#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Update: #anarchist #information from all over the #world - 27.04.2020

Today's Topics:

   
1.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #304 - International,
      Orientation: Libertarian communists and the self-determination of
      peoples (fr, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Britain, AFED, organis emagazine: Against a Quarantine with
      Martial Law (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Greece, Action against the state assassination of Azizel
      Deniroglou in Eleonas prison and in solidarity with the prisoners
      By APO [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Slovakia, priama akcia: Call to help - support Carmen in her
      struggle for re-employment [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Britain, Class Warr MONDAY 22 APRIL 2020 -- "It's all got to
      change. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Syndicalist unions and Covid-era resistance: A CIT roundup -
      World, Apr 22nd (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1


Faced with colonialism, imperialism and domination, the UCL supports the self-determination of peoples, that is to say their right to make
society independently. This support is intended to be lucid and critical, and is coupled with a refusal to support movements that would
carry new oppressions within them. But how do you judge ? On what criteria ? Faced with the plurality of situations, a plurality of
commitments are possible. ---- Minorities, depending on their language, culture and / or skin color can be marginalized, oppressed,
dominated. ---- Their language may be prohibited, their culture folklorized, their religious cults stigmatized. Their territories can be
under-equipped in public services, or these serve to ensure the domination of the ruling center. They can be exploited by a single activity,
deprived of productive autonomy and dependent on the massive import of manufactured products. This system benefits the capitalism of the
colonial state. These territories may even be subject to settlement colonization, which implies the strategic establishment of populations
of majority culture on the dominated territory, which the State uses to marginalize minority culture: Israeli settlements in Palestine;
French settlement of Kanaky ; Han settlement of Tibet and Xinjiang.

In the face of this oppression, rebellions can arise, on both national and social bases.

Liberation on an exclusively national basis is a decoy
Since the XVIII thcentury, facing a foreign tutelage, many people - Haitian, Greek, Polish, Korean, Palestinian, Algerian, Kurdish, Native
American, cam- rounais, Kenyan ... - beaten themselves either for independence or for their autonomy, or for equal rights. The experience of
oppression, resistance and the struggle to emancipate it have sometimes been the crucible of a national consciousness that previously did
not exist. This national consciousness can have a territorial, linguistic, confessional, cultural basis, or pertaining to a combination of
these factors: the history of humanity offers a wide variety of examples.

However, if the struggle to get rid of national oppression is legitimate in itself - and may even constitute the essential spring of the
struggle - it is not enough to define an emancipatory project.

When the independence struggles set themselves the sole objective of founding an independent state on a national basis, the nation states
that arose from them were, for the most part, bourgeois states, in the hands of a national ruling class. . One can even sometimes detect its
beginnings in the movement for independence itself, when the ruling categories use nationalism to deny the plurality of cultures, the class
struggle, the relations of domination.

In order to establish its legitimacy, the nation state seeks to shape a nation to its measure, by delimiting a "national identity". However,
just as any border is artificial, "national identity" is an ideological construction based on a selection of historical facts making it
possible to compose a "national novel", at the cost of the marginalization or even the negation of population groups. not fit into the mold.

We saw, for example, with the Serbian or Bulgarian States that separated from the Ottoman Empire in the XIX thcentury, bullied and
marginalized populations with no religion or official language. We have seen this with the French and Turkish states which, steeped in
Jacobinism, have crushed minority languages and cultures. We have seen this with the Algerian state, founded at independence on an exclusive
"Arab-Muslim" identity .

This is why the libertarian communists, while supporting the struggles for independence against colonialism, have no third-world illusion.
There are no "proletarian nations" whose nationalism is "class consciousness". The social revolution cannot be identified with a
geostrategic chess game pitting states against each other. The class struggle remains the main lever for a potential reversal of forms of
oppression and exploitation, in any country, dominant or dominated, whatsoever.

In conclusion, a struggle against national oppression can only be truly emancipatory if it is associated with a project of social,
democratic, even anticapitalist and federalist emancipation, based on the proletariat and the peasantry.

The position of libertarian communists
Although we cannot classify national liberation struggles into broad categories, we can nevertheless determine the factors which must be
taken into account in particular in our analysis and in the conclusion which we draw from them in our support for the independence demand
and for any other claim making debate among the people concerned. Here are some questions that we think it important to answer before
determining our support. Is the independence option defended by the workers (proletariat, poor peasantry) ? Does it not correspond solely to
the objective of this or that fraction of the local bourgeoisie ? What is the current state of the balance of power between the local
bourgeoisie and the popular classes? Is the national movement under consideration really independent ? If not, can we hope that this
movement will emancipate itself from the influence of this or that foreign power ?Do several national minorities coexist in the country?
Would the situation of one or other of these minorities not deteriorate through independence ?

What are the political projects of influential organizations in the national movement under consideration ? Can we hope that a socialist,
internationalist, ecological, feminist and / or secular alternative will emerge from these projects ? Apart from the demand for
independence, it should be noted that revolutionaries will always give unconditional support to demands for equal rights, against
discrimination.

Principle support for oppressed peoples, critical support for struggle organizations

"The force of peoples changes the world": demonstration of solidarity with the Kurdish left, January 11, 2020 in Paris.
Revolutionaries cannot be relieved of their responsibilities. As in Indochina, Algeria and Kanaky, their duty is to combat the imperialism
of their own state as a priority, while encouraging, within the anti-colonial movement, the forces carrying the highest demands for social
emancipation. We can stand in solidarity with a dominated or even martyred people, without wanting to support the organizations that claim
to represent them (example: Tamil Tigers, Chechen boeviki, etc.) because they carry a conservative or reactionary project. But, unless we
stick to a purely "humanitarian " action», The determining action is that which supports an organization pursuing political goals. In this
case the libertarian communists can have an adapted line: - to bring their support to the organizations which link national emancipation and
social emancipation ; - provide "critical support" (even if it is a libertarian communist organization) by affirming its solidarity, but not
by renouncing to affirm its disagreements and to criticize the policy of the organization that we support ; - promoting internationalism in
independence struggles: showing that the solidarity of the proletariats is possible and necessary.

