#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Update: #anarchist #information from all over the #world - 8.04.2020

Today's Topics:

   
1.  US, black rose fed: Announcing the Quarantine Livestream
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 2.  Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Virus in the Body
      Politic Issue 1 now online (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Holand, vrije bond: The Pinksterlanddagen 2020 on May 30 and
      31 have been cancelled (nl) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Poland, rozbrat.org: THE PANDEMIC DID NOT FALL FROM THE SKY.
      SUMMARY OF THE FIRST WEEKS OF NATIONAL QUARANTINE                    Jaroslaw
      Urbanski [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #303 - Syndicalism,
      Amazon: Lauwin-Planque withdrawal rights epidemic (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Czech, AFED: Greece: The insidiousness of the powerful --
      State abused coronavirus crisis to intervene against
      self-governing factory Vio.Me (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Czech, AFED: Solidarity activities are also directed to
      people who are in quarantine or suffer from a lack of cultural
      stimuli. [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
8.  enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx: EZLN closes Caracoles Due to
      Coronavirus and Calls on People Not to Abandon Current Struggles
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
9.  IN THE FACE OF THE CAPITALIST PANDEMIC, SOLIDARITY 
     AMONG THE PEOPLES Situation analysis. by anarkismo.net groups
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1


Are you bored sitting at home? Feel like you've watched everything on every streaming service twice over? ---- Instead of binging the same
series for the tenth time, join Black Rose/Rosa Negra as we launch our quarantine livestream. Over the coming weeks we'll be hosting a
series of live panel discussions on a variety of topics relevant to building popular power in precarious times. ---- To kick things off,
we've planned two big events. ---- First, on Friday, April 10th, we'll be hosting a live panel discussion with members of several tenants
unions across the United States. Panelists will explore how Covid-19 has impacted their organizing efforts, what it means for so many
renters to be out of work, and how we might leverage the crisis to build tenant power.
Next, on Saturday, April 11th we'll be livestreaming a historic panel discussion on the current global health crisis, featuring delegates
representing half a dozen anarchist-communist organizations around the world.

Panelists include members of Solidaridad (Chile), Acción Socialista Libertaria (Argentina), Black Rose Anarchist Federation (U.S.), Zabalaza
Anarchist Communist Front (South Africa), Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland), Anarchist Federation (Britain), and Union Communiste
Libertaire (France).

All of our livestream events will take place via Zoom webinar. Space is limited, so please register below. If you'd like to tune in, but
missed your chance to register, don't worry! Each one of our livestream events will simultaneously be broadcast via our YouTube channel,
which you can subscribe to here: http://tiny.cc/BRRNyoutube

If you'd like to attend Tenant Power in the Time of COVID via Zoom, please register here: http://tiny.cc/tenantpowercovid

If you'd like to attend the International Discussion on COVID-19 via Zoom, please register here: http://tiny.cc/intdiscussion

Otherwise, please tune in via our YouTube livestream!

We hope you'll join us for this and other exciting upcoming online events!

We are launching a series of livestream events kicking off with a panel on tenant organizers and an international panel of anarchist
organizations.

BLACKROSEFED.ORG
Announcing the Quarantine Livestream!

https://blackrosefed.org/livestream

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Message: 2



Issue 1 of our magazine Virus in the Body Politic can be read by following this link: VITBP 1
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/VITBP-Issue-No01-Web.pdf ---- At 54 pages, it contains articles on: ----
Beyond XR ---- Capitalism, Land and Climate Change ---- The Yellow Vests: Where Now?
Anarchy, Punks and Sweatshops ---- Organising to Win ---- Dossier 1919: a Year of Struggle
Anarchist Communism and the Struggle Against Oppression
What is Fully Automated Luxury Communism?
The Socialism of Intellectuals: Jan Waclaw Machajski
Book Reviews
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/04/04/virus-in-the-body-politic-issue-1-now-online/

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Message: 3



As the preparation group of the PL we can not - nor do we want to, organize an event in the current circumstances. As most people know, all
events in the Netherlands have been cancelled until June 1st. ---- The government issued prohibition on events is not the reason we decided
to make this choice. On the contrary, it seems that all measure the state is taking are too little too late. In the past years, health care
has seen constant cuts in its funding. Now, the government seems to simply accept that many people will die in this crisis. The focus lies
on keeping up appearances, maintaining public order and keeping the economy going. ---- These are not the policies scientists are
recommending to successfully combat this crisis.
Even without a ban on events we would choose to not organize a festival right now. Instead, we want to have the space to show solidarity
with people in ways that are necessary at this moment. It is important to follow the suggested guidelines to protect elderly people and
immunodeficient people. Not because the state tells us to, but because this advice follows from extensive scientific research on the
development of this virus. And mostly, because we want to show solidarity to the people who need it the most.

We encourage everyone to join local initiatives to help out neighbors, fight mass firings, protest the bio industry, support rent strikes,
oppose the inhumane circumstances in refugee camps, rise against fascism and the surveillance state and most of all, show solidarity with
each other as anarchists.

The Pinksterlanddagen will not be postponed to a later date this year. Instead, we encourage everyone to go to other anarchist gatherings
when it is safe to do so. In 2021 there will be a PL again.

For now, we are considering to facilitate a publication (in the form of e.g. a zine) and organize an online event during the last weekend of
May. Do you want to contribute? Send us an email at pl (at) puscii (dot) nl

Website Pinksterlanddagen

https://www.vrijebond.org/pinksterlanddagen-2020-afgelast/

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Message: 4


We are starting the fourth week of national quarantine, counting from the introduction of the state of epidemic threat in Poland on March
13, 2020. Some local governments have already decided a few days earlier about certain actions and restrictions regarding the COVID-19
threat. So we had time to look at the situation. Now it would be wise to answer the question, what exactly is going on? ---- Keywords
coronavirus pandemic COVID19 ---- The answer is not easy. We were literally flooded with conflicting information on how the epidemic is
going to go, what does it connect with, how long will it last? When will the vaccine be? Should we wear masks or not? Wear gloves in stores
or not? This cacophony of information about coronavirus proves that no one knows exactly what's going on.

SCALE
It is not even known what the scale of the problem is. Today, on Saturday, April 4, we have, according to official statistics, 1.2 million
people infected with the virus worldwide and over 60 thousand. fatalities. I am giving the exact day, because the situation is changing very
dynamically and before this text will be published, there will be other statistics. About 6,000 die every day. people and this number is
still growing. But we still don't know if it's basically a lot or a little. Some say, for example, that 25,000 die of hunger every day.
people, which gives us over 9 million a year. But since this problem does not really affect Europe and North America, it has been and is
being ignored. However, when the current epidemic hit the "Western world," there is turmoil and lament.

First of all, we must point out that the published data in the COVID-19 case is probably the tip of the iceberg. Information on morbidity
and mortality applies only to laboratory and clinically confirmed cases. How many cases are there, we will only find out 2-3 years after the
epidemic. Special statistical models for this type of calculations will be constructed, tests will be carried out to be able to overestimate
the data and determine the actual extent of the epidemic. This was the case in the previous case of the "swine flu" pandemic, which broke
out in 2009 and continued in 2010. As a result, about 18.5 thousand died. people. These were also laboratory confirmed cases. When later
mortality statistics were thoroughly analyzed, it turned out that there were many more victims - even 10 to 25 times. It is estimated that
"swine flu" killed 200, maybe even over 500 thousand people. These findings differ depending on the methodological assumptions.

If the current statistics on COVID-19 were multiplied by 10 or 25, the situation would look much more dramatic than it would appear from
current statistics. Of course, we cannot exclude that today we are more able to diagnose the disease and determine its extent of impact.
Personally, I doubt it. I don't think that our analytical tools have dramatically improved since the previous pandemic. And if so, it would
mean that if we multiplied current statistics by only 10, we would have over 600,000 in the world. deaths, but it could well be much more -
even over a million. And this from January 10 this year, when it began to closely monitor the situation and systematically collect
statistical data. The conclusion would be that there can be many victims of COVID-19 - much more than in the case of "swine flu".

EPIDEMIC DOES NOT CHOOSE?
Therefore, we cannot underestimate the problem. If so, then maybe the Polish government is right, introducing draconian restrictions on the
so-called national quarantine? Maybe it is as Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that nobody could have predicted it? The epidemic hit
us all of a sudden, insidiously?

I will not further develop the well-known argument that the Polish government was not prepared for an outbreak; that up to the first days of
March he had underestimated the threat and had not learned from what was happening in China; he was deaf to the warnings of the
International Health Organization. It was probably thought that the problem would get stuck somewhere in the East or South of the globe, it
would not reach Europe, and even if we could deal with the epidemic. Meanwhile, the situation looks quite different. We see how the
healthcare system is collapsing in other countries. There are neither material nor personnel reserves. The deficiencies come out especially
in the field of epidemiology. Prime Minister Morawiecki boasts that we have the appropriate law, but we do not have enough epidemiologists,
hospitals and infectious departments to be properly equipped. So basic things. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that there are
legislative tools to protect power (under the slogan of defending social order and security), but there are no basic measures to protect
ordinary people from the increasingly dangerous plague.

In such conditions, the poorest sections of society will pay the highest price for the government's (and previous) inaction. It is not true
that the epidemic does not choose its victims. Statistically speaking, apart from the fact that coronavirus is the most dangerous in
relation to the oldest and the sick, it will probably most affect the poorest groups. In the context of both the whole world and Poland.
People from the poorest classes will pay the highest price in both social and economic terms. The means and actions used by the government
flatten the so-called the incidence curve, but at the same time cause the epidemic to extend over time. And this means that different types
of costs will pile up and affect unequally different social groups.

 From a social point of view, the most disadvantaged people often have to rely on each other for barter exchange. Meanwhile, long-term
isolation breaks these social bonds, which can pose serious threats. People who are lonely are separated, which is extremely risky for them
in the long run. In addition, the price we pay for the fact that many sick people are waiting for medical procedures that cannot be carried
out now is not taken into account, as public health service is busy fighting a pandemic. And for possibly private, faster settlement of the
case (now or after the pandemic), due to lack of financial resources, they cannot count. From an economic point of view, however, we are
primarily losing earnings, and the poorest groups do not have much financial reserves. In fact, a significant part of the population has no
savings. In the long run, therefore, it may turn out that living more will cost society's impoverishment than the current epidemic. There is
no doubt that the economic condition significantly affects the health condition of the society and the mortality rate.

MODERN SOCIETY, MEDIEVAL ISOLATION
Therefore, it is difficult to predict the pandemic balance, we do not know what we should really put on the cost side. The government,
however, works completely in the dark, on an ad hoc basis, literally overnight, there are no effective anti-plague scenarios prepared.
Therefore, the only thing that comes to his mind is to isolate everyone from each other, regardless of the cost. Putting all estimates aside
for the future. Of course, if people do not meet each other, it will not be a virus infection, but at the same time, unfortunately, does not
mean that the cost of the epidemic will be - in a broader perspective - lower. And it doesn't even mean that we'll save more lives.

The government operates in complete ignorance. This in turn prompts him to authoritarian solutions. In fact, it turns out that since the
Middle Ages the ways in which the authorities reacted to the plague have not changed. Administrative coercion and administratively managed
isolation are today the basic strategies for every government - from China, through India and Poland, to the United States.

Here we come to the next issue. A myth of an advanced society, "high technology and biotechnology society," "innovative society," "knowledge
society" falls. It turns out that we are dealing rather with a "society of ignorance." New technologies - which fascinate us so - are
primarily used in social control, in increasing and imposing work efficiency, and in providing us with entertainment - usually paid. In
response to epidemics, we are still condemned to medieval methods based on restrictions and naked coercion. If anyone here expected more
nuanced strategies of action, he had to be highly disappointed. Popular narratives of technological progress collide with an epidemic threat
today, which we cannot respond to within our democratic rules of operation. We have been introduced into a state of emergency, in a system
of various restrictions, perhaps a material shortage. How little was needed to expose the myth of the capitalist economy's efficiency, its
innovation and importance in maintaining democratic rules of the game. As it turns out, the free market cannot save us from coronavirus. It
is not a cure for everything - as we have been tried to convince for years. As it turns out, the free market cannot save us from
coronavirus. It is not a cure for everything - as we have been tried to convince for years. As it turns out, the free market cannot save us
from coronavirus. It is not a cure for everything - as we have been tried to convince for years.

Secondly, the epidemic has also exposed the myth of the high advancement of our society in the sense that behind all these technological
innovations that we praise every day, there is living work. In order for the goods ordered by us in this simple and at the same time
fascinating way for many people to materialize at the doorstep of our door, the work of tens, hundreds of thousands of people is needed: in
warehouses, distribution centers, and transport. In other words, in logistics. Today, we see a crowd of employees in companies such as
Amazon, exposing themselves to virus infection. There are also people working every day in production, in difficult conditions, shoulder to
shoulder, exposing themselves to danger. This is not a virtual reality, it is a living population working for it, that the digital order
turns into a real, tangible product in our hands. We find that, however, behind the value of the goods purchased by us lies a specific job -
burdened with today, and also a special risk. Work often the least paid, as in warehouses or in the food industry.

FARMS AND VIRUSES
Another thing we need to realize is that the epidemic has not fallen from the sky. Anyway, the Polish Episcopate immediately cut itself off
from the epidemic, stating clearly in its statement that this is not a divine admission. But this is also not the work of "blind forces of
nature". Rather, it is the effect of how we coexist with our ecological environment, how we influence it, how we use it and - unfortunately
- we overuse it.

It is no accident that the first patient infected with COVID-19-inducing coronavirus worked in the meat market in Wuhan. In turn, the
patient "zero" in the previous pandemic "swine flu" was a boy of several years, Edgar Hernandez, living in one of the Mexican villages
surrounded by large pig farms. After the introduction of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) in 1994, Mexico became a convenient
investment site for American meat moguls such as Smithfield. These companies were under pressure from the growing sanitary and
epidemiological as well as ecological, as well as environmental, requirements in the United States. Production was allocated and
transformations took place in the breeding system in Mexico.

The meat industry has loudly protested against the use of the name "swine flu" to describe the 2009-2010 pandemic. The official name used by
the World Health Organization is different. This does not change the situation that, along with the increase in global production and
consumption of meat - or more broadly animal products - the epidemic threat increases. It grows due to the concentration of livestock
production and the creation of large industrial farms. Why?

On the one hand, large industrial farms are ideal for breeding especially virulent strains of viruses. Every one of them attacks people.
Anyway, the whole chain of interdependence works here, in which also wild animals, including migratory birds, like ducks, but also wild
herds take part. Anyway, wild animals are also to some extent subject to economic breeding restrictions: feeding, hunting, selection, i.e.
certain forms of regulation. On the other hand, these large farms are adjacent to huge urban centers, clusters of people who - as urban
residents, but often also as rural residents - do not have direct physical contact with farm animals. They are completely separated from
them. Products of animal origin go to their hands often already processed and through the market. Like the one in Chinese Wuhan, where the
current COVID-19 pandemic probably erupted. Because people rarely have direct contact with animals, they do not acquire natural immunity.
Among the strains of viruses there are those that cause death among the non-immune population.

Let us add that over 10 million inhabitants live in Wuhan, and around 19 million in the entire agglomeration. It is also a population - both
in Wuhan and other world cities - very busy. Which is also a sign of the times and modern capitalist economy forcing continuous migration,
mainly for work.

At the same time, we can make analogies to perhaps the largest pandemic in human history in America. After the arrival of Europeans in
America, and with them farm animals with which the natives had not been in contact for many centuries, epidemics broke out, which killed 90%
of the indigenous population of the New World. Without this biological weapon, usually unconsciously used, colonization of America by "white
people" could never have happened, or at least at this pace.

EXPLOITATION AND CONSUMPTION
Today's COVID-19 as well as the earlier "swine flu", but also pandemics that affect animals, such as "bird flu" or "African swine fever" -
of which we hear primarily as an economic problem - are manifestations of the same ecological crisis. Until now, we thought that the most
serious problem for people is global warming, while - without denying the importance of the climate issue - today our relationships with the
animal world, our debilitating forms of fauna exploitation, may be crucial. Needless to say, one and basically the simplest solution to this
situation is a radical limitation and ultimately giving up the consumption of animal products.

In summary, it must be said that coronavirus did not actually fall from the sky. Nor is it the work of the blind forces of nature. It is the
result of capitalist exploitation and the associated lifestyle, understood as the volume and forms of consumption. If we do not stop
capitalist exploitation, we do not change current forms of consumption, we will live in danger. The problem will not go away by itself.

https://www.rozbrat.org/publicystyka/kontrola-spoeczna/4712-pandemia-nie-spadla-z-nieba-podsumowanie-pierwszych-tygodni-narodowej-kwarantanny

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Message: 5



The atmosphere is at loggerheads on the North site. Unions call for "general right of withdrawal", and absenteeism already exceeds 50%. But
the management sanctions to retain employees in the warehouses. Its goal: to profit as long as possible from the windfall effect represented
by the coronavirus for online sales. ---- The directors of the Amazon site in Lauwin-Planque (North) probably see themselves as essential
captains who must keep a cool head and lead the company through the coronavirus storm, despite the fact that the machine is growing seized
up, and that half of the employees have already defected ... The half who remain ? We will both rock them with reassuring tales and tease
them because they are not careful.Damn " barrier gestures" ! Safety distances name by name ! If they get sick? Well it will be their
fault... The only thing that matters to them and them, which will earn them a medal from Jeff Bezos, will have been to have processed the
maximum number of orders while there was still time, and to have brought in the most money before the virus put everyone on their side.

At the start of the pandemic in February, Amazon's SUD and CGT unions alerted site management by asking them what action they planned to
take if the virus reached France. At the time, they laughed at us: "no risk" ...

It was not until the school closings were announced on March 12 that we had an extraordinary meeting. But always the same answers. Move
along, there's nothing to see. On March 14, Édouard Philippe announces the closure of all non-essential businesses... The windfall of the
century for mail-order sales ! Amazon licks its lips. A few days later we will learn that the multinational wants to hire 100,000 people to
meet demand.

On the site, there are no masks, and so little hydroalcoholic gel that you have to go begging in the office of the head of sector !
© Aimée Thirion, 2017
Management distributes "unjustified absence"
On March 16, the Amazon Lauwin-Planque intersyndicale meets with SUD, CGT, CFDT and FO. Even the USID and the CAT, who made fun of us a few
days ago, are there. It must be said that they are now overwhelmed by the concern that is mounting on all sides among employees. From this
meeting came a very moderate address to management, calling for protective measures, but not yet the drastic reduction in activity. The same
evening, Macron announced a semi-containment, except for the essential sectors ... Without blinking, Amazon will consider that it is an
essential company, which will save France !

So the same evening, we send an email to point out a situation of "serious and imminent danger (DGI)" so that employees can exercise their
right of withdrawal. We must immediately register it in the "special DGI register", a compulsory book in all companies, which the management
must keep available to the CSE at all times. We will have to wait two days to get it, because the management "cannot find it" ...

According to management, "essential" products (hygienic for example) would represent 10% to 20% of the Amazon catalog.
© Aimée Thirion, 2017
After that, colleagues put themselves one after the other in the right of withdrawal, because there is almost no gel, no systematic cleaning
of work tools, no masks, and that the respect of "1 meter" is almost impossible with 2,500 workers on site. But the management refuses to
recognize the right of withdrawal and distributes "unjustified absence" ... Now, SUD-Amazon will attack the industrial tribunal to have the
DGI recognized and to cancel all the sanctions taken by the management.

Ask your boss for gel
The management then organizes a dummy extraordinary meeting for the DGI, where it explains the measures it is putting in place ... but it's
far too late ! These are the moderate measures that we asked for a week earlier, and they are inapplicable: there are no masks, and so
little hydroalcoholic gel that you have to go begging in the office of the head of sector !

The trade unionists are already at the next stage: we go around the site every day to encourage colleagues not to come by all means (right
of withdrawal, sick leave, etc.). And it works: we are at 50% absenteeism, up to 65% in certain services. But even so, it is impossible to
enforce the distance of 1 meter.

Read also: "Amazon: a colleague held 5 years ? We nicknamed him "the old"" , Alternative libertaire, May 2019.
For us, the only solution to avoid the worst is to close at least a fortnight. At a recent meeting, management admitted that the activity
should be limited to the shipment of "essential" products (hygienic for example), which would represent 10% to 20% of Amazon's catalog. We
jumped at the opportunity: then that means that at least 80% of the staff must be laid off ! Embarrassed management response: oh yes but no,
not at all, it doesn't work like that, people have to come to work anyway...

Their ambition therefore remains to continue to send toys, books, DVDs, cables, mirrorballs as long as they can... Such hypocrisy is
disgusting, and it will leave its mark, even among employees the least demanding.

Jérôme (UCL Douai)

BOOM OF ORDERS, DESERTION OF EMPLOYEES
On March 19, the CGT Amazon made public in a tract its report of a telephone meeting with Ronan Bolé, president of Amazon France Logistique.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Amazon-Epidemie-de-droits-de-retrait-a-Lauwin-Planque

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Message: 6



While quarantine is being imposed on Greek society due to the pandemic of coronavirus, local authorities continue to pursue their agenda and
attack the country's social movement. The state abused the situation and attacked the self-governing factory Vio.Me in Thessaloniki. On
Monday, March 30, early in the morning, two heavy-armored troops invaded the site, along with employees from the state power company, and
cut off the factory from the power supply. ---- The Vio.Me factory has been managed by the workers themselves since 2013, and from the
beginning it has focused on organic production at the lowest possible price to relieve the crisis-torn Greek society. As one of the
brightest examples of economic direct democracy today, the company faces attacks from all possible chambers, including the state-forming
pseudo-leftists from SYRIZA, but has always survived thanks to strong bottom-up support.

Today, the right-wing New Democracy has found the ideal conditions and can do whatever it likes, as people are quarantined, and when someone
wants to leave home they must have their papers filled in, otherwise they risk sanctions. It is not the first time that the government has
turned an equally slim strategy into action. Already on March 15, just two days after the quarantine was declared, police detained refugees
staying at Polytechnic in the heart of the rebellious Exarchia district of Athens. In a few days, March 19, the cops gathered eleven Kurdish
and Turkish left-wing political refugees.

Everything suggests that the state is stolen by the fate of thousands of potentially seriously ill people, and the pandemic intends to use
it to further intensify the militarization of Greek cities to deal with social movements that are now paralyzed due to quarantine. Now we
need to express solidarity and shout this crap all over the world.

The statement of the employees of the self-governing enterprise states:

"Vampires of power hunting in the dark have found the" right "opportunity to cut off the self-governing Vio.Me factory from 6:30 on 30 March
2020. They had a crane ready and supported by two SWAT units, which meant they were acting on political orders, as they did in the 1950s
when the government executed warriors in the dark to prevent people from responding. We also condemn the conduct of "PPC" colleagues (Public
Power Corporation) who collaborated as executors.

We demand an immediate restoration of energy supplies.

This is happening at a time when Vio.Me is undergoing a full legalization process at the Ministry of Labor.

This happens despite knowing that we are producing personal and household hygiene products that are now of paramount importance to society.

In solidarity,

Working from Vio.Me "

Source: https://freedomnews.org.uk/greek-authorities-use-covid-19-lockdown-to-crack-down-on-self-managed-vio-me-factory/

https://www.afed.cz/text/7151/recko-zakernost-mocnych

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Message: 7


The current situation has meant that some of us have to spend our time at home, either because of quarantine, ordering to work in
home-office mode or because they respect the need for minimal personal contact with their surroundings, including family and friends. Even
at this time, some of us have to go to work without the employer providing them with sufficient protective equipment. Instead, we often have
to do even more to get some more profits for the owners until the employee's illness is over. ---- It is amazing that we can observe an
incredible amount of selfless activities aimed at shortening others for a long time, bringing them to other ideas, helping them to educate,
entertain and have cultural impulses that are so lacking at this time. Moreover, it is great that it all goes beyond the logic of money.

Non-commercial subcultures are still alive, even though they have to abandon collective cultural events, leave clubs, pubs, social centers,
etc. Thanks to the Internet, it is possible to rehearse bands that come from rehearsals or clubs without a live audience. DJs continue to
play records and people can watch and listen to them through their mobile phones and computers.

A recent report on the A2 Alarm website reports on experiences from abroad, where musicians play in courtyards or balconies or people
project movies on the facades of houses. In such cases, no one respects the copyright that underlies the capitalist commodification of
culture. Culture is for people, not for corporate profits.

One way to please others may be to say some of your favorite books. Such an idea is realized, for example, by activists from the café Three
Tails, who, under the heading of the Fifth Corona, spoke the book Communism (not only) for children by Neklid publishing house or Stories of
Old Antonio published by AF Publishing House. Similarly, Radio Tulen prepared reading of the book Outcast by Ursula Le Guin. If you want to
read, the latter publishes in pdf and reader formats several years of anarchist revue Existence .

You can embark on various film archives (eg Anarchist Film Archive ) as well as zinc or book archives. Or you can join the online movie
centers at Salé. Various online courses are also available. Find more inspiration and resources with a little quest.

But you don't have to be just passive recipients. Almost everyone can participate in 'leisure time solidarity' in many ways. One example is
the help with translations. And if you don't know what to translate, ask. For example, our federation published a few days ago that it was
looking for a translator from German who would take an interesting book on the 2nd June Movement .

And if you're as a thorn because you haven't been meeting for a long time, that your team has been paralyzed by the current state of
affairs, or if you want to better coordinate your mutual assistance group, documents, etc. - see Digital infrastructure for solidarity actions .

Let's be creative, let's be solidarity, let's build a world in which we want to live without the dictate of money and unnatural authorities.

Related Links:
A3: Social Quarantine
FNB continues to help the most vulnerable
Drapes against the logic of money
Digital infrastructure for solidarity action
On the wave of solidarity. Will we help the Palestinians as soon as possible?

https://www.afed.cz/text/7152/volnocasova-solidarita

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Message: 8



Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation -- Mexico -- March 16, 2020
To the people of Mexico:
To the peoples of the world:
To the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Governing Council:
To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion:
Sisters, brothers, hermanoas:
Compañeros, compañeras, compañeroas:
We write to inform you that:
Given the serious and scientifically proven risk to human life presented by COVID-19 or "Coronavirus";

Given the frivolous irresponsibility and lack of seriousness shown by the bad governments and the political class in its entirety who are
using this serious humanitarian problem to attack each other instead of taking the necessary measures to confront a life-threatening virus
which endangers all regardless of nationality, gender, race, language, religion, political affiliation, social class, or history;

Given the lack of accurate and timely information about the spread and severity of the virus and the lack of a coherent plan to confront it,
and;

Given that our commitment as Zapatistas is to struggle for life;

We have decided the following:

First: We declare a red alert in all of our communities, towns, barrios, and Zapatista organizational bodies.

Second: To the Juntas de Buen Gobierno[Good Government Councils]and the Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities in Rebellion, we recommend the
full and immediate closure of the Caracoles and Centers of Resistance and Rebellion.

Third: To the bases of support and the entire Zapatista organizational structure, we recommend adherence to the series of recommendations
and special hygiene measures which will be distributed in all Zapatista communities, towns, and barrios.

Fourth: Given the total absence of the bad governments, we strongly urge everyone[todos, todas, todoas]in Mexico and around the world to
follow the necessary scientifically-based sanitary measures that will allow us to survive this pandemic.

Fifth: We call on you to sustain the struggle against femicides and violence against women, to continue the struggle in defense of territory
and Mother Earth, to maintain the struggle for the disappeared, murdered, and imprisoned, and to hold high the flag of the struggle for
humanity.

Sixth: 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.

That's all.

 From the mountains of Southeastern Mexico,
For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation,

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.
Mexico, March of 2020.

https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2020/03/17/ezln-closes-caracoles-due-to-coronavirus-and-calls-on-people-not-to-abandon-current-struggles/

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Message: 9



2020 begins with some modifications at the regional level but above all with the continuation of the immense mobilization of the Chilean
people, that popular revolt that has been going on for well over 100 days, has changed the social and political situation in that country ,
but also from the region. It opens a new scenario and it is inscribed, as we said in previous analyzes, in the wave of mobilizations that
the Latin American peoples have been deploying (Haiti, Ecuador and in other countries with less intensity). They are times of peoples in the
street, they are times of struggle. ---- At the same time, an economic crisis begins in the world that is deepening with the coronavirus and
its impact on international markets. The oil issue and its effects on the peripheral economies of Latin America can also impact the cost of
living and the legitimacy of the ultra-liberal technocracy that continues as part of this new phase in our continent.
But also, the coronavirus pandemic brings a series of changes at this
stage that it is difficult and premature to estimate its draft. However, its impact forces us to speak of a new situation, a global stage
that is changing with a policy of controlling large populations and increasing repressive measures, where also evident the damage caused by
more than three decades of neoliberalism with the dismantling of public health and social security.
We will divide this analysis of the situation into two sections: a first one dealing with the mobilization in Chile and the political and
social changes in the continent and a second with a primary analysis about the new situation unleashed after the expansion of Covid-19.

CHILE: THE POPULAR REVOLUTION THAT OPENS A NEW STAGE

"(...) a Constituent Assembly is the means used by the
privileged classes , when a dictatorship is not possible, either to prevent a revolution,
or, when a revolution has already broken out, to stop their progress with the excuse of
legalize it, and withdraw many of the possible achievements that the people have obtained during
the insurrectionary period "(E. Malatesta, 1930)
The Chilean people have been on the street for six months of social revolt. Throughout the length and
breadth of the country they have developed protests since October 18, the day when
Santiago collapsed. The drop that spilled the glass was the increase in the subway passage, and it
was the student movement that lit the wick of rebellion. The pinwheels
were jumped by thousands of young people before the faces of helplessness of the police.
The student protest quickly gained important sympathies within the town,
to the point that other sectors joined it, and the stations
In the subway, the protest took to the streets.
The repression of the state was immediate: decree of the State of Siege for
Santiago and the metropolitan region. But the rebellion quickly spread and in the
following days the whole country was up and the State of Siege and curfew would be extended
to the entire Chilean geography.
Millions of people on the streets throughout these six months -as
evidenced on March 8 in Santiago-, and also thousands of barricades,
territorial assemblies, social movements taking to the streets, unions in
struggle -especially the Port Union- and a wide development of activities and
everyday fighting measures. Among them, the occupation of Plaza Italia, now converted
into Plaza Dignidad.
The Chilean people said enough to thirty years of neoliberalism, inheritance of the
dictatorship. Thus fear was broken and people took to the streets in a massive way for
EVERYTHING, not just because of a sectorial demand, as we saw important
student, feminist, ecological struggles , etc., in previous years.
Thus, this crisis of the Chilean neoliberal experiment can be characterized as
the response of the popular sectors to a radicalization of the levels of
precariousness of life or a crisis of reproduction of life exercised from the
dominant sectors, and that for decades has had concrete consequences on
our bodies and territories. High levels of indebtedness, loss of
social rights, overexploitation, job flexibility, no
social security , dispossession of water and land, the rise of femicides, all they did was
make this pressure cooker explode for decades of abuse and injustice. The response
of the ruling class was immediate, both on the repressive and on the
institutional political level. Immediately after the revolt began, the State deepened its
authoritarian character disguised as democracy. The aberrant figures are already known
that state terrorism has left in the region: according to data from the National Institute of
Human Rights as of February 2020, there would be 3,765 people injured, 10,365 people
detained, about 2,500 prisoners and political prisoners, 411 people with
eye injury , 34 people with ocular outbreak or loss of vision, 1,541
reported human rights violations, of which 192 correspond to political-
sexual violence and a quarantine of dead people. Complementing the foregoing in this
couple of weeks since March, there are already three people murdered by
state agents , who also continue to mutilate, torture and imprison.
The government and the right-wing parties sought a way out that would not only
save the neoliberal model but also the capitalist system itself in Chile and devised a
way out through constitutional reform. The Chilean bourgeoisie was preparing to "sacrifice" part
of the 1990 Constitution inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship. But they are only
willing to make up the Constitution in a Constituent Assembly.
Unfortunately, this proposal launched by and from above was picked up by
various left-wing organizations, which began to play in the field that the
system wanted and needed.
Thus, the signing of the agreement "for peace and the new constitution" on the 15th of
November marks a unitary position of the parties of order (conservatives,
liberals and progressives, from the UDI to the Broad Front) in pursuit of the maintenance
of the rule of law, the institutionality inherited from the dictatorship and the warning
of a possible departure from the military to the streets but this time with
guaranteed impunity , in the face of the massive protest and the intensification of
direct action in the framework of a call for a general strike in early March.
The fact that until today the mobilizations continue despite the
usual opportunists, who have once again sat at the table of the
bourgeoisie to agree on our lives, marks an important element of this
revolt and provides guidelines to keep in mind for what comes in the
following months . Despite the attempts by the dominant bloc to reduce
social conflict and calls by a large part of the left to channel
discontent in the constitutional process started from above, the depth of the
social crisis expressed in high degrees of precariousness of the population and
social discontent as a response to this, it will hardly be controlled or
diminished by any legislative package or the injection of resources in some
priority area (health, education, welfare). In our opinion, one of the great themes
that support mobilization and sympathy towards it, is the lack of
social rights , added to the plunder of water and the destruction of ecosystems.
These are times of creativity and audacity, the conflict will remain open and
the actions that bring them together, that will unite positions and that
aim to create strong peoples will surely deepen; the streets will continue to be full of people, a large part of the
oppressed and the oppressed have already learned that mobilization and organization are
key to the recovery of life, it is time to generate organizational alternatives
that aim to strengthen popular leadership, organization and direct action
and not the contrary, constitutional shortcuts that will oxygenate domination in the
Chilean region.
We already know that what at first seemed to start spontaneously,
where no organization could designate itself as the spokesperson for the movement, has
become a fertile period for the politicization of territories, for the
emergence of new organizations and various expressions. of struggle for the various
problems of social life (special attention deserves the emergence of
territorial assemblies everywhere ), where self-defense,
direct action and mobilization have also been legitimized as a tool of struggle.
For all this we say that we only see the "constituent process" as a
restitution process, which only comes to give an institutional solution to the
conflict, which, incidentally, will operate according to the interests of the ruling class.
This process comes to reconstitute the power of the State and its institutions
totally discredited after the outbreak of the revolt, therefore, this process is more a
necessity of the bourgeoisie than of the oppressed and oppressed.
Therefore, betting on this constitutional process in the heat of this
social revolt is nothing more than handing over the destiny of this movement to those who
oppress us . A new constitution will not change power relations in the
Chilean region , nor is it a guarantee of social rights and a decent life.
The question we ask ourselves is: do we strengthen an institutional process by
above or do we put all our strength into building popular power from
below? Logically, we opt for the latter, always. The dispute is not in the field
of institutions but in what the people are capable of developing in order to bring down the
capitalist system and build a new society.
The stage is open and the popular revolts and mobilizations that have
shaken much of Latin America (in addition to Chile, also in Ecuador, Haiti
and Colombia) will surely continue shortly.
The only thing that has no future is to continue betting, as it is part of the
left, on the game within the system. There, only bourgeois democracy is claimed
and to capitalism and repressive laws are voted, as happened in Chile by a good part
of that left that tries to transform something with those tools that only serve
to perpetuate an order of privileges.
The only way out is to strengthen the people and their organizations, open channels to
popular struggles and build a Front of Oppressed Classes that unites these expressions
and postulates the breakdown of this unjust system.
IN THE FACE OF THE CAPITALIST PANDEMIC, SOLIDARITY AMONG THE PEOPLES
We are living in a moment that seems to constitute a historical hinge, a new
strain of a flu virus, SARS-CoV-2, that shocks the entire world, closing
borders, hitting the global economy hard and causing the death of thousands
of people. It seems important to us, from Organized Anarchism, to elaborate -
albeit preliminary - some analyzes and lines of action on the effects that
this crisis is having and may have in the social-political field.
The emergence and spread of the virus reveals, once again, the
resounding failure of the capitalist system, showing its most cruel, inhuman
and dangerous facets for the oppressed classes. Firstly, it highlights that
technological advances in the field of health have not been able to prevent or counteract this
phenomenon, realizing that the billionaire social resources that administer the
Pharmaceutical and health companies are not focused on improving the quality of life of
the inhabitants and preventing diseases, but on maximizing their profits, here there
is only capitalist common sense, but it has its effects on the health crisis
that is taking place. living in the whole world.
This pandemic is not a divine punishment or a "test to humanity", it is an
expression of the ecological-civilizing crisis that plagues our planet. The
maintenance of capitalist profits generates that entire ecosystems are
razed, optimization generates the elimination of "non-productive" genomes, and the
commodification of bodies and territories makes the possibility of a deadly virus
eliminate a percentage of the world population is a risk assumed in pursuit
of the maintenance of the world economy.
We are at a breaking point, where humanity struggles in the
continuity of the system of capitalist domination or life.
On the other hand, there is no less the fact that the coronavirus has
devastating effects on the most affected population in recent years: that which is over
60 years old. This both in terms of health, from the lack of vaccines, the increase
in medications, the abandonment of an important part of treatments, as well as
in the pension system, where the sector has historically been more
punished, having as an immediate reference the unpopular
Macri pension reform of 2017, and its modification during the current Government, for the Argentine case,
its complete privatization in Chile following the North American model, cuts
to the Unified Health System (SUS) in Brazil , etc. The popular camp should, in this
sense, seek that some of the most recent reforms be judged as criminals,
thus resounding the elimination of the Ministry of Health by the previous Argentine government
as a crime against public health, which had the immediate consequence of the
outbreak measles, a disease that had become extinct in Latin America. TO
clearly, the older adult population is the "surplus" population of a
collapsing social system . With all the aforementioned, it is clear that life and
health are a business, rather than a right.
In the Latin American region, the most precarious and
impoverished working class will undoubtedly be the main victim of the situation generated by
the pandemic. Thus, people who do not have sewage and drinking
water will be beaten , being unable to attend to many of the necessary hygienic measures
, families crowded into pieces and tenants cannot attend
preventive isolation, the tens of thousands of people in street situations cannot
They have a home to shelter in. Independent workers who
earn their daily living cannot attend calls to confinement or the
deprived population that suffers from overcrowding, cruel treatment and
planned lack of protection.
In keeping with this idea, history has shown us that on more than one occasion
, diseases and control over our bodies have been used
by different States as a weapon based on their imperialist interests. In addition
to the well-known experiments of Nazism, in Latin America we had
emblematic cases such as the inoculation of syphilis in the Guatemalan population by
of the US Army. Such aberrations are only possible in a
capitalist social order , and that makes more than one doubt about the particular origin of this
virus, within one of the imperialist powers that has been contesting the
world order . Various theories have circulated that pay in this regard and expose the
cruelty of the system and its imperial policies.
The answer from above. States of Exception
Along with the health crisis we are experiencing today, it is worth highlighting the
mechanisms that the different States have used to contain the pandemic. For
Organized Anarchism this is a key element in the political projections that
we can assume in the medium and long term. Panic, fear and bewilderment have
strengthened the totalitarian discourse of the health crisis. In this sense, the
most restrictive and repressive measures are positioned at the state level as the most effective
to contain a virus that spreads to thousands of people every day, developing a
warlike, patriotic discourse that ignores social classes.
Likewise, countries with the capacity to centralize the economy and
severely restrict the liberties of their population, such as the case of China, reinforce their
model of statist management of capital, in the face of neoliberalism that makes water in
Europe, the United States and Latin America, where the impossibility of paralyzing the
Economy makes any measure to contain the virus harmless. Consequently,
we are witnessing a dispute within the ruling class, where the
neoliberal and centralist management model fight in a duel to the death to decide who will lead a
new phase in the history of the capitalist system.
The oppressed classes must be alert, the Permanent State of Exception
is reinforced and the States of the world indiscriminately take the military to the streets,
granting them power to manage, plan and act in this crisis. A clear example
of this is the current curfew established in the Chilean region, which runs from
10 pm to 5 am, with the sole function of controlling the streets, repressing and returning to
Having a presence in towns and avenues where since the social revolt of
October 18 , they had no greater operational capacity. As of today, more than 300
detainees have been detained for the curfew, which are certainly not from the upper neighborhood but
from the popular neighborhoods. Something similar occurs in Argentina where detained people
exceed 3,200 and also in other countries such as Peru and Paraguay. The military in the
streets contribute nothing to the control of the virus, it is only the guarantee of containment for an
oppressed class tired of the government and its genocidal policies.
Social consequences and more repression
The social and economic impact of the rapid spread of the coronavirus is
being in evidence. On the one hand, we know that the brakes of the world economy will be
paid by those below. Already in countries where the virus is more widespread there have
been layoffs and wage cuts, and not to mention the devastating effects
it is having on the unemployed and precarious sectors. In Uruguay, in the
first days, of more than 21 thousand shipments to unemployment insurance, more than 3,500 were layoffs,
that is to say 15%. At the time of writing, shipments to unemployment insurance totaled more than
60 thousand. In Argentina, to the fragility
caused by the public debt, and the intention of the government to pay it at the expense of the people, the damage generated by this will be
added
pandemic, which expresses the weakness of an economic order that has almost 50% of
the population in poverty, and a very high rate of
precarious workers , who are being affected by isolation as
their sources of survival are restricted. In the same way, the private sector
shows the balance of layoffs that the crisis is going to leave to save the
bosses' profits, as is evident in the attempt to dismiss 1500
workers of the multinational Techint in Argentina.
While the virus spreads, the ruling class is treated in private clinics
with the best technology available at a very high price, and on the other hand, our class
it must be treated in hospitals lacking medical supplies, personnel and resources. While
our class fearfully approaches the crowded transportation system, the
ruling class will be quarantining their summer homes on the most
exclusive beaches . While economic uncertainty surrounds the homes of our class, the
bourgeoisie monopolizes food and hygiene products. Even in Chile,
entire communities do not have water for hygiene as in Petorca, while in those
same territories, large landowners and multinationals accumulate water for their
extractivist projects in the production and marketing of avocado. It should be noted in the case
of Chile, that the Covid-19 exams are paid, costing $ 30
approximately, being the only country in Latin America that charges the exam, which, of
course, only the wealthy sectors access.
On the other hand, the restriction of political rights and
more aggressive social control mechanisms are advancing, gaining social consensus as the only way to guarantee
that the pandemic is stopped. All this within the framework of a supposed democracy, which
easily modulates towards states of exception, imitating the control techniques of
the much-questioned dictatorship of the Chinese CP.
Let's look at the Argentine case as an example: with the decree of quarantine and
compulsory social isolation that Alberto Fernández sanctioned on March 19,
The repressive nature of the pandemic containment strategy crystallizes.
All repressive forces, including the army, were announced to take to the streets.
Configuring a virtual -for now, since it can be established quickly- State
of siege, leaving the population at the mercy of the daily violence exercised by the
repressive apparatus with the excuse of slowing down the advance of the virus. We know that these
social control devices will be filled with resources and experience, and that it will be necessary to see if they are
disabled once the pandemic ends. We believe that unless
other solidarity forms are put in place and from below to contain the spread of the virus,
control and repression will serve as a mechanism to "contain" also the possible
discontent that the effects of this crisis generate and that will persist once it is
over. Meanwhile, the deployment of the repressive forces throughout the territory
is leaving the bulk of the organizations of the popular sectors defenseless.
In fact, there has already been an advance with the repression unleashed by Rodríguez
Larreta against the men and women, which resulted in the death of the street vendor
Beatriz Mechato, and the subsequent arrest of Juan Grabois and 12 other
CTEP militants . In this sense, Alberto Fernández decided to express the decision of the quarantine
general with a public conference together not only with Rodríguez Larreta, but also
with Governor Morales, responsible for the imprisonment of Milagros Sala. An act
loaded with symbolism that seeks to show the unity of the political class when it comes to
defending and reaffirming state authority in these circumstances, leaving aside
any differences in human or political rights.
Berni's fascist speech to the Buenos Aires Police is also not coincidental, with nothing to
envy to the questioned management of the repressive Bullrich.
In Argentina, in these first days of quarantine, thousands of
arrests have been added for circulating, demonstrating the willingness of the provincial governments
and national to fill the police stations and prisons that already operate with high levels
of overcrowding, running high risks of contagion, as was made visible by the
riots that were carried out by the inmates of the Bower prison in Córdoba. The
attack on human rights is deepened, of which
Kirchnerism boasts in its rhetoric . On this we must emphasize that the Gendarmerie patrolling the streets
is the same one that recently assassinated Maldonado, that the Prefecture that carries out the
controls is the same that shot Rafael Nahuel in the back, and that the
provincial police are responsible for thousands of Easy trigger cases across
the country.
Women workers on the front line.
Whether they continue to work or are at home, women are at the forefront
of the fight against the pandemic, but they are also the first victims of the
current health crisis .
The crisis highlights the essential role of certain sectors of activities (health,
education, preschool, care occupations, agro-food and distribution,
cleaning, social work, transport and delivery, etc.). However, they are women,
most of the time poorly paid and precarious, who mainly work in
most of these sectors.
With this crisis, the population rediscovers
socially useful professions , those that cannot be dispensed with and that respond to the
essential needs of all.
In all these sectors, women workers face a double penalty. They
must not only continue working with the risk of contaminating themselves and their family
due to lack of adequate protection and clear hygiene instructions. Also, they have
problems with the management of the care of their own sons and daughters due to
atypical hours and even more when they are in a single-parent family situation.
The unequal distribution of tasks will not be solved by the fact of
confinement. Remember that women guarantee most of the
household chores and childcare, even when they are in a relationship. In
the case where the parents are teleworking, they
Imagine easily how tasks can be divided up in couples where they are already
attended by women the rest of the time! They are the mothers who accompany their
sons and daughters and do the homework follow-up and add to that the treatment of
household chores that do not leave much time for telework for those who can
claim it.
Generalized confinement represents a supplementary risk for those who experience
violence within the couple. Specialized associations, which
accompany women victims of violence, have sounded the alarm since the announcement
of the confinement. The absence of a moment of rest represented by the
Periods of working hours outside the victims and / or the aggressors, the
common life in a continuous way, will mathematically increase the number of acts of
violence (that are psychological, physical or sexual). In a context of
total isolation , in which the key word is not to go out (and especially without their children), without the
possibility of hiding to call the associations, hotlines,
surveillance and intervention of the neighbors they are crucial. More than ever, the
expulsion of the violent spouse must be the rule to protect women but
also their sons and daughters, because today, for example in France, they are witnesses but
also co-victims of sexist violence.
If confinement is necessary to stop the spread of the epidemic,
it can not be done without specific measures for women victims of
patriarchal violence . Everywhere, let us be vigilant and solidarity so that this
period of confinement is not unbearable for women.
We can say it from now on: in no way will the workers pay for this
crisis. Not for a massive return of women home, nor for the weakening of
the labor code. Our collective struggles must live up to the
current circumstances!
Brazil: political crisis on the verge of exploding amid the pandemic
In Brazil the Bolsonaro government continues with its ultra-liberal preaching,
bourgeois, irrational and unscientific in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bolsonaro, increasingly isolated, opposes social quarantine and faces
resistance within his support base. When the coronavirus crisis began, the
government flirted with coup attempts, mobilizing its reactionary and
military bases in defense of its ultraliberal and authoritarian policies against the corrupt
Brazilian congress. Also, he mentioned the State of Siege to shake his
military bases in the midst of the pandemic and receive political support. It continues with this model of
making politics that uses the mobilization of its extreme-right social base to achieve
its reactionary objectives and that, in the midst of the pandemic, reproduces theories
irrational and conspiracies that the virus is just a media hysteria.
The Brazilian economy, already before the pandemic, came with low growth and
the increase in the cost of living. The total inability of Brazilian neoliberalism to
mitigate the effects of the crisis, develop better conditions for the people to
oppose the neoliberal project of Paulo Guedes and Bolsonaro in the medium term, since the
official speech of the government and the support of the media promised that With the cuts
and looting of rights of those below, the Brazilian economy would grow
substantially. Even with the wear of the neoliberal solution, the government of
Bolsonaro was unable to propose solutions outside of his economic record, and continues to
support workers to pay for the pandemic. Worse, Bolsonaro and his
most fanatical supporters, together with sectors of the bourgeoisie, began a campaign
against social isolation, with a demagogic speech in defense of jobs and
the economy. Although they do not develop any economic alternative for those
below and the precarious sectors, the executive continues with the tension of opposing the
medical resolutions and proposing the end of the quarantine.
The "Brazil cannot stop" campaign was promoted by the Bolsonaro family
and the extreme-right by the massive dissemination of "fakenews" in the software of
communication and follows the logic that those below pay with their lives, with hunger
or with their wages the crisis. In the media, the idea of impeachment begins to appear
in the newspapers and the ruling class and the bourgeoisie quietly discuss options
to update the framework of the system of domination, obviously at a loss for the
working class. Highlighting the crisis of the federative pact and the dispute between
sectors of the right, with politicians from Brazilian states making a defense
of isolation in opposition to Bolsonaro's position with electoral objectives.
In the opposition camp of the working class, the oil strike and the
Women's protests on March 8 started the 2020 struggles, but
the coronavirus situation has canceled the protests for memory and justice in the
case of Marielle Franco and for the education budget, which could strengthen
a wave of social protests against neoliberal adjustment and its brutal cuts.
Also, almost every day, the cacerolazos against the government and the
dissatisfaction of those and those below have produced a victory with the increase in
economic support for unemployed sectors. Also,
popular pressures in defense of the Unified Health System have increased , made even more precarious by Bolsonaro and
which now has to receive budgets for the health emergency.
The intense precariousness of employment, with those at the bottom working without
labor rights is a catastrophe where the pandemic brings the threat of hunger for those
below. Women are the most affected by unemployment, accounting for more than
half of unemployment. And in the favelas / towns and occupations the risks to the
health of workers are greater, but actions of mutual support and
solidarity among the below grow , as a popular alternative for an anti-people government. Direct popular actions also begin with looting in
markets and the
Bolsonaro government faces its final destiny with the advance of the crisis and the pandemic.
Europe: current center of the pandemic
On the other hand, we see how in Europe, where
health systems have also been attacked with neoliberal measures and where the
necessary precautions have not been taken prior to the arrival of Covid-19, the pandemic causes havoc. More than
10 thousand people dead in Italy and more than 5700 in Spain, with increasing numbers.
Population control systems have been applied on a large scale: 15 million
people confined in northern Italy, France as well, and with a very
restricted circulation , make it clear that States are taking advantage of the situation to put into
practice mechanisms for managing populations in crisis situations, militarizing
social life, repression and other measures that remind us of past times,
but with an improvement of the mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the largest movement of
troops is developing smoothly in Europe in a military maneuver and training on the borders with Russia, where
20,000 American soldiers and 10,000 of the other NATO countries participate.
There seems to be no risk of contagion there. It is the design of an extremely hyper-controlled
and militarized world with the aim of containing social protests and revolts
so that capital can have its party. The spread of this pandemic serves as an excuse
to test its "mechanisms."
To complete this characterization, at a cultural level
effects are also manifested , with the reinforcement of individualism, the danger of the "other" and the culture of
"save yourself who can", added that it seeks to make each "citizen" a potential
vigilante. In this context, the tendency of the population, which is in
economic capacity, to the gathering of food and supplies is not surprising .
In short, the virus is evidencing the class struggle:
overwhelmed public health , neglected social services, precarious workers maintaining
basic services while management positions are protected at home,
temporary employment regulation files in charge of public funds in millionaire companies,
lack of diagnostic tests and means of self-protection for the popular classes
and repression of the most precarious to stay home, or police abuses by all
the repressive forces, endorsed by the Government of the Generalitat in the case of
Catalonia and by the Spanish State in general. Meanwhile, lax hand with the leaks
to second residences, also with companies that are not of first necessity and
compel the assistance of the workers, putting them at risk, upper class
and politics with private sanitary measures at their disposal, use of hotels as
hospitals, among other measures that lead us to affirm that the expropriation of
infrastructures is an obvious need and a human and class responsibility.
State of emergencies in the Middle East
The "State of emergency" is the first method used for the states of the
Middle East, which has become an open stage of war for many
years. Policies, which are shaped according to the needs of states and
capitalists rather than the needs of people, continue in the
Covid-19 process.
Deaths in the midst of the epidemic are not important to states. Taking
action for the future with regard to the laid off population is a waste of
time and money for the states. The main problem of states and companies
Today is what the economic effects of the epidemic will be and how to avoid a
social rebellion. The precautions and measures taken are entirely based on the
latter: travel prohibitions, prohibition of all kinds of activities,
organization prohibitions, curfews, checkpoints.
It is obvious that with authoritarian and militaristic measures, the first sectors to
which the control mechanisms are directed will be those excluded or that will be
excluded, such as immigrants, women, the unemployed, the homeless.
People living in different geographies in the Middle East bear witness to
a process in which states are becoming more militarized and more authoritarian.
Health systems after more than 30 years of neoliberalism
Public health has been the target of repeated attacks and neoliberal reforms,
cutting its resources and dismantling it. Take for example Chile, laboratory
of neoliberalism. There, public health has been dismantled since the
Pinochet dictatorship and its commodification was deepened during the transitional pact. The
transfer of clinics to municipalities, the concession of hospitals, the
transfer (looting) of resources to private clinics, budget cuts, the
elimination of community health, the breakdown of the link between neighborhoods and their
health centers, has generated the current health crisis, where we know that
Neither the conditions nor the means exist to face this crisis. Even without reaching
the worst scenario, medical and security supplies are scarce, as well as
personal, there is not a wide coverage of beds or respirators, therefore the
oppressed classes will be severely hit by the pandemic as they cannot pay for
adequate treatment and care in the face of the virus.
In much of Europe, the health privatization of the last 10 years, which,
ironically, was also the result of another crisis (the one in 2008, in case we had forgotten)
that has left a disastrous panorama in the field of health. A multitude of
hospital centers with closed floors, fewer staff and worse working conditions,
among others. It shows that the current privatization model is not only a mistake and
a scam but it exposes us and makes us even more vulnerable as a society.
And now what?, the State diverts sick people to private centers for
lack of resources in public centers and the bills will be paid later by
everyone. Meanwhile, they applaud the professionals, whom they have been condemning
with the cuts since 2008, both the Spanish State and the Generalitat de
Catalunya, and in other countries of the continent and the world.
All this is not accidental, by the way, but is part of the planning of the
ruling class, where the commodification of social rights has
snatched away until we are treated for a disease, what's more, knowing if you
are infected depends on the monetary capacity of each one. This necro-policy of
mass murder against the impoverished sectors is the true face of the system of
domination.
The effects of an ecocidal and genocidal system
Capitalism is a system of domination that despises human life. We
are living it these days but it has been this way throughout history: wars,
genocides, repressive policies, hunger, are some of those beastly policies
that the system carries out with its representatives and institutions in charge of "
dirty work . "
To this we must add the policy of looting of resources and devastation of the
planet. The imperial policy that has been developing since the conquest of
America by Europe and later, when that same continent devastated Africa
and Asia mainly, monopolizing the wealth for the development of
monopoly capitalism and its guarantor States.
Today we are in an increasingly concentrated stage of capital and technified
in terms of looting. Today, 2,153 thousand millionaires possess more wealth than 4600
million human beings, that is, 60% of humanity. The
migrations to Europe of millions of people who suffer the most atrocious are constant
vexations on the way to the coast, to later suffer others at the crossing of the Mediterranean,
if they manage to cross it. Or living in true concentration camps - which is what
they have converted to refugee camps - in Turkey, while this
dictatorial state uses migrants as a weapon of pressure on Europe to
finance Europe with tens of thousands million euros. Thus, in this way,
Erdogan's Turkey has fresh funds to fight the Kurdish people, make their
population live under a constant State of Siege and invade Syria and now Libya.
With wars, invasions or simply with investments,
multinational capital has been devastating the planet. Ecosystems are not respected as is
neither water nor forest reserves exist. It suffices to point out what happened in the
Amazon with the "fire season" developed by the Brazilian rural bourgeoisie
with the full support of Bolsonaro and other countries in the region. Capitalism not only kills
people, it kills nature, and logically with it it makes human life more difficult. The
only capitalism knows sow terror and death. It is the opposite of life.
Sketching the stage that is opening on a planetary scale
In previous materials we had been analyzing a change in the stage,
especially as a result of the important mobilizations that were taking place in Latin America
and other parts of the world, a change that is still open.
Now, without a doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic allows the
capitalist system a major restructuring to further technify its dominance, looting and
control over entire peoples. Population controls that are being carried
out, preventing movements and controlling the displacement of people, the
militarization of entire countries, the police state that is developing in general, the
applied technologies in the field of security now deployed with the argument of
"control the pandemic", the proliferation of racist discourses and see the "other" no longer only
as an "enemy" but as a "vector of contagion", the massive closure of borders,
the closing of markets and the consolidation by means of the facts of large blocks or
economic zones, at the same time that the States are demanding a new sovereignty
that they were willing to hand over until recently to transnational or
multilateral organizations, changes in forms of work implanting tele-work or
home work on a large scale, the loss of social rights and
even greater impoverishment of large layers of the world population, the possibility for capitalists
and their organizations such as the IMF and others to apply their proposals reforms to
continue looting the rights of those below, are just some of the axes
that seem to be outlined in the design of the next stage. A hyper-vigilant society to be plundered.
This pandemic comes as a ring to the finger of the ruling classes of each
country and the world to take the measures they deem necessary to contain the
ongoing social protests in various parts of the planet. Under the pretext of the
pandemic, they take the Army and all the police forces to the streets to repress the people,
when in reality what is needed are public health measures and the resources put
into it, not in repression.
But a stage is also opening where it is very likely that the
popular struggles will gain new vigor: the mobilizations will not stop in Chile, France,
Colombia or in different parts of the world. The towns are in the streets, the pandemic
will have its maximum peak and then it will gradually return to a certain
"normality", which will not be identical to the previous situation, but where people will
return to work, they will resume normal activities and the towns
will win the streets and fields again.
The Resistance ...
Expressions of resistance are already occurring. In Europe there have been
cacerolazos in the context of the quarantine, and strikes in sectors where the
continuity of work is imposed at the cost of the health of the workers,
including large factories and with powerful unions. In Argentina they have already
expressed those who work in the commercial sector, demanding the closure of
shopping malls, as well as in other work areas,
health protection measures are discussed . In Uruguay, the construction union achieved a
special license agreement , which at first the Ministry of Economy had failed.
Similarly, the Uruguayan government maintains an increase in rates and VAT from
April 1 and the measures for those sectors that do not have social security
are null at the moment. An infinite number of popular cooking pots are being cooked in the neighborhoods and also from unions.
We believe that for what is coming it is important to take into account some lines
of action, such as the fight against layoffs, suspensions and reductions in wages,
claiming economic subsidies for precarious and unemployed sectors, as well as
guaranteeing access to food and basic necessities, defending the
public health system by demanding a greater budget for the sector as well as
improvements in the working conditions of its workers, guaranteeing
that the private health system is at the service of popular needs, without
profit, and appealing to solidarity between those below to contain the spread
of the virus avoiding the advance of social control. The same can be said about security.
social, which is a public service and is not in the hands of private companies such as the AFP in
Chile or AFAP in Uruguay, employers' contributions must even be increased so that
the owners of capital pay the cost of this crisis.
The pandemic and its effects do not arise from nature but from a certain
system that makes these crises possible at the cost of the health and well-being of the majority
of the world population, it is urgent to resist this situation from a
revolutionary perspective , articulating the struggles of today with the society we dream of.
It is clear, in this extremely serious situation, that the peoples continue to
fight to the best of their ability: saucepans, popular pots, ways of
solidarity from below that have developed, all this draws on the best
traditions of struggle and organization of those below. We are convinced that
solidarity and mutual support are our best weapons as a class, and organized
territorially, they allow us to build for the future. Health brigades are organized
everywhere, where they are in charge of supplying the elderly and
people with functional diversity; It is important to generate and support these support networks
-like the popular pots-, as well as other efforts that allow those
below to face this crisis in the best way, including support networks for
women and girls and boys who suffer patriarchal violence, a problem that
increases with confinement.
So too do protests for life, small rural communities and
the Chilean coast block the road with barricades to prevent the upper class from reaching
their estates and summer houses. The workers, for their part,
paralyze their production by holding demonstrations demanding the closure of premises and
the suspension of work activities in both Europe and Latin America. All
this will must be transformed into a GENERAL STRIKE FOR LIFE, which is
effective and without contemplation.
This pandemic and its effects open an important possibility for the peoples:
On the one hand, it allows us to relentlessly criticize the neoliberal model and its measures
applied since the 1970s, to pose more firmly the defense of
public health and social security and all social rights and services, reinforcing the
struggles in their defense and against their privatization or precariousness, as well as in
relation to work and living conditions. At the same time, it allows a fierce criticism of
the capitalist system: criticism of private property, criticism of the State,
security policies , the desire for profit, etc.
And above all, it allows us to pose, or at least sketch, the new
social relationships we want, the new life. Partially or globally, it allows
May we reaffirm our project of a socialist and
libertarian society more and more .
To limit social damage
The pandemic will have been the trigger for the crash and the long-anticipated financial crisis
by all serious economists. After the 2008 crisis,
states had taken huge sums from public funds to save
operators and private banks. Once again the casino economy is going to fail, and it will be
in proportions undoubtedly worse than in 2008.
With its courtship of layoffs and underemployment, this crisis will hit in the first place
the popular classes that are going to face an increase in unemployment of
Part time, from precarious jobs, with a reduction in income.
To restrict damage, it is necessary on the one hand to strengthen
social protection , to cushion the shock, and on the other hand to make the capital pay. This means:
- the revocation of the unemployment insurance reform and not only its suspension
- the revocation of the destruction of pensions, and not only its suspension
- the extension of the terms to abort, from a period equal to the period of
confinement , to decongest hospitals and anticipate the
foreseeable consequences of confinement
- free transportation to reduce crowds and vectors of
contagion
- the prohibition of dismissals during the period of confinement, in
maintenance of the wages of private contractors,
temporary workers , temporary contracts and undercover employees (
independent contractor uberizados in particular)
- the requisition of empty rooms, of Airbnb rents and the like, from
hotel rooms, to protect
homeless families, migrants who survive in
wild camps or locked up in detention centers, people without papers who are sometimes
piled up in conditions of sanitary confinement. in unhealthy houses or squats.
- for low incomes, a moratorium on rents and energy,
water, telephone and Internet bills , the ban on evictions. And a basic
insertion income for those living in poverty.
It is also imperative to develop social control of the entire health network,
with full provision and financing of care institutions, guarantees and
protection of rights for male and female workers. health, commerce,
sanitary industry , logistics and transportation, public services and rural population. It is
essential to promote a culture of life and solidarity, of self-protection and
collective care that allows us to overcome the current feeling of panic and "save yourself"
who can "is the key to move forward in overcoming the current situation.
To stop the epidemic, urgent measures are also needed, perhaps
much more punctual than those indicated, which include:
1. Measures-barrier that are not measures" of class ", contrary to what is happening today.
Confinement cannot depend on the social hierarchy. Therefore,
all non-essential companies and services must be closed, with the integral maintenance
of income for technically unemployed workers, including those
with a precarious status (temporary employees, subcontracted, self-employed,
etc.). Let the crisis be paid by the wealthy! Stop all economic activity that is not
Basic, that companies provide all the means to guarantee teleworking if necessary
, and that no worker is left without salary during
confinement. In the case of large companies, these wages cannot come from
public funds. And what if the big fortunes and companies are recorded with more
taxes?
2. Work should be continued only in sectors vital to medical care,
supply and information for the population. We especially think
of the health system , the agri-food sector, transport, food and
health distribution , audiovisual media and the Internet to spread the slogans. The
Workers in these sectors are on the front line: saving the
population falls on their shoulders. You must support their work by starting to
ensure the care of their sons and daughters, with preventive and protective measures.
3. At the same time, both for reasons of efficiency and to prevent the indecent
"crown profits" of the beneficiaries of the crisis,
private companies in these sectors must be requisitioned and integrated into the public service, putting their
operations under control. of the working class that is best able to
reorganize production chains and thus protect itself from the virus.
4. Further, it is the set of production and services to be reorganized
urgently. Industry and services must be entirely turned towards the
production of sanitary and protective material, and the guarantee of
livelihoods for all. If the state and the bosses don't want it, then it's up
to the working class to impose it.
5.This crisis shows us that healthcare can never remain in private hands.
Social control of private and public hospitals and nursing homes
without compensation with public money.
6. That the Centers for Internment of Emigrants that have been closed during this
crisis in Europe, evidenced by their racist farce, are never reopened.
Governments have been caught off guard by the situation. We can
Impose things on them, but only if the union and social movement roll up their sleeves and try to
face the problems without hesitation. It is therefore crucial that all
conscious and determined workers appropriate the union tool
to group their colleagues on solidarity and combative bases.
Society has to change profoundly
We say clearly: these emergency measures are fragmentary. They respond
to the need to stop the epidemic and to restrict social damage. But they
will not prevent the economic crisis that will take place, because this is the result of
capitalism and the market economy. The virus will have been only the trigger.
Faced with this unprecedented situation, capitalism demonstrated its failure, but the State
will seek to maintain by all means the current economic system, including taking
control over all economic activities, conducting
the organization of requisition production in a direct manner or other mechanisms.
For governments, it will be the only alternative to the chaos to which "each
one on his side" would lead. For us and us, libertarian anarchists and communists in
America and Europe, the emergency measures that we propose as the responsibilities
that the working class will impose, take and exercise today draw a whole
other alternative. We have another project to defend: a project that is based on
mutual aid and equality, with a strict and planned organization of the production
and distribution of essential goods but under the control of
the workers.
We think that it is time to completely rethink the functioning of
society, in order to satisfy the needs of all. We can find
ways and mechanisms of care and protection of nature to guarantee life.
We can end this system, putting all the means of production and
distribution into the hands of the working class, replacing the
market economy with a socialized and self-managed economy, and the State with a
self-managed federalist system .
It is imperative to advance in the midst of this crisis on this path, weaving
solidarity ties below, strengthening popular organizations and building in
fact a true Front of Oppressed Classes that can be the articulator of
the struggles of today and those of tomorrow in the future. of a socialist, libertarian,
federalist society with direct democracy.
MAY THE CRISIS FIND US BREAKING OUR
CHAINS!

TODAY MORE THAN EVER, SOLIDARITY BETWEEN THE
WORKING CLASS AND THE PEOPLES OF THE WHOLE WORLD!
FOR SOCIALISM AND FREEDOM!
UP THOSE WHO FIGHT!

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)
Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU)
Rosario Anarchist Federation - FAR (Argentina)
Córdoba Anarchist Organization - OAC (Argentina)
Santiago Anarchist Federation - FAS (Chile)
Libertarian Group Vía Libre (Colombia)
Union Communiste Libertaire (France)
Embat - Anarchist Organization (Catalonia)
Libertarian Alternative / Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici - AL / fdca (Italy)
Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet - DAF (Turkey)
Organization Socialiste Libertaire - OSL (Switzerland)

https://federacionanarquistaderosario.blogspot.com/2020/04/frente-la-pandemia-capitalista.html

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