except for the province of Wuhan which had to wait until April 6. The press massively relayed the return to normal
activity of the population in a surprisingly rapid manner throughout the territory. However, a new increase in the number of cases (55 new
cases in the province of Henan north of that of Wuhan) makes fear with the Chinese government the arrival of a second wave of contaminations
for which their health system would not be prepared .

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where the epidemic also appeared to be contained, a further explosion in the number of cases has already
prompted Malaysia and Hong Kong to relaunch a containment plan. This reaction seems to go in the direction of the recommendations of the WHO
which asks this region of the world to "lead a violent fight against the epidemic" [9]so as not to cause the fall of their health systems.

On site, experts such as Zhong Nanshan, head of the Chinese team of experts on the Covid-19, consider that it can be attributed to European
travelers, or to the return of expatriates from the countries concerned. They assure that the epidemic will be finished in April and that
the epicenter of the pandemic is already in the United States where the Covid-19 is wreaking havoc.

However, other events could be behind this rebound in the epidemic. A religious gathering of 16,000 people in Kuala Lumpur could have led to
the appearance of a new infectious center and a resurgence of contamination, especially in Malaysia. This new wave of contamination also
questions the low number of patients declared by Burma and Laos, neighboring countries of Malaysia, and therefore the reliability of these
figures. However, the reason for this rebound in the number of infections is more probably the reduced percentage of these populations
immunized against the virus or due to poor quality tests which would have given false positives [10].

Other epidemiological explanations seem more relevant [11].

Benjamin Cowling, epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, considers a second wave of contamination to be "completely inevitable" and
speaks in particular of "silent propagation" by referring to the infected but asymptomatic people released en masse after deconfinement. Ma
Jin, director of the school of public health at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, also announced that "the fight against the coronavirus will
be a long-term battle".

Matthieu Revest, of Rennes-I University, considers that a second wave of contamination is inevitable but that it will be less intense than
the one we are currently experiencing. Antoine Flahault and François Bricaire, head of the infectious diseases department at
Pitié-Salpêtrière, indicates for example that the Spanish flu caused 50 million deaths in 3 waves over 2 years between 1918 and 1919.

Numerical simulations are already predicting a second wave of massive contamination in China in late August if action is not taken. On the
other hand, if confinement were continued until the end of April, this return to the epidemic could be delayed by two months. Although these
models have their limits, they seem to indicate that containment, and health measures in general, must not be interrupted at the risk of
causing a second wave of contamination which could be very problematic for our already overheated health systems. .

Let us conclude with this recent study by Inserm [12]on different scenarios for leaving containment in Île-de-France. In order to postpone a
new confinement to January 2021, contact tracing would have to be relatively effective, and that alternating "light" measures (closure of
schools, confinement of seniors, privileged telework) and "medium" measures (closure of half of non-essential activities etc). Suffice to
say that we are far from such a strategy.

UCL Sciences working group, April 19, 2020

Validate

[1] UCL press release, "Macron is preparing a deconfinement tailored for employers" , April 14, 2020.

[2] Marcelo Wesfreid and Tristan Vey, "Reopening of schools: has Emmanuel Macron been influenced by a study by Didier Raoult ?" , Le Figaro,
April 14, 2020.

[3] "Apps, drones ... the health alibi of generalized surveillance" , Alternative libertaire, May 2020.

[4] against one every 6 hours for viruses of the same family: Nicolas Martin and the team of La Méthode Scientifique, "Coronavirus: the
continuous mutation" , France Culture, March 26, 2020.

[5] "Will the Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic disappear in April thanks to the heat, as Donald Trump assures us ?"" , France Télévision,
February 12, 2020.

[6] Decrease in the reproduction rate R0, that is to say the average number of people infected by a carrier of the disease, by 48% between
March and July.

[7] The virus only degrades after thirty minutes at 56 ° C and in ten minutes at 65 ° C.

[8] Recent example: the SARS of 2002. The epidemic was avoided by prohibiting the consumption of civet (species reservoir of this virus) and
not by waiting for the summer.

[9] "Coronavirus: new wave of contamination in countries that thought the epidemic under control" , Europe 1 with AFP, March 22, 2020.