Practical cases
In the forefront of the struggles that the libertarian communists cannot support, there are those which present an openly racist, xenophobic
character (Flemish Belgium, Italian "Padania"), which respond only to a maneuver of the bourgeoisie (eastern Bolivia) or to an imperialist
maneuver (Kosovo under American tutelage, Eastern Ukraine or South Ossetia under Russian tutelage). In these regions, the separatist claims
are in the hands of the local bourgeoisie, which is trying to establish its domination by replacing national power or by placing itself
under the protection of a competing imperialism.

The question is different in the Antilles, Guyana, Reunion, Mayotte or Kanaky, the last colonies of a bygone empire. These "French"
territories are experiencing strong social mobilizations, tinged with anti-colonialism and even independence. Libertarian communists have
for years been providing critical support to the trade union and political movements in these regions, whatever national path they consider
most appropriate: independence, independence or the struggle for equal rights and economic development.

Corsica, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Northern Ireland and Quebec straddle these first two cases: national demand can be in the hands of
local bourgeois parties, but also be accompanied by a strong presence of social question, with strong trade union or political movements,
capable of leading meaningful struggles with the support of the population. Here too critical support is appropriate.

In some countries, former "historic" regions remain shaped by strong cultural aspirations. This is the case, for example, in France with
Brittany or Occitania. Claims around language and culture can be very popular, even if "national liberation" is only carried by a tiny
minority of the population. In this case, UCL supports the legitimate recognition of their cultural specificity.

Certain national liberation and / or independence struggles, finally, are the direct response to a cruel, segregationist and liberticide
oppression: Tibet, Xinjiang, Kurdistan, Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir, Tamil Eelam... Their legitimacy is indisputable. However, some
national organizations can carry authoritarian political projects (feudal, religious or dictatorial) there that revolutionaries cannot
support. The libertarian communists will therefore denounce state oppression but, among the resistance organizations, will only support
those which, if they exist, defend a vision which is at least internationalist, secular and pluralist and reject any type of discrimination.

Certain struggles, finally, can have the value of an example, like that of Chiapas, legitimate struggle of an oppressed part of the Mexican
population, with clear internationalist wills and modes of organization of the self-managed struggle. Even if a certain number of criticisms
can be formulated, the fight led by the EZLN is the typical example of the struggles for emancipation which the libertarian communists
should support and impel where they can.

Libertarian Communist Union

A synthesis process
During their unification congress in June 2019, Alternative libertarian and the Coordination of anarchist groups decided not to make a clean
sweep of their past directions and developments, but to synthesize and update them gradually. On a first theme, that of the national
liberation struggles, the federal coordination of the UCL of 15-16 February adopted this synthesis.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Orientation-Les-communistes-libertaires-et-l-autodetermination-des-peuples

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Message: 2


The Opportunism of Martial Law ---- In March 2020, the people of the archipelago known as the Philippines were alarmed at the rate of local
transmission of the disease known as COVID-19. On March 12, police and military forces were mobilized to enforce a community quarantine for
the whole of Metro Manila scheduled to start on the midnight of March 15. This quarantine was later generalized for the whole island of
Luzon, a population of some 53 million souls. That the mobilization of the state's apparatus of violence was more noticeable than the
mobilization of medical and social resources is telling of the administration's priorities. ---- A regime of violence is in place. Soldiers
with assault rifles set up checkpoints; one questions the necessity of assault rifles against the coronavirus-do these people plan to shoot
it? At these checkpoints, some women report being sexually harassed. Local police and Barangay officials took it upon themselves to
creatively experiment in punitive measures like caging alleged lock down violators in a small cage. A police officer was recorded
threatening to shoot residents for purportedly breaking lock down while hitting residents with a stick in a Muslim community in Quiapo. A
homeless lola was violently arrested for being outside during curfew hours-essentially arrested for being homeless! Houses are still being
demolished during a time when people urgently need homes to stay in. A teacher and her son in General Santos were arrested without warrants
over Facebook posts. A congregation of people looking for relief goods in Barangay Bagong Pagasa were arrested. The National Bureru of
Investigation is subpoenaing people for "unlawful utterances" on social media. President Duterte went on record threatening warrant-less
arrests against "disobedience" and in a later speech threatened to shoot people for going out of their homes. Indeed, someone was shot by
police at a Bulacan checkpoint, the police washing their hands of it like they did with the drug war.

Under the state of things, it is not an exaggeration to say the government of the Philippines has effectively imposed martial law in fact,
if not formally declared in law. At a time of crisis, the gut instinct of the State was to mobilize and deploy its apparatus of violence.
The deployment of medical resources is secondary to the assault rifles deployed. Instead of the deployment of increased medical resources,
we have uniformed forces aimlessly and needlessly straying city borders with no other purpose than installing themselves as the false faces
of the state's peace and order. It is peace and order and not public health that is the priority of the state.

This martial law is extralegal, not that legality has significance to anarchists in the archipelago. Activists of all stripes understand
that the state apparatus of violence is not limited by what they prescribe in law. State violence has always been both legal and extralegal,
never mind that legality is a pointless distinction when the balance of power favours the state. Legality is meaningless when what is
violent can simply be legalized in an act of congress or municipal ordinance-indeed that is what happened with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

The deployment of the apparatus of violence to literally combat a medical emergency betrays a certain opportunism from the state. The state
is opportunistically using the crisis to expand its police power. While the purported purpose of the lock down is to quarantine, it is also
a godsend to the fascists in the police and military as an excuse to crack down on dissent. And what of the new laws they put into place
now? What guarantee do we have that the extreme measures the state takes today do not become the new normal after the end of COVID-19 crisis?

We have seen an unprecedented expansion of the surveillance state with drones and cameras being drafted to keep a close eye over public
spaces. Instead of using their resources to feed people, they instead use this crisis as an opportunity to expand their ability to do
surveillance!

In a special session, congress railroaded the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act with its controversial provisions on granting special powers to
the Office of the President and dramatic jail time and fine penalization for dissenters.1 This is the use of shock doctrine, or the
opportunistic use of crisis to pass controversial or questionable laws. First described by investigative reporter Naomi Klein, the shock
doctrine is used specifically during crises like our own to take advantage of the difficulty to build resistance to these policies due to
the crises. The state is using this crisis as an opportunity to expand its power. This is not a phenomena isolated in the Philippines;
Hungary is now practically a dictatorship after Prime Minister Viktor Orban used the crisis to expand his powers to practically dictatorial
levels and now rules by decree.

We anarchists are sceptical of authority itself. We do not think those in authority have our best interests at heart. We think they are
there only to reproduce and expand their own power. After the crises passes, the state of emergency will be lifted, but the new powers and
the new state of surveillance will stay.

Solusyon Medikal, Hindi Militar!
We anarchists in the archipelago do not contest the need for a quarantine. After all, a quarantine and social distancing is needed to
protect the most vulnerable among us like the immunocompromised, people living with HIV, and our elderly.

With that said, a quarantine enforced by violence and guns is clearly the wrong way to implement a quarantine. It does more harm than good.
The checkpoints are made up of squads of large men with guns with barely any medical equipment in sight, not to mention the repeatedly noted
lack of trained medical professionals. Reports of the vagueness of protocol, sexual harassment, and sometimes outright robbery and extortion
on the part of the police and military personnel are being posted by people who go through the ordeal of dealing with them. What is even
more alarming is the possibility of the checkpoint officers becoming vectors for the diseases themselves with reports of checkpoints without
face masks or police and soldiers in close contact with the people they check. Checkpoints also risk becoming a place where people are
forced to congregate, creating possible vectors for viral transmission. Ultimately, soldiers and police are trained in violence, not empathy
or care-giving. Thus when confronted with homelessness, these people respond with violence-arresting the homeless instead of giving them a
home, as was the case with lola Dorothy Espejo.

The severe discrepancy between resources devoted to militarized policing versus medical needs is made even more apparent by this trend of
"VIP testing." Politicians, oligarchs, and elites are able to jump the line and gain priority access to COVID-19 testing all the while
people are being turned away from critical treatment due to lack of testing.

On April 1, the elitism of the regime was apparent where people congregated at a national highway in Barangay Bagong Pagasa upon hearing a
rumor that food packs would be distributed there. They were met with mass arrests, purportedly for breaking quarantine. Instead of meeting
needs, the state opts to just arrest them all. Meanwhile Senator Koko Pimentel who wilfully broke quarantine protocol knowing that he was a
patient under investigation is still a free man without any repercussion other than public outrage. Pimentel scandalously endangered
critical medical personnel when it was revealed later he was positive for COVID-19. One also remembers that convicted plunderer and widow of
the old dictator Imelda Marcos is still a free woman despite the courts deeming her criminal. It is clear that law and protocol only apply
to toilers and dispossessed while the elites can live as they will, wilfully endangering working people around them.

We also see the discrepancy in the dismal provision of relief packs. Endless emergency funds are activated but relief provided is paltry.
These dismal relief goods are contrasted with images of agricultural traders in the Cordilleras destroying and discarding vegetables simply
because they cannot sell these! Vegetables are being thrown away while people are being arrested for protesting their hunger. In these times
of crisis the need for an economy to fulfill needs instead of profits is increasingly urgent. One wonders why with all these emergency funds
activated from the crisis, government agencies cannot simply purchase all these produce before they are discarded.

Against a militarized quarantine, the people of the archipelago demand in one voice: Solusyon Medikal, Hindi Militar!-Medical solutions, not
military! Against the elitist privilege in accessing COVID-19 testing kits, activists cry out: free mass testing now! Against the paltry
provision of goods, the people organize in mutual aid and bayanihan networks that seek to fulfill needs.

Quarantine and capitalism are incompatable.
During this time of crisis, it is increasingly apparent that quarantine and capitalism are incompatible. A quarantine requires people to
stay at home, limit going out, and practice social distancing. But how can people stay at home if they are precarious workers under a
no-work no-pay scheme and live pay check to pay check? How can people confine themselves to their homes if their needs are dependent on
their pay checks? If workers are laid off, how will they afford groceries and rent while in quarantine?

A quarantine needs to fulfill the needs of the people as a irreducible minimum for the reproduction of daily life, that is to say, to be
able to access food, water, medicine, and other things needed to stay alive. But production under capitalism does not revolve around meeting
needs, it revolves around meeting profits. Thus when a state of emergency shuts down the engines of profit, so does the engine of wages
shuts down, and with that the needs are left unfulfilled.

Against the contradictions between capitalism and quarantine we need a system that meets needs instead of profits. We need a quarantine that
ensures people do not starve. Without work and against the demand of rents and profits, our demands must be to distribute according to need,
to cancel rent, and to cancel residential utility bills. And after the crisis, to keep these cancelled.

For a non-militarized, self managed quarantine
In the face of a martial law dressed in medical gowns, what can we count on? Each other.

Regular people, people like you and me, are doing what they can to make sure that not only they survive, but to ensure the well-being of
those around them, too. We see people practicing mutual aid, or as it is known in the Philippines, bayanihan. We see people making masks and
medical gear, not for profit, but because there is a need for it. Mothers in Los Angeles are taking over abandoned houses in search of
quarantine like Kadamay did in Bulacan. Neighborhoods all over the world are helping each other out by pooling together what little they
have, and like the political dissident Jesus breaking bread and fish, are able to fill each others' needs with the most shoestring of
supplies. These are seeds for a future post-capitalist economy based on needs rather than profits.

It is clear we can expect no salvation from the state or capital. Against the quarantine with martial law characteristics, it is urgent that
we forward a liberatory alternative based on solidarity and mutual aid instead of militarism and impunity. It is possible to have a
self-managed quarantine that is not enforced with assault rifles. For example, residents among urban poor communities in Metro Manila have
taken the initiative of setting up their own self-managed checkpoints, sans assault rifles and macho egos. In Hong Kong and Taiwan,
quarantines are not enforced by force of arms but rather by the collective responsibility of everyone. A quarantine without coercion and
violence is possible if we care to look.

Indeed, a better world is possible if we care to look. ?

by Simoun Magsalin with input from the Bandilang Itim Collective

http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2020/04/22/against-a-quarantine-with-martial-law-characteristics-international/

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Message: 3


On April 9, prisoner Azizel Deniroglou died in her ward, helpless, while she was suffering from heart problems and had symptoms of coronary
heart disease. Her death led to the revolt of her captives. The response of the prisoners who revolted was repression, brutal violence. MATs
destroyed prison facilities, chased and beat women. ---- A banner was hung in Athens at the Ministry of Justice (Katehaki), which read:
"Azizel Deniroglou: Dead in Eleonas prison in Thebes | The state is killing | Hands off prisoners | Immediate satisfaction of their requests
". ---- Athens ---- Also, there were excursions with banners, T-shirts, stickers and sprays in Patras, Thessaloniki and Athens by comrades
and comrades of APO, while the relevant poster of the group against the patriarchy of APO | OS was also pasted.

Patras

Thessaloniki

IMMEDIATE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE BUILDINGS:

- Immediate decongestion of prisons due to coronary heart disease.

- Now release all patients, the elderly, babies with their children and those who are considered vulnerable groups, ie a total of 1/3 of the
prisoners.

- To release NOW all / all prisoners who have served 2/5 of the mixed sentence.

REMEMBER TO THE BARBARITY OF THE CRIME, THE PANDIMIA AND THE CONTINUOUS STATE AND CAPITALISTIC CRIME

SOLIDARITY IN STATE OF STATES

TO GRAMME PRISONS AND STRATOPEDIA OF CONTRACTING OF OFFERS AND TRANSPORTATIONS

Anarchist Political Organization | Federation of Collectivities

April 21, 2020

http://apo.squathost.com/

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Message: 4


CNT-AIT in Cartagena, Spain, launched an international solidarity campaign for the re-employment of Carmen from WebHelp Málaga SLU in early
April. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, solidarity knows no bounds, and in this case it is very simple. In the article you will find a
sample of protest email, necessary contacts as well as information about the background of the dispute and the first results of the fight.
---- HOW TO HELP? Send an email or call! ---- Expression model: ---- Hello, ---- I want to read Carmen from WebHelp Málaga SLU and I
consider Norwegian AirShuttle to be equally responsible for Carmen's situation.
The purpose of the agreement is to be fulfilled. ---- Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter. ---- SIGNATURE ----
Translation of the design:
I request the re-employment of Carmen from WebHelp Málaga SLU and I consider Norwegian AirShuttle to be equally responsible for Carmen's
situation.
The purpose of the agreement is to be fulfilled.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.

It is best to call between 8am and 4pm, with the busiest season at noon.

Emails to WebHelp and Norwegian:
hr.spain@lv.webhelp.com, alicante.all@lv.webhelp.com, malaga.all@lv.webhelp.com, kiev.all@lv.webhelp.com, lviv.all @ lv.webhelp.com,
riga.all@lv.webhelp.com, norwegian.mailhq@norwegian.com, marketing@norwegian.com

More Norwegian AirShuttle contacts:
https://www.facebook.com/NorwegianSpain/
https: / /twitter.com/Norwegian_ES
https://www.instagram.com/flynorwegian/
https://www.youtube.com/user/norwegian

Norwegian AirShuttle numbers:
Spain + 34 902 84 80 80
Germany +49 (800) 5895000
Brazil +55 21350 00451
Argentina +54 11507 89745
Canada 1-800-357-4159
Denmark +45 70 80 78 80
United States 1-800-357-4159
Finland +358 (0) 9 231 01 600
France +33 (0) 97 07 38 001
Italy 2756
Irland +353 1 697 1489
Norway +47 21 49 00 15
United Kingdom +44 33 08280854
Sweden +46 (0) 770 45 77 00
Thailand +66 (0) 6000 35 180
Other countries +47 2149 00 15 DISPLAY

BACKGROUND

WebHelp is outsourcing company, which has clients mainly in Norway. Carmen has been working there since 2017 and is in charge of booking for
Norwegian AirShuttle. In mid-February, the company agreed to take an unpaid annual holiday. She moved to Bilbao 800 km away, where she found
a job as an English teacher.

In early March, however, she approached her team leader at WebHelp to see if she could return. Just a few days later, she responded with a
positive response and agreed to resume work from April 6. So she decided to leave the work of the lecturer and returned to Alicante, where
she received a report from TeamLead WebHelp on March 25 that the agreement was no longer valid and would not be taken back.

