Today's Topics:
1. zabalaza.net: Recent publications and new editions from
Zabalaza Books - SIFUNA ZONKE (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Czech, AFED: Back Lives Matter in Klárov -- Report from
another Prague demonstration against racism and police violence
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, wessexsolidarity: Classist crap (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, Vogliamo tutto e per tutti: Downstairs from the
self-organized race structures. [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - AL #306 -
Antifascism, Far right: paranoia boosts militias (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - Tribute, Maurice
Rajsfus' last fight (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Over the past 18 months Zabalaza Books has published over two dozen new publications or new editions of previous publications, all of which
can be read online or downloaded in PDF format from the Zabalaza Books website. ---- Read the full list of titles and overviews of their
contents, with links to the full texts, below. ---- Anarchism's Relevance to Black and Working-Class Strategy: Dispelling Ten Myths ----
Author: Lucien van der Walt ---- To have a discussion about anarchism's relevance to (black) working class strategy in the face of ongoing
capitalist restructuring, we need to dispel myths about anarchism and syndicalism, to reclaim the revolutionary core of the anarchist
tradition. ---- The above text is from an October 2005 presentation at a Red and Black Forum, Phambili Motsoaledi Centre, Motsoaledi, Soweto.
The Revolutionary Message of the ‘Friends of Durruti'
Author: Georges Fontenis
The Spanish anarchist organisation ‘The Friends of Durruti' was formed by members of the CNT in 1937 in opposition to the collaboration of
the CNT leadership in the government of Republican Spain. The first heavily censored issue of their paper ‘Friend of the People' appeared
just after the Maydays in Barcelona, sections of it are reproduced for the first time in English in this pamphlet. The Mayday defence of the
revolution in Barcelona was crushed at the cost of 500 lives, including the disappearance, torture and murder of key anarchist organisers by
the Stalinists. The Friends of Durruti outlined an alternative path for Spanish anarchists, one intended to not only protect but to expand
the revolution and bring it to victory...
Georges Fontenis' analysis of the Friends of Durruti, from a pamphlet translated by the Workers' Solidarity Movement.
Anarchism: From Theory to Practice
Author: Daniel Guérin
Anarchism: From Theory to Practice by Daniel Guérin is a "definitional tract in the ‘ABCs' of anarchism". It is Guérin's best-known work,
describing the intellectual substance and actual practice of anarchism.The book covers the theoretical basis of anarchism, as well as giving
historical examples of its practical application in selected struggles in the 20th century.
Originally published in French, in 1965, by Editions Gallimard under the title L'anarchisme: De la doctrine à l'action. The English
translation by Mary Klopper, with a foreword by Noam Chomsky, was first published by Monthly Review Press, New York, in 1970.
The Foreword and Postscript were taken LibCom, with the rest from the Anarchist Library.
Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles
Anarchism, the no-government system of socialism, has a double origin. It is an outgrowth of the two great movements of thought in the
economic and the political fields which characterize the nineteenth century, and especially its second part. In common with all socialists,
the anarchists hold that the private ownership of land, capital, and machinery has had its time; that it is condemned to disappear; and that
all requisites for production must, and will, become the common property of society, and be managed in common by the producers of wealth.
And in common with the most advanced representatives of political radicalism, they maintain that the ideal of the political organisation of
society is a condition of things where the functions of government are reduced to a minimum, and the individual recovers his full liberty of
initiative and action for satisfying, by means of free groups and federations - freely constituted - all the infinitely varied needs of the
human being.
Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles first published in 1887 by New Fellowship Press, London. This version from Kropotkin's
Revolutionary Pamphlets. Roger N. Baldwin, editor. Vangaurd Press, Inc., 1927
Communism and Anarchy from Freedom, 1901. Reprinted in Small Communal Experiments and Why They Fail, Jura Books, Australia.
Both texts taken from the Anarchist Library
Building Trade Union Democracy as Prefigurative Politics in South Africa
Author: Nicole Ulrich
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien
van der Walt published by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.
The State, Accumulation and Class Formation after Apartheid
Author: Lucien van der Walt
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien
van der Walt published by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.
Economic Policy from Below: an Anarchist Critique of the COSATU Unions' "Radical Reform" Project
Author: Warren McGregor
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien
van der Walt published by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa
Modes of Politics at a Distance from the State
Author: Lucien van der Walt
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien
van der Walt published by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa
The Political Party System: No Friend of the Working Class
Author: Warren McGregor
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien
van der Walt published by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa
The Strategy of Especifismo
Author: Juan Carlos Mechoso of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU), interviewed by Felipe Corrêa
English translation: Jonathan Payn, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2020
This interview with Juan Carlos Mechoso of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU) - conducted by Felipe Corrêa - discusses FAU's "strategy
of especificismo". Relevant topics are addressed in the questions, such as: the concept of especificismo, this type of anarchism's
relationship with the classics and with similar experiences that have emerged in history, especifismo's relation with the Latin American
context, comparisons with other ideologies that promote operating at distinct levels (party - mass movement), scientific concepts, ideology
and its relation to socialism, programmatic positions that anarchists should defend in popular movements, concepts and conceptions of class,
neo-liberalism, the development model of Latin American, popular power, strategy, armed struggle and social revolution.
Interview conducted between May and August 2009
Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation
Author: Universidade Popular / Movimento dos Trabalhadores Desempregados (MTD-RJ) (Movement of Unemployed Workers)[Brasil]
English translation: Jonathan Payn, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2020
This booklet, called Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation, is a publication of the Popular University of Rio de Janeiro in
conjunction with the Movement of Unemployed Workers of Rio de Janeiro (MTD-RJ).
Formed in mid-2007, the Popular University believes in the political, social and cultural self-education of male and female workers
(homeless, landless, unemployed, street vendors, etc.) with a view to building a new society based on socialism and freedom. It is made up
of students and workers who assert themselves as the real producers of the wealth of the current society and ,"indignant with the most
complete situation of misery and oppression that affects us", has the "deepest desire for the collective construction of a new society,
based on co-operation and equality. "[Pro-Popular University Manifesto]
This notebook was designed and written by Universidade Popular. The first part was based to a large extent on the book Anticapitalismo para
Principiantes by Ezequiel Adamovsky, edited in Argentina.
Towards a Fresh Revolution
Author: Friends of Durruti
Towards a Fresh Revolution is the highly influential pamphlet written by anarchist CNT militants during the Spanish revolution who opposed
the co-option of their organisation into the Republican government.
The introduction to the 1978 edition of Towards a Fresh Revolution was written by Jaime Balius, former secretary of the Friends of Durruti
and director of its paper.
Manifesto of Libertarian Communism
Author: Georges Fontenis
The Manifesto of Libertarian Communism was written in 1953 by Georges Fontenis for the Federation Communiste Libertaire of France. It is one
of the key texts of the anarchist-communist current.
It was preceeded by the best work of Bakunin, Guillaume, Malatesta, Berneri, the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists *
written by Makhno, Arshinov and Matt, which sprang from the defeats of the Russian Revolution, and the statements of the Friends of Durruti,
also a result of another defeat, that of the Spanish Revolution.
The Manifesto was originally written in 1953 for the Federation Communiste Libertaire of France. It was then published in an English
translation in Britain under the auspices of the Anarchist Communist Federation (now Anarchist Federation). This third ZB edition includes
minor changes to the original.
Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft)
Author: Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad ("Delo Truda" Group)
"It is high time that anarchism emerged from the swamp of disorganisation, to put an end to the interminable vacillations on the most
important questions of theory and tactics, and resolutely move towards its clearly understood purpose and an organised collective practice".
- Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft)
First published 20 June 1926
Third Zabalaza Books Edition, August 2019
Breaking the Chains: A History of Anarchism
Author: Lucien van der Walt
This is a book about the history of anarchism. It is a history of nearly 120 years of unbroken workers struggle. It is a history of
sacrifice and bravery by ordinary people fighting for a world without bosses and oppression.
First issued by Workers Solidarity Federation, 1998
This Zabalaza Books edition, July 2019
Building Working Class Unity in South Africa: Lessons from United Fronts in Germany, Italy and Russia
Authors: Jonathan Payn, Jakes Factoria, Tina Sizovuka and Warren McGregor
This pamphlet is a collection of articles exploring the concept, history and anarchist/syndicalist approaches to United Fronts - and their
relevance and potential for building working class unity in South Africa - written in the context of the National Union of Metalworkers
(Numsa)'s resolution, following its historic 2013 Special National Congress, to break with the ANC-led Alliance and form a ‘United Front
against neoliberalism'
First Zabalaza Books edition, July 2019
From Union Renewal to a Self-Managed Society: Towards an Anarcho-Syndicalist Project
Author: Lucien van der Walt
Trade union renewal is high on the agenda in many countries, but we need to think carefully about why we want it. Union renewal is a
profoundly political and ideological issue.We need to have a clear understanding of how we got into the current mess where many unions are
bureaucratic, inefficient and struggle to respond to urgent issues. We need to think carefully about what we want to achieve, not just in
terms of how we organise - but what we aim at in the long run.
First Zabalaza Books edition, July 2019
[Leaflet]Tearing Racism up from its Capitalist Roots: An African Anarchist-Communist Approach
Author: Bongani Maponyane (ZACF)
Racism has been a curse in South Africa, and remains embedded in the society. But how scientific are racist ideas? Where do they come from?
And how can we fight racism and create a truly equal and fair society? What do we as revolutionary anarchists think?
Ecology in Democratic Confederalism
Author: Ercan Ayboga
Ecology is one of the three pillars of the paradigm of Democratic Confederalism, the political-theoretical concept of the Kurdish Freedom
Movement. Besides democracy and gender liberation, ecology has been mentioned explicitly as a dimension in this concept since 2005. However
to date, ecology is less discussed and practiced than the two other pillars.
First Zabalaza Books edition, July 2019
A Case for Anarchist Class Analysis: Why it Works Better than the Marxist Approach and What it Means for Struggles
Author: Leroy Maisiri
The purpose of this pamphlet is giving a coherent, comparative analysis on how anarchists and Marxists view the concept of "class," and the
political implications of each approach. Class is the nucleus of both Marxism and anarchism; however the conceptualisation of class is
different for both. In pointing out these differences, it is my hope that I will convincingly show how and why the anarchist
conceptualisation of class is more comprehensive and more useful, providing a more holistic analysis of many related aspects of class, and a
more practical political guide.
First Zabalaza Books edition, March 2019
Basic Bakunin
Authors: Colin Parker (with an introduction to the South African Edition by Lucien van der Walt)
This pamphlet provides an excellent introduction to the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin, the "founder" of anarchism... We do not see Bakunin as a
god who never made mistakes. Of course he was not perfect. He was a man, but a man who gave his all for the struggle of the oppressed, a
revolutionary hero who deserves our admiration and respect. From Bakunin, we can learn much about revolutionary activism. We can learn even
more about the ideas needed to win the age-old fight between exploiter and exploited, between worker and peasant, on the one hand, and boss
and ruler on the other...
March 2019, second South African edition by Zabalaza Books,
with 2004 South African introduction
Alternatives from the Ground Up: Anarchism/Syndicalism and (Black) Working Class Self-Emancipation in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Author: Lucien van der Walt
This commentary, an input at a Globalization School debate in Cape Town, engages current labour and Left debates on building alternatives,
drawing on the experiences of the radical wing of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and on anarchism and syndicalism. It argues
for a strategy of bottom-up mobilization based on debate and pluralism, and building structures of counter-power and a revolutionary
counter-culture that can prefigure and create a new social order. The aim is to foster a class-based movement against exploitation,
domination, and oppression, including national oppression, that can win reforms through self-activity, unite a range of struggles against
oppression, and develop the capacity and unity needed for deep social change. This should be outside parliament, the political party system
and the state. The outcome, ultimately, would be the replacement of capitalism, the state, and social and economic inequality, by a
universal human community based on self-management, the democratization of daily life, participatory economic planning, and libertarian
socialism.
First Zabalaza Books edition, 2019
Anarchism and the National Liberation Struggle
Author: Alfredo Bonanno
This important pamphlet attempts to develop an anarchist internationalist position on the ever present reality of national liberation
struggles and the national question. Wide ranging in the topics it covers - from internal colonialism to a critique of certain Marxist views
- the pamphlet argues that anarchists should support national liberation struggles insofar as they are waged by and for the oppressed
classes, and that the national question can only be resolved by the free association of peoples on a libertarian and federalist basis.
Humanity will never be free until we liberate ourselves by global social revolution
Third South African Edition, February 2019
Class Struggles in South Africa: from Apartheid to Neo-Liberalism
Author: Bikisha Media Collective
The South African working class is on the retreat. It is not defeated, but is falling back in the face of a major neo-liberal offensive by
the democratic government elected in 1994. A vicious "home-grown Structural Adjustment Programme," called "GEAR" or the Growth, Employment
and Redistribution strategy, is in place, and it has directly contributed to a million jobs lost, to cuts in social services, and to rapidly
growing class inequality.
First edition by the Bikisha Media Collective & Zabalaza Books, 2005
This second edition by Zabalaza Books, February 2019
Freedom for All: An Introduction to Anarchism
Over the last few years, the resurgence of revolutionary anarchism has caught the attention of the world.
The role of the anarchists in the anti-globalisation movement, at Seattle, Prague, Gothenburg, Genoa, La Paz, and Porto Allegre - where we
have been in the forefront of militant resistance - has been widely reported in the media.
The New York Times recently proclaimed "Anarchism: the idea that refuses to die," whilst SAPA, not to be outdone, blamed the anarchist
"black bloc" for the disruption of the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy.
But what is the anarchist movement? What does it want? Where is it going? And how can you get involved?
First edition by Zabalaza Books, 2008. This second edition 2019
Anarchist Propaganda and An Anarchist Programme (2 Essays)
Author: Errico Malatesta
2nd Zabalaza Books Edition
Il Programma Anarchico (An Anarchist Programme) was drafted by Malatesta and adopted by the Unione Anarchica Italiana at its Congress in
Bologna (1920)
[Leaflet]Revolutionary Anarchism and Political Parties
Author: Alliance of Libertarian Communists (ACL), Mexico
For a long time there has been an erroneous conception regarding anarchists' views on parties. In this document, we, as revolutionary
anarchists, wish to clarify the matter a little. We will begin by saying that our ideology is rooted in the philosophical and political
ideas of the Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin. With that said, we believe that, as a self-sacrificing fighter for the cause of the
workers and therefore an enemy of bourgeois capitalist exploitation and State repression, Bakunin understood perfectly the historical need
for a revolutionary party, consisting only of the most dedicated elements who sacrificed themselves to the revolutionary cause and were an
integral part of it.
Anarchy
Author: Errico Malatesta
Written in 1891, Anarchy is one of Errico Malatesta‘s most influential writings. In it, he sets forth the basic principles of anarchism.
This is the Vernon Richards translation published by Freedom Press in 1974.
The ABC of Anarchism
Author: Alexander Berkman
"Our social institutions are founded on certain ideas; as long as the latter are generally believed, the institutions built on them are
safe. Government remains strong because people think political authority and legal compulsion necessary. Capitalism will continue as long as
such an economic system is considered adequate and just. The weakening of the ideas which support the evil and oppressive present-day
conditions means the ultimate breakdown of government and capitalism. Progress consists in abolishing what man has outlived and substituting
in its place a more suitable environment."
Alexander Berkman,
The ABC of Anarchism
Share this:
https://zabalaza.net/2020/06/16/recent-publications-and-new-editions-from-zabalaza-books/#more-6304
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Message: 2
Four hundred demonstrators gathered on Saturday, June 13, at two o'clock in the afternoon for a protest in Klárov, organized by Kolektiv 115
and Socialist Solidarity. A solidarity rally called "I can't breathe" was convened to support protests against police brutality in America,
where George Floyd was assassinated by a police officer on May 25. ---- A representative of the Socialist Solidarity began her speech by
summarizing what the protests in America look like, pointing out that this is the case in the "democratic West", where many people are
exposed to daily bullying or police repression just because they look.
In their introduction, spokesmen for Team 115 pointed to the absurdity of viewing this tragedy as an unfortunate coincidence, when it was
not an isolated racist police assassination. They also described the reasons for the frustration of police harassment of people due to
color, humiliation and bullying by the police, which often go unpunished, and expressed outrage that the Czech elites, as well as the media,
were silent about this injustice for a long time.
Then a representative of Americans living in Prague spoke and talked about her experience with the police of her or people from her
neighborhood. This speech was slightly disturbed by rain, so some of the demonstrators hid under the trees. However, the speeches continued,
with the performance of Fidel, born in the Czech Republic, about his experience of what it is like to be black in the white world.
He was followed by a speech by Jožka Miker, a human rights activist and neo-Nazi fighter. In his speech, he recalled numerous racial
killings in the 1990s, in many cases by police officers. The last of the planned speakers, American researcher Joe Feinberg, pointed out
Europe's racist past.
This was followed by a challenge in which anyone present could speak into the microphone. Photographer and journalist Vít Hassan was the
first to apply for "open mike". After describing many of his experiences with racism and tearing up his T-shirt for Trump's election
campaign, he was replaced at the microphone by an anonymous protester who read a poem in her speech, from which I would like to quote the
main verse: that they did not give up. "
After explaining the route, the rallies followed the main banner "Together against racism" through Letenská Street and further through
Malostranské Square to the American Embassy, where a protest demonstration ended after a minute of silence and the laying of flowers and
candles.
Related links:
"I can't breathe"
Piles of bricks and other things that are completely out of
Fizlova, Trump and Antifa
https://www.afed.cz/text/7191/back-lives-matter-na-klarove
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Message: 3
On Monday 15th June, lockdown restrictions were eased with a number of ‘non essential' shops allowed to open, albeit with fairly strict
physical distancing protocols in place. Obviously with limits on the number of shoppers allowed in a store, that will mean queues outside of
the shops. ---- Images of queues outside the shops started to circulate on social media along with a fair few snarky comments about ‘rampant
consumerism'. When it came to the queues outside the budget clothing chain, Primark, some posters on social media saw it as licence to vent
their vile anti-working class prejudices. ---- Budget clothing chains aren't an aspirational shopping destination. In an economy with a
growing number of people on low incomes and in increasingly precarious forms of work, cheap clothing is the only option if they are to
manage very tight budgets. Buying more durable but much more expensive items of clothing would throw that budget into disarray, leaving
people with a choice between putting food on the table or buying that ‘nice' T-shirt that will last a few years.
Not only that, if you have kids, they grow - it's what they do. After two and a half months of lockdown and not being able to afford the
more expensive online options, a trip to Primark to ensure the kids have clothes that will fit their growing bodies for a least a few months
is not rampant consumerism, it's a sodding necessity!
Somehow, we don't think this will satisfy the judgemental shites who jump at any opportunity to have a go at working class people. All done
from the comfort of the work at home office with all the necessities of life ordered online and delivered by some poor sod most likely
employed on a zero hours contract. The kind of smug classism that really riles us up...
Then there's this... On Sunday 7th June, a group of protesters in Bristol rightly removed the statue of the slaver Edward Colston from his
plinth and dumped it a few hundred yards away in the Floating Harbour. The statue has since been retrieved and is in secure storage.
Colston's statue was just down the road from The Cenotaph. Baseless rumours started to circulate that protesters would be back the following
weekend with intent to deface the war memorial.
This and countless other rumours led to mobilisations of people across the country last Saturday (13th June) to come out and defend war
memorials alongside other statues. Basically, its an attempt to launch a divisive ‘culture war'. People duly turned up to ‘defend' The
Cenotaph in Bristol. This is a report of what happened - a report that includes coverage of a genuine attempt at dialogue between some of
the local black community and the protesters: The man who stepped in to All Lives Matter protest says Bristol needs to come together.
We're in a volatile period where divisions are all too easily getting inflamed. The actions of the former youth services manager and Bristol
Rovers fan Delroy Hibbert in talking to the defenders to persuade them to not damage the placards left by protesters from the previous week
and to defuse the situation have to be applauded. Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, you don't have to dig too deeply to
see that all sides are getting played at the moment with the aim of keeping us divided.
On the one hand, you have people like Delroy Hibbert doing their level best to defuse tensions that will further divide our class. On the
other hand, you blatant anti-working class prejudice in the form of this papier mache statue that's supposedly referencing the defenders who
turned out last Saturday in Bristol: A new ‘statue' has appeared next to Colston's empty plinth.
Whoever conceived, constructed and placed this ‘statue' needs to give their head/s a serious wobble. Whether it's a forgotten estate on the
outskirts of Basildon or one of the isolated estates on the southern fringes of Bristol, seeing a ‘statue' like this sends out a clear
signal that the Left think you're scum. It's classist shit like this that will drive disaffected working class people who also happen to be
white towards the more reactionary elements in politics.
We'd like to state that when we heard the news of Colston's statue getting dumped in the Floating Harbour we let out a mighty cheer of
celebration. We've also chipped in to the defence fund that's been set up for the protesters. The papier mache ‘statue' shown above with its
lazy stereotype of working class people does nothing to serve the cause of the protesters, if anything, it undermines it.
Also, when we're out on the streets and estates doing our best to win over hearts and minds, if the people we want to engage with feel that
the ‘statue' represents what we think of them, not only will they not listen to us, they may well decide to give us a slap as well!
People who sneer at the queues outside of Primark and think ‘statues' like this are legitimate comment need to desist pronto, take a step
back and reflect on how their actions and words will inflame an already volatile situation. If they don't, they're part of the problem and
need to be dealt with accordingly.
https://thehecklersewca.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/classist-crap/
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Message: 4
Solidarity in the electronic film structure of espiv.net ---- From 21/5 and following an oral order from the Rector's Office of Panteion,
the espiv.net server was shut down by those in charge of the school's computerization. The reason for this new repressive attack was a
complaint about copyright infringement, specifically for two books that were uploaded to one of the hundreds of blogs (850) hosted by the
espiv.net server. ---- The specific pretext of the Rector's Office cannot hide their real motive, which is none other than the suppression
of another cinematic structure. The cinematic server hosts hundreds of blogs of political collectives, squatters, neighborhood assemblies,
primary trade unions and other cinematic structures and therefore bothers and is targeted by repression. The move is aimed at electronic
political silencing of the speech of the political / labor enterprises it hosts and tries to be another blow to the self-organized struggle
structures, imposing control and surveillance of any information that is circulated electronically.
Thus, from the evacuations of squatters and self-organized militant structures, the anti-immigrant war waged from the borders of Evros to
the concentration camps for migrants / striae, from the imprisonment and persecution of militias / stressors, the repression of resistance
to deter intrusion and the looting of land and natural resources, from the attempt to criminalize demonstrations and the right to strike, to
the current attempt at electronic political silence.
The Rector's Office of Panteion not only functions as a simple institution that preserves "innocent" and politically "colorless" the things
of its house, but as an agent of state policy, which even at the beginning of the year proceeded to evacuate three political spaces, on the
ground floor of the glass building. Similar cases of other University Institutions have taken place, such as e.g. the rectory authority of
ASOEE, which requested and participated in the evacuation of Vancouver Occupation and the ASOEE Self-Managed Roof. These moves do not fall
like lightning, but come to complete the puzzle of public university reforms. After the (re) abolition of university asylum, it is the turn
of the resistance, which rises within the university premises. The state envisions university spaces that are completely sterile, clean and
detached from social and class demands, places where private initiative, control, and surveillance have a place. Thus, the repressive
campaign of the state is perceived, recognizing that the university, as a social field, has long been a nursery of resistance and the
displacement of those who are fighting against its violent restructuring is necessary, as it is the means to open the way. the privatization
of education and the intensification of studies.
Sovereignty realizes that in the face of the impending economic and political crisis that is emerging on the occasion of the Covid 19
pandemic, it will face - and must find - a dynamic resistance. Recognizing that electronic self-organized counterintelligence complements
emerging struggles and is an important tool, while assessing that electronic counter-information has functioned in various countries around
the world as the voice of the struggling and rebellious, it is urging to shield itself at this level. so that it can impose the new
normality of exploitation and oppression from below.
The repression of the cinematic server, which has been operating since 2008 in Panteion, concerns us all. The political silence of
electronic speech and the general effort to control freedom of speech will not be accepted. The repressive campaign will not go unanswered.
anarchist collectivity Vogliamo tutto e per tutti.
https://vogliamotutto.espivblogs.net/2020/06/12/kato-ta-xera-apo-tis-aytoorganomenes-domes-agona-allileggyi-stin-ilektroniki-kinimatiki-domi-toy-espiv-net
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Message: 5
The Covid-19 pandemic is exceptional in both its magnitude and its consequences, which are still uncertain. Current events suggest an
aggravation of political instability in several countries and see the convergence of authoritarian policies and frankly fascinating
movements boosted by the current situation. ---- In the United States, the risk of an outbreak of violent far-right action is real, as
evidenced by anti-containment protests. Orchestrated and encouraged by Trump and his supporters, they developed on a mixture of
conspiratorial, anticommunist and ultraliberal rhetoric to oppose the sanitary measures taken by several governors of the Democratic Party.
---- If the far right of the United States is customary of demonstrations involving armed men and nationalist groups of "self-defense", they
crossed a milestone by invading the Capitol of Michigan to put under pressure the democratic representative who sits there [1]. In Texas,
militias have put themselves at the service of traders who want to defy the opening bans [2].
These groups therefore feel capable of proposing their own armed repressive forces, of maintaining a climate of racist aggression against
the Asian and Jewish communities, of relaying racist propaganda on social networks, and of seeing in the crisis the beginnings of the
long-awaited "racial war" [3].
In France as in Europe, the radical far right remains surprisingly discreet. While combat groups only concern a few individuals for the
moment, several concrete and virtual phenomena make it possible to observe that there is support and preparation for potential paramilitary
actions.
Antifascist self-defense is essential
Marginal, compared to the United States, a movement for "carrying a weapon", close to the survivalist milieu, is developing in France. Some
Youtubers, often former soldiers, offer dozens of videos on handling weapons, tactical displacement, comparing equipment ... Others organize
military training courses with the use of real weapons, in countries Europeans with permissive legislation. The ideology is clear: to
prepare for this racial civil war which the white supremacists hope to provoke impatiently [4].
Before the epidemic already fascist terrorist attempts multiplied and populist far-right regimes were in place. We cannot predict how this
trend will develop in the coming months. Nevertheless, the shift of bourgeois democracies towards a security and authoritarian system is
accelerating and asserting itself. Associated with the phenomena reported by current events, it is increasingly confirming the fascist risk
[5]. Before being struck by tragedies, one must build the broadest possible anti-fascist movement capable of massively fighting and blocking
these groups.
UCL Antifascism Commission
Validate
[1] "United States armed protesters enter the parliament of Michigan," Le Parisien , 1 stMay 2020.
[2] "Deconfinement, in Texas, of armed militias to reopen stores", Courrier International , May 14, 2020.
[3] "On Facebook, more than a hundred groups advocate a second American civil war", Slate.fr , April 26, 2020.
[4] "The far right YouTubers offer war training", Slate.fr , April 24, 2020.
[5] " The shadow of fascism extends in these times of state of health emergency ", Autonomiedeclasse.org , April 27, 2020.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Extreme-droite-la-paranoia-dope-les-milices
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Message: 6
Many activists who have had the chance to rub shoulders with him in his long life of struggles will regret the generosity and malice of
Maurice Rajsfus, recognizable by his red scarf, who died on June 13, 2020 at the age of 92. ---- Maurice left us the same day of the
demonstration in Paris, initiated by the Adama Committee. The collective Vies volées, a collective of families victims of police crimes,
paid tribute to this "pioneer in the fight against police violence". Her children, Michelle and Marc Plocki, testify : " We were able,
during his last lucid days to tell him what was happening in Paris and around the world, against police violence and police racism. It is
paradoxical that he left when the fight he often waged alone, as a scout, on these questions, for decades, now takes on dimensions equal to
this unacceptable systemic violence and their denial by their authors and their principals".
Survived from Vel d'Hiv in 1942
Maurice lived in his flesh the crimes of the police since he was a survivor, at 14, with his sister Jenny Plocki, of the anti-Semitic
roundup of the Vel'd'Hiv of July 16, 1942 operated by the French police. Their father Mushim Plocki and their mother Rywka Rajsfus (who was
in Poland activist of the Bund, revolutionary Jewish workers' party), emigrants Polish Jews "having fled as much anti-Semitism as the
stifling shackles of religion" were deported and disappeared in the Nazi Auschwitz camp. "I deeply resent the police of this country, more
than the Germans ; without this police, the Nazis could not have done as much damage."
Maurice Rajsfus has written many books on this period, particularly on Vichy and on the policy of deportation, clearing and illuminating
certain gray areas hitherto little explored by historians.
Maurice became an activist at 16, after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. His career, since his involvement in the youth hostels
movement and his active participation in the anti-colonialist struggle against the Algerian war, shows that he always remained a free spirit
and an "irreducible protester".
The Observatory of Public Liberties
It was after May 68 that he patiently constituted, until 2014, a unique collection of around 10,000 files on police violence, which served
as a source for numerous works on the subject. Then he created in May 1994, with Jean-Michel Mension (alias Alexis Violet, who was one of
the authors of the inscription "Here we drown the Algerians", on the quays of the Seine after the massacre of October 17, 1961 ), the
Observatory of Public Liberties (OLP). The PLO will regularly publish the newsletter What is the police doing ? until 2014.
In the aftermath of the despicable desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras in 1990, in a context of strong rise of the FN, he was
the initiator of the "Appel des 250", from which the anti-fascist network Ras l'front was to emerge. . He was its president until 1999,
while pursuing a companionship with the No Pasaran network and with the magazine REFLEXes. "It is this legacy of the persecuted who made me
a rebel, but above all an activist who was viscerally opposed to the supporters of the New Order and the politics of exclusion. A fugitive,
a Jew wandering in spite of myself during my adolescence, I was one of those who are rejected, who are expelled, who are assassinated on
occasion." ( Each stone has its story, Ginkgo, 2012)
His children, Michelle and Marc Plocki, testify that he "taught them critical thinking and insubordination to the times. He never sought the
comfort of majorities, which he distrusted. Passed by several political parties, he ended up choosing a personal path, while continuing to
"cousin", as he liked to say, with each other, to the left of the left".
The best tribute to Maurice Rajsfus is to continue and amplify his lifelong struggle against fascism, security ideology and repression.
His personal archives should be hosted by Contemporaine (formerly Library of International Contemporary Documentation) in Nanterre.
Hello and fraternity, Maurice !
Sébastien (UCL Nantes)
Also read:
the very complete notice by Maurice Rajsfus in the Maitron, biographical dictionary of the French workers' movement
the homage of the antifascist site La Horde
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Le-dernier-combat-de-Maurice-Rajsfus
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