[10] Coralie Lemke, "Can we be infected twice with the Covid-19 coronavirus ? » , Sciences et Avenir, March 3, 2020.

[11] UCL Sciences working group, "Trajectories towards group immunity: confinement vs laissez-faire" , April 12, 2020.

[12] Laura Di Domenico, Giulia Pullano, Chiara E. Sabbatini, Pierre-Yves Boëlle and Vittoria Colizza, "Expected impact of lockdown in
Île-de-France and possible exit strategies" , Inserm, April 12, 2020.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Covid-19-Deconfinement-seconde-vague-mutations-et-treve-estivale

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Message: 5


[Photos]This year, for the first time in a long time, grassroots associations, collectives, unions and political organizations have together
prepared the feminist mobilizations of November 25 and March 8. ---- The March appeal, however, gathered only 24 signatory orgas, against 44
in November. Why ? Because of the refusal to make room for pre-municipal electoral propaganda, but also because institutional associations
have been hampered by the emphasis placed on opposition to the scrapping of pensioners ... ---- The UCL had pushed on these two points which
are close to its heart. Alas, in the street, the junction with the social movement on pensions will be insufficient. November had been a
great success. March was even more so, with more than 3,000 people for a festive and protest demonstration. Political posters on the walls,
placards, slogans and happening ("Because of Macron", "The rapist is you") punctuated this march.

UCL Montpellier largely participated in this great moment, via its local feminist commission. The comrades were there on D-Day, with
slogans, flags, federal leaflet, collage of posters along the demonstration, and speaking. At the anarchist bookstore La Bad reputation,
which houses the UCL, an activist creation workshop had produced visuals, pasted the previous day on the route of the demonstration.

On March 6, La Bad reputation had also hosted a debate organized by the feminist commission of the UCL, with a comrade from Family Planning
and one from the CGT, to take stock of the particular scope of this March 8, on the plans international, national and local. It was an
opportunity to highlight the daily work of feminists in unions and grassroots associations.

Our immediate demands cannot do without these feedbacks, which must feed our revolutionary project ! Let us hope that this beginning of
joint work will allow the preparation of a real women's strike for next year, and tomorrow for a local feminist protest platform.

UCL Montpellier

Photos: Constance Meylan

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?8-mars-a-Montpellier-Un-nouveau-depart-pour-la-lutte-feministe

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Message: 6


RelatedPosts ---- Dealing with the corona crisis: ICL mobilizes worldwide ---- [Spain] CNT demands that the Spanish Government takes
measures to protect and support workers ---- [Italy]Statement by USI-CIT health workers ---- It's difficult writing about Covid-19 from
Madrid, one of the hardest hit towns in the world. The death toll in the region alone is higher than for the whole of China. Officials say
it's slowly improving, but scores of people continue to pass away every day. People I knew from my neighbourhood have died. Others are
critically ill, including union comrades. This is hard. We all want it to be over. ---- Feelings of isolation and frustration are common in
the lockdown. Kids have been inside for more than a month now. Their stress and anxiety are showing in different ways. The littlest ones,
particularly, can't understand what's going on. The quarantine is being strictly enforced, indeed, and they're not spared. Many families
living in overcrowded accommodations or with poor sanitation are having it even worse. This is hard indeed. We all so much want it to be over.

Jobs and livelihoods have vanished. More than three million workers across Spain have been temporarily laid-off and 800,000 jobs were
destroyed in March alone. Crucial sectors for the economy (tourism, hospitality...) lay in ruins and prospects are bleak. The picture is
very similar across the globe. This will be even harder, and it doesn't look like it will be over soon.

In the meantime, the other issues that our societies were facing before the current crisis are still there. Inequality, poverty and
exploitation are rampant across the globe, authoritarian regimes and xenophobic populism have not gone away, and global warming and its
consequences continue to accelerate.

When this is over, when Covid-19 is finally gone, we'll need to get down to the task of fixing this broken world. The times we're going
through, this collective experience, is an awakening call. It is now obvious that ignoring or denying those global issues is done at our
peril. We may try as hard as we want to keep them out of our minds, to keep going as if nothing is happening, but they will come knocking on
our doors.

There's not going back to normal. We should not go back to normal. No believing that state and politicians (any state, any politicians) will
keep us safe, because it is obvious that they won't. No buying into the whole liberal economic bullshit of eternal growth, because there's
nothing of the like. No bartering our lives away, in mindless jobs for endless hours. No handing over our collective decision-making
capacity to bureaucrats elected in a ballot box...

Fear is powerful and pandemics are scary. There's a likely chance that many will be ready to surrender rights and freedoms, hopes and
aspirations, for the promise of security and health. But the only way to cure fear is trust. Trust in ourselves, in our collective strength,
in each other's support and comradeship, in solidarity...To make that support and solidarity effective, to feel its warmth in our lives and
to harness it to address global issues, we need to build powerful organisations that bring us together. It can be a grassroots union, a
tenant's association, a group against cutbacks and austerity, a radical environmental campaign, a feminist collective or any other. All
those and many more are required to implement the change, on a revolutionary scale, that we need. Only the people help the people!

So don't go back to normal. This time, get militant.

Miguel Perez, ICL's secretary

1.- Surveillance & Authoritarian Regimes

Over the last decades there's been a rise in the number of authoritarian regimes, that mix little or no political freedom with naked market
capitalism. Obviously, the paradigm in this respect is China, but there are many others, like Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc. At the same
time, conservative populism has been on the rise virtually everywhere. Not only in developed countries, where the excuse of immigration has
often been used for a general shift to the right of the political spectrum, but also in places like India.

Meanwhile, state and company surveillance of citizens and consumers has become normalised all over the world.

Now, the Covid-19 crisis brings about another twist to these developments. It is starkly obvious that the capacity to curtail the spread of
the disease has differed hugely between countries. Probably none has been as successful as South Korea, but also China seems to have done
well, considering the odds and even allowing for a high level of official figure manipulation. In contrast, Italy, Spain and the US seem to
be on the back foot and are experiencing higher death tolls than anywhere else in the world.

There are probably many reasons for this, and each case is unique. An in-depth discussion is beyond the scope of this text. However, it can
be confidently said that many will point to the surveillance and control that many Asian states keep on their citizens as one of the main
reasons. Also, to the fact that an authoritarian government, like the Chinese, can quickly introduce and enforce harsher measures at the
beginning of the outbreak.

A likely result of the health crisis, in general, will be a widespread acceptance of more authoritarian regimes and, certainly, more state
surveillance. There are already voices pointing in that direction. The use that the South Korean authorities have made of facial
recognition, tracking apps, mobile phone records, etc. in finding infected people will surely make these developments more palatable to many
in the future. After all, when life is on the balance discussions are idle and fear is a very powerful motivation.

But these tools of surveillance are also some of the backbones of the modern authoritarian regimes (the others being time-tested physical
repression of opponents). Throw all this in the mix with nationalist politicians in overdrive, xenophobic populists and rabid conservatives,
pseudo-communist dictators or theocratic governments and the powder keg is ready to blow up at any moment.

It seems like we will have to take one page or two from Hong Kong protesters on how to keep our movements safe in the face of massive
surveillance and state repression.

2.- Funding the old ways

There's no question that the health crisis is going to wreck global economy. It is has already done so to some extent, but the coming months
will see much more of it. The numbers are as widely known as they're staggering, no need to repeat them now. Predictions are dire. Truly,
you don't need to be a Nobel prize winning economist to understand that millions of workers losing jobs and companies going bust around the
globe can quickly cascade into a debacle for banks, stock markets and the financial world in general.

Coming hot on the heels of the 2008 recession, the prospect is terrifying for governments. So much so that many were ready to gamble their
citizen's lives for the sake of keeping the economy running. Think the US, the UK, etc. Failing this, they've all been quick to take out the
check book for magic trillionaire stimulus packages. The money that couldn't be found during the past years of cutbacks and austerity
measures has suddenly materialised and is ready to be handed out generously. Our comrades from USI in Italy have already pointed out the
effects of cuts to the health system in their country and its repercussions in the current crisis
(https://www.icl-cit.org/italy-statement-by-usi-cit-health-workers/). Surely, the same could be said of any other place.

