Today's Topics:
1. [Chile] Anarcho-feminist circle Ni Amas Ni Esclavas: The
pandemic and the autonomous territorial organization By ANA (pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - AL #304 - Back on
the strikes of winter 2019-2020 -- Refineries: Strike Taken, Not
Blockage (fr, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. London Anarchist Federation: Reading Group Recommends:
Finding Eichmann [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. ozzip.pl: Warsaw: Security company did not pay salary in a
few months, 08 May 2020 Department: Mazowieckie [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Czech, AFED: Minister Richard Brabec - a fearless fighter
against drought? [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Britain, anarchist communist ACG: Solidarity with comrades
in Indonesia (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
In the context of the global health crisis and in the face of the inoperability, neglect and indolence of those who intend to govern our
territories and who have acted negatively on this issue, we are in a favorable position, since since the beginning of the revolt of 18
October we gathered in the streets, we recognized ourselves as politically active people in the territory we inhabit, raising self-convened
and horizontal assemblies. These assemblies have been articulated throughout this territory called Chile and operate autonomously, that is,
without hierarchies or representatives, calling on neighbors to share and generate community through the raising of common "pots",
manifestations of neighborhood, territorial self-defense, spaces for collective learning and discussion, approaches to food self-management
through the creation of supply networks and the occupation of common spaces for the survey of community gardens. If we think about this
organizational advance that we have managed for almost 5 months, they find us with various tools such as the social and affective proximity
of people who share the same territory and that allows us to manage and develop any action necessary for the community as a whole. quickly
and effectively. Also the continuity of actions that directly contribute, in this time of crisis, to each community, as it happens with the
supply and solidarity networks based on the mutual support of neighbors: working people who have to continue to expose their own lives for
these precarious conditions, typical of this economic system;
We can see how the health crisis collapses health systems in different states and how it begins to undermine the economic system that has
been imposed on us. Since before the crisis, we already knew that there is no state that can supply all the food, the whole economy, nor all
the health of the entire population, but with all this, it only becomes more evident. That is why we have to continue acting as organized
territorial groups, because the solution to our daily problems around the global health crisis will not come through the protective state of
large companies and totally discriminated against and stingy with the people who are at hand with the error to elect "democratically",
taking advantage of the new virtual tools for those who can use them.
Anarcho-feminist circle Ni Amas Ni Esclavas
Translation> Ophelia
Related content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2020/04/24/chile-comunicado-do-circulo-anarcofeminista-ni-amas-ni-esclavas-frente-a-pandemia-ea-volta-a-normalidade/
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 2
Why did the oil refineries, on the front line in the fight against the Labor Law in 2016, remain behind during the strikes of winter
2019-2020 ? Some were however on a renewable strike - up to 43 days at Grandpuits -, but the CGT was unable to obtain a complete shutdown of
the installations. Lighting. ---- At the beginning of January 2020, when the SNCF and the RATP were entering their fifth week of strike,
concern was growing. Certainly, the movement had beautifully stepped over the "Christmas truce" and remained determined. But the arrival of
the first payrolls at zero euros was going to hurt. Returning to work threatened. What sector could then play the role of locomotive of the
struggle ? ---- All eyes were on the oil refineries, spearheading the challenge to the Fillon reform in 2010, and then the El Khomri law in
2016. What about in 2020 ?
Level 1 and level 2 of wrestling
In an establishment classified as Seveso 2, such as a refinery, the strike follows specific procedures to avoid any accident. In terms of
the balance of power, there is sort of level 1 and level 2. At level 1, we go on strike, but without stopping the installations: production
continues at a minimum, but the fuel does not leave the site. At level 2, the installations are forced to shutdown: this is a more sensitive
operation, which spans several days and blocks everything for a long time, since the restart itself will take several days.
The CGT is in the majority in seven out of eight refineries (see box below) and, as soon as it appeared that the date of December 5, 2019
could be the starting point for a large-scale struggle, the National Federation of Industries chemical (Fnic), which ranks in the fighting
wing of the CGT, rolled up its sleeves. On October 22, she called a renewable strike from December 5.
Within Fnic, the refinery unions have their own coordination, led by Thierry Defresne, central union representative for Total refineries.
Together, the activists prepared for the battle, while being aware that the climate would be less buoyant than four years ago. "Employees
often have a disillusioned memory of the 2016 struggle, notes Defresne. Many experienced it as a "proxy strike" which saw them acclaimed as
heroes, of course, but rather isolated heroes who lost out after more than three weeks on strike..."Before December 5, the feedback from the
field was therefore quite mixed. The employees said they were ready to participate in an overall movement, but certainly not to take the
lead. Go on strike, yes. Stop the installations ? It would depend on events ...
To this circumspection were added contrasting local conjunctures. In Donges, the site, which is quite unsuitable for the market, is
threatened, and Total is blackmailing investments. Feyzin had already gone on strike for 52 days in the fall, on a local subject, and it was
going to be difficult to start again. La Mède is experiencing some insecurity: in 2019, it was converted to agrofuel, and its economic
viability is uncertain. As for the two Exxon refineries, they are traditionally less combative.
Nevertheless, the trade unionists have set to work. It was a question of convincing the colleagues for the great meeting of December 5.
In 2010 (here at Grandpuits) as in 2016, refinery workers, at the forefront of the struggle, were acclaimed as heroes. They often have the
mixed memory of having fought for others.
cc Daniel Maunoury
On D-Day, early in the morning, at each site, when shifts are made, employees gather in front of the gates, under union flags. We speak, we
count, we vote. And the result is uneven: only Grandpuits, Gonfreville[1], La Mède and Lavéra go on a renewable strike, but without stopping
the installations. Donges decides to strike intermittently: 72 hours a week. Feyzin will only respond to national action days. And the two
Exxon sites do not move, or very little.
The prefecture requisitions Grandpuits
Participation is therefore real, with real strikes ... but only a halt in production can impress power. How to do it ? The tactics of
Fnic-CGT consist in fixing the date of a truly simultaneous action on the eight refineries: 48, 72 or 96 hours of strike "all at the same
time". This would give the strikers confidence to go further, and go to "level 2".
Problem: it can't be pinned. Despite the tours, the discussions - 3 GA per day on strike sites, for the participation of the 5 teams working
in 3 × 8 -, the negotiations with FO, no common date is suitable. However, we feel that it would not miss much for a switch to blocking. The
strikers at Petroineos, for example, began to shut down certain installations between the holidays. In Grandpuits, the young workers refuse
to take over to force the older, more reluctant, to shut down the installations - but before getting there, the prefecture requisitions them
to force them to provide security.
At the beginning of January, finally, a shooting window opens. While the decline threatens the SNCF and the RATP, the federations of the CGT
and FO Chemistry agree on a call for 96 hours of non-stop strike, from January 7, on the eight refineries. And it works ... almost. The
96-hour strike is well followed - even at Exxon - but the GAs do not vote to stop the installations. Even on a stronghold like Grandpuits,
this option collects only 45% of the votes. Mass has been said. The refineries will not be the much awaited relay.
After the national action day of January 9, the movement therefore inexorably declined. "We have failed to overcome the reluctance of
employees, regrets Thierry Defresne. However, the best strategy to create a balance of power remains that of 2016: shutdown of installations
and total blockage of production."
Guillaume Davranche (UCL Montreuil)
THE REFINING LANDSCAPE
Hexagon has eight refineries. Five depend on the Total group: Donges (Loire-Atlantique), Feyzin (Rhône), Grandpuits (Seine-et-Marne),
Gonfreville (Seine-Maritime) and la Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône). Two belong to the United States ExxonMobil: Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) and
Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône). Finally, the Anglo-Chinese Petroineos operates the Lavéra site (Bouches-du-Rhône).
The La Mède refinery is a special case: until 2015 it processed 7.5 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Since its conversion in 2019, it
has produced 500,000 tonnes of agrofuel annually. It is called "biofuel" for advertising reasons, while it is not organic. It is produced
from palm oil (a major cause of deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia), rapeseed and animal fats.
The CGT dominates in seven refineries. FO is the majority only in Feyzin.
Validate
[1] Gonfreville, however, will end the strike after nine days: on the night of December 13, in fact, a fire on the site will force a
complete shutdown of the installations. Three months later, they have still not restarted.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Raffineries-La-greve-a-pris-pas-le-blocage
------------------------------
Message: 3
Our regular, monthly reading group meetings are currently on hold due to Covid 19. ---- Until we'll be able to meet again, we'll switch from
books to films and recommend documentaries relevant to anarchist theory/thought. ---- This week, on 8 May, the anniversary of the end of the
Second World War, we're looking at the capture of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust, who was captured in
Argentina on 11 May 1960. ---- Nazism was not defeated on 8 May 1945, but is an on going struggle. ---- Several survivors of the Holocaust
dedicated themselves to finding Nazi war criminals who had escaped Germany - one of the most difficult to capture was Adolf Eichmann, whose
trial Hannah Arendt observed, coining the term ‘the banality of evil'. ---- Many people were involved in finding Eichmann and their stories
are as relevant today as they were in the 1960s.
These are the memories of Zvi Aharoni: https://www.thedriverisred.com/
And if you happen to understand German, this is the story of Fritz Bauer:
https://archive.org/details/Der-Staat-gegen-Fritz-Bauer_Film_2015
P.S. Hannah Arendt's reportage:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/02/16/eichmann-in-jerusalem-i
https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/reading-group-recommends-finding-eichmann/#more-1781
------------------------------
Message: 4
Employees of the related security companies City Security / City Perfect Service / Polski Holding Ochrony are alerting our relationship that
they have not been paid for their work since February. They didn't get paid for almost 600 hours of work done. Through us, they appeal to
other employees: apply to create a common pressure on bosses, let's fight together for overdue payments! ---- City Security and its entities
are an important player in the security industry. As employees inform us, they employ many thousands of people in Warsaw alone. The employer
has a very bad opinion, mainly due to the notorious practice of not paying the salary of subsequent employees ( Opinions on the GoWork.pl
website ). The company also reduces employment costs by using employment contracts instead of employment contracts. In this way, he avoids
paying overtime or employing more people to protect facilities due to restrictions on working time. Such actions of security companies have
been repeatedly questioned as not complying with applicable regulations.
The standard practice in this industry is to constantly change the entities (and their names) employing employees due to their bad
reputation. It is also a way to avoid claims from existing employees who have not been paid.
The last incarnation of "our" employer - Polski Holding Ochrony - associates with other entities the names of the presidents and
vice-presidents: Sebastian Michalkiewicz is a member of the board of various versions of City Security, City Perfect Service and PHO.
Beniamin Krasicki and Jan Sejdak also regularly appear on the management boards of related companies.
The current choice of company name is also not accidental. Polski Holding Ochrony impersonates Polski Holding Defense. This state-owned
company was to oust private security companies from facilities that were important to the state. City Security is also on the stump with the
ruling party in the country. It was this company that protected the luxury apartment building in which the PiS president Jaroslaw Kaczynski
together with the Prime Minister Morawiecki visited the president of the Constitutional Tribunal Julia Przylebska. City Security was to be
responsible for the leakage of surveillance recordings in the apartment building, which revealed these informal summit meetings.
Among others after this "scandal," the government is trying to oust private companies from protecting important facilities. For us, however,
a much bigger scandal is that a private company may still not be free to pay employees for work. Authorities can no longer cover the
pathologies of security companies. It is pathetic that instead of introducing common regulations for the industry, the authorities seem to
be protecting only their own narrow yard, so that by chance there would be no further leaks. They don't care about the rest of the problem.
People behind the Polish Security Holding clearly count on outsourcing in public institutions that are trying to introduce "savings in the
budgetary sphere" at the expense of employees sentenced today to hunger wages and poor employment conditions.
WE DEMAND immediate payment of overdue salaries for employees subordinate to Michalkiewicz - Krasicki - Sejdak!
http://ozzip.pl/informacje/mazowieckie/item/2648-warszawa-firma-ochroniarska-nie-wyplacila-pensji-za-kilka-miesiecy
------------------------------
Message: 5
Our sympathizer's commentary on the proclamations of the Minister of the Environment in contrast to the reality he is shaping. ---- In
recent weeks, a number of reports of worsening drought in the Czech Republic have appeared in the media. At the end of April, Richard
Brabec, Minister of the Environment, spoke about the threat of drought and the measures that the ministry is implementing and will
implement. Comprehensive and thoughtful response to the minister's words on this subject and generally includes eg. The article on
referendum Diary government fails to address drought, agree experts, environmentalists and opposition from R. Kubal. ---- In the context of
this issue, I would like to address only one specific case, which can show how Brabec really thinks about the protection of water resources.
This is a planned extraction of gravel sand in the locality of Uherský Ostroh and Moravský Písek, which could very realistically endanger
the key source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people (detailed information eg HERE ).
Of course, all political parties declare the need to combat drought, the need to protect the landscape, and therefore water resources. But
one thing is public proclamations, another is real action.
Residents of municipalities from a wide region, a number of experts, the South Moravian Region, and some other politicians oppose the
extraction of gravel (here we can only hope that there would be no change in their determination if the Ministry of the Environment were in
charge of their party). It is therefore very sad that the Ministry of the Environment is not in this list, which, moreover, with its last
decision from January this year, allowed the possibility of mining to be a little more realistic again ( HERE ).
Brabec describes his position on gravel mining in the article I am against mining, but the law is the law. The text is an interesting
mixture of dials, fogs and praise. Among other things, Brabec claims in his regret that he is approaching populism in mining. He himself is
essentially a pioneer in the ministry in the fight against drought. The fact that he is against mining, as stated in the title of the
article, I did not find divorced in the text, but Brabec writes that he would give priority to water protection over everything. That is, if
"there would be legal or factual reasons for doing so". At the same time, it reassures us that "mining is still a long way off". So we can
be without worries, it will sit down somehow, above all we have to believe in the law and impartiality of all involved. Brabec would start
actively opposing mining only after he discovered some of the legal or factual reasons. He doesn't seem to be looking too carefully (see eg
HERE ).
And last but not least, the fact that Brabec hypocritically refers in his article to the EIA (environmental impact assessment)
documentation, which is very problematic in itself, does not serve him much to honor, Brabec does not have enough contradictions here -
which would be enough for him. serious - not aware.
Once again, it shows how the state is constantly giving in to the key things of capitalism, or even paving the way for it. Auri sacra fames,
cursed hunger for gold...
Which scale of scales the political establishment will stand for in the case of gravel mining will depend primarily on public opposition to
the planned mining. When the top politicians whose decisions matter are no longer acting on the basis of obligations to society, they will
do so under the pressure of general dissent. Brabec would not agree with this, because, as he writes, "it is not the number of positive or
negative petitions that can decide here, but the opinions of authorized experts and the acceptability of environmental impacts." That is,
the opinion of several experts with an opinion that fits into the shop of Minister Brabec. Touching impartiality and the determination to
leave all decision-making to experts, should we perceive the attitude of a heroic fighter against drought? So I don't know, I don't know who
plays the populist and hypocritical bastard here, Mr. Brabc.
However, incomparable greater obstacles are still in the way for the poor capitalists and their helpers than in Africa or the Amazon, where
nothing stands in the way of capitalist "progress", and if it does, it can quickly disappear, such as difficult village with its even more
difficult inhabitants. But we have opportunities that the people of the Third World never dreamed of defending capitalism.
Capitalism is persistent, it has the means and the power. It also has a lot of work to do, because it is necessary to extract so many
natural resources, to build so many high-rise buildings! But if capitalism is so determined on its path to damn profit, we have only one
option left. Be more determined...
https://www.afed.cz/text/7168/ministr-richard-brabec-neohrozeny-bojovnik-proti-suchu
------------------------------
Message: 6
In Solidarity With Comrades Imprisoned in Malang and Tangerang, Indonesia
Article from Bandilang Itim 6 May 2020 ---- Written and initially published by Safehouse Infoshop at their blog. This is also a statement
from the Local Autonomous Network. ---- It seems that blame-game is a common tactic of different states during a pandemic. As petty
violators in the local are blamed to cover up the late travel ban and late mass testing imposed by the government, the same is done by the
Indonesian government by cracking down those who are critical to their incompetency. ---- Along with comrades from Australia, the
Netherlands and other countries, we, individuals and collectives of the Local Autonomous Network, denounce the actions of the Indonesian
government against comrades in Malang and Tangerang who were accused of inciting public disorder when disorder is already evident in the
grassroots.
Following are the reasons for this condemnation:
The hacking of social media accounts, as confirmed by Whatsapp, in the case of the journalist Ravio Patra. He announced that after being
hacked, he was not able to control his own account and has received incriminating messages such as " It's already crisis, it's time to burn,
Let's loot on the 30th of April!"
The isolation tactics applied to five individuals in Tangerang, near Jakarta, who were arrested for vandalism, allegedly inciting to public
disorder. They were arrested using warrants which did not contain their names. The state has also been depriving them of legal assistance
and communication with their families since their arrests. The Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) demanded that the
police should substantiate their charges.
The illegal detention of a minor involved in the Tangerang incident, on which the state has not disclosed any information to the public.
The authorities forcing a petty criminal to confess in a video, stating that he is the "sole leader" of the plan to provoke nationwide
looting when looting was already prevalent due to lack of government support amidst the loss of jobs of 1.5 million formal and informal workers.
The arrest of three individuals in Malang in East Java for the same charges, "public provocation", who were actively involved in struggles
against land-grabbing, state corporations, and for being simply "anti-capitalists"
The confiscation of books and other materials owned by the arrested five in Tangerang, which the police claim are effectual to the
vandalisms. The books include Tan Malaka's Aksi Mass (Mass Action), Eka Kurniawan's Core Coret Di Toilet (Doodles in the Toilet), and
Indonesia Dala Krisis 1997-2002 (Indonesia in Crisis 1997-2002) which are actually not illegal in Indonesia. The Rights Group for Missing
Person and Victims of Violence (KontraS) adds that "The arrests shoud not be based on suspicion and certain analyses."
Political opportunism during the pandemic comes in many forms. In the so-called Philippines, tens of thousands have been arrested due to
non-criminal charges, resulting to the cramming of non-violent violators in prisons and other detention facilities. Demolitions continue.
Extraction of resources for foreign companies remain unhindered. A media corporation, slightly critical to the government, was shut down.
Government armed forces are conditioned into being desensitized robots by encouraging them to kill in the presence of the slightest misbehavior.
Now, more than ever, we need to express solidarity with comrades from all over the world. As we demonstrate our aspirations through
resource-sharing, mutual aid and cooperation in our localities, we should stay connected to strengthen mutual protection.
In solidarity!
Translation of text in photo: Free our comrades now, detained in the Metro Jaya Regional Police
For links, visit: Calling for anarchists global solidarity action!
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/05/07/solidarity-with-comrades-in-indonesia/
------------------------------
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten