#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Update Past1: #anarchist #information from all over the #world - 12.04.2020

Today's Topics:

   
1.  vrije bond: On the Covid-19 virus & further steps (nl)
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #303 - International,
      Palestine: a "peace" plan for annexation and capitulation (fr,
      it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Britain, AFED: on Government and Covid-19: an ideology of
      inequality (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Age, herd immunity
      and coronavirus -- ACG Pensioners write... (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: What Is Fully
      Automated Luxury Communism? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Greece, APO: A response from the nationwide Health Day in
      Patras [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Epidemic, panic and totalitarianism. Part 3: "Brave New
      World [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



"We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie
might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in
this minute." --- Buenaventura Durruti ---- No one can deny that the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 virus has disrupted our everyday lives.
The disruption caused by both the health implications and the imposed government restrictions have also affected our bookshop and social
centre. That is why for the coming weeks, possibly months, the Anarchist Bookshop Opstand will be open on appointment only for the pick-up
of books and other information. Although we take the recent viral outbreak seriously as a public health issue, it is with displeasure and a
certain amount of discomfort that we close our doors. This is why we have decided to publish this statement to share our thoughts with you.

Since the Covid-19 virus has started its venture through Europe we have witnessed different ruptures in daily life. Some are caused by
panic, fear and a sense of losing control (even more than normal). Others are caused by the state and capitalism trying to adapt and cope
with this new natural phenomenon. We have seen tanks on the streets of Spain, something that the authoritarian state in China did not even
resort to, the banning of public and private assemblies and the suppression of strikes. Lockdowns of nation states are also occurring such
as in Spain, France and Italy, forcing people to walk the streets only with a specific "necessary" or "useful" task. The use of (big)data is
also increasing, with GPS signals from phones being used to see if someone has been in a "risk area". All in the name of the public good.

In the Netherlands the state has banned assemblies of more than 3 people, even in private. The consequence of breaching the ban could be a
fine, in the case of a space open to the public; closure. Other measures such as closing schools, shops, entertainment facilities have also
been taken, but the infrastructure which is vital to capitalist structures is still up and running and the free flow of capital is trying to
be upheld while the borders to nearby countries are already sealed off.

State-capitalism is constantly evolving and adapting and has made a habit if exploiting disasters, whether "natural" or "human" made, to
extend its domination. We do not share the opinion that others propose that the state and capital are celebrating the virus, or that they
even created it (madness that should be reserved for a dark conspiracy theory website), as we can observe the state being anxious and
uncertain about people's reactions to the recent developments: handing out benefits to people who are temporarily unemployed (also to
self-employed persons after sharp criticism), stopping evictions and scrambling to deploy an emergency health system. Civil revolt must be
avoided, in addition this is a great chauvinistic stunt: "Together as one! We the people and all our differences can beat this, but only
together as a nation!"

Next to these measures the state is also flexing its muscles and letting the boys play with their toys. Just last weekend we saw the police
fly a drone over Kaapseplein in the working class neighbourhood of Transvaal in The Hague to announce that public gathering had been banned.
The union for BOA's (Uniformed law enforcers who have the right to detain, and provide assistance to the police. Now only equipped with
handcuffs.) has called for them to be equipped with pepper spray & truncheons, something they have been calling for for some time now.
Meanwhile the data is being gathered. What can we use? Until what point will people take it? How legitimate is the reason? Perhaps having
growing tired and immune to the "evil of terror" an "evil of nature" is the best supplement to keep everyone in their place, it is just a
question of harnessing it (as is always the question with nature).

The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus shows the results of state-capitalism's stance towards nature; one of aggressive colonising war and
containment. The only two things this current human organisation seems to be able to do constantly and efficiently.

Don't despair, organise! Don't sit back, act!
Although the state, society and even large parts of the anarchist and leftist milieu are promoting the idea of "social distancing", this is
not the time to isolate ourselves. A chaotic situation added to the fact that a lot of us have more "free time" at the moment gives us
opportunities; it is just a question of harnessing them. As Opstand we will focus are time and energy on social struggles now and to come,
again trying to stay one step ahead of the state and the rich who are also already scheming their future steps.

We call on anarchists and anti-authoritarians to not sit back and wait for this to be over (will it ever?) but rather to organise and meet,
even (especially) clandestinely to organise social struggles. We realise that health concerns pose a serious barrier to physical meetings,
to which alternative forms can be found. But we also want to stress that risk is a fundamental part of social revolt. It is up to each and
anyone to determine the form of their organising, their actions and the risks taken. Above all we call for people not to lose contact but
rather to intensify it, together with their affinities.

As the Zapatistas have said: "We call on all not to lose human contact, but rather to temporarily change our forms of relating as
compañeras, compañeros, compañeroas, sisters, brothers, and hermanoas. The word, the listening ear, and the heart have many ways-paths,
calendars, and geographies-in and on which to meet. This struggle for life can be one of them."

The real virus is state-capitalism, the real catastrophe is its normality. The worst that can happen is that everything returns to the way
it was.
Anarchist Bookshop Opstand
Beatrijsstraat 12
The Hague, Netherlands

Vrije Bond Secretariaat
https://www.vrijebond.org/anarchistische-boekenwinkel-opstand-over-het-covid-19-virus-vervolg-stappen/

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Message: 2



Presented as "the deal of the century" by Donald Trump, the "peace and prosperity plan" unveiled on January 28 alongside Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is supposed to definitively resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, without any Palestinian participation and
by reducing to almost nothing. ---- The "peace plan" presented by Donald Trump actually confirms the annexation of all the Israeli
settlements in the West Bank, the Jordan Valley and the counting of Jerusalem declared the indivisible capital of the State of Israel. Once
again, it is their land, their meager resources and their symbolic places that are being taken from the Palestinians. In return ? A new
promise of a state within four years, Israeli territories ceded to the Palestinians located in the middle of the Negev desert and a
Palestinian capital located in Abu Dis, dreary and landlocked district located three kilometers from Jerusalem, separated by the wall of
apartheid. This hypothetical Palestinian State would not control its land borders, its maritime borders or its air space, and only tunnels
and bridges would e ensure "   continuity  »Geographic. The plan also provides for the payment of $ 50 billion to Palestinians if Palestine
recognizes the Jewish character of the State of Israel, renounces the right of refugees to return, abolishes the payment of pensions to
families prisoners and disarms Hamas, which currently controls the Gaza Strip. All these proposals violate all of the United Nations
Security Council resolutions, from the famous resolution 242 (1967) to the equally famous resolution 2334 (2016).