We've been here before. After the 2008 financial crash, amid a fanfare of calls to reform capitalism, millions were used to bail out banks
and other companies. The discourses faded quickly from memory, the owners of big companies pocketed the money, thank you very much, and then
left the workers to shoulder the weight of their bailouts through cutbacks and austerity. Nothing happened, other than a worsening of labour
and living conditions for workers.

Very likely, now all those billions in stimulus packages will be used to keep oil pumping, planes flying, cars running, ships sailing, power
plants burning coal, cattle ranchers felling the rainforest, factories producing cheap plastic junk for Halloween and Christmas, sweatshops
stitching the trendiest fashion items, tech companies unveiling their latest gadgets....as before.

Indeed, that is the plan. Go back to how things were as quickly as possible, pretend COVID-19 never happened and go on ignoring the many
other global issues that are out there. But this pandemic has shown that the out-of-sight out-of-mind approach that our societies are so
good at taking does not really work. Simply going around our daily business and hoping that the experts and the politicians will keep us
safe is not a viable strategy. It never was, obviously, but no one can deny it now. The health crisis is the wake-up call to realise that
we're in deep shit.

3.- Funding the next crisis

Some have pointed out to the benefits of the crisis for the environment. Pollution levels are at an all-time low and animals and plants are
reclaiming natural spaces deserted by humans during the lockdown. However, even if anyone was inclined to consider these developments good
news, amidst a huge humanitarian crisis, they are likely to be short lived. Indeed, the ultimate outcome can be worse than before.

For one thing, these changes are only temporary. Then, companies and governments are already making plans to relax environmental protections
and to ditch sustainability plans for the sake of economic recovery. This means new coal-fuelled power plants, to provide cheap energy
quickly for struggling factories, or more oil rigs and subsidized fuels to support airlines and shipping, to mention just a few. Even
accounting for reduced demand due to the economic slowdown, the health crisis could be very detrimental for the environment.

The thing is that global warming and environmental collapse have continued unabated. They haven't stopped with the quarantine, just because
no one's watching. The ice caps continue to melt at an accelerating rate, sea levels to rise and forests to burn. Indeed, some studies link
the increase in pandemics to the encroachment on human populations in natural areas and their degradation.

But the environmental emergency is not the only one ravaging the planet right now. Economic inequality, poverty and exploitation continue to
plague whole communities across the globe. The effects of the health crisis can certainly be devastating for them. Not only in terms of
limited access to health care, though that is certainly a factor. For example, COVID-19 has already spread more and been more deadly in
impoverished communities (predominantly black) in the US. But also, as has been the case in previous economic crises, it is likely that the
brunt of the slowdown will be borne by workers across the globe. From North to South America, Europe to Asia, there's a working class that
will feel (is already feeling) the effects of the economic slowdown.

If the 2008 crisis is anything to go by, jobs and livelihoods will be lost, wages will be pushed down, evictions and homelessness will
increase and the working and living conditions will worsen in general. Poorer communities in developing countries face the prospect of
famine, while social exclusion can become widespread in other parts of the globe. Meanwhile, bosses and business owners will receive
generous stimulus packages from governments and tax-payers money, and they will surely find ways to pocket them. No wonder inequality
skyrockets after each economic crisis.

4.- Only the people help the people

Our FORA-Argentina comrades have said it loud and clear (https://www.icl-cit.org/argentina-about-coronavirus-and-the-working-class/). Don't
give zillions in stimulus packages to our bosses. Give us workers the money and we'll look after ourselves and our communities!

Certainly, faced with the prospect of environmental and economic collapse, communities could use that money to set up alternative ways of
managing resources, that serve the interests of the people and not of shareholders, that are respectful of the environment and that fight
inequality and social exclusion. At this point in time, no one can argue that the world is not in need of better-funded health systems,
proper housing and sanitation for all, guaranteed access to education, environmentally sustainable sources of energy, decent living
conditions...to start with.

None of these things will be achieved by rescuing struggling companies that make a profit out of polluting the environment, exploiting
workers and handing out bonuses and dividends. Nor by giving money individually to consumers, so they can go out and spend. The "go and buy
yourself something nice" approach taken by the Trump administration, in the face of a deadly systemic crisis, is the best example of the
market mindset, that reduces social problems to individual consumer choices. As if buying new clothes or cars was going to conjure the virus
away.

