Today's Topics:
1. Teleperformance: The best place to die from work by restive
horse APO [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Britain, AFED, UPDATE: ORGANISE! MAGAZINE PANDEMIC SPECIAL
ISSUE - SPRING 2020 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. restive horse APO: Response of an anarchist comrade to the
events of the last few days in Turin. [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Poland, ZSP: We demand now! Leaflet ZSP ZW Warsaw [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Invasion of the
Austerions (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Australia, mac group: Anzac Day 2020 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - AL #304 - Culture,
Read: Reeve, "Wild Socialism" (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. Te Kaupapa Papori: Climate Justice - a movement for radical
change (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - Webdito, Faced
with the crisis, let's fight for food autonomy ! (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Complaint about the miserable working conditions in Teleperformance ---- Teleperformance: The best place to die from work ----
Teleperformance Greece is the largest service company in Greece. It is a member of a multinational French interest group with subsidiaries
in 80 countries, employs 330,000 people worldwide, and its revenues in 2019 amounted to an astronomical sum of 5,355 billion. euro. ---- It
works with a number of multinationals such as Microsoft, Apple, Volkswagen, Facebook, Canon, Netflix and many more. In the same way that
traditional factories are transported to third world countries, so are modern service factories transported to countries where the crisis
offers greater profit opportunities for bosses, such as the countries of Southern Europe and the Balkans.
Teleperformance Greece, taking advantage of both the geographical location of Greece and the low wages and favorable legislation for
employers, has become the group's management center for Southern Europe and the Middle East. It employs more than 8,500 people in Athens,
Thessaloniki and Chania, two-thirds of whom come from other countries, whether they are immigrants or students coming to Greece as part of
Erasmus.
Whatever is written about the working conditions in the modern Teleperformance scams, which has even won the award for best workplace (!!!)
- thebestplacetowork - it is impossible to render reality. The way of working, inspired by the old principles of Taylorism, is based on
constant control and increasing labor intensification: continuous flow of calls, systematic control of their content, timing of the duration
of each call, daily control of productivity, systematic increase of production law , reduction of salary in case of delay of even a few
minutes. It is a combination of traditional and modern forms of employee control:
In huge and noisy rooms, many workers stacked next to each other, wearing headphones and constantly bent over computers, most of the time
not even having time to talk to their neighbors, making the same monotonous repetitive movements, tend to to become machines in the service
of the bosses with incalculable consequences for their physical and mental health. These are occupational diseases that affect workers in
these modern 21st century factories: from distraction and stress that doesn't stop after work to musculoskeletal syndromes and hearing loss.
It goes without saying that this inhumane condition would never have been possible without the constant fear of dismissal resulting from
limited time contracts, which can be renewed for years through different recruitment companies so that no one has the right to claim an
indefinite contract. . And the fear of dismissal is even greater when we talk about immigrants - note that, until the change of power
management in the summer of 2019, Teleperformance was addressed to NGOs with the aim of attracting cheap and vulnerable workers, while
according to relevant reports, at least Until 2016, it kept migrant workers in a state of constant hostage-taking through the control of
procedures for granting a residence permit.
In these suffocating conditions, the solidarity of the vast majority of workers at work, locals and immigrants, is touching, as the older
ones are always willing to help the younger ones and support them in difficult times, as well as the endless humor they use to not to
misunderstand by doing a job with paranoid demands. However, solidarity has not been able to overcome this limited scope to embrace the
issue of workplace organization based on common class interests.
And this is not accidental, nor is it due only to the high mobility of the workforce (students from abroad, a large number of resignations
due to destructive working conditions). Every attempt by a trade union organization in the workplace is met with redundancies and terrorism.
According to the Observatory of Multinationals, TP tops the list of the most barbaric treatment of workers among all businesses in the
industry, while when asked by a journalist of the Observatory about the trade union rights of workers, the boss of TP Greece boldly states
that employees are so... happy that they have no reason to trade union!
The appearance of the coronary artery made the work environment even more nightmarish as to the already existing stress of work came to add
that of the infection from the deadly virus. No protection was taken, no distance was observed, no mask was given to the workers. On the
contrary, they were asked to contribute voluntarily to the new call center that the TP bosses donated to EODY.
In this way, people who are potentially infected due to high workplace congestion and completely unrelated to medical issues are asked to
give instructions to patients at risk of death or death as if they were instructions for repairing a machine... State and boss fraud in all
its glory with the participation of those few workers who rushed to offer their irrelevant services and even voluntarily after the end of
their work.
We may have learned about the villages and towns affected by the virus and quarantined, but we will never know if and how many
Teleperformance employees were infected by Covid 19, because this modern money-making scam for bosses is literally a must with every
sacrifice to remain open even if it does not offer any socially useful and necessary service.
As for the teleworking that the company started to implement gradually and with a long delay, it is accompanied in some cases by camera
installation to control every movement of the employee and in any case with greater intensification of work, threats to move employees to
other departments due to... crisis, pressures for fewer working hours and unpaid leave, unpaid holidays.
For anyone who has never worked in such a job, this constant and invisible scrutiny of employees can be unthinkable. But it only paints a
picture of the nightmarish future reserved for us by the state and the bosses.
NO ONE WORKED ONLY IN THE TERRORISM OF THE BOSSES!
CLASS SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!
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Message: 2
Due to the pandemic we decided not to print an issue of Organise! but we are publishing one online instead. The current special issue
contains articles by AF, member federations of our International, and others we like. Read online:
http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2020/04/15/organise-pandemic-special/ Download the special issue PDF here:
http://afed.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/organise_pandemic_special_issue_spring_2020.pdf ---- Contents: ----
http://afed.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image-568x1536.png ---- http://afed.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image-1-587x1536.png
---- We’re at a very strange time in our lives. ---- In the first week of April, one third of renters in America did not pay. Here in the
UK, tenants’ unions swell at such a rate that it’s hard for them to keep up the admin as the call for rent strike saturate social media. The
imminent pandemic has seen some four thousand mutual aid collectives spring up as around the world workers have taken to strike action,
securing victories across the board.
The same bastards who laughed as they blocked a pay rise for nurses now clapping on the door step and calling them heroes. As they do that,
half a dozen nurses die alone because in 2017 the Tories ignored advice to stockpile PPE. They couldn’t see the cost/benefit.
Labour meanwhile have voted in a centrist as top dog. He’s more likely to win they say. Never mind that his politicalls spit in the face of
everything that just a few months ago they swore they believed in whole heartedly. The fantasy of radical reform in the ballot box now
tumbling down around the wishful thinkers.
The DOW Jones had it’s best day since 1933.
The streets are filling up with a revolutionary susurration, you talk to anyone on your daily allotted mooch and you’ll hear how pissed they
are, how close they are to spilling over. The boss has fucked them over, landlord’s demanding rent and four weeks ago the governments plan
was to let their nan die to protect the economy.
Now the cops want to snoop in your shopping and lock you up if they don’t think it was an essential trip. People aren’t fools and they can
read past the saccharine smiles and promises. The stench of Tory hubris oozes out of the TV screen on a nightly basis and the people are
waiting in limbo holding their breath, waiting. Not only for lock down to be over but for something to happen, a spark of change.
The fealty capitalism had built up with it’s promises of comfort and security have been washed away.The names of dead nurses betrayed by the
state will not be forgotten and the “we’re a family” bullshit from your boss even harder to buy. We’re heading into the peak of Covid-19’s
death rates and the majority of people are sat at home realising just how disposable we are to them, how little the preventable deaths of
family and friends means to them.
Left wondering, “what can I do about it?”
Now is the time for revolutionary anarchists and our fellow travellers to shoot for the brass hoop and take action.
We must stop with the dilly dally and set about work empowering the local voices. We need to be push back and get busy organising at the
grass root, setting up ad hoc tenants unions, strike assemblies and fronts for action various. It is critical that we help empower our
communities as the government continues to spew false promises and lies. Our greatest weapon right now is every day mutual aid, the more we
strengthen the bonds in our neighbourhoods the more people come to the realisation that they don’t need any parasite, blue or red, to tell
them who they are and what they should do with their lives.
We cannot sit idle, waiting for the lock down to pass and for things to return to normal. That would be a return to an insidious sickness,
the abusive worship of capitalism. No, we must organise and strike back. That begins with sharing ideas and taking inspiration from each other.
Pulled together in short notice and little rough on the edges this special edition of Organise! contains a wealth of statements, thoughts
and plans for action that I hope inspire you to get your people together and get plotting.
We are but a small drop in the ocean, please take the time to look up the organisations who made contributions and read more about what they
do and how they go about it.
After you’ve finished reading I highly suggest taking time to catch up on the ongoing coverage from the likes of Freedom News and Libcom.
You’ll also find a compilation of articles from across the Anarchist spectrum from The Anarchist Library that is well worth diving into.
Check in with your local groups, find out what they are up to and how you can get involved in organising down your ends. If you are
organising, you are winning. Reach within you, and find the means by which to take back your freedom. Your fate and that of everyone you
know, depends on it.
Together we are stronger.
To the revolution now!
Peter Ó Máille
http://afed.org.uk/organise-magazine-pandemic-special-issue-spring-2020/
------------------------------
Message: 3
Yesterday, Saturday, April 25, 2020, 75 years after the anti-fascist uprising that marked the Liberation of Italy from the fascist regime
and the Nazi occupation, we received from an anarchist comrade a squat in the proletarian-multi-ethnic metaphorical district of Aurora in
Turin. and we publish: ---- I'll start with what happened last Sunday (19/4): police stopped two children in the neighborhood, who we don't
know, under our house, under the occupation of Giulio Cesare Avenue 45. They were stopped quite violently: one was written off and thrown
into the patrol car, the other was thrown down and beaten. As they beat him and while they had already called for help, about a dozen cars
gathered under our house, patrol and security. At that moment, something happened that neither I nor any other companion or companion
expected: people came out on the balconies and started shouting at the police. So we went out on the balcony of our house and started
shouting with the loudspeaker. Within a moment, the situation worsens and people start to take to the streets, which none of us expected to
happen.
In the previous few days on social media, I had seen some expressions of dissatisfaction with the police, in Italy but mainly in Spain, in
the Basque country. However, expressions that were limited to the balconies, with actions in each case correct: whistles against the police,
slogans, etc., but so far. But here the step was taken above. In the sense that people found the courage to take to the streets. So we went
down.
After throwing the second child in a patrol car, they turned around and targeted us, the comrades who were there. We were few, only
residents of the occupation. Not to mention, there was tension. They tried to get a companion for verification, we resisted and finally
arrested four, two comrades and two comrades *. They threw them down, handcuffed them, loaded them on patrol cars and literally left chased,
as the angry people insulted them, approaching them menacingly. They had nothing else to do but light the sirens and beat her like that.
From that point on, even after they left, I expected the world to break. And yet not. People remained on the road blocking traffic. They
were the proletarians and the proletarians of this district. Undoubtedly, our role, that of us comrades, has been decisive. In a way, we
moved on the basis of a small rebellion manual, as this created the space where a series of tensions could manifest themselves. Tensions
that obviously existed before. Eventually the people stayed on the road, closing the traffic for three whole hours.
In our opinion, it is no coincidence that this happened in these places. It was something we expected in some way, which we assumed we were
working on a plan for: with hotbeds of tension scattered throughout the city, with attempts to build something in that direction.
This one here is a poor neighborhood. One of the poorest in Turin. Most of the coupons (for the purchase of food worth 300 euros) that the
government threw away as crumbs, here in Turin were given to these neighborhoods where we also live. Here, a lot of people work black or
informally. Therefore, in the lockdown condition there is a locked house without money.
It would also be interesting to do some research on the average square footage of houses in this neighborhood. In my opinion, the result
would be creepy. I say this because the psychological factor is also important. We are talking about people locked up and literally stacked
in small and unhealthy homes. To give you an idea: as recently reported in the press, a food warehouse has been looted four times in the
district in one month. This is a warehouse, managed by an organization - in collaboration with the Municipality - to provide assistance to
the needy. It is a very typical event to record the tension that prevails here.
I also think it is important to mention the strong and long-standing presence of comrades in the district. Many races have been given and in
a way we are enjoying some recognition from the other residents. Therefore, the physiognomy and characteristics of the neighborhood were
decisive for the events that unfolded.
It is a given that we are approaching the infamous "second phase", which we do not yet know exactly what it will be, but it is a given that
the problems - especially the so-called economic ones - will remain and - most likely - will escalate, causing social upheavals. At the same
time, the bans on all gatherings and the so-called social distancing measures will most likely remain in force.
So, after the aforementioned events, we discussed and decided that the time had come to send a message, to try to find ways to get back on
the road, since here they really intend to crush us for good...
So, we decided to do this the day before yesterday (23/4): organized word of mouth, without announcements and messages on the phones, since
here the police are quite paranoid with something like this... At 11 in the morning we gathered eighty and the march started from the
occupation of Giulio Cesare 45 Avenue. It was a very nice course, full of interventions and proposals, which did not concern the "right
to go shopping instead of a walk" -something that has finally become the spearhead of the entire populist right- but on the contrary, I
emphasized miserable way here managed health crisis, their criminal options, such as that put them diagnosed patients C ovid 19 in nursing
homes, causing a huge number of deaths. Issues such as those for the allowances and aid funds they announced, but so far without
implementing them, which are not enough and - anyway - it is not foreseen to be given to all those who really need them.
The neighborhood response has been really good. Personally - although I have been participating in marches here in Turin for many years - I
have never seen anything like it. At one point, while the march was in progress, the police arrived and surrounded us in the middle of a
very large boulevard. At first they were very nervous. When they surrounded us, they also chased a part of the world that - for unknown
reasons - was detached from the course. During their attack, they also brought a child. Those of us who were surrounded tried to take our
sound system, there was tension and there they managed to bring in one of the children who were with us. After that, they seemed calm and no
longer aimed at removing the sound system. They had seen the whole world on the balconies and had started down the street. From that point
on, their behavior changed. They were inexperienced, six or seven cages along with plenty of insurers. There were many more of us but - in
my opinion - they understood that the climate did not lift them. So they changed their style and calmed down. Proof that while they were
very provocative at first, they ended up telling us to leave because we can't all be together on the street. We told them we would only
leave if they left the two comrades they were holding. So it happened. This is something that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is
something - at least for me - unprecedented. It is clear that they also understand the prevailing climate. their behavior changed. They were
inexperienced, six or seven cages along with plenty of insurance. There were many more of us but - in my opinion - they understood that the
climate did not lift them. So they changed their style and calmed down. Proof that while they were very provocative at first, they ended up
telling us to leave because we can't all be together on the street. We told them we would only leave if they left the two comrades they were
holding. So it happened. This is something that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is something - at least for me - unprecedented. It is
clear that they also understand the prevailing climate. their behavior changed. They were inexperienced, six or seven cages along with
plenty of insurance. There were many more of us but - in my opinion - they understood that the climate did not lift them. So they changed
their style and calmed down. Proof that while they were very provocative at first, they ended up telling us to leave because we can't all be
together on the street. We told them we would only leave if they left the two comrades they were holding. So it happened. This is something
that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is something - at least for me - unprecedented. It is clear that they also understand the
prevailing climate. There were many more of us but - in my opinion - they understood that the climate did not lift them. So they changed
their style and calmed down. Proof that while they were very provocative at first, they ended up telling us to leave because we can't all be
together on the street. We told them we would only leave if they left the two comrades they were holding. So it happened. This is something
that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is something - at least for me - unprecedented. It is clear that they also understand the
prevailing climate. There were many more of us but - in my opinion - they understood that the climate did not lift them. So they changed
their style and calmed down. Proof that while they were very provocative at first, they ended up telling us to leave because we can't all be
together on the street. We told them we would only leave if they left the two comrades they were holding. So it happened. This is something
that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is something - at least for me - unprecedented. It is clear that they also understand the
prevailing climate. This is something that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is something - at least for me - unprecedented. It is clear
that they also understand the prevailing climate. This is something that may seem normal elsewhere. But this is something - at least for me
- unprecedented. It is clear that they also understand the prevailing climate.
These were very beautiful moments. For example, while we were surrounded by squads, residents of the neighborhood - without even knowing us
- approached us, gave us water and breakfast by throwing them over the cops' heads. It was a lot of fun.
In my opinion, the wind is blowing well, despite the fact that our comrades were not so prepared and prepared to stand up to the events that
are coming. The reactions of the police director and the politicians prove it. In the sense that after these events they kept repeating
that " all this happened exclusively by the anarchists who remained isolated since the inhabitants did not follow them" etc. But in
reality they themselves know that this is not the truth.
In conclusion, let it be said again that the wind blows well. We went through a frustrating climate that prevailed until very recently, in a
condition that seems fertile. I feel the need to say that the choices we made (the distribution of a form, the interventions in the streets
with the observance of protection measures, etc.) although initially did not seem to bear fruit, in the end proved to be correct;
* The two comrades and the two comrades were released on four-day detention. In Marifra imposed ban on residence in the city and in
Daniele, Samu and Giordana obligation Appearance or As the AT, TPE i q times a week.
More information and information about the situation in Turin and beyond:
Notes on the evolving pandemic from macerie.org authors and other comrades in Turin (March 2020).
https://prolprot.espivblogs.net/2020/03/18/simeioseis-apo-ti-voreia-italia-gia-tin-exelissomeni-pandimia/
Discussion with three anarchist comrades from Turin (April 2020).
https://taksiki-antepithesi.espivblogs.net/archives/2222
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Message: 4
We now demand: ---- - Amendments to the Shield 2.0 Act so that aid from public funds would go directly to the most needy, and not be used to
maintain high profits for companies and investors. ---- - Parking salary of 100% for everyone. Emergency benefits for everyone the
government has forgotten (unemployed, jobseekers). ---- - Paid sick leave for all patients, irrespective of employment conditions. Free
healthcare and medicines. Providing security measures to those in need. Increase spending on healthcare. Increases for healthcare workers
and improvement of their working conditions. ---- - Social solidarity with employees of key sectors! It is necessary to increase employment
instead of forcing employees to work overtime.
- Withdrawal of new legal mechanisms that make it easier for companies to deteriorate working conditions without the consent of employees.
The introduction of effective mechanisms to challenge changes in working conditions.
- Raising and improving working conditions for all low-paid employees. A decent wage for everyone!
- Special support for homeless people and people living in difficult sanitary and housing conditions (including densities). Social
solidarity with people at high risk of getting sick. Support for victims of domestic violence. Rental holidays and greater support for tenants.
- Access to benefits for people on junk contracts without the intermediary of principals. New powers for the National Labor Inspectorate,
legal assistance and facilities for employees employed under junk contracts to determine the existence of an employment relationship.
- Immediate removal of the ban on public gatherings and protests when sanitary standards are observed.
Let's go where the bosses and governments force us to work despite the risk! Let's fight for our rights! Let's protest against the
government's anti-social policy!
ZSP ZW Warsaw
warszawa@zsp.net.pl
https://zsp.net.pl/domagamy-sie-teraz-ulotka-zsp-zw-warszawa
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Message: 5
The boss class is already preparing to launch austerity measures after the pandemic crisis is over, in order to snatch back profit and to
make us, the mass of the population, the working class, pay for something they have signally failed to control, and which has killed many of
us, whether they be health workers, bus drivers or the elderly in care homes. ---- The former Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer, and now
editor of the London Evening Standard, set alarm bells ringing when he recently wrote in an article that after the lockdown, more austerity
measures were needed. We should be reminded that he was one of the architects of previous austerity measures which decimated the NHS and
caused our health and social services to groan under the pressures of the pandemic.
Michael Gove has also hinted that massive rescue packages to businesses, as well as money paid out to furloughed workers, will have to be
paid for "in due course". For his part, Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has said that the money "will need to be paid back at
some point" and of "chipping in together to right the ship".
Osborne was echoed by the German Minister for Economy, Peter Altmaier, in Germany who said "Once the crisis is over - and we hope this will
be the case in several months - we will return to austerity policy and, as soon as possible, to the balanced budget policy."
Indeed, many major companies are already inflicting austerity measures on their own workforces. The travel company Expedia, for example, is
asking its workers to voluntarily reduce their working weeks.
The austerity measures over the last few decades, pushed by governments wed to market values, has, in the UK, caused an increase of 165% in
rough sleeping, whilst life expectancy has stalled, and the number of those living below the poverty line has soared. Meanwhile average real
wages only went back to their 2008 peak at the end of 2019. All of this has now been exacerbated by the pandemic, with a prediction of an
extra 5 million unemployed by the end of the year.
Italy is now in a state of virtual bankruptcy, and other southern European states are not far off this, indicating further austerity
measures there, another "iron cage of austerity" as former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis styled it. Greece and Italy's spending on
health is well below the EU average, thanks to the austerity measures imposed on them.
We should remember that these austerity measures, both here and in the rest of the world, are actually costing many thousands of lives. Here
the availability of hospital beds went to a new record low in 2019. The same goes for France, where a much admired health system is in a
diabolical state, thanks to the cuts it has sustained over the years, not least under current President Macron.
In America, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who now portrays himself as a sane answer to Trump, was responsible for cutting $400 million
from hospitals in his State and for empowering his budget director to make further cuts in the future.
We can now see more clearly that policy makers are basing their neo-liberal policies on a profound disinterest in human lives. The
governments that imposed these measures are guilty of mass murder, as is the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund. They are
guilty, guilty, guilty.
There is little sign that they will break with these disastrous and murderous policies. But the pandemic has revealed that what is most
important is our health and the need for a caring society based on mutual aid and solidarity. Their plans for more years of austerity must
be countered and new oppositional movements must be created to resist them.
No going back! No more Austerity! Make the Rich Pay!
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/04/25/invasion-of-the-austerions
------------------------------
Message: 6
Dear Comrades ---- Australia has an annual public holiday to celebrate militarism. The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group has published
its annual Anzac Day statement: ---- https://melbacg.wordpress.com/leaflets ---- It is also available directly here: ----
https://melbacg.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/anzac-day-2020-final.pdf ---- Because of the need to maintain physical distancing during the
coronavirus pandemic, it will not be handed out in public for the time being. ---- Finally, it is below. ---- In Solidarity, ---- Ablokeimet
for MACG. ---- The US-dominated world order can only be maintained by endless war. Australia, a junior partner, has signed up to this to
maintain its domination of the South Pacific and Timor L'Este. The situation would not be improved by allying with China or any other
would-be hegemon, because that wouldn't change the system. The working class needs to unite internationally and abolish capitalism. Only
this can build the basis for a world of liberty, equality and solidarity, where war is no more and the nation state has been abolished. We
can have a new world of libertarian communism
Endless war
Gallipoli
Churchill had a bright idea in 1915 about helping Russia, Britain's World War I ally: to secure a passage through the Dardanelles and knock
the Ottoman Empire out of the war. A landing was staged at Gallipoli to advance the plan. It was a disaster, conceived without reference to
the terrain and executed without regard to casualties. The British Empire and French forces suffered over 300,000 dead and wounded before
going home with their tails between their legs. Ottoman casualties were 250,000. Overall, it was a sideshow in the great crime of World War
I, where two imperial alliances clashed over colonies, resources and markets, killing millions in the process.
Australia's Wars
Australian troops were central to Churchill's botched strike on the Ottoman Empire. This is entirely in keeping with history, since they
have been used since before Federation to strengthen the world order of the dominant imperialist power, in return for control in the South
Pacific. All six colonies on this continent sent troops to fight in the Boer War. Australian troops fought on the side of imperialism, first
British and then American, in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. In recent years, imperialist forces have massively
out-gunned their enemies, thus needing fewer Australian troops and making Australian casualties rarer. The same cannot be said, though, for
casualties amongst the subject populations. Because these wars are fought to defend a US empire that is no longer economically
self-sustaining, they are never-ending.
Anzac Day in a Plague Year
The usual Anzac Day marches are cancelled this year, as well as mass participation in ceremonies across the country. The capitalist class in
Australia has therefore been trying to find ways to mobilise popular participation in the annual wave of compulsory patriotism and
militarism. This year, they have asked everyone to stand outside their home with a candle at dawn. It's not yet possible to gauge what level
of participation this has had, but we can confidently state that it will be enthusiastically boosted in mainstream media reports.
The Future
The US-dominated world order can only be maintained by endless war. Australia, a junior partner, has signed up to this to maintain its
domination of the South Pacific and Timor L'Este. The situation would not be improved by allying with China or any other would-be hegemon,
because that wouldn't change the system. The working class needs to unite internationally and abolish capitalism. Only this can build the
basis for a world of liberty, equality and solidarity, where war is no more and the nation state has been abolished. We can have a new world
of libertarian communism.
END AUSTRALIAN MILITARISM
ABOLISH ANZAC DAY
Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group
http://www.melbacg.wordpress.com
macg1984 at yahoo dot com dot au
PO Box 5108 Brunswick North 3056
25 April 2020
ENDLESS WAR
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31857
https://awsm.nz/?p=5218
------------------------------
Message: 7
Why bring out this book published in 2018 ? The facts are stubborn and the movement of yellow vests has amply relayed in its operation this
request for emancipation of speech and acts on the one hand, by the use of procedures of direct democracy or assimilated and on the other
hand, by distrust or even distrust against representativeness. ---- Why bring out this book published in 2018 ? The facts are stubborn and
the movement of yellow vests has amply relayed in its operation this request for emancipation of speech and acts on the one hand, by the use
of procedures of direct democracy or assimilated and on the other hand, by distrust or even distrust against representativeness. ---- The
maturing of the movement led to the questions of mandate and revocability. Elected officials of all stripes were not mistaken and saw this
as a questioning of the fundamentals of their democracy.
In his work, Charles Reeve intends to produce an essay and the term has all its importance as the subject of it is moving, vast, complex and
subject to much discussion.
His study is by no means a very large historical sum over each period since this is not his project. This historiography at the service of
the dominated is highly documented and is based on a number of essential works to understand. Each chapter has a five-book repository.
The book covers the periods from the French Revolution to the present day. Charles Reeve narrates this formidable human adventure which
always opposes and opposes the self-organization of struggles and direct democracy in the face of heterogestion and representative
democracy. In this the work can help to understand the current period and the ideological confrontation between the claims of the movement
of the Yellow Vests concerning self-determination, the sovereign assemblies and the institutional responses of the followers of
representative democracy.