Put an end to the Palestinian cause
Behind these Trump administration proposals are hidden electoral goals. The first is to support the electoral promises of his friend
Netanyahu, who is entangled in numerous legal cases and beaten by Benny Gantz in the legislative elections in September 2019. The second is
to "   get rid   " of 260,000 Israeli Arabs living in one of the areas that would be ceded to the future Palestinian state. Again, the
ambition is electoral because the unified list on the left, highly prized by the Arab community of Israel came third in the same elections
and supported the rival of Netanyahu in the second round.

This plan mainly confirms a reality, that of a very real apartheid in the Middle East which recalls more and more that of South Africa and
its "   Bantustans   ". These landlocked and guarded areas were to resolve the country's political, social and demographic problems by
keeping in one single territory all the black population who did not enjoy the same civil and human rights as the white population. This
project, widely condemned in the world, had provoked a boycott of the South African regime.

If the Arab League, at first hesitant, finally rejected the Trump-Netanyahu plan, the Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Oman, have started a process of normalization of their relations with Israel which goes hand in hand. with the surrender of the
Palestinians. The Saudi power, in particular, has a strategy, with its media and intellectual intermediaries, to delegitimize the
Palestinian cause and thus prepare Arab public opinion for a complete reversal putting an end to traditional solidarity, even front, with
its demands. As for the European Union, it timidly and partially rejected it but France distinguished itself by the voice of Jean-Yves Le
Drian in welcoming "   the efforts of President Trump   " which it will study "  with attention   ” .

France hails President Trump's "efforts"
Finally on the Palestinian side, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, announced the breakdown of relations with Israel and
the United States. Announcement effect aimed at “   saving the face   ” of a government criticized and considered illegitimate by a large
part of the Palestinian population but impossible to actually implement, given the political situation in the Occupied Territories. In this
dramatic context for the Palestinians, the international solidarity of civil societies and social movements is crucial.

Basil (UCL 93 center)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Palestine-un-plan-de-paix-pour-l-annexion-et-la-capitulation

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Message: 3



Three weeks after our article More of the State You've Got, the UK government has accepted, as in Italy and elsewhere, that having failed
containment, supression and the still to be widely available use of testing kits along the lines of World Health Organisation advice is a
better strategy to allow health services to cope. But so much was already known globally earlier in this century with similar coronaviruses
MERS and SARS. These outbreaks required global collaboration to stop their spread between people and to protect healthcare workers. ---- As
the death rate in UK has been doubling every 3-4 days and the number of confirmed cases is doubling every 6 days at the time of writing,
massive field hospitals are being built in exhibition halls with basic respiratory critical care and retired workers are being asked to come
back to work. NHS workers are under intense pressure and are at risk of infection. Social care is a time-bomb with little safety provisions
routinely available for care workers as yet, and both community and care home residents could be infected from visiting staff, and
vice-versa. Agency workers who visit multiple care homes and the community are badly paid and are still at the bottom of concern. In care
homes, advanced care planning, including consent for ‘do not resuscitate' of frail residents who cannot or will not be moved to hospitals is
being rushed into while families cannot even visit, similarly with end-of-life planning for severely frail people living in the community.

How did it come to this? While politicians apparently stand together in national unity it is clear that those in power can get the testing
that was ideologically dismissed just 3 weeks ago. Resources for the NHS and Social Care has been decimated, especially under the
Conservatives. Their belated responsiveness to the Covid-19 outbreak continues to be ideological.

Whilst the mutual aid we are seeing is an excellent example of anarchist principle in action, we cannot allow the state to get away with its
pretence of ‘we're all in this together'.  The applauding of NHS workers by politicians puts a sour taste in the mouth knowing how they have
tried to privatise healthcare over the last decades. It is the massive inequalities, debt and insecure living and working conditions created
by the capitalist system lorded over by them that has resulted in almost 1 million people starting claims for Jobseekers Allowance or
Universal Credit, up around 7 times compared to March 2019. Food Banks are in full swing (and they already were). Thousands of small
companies are applying for emergency bank loans. 1.3m children in England who are at risk of going hungry are in line to get £15 a week
shopping vouchers issued by their school (with alternative arrangements being made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Homeless people
are at particular risk for whom support via local councils has been severely cut over the last years and charities are talking about a new
wave of soon-to-be homeless people who are living in hostels or temporary accommodation, when their precarious income dries up. The terrible
situation of so many people is a testament to the society our leaders have created for us.

Right now, mutual aid stands as a moral and practical position that is making a real difference. This is to be supported because at the same
time, from leaders such as in Brazil there are also far-right allusions to survival of the fittest, being a real man, or appealing to the
divine. Furthermore, as in Chile, governments are using the idea of national unity in a ‘state of catastrophe' to destroy popular
opposition, as seen by the removal in the last weeks of protest art and sculptures from Santiago's main square which was a major place of
demonstration in the recent uprising. Here and elsewhere we are likely to see governments making the moves that they think will give them
the greatest chances of staying in power both now and into the aftermath period of the pandemic.

http://afed.org.uk/government-and-covid-19-an-ideology-of-inequality/

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Message: 4



At the end of February a private event took place at which Dominic Cummings, Johnson's chief adviser, unaffectionately nicknamed the Gollum,
summed up the then current approach of the government on coronavirus. Those who attended described his position as "herd immunity, protect
the economy, and if that means some pensioners die, too bad". A "senior Conservative source" was quoted as describing Cummings' views as,
"let old people die". ---- This policy of herd immunity, which means allowing the virus to spread through the mass of the population fairly
quickly and in the process allegedly establish mass immunity to the virus, is basically an experiment in eugenics. Wikipedia describes
eugenics as "a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population, typically by excluding people and
groups judged to be inferior, and promoting those judged to be superior." This means eradicating the elderly, the ill, the disabled for the
sake of a supposedly healthier population. It was horrendously applied by the Nazis in Germany to murder people who were mentally or
physically disabled.

On March 11th David Halpern, chief executive of the government's Behavioural Insights Team and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for
Emergencies, persisted with the herd immunity approach. Then on March 12th Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser of the Johnson
regime, and Chris Whittle, chief medical officer, stated that herd immunity would be established once 60% of the British population had been
infected, with social distancing and washing of hands easing the pressure on the health services. Community testing and contract tracing
would end immediately.

They were proved totally wrong. If you look at what they meant, around 40 million people would be infected by the disease, with between
200,000 and 400,000 dying. Within three days the Johnson regime changed its position, moving to suppression of the coronavirus. This was
because of advice from government mathematicians who, taking the example of Italy, where 30% of those infected by the virus ended up in
intensive care, saw that the NHS would not be able to cope with the crisis.

The Johnson government thought that coronavirus would behave like flu. However, the death rate from coronavirus is much higher, and unlike
the flu, it is not seasonal. Without extensive testing, contract tracing and community surveillance, it will flare up again after the end of
a lockdown. Social distancing will not be enough to control the virus. In China, after initial lockdowns and quarantines, thousands of
community workers mobilised behind a national testing programme and mapping of infected people using case definitions based on symptoms of
the virus.

Without this approach, the coronavirus will continue to spread in the UK despite social distancing and lockdowns. China managed to suppress
the transmission of the virus in less than two months. There is no sign yet of this happening. Despite eight weeks' notice, Professor Neil
Ferguson of Imperial College, acting as a governmental adviser, said that community testing and contact tracing was not possible because
enough tests were not available.

All of this reveals a callous, cynical and coldly calculated approach to the elderly, the sick and infirm and the disabled, and is reflected
in the lack of concern about provision of protective equipment for health workers, shop workers, cleaners and bin collectors. This approach
has been shown to be widespread within the government, local government, among bosses and landlords.

The attitude that it would be better if a few hundred thousand elderly and infirm people were sacrificed to preserve the economy and the
profit system is still visible among spokespeople for the ruling class. The vile Sherelle Jacobs wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "Through this
‘herd immunity' strategy, a resurgence of the virus after it had seemingly peaked would be avoided. Championed by Dominic Cummings, the
approach was creepy, clinical and completely correct". She went on to say that Johnson "should pay heed to Trump, who is raring to get
America up and running by Easter lest the cure be worse than the disease. Premature, perhaps, but at least he is forcing Americans frankly
to debate the trade-offs: millions of livelihoods versus thousands of lives". Well, that statistically would mean not thousands, but two
million people dead in the USA.

The perhaps even viler Toby Young, a champion of eugenics, wrote in the Conservative magazine The Critic: "Like a growing number of people,
I'm beginning to suspect the Government has overreacted to the coronavirus crisis. I'm not talking about the cost to our liberty, although
that's worrying, but the economic cost. Even if we accept the statistical modelling of Dr Neil Ferguson's team at Imperial College, which
I'll come to in a minute, spending £350 billion to prolong the lives of a few hundred thousand mostly elderly people is an irresponsible use
of taxpayer's money."

Young runs a number of free schools and refuses admittance to disabled children on the grounds that they are, in his own words,
"Troglodytes". These are views widespread within the ruling class, rather a few hundred thousand, a few million dead, than sacrifice Profit.

Ashton Applewhite, author of the book on ageism This Chair Rocks! wrote in a recent article that "Where does ageism enter in? In
suggestions, mostly on social media, that since ‘only old people' have been dying from this coronavirus in significant numbers, the rest of
the world needn't be too worried about it. Even worse, in suggestions of setting an age limit for medical treatment, so it won't be ‘wasted'
on people less likely to survive. A public health emergency can indeed make it necessary to allocate resources by health status. That's
triage. Allocating resources by age, under any circumstances, is not triage. It is ageism at its most lethal." She proceeds to say: "In some
quarters the AIDS epidemic was considered divine retribution for sinful behavior. Shamefully, many of those most at risk, already
marginalised by homophobia and racism, were overlooked and even left to die. Doing the same to those marginalized by ageism-the corrosive
belief, at its ugly heart, that to age is to lose value as a human being-is just as reprehensible. It is not ethical, or legal, to allocate
resources by race, gender, or sexual orientation. Doing so by age is equally unacceptable. Period. No one deserves to be sick. Everyone
deserves respect and care. Viruses infect everyone. Humans shouldn't discriminate either. The way we respond to a challenge, especially a
fearsome one, shows who we truly are, as individuals and societies. There's nothing like a global pandemic to prove that we're all in this
together. Let's act like it, in solidarity across age, race, and borders." She concludes that "Capitalism Kills".

The writers of this article, as pensioners, reject the concept that the elderly should be sacrificed for the sake of the economy. The
coronavirus highlights the class antagonisms in this sick society, the callous outlook of the rich, exemplified by Branson, Bezos and their
ilk with their insatiable greed for more wealth. It also highlights this society's attitude to the elderly, seen not as human beings, with
relations and friends who love them, but as a drain on the economy.

In any case, there is no need for people's livelihoods to be sacrificed. There is plenty of wealth in the world. What needs to be sacrificed
is the wealth and profits of the privileged few, the large corporations and the banks.

Governments, in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, will try to claw their profits back by further attacks on our living standards
and benefits. Pensions will continue to be a target, unless we organise among pensioners and as a class to stop them.

No Going Back!

ACG Pensioners

Ashton Hepplewhite article

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/04/06/age-herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/

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Message: 5



Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC) has been much in vogue lately, especially with the publication of Aaron Bastani's book of the same
name by Verso this year. It was originally a slogan/meme developed by people around the group Plan C. They began using the expression
"Luxury for All" and this was backed up by a Tumblr called Luxury Communism. Plan C members spotted the slogan "Luxury For All" on a
demonstration in Berlin, and at first adopted it as a tongue in cheek joke but they then started taking it seriously. They believe it had
its origins in the science fiction Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, where a socialist utopia is established on Mars, and in A
Pattern Language written by three architects, Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein in 1977 which describes a similar
utopia. We also have the book written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Erik Brynjofflsson and James McAfee, The Second
Machine Age, who envisage an increasingly robotised world where work has been abolished.

The expression has picked up traction among the "woke" generation, who seem also inspired by Corbynism. In some ways it has recuperated the
concept of communism, originally more or less the reserve of anarchist communists before being seized as a label by the Bolsheviks with the
resulting discrediting of the idea.

Both Plan C and Bastani seem to think that the development of technology under capitalism will lead to the end of work and the end of
capitalism itself. In this scenario somehow capitalism assists at its own death, it voluntarily places a gun against its own temple and
pulls the trigger. Technology, rather than being seen at the moment as an instrument of capitalism to further itself, is seen as an agent of
radical change.

Marx too thought that advances in technology would bring about the conditions for communism. Bastani says that this was flawed, that
capitalism had to reach a higher stage that Marx could not foresee. He thinks we have now arrived at this higher stage, further, he locates
this to the year 2008 with its financial crisis.

Like another predictor of the future, Paul Mason, Bastani believes that advancing technology will lead to widespread unemployment. This
cannot be answered by the creation of new jobs, which Bastani believes are impossible to create. At the same time the development of
technology will replace scarcity with abundance, "extreme supply" as Bastani calls it. The capitalists will respond to this with artificial
scarcities, because abundance leads to a fall in prices and of markets.

This new abundance will be facilitated by the development of solar technology and the mining of asteroids! (Bastani says: "More
speculatively, asteroid mining - whose technical barriers are presently being surmounted - could provide us with not only more energy than
we can ever imagine but also more iron, gold, platinum and nickel. Resource scarcity would be a thing of the past.")

During the course of the book, the whole concept of class struggle is rarely touched upon, as is the nature and role of the State. The
working class is not seen as the agent of social change and instead Bastani envisages a scenario that would find favour with the Corbynists
of Momentum. He believes that at the national level, outsourcing would end immediately and privatised industries like rail would return to
the State and the public sector would wipe out outside contractors. On the local level, there would be "municipal protectionism" where
public sector organisations would spend as much of their budgets locally, to keep money circulating in the local economy. He bases this
scenario on what he calls the Preston model after the town which carried out such a plan.

Furthermore, local businesses would be favoured, being those which operated within ten kilometres of the locality, were a worker-owned
cooperative, or offered organic products and renewable energy. Central banks, too, would move "away from low inflation" and instead relate
to "rising wages, high productivity and affordable house prices". National energy investment banks would invest in sustainable energy and
housing with the result that by 2030 "the world's wealthier countries would see their CO2 emissions fall to virtually zero".

The State would create a network of regional and local banks and credit unions, with the same aims as above. They would encourage the growth
of worker-owned businesses.

In addition, there would be a system of Universal Basic Services (UBS) which would provide the necessities of life- for example, education,
housing, transport- free to all at the point of use. This in a society heavily dominated by the State.

It is unclear how Bastani sees this plan being activated. Which government would do that? It is not openly stated but is implied that this
would be brought about by a reformist government. How would such a government come to power? Would it not seem logical that such a
government would need mass support (but see later for Bastani's views on mass engagement)? What would elements within the State and among
the capitalist class resist such developments? Bastani talks vaguely about a "workers' party against work" but he fails to elaborate on this
party and what its role would be in this transformation to a new society. And indeed, there is no indication about what would develop after
this State-heavy economy as envisaged by Bastani. As noted earlier, the working class itself would have no serious role in this Brave New
Utopia of Bastani. To us, anarchist communism, libertarian communism, free socialism, call it what you will, has to come about through the
involvement of the mass of the population. But for Bastani "the majority of people are only able to be politically active for brief periods
of time". He uses this false scenario to advocate engagement in "mainstream, electoral politics".

Unfortunately, capitalism CAN deal with abundance. There are many products now that were expensive, that are now cheap like some mobile
phones and many other electrical appliances, not to mention the various pound stores. Capitalism can adapt very easily and indeed big
capitalist outfits like Facebook and Google are free at point of use. They obtain their profits in other ways. The whole history of
capitalism indicates that it can, time and time again, turn scarcity into "extreme abundance".

Capitalism has indeed destroyed many old industries and services, but it has replaced them with others. Certainly, certain industrial
sectors are threatened, have disappeared or are in the process of disappearing, not least the high street as we know it but the capitalist
system itself is not threatened, it continues to find ways of renewing itself, as demonstrated by the rise of the online market. The
continuing tooth and claw eradication of various industries is part and parcel of the capitalist system.

Bastani is enamoured by the idea of "accelerationism", that is that the "rate of historical change is accelerating" and will very soon bring
about the changes that he envisages. This is debatable, as various commentators have noted economic stagnation and technological slowdown.
Tyler Cowen, for example, posits a "great stagnation". In addition, we could counter the ideas of degrowth (decroissance in French) which
are gaining traction which argue strongly against production for production's sake (productivism) and which clash with the eco-modernist
ideas of Bastani and Mason. Accelerationism believes technology can be used for progressive purposes, whereas degrowth argues that certain
types of technology need to be limited and must relate to availability of resources. Some eco-modernists still believe in the use of nuclear
power, although Bastani, to his credit, rejects this.

Bastani is aware that he will be accused of technological determinism and admits that "technology matters, but so do the ideas, social
relations and politics which accompany it". However he uses an unhappy example. He believes the emergence of mass veganism and vegetarianism
has lead to the development of synthetic technology. This is worrying for two reasons, first he appears to think that demand leads supply,
as any common or garden theorist of capitalism believes rather than the reverse views of revolutionaries that supply leads demand. Companies
are producing vegan products like never before because they can create very highly processed products to make substantial profits. And, do
we really want to eat these highly processed foodstuffs grown in vats that Bastani has enthusiasm for, when evidence points to processed
foods being dangerous to health? It has been established that there is enough food to feed the world adequately, and if an unequal society
was replaced by communism it would be able to provide for all and it would be unnecessary to manufacture these vat-grown synthetic foods.

Bastani is also enthusiastic about electric driverless cars in this new world of his. He envisages electricity being able to be supplied
100% from renewable sources which will fuel these cars. But this still fails to deal with traffic congestion, with roads still being
dangerous for children and the aged and disabled, and communities bisected and blighted by highways. We should reject these ideas and
instead look towards environmentally friendly free public transport.

Bastani talks about the eradication of work and describes a 10 hour week. We in the anarchist communist movement have long argued against
the ideas of work, and certainly a 10 hour week would be an improvement on the 40 hour and rising week that many have to suffer now. But it
would be still 10 hours a week in the same unsatisfying and boring work for many. Again when he refers to the abolition of work he means in
the workplace, whilst the work of social reproduction and care in the home, looking after children, elderly parents, the disabled and
infirm, and housework in general, mostly undertaken by women, is ignored, again revealing Bastani's blindness on gender oppression and his
failure to include this in his ‘utopia'.

He waxes lyrical about genome sequencing being able to eradicate "nearly all forms of disease" in the near future with little evidence for
this. He talks about "Cartier for everyone, MontBlanc for the masses and Chloe for all." But are these not prestige goods spectacularly
exhibited by the rich precisely because they are expensive and do we really, really, want these items? Many under the goad of the looming
environmental devastation are increasingly turning away from consumerism in the light of limited natural resources and the damage that a
productivist capitalism is dealing to the planet. Degrowth and sustainability have to be key factors in the construction of a new society
but instead Bastani talks about a luxury communism which would result from an increase in production.

What is also disturbing is Bastani's vaunting of the "seven-decade survival" of the USSR as "one of the great political achievements of the
last century" which brings him a tad too close to a minority of "woke" hipsters who have turned to praising Stalinism as with for example,
the Red London group.

Bastani turns a blind eye to the environmental and social consequences of previous advances in technology under capitalism. He believes that
the technological breakthrough that he foresees will solve the problems created by a capitalism that is inherently environmentally
destructive. But who makes and who controls this technology, who decides how it is used?

We remember Bastani from the 2010 student movement when he attended Royal Holloway College and when he described himself as a libertarian
communist. Like many of his associates in that particular student movement, he gravitated towards Corbynism. Indeed his Novara Media
organisation quickly transformed itself into an engine for the building of Corbynism. Ultimately Bastani's vision of a new society is a
narrow and dull vision. It does not address itself to the oppressions of class, race and gender, and fails to envisage blueprints for their
eradication. It's the Attlee government of 1945 with new added technology. Far from being revolutionary, it is a tame social democratic and
reformist programme that any Corbynist would be proud of. To call this communism is a travesty.

What about Plan C's conception of FALC? To their credit, they have been critical of technological determinism and are also considering the
ideas of degrowth and are aware of the ignoring of the agency of the working class in bringing about these technological utopias. It appears
that their concept of FALC is more nuanced than Bastani's and is still a work in progress. We await a fuller development of their ideas on
the subject. Nevertheless , their connections to Corbynism are causes for concern.

P.S.

Before FALC, there was Post-Scarcity Anarchism as developed by Murray Bookchin. Like Bastani, Bookchin talks about the positive aspects of
technology as enablers of a new society: "The seeds for the destruction of bourgeois society lie in the very means it employs for
self-preservation: a technology of abundance that is capable of providing for the first time in history the material basis for liberation.

Again the question has to be asked, how can this technology become liberatory? Certainly Bookchin's views of a post-scarcity society are far
more imaginative and far-reaching than Bastani's and are in stark contrast to Bastani's pawky and miserable Statist utopia. Whilst Bastani
is blind to a mass movement as an agent of social change, Bookchin emphasises it.

Article originally appeared in ACG's  Virus in the Body Politic magazine.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/04/06/what-is-fully-automated-luxury-communism/

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Message: 6



At noon on Tuesday, April 7, we participated in the gathering called by EINA (in the context of the nationwide call of OENGE) at the main
gate of the University Hospital of Rio. A little while earlier, we hung a banner at the hospital of Agios Andreas, whose employees also
participated in today's mobilization. Together with dozens of doctors and supporters from trade unions, student associations, political
organizations and collectives, adhering to all safety measures imposed by the virus, we have expressed our solidarity with all and all
health workers in the fight against health particularly adverse conditions, while at the same time being silenced and censored by the
mainstream media and the state, when they claim self-evident measures to deal with the virus,

Agios Andreas Hospital 1Agios Andreas Hospital 1
Without any confidence in the state and its spokespersons, we are convinced that in the face of the pandemic, only the people can save
themselves from the disease itself, but also from the ongoing state and capitalist crime against them. various levels. This mobilization is
a first small sample of what needs to be done today in all workplaces, where thousands of workers are forced to work while exposed to the
dangers of pandemic, so that resistance can begin today to organize the upcoming popular preparations. state and capital for the social
majority...

SOLIDARITY TO HEALTH

NOT A STEP BACK IN OUR NEEDS

Immediate and unconditional mass recruitment of medical and nursing staff, commissioning of private hospitals and provision of all required
resources and means in order to meet the needs of the population in care, heavy and unhealthy stamps throughout health personnel as well as
provision not to lead to absolute exhaustion and in serious danger to their own health.

REMEMBER PANDIMIA AND THE STATE-
CAPITALISTIC CRIME AGAINST SOCIETY

EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE
(HEALTH, SITISI, MEDICO- PHARMACEUTICAL ENVIRONMENT, OCCUPATION AND INSURANCE)

SOCIAL AND CLASS SOLIDARITY WILL WIN!

https://ipposd.wordpress.com/

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Message: 7



The COVID-19 epidemic that has gripped the world is dangerous not only, but perhaps not so much on its own, that is, as a direct threat to
the life and health of people, as its most serious problems are literally in all spheres of life of specific people and society as a whole.
Moreover, if some problems come to the surface now, others will come to their full strength only after some time. ---- Let's not forget that
the current epidemic is taking place against the backdrop of a new global financial and economic crisis, when, on March 27, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced the entry of the world economy into a recession, "as terrible or even worse than in 2009" (1).
---- That is why it is impossible to consider the possible consequences for the country and the world of the current epidemic abstractly,
without linking with other major events.

Because if we are just talking about the consequences of an extraordinary fight against COVID-19, which includes the introduction around the
world of unprecedented peacetime measures of total quarantine with total police control, then this is one thing. It's hard, but the world is
likely to cope relatively quickly, albeit with inevitable losses. But, once we understand that all this happens in the face of a powerful
global financial and economic crisis, it immediately becomes clear that the consequences will be much more serious.

Moreover - economic problems, this is only one side of the issue. There are others, no less important. One of them is social, associated
with that pressure on the psyche, which produces a long stay in isolation mode, even in its light version. Another important issue is the
political one, related to the strengthening of methods of control over people's lives.

So, for example, the news has already written about the increase in the number of divorces in China after the removal of quarantine.
"Officials believe that the sharp increase in divorce requests may be caused by the fact that partners spend too much time in cramped
quarantine rooms, according to the Daily Mail" (2). They predict an increase in the number of divorces for the same reasons and in different
countries of Europe. But this is only one side of the stress problem in conditions of tight home isolation.

And, which is also important - all this is a blow to the psyche, first of all, of the poorest segments of the population, since they have
more cramped living conditions, which means closer contact with their households than in the case of more prosperous layers.

In addition to the increase in the number of divorces, there is another, more serious problem. We are talking about domestic violence, as
well as domestic conflicts.

Existing data at the same time seriously diverge. Thus, estimates of victims of domestic violence in Russia range from 250-300 men and
women, up to 14,000 women only annually. A large number of people do not even die, but suffer from violence in another way, including
sexually and beatings. Be that as it may, the problem has a place to be, and, most importantly, it is often not fixed by official statistics
simply due to the fact that we are talking about intra-family conflicts.

Under total quarantine, the problem will inevitably worsen. "Experts say that even in a normal situation, just after the weekend calls to
the police about domestic violence, it becomes more, therefore, after the isolation regime, their multiple growth is expected. It may also
happen that the number of coronavirus victims in the country will ultimately be less than the victims of domestic violence, "Diana Chabanova
thought on March 30 at Business FM radio station (3).

The epidemic has already affected the educational process. In some cases, we are talking about serious interruptions in training associated
with the suddenly unplanned "vacation", in others, about a shift in the exam dates.

At the same time, schoolchildren and students are transferred to the so-called distance learning mode. At the same time, this does not
always work, including due to both the failure of this system and the sharply increased load on the Internet under the conditions of total
quarantine, which both providers, on the one hand, and specific sites cannot cope with, .

The burden on online resources has increased not only in education. In general, the situation was extremely difficult. "" My three children,
who are studying in a remote place, have already encountered this - all day we do not so much do tasks as we solve technical problems with
idle cameras, communications, and the like, "said Natalya Kasperskaya, president of the Info Watch group of companies , a member of the
working group in the field of "Information Security" within the framework of the national project "Digital Economy", "the business newspaper
Vzglyad reports (4).

Moreover, the problems are associated not only with the load on the Internet: "Interactive and accessible consultations are needed online,
but they don't do them. In some schools they are, at least from time to time, in some they are not, as, for example, in ours. There is no
single, clear, clear, understandable and accessible program for everyone - how to conduct classes in this difficult period. As a result,
some students watch some courses on the Internet, others try to communicate with teachers via Skype or Zoom, while others send them answers
by e-mail or in instant messengers. It turns out incredible chaos - some in the forest, some for firewood. As a result, half of
schoolchildren and 40% of their parents consider what is happening as a vacation "(5).

The Minister of Science and Education of Kazakhstan, for his part, bluntly said that online schooling in the current conditions for the
country is not acceptable - the corresponding resources of the country simply cannot withstand it. We are talking about the simultaneous
connection "through online streaming" of 2.5 million children (6).

As it turned out, other Internet resources that are not related to training can not stand, or, more accurately, can withstand the increased
load. So, the YouTube video service and Netflix company were forced to go to reduce the quality of the playback video. On April 3, the
Izvestia Internet publication wrote that: "At the end of March, Internet providers told Izvestia about an increase of 20-60% in the traffic
over the home Internet over the past two weeks. They associated this with an increase in the number of Russians living in self-isolation.
Analysts noted that the situation may lead to a local decrease in the quality of communication"(7).

In general, the main thing for us here is that the capabilities of the global network under conditions of increased workloads have subsided.

By the way, all of this massive transition to remote work and distance learning is another side. So to speak, for the future. The fact is
that the measures taken clearly demonstrate to all those who doubted and did not believe that a significant part of the work in the modern
world does not require the full-time presence of an employee at his workplace. And this has, as usual, two sides.

The first of them is beneficial for the employee: it demonstrates that it is not at all necessary to carry out work being tied to a clearly
regulated work schedule (it is clear that this does not apply to everyone). The main thing is efficiency, the result.

But the second side is already beneficial for the employer: reducing the cost of renting office space, as well as a number of other expense
items, including reducing travel expenses. This has been talked about for a long time, but now everything is demonstrated in practice during
a gigantic forced experiment.

True, there is a nuance: you can also save on the employees themselves. And this is also known for a long time (8). And here's what you can
read about in a recent article by Dmitry Prokofiev in Novaya Gazeta:

"An employee who has the privilege of appearing at the workplace when he considers it necessary, in fact, receives not a" salary ", but a
rent from his unique skills, knowledge or status. A freelancer simply sells the result of his work. But the "remote employee" has to prepare
for trouble. Already, there are many programs to control the intensity and speed of such work. And the demand for them will only grow. The
boss can be deceived by imitating activities in the workplace, it will be more difficult to deceive the car.

Demand for electronic diaphoretic systems in Russia will develop faster than anywhere else in the world. In any case, it follows from the
declared economic support plan that saving the drowning people should be the work of the drowning people themselves. The authorities did not
express a desire to part with the accumulated reserves and prefers to wait until the problem is resolved somehow by itself "(9).

Added to this is another worrying factor for many workers: "The coronavirus epidemic and measures taken against it can accelerate the
processes of automation and digitalization of work processes, which began long before the pandemic. In this regard, career prospects are
threatened by representatives of a number of professions. Among them are junior employees of specialized departments, junior analysts, legal
advisers, bank managers, pharmacists, realtors, event managers, translators, teachers and tutors, as well as printing workers.

Experts also predict that after the end of the pandemic, a difficult period awaits the sphere of fashion, makeup and stationary catering. "

As expected, even IT specialists will fall under attack. Although, according to the Director General of the Russian Personnel Association
Anna Starikova, some areas of activity will recover relatively quickly: "We are talking about hairdressers, cosmetologists, manicure masters
and others, that is, maintenance personnel" (10).

However, it is now clear that in different countries of the world the process will develop in different ways, with its own characteristics.

All this applies to the organization of the educational process. They have also been talking about this for a long time: online training. In
fact, this may lead to a reduction in the teaching staff and an increase in precarization in this area.

Throughout the introduction of strict quarantine is accompanied by strict punitive measures: fines and imprisonment.

In the sense of penalties, the Russian authorities are walking through a beaten European country. There is, however, at least one important
nuance: in Europe, and government support for the population is more substantial than in Russia, although it stalls, which has rather sad
consequences, about which it is lower.

Here's what you can read about fines against quarantine violators in different countries in Komsomolskaya Pravda (plus some data has been
adjusted based on materials from Wikipedia, which provide more detailed information on penalties):

- Italy. Initially, the fine was 206 euros, then increased to 400-3,000;

- United Kingdom. 60 pounds, and if paid within two weeks - a 50% discount;

- Austria. A fine of 3,600 euros has been introduced;

- Greece - 150 euros;

- In the US, from 500 to several tens of thousands of dollars. For legal entities, if their work led to someone else's death, up to half a
million dollars.

- Australia. For those who violated the conditions of the two-week quarantine, those who returned from abroad will be fined from 11 to 50
thousand dollars. Also, in various states, you may also receive a sentence of imprisonment;

- In Israel you can be fined between 1,000 and 1,500 dollars (11).

In Spain, fines for various violations of quarantine measures range from 100 to 30,000 euros. Possibility of imprisonment is also possible (12).

Penalties also apply in Germany. So, for violating the curfew in Bavaria, you may face a fine of up to 25,000 euros (13).

In the meantime, President Phillipin even allowed to open fire on quarantine violators.

On the streets of cities around the world, troops were withdrawn: in Italy, France, Germany, the United States ...

Now a few words about what a blow COVID-19 dealt to the world economy, overlapping and without it, the ripening global financial and
economic crisis.

As early as March 5, it was said that the world economy suffers gigantic losses because of the global epidemic: "In 2020, global economic
growth may slow down from 2.6% to 1%. The value is expected to be the lowest since the 2008 financial crisis. " At that time, the losses of
the world economy were already estimated at 50 billion dollars.

"According to UNCTAD estimates (14), from the beginning of the year, the volume of production and export of China decreased by 2%. Against
this background, China's trading partners began to record losses. For example, the United States lost $ 5.8 billion, Japan - $ 5.2 billion,
and South Korea - $ 3.8 billion. At the same time, the countries of the European Union suffered the most serious blow - $ 15.6 billion
"(15). Since then, the situation has only worsened every day.

On March 15, estimates were announced at the BBC, according to which only the EU would have to spend at least $ 350 billion over the course
of the year to overcome the consequences of the crisis.

Ultimately, according to analysts: "If, according to the results of the year, the economy still does not grow, the world will miss about $ 4
trillion. This is more than the GDP of Germany, the largest economy in Europe, and two and a half times more than the GDP of Russia "(16).

The situation is constantly deteriorating, as evidenced by its assessments, voiced in the media: "On April 3, the head of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva announced the stoppage of the world economy. According to her, the situation in the world economy
is worse than during the crisis of 2008-2009. In this regard, a record number of countries - 85 - simultaneously applied to the fund for
emergency funding in connection with the coronavirus pandemic "(17).

And although various anti-crisis measures are already being taken in different European countries to support the population in times of
crisis, it is obvious to many that the situation is such that the population as a whole will become poorer, poverty will increase, many
people will lose their jobs due to the ruin of various firms and enterprises under strict quarantine.

A good example here is Italy. On the one hand, the government allocates substantial funds to combat the effects of the crisis: "The prime
minister is developing a new stimulus package for mid-April in the amount of 30 billion euros, in addition to the previous amount of 25
billion. As part of the assistance already announced, Conte is trying to redirect funds South. Over the weekend, he allocated 4.3 billion
euros from a solidarity fund for municipalities and added 400 million to mayors - this amount can be converted into food coupons. "

On the other hand, these measures are still insufficient: "But the leaders of the South require more. According to them, the money from the
Solidarity Fund was already owed to them, and the economic consequences of quarantine brought their region to the brink of complete
collapse. They hit particularly hard on 3.7 million Italians who are employed in the shadow sector; and many of them are concentrated in the
South. "

As a result, the south of Italy at the end of March was on the verge of a hunger riot (18). The country expects a significant increase in
the unemployed, whose account can go to millions.

And, even if the European economy is still recovering, but it is clearly waiting for very difficult times (19), then for Russia the
consequences will be worse, as economists warn of.

So, the supervisor of the Institute for Globalization Problems Mikhail Delyagin stated that: "Damage from anti-epidemic measures in the
absence of an epidemic will bring damage that will exceed the damage from the diseases themselves." In his opinion, the result of the
consequences of total quarantine will be "not just a failure in the economy and the destruction of medium and especially small businesses,
but also rampant crime" (20).

Already at the end of March, much was said about the consequences of the crisis that were disturbing for workers. So, according to the news
agency Lenta.ru:

"In order to stay afloat after the collapse of the ruble and coronavirus, 29 percent of companies have already changed their personnel
policies - they transferred workers to remote work with lower salaries, cut staff and cut salaries. Another 40 percent of managers plan to
make such decisions in the future.

Every second company allows a reduction in the number of employees by 13 percent. 63 percent of respondents said they were at risk of
bankruptcy "(21).

Thus, one can already speak as inevitable in Russia: about reducing the incomes of a significant part of the population, increasing
unemployment, increasing poverty, rising prices and the accompanying increase in crime and social instability.

To solve economic problems, the government traditionally intentionally does not at the expense of the richest part of society, but at the
expense of the least wealthy and the poorest. Moreover, one can even say that the government is going to "get into the pocket" of the
population for anything, but not for the sake of combating the consequences of the epidemic and the beginning of another financial and
economic crisis.

This conclusion can be drawn from the plans of the president and the government to tax profit on deposits of more than 1 million rubles.
This size of savings only seems significant, in reality this is not entirely true, since often a Russian family (especially if they are
young people without children) with a relatively low income can save up a similar or somewhat large amount for several years for subsequent
investment in improving housing conditions and / or to spend them on educating their children.

And so the president declares in his address to the country that he intends to introduce this tax in order to combat the economic
consequences of the fight against the epidemic. However, almost immediately after this, explanations follow, from which it follows that the
tax will not be introduced earlier than 2021, that is, the current crisis has obviously nothing to do with it (22).

"And here you can already say for sure: Russia is one step away from the economic crisis, comparable to the crisis of the 90s. And only a
very naive person can think that dissatisfaction in the economy will not go to politics, "writes Alexei Moshkov (23) on the Free Press website.

But this is the economic side of the problem. Let us turn now to one more thing - the growth and strengthening in the world, primarily in
the Global North (24) of totalitarian tendencies.

Yes, if you think about it, you can understand that today the world has actually entered the "era of cyberpunk" without noticing it:
information about us in large numbers runs through the vastness of the global Internet, personal pages on social networks serve not only for
personal communication , but also to collect information about us with all sorts of structures. This can be done in order to collect the
necessary information for the employer, to track politically unreliable people, as well as for economic purposes, when the same google or
Yandex give us content advertising based on our requests on the Web.

That is, significant amounts of information about us, including confidential, have long flooded the Internet and are used for various
purposes. And this is not news for a long time. Moreover, if we turn to the experience of China itself, we will understand how effectively
the Network can be used by the government for its own purposes.

We are talking about the so-called "social credit." The introduction of this system in China was announced back in 2014:

"Information security issues (the same as in the Russian doctrine) in it are only one of the elements. The main goal of introducing the
system is not security, but "building a harmonious socialist society". The main value of such a society is honesty, which should be
manifested in everything from Internet behavior to the veneration of parents. To develop this quality among the people, each citizen of
China will be assigned a rating by the system. For the absence of violations of the law, useful social activities and, say, timely payment
of loans, points will be awarded. For misconduct of varying severity - deducted. If the score is "impassable," life will turn into torment.
In September this year, the PRC government published an updated list of sanctions to which low-ranking holders will be subjected:

- a ban on working in public institutions;

- denial of social security;

- especially thorough inspection at customs;

- a ban on leadership positions in the food and pharmaceutical industries;

- refusal of air tickets and a berth in night trains;

- denial of places in luxury hotels and restaurants;

- A ban on educating children in expensive private schools.

It is very easy to distinguish honesty from dishonesty in understanding the Chinese leadership - the difference is the same as between
compliance or non-compliance with laws "(25).

It is clear that all the talk about "socialism" and "harmonious society" in this case actually covers the creation of that totalitarian
society, about which the anti-utopians of the twentieth century constantly warned us.

And, worst of all, there are those who joyfully welcome the iron tread of digital totalitarianism, believing that this is only better for
them (people):

"Despite the somewhat scary image of the system - Human Rights Watch expressed its displeasure with it, and Botswan called it" a futuristic
version of Big Brother out of control "- some citizens believe that this system helps them to become better" (26).

What can I say, slavery is especially scary not when it is obvious, but when the slave himself considers his position to be desirable for
himself, and that all this is beneficial to him. There can be no talk of any good here - the human person is completely subordinate to
external control, and becomes only a cog in the service of the authorities. The result is something like "educational dictatorship," if you
use the terminology from "One-Dimensional Man" by Herbert Marcuse.

As they say, a slave is happy because he is a slave, having a kind and caring owner, who takes care of him as an important and valuable
property.

So, digital cyberpunk (post-Cyberpunk) totalitarianism has partially come to life, and part of it is aggressively breaking through the door.
This is exactly what the plans for total control over the movement of citizens tell us (of course, in our own interests!) With the help of
sms, qr codes, mobile phone billing, geolocation and so on, tracking a specific person by collecting information about all his purchases
made by credit cards (which, however, has been happening for a long time, but has not yet been used for political purposes) So it is
possible that tomorrow the European world will go along the beaten path of the PRC in the direction of total control over each and every step.

This is today a person does not have to have not only a smartphone, but, in principle, a mobile phone of any type. However, it cannot be
ruled out that with the development of the world in the direction set by the situation of the current total quarantine in the context of the
global epidemic (pandemic) COVID-19, the presence of a smartphone or its analogues will become mandatory.

"After going through an epidemic, humanity will be ready to accept the rejection of privacy in favor of health. For which you have to pay
with total tracking of location, body temperature, etc. " - says the leading analyst of the news portal Anews.ru Alexander Yakovlev (27).

All this is just an alarmist dotted designation of those realities that unfold today against the backdrop of a developing global crisis.
And, while reality is not all. There is also such a moment as a blow to the world as a "global village", a new closure of borders and the
strengthening of nation-states. A possible departure from the neoliberal economy in the direction of the forgotten Keynesianism with its
social state, and much more.

I just tried to identify those alarming trends that seem to me the most important and alarming.

https://www.facebook.com/andrey.fedorov.3110567/posts/228077638441389

https://aitrus.info/node/5436

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