No. Social and systemic issues require social and systemic solutions. And none of these will happen if governments proceed unchecked and
dump trillions to save an ailing economy, directly or through encouraging consumer spending. Drastic and lasting changes must be made. So
drastic, in fact, that they would be revolutionary. A revolutionary transformation that no state, government, business owner or politician
is willing or able to implement.

In the coming months and years, it will be down to us, workers from across the globe, to devise and implement a way out. Considering the
many issues we must address, it may seem a daunting task. However, pulling together, building comprehensive decentralised movements based on
solidarity and mutual aid and developing strong organisations and international links and networks, there's nothing the collective
intelligence of hundreds of millions of people can't achieve. We are a powerful force. With tools at our disposal to interlink, communicate
and share, there's no stopping us. In the current situation, feeling dreadful and overwhelmed about the future is normal, if we look only at
politicians and businesspeople for answers. It is us workers, the unemployed, pensioners, students, migrants...who are in a position to
collectively chart a way ahead. Certainly, trust in our own ability and capacity is the only vaccine against fear.

However, solidarity and mutual aid need proper organisations to go beyond individual acts of kindness and become social forces of their own,
with an unlimited potential for transformation. Environmental protection can't be reduced to consumer choices, much as many greenwashing
companies and governments would want us to believe. It requires powerful radical ecologist groups taking action. Women's equality won't
become a reality just by passing laws. A proper cultural shift is required, that can only come from the hands of women and men combating
sexism in their daily lives. Xenophobia, racism and aggressive nationalism won't go away unless we chase them off our streets.

Finally, the deadly viruses of inequality, poverty and exploitation will continue to dominate the international order, as long as we allow
it to be ruled by the forces of capitalist globalisation. In that respect, anarchosyndicalist and revolutionary unions are tools at our
disposal to fight back and defend workers' rights. This will be crucial in the coming months of economic slowdown, so that workers are not
made, once again, to bear the brunt of the crisis. But not only that. They are also essential parts of any movement for social and economic
transformation. Sections of revolutionary unions in the workplace form the basis from which workers can reshape production, to make it serve
their real needs. They're the building blocks of an economy that protects life, our lives, and not profit.

Only the people help the people. Only ourselves can save ourselves. The common and global issues that we have to confront are many and
complex. So we need all hands on deck. Now there's no more looking the other way. This time, go and get militant.

International Confederation of Labour

https://www.icl-cit.org/coronavirus-lets-not-go-back-to-normal/

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Message: 7



First of all, the facts: ---- France ---- The police have become increasingly alienated from the mass of the population under the Macron
regime, with daily brutality, harassment and arrests. The police have been particularly brutal against the Gilets Jaunes and striking
workers. The pandemic has not ended this situation. In fact, the police have used non-compliance with coronavirus regulations to insult,
humiliate, fine and physically attack people. It is the working class neighbourhoods that bear the brunt of these acts. ---- The latest
incident was on Saturday 18th April, at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, when police in a car without markings deliberately opened a car door as a
motorcyclist was passing, causing him to fly through the air and sustain a serious open fracture to his leg. The police then drove off angry
onlookers. This provoked a riot on the night of 20th April, with fireworks thrown at police who were using tear gas grenades and police
charges. A journalist was violently arrested, before being released and fined for failure to comply with lockdown regulations. There were
other riots in several working class neighbourhoods that night.

Anger is increasing against the police, especially after other incidents like the death in custody of a young homeless man of Arab origin at
Beziers. Meanwhile an off-duty policeman at Noisy-le-Grand used his service pistol to fire on his neighbour, who was "making too much noise"
but was released after his initial arrest. He was arrogant enough to boast about this on social media, pointing to the increasing impunity
of the police. Every day new videos are appearing online witnessing the beatings, taserings and humiliations regularly being doled out by
the cops. One video shows cops pushing a young woman to the ground in Aubervilliers, whilst another shows a man being punched to the ground
by cops in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. In fact, it is easier for the police to carry out these brutal attacks because bystanders cannot gather
round to protest because of risks of fines equivalent to £128. It is above all immigrants and inhabitants of working class neighbourhoods
who are bearing the brunt of these assaults.