The CNT-AIT was able to get evidence that Carmen had had her shifts for April, and all systems were set up to return. It also has statements
from colleagues and reports from other supervisors.

FIRST POSITIVE RESPONSE

The international solidarity campaign was launched on April 6, and a day later, a response from WebHelp came. The company claims to do
everything it can to give Carmen the first possible position. According to CNT-AIT, this is very good news, which is a direct result of
international solidarity. It confirms that, although protest rallies cannot be made, success can also be achieved by protest calls,
e-mailing and public campaigns.
"We are aware of the difficulties in which we all find ourselves, but now is not the time to be or remain silent," emphasizes the general
association of CNT-AIT Cartagena
The dispute continues, and CNT-AIT stresses the need to push the company even further to resolve the situation quickly. It emphasizes that
it remains crucial to focus on WebHelp, but also on Norwegian AirShuttle (notwithstanding mass redundancies in Norway).

ACKNOWLEDGING

On the basis of solidarity e-mails that were sent out in the first days of the campaign from several countries, including Slovakia, the
CNT-AIT Taragona and Carmen sent a thank-you note from which we select:

Honestly, we have no words to express how grateful we are for all your cooperation and support. The wave of messages, comments and emails is
amazing! At national and international level!
All support, all actions against the company paid off. Only 24 hours after the start of the campaign, the company contacted us and showed a
good will to remedy this problem, confirming again that direct actions WORK!
Once again, millions of CNT-AIT Taragons have also thanked Carmen for their support, you have all shown that we can be proud to be part of
the MAP.

If you support Carmen, please let us know so that we can inform our friends from CNT-AIT in Spain.

Union Direct Action

https://www.priamaakcia.sk/Vyzva-k-pomoci-podpor-Carmen-v-jej-boji-za-znovuzamestnanie-.html

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Message: 5



If we come out of this crisis with all the rickety, fly-blown, worm-eaten old structures still intact, the same vain and indolent public
schoolboys in charge, the same hedge fund managers stuffing their overloaded pockets with greasy fingers, our descendants will not forgive
us. Nor should they. We must burn out the old corruption and establish a better way of living together. --PhilIp PulLman ---- DEMAND MORE!
---- The other day I was talking to a union rep who works in a call centre. Asking her how her members were getting on, she told me that a
lot of them were reassessing their lives in the light of the Covid-19 crisis. "They've all been looking at the careers support tools - cos,
let's face it, no matter how lucky management try to tell us we are, working in a call centre is a shit job - and a lot of them don't want
to go back to that!". From what I hear they are not the only ones.
Because that's what the likes
of Boris Johnson and Keir
Starmer have in mind for us
when they talk about getting
back to normal - us going
back to the shit jobs which are
little better than a living death.
Shut in with managers who
think you are nothing better
than a profit-making machine,
working to time, working to
script, timed coffee breaks,
timed piss breaks, forced
to cut customers off if they
talk for too long. No wonder
people are reassessing their
lives! So should we all!
Wyle-E-Coyote has looked
down. Your economic model
is a delusion. It is now widely
accepted that the Covid-19
crisis is highlighting to people
what jobs are important and
what jobs aren't - but what are
we going to do about it?! Are
we going allow the bankers
and parasites to swan back
into their privileged positions
when this is all over? They are
already plotting to do just this
- aided by Johnson, Sunak,
Starmer and Khan. But not
this time! Because them
reasserting their privilege
means they put their boot on
the neck of the care worker,
the nurse, the delivery worker.
You can't clap on a Thursday
then allow them to be treated
like shit the rest of the time. It
has to change - and it has to
change for all of us.

All those jobs, bean-counting
  for bureaucrats and bankers,
  selling shit for people who
  couldn't care less if we live
  or die. THEY ARE ALL
  A
  POINTLESS
  WASTE
  OF OUR LIVES! All that
  commuting, just because the
  bosses chose to "rationalise"
  - closing all their local offices
  to open mega-offices across
  town; adding 2-3 hours to the
  working day, costing a fortune
  in travel. The workers don't
  want it. The customers don't
  want it. And coronavirus has
  shown how ill-conceived
  such an endless commute is.
  We cram onto trains to make
  useless journeys to work in
  useless jobs. We build more
  roads and railways, destroying
  our homes and our countryside
  for meaningless commutes
  to meaningless jobs. It's a
  vicious circle of pointlessness
  and despair. Now we've been
  forced to stop and take stock
  do we really want to get on
  this merry-go-round of death
  once more?
  Our lives are work or starve.
In these days of zero-hours
  contracts and the food bank,
  it is work AND starve! It is no
  better than slavery. No homes,
  no savings, no pensions. No
  hope. Yet it is the billionaires
  pleading poverty from their
  island paradise, lining up for
  state handouts. We can do the
  sums. We know they're taking
  the piss. How much longer
will we let them get away with
it?

  Meanwhile, in our
communities, mutual aid
networks are showing us
another way. They are
showing us what better things
we could do with our lives.
Looking after the vulnerable,
feeding our neighbours,
building our communities and
making them beautiful. The
resources we have are shown
to be nothing to do with the
billionaires, nothing to do
with the people who claim to
own the land or the factories -
and everything to do with the
people who work to transform
those resources. Our shit jobs
offer meagre wages which
the bastards keep slicing ever
thinner. Even if we are lucky
enough to scrape together a
few quid in savings, we know
that the rich will find a way
to rip them out of our hands
before we can pass them to
our kids. A few years ago the
banking crisis stole the life
savings of many working class
pensioners. Sunak is already
touting more austerity to do it
all over again. It's a con trick.
Money is not neutral, it works
in the interests of the rich.
We understand this. Money
goes to money - we say it
often enough. The rich use
their wealth to cement their
position at the top. They use
money to institutionalise the
class divide. The whole system
is geared to keep us down.
While our meagre wages; our
couple of quid in savings,
are meaningless. They are a
symbol of the insecurity of
the capitalist world rather
than a buffer from it. We need
to change.
In a couple of weeks Boris
Johnson will be busy hijacking
the VE Day celebrations. The
defeat of fascism in Europe is
something worth celebrating.
But when the troops came
home they didn't all tug
their forelocks and get back
to normal. They demanded
more. And so should we.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WFHxuk2xLoMBmnsXTILGdzBw6utN0gBC/view

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Message: 6



The anarcho-syndicalist international, founded in 2018, looks at workplace struggle in its branches worldwide and calls for the building of
new forms of solidarity amid the lockdowns. ---- With the corona crisis, the world has suddenly entered a new phase of intense class
struggle. This is impressively documented by a map of (for the most part) wildcat strikes related to corona. The ICL, as a young and very
radical trade union international, has responded to the crisis according to the best of its capabilities. At the same time, we see that
there are still many gaps in its organization and that very large strikes are taking place far away from its structures and without trade
union backing. We send solidarity greetings to all these determined colleagues now. Your struggles show that we must become even faster in
supporting them and that there is a lot of work waiting for all syndicalist trade unionists worldwide in the coming months. In the following
article, we will take stock of the activities in the ICL sections in the last weeks and now and then lose a few words about the situation in
the respective countries.

Argentina
Support for bus drivers and medical staff

In Argentina, the working class continues to face adjustment, even if there have been suspended the increases of the rent and the eviction
notice for several months. Another measurement that has been carried out is the extension in the payment of public services, but these
accumulate the debt for the workers. Although the government tried to suspend the dismissals, the companies find the legal way of
dismissing, of suspending and/or of licensing the workers; this shielding itself in legal forms of response to the decree expressed by the
government of the nation. All this with the complicity of the employers' union, the companies and the State.

The FORA also quickly offered information about labour rights. They supported bus drivers in their struggles for more hygienic working
conditions and informed the public about police assaults in connection with the implementation of the quarantine measures.

In a letter, FORA health workers point out that there is currently an epidemic of dengue fever and measles in Argentina, which places a
double burden on the health system. For this reason, they asked everyone to use the emergency rooms only in real emergencies and provided
information on suitable hygiene measures. Finally, they demand far-reaching support for the workers, the same rights for illegal employment
as for normal workers (about half of the population works in the underground economy), support for the medical staff, and a redistribution
of company subsidies to support families.

Canada
Rent strikes, sex workers support, strike for safety

IWW Montreal is currently talking about a resurgence of the labor movement in Canada and the US: "After the crisis they're gonna try to make
us pay for it... let's get ready for that now!"

As in Spain, one of the movements with the greatest social explosive force is currently the rent strike movement. In an extensive interview,
details are given about the rental strike organization in Montreal in which the IWW is involved, albeit with reservations. At the end of
March, 20% of 3500 members wanted to strike in any case, another 55% still had open questions, but wanted to participate as well. Tim, a
long-time activist of the rent strike movement in the USA, criticises that many leftists are currently calling for a rent strike in a
campaign mentality without dealing with the necessary basics or organising themselves in tenant unions. At the same time, he considers the
rent strike a fact, because thousands simply do not have the financial means to pay their rent. "The fact that there are moratoriums for
evictions in many cities shows us that we have the political momentum to demand big concessions from the ruling class."

Two IWW activists paint a mixed picture of the IWW's attitude to the rent strike movement. On the one hand it is necessary, on the other
hand it is a high risk for all participants with still only a marginal degree of organization and support structures. For this reason, the
IWW Montreal is calling for a suspension of rent and mortgage payments, leaves it up to individuals to participate in the strike and calls
on all those affected by repression due to participation to contact their union.

In Ontario, the IWW Hamilton organized neighborhood initiatives and food distribution. It supports a rent strike, the opening of prisons and
supports the call for a general strike on May 1 coming from the USA. The IWW in Hamilton and Toronto supported the Sex Workers Action
Program, who are struggling due to a significant loss of work. The IWW Toronto successfully supported employees of Domino's Pizza who
refused to work under the current protective measures.

Germany
Labor rights information, online meetings and neighborhood help

One of the first steps for local FAU syndicates was to provide a precise overview of the labor law regulations in pandemic times. FAU Jena
and FAU Berlin were very quick to provide support here with two comprehensive overviews. This was followed by more detailed guides on ALG II
(Germany's welfare regime) by FAU Magdeburg and translations into Arabic by FAU Marburg-Gießen-Wetzlar.

Of the currently active FAU syndicates, almost all now offer a special page on their homepages on labor law, and about half of them have
already changed their consultation services to online and/or telephone consultation. Likewise, about half of the syndicates are very active
in the neighborhood help networks and pickup fences (where food and hygiene articles are hung on the fence for those in need) in their
cities. A somewhat smaller part of the syndicates has been accompanying the current situation through intensive media work. The FAU Münster
offered a podium event and the FAU Berlin a video on the current situation.

It is especially worth mentioning that internal meetings and consulting services transferred to an online service using the FAU's own tools
within a few days due to the efforts of the FAU IT collective.

In terms of work-related activities, FAU Bonn initiated several support Telegram groups for different sectors. FAU Dresden has collected
funds for different employment groups and supports the statements in the cultural and educational sector. The FAU Berlin is currently
fighting to improve the corona-related situation in the local universities. Several syndicates are already reporting a significant increase
in the number of consultations and cases, and initial disputes have already been taken up, usually about dismissals and short-time work.

The FAU has also offered analyses of the corona crisis, for example from the FAU Jena with their statement "Corona crisis - what can we do,
who pays for it?" and the FAU Magdeburg with their text "The virus and the crisis of capitalism". Ralf Dreis of the FAU Frankfurt am Main
also philosophized in the FAU's Direct Action website this week about the effect of evening clapping and possible critical action here.

Greece
Street protest despite ban and self-management despite government sabotage

Greece, like Italy, has suffered unprecedented privatisation and cuts in the public sector in recent years. The situation of the poor
population is further aggravated by the EU-Turkey deal, which has trapped thousands of refugees. The country is highly polarised; a strong
but fragmented anarchist movement is contrasted by a strong Stalinist and a strong right-wing movement. Unfortunately, attacks on aid
workers such as on Lesbos and political murders are not uncommon.

The Greek ICL section ESE has been trying to support the struggles of hospital workers and to build a bridge between struggles in the health
sector and those for decentralised housing for refugees. In the regional district of Ioannina, the trade union federation decided in
mid-March to carry out street protests against the refugee camps. In a statement, ESE points out how dangerous it is to have political
expression banned now, in view of the imminent mass death in the health system, which has been dismantled by austerity measures, and the
risk of thousands of deaths in the camps. Due to safety measures, ESE resorted to "street" protest in Rethymno on Crete. Slogans included:
"All lives are worth the same, whether we are homeless, imprisoned, abused, refugees, unemployed or precarious workers." In addition, ESE
set up two national commissions to monitor current changes in labor law and international class struggles and to keep their federation informed.

Vio.Me, a self-managed factory that produces soap, was shut down in Greece with the help of the police. Syndicates from Germany have lodged
complaints at consulates and embassies. The workers continue their work with emergency power generators.

Italy
Strikes and protective equipment for health care workers

In Italy, the USI-CIT called for several strikes against companies that continued to bid their workers to work, even though their work was
currently considered to be dispensable by society. Among other things, a strike was called at the car manufacturer Ferrari. Two days after
the strike was called, the company decided to close the plants.

Apart from this, the USI-CIT is currently fighting - above all with various hospital staff - for more disinfectants and protective clothing
and is addressing the reasons for the grave state of the health care system, i.e. the health of the population under capitalist conditions
in general and under the policy of austerity in particular. USI-CIT Parma condemned the obligation for employees in the health sector to
continue working.

USI Reggio Emilia is participating in food distribution campaigns in the autonomous neighborhoods.

Poland
Conflict with VW and Amazon, 10-point program against the government

In Poland, IP quickly created a site (also in Russian and Ukrainian) with information about the legal situation of workers in the corona
crisis as well as a video. In the meantime, the trade union has published six legal guides on individual issues. In addition, the trade
union is monitoring the situation, especially in the VW and Amazon sites (where it is the largest trade union). The IP was also the first in
the international to develop a comprehensive overview of the situation at its sister unions and sent a detailed list of questions to all
international secretariats.

In a statement, IP criticised in detail the Polish government's handling of the corona crisis. It calls assistance for the self-employed and
casual worker completely inadequate (in Poland, there is only a temporary, very low level of unemployment benefit). The trade union also
complains that the lack of access to health insurance and sick pay forces at least 2.5 million workers to go to work sick. It also complains
about a reduction of workers' rights, a redistribution of tax money to companies, the lack of measures to support the unemployed, pensioners
and tenants.

As an alternative to the so-called "crisis shield", the following actions were demanded, among others:

Increase of unemployment benefits and abolition of restrictive regulations according to which less than 20% of the unemployed are entitled
to benefits.
Universal access to health care.
Elimination of precarious forms of employment such as temporary work or bogus self-employment. 4) Provision of free access to basic services
(electricity, gas, running water, heating) for all.
At Volkswagen and Danfoss, IP tried to close the plants with 100% wage compensation to protect their colleagues. In the Volkswagen plant in
Poznan with about 11,000 employees, these demands were met promptly. At the heating and cooling technology manufacturer Danfoss, the
organisation of work was changed slightly due to pressure, but real success has yet to be achieved.

There were minor successes at the logistics companies Amazon and Avon. Here, too, IP exerted pressure, mainly through secret videos from
everyday work at the plant or graphic representations of how closely the colleagues there must work together. The revelations, which in part
fundamentally contradicted the public statements of the companies, were accompanied by large-scale social media campaigns. The companies
have reacted mainly with bonus payments to the employees. However, IP continues to fight for the closure of the sites.

In the universities, IP has been particularly active in ensuring the safety of service employees, including various reductions in opening
hours and staffing levels.

Spain
Arrests, rent strike, digital culture strike

The CNT is not addressing labor rights in its statements, but also the protection of basic rights and the right of assembly. There were more
than 2,800 arrests and 330,000 fines for violations of the state of emergency in Spain until last week. In addition to a central document
with 15 demands, the regional federations of the CNT published a variety of assessments of the situation.

This also included the production of a whole series of guidelines for different sectors. In addition, the syndicates of the CNT submitted
many complaints to health authorities and trade inspectorates about the lack of protective measures; the companies complained of were in
very many cases hospitals and nursing homes.

The CNT gives the same advice, over and over: If you still have to work, demand disinfectant and soap; if your industry is not vital, fight
to stay at home. The performing arts section of the CNT Madrid demanded the introduction of a basic income retroactively to March. Comrades
from the CNT Valladolid who work in an institution for mentally disabled people denounced the complete lack of protective measures for the
140 residents and staff. They published photos of themselves in protective clothing improvised with garbage bags. At Rivamadrid, the CNT
workplace group together with other unions in the companies were able to force the implementation of a catalog of measures to protect the
employees.

The bogus self-employed workers in a meat factory, some of whom lived in camps before the corona epidemic and have now been on strike with
the CNT Valencia for 40 days, have been particularly hard hit. However, the CNT Regional Committee Levante has already announced that it
will hold out during the period of the state of emergency and then resume its momentum with a wave of new actions. Support for the strike
funds will be necessary here in the next weeks.

The social workers' sections of various CNT syndicates in Vallès Oriental, Terassa, L'Hospitalet and Sabadell, among other places, have
called attention to the lack of measures in the Residential Center for Educational Action (Centros residenciales de acción educativa (CRAE))
for youth. Within a few days, the social education workers of the CNT working there developed a guideline for action, an intensive media
campaign against the responsible ministry, including photo protests and the hashtag #EmergenciaCRAE.

In some places, the bosses have already used the current crisis to get rid of union members: At Construcciones Maygar S.L. in Pedrera,
Andalusia, for example, there was a strike in November. Now the entire former CNT strike leaders have been dismissed with reference to the
economic problems caused by the corona crisis. The CNT is currently in the process of defending itself against such anti-union attacks in
many places.

The Sección Sector Musical CNT Madrid has joined other musicians' unions to announce a culture strike on the Internet for 10 and 11 April:
"We propose to mobilize the entire sector in such a way that all cultural online channels are temporarily closed, that no cultural content
is broadcast in streaming, on networks or websites, that culture is plunged into a total digital blackout."

Finally, CNT unions throughout Spain have sewed masks, participated in neighbourhood networks and donated food.

The CNT-affiliated Instituto de Ciencias Económicas y de la Autogestión (Institute of Economic and Self-Management Science) published a
series of analyses of the situation. The Biblioteca Libertaria Bilbao of the CNT has made many films, audio books, podcasts and ebooks
available in order to make good use of the time during the lockdown.

USA
Wildcat strikes, unions gathering momentum, sick outs

The IWW emphasizes that it is preparing for rapid membership growth and tough disputes. The logical reaction on the part of capital: On 1
April trade union law was tightened.

The IWW quickly provided all members with an overview of their rights and various recommendations for action for workers in different
sectors. Various webinars were also offered. At the end of March, the IWW Environmental Unionist Caucus proposed the creation of a special
relief fund for members who are facing problems due to the current crisis. It is currently working on a survey to better estimate the impact
on membership. The Caucus also advocated support for the rental strike movement.

In Portland, after mass layoffs were announced, employees of a doughnut chain formed their own IWW company union to fight back. Rallies have
already taken place despite the lockdown. Also in Portland, the IWW helped student workers win severance pay for the shifts lost due to
campus closures. In Chicago, it was enough for IWW members to petition a grocery store to achieve a hazard pay of $2 an hour for workers there.

IWW members of the CapTel Workers Union in Wisconsin were able to achieve bonus payments in a call center through mass sick out. The workers
are considered indispensable in the current pandemic but receive only a fraction of the wages of other workers at this level.

The IWW's Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee Oakland is currently reporting on the situation in various prisons and has, among other
things, carried out phonezaps against individual prison telephone numbers at prisons where guards tested positive for COVID-19. The demand:
#LetThemGo.

The IWW Oklahoma is asking people to call local restaurants every morning and ask the bosses if the staff has paid sick days because their
visit would depend on it. The IWW has also raised funds for workers in various cities or started petitions for hazard pay for the employees
of popular restaurants and other necessary services.

Together with other organizations, the IWW Mid-Valley called with for a car demonstration on April 3 titled "Horrible Bosses, Terrible
Landlords Beware!", taking to the street in unconventional fashion.

The IWW local groups Fairbanks, Phoenix, Connecticut, Burlington, Providence and North Texas are currently informing about the possibilities
of a rent strike or are calling directly for it.

In Detroit and Chicago, "Wobbly Kitchens" have distributed food among the working class in parks. IWW Southern Maine supports homeless
people who have been assaulted by police. The IWW in Albuquerque and New York are actively involved in the various neighborhood networks.

More news
Sri Lanka, Northern Syria, Myanmar

Stuck and bankrupt: The feminist textile workers' organization Dabindu Collective, with which the ICL organized a conference of garment
workers in February, turned to the ICL for help at the end of March. In Katunayake, Sri Lanka, 20,000 textile workers (they produce for
Zara, H&M, among others) had to continue working until March 19. After March 20, they were subject to curfew, so that they had to stay away
from their villages and cities, sometimes with a hundred colleagues. In the meantime, they were able to leave Katunayake, but many of them
are facing economic ruin and need further worldwide solidarity. Information and contact can be found in this article.

In Myanmar currently more than 500 workers at the Myan Mode Factory are on strike who are to be dismissed for their union activities in the
wake of the corona crisis. Their union, the Federation of Garment Workers Union-Myanmar (FGWM), who also participated at the garment workers
conference, is in close contact with the ICL, which has already organized solidarity actions in various countries. This factory supplies the
Zara, Mango and C&A brands, among others.

In the Democratic Federation of Northern and Eastern Syria, the situation remains precarious between war, corona and embargo: the
democratically administered region, also known as Rojava (and supported by the ICL), is still confronted with an international embargo and
an ongoing, albeit slowed, war of aggression by Turkey against its territory. Furthermore, there are large-scale bombings against the
civilian population by Turkey and regular bomb attacks by the Islamic State (Daesh). In addition, there are thousands of Daesh prisoners of
war and more than a hundred thousand refugees from all over Syria in various camps within the small region. Against this background, the
health system is dependent on volunteers and donations. Interested parties should contact the Kurdish Red Crescent.

This article first appeared at the ICL-CIT website

https://freedomnews.org.uk/syndicalist-unions-and-covid-era-resistance-a-cit-roundup/

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