Two centuries of revolutions
The reader will be invited to rub shoulders with the experiences of the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, the Russian Revolution,
workers' councils in Germany, Spain in 1936, 1968, the Zapatista movement, ZAD...
The project is therefore ambitious and meritorious even if for my part, I will make certain reservations about the period of the Commune
where communalism is absent and the stakes are not always very explicit for the layman.
In addition, the place of Marx and the singularity which Marx attributes to the Communists challenges me: they and they "do not form a
distinct party opposite to the other workers parties ... have no interests which separate them from the proletariat in general[...]do not
proclaim sectarian principles on which they would like to shape the workers movement". On the other hand: "Practically, the Communists are
therefore the most resolute, most advanced section of each country, the section which animates all the others; theoretically they have the
advantage over the rest of the proletariat of a clear understanding of the conditions, the progress and the general ends of the proletarian
movement."
The ambiguity of this positioning in Marx remains a source of much controversy, especially since, the question of direct or representative
democracy was variously interpreted thereafter. This impasse also leads to partially silencing the conflict within the First International
and the end of the latter.
Why not have stressed enough that "the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves" ?
* Charles Reeve, Wild Socialism: Essay on Self-Organization and Direct Democracy in Struggles from 1789 to the Present ,, L'Échappée, 2018,
320 pages, 20 euros.
What does this appellation of wild socialism hide ? Faced with the multitude of spontaneous currents, of autonomous, emancipatory
constructions which crossed social movements, the avant-garde thuriferous did not fail and very often threw anathema on these social
constructions. All these requests to be heard, listened to, considered very often received only contempt and disregard. Faced with labeled
socialisms, allegedly notorious, not to say scientific, remained the name of savage.
Charles Reeve's work pays him ample homage and I can only recommend reading it too much to promote the emergence of the socialist
impoverishment of which the Soviets and the workers' councils were magnificent testimonies.
A book for many later reflections and above all a teaching rich in practices. To be continued... !
Dominique Sureau (UCL Angers)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Le-socialisme-sauvage
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Message: 8
Those of us in the movement for climate justice have for many years advocated for systematic and radical changes to our economy and society
to avert the threat of climate chaos. For decades, scientists have warned us about the implications of sea-level rise, droughts and
super-storms to the point that we are now finding ourselves in earth's sixth mass extinction event. While our movement against further
fossil fuel extraction, the destruction of forests and the growing economic disparities within society has grown in recent years, we are
still largely dealing with governments and corporations who remain part of the problem and are unwilling to shift. ---- 1. COVID19 - an
outpouring of solidarity and mutual aid
The last few months has seen the spread of COVID19 to all corners of our planet. A virus with no cure is killing and infecting thousands.
Communities, iwi, councils and governments are rising up to the challenge to contain the virus. We are witnessing an outpouring of love,
solidarity and mutual aid in the community and governments are taking drastic measures to protect the vulnerable in our society. The climate
movement has nothing but admiration for how we are responding collectively and decisively.
2. Not going back to ‘normality'
Governments across the globe have pledged economic stimulus packages to support workers and companies who are facing the brunt of virus. In
Aotearoa, this includes the tourism industry, which has more or less collapsed with entry restrictions; the hospitality sector; musicians
and artists; and will also have long-term serious implications on the agricultural industry.
Government intervention is a must in these difficult times. But let's be clear - the last thing we want is to return to ‘normality'.
Let's just dissect ‘normality' for a few sentences. Is it normal that the current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000
times higher than natural background rates? Is it normal that the past hundred years have seen global temperatures rise by over 1 degrees
due to human activity? Is it normal that the world's 26 richest people own as much wealth as poorest 50% together? No. no and no.
There is no going back to normality because normality is destroying our planet and our lives. So the last thing we should be doing right now
is to collectivise the losses of companies that have been destroying this planet for decades.
3. Survive the pandemic - but extinct by the end of the millennia?
Surviving this pandemic is a priority. It has to be. It is a matter of survival, particularly for poor, indigenous and marginalised
communities. But let's intervene in the economy so that we not only get through the pandemic, but so that we also get through this millennia.
4. Capitalism is not our future
Capitalism is a relatively new economic model. For thousands of years, humans have lived in relative harmony with each other and the
environment in tribal communities. Yes, there were rough times. Yes, there was war. But the presence of war, environmental degradation,
disease and inequality with our current model is unprecedented. Capitalism is the root cause of the climate crisis. The never-ending
concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a few at the expense of everyone else is bringing misery and hardship on a
massive scale. We have to move on. We have to admit that capitalism was a bad mistake, learn from our mistakes and find collective solutions.
5. Solutions are beautiful - and they are everywhere
While the current pandemic has shown us the fragility of our own existence, it has also demonstrated that human nature is ultimately caring,
kind and follows the maxim of ‘one for all, and all for one'. Values like solidarity and mutual aid - values that are so antithetical to the
capitalist paradigm - run so strongly in our communities.
While many of us are involved on a day-to-day basis defending and expanding communal spaces and ideas as solutions to the climate crisis, we
must be vocal now that we collectively seize this moment to move away and leave behind the age of capitalism, the age of plastic, the age of
human domination over nature.
https://communalism.noblogs.org/post/2020/04/24/climate-justice-a-movement-for-radical-change/
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Message: 9
On the occasion of International Peasant Rights Day on April 17 and in the context of the Covid-19 crisis, peasants and agricultural workers
from the Libertarian Communist Union say that it is great time to change the place of agriculture in our society. ---- The coronavirus
crisis shows us, once again, that States and international organizations shamelessly support agro-industry and mass distribution. Under the
pretext of health, many countries restrict or prohibit open-air markets, street or street sales, while large and medium-sized stores remain
open and act as safe and secure places. These same supermarkets where workers are put on the front line and risk their lives in the face of
contamination in order to ensure the operation of places of consumption on a large scale.
Small producers, capable of ensuring direct and local sales therefore take the full brunt of the restriction of their marketing channels and
have to face many difficulties around the world.
At the same time, while the borders are closed, industrial or semi-industrial operations complain of no longer having recourse to the
underpaid labor they exploit every year: foreign workers who disembark by bus for the bosses need and must often suffer deplorable working
conditions, humiliation and violence. The recent trial of Arles brought for modern serfdom by posted workers against eight French
agricultural companies only reveals a modest part of this sad reality. Today, to respond to this lack of manpower, the French government has
a ready-made solution: students and unemployed people are idle will go voluntarily in the fields and, if not,
South African farmer.
cc Antoine Jomand
Land grabbing
At the same time, global speculation on basic foodstuffs continues, squeezing prices, weakening small producers and thereby preventing part
of humanity from going hungry and gaining access quality food. Land grabbing by landowners or investment funds, the destruction of peasant
knowledge, the excessive introduction of digital tools in agricultural practices and the control practices they bring about, are constantly
developing and to push back the peasant population.
This productivism and this industrialization of agriculture are only the mirror of the world that capitalism offers us as a globalized
social model.
We cannot bring ourselves to endure this agricultural and social system. This crisis places us by force in front of the primordial challenge
of putting food autonomy at the center of our society. It is indeed fundamental to guarantee a quality food, in abundance and equality in
access to it. However today, the confined population, faced with fear and supply difficulties, turns to local farmers and asks them to
supply them. But the reality is cruel: in the current state of the peasantry, we will not be able to feed everyone if we do not develop
local and peasant agriculture, if we do not recover the land which evaporates each year for projects artificialisation,
cc Laurent Zeller
For alliances between dominated classes of cities and countryside
Beyond the crisis and a temporary recourse to local producers, we hope that alliances are created between the dominated classes of cities
and countryside, that quality food can be accessible to all, that the price food is just as fair to those who produce it as it is to those
who consume it. Direct sales and the involvement of non-peasants in the production and distribution of food allows fairer and more
egalitarian relationships, more autonomy for producers and more self-management in food distribution .
We are certain that there can be no structural change in the present agricultural system without the destruction of capitalism and the
relations of domination and commodification which it induces. Our agriculture must be thought at the local level, for a diversified
production according to the needs of the population nearby. We want the realization of a symbiotic and coherent agriculture, between the
workers of the earth and their environment, animal and vegetable, as well as with the other components of the society which surround this
activity.
Brazilian landless peasant.
cc Marie-Noëlle Bertrand
For a major overhaul of agricultural and food practices
We believe that the competition between peasants on the planet, engendered by neoliberalism, must be replaced by relations of mutual aid and
solidarity. An internationalism of agrarian struggles and practices !
The question of agriculture is a question which cannot be left on the fringes by progressive movements. A social, libertarian and ecological
revolution cannot be successful without a radical overhaul of agricultural and food practices.
We must reflect politically and act concretely and radically as peasant farmers on the place of agriculture in the society we want tomorrow
and bring people not from the " agricultural world " to lead it with we.
May the struggles and peasant resistances flourish and may social struggles triumph !
The Agriculture working group of the Libertarian Communist Union
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Face-a-la-crise-luttons-pour-l-autonomie-alimentaire
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