Today's Topics:
1. ait russia: Anti-militant action in Kirov [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. [Spain] Solidarity with the uprisings in the USA and against
the racist state By ANA (ca, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. die plattform: Germany, you racist - This is an anti-racist
call to action! (de) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. [France] Let's end racism and its causes! By ANA (pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Greece, Vogliamo tutto e per tutti: Solidarity with those
who oppose state and capitalist barbarism [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. [Italy] Going beyond capitalism By ANA (it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - Cornel West: "Black Lives
Matter and the fight against American imperialism are one and the
same fight" (fr, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. US, black rose fed: How You and Your Co-Workers Can F*ck the
Police By Evan Milner (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. CZECH, AFED: ANTI-fascist MOBILIZATION - Vienna's EKH faces
fascist attacks on the third day -- Call for support for an
autonomous center [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
10. France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #306 - Culture, Read:
Collet, "The Forgotten Digital" (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
On June 24, a rally "Do not want to repeat" was held in Kirov against the use of military equipment in the Victory Day parades. Activists of
the creative association "Vyatka Subjective" walked along Green Embankment, dancing and singing repeatedly to Viktor Tsoi's song "I Announce
My Home (Nuclear-Free Zone)". At the end of the action, they laid flowers at the Eternal Flame. ---- About 10 people took part in the
action. Everyone dressed in bright clothes, brought a guitar and a tambourine. Activists decided not to do posters and campaign remarks. As
representatives of the Vyatka Subjective explained to 7x7, the idea to hold an action came from a series of discussions about the fact that
Victory Day is more about a day of peace and reverence for previous generations. And on this day, military equipment on the streets of
peaceful cities is even more unacceptable, activists say.
They began their journey from Rosa Luxemburg Street, not far from the Green Embankment. There at 11:45 they gathered to rehearse the song,
to prepare flowers for laying on. At 12:00 we went to the embankment and started an action near the Feodorovsky Church: we sang and danced
loudly to the song of Tsoi, gradually heading for the Eternal Flame. To do this, go through the entire promenade.
"The desire of our government to unite the Russian Federation with the title of the country that won the fascism turns into a public
demonstration of militaristic power, pride in the ability to kill massively and in high technology," the Vyatka Subjective said. - In modern
times, the cause of wars is not the struggle for survival with the resources of another country, not ideology, but geopolitics, which rarely
relates to ordinary ordinary people, to us. Therefore, the activists decided to take to the streets to show the townspeople that it would be
completely different to celebrate military holidays, where there would be no guidelines for a possible repetition of the war.
Walking along the promenade, activists non-stop sang "I declare my home a nuclear-free zone." Passers-by watched with interest, some tried
to shoot, there were those who passed with the phrases "What are they doing?", But the majority greeted the procession with a smile.
- There was a moment when I first saw the rehearsal of the parade with military equipment. I then went home after work on my scooter, and I
was not allowed to cross the road. At that very moment huge tanks drove past me. And when you see them on TV, it's like miniature cars, and
when you see them in reality, something instinctive tells you the emotion of fear, "the organizer of the action, Sofia Demina, shared. -
Cities are made for people, we want to live here and build a humane society. We want to tell children that you can't kill other people. How
can we talk about this when we have a holiday that glorifies the murder weapon? I want us to get out of this, so as not to think that that
war is generally possible for a repeat.
Sophia shared that the number of participants could be greater, but then there would be a risk of a ban. Activists would be forced to apply
for permission to march. This time they decided to be more like tourists than protesters.
- This is our artistic statement. And even such a splash of thought is good, otherwise we can only discuss such topics on the sidelines. And
I personally do not know a single peer, a friend who would like to sit in a tank and start killing people. "We don't know who needs such
parades," the activist added. "We are grateful to the older generations for countless courageous sacrifices and feel responsible. Our
respect is expressed in the desire to invest our efforts in the development of a humane society built on knowledge and respect.
At the end of the action, activists stood in a circle behind the Eternal Flame, re-singing the song of Tsoi. After they laid flowers and
spent a moment of silence.
https://7x7-journal.ru/articles/2020/06/24/my-ne-znaem-komu-nuzhny-takie-parady-v-kirove-aktivisty-proveli-antimilitaristicheskuyu-akciyu-ne-hotim-povtoryat
https://aitrus.info/node/5508
------------------------------
Message: 2
The Iberian Anarchist Federation supports and sympathizes with the struggles of our American comrades for the racist murder of George Floyd
by the Minneapolis police. ---- The United States has been and remains a state built on the foundations of European racism and white
supremacism. Racism continues to be used by the Western ruling class and economic power to obtain cheap labor, exploit workers from all
backgrounds and plunder the land and resources of people around the world. ---- This murder was the trigger that has channeled the malaise
that exists among American workers of all conditions and backgrounds against xenophobia and structural racism, corruption in the
bureaucratic and repressive state apparatus and anti-worker policies. ---- President Trump, in his speech on the illegalization of
anti-fascism, imitates that patriotic and anti-communist speech of Macarthism, which in the 1950s was responsible for harassing and
harassing anyone in the country who might be suspected of being "communist", and designates himself as the "law and order" candidate,
following Nixon's strategy. Once again we see history repeat itself and the economic and political powers of the United States begin to
catalog and harass anything that could shake their political and ideological hegemony in the country on the verge of another global economic
crisis because of the virus that caused COVID- 19.
Unfortunately today, racism is a scourge that remains present in all Western countries. We cannot forget how in Spain migrants are arrested
without a warrant at the CIE ( Center for Internment of Foreigners ), the number of deaths that exist on the borders of Ceuta and Melilla,
or the exploitation of work in the countryside in conditions of semi-slavery.
We hope that through these revolts, new organizational steps will be taken in the fight against the State, private property and capitalism;
and that new spaces of struggle, victories and revolution are created for a world without racism, exploitation and social classes.
Iberian Anarchist Federation - FAI
federacionarquistaiberica.wordpress.com
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
If the question: "Is there still racism in this country?", is asked seriously, it betrays a world view that ranges between disgusting
ignorance and open misanthropy. ---- The alleged coming to terms with German racial anti-Semitism was nothing but a lie that, among other
things, reversed the roles of perpetrator and victim when it should have torn out and destroyed one of the roots of anti-Semitism and
racism: the national community (Ger: Volksgemeinschaft). The fact that the core of the racist evil is contained in the idea of a people's
community was never talked about. "I didn't do it, Hitler did it"; was the simple transition into the hopeful atmosphere of Germany's
"economic miracle" of the 1950s.
The German tabloid press illustrates most clearly how a nation and those who refer to it positively are drenched in deep-rooted racism. Take
the so-called great German "thinkers" such as Kant, who openly stated: "Humanity is in its greatest perfection in the race of the white man."
The continued narrative of "your people are everything, you are nothing", allows for the existing, and perpetually denied, racism to
humiliate and brutally kill human beings to this day. Whether it is Hoyerswerda, Lichtenhagen, Mölln, Solingen, Dessau, the NSU (National
Socialist Underground, the terror group that committed several racist murders,) Munich, Halle or Hanau - the list never ends.
In a country where "race" is a concept enshrined in the very constitution, we seriously ask the question whether racism still exists? How
could there ever be racist police violence in such a country? (Since the G20 summit in Hamburg it is "official" that police assaults of
course did not and will never exist). If state institutions have the primary task of forcefully protecting the existing laws, how can we
even ask the question "whether"?
The much more relevant question is: Who will be the next to feel the crushing force of this racist state?
If the continuity of institutional racism is to be broken, there must be an end to the lies about allegedly numerous Germans "hiding Jewish
people" and the overall victim mentality. Germany was and is the perpetrator, let's confront that reality. Racism must be identified and
fought at work, at school, on campuses and above all in the family and among friends.
At the first German Black Lives Matter! rally, in front of the American Embassy, clear demands have been made: Stop the lies, stop the denial!
In the words of Kurt Tucholsky: "Incidentally, the one who points out the dirt (anti-Semitism/racism) is considered much more dangerous here
than the one who makes the dirt. And in the words of Kimberly Jones: "And they are lucky that what we black people are looking for is
equality - and not revenge!"
Get organized to build counter power! Let us fight for many "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zones"
the plattform Berlin
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/06/27/deutschland-du-rassist-germany-you-racist/#more-1274
------------------------------
Message: 4
The marches and demonstrations against police violence and racism around the world are excellent news for us anarchists. We are doing our
part and we will always be beside struggles that make way for people and a world free from the horrors of the past. ---- We are enjoying
seeing the finger being pointed at police forces, the repressive pillar of states. ---- The French police are no exception: they have always
followed orders, from Vichy to the Charonne massacre, from simple arrests to the expulsion of refugees, from blind repression to the
harassment of certain populations. The police, far from "protecting citizens", as a republican and state myth, unfortunately very
widespread, claims, has only one essential function: protecting the state, institutions, goods, value, capitalism.
The recent infiltration of the far right into the ranks of the police or "bad directors" are clearly insufficient reasons for police
brutality. Regardless of their political color or the nature of the regime they support, the police are, structurally and historically, the
main tool of state hatred and violence; in a nutshell: the armed wing of the State, guaranteeing and protecting a deeply authoritarian and
unequal social, economic and political order.
So, yes, it is appropriate to denounce the murders and the excessive power of the French police. We widely share the expectation of the
victims' families, whether that of Adama Traoré, Zineb Redoune or Rémy Fraisse and many others, a sadly too long list to be reproduced here
in full. Justice must be demanded.
But for us, anarchists, we cannot stop there. Racism is the result of construction. It has always been used by States, Religions and
Traditions to reinforce the power of some to the detriment of many. The construction of the world between "them" and "us" is not new, it is
the basis of all closed identitarisms that forbid individuals to mix with others, to be themselves and to exist without impediments.
There will be no abolition of racism without the destruction of borders. No change can happen if we don't see ourselves as a humanity with
equal freedoms for everyone. This internationalism frightens the bourgeois, who have largely built their power in the face of fear of the
other, of the unknown, of the "different from us".
Capitalism, moreover, makes extensive use of these fears to pit groups of workers against each other. But let us not dream: the abolition of
capitalism will not be enough to destroy racism and fear. We can start doing it right now, without waiting, failing to accept the clichés
and stereotypes that people try to put in our heads, seeing the other as an equal, refusing the instrumentalization of physical differences.
Preferring the mixture to purity.
We must also look at history face to face, face it and study it collectively, in order to better destroy the scum that remains in our time.
Regretting[the destruction of]a statue without understanding what it represents shows a lack of knowledge of the horrors of the past.
The urgency is justice, the future of a completely rethought society.
Foreign relations of the Anarchist Federation
federation-anarchiste.org
Translation> Estrela
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 5
Resistance-Solidarity-Self-organization ---- After a period of frenzy experienced by society as a result of the "protection measures"
imposed on covid19, we are faced with a new order of things. Taking advantage of this unprecedented situation, the state and capital, and
since by all means and means persuaded them from below that salvation would come only with prudent state management, seized the opportunity
to launch a new attack on them from below with one series of anti-labor measures.Wage cuts, shift work, layoffs, flexible working hours,
uninsured work, uncontrolled teleworking, Sunday work, are a taste of the new reality in the workplace. It is obvious that once again the
economic crisis brought about by the virus management will be paid for by those below and not by those who are really responsible. The Greek
state has a continuum and it is what in recent years, under the pretext of the economic crisis, has leveled the public health system and
every job acquisition and promoted, ideologically and in practice, privatizations so that everything works for profit.There have been dozens
of statements by current government officials since the crisis that have been widely reported as extremist neoliberal positions. They are
the same people who decided again, as if dozens of armaments scandals had never happened, billions in investment in armaments programs while
at the same time closing hospitals. They are the ones who have prioritized the recruitment of thousands of cops to enforce the doctrine of
law and order.
In this generalized attack, the conservatism and discrediting of public education and at the same time the promotion of the privatization of
the education system is another culmination of the state's anti-social plans.The new multidisciplinary education plan increases the number
of students per room, resulting in an even greater decline in courses, attempts to place cameras on the school network, which will turn
students and teachers into experimental animals, constantly controlling their every move. , will suppress any self-action of the subjects in
the school hall, will intensify the transformation of the secondary education into a tuition center with the sole aim of highlighting the
"most capable" through unbridled competition. At the same time, it equates the degrees of public universities with those of private ones and
paves the way for the further privatization of schools and universities, increasing and perpetuating social inequalities.
At the same time, the state, by promoting social expression, points to every persecutor as the main culprit for all our troubles. The war
against immigrants continues unabated in every corner of Greek territory.For the state, the lives of the poor and the persecuted have no
value. He kills them at the border, stabs them in miserable and inhumane conditions in the concentration camps, turns them into a cheap
labor force without rights. This includes the 10,000 evictions of migrants / three from various accommodation structures and homes, as well
as the cessation of benefits by international organizations. At the same time, any movement to claim their rights and dignified living
conditions is suppressed.
The treatment of prisoners in prisons is similar. Prisoner transfers, beatings, disciplinary action, destruction of personal belongings,
intimidation, isolation, suppression of uprisings. Instead of taking pandemic measures in the middle of the pandemic to decongest prisons,
access to means of self-protection, medical care. Measures that should be self-evident in the midst of a pandemic are not only not being
taken, but on the contrary, once again a repressive and murderous policy is being pursued against the invisible of this world.
The onslaught of the state and capital does not stop at society, but turns with particular intensity and against nature. With the new
environmental bill, the unconditional plunder of nature is legitimized, which will be sacrificed on the altar of "growth" and the interests
of investors.Indicatively, a number of provisions allow the destruction of Natura sites through licensing for industrial activities such as
RES and hydrocarbon mining, the simplification and acceleration of licenses for exploitation activities by private entities, the ease and
ease of industrial discharges. growing network privatization. Much of Halkidiki has been deforested and polluted by Eldorado mines, the
burning of rubbish applied by AGET-Lafarge in Volos and TITAN in Thessaloniki is causing enormous damage to the areas and the health of the
residents. Countless wind farms in the mountains and islands have destroyed forests, the biodiversity of ecosystems and deserted land.
Maybe the conditions that have been imposed on us are constantly more and more unfavorable and seem unchanging. But the oppressed and the
exploited must understand that assignment, fatalism and social cannibalism are deadlocks. We must resist state and capitalist barbarism in
our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our schools, in our workplaces, in many forms and horizontally. At this difficult time, we must seek
the saviors of our fellow human beings and our neighbors, not the rulers.To promote solidarity against cannibalism. Mutual assistance in
isolation. Collectivization versus individualism. The resistance to the discipline and tradition of our lives. Through self-organized
structures and collectivities, horizontally and anti-hierarchically, with our weapon of solidarity and our ally the imagination. To fight
for the total overthrow of the state and capital. To fight for a world of equality, solidarity, justice and freedom. We must believe in
ourselves, in our strengths and stand side by side and all together against every form of power. Don't let them steal our lives.
War in the war between state and bosses.
Access to health, food, shelter for all and sundry.
Resistance-Solidarity-Self-organization.
anarchist collectivity Vogliamo tutto e per tutti
https://vogliamotutto.espivblogs.net/2020/06/23/allileggyi-se-oses-kai-osoys-antistekontai-enantia-stin-kratiki-kai-kapitalistiki-varvarotita/#more-2552
------------------------------
Message: 6
The COVID-19 pandemic, with infectious processes running out in Italy and other countries, but in full development in many others in the
world, brought with it the evidence of the structural limits of capitalism. Limits obviously understood as the capacity to satisfy human
needs in general and not as the ability to enrich a few at the expense of the vast majority of humanity: from this point of view, capitalism
works very well and one could hardly think of anything more efficient, even if, as they say, you never end up with the worst. ---- As is
well known, the pandemic has led to the closure of most economic activities considered non-essential and many of them, even in the so-called
Phase Two, will reopen at a reduced rate of operation, those that can be allowed, of course, since it is very likely let it be the
definitive closure of many of them and, in fact, many activities have already closed their doors. Their employees were and will swell the
ranks of the unemployed, along with many of their small "employers", with the many individual activities and the many other employees made
redundant by the many companies that resume activities on a reduced basis, keeping only part of the activity in activity. workforce in
charge before the pandemic.
The general situation was described in early June by the usual ISTAT report (Istituto nazionale di statistica) which described the situation
in April 2020 and which was analyzed in the previous article. Here, on the other hand, we will try to make more general considerations, also
in the sense that the situation we are going to describe does not depend on the specificities of each country individually.
Firstly, as we said, capitalism is a machine that produces remarkable inequality: from this point of view, the so-called "crises" are not,
in fact, from a systemic point of view, but, on the contrary, a moment of development of the very inequalities beyond the previous level.
Let us begin to see things from the point of view of small and medium entrepreneurs: all economic crises - and even more the biggest ones
like the one you see and, above all, you will see the various local effects amplified by their international character - are an opportunity
to unleash the business concentration processes.
Take a trivial example, but one that can easily be extended to economic activities of any other type: gyms. A large part of them have not
yet reopened and many are selling their machines, as the considerable restrictions imposed by the various decrees of reopening would make
profit margins completely insufficient, if not negative. They only reopened those that have a capital reserve behind them, in order to be
able to support a period of reduced income, in order to attract customers to closed gyms and, in the medium term, remain in the market under
reduced competition and possibly acquire control of abandoned gyms, reopening them under their own brand name, possibly including former
owners as employees. As we said,
Let us now think from the point of view of employees or self-employed workers comparable to the former by income bracket. As we have seen
from ISTAT data, the crisis is also hitting them hard, both because many people have lost their jobs and because their income has
significantly decreased: just think, to give just two examples, of those who now expect the Supplemental Income Benefits Fund as main income
and those who, as formally self-employed workers, saw their income reduced as a result of their performance at work.
The thing, unfortunately, seems to be only at the beginning: the decrease in circulating income will lead to the triggering at the
macroeconomic level of the Keynesian "(de) multiplication" phenomenon[2]. In other words, the decrease in purchases due to the decrease in
consumption by those who can no longer spend as before, runs the risk of triggering cascade mechanisms - production activities placed in
crisis by this contraction in demand for goods and services will react with more layoffs (if not actual closures with widespread job
losses), which will trigger more demultiplier effects, which will result in more income losses, etc. All this in a scenario of a globalized
economy for a long time, so that the demultiplier phenomena described are not closed within each country, but, on the contrary,
The prospects that we see for the future of most of humanity, with the exception of that small slice that will take advantage of the
phenomenon of business concentration, are therefore nothing pink: this is the scenario that, worldwide, we will have to face very soon,
willingly or not. In what way?
Remaining within the logic of capitalism, there would be the prospect of obtaining income redistribution policies from a Keynesian
perspective. In concrete terms, using the income of the rich social strata to finance forms of income support for the overwhelming majority
of humanity, both directly - through existing or similar income - and indirectly - expansion of social services with the formation of new
jobs and the gratuity of these services.
This, precisely, as we said, remaining within the logic of capitalism and its distortions that, as we have seen, the policies of the welfare
state of the "golden thirty years" only managed to temporarily cushion and only as long as the power relations were relatively favorable ,
reaching a quick and easy end as soon as the ruling classes regained control of the situation, leaving their "animal spirits" free to vent
again[3]. Rather than reasoning from the point of view of a definitive overcoming of man's dominance over man, it would be necessary to take
advantage of the situation to propose again at a mass level a radical disruption of the current economic system towards a self-managed
society, economically based on the principle Lucreciano "of each according to their possibilities,
In reality, however, only the latter is really possible: the ruling classes have always given up some of their power only when they were
afraid of losing it completely. This is what Malatesta brilliantly expressed in the pages of this same newspaper: reformists, when
apparently successful, are only successful because revolutionaries have reached such strength that they seriously fear a radical overcoming
of today's society[4].
The general interest of the dominated classes, therefore, is to give breath and legs to a struggle that aims at a really different and
possible society, that overcomes this game of massacre that is the current society, the hierarchical society.
Enrico Voccia
GRADES
[1] https://www.istat.it/it/files//2020/06/CS_Occupati_disoccupati_APRILE_2020.pdf
[2] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moltiplicatore_keynesiano
[3] http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/spiriti-animali_(Dizionario-di-Economia-e-Finanza)/
[4] MALATESTA, Errico, Le Due Vie. Rivoluzione riforme? Libertà o Dittatura?, in Umanità Nova, 12 August 1920.
Source: https://www.umanitanova.org/?p=12391
------------------------------
Message: 7
The American philosopher and activist believes that discussions on police violence are inseparable from those on Washington's imperialist
policies. ---- You can't talk about devaluing the lives of black people without talking about militarism and the long tentacles of the
American Empire, says American philosopher Cornel West to Middle East Eye . ---- In a river interview about the current protests in the
United States and the spread of the Black Lives Matter movement to the rest of the world, this major contributor to African-American studies
believes that discussions about the murder of George Floyd and the police violence are inseparable from those on Washington's imperialist
policies.
Cornel West is not tender towards former President Barack Obama. The Black Lives Matter movement emerged during its second term, when the
United States' Minister of Justice and Secretary of Homeland Security were black.
George Floyd, an African American, was killed in Minneapolis on May 25 by a white policeman who pressed his knee to his neck for almost nine
minutes.
The police had been called by the employees of a grocery store following the purchase by the forties of a pack of cigarettes with a 20
dollar bill suspected of being false.
"I can't breathe," we hear Floyd repeat in the video of his arrest, which has since revolted the whole world.
For African-Americans, this incident shows a rudeness and a humiliation that they are simply no longer ready to tolerate. "Is this what the
life of a black man is worth?" 20 dollars? Asked George Floyd's brother Philonise in his testimony to Congress Thursday to June 11, the day
after his brother was buried.
"What we need to do is recognize that[...]we are attending a funeral[similar to that of George Floyd]in the West Bank because of the
policy[and]of American bombs through the Israeli army" , Cornel West told MEE .
"We are witnessing such a funeral in Yemen ... we are witnessing such a funeral in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We are witnessing such funerals
in Mali. There is such a funeral around the world, a funeral in which the United States plays a disproportionate role in making it easier,
if not playing a direct role in it.
"Thus, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr, we must show moral coherence in our criticism of racism, militarism, poverty and American
materialism," says the philosopher.
"The value of a black man"
As the United States entered a deep economic depression due to COVID-19, with unprecedented unemployment and a deeply divisive political
climate under President Donald Trump, the murder of Floyd sparked some of the most significant protests that the country has known since the
civil rights movement.
Protest marches are held in all 50 states, in cities of all sizes. Several gatherings and vigils are held daily in New York, Washington DC,
Chicago and other major cities.
The demonstrators also demand that the police no longer be funded or even abolished, arguing that police practices are institutionally
racist and that new systems must be created. It is generally accepted that African-Americans are killed disproportionately by the police,
terrifying and making whole communities uncomfortable.
"I think the fundamental impetus behind this anger is the questioning of the elites, who have no accountability. So it has to do with police
power and police murder in the black community, "said Cornel West.
"It has to do with the power of Wall Street and its crimes with regard to the legal pillage that has been going on for a long time on Wall
Street, the enormous inequalities of wealth that result from it.
"It has to do with the power of the Pentagon, not just the drones dropped on innocent people around the world, in Yemen and Libya, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and elsewhere." "
"Obama, war criminal"
Cornel West reserved his harshest criticism for former President Barack Obama, who recently expressed support for the Black Lives Matter
protests .
"It is incredible to see our brother Barack Obama acting as if he were in the forefront and fighting against police power as the Black Lives
Matter emerged under his administration, under his Minister of Justice and his[secretary of]Black Homeland Security, "said the intellectual.
"While he helped militarize these police services. He helped generate these levels of poverty when he bailed out Wall Street criminals. And
we haven't talked about foreign policy yet, when it comes to dropping bombs on our innocent brothers and sisters in various parts of the
world, particularly in the Middle East and Asia. We haven't even even talked about the murder of innocent Palestinian brothers and sisters
by the US-backed Israeli army, "he added.
The United States has granted Israel $ 142.3 billion, making it the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid since the Second World
War, mostly military aid. Since the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the US "war on terror" has resulted
in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people.
Cornel West, formerly supporter of Obama, has turned into a fierce detractor of the former American president because of his management of
the financial crisis, promoting policies that have bailed out the banks and guaranteed that their leaders are not worried for their role in
the crisis. Under Obama, economic inequality in the United States has exploded.
He has since called Obama "the black face of the American empire," which he says "committed war crimes with his drones in Pakistan, Yemen,
Somalia, and Libya."
The Obama administration oversaw regime change in Libya and helped normalize the coup led by Abdel Fattah al-Sissi in Egypt in 2013,
suppressing the democratic aspirations of civilians in Cairo, which had repercussions in the whole region.
Obama also authorized 542 drone strikes that left an estimated 3,797 dead, including 324 civilians, during his presidential term.
"Let's be honest"
Although police violence in the United States is part of a long and eventful history linked to the protection of the property of whites, the
joint training exercises between Israel and the American police, according to commentators, have fundamentally transformed the nature of the
police in the United States.
"Since IDF soldiers are routinely ordered to shoot to kill, always assuming that they neutralize a dangerous enemy, their training for the
United States police has resulted in the killings in bursts that we have seen there in recent years, "writes Palestinian writer Nada Elia
for Middle East Eye .
Cornel West believes that talking about the links between Black Lives Matter and American militarism should not be considered "a luxury".
In recent weeks, companies, themselves having questionable work practices in the United States or abroad, have also felt the need to make
statements in favor of the anti-racism movement. Ben & Jerry's , the Vermont-based ice cream brand, was praised for his stern message about
the need to dismantle white supremacism, a praise that was short-lived when activists pointed out that the brand was still profiting from
its operations in the Israeli settlements.
Palestinians demonstrate against police violence and in support of American protesters after the death of George Floyd in the occupied West
Bank city of Ramallah on June 8. Photo credit: AFP.
"From my experience on the ground, when people now see neoliberal politicians and spokespersons come out and act like they are really
militant, like they are really radical, they say, hey, we are born at night, but not last night, "reports West.
"In the end, if you really want black people to be free, and I'm one of them, that will never be the case in a predatory capitalist system.
We will never be free in a system of imperialist tentacles,[we]will never be free as long as the Pentagon elite remain uncontrollable with
its militaristic policies and continue to kill people in Latin America and the Caribbean, and so on.
"So it's not a luxury, theoretical or academic,[we can't afford]to say" Oh, we don't have time for interconnection and
interdependence,[because]we have to deal with this special question ". This particular issue is still already interconnected. "
"It is like asking our Palestinian brothers and sisters to speak simply of the plight and plight of the Palestinians without speaking of
American imperialist politics. You can't do it if you really like the Palestinians. "
"It's the same thing with my Jewish brothers and sisters. They take it to the head in France, they take it to the head in Russia. They are
taking it in their heads in various regions. Anti-Jewish sentiment goes hand in hand with other systems. So, I am rather pumped up when
people want to[dissociate these questions to such an extent]that they minimize the systematic nature of the oppression.
"No, we have to be honest about the essence of freedom. We have to be honest about what we object to. "
You can read the interview with Cornel West in full here .
Article written by Azad Essa in New York in the United States. Link to the original, here .
by Collectif Emma Goldman
http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2020/06/cornel-west-black-lives-matter-et-la.html
------------------------------
Message: 8
All photos accompanying this article are from a healthcare workers rally in the SF Bay Area organized by a broad coalition including Black
Rose / Rosa Negra healthcare workers. Photos by Brooke Anderson, IG: movementphotographer ----- The racist police murder of George Floyd has
lit a fire in the tinderbox of pandemic-era America. We need to carry that energy and rage into every corner of the country and that
includes our workplaces, where we spend a huge fraction of our life. Organizing with your coworkers against racism and the police can help
deepen this moment of rage into a lasting and sustained multi-sectoral movement that can develop political consciousness among workers, win
reforms that weaken the power of police and systemic racism, strengthen the bonds between co-workers, and prepare the ground for striking
harder during the next insurrectionary moment.
The examples we've already seen of workers taking brave actions in support of the uprising against anti-Black racism sparked by the murder
of George Floyd are staggering. Public transit workers in multiple cities have refused to transport police officers and detained protesters.
Dockworkers shut down west coast ports for a day. Food service workers have walked out and refused to serve police officers.
The period of mass protests will end, either through exhaustion, cooptation, or repression, and we need to keep an eye on how to act in the
next phase of struggle. But for now what's important is to keep up the pressure with disruptive action and to resist calls to let
non-profits and politicians take the lead. Given this, we want to highlight efforts that workers can push for in the coming months to keep
the movement growing after the smoke from the burning cop cars fades away.
Build Roots: No Shortcuts in Organizing
The foundation of all workplace action is relationships. The relationships and trust that you build with your coworkers are what everything
else flows from, so it is important to always return to the one-on-one conversations. Talking with and understanding your co-workers'
experiences with racism and the police and to have them understand your own. In moments of mass mobilization like this, it can be tempting
to leap into action before building those relationships and before creating a workplace committee that can share responsibility and keep
each other accountable.
Remember that while you might get a lot of attention and maybe win some short term gains by doing something like making a call on your own
for a workplace walkout against racism in the company, the real impact of workplace action is in how it builds the power, self-organization,
leadership, and militancy among your co-workers in the longer term. Bosses can easily regain the hand after a short-term flare up in protest
by making symbolic concessions while targeting the core organizers for repression. But bosses are much less prepared to defeat a sustained
campaign of insurgency with deep roots and broad leadership. That is why you should never take shortcuts and skip over building
relationships and collective leadership through one-on-ones
Not Just the Usual Suspects
Union workers should understand that anti-racism isn't just solidarity activism. It is not about connecting with other like-minded union
activists to go carry the union banner in the street together. Anti-racism is a fundamental union issue; in fact, one of the most critical
union issues in the history of this country.
Unless workers bring anti-racist organizing into their workplaces and transform their unions into vehicles for attacking the structures of
white supremacy, then their unions are dead ends for systemic change in this country. So we need to remember that although we might be able
to organize an action faster, or we might be able to use more radical demands, by only working with the people who already agree with us, if
we're only politically engaging the same people over and over again, then we're not making transformation happen in our unions. We need to
always be reaching the non-activists who work alongside us, and organizing our previously passive coworkers into anti-racists.
Cops Out of Everywhere
Education workers across the country are already charging into one key fight against the power of the police: kicking cops off campus and
out of school districts. A number of schools have been successful in pushing school districts to cancel contracts with police. Education
workers everywhere else should discuss bringing this up as a demand together with students. The follow up challenge will be the fight
against replacing police on campus with private security under the control of racist school administrations. Education workers can look to
black student groups to work together on creating proposals for alternatives that are anti-racist and democratically controlled, like
student-run safety patrols.
Other public service workers can also agitate to get police removed from their workplaces. Hospital workers have long had to deal with
issues like aggressive police officers coming into the emergency room with patients and causing trouble. Now, building off of the campaigns
to keep ICE out of our workplaces, there is an opening to organize with your co-workers to get police banned from our hospitals, libraries,
recreation facilities, etc.
The Austerity Battle - Care or Cops?
The global pandemic, combined with the generally hellish nature of our country's economic system and government, has sparked a deep
depression. This means that massive budget cuts are already on the table in every city and state. Every public sector worker needs to make
the connection - the money to keep paying for your job can be found in the police budget.
Cities spend unbelievably massive amounts of money on bloated police budgets. We need to work on cutting those budgets down to $0, and
redistributing it to public services that actually make our communities stronger and healthier. When agitating against cuts to education
spending, teachers need to demand more teachers, less cops. Healthcare workers need to demand more nurses, less cops. Bus drivers need to
demand more drivers, less cops. Public sector workers should connect with local rank and file public sector workers in other industries to
create grassroots coalitions against the budget cuts that demand massive reductions in the police budget to pay for increases in needed
social services, and to develop new programs to replace some of the functions that the police currently mis-perform.
The Economics of White Supremacy on the Job
Most workplaces are highly stratified by race and gender. Lower-paying jobs tend to be occupied by women, people of color and immigrants,
while higher paying jobs tend to be occupied by men, white people, and non-immigrants. A lot of times this gendered and racialized
segregation is accepted as just being the way things are, without further questioning.
Talk with your co-workers about why it is that your supervisors are white, and what impact that has on your workplace environment. Talk
about how your co-worker has been denied advancement, while lighter skinned people without experience are brought in for those higher
positions. Talk about how there isn't enough support from the company for employees to go back to school and advance their career, while
white people are spending years in school preparing for high-paying jobs without having to work their way through school because their
parents are paying tuition.
You can help form an anti-racism action committee in your workplace led by black workers that can take on these systemic issues, as well as
addressing more immediate issues like racist harassment through direct action.
Bridges From the Workplace to the Community
This is also an opportunity to build coalitions between the neighborhood and workplace. Organized workers can collaborate with black-led
neighborhood organizations to create specific plans for worker- and neighbrohood-controlled public service interventions to be funded with
re-directed portions of the police budget.
This could be projects like community mental health and wellbeing clinics, emergency mediation and de-escalation teams, community housing
for domestic abuse survivors, whatever the neighborhood needs that workers can provide. These neighborhood demands can be fought for by
workers in contract and budget fights. However, before doing coalition work outside of the workplace, workers need to have done the hard
work of building up worker committees and infusing them with anti-racist politics, so that there is a real base of power that can win
community demands.
Our Power Against the Omni-Crisis
These are some very brief suggestions. There are many more important opportunities for workplace organizing in this moment. Looking ahead,
nobody knows where things will go. We are not just in the middle of one crisis - we are in a moment of "omni-crisis" where multiple crises
are overlapping while still others lurk in the future as looming possibilities.
We need to be agile in order to adapt to the changing times, and be aware that a small amount of initiative taken in the right place in a
moment as unbalanced as this can end up having huge effects.
The most important thing is to continue facing outwards and engaging with the people who spend their days side-by-side with you, sharing
struggles and experiences. We know that the non-profits, AFL-CIO leaders and Democratic politicians have little to offer beyond empty plots
in their Ford Foundation-funded graveyard of protest movements. If we want to challenge their power, then we need to build an alternative
independent workers movement from the bottom up, starting with our relationships on the shop floor.
Evan Milner is a Los Angeles based healthcare worker and a member of Black Rose / Rosa Negra.
https://blackrosefed.org/how-your-co-workers-and-you-can-fck-the-police/
------------------------------
Message: 9
On Wednesday 24.6. Turkish fascists attacked Kurdish assembly for women's rights in Vienna's Favoriten district. Subsequently, there was
another attack on the protesters by the fascists in front of the autonomous center Ernst-Kirchweger Haus (EKH). The response was a
spontaneous demonstration in front of the EKH, during which police carried out racially biased identity checks and detained a detainee. ----
The next day, during a hastily convened demonstration against the fascist attacks, the Turkish fascists again tried to provoke, disrupt the
action and attack the protesters. After the demonstration ended and the police withdrew despite the apparently impending escalation, members
of the far-right Gray Wolves, supporters of Erdogan's AKP party and self-proclaimed "Favoriten guards" regrouped in the area and attacked
EKH. 200-300 fascists roamed Wielandgasse for a long time. Using stones, bottles and pyrotechnics, they targeted EKH and tried to force
their way into the building. Several windows on the ground floor were broken. Only thanks to the solidarity of anti-fascists and
anti-fascists has the worse been prevented. The police remained inactive for a long time.
This was the second attack on left-wing and autonomous structures and actions in Vienna in two days, and we assume that this was not the
last attack. These attacks are linked to the repressive policies of Erdogan's Turkey, which is currently terrorizing the Kurdish population
and bombing Kurdish territory. However, we also perceive these attacks in the context of the long history of attacks on EKH, which also
houses Kurdish organizations. Our solidarity therefore belongs to all the people affected by the Turkish aggression, both in the Kurdish
territories and in this country, and to all those who stand for a fairer society.
We call on all anti-fascist people to express solidarity and take part in further protests!
Next date:
SATURDAY 27 June Vienna - Columbusplatz, 5.30 pm
(5 min walk from Wien-Hauptbahnhof train and bus station)
Never fascism again!
Biji Berxwedan! Jin, Jiyan, Azadi!
Current update:
The fascists called in reinforcements from other cities and surrounding countries, and Friday's anti-fascist demonstration around EKH again
faced attacks from the side streets by scattered fascist militias. Everyone to Vienna!
https://www.afed.cz/text/7197/antifasisticka-mobilizace-videnske-ekh-celi-tretim-dnem-utokum-fasistu
------------------------------
Message: 10
Did you know? Many women have played a vital role in the history of digital innovations. The very first people to program a computer are ...
six women. But the "Eniac girls " as they are called (oh the beautiful nickname that infantilizes and that invisibilizes) have never had the
institutional recognition to which they would be entitled. And it's systematic; when advances are due to women, these are not mentioned. If
today's computer scientists have heard of Grace Hoper, Ada Lovelace ... for others, this book provides central information to anyone who
wants to do away with the myth of an entirely male discipline.
There is also another myth, more pernicious, than attacked Isabelle Collet, that of the self-censorship of women. Common sense tells you, if
they are not numerous in IT, it is because they simply do not want to come! Thanks to tasty analyzes, nourished by surveys, anecdotes lived
and intellectual self-defense, the author shows on the contrary how difficult it is for a woman to admit her interest in the field, then to
register , then stay in these sectors. The course being marked out by numerous pitfalls for women, they are logically less numerous to stay
there than their male comrades who do not meet the same obstacles. It is not self-censorship, but social censorship.
Science repainted in pink
So what to do? The book details good practices (including these good old quotas, unsurpassable first step), which allow to achieve more
inclusiveness. Even more precious is the analysis of what will not work, even with the best of intentions. Cited as an example - and visible
on the net - the clip Science is a girl's thing (which we encourage you to go see if you want to laugh a little) is the archetype of what
Isabelle Collet calls science "repainted in pink»: To attract women, we add to the representation of the discipline what we define as
feminine, and in doing so, we create another category of science; on the one hand there is "real" science, and on the other, science "for
girls". The result is the opposite of the desired effect: we anchor the idea that "normal" science , that which is practiced without
stilettos, is a universe in which women have no place.
The last chapter focuses on the most current issues: artificial intelligence. We are fantasizing today about the machine, supposedly
neutral, which will advantageously replace the human being and his failing subjectivity ... But the principle of artificial intelligence is
that it identifies the mechanisms likely to be automated, to then repeat them systematically; we can therefore immediately abandon the idea
of an artificial intelligence capable of correcting the sexist or racist biases of men, the reverse occurs ! So, when Amazon tried to
automate its recruitment, by submitting the CVs it received to a program fed by the data of ten years of internal human resources, the
program began to exclude almost all women. They are less recruited, less paid, less promoted ; artificial intelligence. logically deduces
that these are less promising employees.
This dynamic and surprising book ends on an optimistic note, but also on a warning; If we move (in small steps) in the right direction with
regard to the inclusion of women, the next divide will undoubtedly be that of the social milieu.
Mélanie (UCL Grand-Paris sud)
Isabelle Collet, Les oubliées du numérique , Le Passeur, September 2019, 219 pages, 19 euros.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Collet-Les-oubliees-du-numerique
------------------------------
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten