Today's Topics:
1. Czech, AFED: With a veil on Strelecký Island [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - AL #304 - The
well-known Our bodies, Ourselves comes out ... (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL AL #304 - Read: 300,
000 years to get there (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Britain, solfed: Coronavirus: Your rights at home and at
work (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, AFED: organise magazine - Life has stopped, we have
not stopped | Statement (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Philippines - the
continuing crackdown on anarchists (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: Johnson and "Dubai
on Thames" (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. Britain, anarchist communist ACG: Philippines: the
opportunism of martial law (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Report on the laying of flowers at the memorial plaque of the first May Day meeting of radical workers ---- A memorial plaque commemorating
the first workers' May Day demonstration in 1890 on Strelecký Island is a place where we commemorate the struggle of Chicago workers for
eight-hour working hours on May Day. Traditional forms of free meeting, with or without the accompanying program, are not possible in these
infected times, but even so we decided to go to Strelecký Island and place a bouquet of roses under the above-mentioned memorial plaque.
---- After meeting in the morning on the Smíchov side of the Vltava, we went along the Legion Bridge to Strelecký Island. Except for a few
individuals or a few couples who enjoyed the sunny weather of the day by sitting on the benches, the island was empty. So we placed a
bouquet under the memorial plaque, exchanged a few words and then set out to spend Labor Day as everyone did best, with the vision that we
would celebrate this day under more favorable conditions next year.
Declaration of the Anarchist Federation on May 1, 2020
Traditions of anarchist May Day in Bohemia
https://www.afed.cz/text/7166/s-rouskou-na-streleckem-ostrove
------------------------------
Message: 2
The well-known Our bodies, Ourselves was released in 1973 in the United States, it will be a best seller of feminism. The 1977 French
edition takes pride of place in all of the Family Planning offices, but has long been out of print. A completely rewritten version was
finally released on February 20. ---- In 1973 in the United States appeared Our bodies, Ourselves, one of the best-known books in feminism:
an encyclopedic textbook " written by women for women ". He deconstructed norms, denounced inequalities and violence, and wanted to develop
the capacity of women to defend themselves, to emancipate themselves. The idea was born during single-sex " awareness " workshops and it was
in the spirit of self help.
Following this publication, a collective of women adapted the book in France, and Our body, We ourselves is published in 1977. Since then,
Our bodies, Ourselves has been republished several times until today making 800 pages ; it has been translated or adapted into 35 languages
; it has also been used on other related subjects, such as Our children, ourselves .
Know thyself
From learning self-contempt to medical monitoring of pregnancy, inequalities in paid work to gynecological violence, urinary leakage to
sexist and sexual violence, a new collective of nine women of ages, origins and Different sexual orientations have pooled their stories,
their reflections, their experiences and their research to completely update the work.
For three years, they collected more than 400 testimonies from women throughout France, through single-sex groups, in women's associations,
LGBT + centers, or through individual interviews. Not to study and transcribe the practices and feelings of women from the outside, but as a
political project of emancipation and collective re-appropriation by women of their knowledge of their bodies, against the usual
confiscation of feminine knowledge through macho, normative and guilt-inducing medicine.
The work is a manifesto of sorority: teeming with testimonies, never judging, it starts from the diversity of experiences lived or undergone
by women to encourage a repossession, of power. Using the " women " category as a social and political category, the authors, new compared
to the previous edition, cross it with those of class, race ; a great deal of space is also given to questions of disability.
Discovering yourself to better emancipate yourself
While patriarchal domination is integrated by everyone from early childhood, Our body, ourselves wants to be a tool of self-defense for
women, a call to overcome our feelings of illegitimacy and vulnerability, to allow ourselves to express ourselves and act independently or
even contradictory to what society expects from us.
A combat which requires to advance jointly on the individual and collective grounds, an emancipation which each of us must build for itself
(we do not emancipate others), but which we can only achieve by building it together and in the fight (do not free us, we will do it !).
Adeline (Paris North East)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Le-tres-connu-Our-bodies-Ourselves-sort-en
------------------------------
Message: 3
Finally a book (a beautiful graphic novel) which popularizes well on the subject of " collapse ". The authors Grégory Jarry and Otto T.
are no strangers to the popularization genre, they notably published the fairly well-known series Petite Histoire des colonies française .
---- In a writing on several levels, we see different situations being answered, from a rite of passage to adulthood 10,000 years ago to
ecologists who besiege the last bastion of the capitalists who destroyed all ecosystems. Different COPs with capitalists who laugh at the
good functioning of their strategy where the stranglehold of an economic vision as religion, really a lot of themes are addressed. ---- The
narrative style which made the success of the two authors is again used in this volume with an effective narration accompanied by small
funny and relevant strips to complete the subject. This graphic creation is therefore available here in several forms depending on the
protagonists without losing the reader.
If only there were the causes of the collapse, this book would not be so original after all. But the authors also put forward a criticism of
pacifism and the reasons for revolting. A few short sentences to " we love each other " are extensively criticized, the control of the
elites over power, or the subjugation of the masses, repression against any deviant idea such as anarchism ...
We can always say that this novel goes a bit fast and is reductive on a subject that deals with 10,000 years of domination and the origins
of destruction, but its role is not to explain everything. On the contrary, this writing, always refreshing, aims rather to lead to action,
and in the current context where the ecologists wonder what means to use to make things change, the book gives a clear answer (p. 88): the
pacifist message has been so integrated[...]that it protects the system instead of smashing it "then" we beat them? I feel hot there . "
Drowned Reinette (UCL Aveyron)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-300-000-ans-pour-en-arriver-la
------------------------------
Message: 4
Below we have prepared some information about your rights during the coronavirus pandemic as well as mutual aid groups that have emerged to
help people with self-isolation. ---- If you have any trouble with these rights and want support, then please get in touch. Rights are the
bare minimum, and some workers or tenants might want to take the initiative in responding to this crisis themselves, we are happy to help
with this as well. At SolFed we aren't lawyers or representatives, but we are happy to take direct action to help each other out in our
struggles. ---- Information for workers ---- If you need to stay at home because you, or someone you live with, have coronavirus symptoms,
you could be eligible to Statutory Sick Pay from day one. Employers should be flexible regarding medical evidence as in some cases you will
be asked to self-isolate for up to 14 days. If your workplace closes due to coronavirus, under the government's Coronavirus Job Retention
Scheme you will receive 80% of wages up to £2,500 per month.
More information about coronavirus and working conditions
Information for tenants
The government has banned any eviction in social or private accommodation while the coronavirus crisis is taking place. The government will
be legislating urgently to ban landlords to start any eviction procedure in the upcoming three-month period.
More information about coronavirus and tenants
Information for claimants
People receiving benefits do not have to attend Jobcentre appointments for at least 3 months, starting from Thursday the 19th of March 2020.
People will continue to receive their benefits as normal, but all requirements to attend the Jobcentre in person are suspended. People can
still make applications for benefits online if they are eligible.
More information about claimants and coronavirus
Information for vulnerable people and those self-isolating
If you live in Liverpool and need help because are self-isolating, there are groups of people willing to help you. You can find them on
Facebook and through these groups you can find people in your area who can help with shopping and deliveries, as well as someone to chat to
if you are self-isolating. A list of these mutual aid groups across the country can be found here. If you aren't self-isolating and are able
to help others out, consider using these groups to get in touch to offer your assistance.
More information about mutual support groups (Freedom website)
Information for migrants
Treatment for COVID-19 (and all communicable diseases) is free for everybody, however many migrants may not know this. There are important
mechanisms of support and demands that local communities can make in order to ensure that everybody can access care. We encourage everybody
to join their nearest mutual aid group.
EU Settlement Scheme Applications continue to be processed but some of the support services and application routes have temporarily changed.
The Settlement Resolution Centre will no longer be answering telephone calls, it will, however, continue to respond to email enquiries.
Emails from support organisations will be prioritised where possible. The ID document scanner locations have been suspended. The postal
route for submitting identity evidence is currently suspended. Applications can still be made online using the "EU Exit ID Document check app".
Information for students
We are advising all students leaving their accommodation due to universities closing, to ask their agencies and landlords to terminate their
tenancies following the government's current social distancing measures and according to an emergency clause to terminate the agreement
included in most of tenancies.
More information about coronavirus and student accomodation
local, network, collective:
SolFed
Access Layer:
Public
Summary:
Information for workers and tenants to deal with the Covid-19 crisis
http://www.solfed.org.uk/coronavirus
------------------------------
Message: 5
May 1st is the day of struggle and solidarity. For centuries, workers have been rebelling against the persecution of bosses and the
injustice of capitalism in their workplaces; they bring their struggles together in the streets and squares. This year, we enter May 1st on
days that are extraordinary for us every day, but this time for the rich. The corona crisis has become a new one of the ongoing crises of
the system for young workers who are in crisis every day. We had to grapple with difficulties as hundreds of thousands and millions, both
desperate and unconcerned, as well as those who stayed in their homes with their accumulated, paid leave or who did not need a salary to
close home already. The struggle for us is every day in our lives, where we have to choose between working disease and staying hungry.
We speak as young workers, those who serve their homes closed under the name of corona virus outbreak measures. It is now time to raise our
voices, which we maintain between cashiers, we deliver from one cargo engine to another, and we whisper between parcels on our back, and
orders in the kitchens.
Who are we? We are young workers, we are forced to work even under the most inoperable conditions.
We are cargo workers, in our workplaces where measures are regarded as expense or delayed, we are forced to keep up with an increased
workload. The simplest mask, as if we had to touch what hundreds and thousands of people touched from home to home, from warehouse to home
every day, are the ones who eat little by little in our disinfectant demand. In these days when walking around the street is prohibited, we
are the ones carrying shoes from warehouses to houses.
We are warehouse workers. Among the boxes we have to raise for cargoes, we measure the limits of the product that a person can carry by
forcing them with his body. We are paying the increase in the workload due to the epidemic by decreasing our salaries despite the increase
in working hours.
We are market workers. We are seen as snoring as a source of virus in workplaces where the human tail is not missing at the door. On days
when people are afraid to spend even 1 hour outside, we have no employees working for less than 13 hours. Precautionary preparations are not
even included in working hours. We are the ones who take care of the departments that they are not interested in before and who are forced
to do things that are not responsible.
We are fast food workers. We are those who are not paid or delayed while working in the world's largest chains. As a reason for this, we are
billed for less incoming orders. We are forced to be even faster in the industry where we work fast.
We are waiters, komis, dishwashers who are fired; In this system of injustices, where we do not have the luxury to close home, we are the
ones who are taken away from work. We are workers who are forced to use their annual leave and sometimes even use it as luxury.
FOR SOME FREE
LEAVE FOR SOME
We, the young workers, have been the most exploited and the most oppressed since the beginning of the process. This violence continued to
increase to our friends working in different service sectors, where precarious, flexible working conditions are used as a weapon. While only
a few of the workers working in secure jobs were on paid leave, none of the service workers had paid leave. Those who can take leave are
either used their annual leave or leave for free leave and are sentenced to starvation at 39 lira per day.
EMPLOYEE EXPLOITATION ALWAYS MORE
For those of us who have to work to live and whose sector is not directly affected, precautions were presented as a reason for our struggle
with increasing workload. Our working hours participated in the preparatory phase of the mandatory measures. We have worked more in the
workplaces where we have always worked more, this time with our salaries reduced by half. The government said that layoffs were prohibited,
but many of us were already laid off until the whole process was over. Legal cases were created for unpaid leaves, with the excuse of
banning layoffs.
In the epidemic, capitalism continued to exploit child labor without slowing down. For other young workers, double standard practices...
After the declaration of curfew under the age of 20, young workers who could work with a permit were granted "privilege". A small amount of
assistance for basic foodstuffs and other needs could not be accessed, we were forced to take care of our families trying to get along.
We are entering May 1st when we are most aware of the increasing pressure, exploitation, and our lives trying to be devalued. We call on our
fight against bosses who steal our lives with or without viruses. We call on all young workers to participate in the program we have
prepared for May 1st and to raise the sounds we make amongst us. ?
Declaration of May 1st from the Young Workers Association (Genç Isçi Dernegi) of Turkey.
You can find them on Twitter
Originally posted (and in the original Turkish) on Meydan.org
Translation by DAF (Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet)
http://organisemagazine.org.uk/2020/05/01/life-has-stopped-we-have-not-stopped-statement/
------------------------------
Message: 6
We have been contacted by comrades in the Philippines to let us know the situation that is happening there as we speak. ---- CNN reported on
April 24th 2020 that President Rodrigo Duterte warned anew that he may declare martial law due to the alleged lawlessness of communist
rebels. ---- "I am warning everybody and putting notice sa[to the]armed forces and the police, I might declare martial law," Duterte said in
a taped address aired on Friday. ---- The President also vowed to ‘finish' all of the communist group members before his terms ends in 2022.
---- According to comrades, who wish to remain anonymous for their own protection and safety, this has happened quietly, and that a "Second
Martial is implemented silently" and that the independent media, what there was of it, has been clamped down on with only state-controlled
media allowed to operate.
Our comrades go on to say, "There is no means to let this out what is happening in our community. No mainstream media that have documented
what's really going here. It's an alarming fact!"
The "Community" is made up of anarchists, punks and other "non-mainstream left" and in the past few months they have been harassed,
arrested, shot and had their homes and meetings raided with everything from literature to electrical items such as computers either
confiscated or destroyed.
The DDS (DUTERTES DEATH SQUAD) a "secret" paramilitary group working "beneath the rule of law" has been "committing mass inhumane violence
on the community" our comrade continues, "they go suspected house (identified) by their informer and conduct raids without warrant, they
call it silent raids and it usually happens at dawn".
"The DDS is made up of many ex-police, soldiers wear ski masks has teams in all of the police stations and have one personal calling the
shots". The "DDS will visit your place and say warning and second time you will be on their hit list".
"Some of our crew and friends are in fear of them and we move a lot staying at different houses because staying in our info shop was not
safe anymore and that is why we don't sleep and widely awake at night here".
As on 3rd of May our comrades reported that there were many police and soldiers patrolling the streets and a lot of checkpoints.
Using the coronavirus as an excuse to increase its control and carry out more attacks on anyone "who doesn't support our president or who
talks about the bad things he is doing; it is hard to live in this regime".
"People here are scared to talk about these issues or won't talk for fear of being picked up, and some people where jailed for trying to
carry out activities on Labour Day (May Day)".
On the evening of the 3rd May 2020 we received the following message from our comrades:
"One of our comrades was gun down yesterday May 2nd at 7:00 pm on the street. He and her wife and 6 years old son where going to their home
and at the checkpoint he was shot in point blank. He was shot 5 times in the head and his wife was also shot dead with bullets to the head
two times while his son was hit by a stray bullet.
"The question in our minds is what is really happening to our country, with more and more killings every day.
"And the question is what happened in on barangay (an inner-city area, slum or suburb) checkpoint because each barangay is total lockdown
and the checkpoint was guarded by two police men and 4 barangay police.
"The crime scene investigators (SOCO) only questioned the two cops and 4 barangay police who said they only see two guys riding motorcycle
which we called riding in tandem, wearing ski masks. Everyone here knows this refers to the "Death Squads" and that he was targeted."
The comrade who was shot and killed has been described as a "real (good) father and good working-class comrade who worked in our computer
shop". His son is now an orphan and we are "trying to do what is right by him, we are his family."
"We live in a time when there is no justice no human rights and everything is under the control of our killer president and his hired "gang
boy" killers who ride motorcycles and wear ski masks.
"The media news only publish drug related issues they are also afraid of our president.
"Even though by telling you this we fear for our lives, our families and our comrades and friends we continue to educate our community about
anarchism, giving them ideas on how to resist this kind of injustice and show that there is another way. Our so-called democracy is all
fucking lies.
"We have been imprisoned many times because of anarchism spreading, time is all we have that is expensive and we don't know when we will be
hit (by the DDS or Police/Military), we can only hope that we are not on the list".
Viva Anarkista (Anarchist comrades - Philippines)
5th May Update
We received the following message today: "Another comrade was gun down today at 5:00pm by Death Squad hit his head five bullets by the ski
mask people riding a motorcycle. He was a good man, work as a taxi driver and our fellow skinhead and he play in our old band as Bass-Player.
"Maybe our name is on the list, but this won't stop us educate about Anarchism to our community."
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/05/05/philippines-the-continuing-crackdown-on-anarchists/
------------------------------
Message: 7
When Boris Johnson came to power as Mayor of London back in 2008, one of the many unkept promises he made was not to turn London into, in
his own words, a high-rise "Dubai on Thames". His predecessor, Labourite Ken Livingstone, had already started this process. A friend of the
property developers, Livingstone openly encouraged the building of high-rise buildings. He held private dinners with property developers,
attended the massive property fair MIPIM in Cannes, and publicly announced that it was OK for developers to build as big and high as they
wanted, as long as his administration received a tithe to build affordable housing (this "affordable " housing failed to appear).
Livingstone promised a city that was "Open, tolerant, affluent, socially and environmentally responsible, a beautiful city of which
Londoners and Britain can be proud." He talked of a million new trees, a hundred new or transformed public spaces.
This led on to proposals for various high-rise structures, aping the precedent of the Gherkin building (nicknamed the Devil's Suppository by
some Londoners), like the Cheese Grater, the Walkie Talkie, the Doon Street Tower, Strata SE1, and the Shard.
This stampede towards high-rise buildings faltered with the crash. In the meantime, there was no sign of these million new trees, and only
five of the public spaces materialised. The result of two terms in office was a long list of broken promises, a massive escalation in the
number of skyscrapers, and a surge in the construction of ugly apartment blocks with tiny flats at high prices, with little sign of the
"affordable" housing.
Johnson came to power in London with a promise to stop the proliferation of skyscrapers. In fact, very soon, he began to zealously follow
the same policies as Livingstone, encouraging the property developers to build huge and shoddily built constructions. He approved the
Columbus Tower in Canary Wharf, despite the objections of Tower Hamlets Council, and from there it went on. At first, developers promised
environmental and social additions to the buildings, like wind turbines, as with the Vauxhall Tower and Strata, and public spaces as with
the Walkie Talkies and its public viewing galleries. None of these, of course, ever materialised.
Local councils, many of them Labour, got on board as well, and helped facilitate the shoddy skyscraper boom. A huge proliferation of these
tall buildings, many more than 20 stories high, has disfigured London.
The developers argued that London was growing, that it needed more homes and that building upwards was better than expanding into the green
belt.
But in actual fact the majority of flats built under the property developers' schemes are highly priced, and the sop of affordable housing
that was meant to be factored in, as hoped for by local councils, has been proven to be derisory.
The local councils were also under pressure from central government to raise more of their revenue from approving planning permission for
housing, whilst cutting it back from other sources. It was the same with the various housing associations which had taken over the bulk of
council housing. The former and very dodgy Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, was an enthusiastic advocate of building shoddily built
skyscrapers, constructed closely together.
Meanwhile Johnson approved many of the projects he had originally said that he would veto. Things have not improved under Labour's Sadiq
Khan, who has overseen the building of a record number of high-rise buildings. Last year, sixty buildings of 20 storeys or more were
completed, more than twice the number of the previous year, when 25 were built.
Nine out of ten towers completed last year were built for residential use, and you can bet there was very little scope for either
"affordable" (not really) housing, and (don't make me laugh) social housing.
Housing delivery under Khan is on an average of 37,000 a year, far below the promised 52,000 under his London Plan and very little of this
was for social rent. Meanwhile, Robert Jenrick, Johnson's Secretary of State for Housing, has called for developers to build higher, and
with higher density and approves encroachments into the Green Belt.
The coronavirus pandemic has temporarily halted the skyscraper boom. It has also highlighted the need for a radical rethink about high
density housing, which is now revealed as neither safe nor desirable because of the way people are packed in on top of each other with no
gardens.
Working class Londoners have been betrayed on many levels, by Labour and Tory Mayors, by Labour and Tory councils, by the housing
associations, and by Westminster. The lust for profit has forced many out of London where they are no longer able to afford to live. It has
destroyed many working class neighbourhoods, and forced those who are still living there to exist in increasingly cramped conditions, with
huge skyscrapers looming over estates and robbing them of light. It has put huge pressure on the beleaguered green spaces.
The coronavirus pandemic has heavily emphasised the importance of green spaces and it may prove a threat to the continued construction of
tall buildings. Chair of Bartlett Real Estate Institute, Yolande Barnes, recently had to admit that "I have real worries in the commercial
world about how lettable anything over six floors will be. It could well spell the end of tall buildings, at least for a short while. We are
looking at a very different sort of new and normal". As capitalism is forced to restructure with the coronavirus pandemic, then it is up to
radicals and revolutionaries to intervene to demand changes of a social nature, favourable to the working class.
anarchistcommunism.org/2020/05/02/johnson-and-dubai-on-thames
------------------------------
Message: 8
Written by Simoun Magsalin with input from the Bandilang Itim Collective. ---- Original text HERE ---- In March 2020, the people of the
archipelago known as the Philippines were alarmed at the rate of local transmission of the disease known as COVID-19. On March 12, police
and military forces were mobilized to enforce a community quarantine for the whole of Metro Manila scheduled to start on the midnight of
March 15. This quarantine was later generalized for the whole island of Luzon, a population of some 53 million souls. That the mobilization
of the state's apparatus of violence was more noticeable than the mobilization of medical and social resources is telling of the
administration's priorities.
A regime of violence is in place. Soldiers with assault rifles set up checkpoints; one questions the necessity of assault rifles against the
coronavirus-do these people plan to shoot it? At these checkpoints, some women report being sexually harassed. Local police and barangay
officials took it upon themselves to creatively experiment in punitive measures like caging alleged lockdown violators in a small cage. A
police officer was recorded threatening to shoot residents for purportedly breaking lockdown while hitting residents with a stick in a
Muslim community in Quiapo. A homeless lola was violently arrested for being outside during curfew hours-essentially arrested for being
homeless! Houses are still being demolished during a time when people urgently need homes to stay in. A teacher and her son in General
Santos were arrested without warrants over Facebook posts. A congregation of people looking for relief goods in Barangay Bagong Pagasa were
arrested. The National Bureru of Investigation is subpoenaing people for "unlawful utterances" on social media. President Duterte went on
record threatening warrantless arrests against "disobedience" and in a later speech threatened to shoot people for going out of their homes.
Indeed, someone was shot by police at a Bulacan checkpoint, the police washing their hands of it like they did with the drug war.
Under the state of things, it is not an exaggeration to say the government of the Philippines has effectively imposed martial law in fact,
if not formally declared in law. At a time of crisis, the gut instinct of the State was to mobilize and deploy its apparatus of violence.
The deployment of medical resources is secondary to the assault rifles deployed. Instead of the deployment of increased medical resources,
we have uniformed forces aimlessly and needlessly straying city borders with no other purpose than installing themselves as the false faces
of the state's peace and order. It is peace and order and not public health that is the priority of the state.
This martial law is extralegal, not that legality has significance to anarchists in the archipelago. Activists of all stripes understand
that the state apparatus of violence is not limited by what they prescribe in law. State violence has always been both legal and extralegal,
never mind that legality is a pointless distinction when the balance of power favors the state. Legality is meaningless when what is violent
can simply be legalized in an act of congress or municipal ordinance-indeed that is what happened with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
The deployment of the apparatus of violence to literally combat a medical emergency betrays a certain opportunism from the state. The state
is opportunistically using the crisis to expand its police power. While the purported purpose of the lockdown is to quarantine, it is also a
godsend to the fascists in the police and military as an excuse to crack down on dissent. And what of the new laws they put into place now?
What guarantee do we have that the extreme measures the state takes today do not become the new normal after the end of COVID-19 crisis?
We have seen an unprecedented expansion of the surveillance state with drones and cameras being drafted to keep a close eye over public
spaces. Instead of using their resources to feed people, they instead use this crisis as an opportunity to expand their ability to do
surveillance!
In a special session, congress railroaded the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act with its controversial provisions on granting special powers to
the Office of the President and dramatic jail time and fine penalization for dissenters.1 This is the use of shock doctrine, or the
opportunistic use of crisis to pass controversial or questionable laws. First described by investigative reporter Naomi Klein, the shock
doctrine is used specifically during crises like our own to take advantage of the difficulty to build resistance to these policies due to
the crises. The state is using this crisis as an opportunity to expand its power. This is not a phenomena isolated in the Philippines;
Hungary is now practically a dictatorship after Prime Minister Viktor Orban used the crisis to expand his powers to practically dictatorial
levels and now rules by decree.
We anarchists are skeptical of authority itself. We do not think those in authority have our best interests at heart. We think they are
there only to reproduce and expand their own power. After the crises passes, the state of emergency will be lifted, but the new powers and
the new state of surveillance will stay.
Solusyon Medikal, Hindi Militar!
We anarchists in the archipelago do not contest the need for a quarantine. After all, a quarantine and social distancing is needed to
protect the most vulnerable among us like the immunocompromised, people living with HIV, and our elderly.
With that said, a quarantine enforced by violence and guns is clearly the wrong way to implement a quarantine. It does more harm than good.
The checkpoints are made up of squads of large men with guns with barely any medical equipment in sight, not to mention the repeatedly noted
lack of trained medical professionals. Reports of the vagueness of protocol, sexual harassment, and sometimes outright robbery and extortion
on the part of the police and military personnel are being posted by people who go through the ordeal of dealing with them. What is even
more alarming is the possibility of the checkpoint officers becoming vectors for the diseases themselves with reports of checkpoints without
face masks or police and soldiers in close contact with the people they check. Checkpoints also risk becoming a place where people are
forced to congregate, creating possible vectors for viral transmission. Ultimately, soldiers and police are trained in violence, not empathy
or care-giving. Thus when confronted with homelessness, these people respond with violence-arresting the homeless instead of giving them a
home, as was the case with lola Dorothy Espejo.
The severe discrepancy between resources devoted to militarized policing versus medical needs is made even more apparent by this trend of
"VIP testing." Politicians, oligarchs, and elites are able to jump the line and gain priority access to COVID-19 testing all the while
people are being turned away from critical treatment due to lack of testing.
On April 1, the elitism of the regime was apparent where people congregated at a national highway in Barangay Bagong Pagasa upon hearing a
rumor that food packs would be distributed there. They were met with mass arrests, purportedly for breaking quarantine. Instead of meeting
needs, the state opts to just arrest them all. Meanwhile Senator Koko Pimentel who willfully broke quarantine protocol knowing that he was a
patient under investigation is still a free man without any repercussion other than public outrage. Pimentel scandalously endangered
critical medical personnel when it was reveled later he was positive for COVID-19.One also remembers that convicted plunderer and widow of
the old dictator Imelda Marcos is still a free woman despite the courts deeming her criminal. It is clear that law and protocol only apply
to toilers and dispossessed while the elites can live as they will, willfully endangering working people around them.
We also see the discrepancy in the dismal provision of relief packs. Endless emergency funds are activated but relief provided is paltry.
These dismal relief goods are contrasted with images of agricultural traders in the Cordilleras destroying and discarding vegetables simply
because they cannot sell these! Vegetables are being thrown away while people are being arrested for protesting their hunger. In these times
of crisis the need for an economy to fulfill needs instead of profits is increasingly urgent. One wonders why with all these emergency funds
activated from the crisis, government agencies cannot simply purchase all these produce before they are discarded.
Against a militarized quarantine, the people of the archipelago demand in one voice: Solusyon Medikal, Hindi Militar!-Medical solutions, not
military! Against the elitist privilege in accessing COVID-19 testing kits, activists cry out: free mass testing now! Against the paltry
provision of goods, the people organize in mutual aid and bayanihan networks that seek to fulfill needs.
Quarantine and Capitalism are Incompatible
During this time of crisis, it is increasingly apparent that quarantine and capitalism are incompatible. A quarantine requires people to
stay at home, limit going out, and practice social distancing. But how can people stay at home if they are precarious workers under a
no-work no-pay scheme and live paycheck to paycheck? How can people confine themselves to their homes if their needs are dependent on their
paychecks? If workers are laid off, how will they afford groceries and rent while in quarantine?
A quarantine needs to fulfill the needs of the people as a irreducible minimum for the reproduction of daily life, that is to say, to be
able to access food, water, medicine, and other things needed to stay alive. But production under capitalism does not revolve around meeting
needs, it revolves around meeting profits. Thus when a state of emergency shuts down the engines of profit, so does the engine of wages
shuts down, and with that the needs are left unfulfilled.
Against the contradictions between capitalism and quarantine we need a system that meets needs instead of profits. We need a quarantine that
ensures people do not starve. Without work and against the demand of rents and profits, our demands must be to distribute according to need,
to cancel rent, and to cancel residential utility bills. And after the crisis, to keep these canceled.
For a Non-Militarized, Self-Managed quarantine
In the face of a martial law dressed in medical gowns, what can we count on? Each other.
Regular people, people like you and me, are doing what they can to make sure that not only they survive, but to ensure the well-being of
those around them, too. We see people practicing mutual aid, or as it is known in the Philippines, bayanihan. We see people making masks and
medical gear, not for profit, but because there is a need for it. Mothers in Los Angeles are taking over abandoned houses in search of
quarantine like Kadamay did in Bulacan. Neighborhoods all over the world are helping each other out by pooling together what little they
have, and like the political dissident Jesus breaking bread and fish, are able to fill each others' needs with the most shoestring of
supplies. These are seeds for a future post-capitalist economy based on needs rather than profits.
It is clear we can expect no salvation from the state or capital. Against the quarantine with martial law characteristics, it is urgent that
we forward a liberatory alternative based on solidarity and mutual aid instead of militarism and impunity. It is possible to have a
self-managed quarantine that is not enforced with assault rifles. For example, residents among urban poor communities in Metro Manila have
taken the initiative of setting up their own self-managed checkpoints, sans assault rifles and macho egos. In Hong Kong and Taiwan,
quarantines are not enforced by force of arms but rather by the collective responsibility of everyone. A quarantine without coercion and
violence is possible if we care to look.
Indeed, a better world is possible if we care to look.
Bibliography
Acayan, Ezra. @eacayan. Twitter Post. 9:07 AM, March 21, 2020. https://twitter.com/eacayan/status/1241169606787477504
"Pasaway daw ang mahirap? Residents of Manila's poorer districts defend against the coronavirus by putting up makeshift barricades to halt
movement in its tight alleyways and jampacked slums where social distancing is nearly impossible."
Buan, Lian. "Cops Arrest Homeless Lola Who Shouted at Tanods Warning About Curfew." Rappler. Last modified March 17, 2020.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/254926-cops-arrest-homeless-lola-shouted-tanods-warning-about-curfew
Cabato, Regine. @RegineCabato. Twitter Post. 4:13 PM, March 26, 2020. https://twitter.com/RegineCabato/status/1243088696435281920
"The government says it will exercise "human compassion" as a COVID-19 positive senator broke quarantine rules. Here's a thread of how / why
Filipinos don't feel this on the ground. First, from Manila police today: ‘Anyone out at the wrong time will be shot, you sons of bitches.'"
Cabato, Regine. @RegineCabato. Twitter Post. 4:53 PM, March 26, 2020. https://twitter.com/RegineCabato/status/1243098655092903941
"Someone who evaded a checkpoint in Bulacan was shot and killed by police. The police said he fought back and shot first, a common script
from authorities in Duterte's bloody drug war."
Chow, Vivienne. "How People Power Has Flattened the Covid Curve in Hong Kong." Lowy Institute. Last modified March 20, 2020.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/two-months-hong-kong-coping-covid-19-now
Cyrus, Smiley. @MINGAWKU. Twitter Post. 10:54 am, march 18, 2020. https://twitter.com/mingawku/status/1240109402889191424
"May demolisyong nagaganap sa Pasay city yes po tama kayo ng basa demolisyon sa kabila ng banta ng COVID-19 at pagsasabi ng gobyernong
‘manatili sa loob ng bahay' ay tatanggalan nila ng tirahan as usual ang mga maralita. Fuck this government!"
Diokno, Chel.@ChelDiokno. Twitter Post. 10:19 AM, April 2, 2020. https://twitter.com/ChelDiokno/status/1245536276964495360
"Di lang si Mayor Vico. Pati ordinaryong mamamayang nagpo-post ng hinaing online, pinapatawag ng NBI. Tinanggap ko ang kasong ito dahil di
na makatao ang nangyayari. Ang dami nang namamatay, pati frontliners, pero imbis na COVID, kritiko ang gusto nilang puksain. #ProtectThePeople"
Engler, Mark. "Theory: The shock doctrine." Beautiful Trouble. Accessed April 3, 2020. https://beautifultrouble.org/theory/the-shock-doctrine/
Famatigan, Mark Ernest. "Barangay Captain Cages Curfew Violators in Laguna." Rappler. Last modified March 21, 2020.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/255342-barangay-captain-cages-curfew-violators-sta-cruz-laguna
Human Rights Watch. "Respecting Rights During Coronavirus: Taiwan and Hong Kong Show Beijing the Benefit of Open Societies." Hong Kong Free
Press. Last modified March 19, 2020.
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2020/03/20/respecting-rights-coronavirus-taiwan-hong-kong-show-beijing-benefit-open-societies/
Ilas, Joyce. "TIMELINE: Koko Pimentel's Activities, COVID-19 Diagnosis." CNN Philippines. Last modified March 26, 2020.
https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/3/26/Koko-Pimentel-COVID-19-timeline.html.
Lazaro, Ramon Efren. "Bulacan Checkpoint Evader Killed in ‘shooutout.'" Philstar.com. Last modified March 25, 2020.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/03/25/2003278/bulacan-checkpoint-evader-killed-shooutout
Madarang, Catalina Ricci S. "The ‘Bayanihan to Heal As One Act' and What's at Stake in the Law." Interaksyon. Last modified March 30, 2020.
https://www.interaksyon.com/politics-issues/2020/03/26/164950/bayanihan-to-heal-as-one-act-whats-at-stake-law/
Marquez, Consuelo. "MPD Probes Cop for Allegedly Threatening Quiapo Resident." Inquirer.net. Last modified March 26, 2020.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1248757/mpd-probes-cop-for-allegedly-threatening-quiapo-resident
Petty, Martin. "‘Shoot Them Dead' - Philippine Leader Says Won't Tolerate Lockdown Violators." Reuters. Last modified April 2, 2020.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-philippines-dutert-idUSKBN21K0AY
Philstar.com. @PhilstarNews. Twitter Post. 8:51 AM April 2, 2020. https://twitter.com/PhilstarNews/status/1245514201776324608
"Human rights lawyer @ChelDiokno reveals he has taken on the case of a netizen who was being summoned by the NBI because the situation is
turning ‘inhumane.'"
Rey, Aika, and Rappler.com. "Teacher, Son Arrested Without Warrant in GenSan over Facebook Post." Rappler. Last modified March 28, 2020.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/256157-teacher-son-arrested-without-warrant-general-santos-city-facebook-post-coronavirus
Stojanovic, Dusan. "Democracy Test: Hungary, Serbia Leaders Expand Emergency Powers." The Christian Science Monitor. Last modified March 31,
2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2020/0331/Democracy-test-Hungary-Serbia-leaders-expand-emergency-powers
Tagani Philippines. @TaganiPH. Twitter post. 4:17 PM, March 24, 2020. https://twitter.com/TaganiPH/status/1242364791878045697
"Gone to waste. LOOK: Carrots are forced to be disposed of as farmers are not able to sell their produce to buyers at a trading post in
Ifugao. Photo by Pubg RenJa Cat-Lamhi"
Tagani Philippines. @TaganiPH. Twitter post. 2:10 PM, March 26, 2020. https://twitter.com/TaganiPH/status/1243057834448678913
"Let's help them get their produce to Manila, please! #SupportFarmersPH http://gogetfunding.com/supportfarmersph WATCH: Almost a ton of
pechay wasted in Benguet due to scarcity of buyers during #LuzonLockdown."
Talabong, Rambo. "Quezon City Residents Demanding Help Amid Lockdown Arrested by Police." Rappler. Last modified April 1, 2020.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/256628-residents-quezon-city-protesting-help-coronavirus-lockdown-arrested-by-police-april-1-2020
Talabong, Rambo; Gavilan, Jodesz. "‘Walang-wala Na': Poor Filipinos Fear Death from Hunger More Than Coronavirus." Rappler. Last modified
April 2, 2020. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/256695-poor-filipinos-fear-death-from-hunger-more-than-coronavirus
Tomacruz, Sofia. "Duterte Signs Law Granting Himself Special Powers to Address Coronavirus Outbreak." Rappler. Last modified March 24, 2020.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/255718-duterte-signs-law-granting-special-powers-coronavirus-outbreak
Against the co-option of bayanihan by the state to label its expansive powers, anarchists in the archipelago forward a genuine bayanihan in
its original meaning of mutual aid.[?]
Share this:
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/05/07/philippines-the-opportunism-of-martial-law/
------------------------------
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten