#Worldwide #Information #Blogger #LucSchrijvers: #Past1 #Update: #anarchist #information from all over the #world - 1.05.2020

Today's Topics:

   

1.  Acción Socialista Libertaria - CAPITALISM IS THE PANDEMIC:
      ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE (ca) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

2.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #304 - Useless
      projects: In the West, politicize the ecological struggle (fr,
      it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

3.  Britain, solfed: Free market failings in the coronavirus
      crisis (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

4.  Greece, liberta salonica: Quarantine calendars #4 [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

5.  Poland, ozzip: Time for an employee anti-crisis shield -
      trade unions are mobilizing to fight together during the crisis
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

6.  Britaib, AFED, organise magazine: International Workers
      Memorial Day | Calander (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

7.  FIRST OF MAY: 12:00 PM CACEROLADA AND PANCARTADA -
      SOLIDARIDAD OBRERA AGAINST THE CAPITAL DISASTER 

     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

8.  zabalaza.net - COVID-19 and the working class struggle:
      Interview with South African anarchist-communist
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1


In moments where the COVID-19 pandemic affects various peoples and territories and where the consequences of capitalism are exacerbated;
today more than ever, we consider it an urgent task to unite and organize ourselves to denounce this system that has historically made our
lives precarious, where in times of quarantine we have witnessed, with even more clarity, the increase in violence against women and queer
folks, the shameful health conditions to which we have access as a working class, the modification of our work and our working conditions in
favor of the business owners, the inhumane conditions in which people deprived of freedom live and housing conditions where social distance
is not possible.

However, our objective is not only to denounce what was previously stated, but also to reaffirm the fact that another non-capitalist world
is possible, where values such as solidarity and mutual aid are central pillars, and where our freedom is not compromised.

This campaign is being carried out by a group of organizations that for some time have been working together and articulating ourselves as
the "Coordinadora de las Américas/Americas Coordinator."

As Solidaridad (Chile), Acción Socialista Libertaria (Argentina) and Black Rose Anarchist Federation (United States), we are making a call
to come closer, unite, and strengthen popular organizations to confront, from an internationalist perspective, this world crisis.

Capitalism is the pandemic: another world is possible!

https://www.facebook.com/AccionSocialistaLibertaria/photos/a.223048481446530/959270137824357

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Message: 2


On February 29, a regional demonstration took place in Nantes against various unnecessary and harmful development projects. It brought
together 2,000 demonstrators and around twenty collectives, including the UCL group from Loire-Atlantique. Critical feedback on an
encouraging event. ---- At the end of 2019, at the initiative of the Nantes collective against the Saint-Père-en-Retz surf park [1], the
proposal was made to bring together a large number of wrestling collectives during the climate marches. ---- The stated objective is to
initiate politicization, by going beyond vague calls for institutional action, and by tackling the very concrete question of the struggles
against imposed arrangements and concretizations, avatars of capitalism and its logics of profit.
Collectives against water reservoirs, marinas or highway ramps answer the call, as do other green associations like Alternatiba, Extinction
rebellion, or NDDL-Pursue together. All these little people meet during preparatory meetings between December and February. Ultimately, this
will lead to a rather successful demonstration, despite the difficult weather conditions, with carnival floats as well as a very noticeable
blocking of a Nantes bridge by the teams of Extinction rebellion.

Capitalism singled out
The link of all these collectives is a strong opposition to lucrative logics, with anticapitalism, named or not, as a backdrop. This is
articulated with a challenge from the local authorities, who support these projects by taking advantage of the lack of information of the
populations on the ecological challenges of preserving agricultural land and ecosystems.

This is to highlight the indifference of project leaders and investors vis-à-vis the environment, ecology in general, and their short-term
logic of return on investment. The coordination of the collectives made it possible to set up a control network, drawing inspiration from
the anti-airport support collectives that existed before the abandonment of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL) project.

This addition of forces makes it possible to envisage actions of greater scope, and obviously a more important resonance for anticapitalism
in ecological struggles.

Self-management lagging behind
Despite all the benefits of this coordination, the unequal involvement of collectives and individuals resulted in less consensual decisions
and more or less followed-up mobilizations. In question a form of over-activism of certain militants, taking more the direction of the
coordination, leaving aside those and those having less time to devote to it - recurring problem in the social movements.

Another pitfall: the choice not to organize this gathering during a climate march has ultimately weakened the political intention. It is
necessary to integrate these markets with our own slogans and proposals, a fortiori when space is monopolized by the "  hummingbirds  " of
zero waste and other individual gestures, well incapable of stopping the capitalist machine whose l exploitation of resources and workers is
the first driver.

UCL Nantes

Validate

[1] Project for a wave pool 10 km from the ocean, on agricultural land. Read Alternative libertaire, September 2019.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Projets-inutiles-Dans-l-Ouest-politiser-la-lutte-ecologiste

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Message: 3


Whatever happened to free market solutions? Since the dark days of Thatcherism, we have been told that the state is inefficient and things
should be left to the free market. Yet here we are in the middle of the coronavirus crisis and free market solutions are nowhere to be seen.
Instead, it has been the state that has been forced to step in and prevent the economy and society from collapsing amid the chaos of an out
of control pandemic. ---- This is not to say that the free market zealots have disappeared, far from it. Fearful of anything that might
smack of state control, the government has thus far shown a remarkable reluctance to step in and take direct control of industry, even where
it is clearly necessary, as in the case of the production of PPE. Instead, it has largely limited its activity to trying to purchase PPE on
the world markets at vastly inflated prices, rather than looking to boost production here.

True, the government did put out a rather insipid appeal to companies capable of producing PPE to contact them. But this is hardly
reorganising production in order to ramp up our ability to produce enough PPE. This reluctance to directly intervene contrasts badly with
past governments. For example, during the second world war, government stepped in to control and coordinate the economy. To quote one author
"lingerie factories began making camouflage netting, lipstick cases became bomb cases, beer cans went to hand grenades, adding machines to
automatic pistols, and vacuum cleaners to gas mask parts".

Both the government and media have not been slow to stoke up patriotic fervour by constantly comparing the COVID-19 crisis with the war.
Perhaps it might be a better use of their time if they stopped banging on about Vera Lynn and try to learn a few lessons from history
instead. Surely, even with an economy with manufacturing bases that have been eroded for decades, it is not beyond the capabilities of the
current government, to take control in order to ensure adequate supplies of PPE and, for that matter, testing and eventually vaccines.

Should the coronavirus crisis fail to abate, rather than relying on Boris Johnson and his gang of personality-free ministers, perhaps we
should learn a few lessons from history ourselves. During the 1936 Spanish Revolution workers in Catalonia took control of over 3,000
enterprises and reorganised them under workers' control, unleashing a wealth of creativity that resulted in remarkable improvements in
working conditions, productivity and efficiency.

This was not least in the health sector, with a new health service being created to ensure that people, for the first time, had free access
to medical care. While still combating the forces of fascism, in just a few months, the workers of Catalonia were able to build six new
hospitals and nine new centres for dealing with chronic disease.

The coronavirus has confirmed what many people have long argued, that free market capitalism is no way to run a country. No doubt, we will
muddle through the current pandemic; we might even get through without the world tipping into recession. But going forward, we still face
the problems of climate change, permanent economic instability and gross inequalities in access to all sorts of resources. If anything good
is to come out of the horror of the coronavirus, let's hope that more people come to realise that capitalism is not fit for purpose and that
we need to start working towards an alternative.

A good introduction to how workers in Catalonia reorganised the economy during the 1936 Spanish Revolution can be found here:
https://libcom.org/book/export/html/1733

http://www.solfed.org.uk/manchester/free-market-failings-in-the-coronavirus-crisis

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Message: 4



And the 6th week of quarantine went by without much surprise: zero measures to strengthen the public health system, new gifts to canal
masters to "do their job well" (that is, to tell us exactly what the government wants to tell us), bills on key areas of economic or social
life have passed through our government "overnight". Let's take a closer look at what the government has in store for us this week: ---- In
a letter to Koulis on 21/4, hospital doctors report "tragic shortages in livelihoods and logistical infrastructure due to underfunding",
while reacting to "commercialization and privatization of health" and stressing that the health system is incapable of combining control and
treatment of patients with coronary heart disease with the treatment of patients with other diseases ". Non-pandemic departments are
underperforming. Scheduled surgeries are being postponed and the "queues" have grown by at least 4 months. Answer from Koulis: none.
In addition, on Holy Week, doctors of DNA Dafni are informed by the administration's secretariat that they will be fired in the fall. These
are auxiliary doctors, with a stipulated contract period of 3 years that has been reduced to 1 year. Yes, in the midst of a pandemic,
doctors who are already working in the public health system see their already defined term being reduced! The administration attributed it
to a "mistake"! Of course, this "mistake" has been promising for months that it will be corrected.
After the successful mobilizations in the context of the first nationwide day for health (7/4) and the attitude of the government towards
the demands of the health authorities to strengthen the public health system in order to deal with the pandemic, which attitude can be
summed up with the phrase " Zero in the quotient ", the Federation of Hospital Doctors of Greece calls for a second nationwide mobilization
on 28/4. The demands concern the permanent appointment of auxiliary doctors without conditions and conditions, recruitment for the staffing
of hospitals and Health Centers, measures and means of protection for the health and safety of health, integration in the Heavy and
Unhealthy occupations. A protest will be held at the Ministry of Health at noon that day.
At the same time that there is no money for health, not even for a sample, there seems to be money with the sack to give a fourth gift to
the canal masters in the middle of a pandemic. After the € 11 million for the "promotion of EODY spots" that even the stones know is free,
after the "facilitation" with the licenses, totaling € 21 million, after the inclusion of the channels in the KAD with the companies that
are affected by the mockery (!) that allowed various stations to give half an Easter gift to their employees, now the government has decided
to give them... another € 9 million!!! And because they're probably tired of looking for excuses to donate money to the channels to ensure
that they spend their TV time on tributes that convince us how uniquely well our wonderful government has done. this time, they just told us
that they are giving it to us for the informative campaign for the coroner (!). Yes, yes... again!!!
It is not surprising what the employees of Ert3 complain about with their intervention on 21/4, then. The intervention was organized in
order for the employees to protest against the imposition of a "peculiar censorship regime" by the administration. Specifically, their text
states that the agenda is set by the "people in charge" and that "every different voice and criticism is either silenced or at best appears
for a few seconds to have an alibi." Their demands are that the code of journalistic ethics be observed, that criticism of government policy
be heard by social groups, that the voice of doctors and nurses be heard, and that the weak sections of society be addressed.
At the same time, we learn that ERT SA, the Athens Agency, the Hellenic Defense Systems, the Athens-Thessaloniki Urban Transport
Organization, the Hellenic Hydrocarbon Management Company SA, the property management companies of the University Institutions are
interested in publicity, which are characterized as companies. of case l of article 2 of Law 4548/2018 "and other companies of the wider
public sector, are suddenly transferred, without any prior discussion or consultation, to the competent company management of t. of the
Ministry of Development (ie under the control of the unprovoked A. Georgiadis). Given that the first act of the Koulis government was to
take over the state media under the supervision of the Maximos Palace, making the government representative responsible for them,

In the same tactic "let's spend as much time as we can, as we have the world in its infancy", we saw the new multidisciplinary plan for
education unfold on 22/4. It provides for the resumption of conduct in study titles, the theme bank, the replacement of sociology by Latin,
the increase of the examined courses in the B and C high school, the institutionalization by presidential decree of the evaluation of
teachers, the reduction of those admitted and transfers to universities and the establishment of foreign language departments with tuition
fees !! In addition, the maximum age for enrollment in the daily EPAL is set, which is set at… 17 years! The only thing any of us could say
about this unthinkable anachronistic bill is that ... obviously Mrs. Luke - sorry, This morning we wanted to say - he neglected negligence
to also provide for the restoration of the apron in schools as well as the slap in the palm of the hand as an acceptable means of
punishment. Because, by the way, it seems to fit a glove in the -about the catechism of the 70's- "aesthetics" that characterizes itself.
As a first reaction to the multi-bill, mass mobilizations will take place on 24/4 in Athens (Parliament) and Thessaloniki (Ministry of
Macedonia Thrace) by teachers 'and students' unions.

At the same time, the government announces on 22/4 the reopening of the courts and, of course, is indifferent to the fact that the plenary
session of the presidents of the Greek bar associations is against this decision. In particular, they said, the government "did not give
sufficient explanations as to why the courts were reopened before any other economic activity began, why the specific procedures for
granting mortgage notes were chosen and not some others". The answer is obvious if you look at the only procedures that will take place in
the courts: consensual notes for the banks, research for the banks, registration of notes for the banks, registration of seizures for the
banks!!!!
At the same time, the government estimates that in the midst of a pandemic with hundreds of thousands of workers unemployed or forced to
suspend work or shift work by up to 50%, it is the right time to lift protection. of the first house on April 30!!! If the scenarios for
extending the process until September or the end of the year are not confirmed, it is likely that our fellow citizens for whom "staying
home" means "staying on the road" will increase dramatically.
There is little to be said about the government's management of the immigration issue. At least 5 points need to be mentioned this week:
On 04/22, 159 cases of coronary artery disease were found in the host structure in Kranidi, with a member of the staff being ill a little
earlier. Despite the government's timely notification, no action has been taken, no care has been taken to remove or isolate vulnerable
groups, and strengthening the requested Health Unit has never been implemented.
It is soon learned that some guests of the structure in order to make a living are issued to the locals. The result is a wave of hysteria.
As always in these cases, the "peaceful local white family heads" who rape young women for a few € become the victims and the women who have
literally nothing to sell beyond their own bodies the perpetrators. "Virus visit structure. Afghans broke out of the hotel and sold their
bodies in the fields. How many people in the area have contracted the virus? " we read on the unprecedented vulgarity cover of Espresso,
while distortions of language and logic such as "immigrant women were shopping in the area" instead of "local housewives, Orthodox
Christians were exploited by sexually desperate women".
At the same time, the government decided to fire 16 Asylum Service workers working on islands and inland, because the long (sometimes even
multi-year) wait for immigrants in our country before setting the date for their interview was probably not enough.! In response, the union
of contract workers of the Asylum Service went on a hunger strike from April 21 until the decision to dismiss them was revoked.
In addition, it is worth mentioning one of the terms of the ministerial decision for registration in the "Register of Members of
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs" ", (Government Gazette B 1382-14 / 4/2020) issued by the government. Article 11 states that a
prerequisite for the employment of NGO workers in the field of immigration is that they have not been convicted "of any criminal offense
(except those of the Road Traffic Code)". Specifically, it requires for each employee of all NGOs the following: "copy of criminal record,
responsible statement of natural person that he has not been convicted with a final conviction for any criminal offense and responsible
statement of natural person for acquittal, acquittal or dismissal their criminal prosecution ". This very racist decision on the one hand
removes any notion of "equal access to work" for prisoners, but also any other person who has committed (not specifically an offense related
to abuse, incest, racist violence, etc.), literally any offense, even misdemeanor (!!!) as well as all immigrants who may have been
convicted of "smuggling" into the country! While the wording seems to mean that EVEN IF SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS WITHOUT EVEN THAT HAS BEEN
CONSTRUCTED, it will not be able to work, which obviously removes the presumption of innocence, a basic -supposedly- pillar of civil
"justice"!!! but also any other person who has committed (not specifically an offense related to abuse, incest, racist violence, etc.) but
literally any offense, even of a misdemeanor nature (!!!) as well as all immigrants and immigrants they may have had convicted of
"smuggling" into the country! While the wording seems to mean that EVEN IF SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS WITHOUT EVEN THAT HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTED, it
will not be able to work, which obviously removes the presumption of innocence, a basic -supposedly- pillar of civil "justice"!!! but also
any other person who has committed (not specifically an offense related to abuse, incest, racist violence, etc.) but literally any offense,
even of a misdemeanor nature (!!!) as well as all immigrants and immigrants they may have had convicted of "smuggling" into the country!
While the wording seems to mean that EVEN IF SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS WITHOUT EVEN THAT HAS BEEN CONSTRUCTED, it will not be able to work, which
obviously removes the presumption of innocence, a basic -supposedly- pillar of civil "justice"!!!

Finally, a fire broke out on the afternoon of April 26 at the Reception and Identification Center in Vathi, Samos. The capacity of the KYT
in Vathi is normally 648 people, while currently 6,869 people who live in tents or stumps without access to basic sanitary facilities are
stacked in it. The first fire broke out at 19:30, while at 21:00 and 22:00 two more broke out. It should be noted here that with the fire
already burning for an hour, at 20:30, the cops continued to forbid the immigrants to leave the camp, in order to get away from the fire,
citing the restrictive measures imposed on the colonist! After tensions between the immigrants and the cops, and only after a second fire
broke out in the camps, it was allowed to evacuate. Only the first of the 3 fires has destroyed the barracks in which 100 people were
"housed". Both the extent of the disaster and the cause of the fire remain unknown.

On the front lines of "Skyl Elikikos" now, we saw with sadness the tele-training programs that had offered us generous laughter last week to
withdraw, after the unprecedented caricature and the "yuha" that followed. Of course, the government did not feel the need to give any
explanation for the incredible predator it tried to do, even when it was revealed that.... The people in charge of the platforms have a
direct relationship with government officials, since they had set up the pre-election campaign of ND (!!!) or when the photos started to
circulate with Koulis having suspiciously good relations with various KEK owners!
Freedom Initiative of Thessaloniki

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2020/04/27

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Message: 5



35 OZZ Commission Initiative for Workers and 8 plant structures of other trade unions have signed a joint appeal for the Workers'
Anti-Crisis Shield. The signatories demand a change in the state policy towards the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic and
call on other trade unions to joint, joint and several actions, including a general strike. ---- The entire appeal of the trade unions
together with the list of committees that signed it can be found here:[LINK]  ---- All trade unions who want to join the joint struggle for
labor rights in times of crisis, please contact us at the email address: contact[@]ozzip.pl(The list of structures that signed the appeal is
updated on a regular basis.) ---- The trade union appeal contains 13 postulates regarding anti-crisis policy and a call for joint union
activities to block salary cuts and dismissals:

1. Shorten the working day to seven hours without reducing wages to reduce unemployment.
2. Permanent contracts of indefinite duration for all employees. Contracts, work contracts, self-employment, temporary and temporary work
prevent real care for health and safety during work and force employees to come to work when they are sick.
3. The introduction of wages in accordance with the 3: 1 rule. It means that the highest wage in an enterprise cannot be higher than three
times the lowest. This solution allows you to make savings in the payroll fund.
4. Simplification of the collective dispute procedure. All employees should be guaranteed effective access to the constitutionally protected
right to strike. To this end, it is necessary to simplify the negotiation phase and abolish the obligation to hold a strike referendum.
5. Allowing trade unions to participate in company 'crisis staffs' which set procedures for employee safety and work organization during the
crisis, such as the current epidemic. Currently, only representatives of the employer often take part in the work of "staffs", bypassing
trade union organizations.
6. The indefinite suspension of public aid for large private enterprises operating in Special Economic Zones. Beneficiaries of state aid
from the manufacturing industry, who recorded profits above PLN 50 million in the last year, should switch production to help under-funded
medical care systems (respirators and personal protective equipment) at the cost of producing the material.
7. Introduction of regular plant disinfection. Plant disinfection should take place when employees are not on site. The disinfection time
should be adapted to the number of employees and the size of the plant. For this period, employees should receive paid parking. Complete
disinfection of the plant should take place after every coronavirus infection.
8. Increase in the amount of unemployment benefits, extension of their payment period and universal right to receive such benefit for all
unemployed persons.
9. Universal right to health insurance and free healthcare system benefits.
10. Protection of pensions and raising the minimum amount of retirement. The aim should be to create a pension system that provides elderly
people with decent benefits to cover living costs.
11. Freezing of rents and payments for an apartment, suspension of eviction. Due to the crisis, the threat of eviction will affect thousands
of people. Mass evictions will only aggravate social collapse.
12. Granting public health financing priority on the state expenditure side.
13. Creating a fiscal program to support the care sector.

http://ozzip.pl/informacje/ogolnopolskie/item/2638-czas-na-pracownicza-tarcze-antykryzysowa-mobilizacja-zwiazkow-zawodowych

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Message: 6


Every year, more than two million people worldwide are killed as the result of work-related accidents or diseases, more than the annual
total of every person who is killed in every war across the world. This means that every fifteen seconds, a worker is killed. My use of the
word, ‘killed', is intentional; the majority of these deaths were preventable, but, of course, the profits of the Capitalists are always
prioritised over even the most basic of measures necessary in order to ensure the healthy and safety of the workers. ---- People are not
fools and do not willingly accept these risks, but they are forced to accept them if they want to access food, water and shelter. By
maintaining their control over the means of production, Capitalists take workers hostage- work or starve- and attempts to demand better,
bearable conditions are suppressed with the constant threat that there is always another desperate person willing to take the job, in spite
of its dangers.

It doesn't have to be this way; if workers controlled the place they work, they would not subject themselves to unnecessary dangers and
would ensure that the workplace was as safe and hygienic as possible, but, as long as Capitalism exists, thousands of people are condemned
each day to die, sacrificed to sate the gluttony of an ever-growing economy. In the midst of a global pandemic, with thousands of people
being forced to work in cramped, unsanitary conditions that allow for the rapid spread of the virus, this fact bears down on us more harshly
than ever.

Workers' Memorial Day, which takes place on the 28th of April each year, was originally started in 1989 by the AFL-CIO in the U.S.A, but it
soon became international, being formally recognised by the Canadian Parliament in 1991 and adopted by the International Trade Union
Confederation in 1996. Now, International Worker's Memorial Day is formally recognised in at least 18 countries, and commemorated by workers
across the entire planet, celebrating the lives, struggles and contributions of the countless workers who have been killed at work, whilst
also providing a solemn reminder of the alienation, oppression and danger that the overwhelming majority of workers still face in their
day-to-day lives.

The commemorations are made in a wide variety of forms, ranging from a minute of silence, to the laying out of empty shoes, to direct,
workplace action, such as strikes or slow-downs, attacking the system that took the lives of the workers. Whatever action you feel like
taking, we hope that you'll join us this Worker's Memorial Day to remember those whose lives have been taken by the Capitalist system, and
to continue the struggle to overthrow it once and for all! ?

Solidarity Forever.

http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2020/04/28/international-workers-memorial-day-calander/

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Message: 7


In the last two months, the working class of our country has suffered the greatest aggression against their living conditions and their
democratic freedoms since the fall of the Franco dictatorship. The confinement decreed, as a response to the expansion of the coronavirus
pandemic, has meant more than a million layoffs. 500,000 ERTEs have affected more than four million workers. This situation has caused the
submission to a labor discipline where the most minimal conditions of safety and health for workers in essential activities are absent and
hunger and the most sordid misery for the millions of informal workers and for the unemployed. ---- This brutal confinement, which has meant
mass unemployment, increasing misery, risks to the health of workers and death and desolation for millions of working families, is not the
result of an inevitable phenomenon of nature.

This confinement is motivated by the programmed degradation, in the last decades, of the public health system of our country. The
privatization process implemented in public health since the approval of Law 15/97 has meant the dismissal of thousands of health
professionals. This work in precarious, subcontracting and temporary conditions of a large part of the staff of public services, the closure
of hospital beds and intensive care units, the lack of basic resources for the defense of life in the health system (respirators, gowns,
masks, etc.)

Confinement is the result of decades of looting of the public. With stronger healthcare, other countries in Europe have not had to take such
radical action against the pandemic. Our drama is the unfolding of a predatory capitalism that destroys natural balances, but also
annihilates the common and the resistance of the working class.

In the midst of the health alert, the confinement of capitalism "legalizes" that migrants and refugees "without papers" can collect the
vegetables and fruits that we will all eat. However, it does not regularize their situation. They continue without the right to papers, nor
to decent work and housing. Many sub-Saharan migrants or Moroccan day laborers do not have running water or electricity in the slums of
Huelva or Almería. 80% of the caregivers of the elderly are migrants, exploited for a miserable wage, without a contract.

The political management of the confinement has been based on minimal aid (very shameful) to the popular classes, censorship, and
socialization of the losses of the big companies. Also, discord by national politicians and the European elites and attempts to build a
great pact guarantees that the workers will pay for the crisis.

Only the solidarity and mutual support of the working majority, expressed in struggles and in autonomous assembly and independent
organization, can end this nightmare. It is up to those of us below to organize the just outrage of our class. We have to defend jobs, bread
for the unemployed, the right to housing, care for all, safety at work and the prevention of occupational risks, public health and services
of the common (education, security, social, dependency, social services, etc).

And we also have to start building another world. A different world. On the ruins that capitalism has left us. About the pain and filth that
big business and exploiters have imposed on us. It is not enough to defend our most basic rights, we must also end this world of suffering
and chaos. We must end capitalism so that capitalism does not end us.

As Buenaventura Durruti said, we do not have to fear the ruins. They are the ruins of a world that built our work. If we could manage
reconstruction ourselves, the world would be very different: there would be justice, bread and freedom.

This May Day we workers are also fighting for rights for migrants and refugees, the most exploited sector of the working class.

That is the true legacy that we return to on May 1: the legacy of struggle of those who rose in Chicago in 1886 for eight hours of work, but
also for the definitive end to exploitation.

MAY 1 WE ARE CLASS

WORKERS:
SOLIDARITY AND MUTUAL SUPPORT

CAPITALISM IS DEATH

WE DEFEND PUBLIC HEALTH, THE COMMON AND THE WORK

LET'S DEFEND THE NEW WORLD THAT LIVES IN OUR HEARTS

https://www.solidaridadobrera.org/confederal/2020/04/28/primero-de-mayo-luchaobrera-somos-clase-1demayo-6/

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Message: 8


Warren McGregor of Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) says while the South African state has been praised for its rapid response to
coronavirus, its lockdown has hugely unequal effects . Many in the working class , poor majority lack proper access to food, health-care,
income and jobs. Some employers are attacking labour. There are inadequate measures to cushion the masses, and unacceptable army /police
brutality, while big business and politicians get bailouts.  We accept the science that lockdowns are needed, he insists. But we must also
demand justice, building concrete, realistic actions that can win improvements and build working class counter-power and a popular anarchist
consciousness.
Black Rose/ Rosa Negra (BR): Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and your organisation?[1]

Warren McGregor[WM]: Yeah, thank you. Hi everybody, Warren McGregor from Zabalaza[Anarchist Communist Front/ ZACF], South Africa. I have
been with them for plus minus the last 13 years, and I work exclusively in trade union and working class education. Thanks very much for
having me.

BR: Let's begin by having you tell us how things have looked in your country over the last couple of months. How has the state responded to
the pandemic? What preventative measures have been put in place?

WM: Well, the South African state has been lauded locally and internationally for apparently responding quite quickly. So we have been on a
national shutdown since the 26 March and just a couple of days ago the State President, the billionaire Cyril Ramaphosa has extended that
until the end of April. Now, we are not sure if there is going to be a further extension, but that is where we are right now.

CLASS AND COVID-19
However, as many of you will know, South Africa is a relatively wealthy country, but extraordinary unequal in that much of our wealth is
centralised in the hands of very, very few monopolistic corporations and the families that generally run those, as well as the power
afforded by those who run the state, in particular the national government.

So, the country has been on lockdown which means that people are still allowed out technically, to buy essentials, groceries, etc., but due
to the massive inequalities in South Africa,[the national lockdown]has been a one-size-fits all approach which has been felt very
differently by the classes in our society. So whereas the ruling class, and the upper middle classes have been able to respond to the
President's call to stay home and to stay healthy, relatively, the working class and poor majority, the masses of our people, have unable to
and unwilling to a certain extent, to respond to that call.

But before we get into that, I guess many people have now started critiquing the state for inadequately responding, particular before, and
in, lockdown conditions. But because of our very divided health care system, for example with those who can afford it able to access good
private health care, a good majority of our people[rely on run-down, often disastrous state facilities and]are unable to access good health
care.

Not just that, but the state has been unable to respond to the very desperate needs of the people that live in our poor, mainly black
townships in South Africa. There has been a lack of response from the state as well as the private sector, in providing workers and their
families and their communities with the necessary and adequate health care provisions, whether that be equipment, in particular sanitising
agents, providing access to water in particular, etc. So the state has been unable and unwilling to respond in that way. Many are furious
that such drastic measures have been taken now that more wealthy people are exposed to infection and death, whereas many of the tragedies
affecting the majority poor are never addressed adequately[like food shortages and TB], and the underlying reasons for those are never
tackled. What the state has done now, over the last couple of weeks or so, is to section off areas, in particular in poorer areas, where
essentially what is happening is dumping of homeless people and in particular, those homeless people who have been suspected to have been
infected by the virus.

I think what is also important to note is that despite the fact that, although, we are moving from our incubation period into our apparently
peak infection period, like in other African countries, the state has been hollowed out[by neo-liberalism]to such an extent that we will
never really know the numbers of infected people and thus those affected by those who are struggling with the virus due to the state's lack
of capacity to be able to record these numbers adequately.

PRIVATE CAPITAL AND POLICE
The private sector has responded in a haphazard way to a certain extent in that, although the state has provided provision for companies
that are providing essential services and the production of goods that are considered to be essential for day-to-day life in South Africa,
there are many companies that are still open that are forcing workers to not only continue work, but to work in very unsanitary and thus
very unsafe and quite deadly circumstances. These companies are not being held to account by the state.

And, then finally, there has also been quite a number of cases of quite violent police response to people that they have found outside[their
homes]. And much like police and state violence in South Africa over the last 25 years it is generally directed at working class and poor
people, in particular Black and black African working class people and also in particular at our brothers and sisters from outside South
Africa on the African continent. Much like elsewhere police tend to respond in a very strong and one size-fits-all manner, but there may be
very drastic and desperate reasons why people are out on the street.

That is the situation generally in South Africa right now. Thanks.

BR: This virus has caused a great upheaval in the daily lives of most people around the world. Many of us are more than a month into
lockdown procedures. What activity have organized groups of our class undertaken in your country? Have any specific demands materialized?
How has the present moment and its restrictions changed your modes of organizing?

WM: Thanks, I think that what is striking, listening to the[other panellists, the]comrades so far, is that there seems to be quite a lot of
similarity in terms of what is taking place in all of our countries, and the contexts, and also in terms of some of the responses. I am sure
the comrades after me will say relatively similar things, but obviously contextualise[d for their situations].

SCATTERED WORKING CLASS RESPONSES
I think fundamentally in South Africa, but also globally, organised labour in particular, and the organised left, is the weakest it has been
for quite a long time. By that I don't only mean trade unions, but I also mean left or progressive community organisations in many of our
contexts.

So this has meant that many of the responses that are taking place right now, particularly in South Africa, are essentially conditioned by
the experiences with a neo-liberal South African state and the private sector which has essentially been unleashed in South Africa over the
last 25 years. So, many of the responses by working class communities and their organisations are thus reactionary[i.e. reactive]in a way;
not necessarily in the negative sense, but in the sense of reacting to what has been imposed on them,[let's call it defensive action, rather
than offensive action: taking a lead, with a different vision].

So much like in other countries, workers are being forced to continue to work in non-essential services or companies without being provided
the necessary and adequate protective equipment, whether these are retail workers or workers in a variety of different kinds of companies.
Workers are[often]also being forced to accept "no-work-no-pay" circumstances in a lock-down period that is supposed to be a temporary
lay-off. But what is most concerning is that we have, like in other places, we have what is called an Unemployment Insurance Fund[UIF, a
state-run insurance scheme for formal workers], where both state and private companies that are registered to this subtract a particular
percentage of a worker's pay package[to pay a portion of the salary for a few months, after a worker loses employment]. The state is now
using that Unemployment Insurance Fund to subsidise[private companies that are in trouble].

So what is also quite interesting is that just prior to our lockdown period here, the international ratings agencies demoted South Africa
back down to "junk status"[for investors]. Now this still needs to be investigated, but I wouldn't be surprised if this has been used as a
political tool to[shape local economic and fiscal policy]and thus continue to curtail the state's ability to respond in this particular
period[and maintain its brutal neo-liberal path]. This has meant, in part, that the state has not provided any extra-budgetary measures to
the departments of Labour and Health to respond[to the immediate needs of the workers and poor in the crisis].

Thus the condition, or circumstance, in which organised labour and the left finds itself - the neo-liberalisation of the South African
economy, the individualisation of everyday life as well as the state's unwillingness to go outside of it's already existing budgets to be
able to provide[better employment insurance, including for informal workers], general testing,[adequate]sanitary and other forms of
equipment to, especially, working class communities has meant that not only has the private sector been allowed to regulate itself, but it
has been looked to then provide what is needed in many of our working class communities[right now].This has meant that many of these large
private firms can now set their own prices for goods and services: not only goods that are absolutely necessary, like PPE's[personal
protective equipment], but also the price of goods, services, food and other kinds of products. They are going to make a killing and much
like other places around the world, lockdown provisions are being forced[onto the population without much consultation]by the ruling
class[that run]states and the private sector.

We are being told that there is quite a lot that we are not allowed to do, but there is very little that we are provided as to what we
actually can do. So therefore what is taking place with regards to action is company to company, firm to firm, workplace to workplace
responses by workers and organised labour in those factories and work sites. However it is not coordinated on a provincial, or regional or
national basis[curtailing the effect of the workers' responses].

Thus in our working class communities the responses have been good and progressive on one hand, but they have also been quite uncoordinated
on the other. And as usual, over the last 20 years, in periods of massive capitalist and social crisis, we are unable to see our class
generally push forward in more progressive fashion[let's call this offensive action], and our actions are generally quite haphazard, are
localised and there is very little coordination on a broader level to be able to use whatever crisis moment we are in to push for a more
progressive society, to push for[greater mobilisation and]organisation.

On the other hand, there are people trying to use social media as much as possible to coordinate localised action. But these responses
are[often]fundamentally charitable acts that are being organised by more middle class people who have a bit more of a liberal mindset. These
are[well-intentioned]initiatives[undertaken by]sympathetic activists and NGOs that[attempt to provide basic goods to meet]people's
day-to-day survival needs to a large extent[rather than a push for structural change].

Traditional organised labour in South Africa has been very, very quiet. Much like organised labour elsewhere in the world, the responses and
movements of the organised working class and more traditional trade unions are very much institutionalised[in that the resolution of
workplace conflict is generally channelled by the state apparatus]. The organised working class here in South Africa and more traditional
unions have allowed for the state and the private sector, the ruling class, to not only dictate the terms of the lockdown, but the benefits
that are going to be accrued from this particular lockdown.

Much like Andrew said[as to what is taking place]in Ireland, the more progressive responses and forms that are being organised, are taking
place at the margins of organised labour and the working class,[particularly amongst more precarious workers in organisations outside the
big federations]in South Africa, and from communities who are now being set upon by the state and the private sector. As I mentioned
earlier, homeless and poor people who are infected are being dumped into quarantine sites. These quarantine sites are generally on the
outskirts of poor and working class areas, and some of these communities are trying to respond in organized ways. There is a lot more to
talk about, but I will leave it at that.

BR: As anarchist-communists and internationalists, how do we name this moment? What does it mean to act in concert with each other in this
time of crisis?

WM: (Laughs) That is a huge question! I don't think our ideas and responses are solely conditioned by the Covid19 situation, as well as the
lockdown and other responses states have enacted.

NEO-LIBERALISM DOES NOT KILL STATES
I think what this period has shown[to be]ridiculous is the argument that states in the neo-liberal era are powerless, that they are inept.
No! Neo-liberalism has fundamentally meant that those who have controlled state power have made a political and ideological decision to
hollow out the capacity of the state[s]- and their capacity[or rather, willingness]to be able to influence and control markets. And again,
what this current moment has shown is that[the neo-liberal argument of the capacity and role of the state]is a dogmatic argument, an
ideological argument, and[that it ignores ongoing evidence that states intervene all the time - but for the ruling classes!][...]

But again, I think it is not really a completely new moment. I think, you know this is the first time[in human history]that states have
responded in this way on such a global level[on a health issue]. However, what the responses and the conditions in our different countries
have shown is that class inequality still does fundamentally matter[as regards who feels the most impact, and the various responses that
have been organised]and so therefore[globally]we need to get back to a[radical]class-based politics.

WE NEED TO SHAPE THE AGENDA
I think in Africa where we are doubly f*cked not just on the economic level but[also on the ideological level. As regards battling CoVid19
spread], we need very clear messaging;[messaging that]is quite clear with regards to people's health and maintaining healthy and sanity,
hygienic conditions. Good information is not coming adequately or fast enough from the state, and so on a very immediate level we need clear
messaging coming from those groups and individuals and organisations that are looking to contribute in a positive way, so that our working
class and poor don't suffer much more than what they are going to and need to in this period and beyond.

At the same time we should not allow or continue to allow the ruling class to set the agenda. Much of what has come from the state and the
private sector is that lockdown is necessary so as to save "the nation"[while inadequate measures for the working class and poor shows that
the deaths in our class are secondary concerns]. In fact more people in Africa die of pneumonia and TB on a regular basis, as well as
malnutrition, than who are going to die from the impact of the Corona virus. So I think we also need a much more sophisticated argument for
conditions here on the African continent in particular with regards to the living and working conditions of our working class and poor majority.

But on a more general level, and I think this goes around the world, I think the opportunity that this allows us again is, number one, to
undermine the arguments of the ruling class, in particular which have been foisted on us for the last 20/30 or so years.[At the same
time]what we need and what we have always needed is to rebuild working class counter-power. We need community and workplace-level organising
as well as initiatives that link struggles.

WE NEED CONCRETE POLITICS, NOT WISHES
We need to move away from an individualistic mode of struggling - a "doing-stuffism"[of just being active, without reflection, chasing
struggles without building no lasting structures, or sustained counter-power, jumping out once the next issue comes along]- to realise that
building working class power and building working class militancy takes into account the very, very hard day-to-day struggle required to
build these organisations. So we must move away from individualised forms of struggle[many of which are based on forms of identity and thus
struggles defined and controlled by more educated and resourced middle class activists]to building a collective working class
counter-power[of workers, the unemployed, in the formal and informal zones of the economy, their families and communities].

Now, building class counter-power also takes into account the necessity of building worker education and progressive militancy - a radical
working class counter-culture. This can also be based on the current need we have to develop clear health messaging, as I mentioned earlier.

This is where anarchism - its modes of organising and education rooted in direct democracy and action - becomes vitally important in that it
offers, in particular, an analysis of why states and capitalism have been fundamentally unable to develop equal and prosperous societies
based on equitable distributions of wealth and power,[which is where we differ from the Keynesian and other reformists who believe the state
essentially benign, if only it has nicer policies and friendlier politicians]. Anarchist analysis also shows that states and capitalism have
been fundamentally unable to not only respond to the crisis that we are seeing around the world, but use crisis conditions for their own
ruling class benefit - to restructure work and daily life and to concentrate even more power in their hands.

We[anarchists and the working class and poor in general]need to develop the capacity in the medium to long term to take advantage of the
post-lockdown world that we are going to exist in. We need a medium- to long-term vision; we need to build working class counter-power
-[radical,]militant democratic trade unions as well as community organisations - which also takes into account the forms of oppression and
inequality outside of the workplace in general society and outside of economic condition[s]. But this can only be developed by the
day-to-day struggle of building organisation, building working class counter-power[and politically radical counter-culture]that has this vision.

It is absolutely clear that we have sunk deeper into the crisis of capitalism where states around the world are buying up massive amounts of
toxic assets[on the books of giant private corporations]. In the USA, the $2 trillion dollar stimulus package[is a bailout for business, as
most of it is]going straight into the pockets of the[firms that generated ongoing economic crises over the last decade: the virus has an
economic impact, but the deep economic problems it revealed started years ago].

Like I said before, the South African state right now is subsidising the private sector using workers' money, to continue to bail out giant
private sector corporations[despite the fact that]there is a lockdown. The state has spent billions and billions subsidising banks and
multinational corporations[corrupt state corporations, calling into question the neo-liberal agenda that praises free markets but loves
bail-outs and subsidies; neo-liberalism does not remove the state from the economy, only changes its form].

But it is quite clear that we are unable right now to take advantage of the current situation by pushing for more progressive social change.
The reason why we can't do this is because we don't have the power, we don't have the organisational and ideological capacity to be able to
do so. This means is that right now we must build this capacity on both the structural[organisational]and ideological fronts. For those of
you interested there are examples around. An example right now is the revolution in Rojava in the Middle East that has used the oppression
of Kurdish people in parts of the Middle East to push for not only Kurdish national self-determination, but a complete revolution of their
society - economically, socially and politically. We can use this as an example[of how to build and sustain a revolution without and in
opposition to the institutions of the ruling class - the states and corporations].

I think what this crisis has shown us, and the crises of the last 12 years or so, is that we need to get back to not only reacting to the
impositions of the ruling class[on]life, but for the working class and poor to then use their organisations, including the organisations of
precarious and informal workers around the world, as platforms to then develop a more broad working class counter-power. These should be
united across borders through collective, direct and offensive action. For me that is where it starts.

BR: Final thoughts?
WM: Ja, I think this goes with my input about clear messaging[and clear politics].

WE NEED SERIOUS ANALYSES, NOT HYPE
I think we need to be careful when we throw around a variety of terms including the[notion of]"fascism". I mean, fascism means something
very specific and it is a very particular political and economic order. Just because we have the rise of particular,[populist]right-wing
organisations, and even maybe one or two of them getting into positions of state power, does not necessarily mean the fascism of the 1920s
and 1930s particularly in Europe[Asia and Latin America is back, and that the focus must now be anti-fascism].

Even if you look at the United States, as corporately controlled as the United States political system is, it is very difficult for a real
fascist power to exist. I mean, you see this with Donald Trump. A lot of what he wants to do is be curtailed by a variety of different
sectors of power in the ‘States[including within the state, the capitalist media and opposition parties]. I mean: first of all we have to be
careful when we throw around particular terms, because many of those terms do have quite a lot of history[and meaning]attached to
them.[Modern day usages of terms like "fascism"]can be quite emotive; and sometimes throwing terms around actually shuts down debate, debate
about now,[which cannot be read off slogans, or]only what those terms are, but[understood from]...the actual conditions that the majority of
our people are facing.

[Modern populist movements are certainly dangerous, but we need to understand these without imagining this is the 1930s, or imminent fascist
rule, and this needs to inform action, and so]I think, in response to these, it takes us back to the necessity of developing an anarchist
political counter-culture within the working class.

WE NEED TO GO TO THE PEOPLE
As regards anarchist activism today, as important as anarchist organisations are, I think the primary role is to insert anarchism into
working class movements and thus using those ideas in the building of working class organisations and its power. I think the primary goal,
or at least the primary activity of anarchists, particularly here is through political education, and an anarchist political education that
develops anarchists that come from and work in[especially, black]community, working class and poor communities and organisations: a project
of working class social insertion, not to hijack those struggle but to build and anarchist consciousness, an anarchist counter-culture of
radical militancy. It is more important to have an anarchist consciousness within a working class struggle than it is to have a plethora of
anarchists outside those struggles, and[isolated]anarchist organisations. Obviously those are necessary, I am not artificially separating
the two, but I think that has to be a primary goal.

We are really concerned about the lockdown situation here and on our continent.[We should be quite clear that by accepting lockdowns as a
vital method to slow the virus,]that we are not submitting to the power of the state, or submitting to the idea that we need centralised,
authoritarian rule in this particular period. We are placing our trust in medical experts[not politicians, and we demand decent treatment
and less repression]. As Bakunin famously indicated, on the issue of shoemaking, he trusts the shoemaker. There are also lots of
opinions[and conspiracy theories]flying around in society. For example, here in Africa, some people believe that CoVid19, or the
Coronavirus, only infects white people[or is a Chinese or American plot]. These need to be combated with clear messaging based on expert
analysis, and[that is]not only necessarily that which comes from the state, and those in power.

I like the idea that was raised earlier of linking struggles and helping to develop struggles across borders by having similar slogans[to
communicate ideas clearly]. I like that idea, but I think what is also important is that we should be moving away
from[empty]sloganeering[meaning slogans based on empty, grandiose claims]as the primary force of activism[on the radical left]. For example,
you know lots of people have been talking about, that leftist activists should be organising for general strikes. I mean that can be a
ludicrous demand when you have no working class organisational capacity to back that, and other major calls, up.

Also without a medium- or longer-term strategy, these calls not only fail to indicate how we will organise this, but also what would be
using the[general]strike for, and what would happen after[wards]. Also it may fail to take into account different organising contexts, e.g.
is a general strike in African conditions something that is possible[now], when most people are at home anyway, and when such large parts of
our economy are informal and are based on individualised workplaces, and when you have large portions of our population that are
unemployed?[The issue is what tactics are feasible, and linking this to a concrete strategy for change - I am not arguing against general
strikes, but against calls for actions that are not grounded in real conditions, carefully mapped].

So therefore, we should be thinking about actions that, again, are not solely calls to action, but that seek to build working class
counter-power by raising the anarchist consciousness of the working class, or developing an anarchist consciousness in the working
class[that go beyond the day of the protest]. These should be contextualised, but without losing its broader class-based form. We must
continue to organise protest[s], but[regularly ask ourselves]what are we protesting for; what is the end goal here?[We should be clear]not
just what are we protesting against, but what we will do after the protest and what are we using the protest for - that is important.

So thank you very much comrades for having me on[the panel]. Greetings to comrades around the world! Hopefully, this is just the start of
the conversation. Thank you to everyone who is listening.

And I think, my final thoughts: well first of all, we really need to change the world; things cannot remain as they are. But changing the
world cannot be done by removing yourself from it. Sometimes a politics of isolation divorces the very good ideas that we may have from the
general population, the general working class who are living in desperate, desperate conditions. We have a responsibility, those of us who
choose the responsibility, to infuse our ideas into working class struggle to create a better world. We should move away from politics that
focuses solely on representation[and amelioration]to a politics that fundamentally - politically, socially and economically - deals with
issues of oppression, whether between races, between genders, etc. to, most importantly, develop collective, global working class
counter-power and counter-culture to change this world.

So thank you very much again for having me.

Defend the Rojava Revolution!
Power to workers around the world!
Free Palestine!

Hopefully we will be in touch soon!

-ENDS-

https://zabalaza.net/2020/04/26/covid-19-and-the-working-class-struggle-interview-with-south-african-anarchist-communist/

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