On Wednesday March 18th, the first day of the lockdown in France, the police handed out 4,095 fines, equivalent to half a million pounds. On
April 1st the number of fines had reached a total of 359,000 fines with 5.8 million checks! Cops are regularly abusing their powers under
the regulations put into place by illegally searching bags and vehicles. They have dished out fines when they deem that goods bought by
those they stop are non-essential, and these judgements are totally arbitrary. Everyone has to carry special documentation to go outside,
and they too receive a summary fine if caught without it.

The police have themselves been breaking distancing rules by gathering around those they catch in the streets. Even worse, people are being
put into police cells, where the chances of contracting the virus are higher.

Chile

Police used coronavirus regulations to break up a demo in a main square of the capital, Santiago, arresting 14 people, on April 21st.
Protests against the government's austerity measures, began last October over rises in transport fares and have been ongoing.

Greece

Cops attempted to break up a demonstration by health workers outside an Athens hospital protesting about lack of PPE equipment.

USA

In one of the epicentres of the coronavirus in the USA, New York City, cops are carrying on like their French and Greek counterparts. A
small boy of ten was surrounded at the 145th Street station in Harlem, a predominantly black neighbourhood, by 3 uniformed cops, who kicked
away the food he was selling and then dragged him up the stairs as onlookers protested. His mother later tweeted that their family was
homeless and that selling snacks was their only income.

The police are increasingly visible on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) where they are throwing their weight around,
ostensibly to catch fare dodgers. In actual fact, the NYPD is employing its usual brutality against the homeless, and against people of
colour. At a time of raging pandemic, they are arresting people and sending them to prisons like Rikers, where many are contracting
COVID-19. In fact, one in five cops in the NYPD are off sick with COVID-19 and any contact with the cops is a risk.

UK

Whilst not up to the brutality standards of their French and American buddies (yet) British police are becoming increasingly intrusive using
the pandemic as an excuse to bully. They ordered a family off their own lawn in South Yorkshire. Convenience stores were told not to sell
"non-essential" items like Easter eggs whilst people have been fined for going out to buy "non-essential" items. Over 1,000 fines have been
handed out, at £60 a throw. In a park in Bath, police harassed an 80 year old man with a walking stick for sitting on a bench. Walkers in
the Peak District were filmed by police using drones. Police in South Yorkshire and Humberside encouraged people to rat on their neighbours
if they saw them breaking lockdown rules. The Chief Constable of Northamptonshire instructed his boys and girls to check up on shopping
trolleys containing non-essential items. In Warrington police issued court orders for the following: "Out for a drive due to boredom". A
woman at Newcastle Central station was fined £660, a conviction which was later quashed. More recently, a man fined £60 in London later had
his fine cancelled. One man spent two nights in a police cell after being found eating biscuits on a bench. In Glasgow, a disabled woman
sitting on a park bench with her autistic son was harassed by the police, who were later forced to apologise.

Kevin Blowe, of the police monitoring organisation Netpol, said that some people were being harassed by police for being out but not taking
exercise, when they were actually returning from shopping, whilst others were reprimanded for sitting down for a minute to take a rest.

Some top cops are realising their forces are behaving like this on a daily basis and are concerned that they will lose public support. Met
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu was one of those who warned about this. He is obviously fearful that widespread anger about police
behaviour will escalate to the level of France, where there is widespread hatred and contempt for the police. But the police are continuing
to abuse the recent legislation.

Conclusion: Police Are Not Essential Workers!

Unlike health workers, transport workers, cleaners, food retail staff, street sweepers and bin collectors, the police are not essential
workers. They are not there to help us, they are there to protect the wealthy and to harass us and increase their powers to fine and arrest,
in particular if you are from a black or ethnic minority background. The coronavirus pandemic has shown the crying need to create
communities based on mutual aid and solidarity. Such communities would tackle anti-social behaviour and there would be no need for outside
bodies like the police.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/04/21/coronavirus-and-the-police/

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