#Worldwide Information Blogger #LucSchrijvers: Update: #anarchist information from all over the #world - FRIDAY 9 JULY 2020

Today's Topics:

   
1.  [Spain] Class feminism. Past or present? By ANA (ca, pt)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #306 - Ecology,
      Consumers and farmers: junction for food justice (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  anarkismo.net / zabalaza.net: Democratic Confederalism and
      Movement Building in South Africa by Shawn Hattingh
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Greece, ESE Athens: From the demonstration of the unions on
      23/6. [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  ait russia: The 85th act of the Yellow Vests Movement
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 6.  iwa-ait: We Support the Uprising - Statement by East Bay
      Group of Workers Solidarity Alliance WSA (ca) 
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



Article by Mireia Redondo, with illustration by Ana Nan ---- Currently we speak of plural feminisms, because we know that we are diverse,
and also because we know that there are many open debates within this diversity. The growing visualization of feminist discourse on very
concrete themes such as femicide or violations has also accelerated the need to retake ideas about the fight against capitalism and
patriarchy as two struggles that must go hand in hand, and this idea is class feminism . ---- This is because feminism has always pursued
the idea of interclassism as an axis of action, although surely the idea of interclassism does not come from our working predecessors, and
it would be very interesting to read more of its history than not only that of fellow revolutionaries or that of feminist women. middle and
upper classes. It is no longer necessary to go over history a bit (for example, the Bolshevik working women, the German working women
movement or the Mujeres Libres right here) to realize that the debate was about whether or not the bourgeois feminists were missing. , make
war on them, ignore them, or make specific collaborations, but the need to fight against patriarchy or to create spaces of struggle and
awareness of and for working women was never doubted.

Thus, class feminism is nothing more than the union of this more than evident connection that patriarchy and capitalism go hand in hand and
feed back, that one without the other will not work, and that the organization of class women worker, that we are many, is an essential
piece to change this world. You can't talk about emancipation or freedom without talking about ending them both. According to my opinion,
class feminism has an enormous strategic vision and supposes an essential tool to dynamite the entire system.

While it is certain that patriarchy influences each and every person, therefore each and every woman, this is still a simple element of
analysis of what patriarchy supposes, so this does not compel us to feel similar to all women in the world neither to organize with all nor
to set aside our claims as working women. We will not deny that we have this element of pressure there: that the feminist discourse and
practice do not stay in the superficial, commercial or decaffeinated, attached to institutions and concepts like the glass ceiling, which
interest us but very little. In fact, there is still a debate within feminisms, both classism and racism that exist within the great
feminist platforms. To a large extent in our hands is valuing ourselves.

But on the other hand we have another great element of pressure that would be the tendency of theories and class organizations to establish
a kind of hierarchy of struggles, in which the class struggle is the main one and from its resolution the solution of the others would
arise. In the best of cases, there is no hierarchy, what happens is a separate compartmentalization of struggles: on the one hand, classes,
on the other hand, feminist, on the other, ecologist, and so on, as if they were not deeply connected. In reality, neither of the two
strategies or visions ends up being sufficiently strategic, especially considering that we live in a system that was nourished by the bodies
and work of women to configure both the productive model and the model of institutions. On the one hand, we know that care work, designated
exclusively to women as a social obligation, they end up generating a very high added value, and at the same time the affective and family
reproductive model are a key piece for the functioning of capitalism. But also for daddy state. The institutions are designed just from that
same perspective, and they start from the same will to control the population, the land, the birth rate, the demographics and a long list
that has a lot to do with us. For this very reason, knowing that both capitalism and institutions and states are born from this control and
will to domesticate women's bodies, from the family model, from birth, it is essential to say that capitalism cannot be ended without ending
patriarchy. And if we go further, we cannot end patriarchy if we do not dynamize states and institutions.

This is not new nor much less, we have many historical predecessors that explain to us either with theory, with advertising, or with their
actions (which is the part I like the most), what is class feminism and what is essential to end this whole network of oppressions, which
are not separate compartments and which does not and will not work a hierarchy of struggles. As a matter of fact, neither would we need to
be constantly reminded of the importance of not forgetting the class struggle, we know it, we suffer it, we fight it, and we have no reason
to show that we fight it more.

In this battle over whether feminism is bourgeois in essence, about whether working women who fought talking about their rights as workers,
in mixed and unmixed spaces, about whether to name themselves feminists or not, about telling their peers that they were equal to bosses ,
who had to explain to them that they didn't want to be more than them, but that they treated them like people, the essentials are lost for
me. Class feminism, in addition to struggling on many fronts to build a better world, also for women, was a mobilization tool that
throughout history has managed to create spaces for women workers, housewives, unemployed, migrants, etc. Spaces from which they have
claimed themselves as working-class women and as women struggling against patriarchy, uniting discourse without problem and creating
networks of mutual support from which to exercise both direct action and solidarity. Mujeres Libres is the most obvious example of this. No
other class organization knew how to gather or feel, the need, the look of working women as they did. So, there is no doubt that talking
about what happens to us since and for us without delegating or asking for tutors is the closest to direct action and the revolutionary
practice of class struggle.

When I imagine what my ideal feminism would be, there are several pillars that support it. The first is to be a class feminism, since if
feminism starts from the basis of women's emancipation and fulfillment outside patriarchal authoritarianism, there is no point in
maintaining other power relations, whether classist or racist or of any kind since feminism, that be. Another pillar is the need to reread
history, not only the official one, but also the revolutionary and academic feminist, and to unearth this whole history of working women
that will help us not to continue thinking that we started from scratch. As the third pillar comes the use of tools, above all of anarchist
and anarcho-feminist hues:

* Use self-defense, that is, direct action, as a way to face concrete aggressions and those of the system, as well as a starting point to
organize ourselves without anyone representing us. Let go of patriarchal tutelage and let go of the delegation philosophy.

* Within this direct action, be aware that we can make use of many tactics that range from revolutionary pedagogy to self-management, from
sabotage to strike or boycott.

* Practice mutual support and build communities based on solidarity between equals, so it is important to know what feminism we are in or
how we understand it, since support, by its nature, is not possible if it is not between equals.

These pillars working women have been practicing for a long time, they are not new, they do not deviate from what the practice of class
struggle uses as a basis. For all of this philosophy, all of this strategy and all of this tactic is a potential that can contribute to the
whole explosion of feminism that we are experiencing. Yes, there is a lot of interest in co-opting this explosion, in making it something
commercial, in emptying it and even in re-directing it, but in the end the question that occurs to me is whether our predecessors had
stopped talking about their lives and their rights because bourgeois feminists appropriated the discourse. At the end we can also go around
a little and ask ourselves what we can and want to give, and what validity we give to our project of a totally different society if we do
not contemplate the explicit and barracks struggle against patriarchy as another form of power and authority. Going through the
anarcho-feminist philosophy, which is obviously class feminism, our action must be the search for the balance between revolutionary
education and the action to end all forms of power and the persecution of all forms of machismo, whatever happens, with all the tools that
are needed. What phrase best sums up class feminism that proposes anarcho-feminism? As Peggy Kornegger wrote "we don't want any power to be
taken, we want it to dissolve". our action must be the search for a balance between revolutionary education and action to end all forms of
power and the persecution of all forms of machismo, wherever it occurs, with all the tools that are necessary. What phrase best sums up
class feminism that proposes anarcho-feminism? As Peggy Kornegger wrote "we don't want any power to be taken, we want it to dissolve". our
action must be the search for a balance between revolutionary education and action to end all forms of power and the persecution of all
forms of machismo, whatever happens, with whatever tools are necessary. What phrase best sums up class feminism that proposes
anarcho-feminism? As Peggy Kornegger wrote "we don't want any power to be taken, we want it to dissolve".

Extracted from CNT nº 423, Dossier "Lucha de clases"

Translation> Sol de Abril

anarchist news agency-ana

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Message: 2



While the forums and great speeches on the "next   world  " follow one another  , militant efforts were deployed during the confinement to
organize food solidarity and support for local agriculture. But the peasants did not wait today to fight against the industry and point out
the need for food self-sufficiency. ---- The state and its propaganda have been bathing us for two months with stories of the return of big
companies on the national territory, and other violins of sobriety or proximity. In the meantime, as usual, activists have stuck to it,
especially on the side of agriculture. The question of the "next   world   " is at the center of concerns, but for the moment, there is
above all a continuity.
One of the first measures of containment was to close the local markets to send everyone to supermarkets: we can see here the interest for
large distribution groups. On the other hand, the local networks found themselves without outlets, and it was food that went directly to the
trash, peasants deprived of income. It took several weeks for networks to be established, and again, in places where militant action made it
possible. During this time, the trucks transport food that comes from who knows where. This demonstrates, if necessary, the determination of
state to continue exactly as if nothing had happened.

Preserving the solidarities of containment
During the confinement, solidarity actions were formed and new networks were created around food justice and support for local producers:
mutual aid platforms, contact between citizens and farmers, food distribution... And many of them are trying to survive the "   return to
normal   ".

These initiatives show a solid solidarity, and their positive reception indicates a certain sensitivity to local agricultural questions and
the peasant condition. However, the tributes and the visibility of the acts of solidarity should not make us forget the underlying crisis
and the lack of consideration, and more broadly the deep problems in the organization of agricultural production, exacerbated by the crisis.
Worldwide, production and distribution have been deeply disrupted  [1], stocks are accumulating and sometimes need to be destroyed.

Beside that, the closing of the borders blocks the seasonal workers workers in their countries, while the government gives a license to
exploit (even more) to the agricultural industry, by encouraging the recourse to voluntary work  [2].

The sirens of localism
In this context, the government has good game to praise local production, without affecting an iota of agricultural policy. Besides that:
landless farmers, disappearance of agricultural land, monocultures, pesticides. Their speeches on localism or "   relocation   " are window
dressing.

And what about the productive patriotism (of nationalism  ?) Advocated by the right and the far right, who see it as an opportunity to
glorify borders and national production ... Scam if it is on the part of supporters of free trade , of a wild capitalism and without any
consideration for the workers. Economic patriotism, defended by the Macron government, by the extreme right or even by certain
environmentalist fringes, we must refuse it[See the article Economic patriotism: geography of a dead end].

As for local consumption and made in France advocated by environmental activists, a little more sympathetic, they are not enough, especially
when these speeches limit the problem to consumer responsibility. Today, not everyone has access to local and good quality products, and the
urban and rural working classes are thrown into poverty and precariousness. It's a whole system that needs to be overhauled.

For productive autonomy
The creation of local production networks based on small units is not a new concern in UCL. It is up to us to obviously support solidarity
networks, but also to put forward some fundamentals: at UCL, we defend no economic patriotism, but productive autonomy, food autonomy, and
the end of competition between workers and workers, and between territories of the liberal capitalist market.

This does not mean an absence of exchanges between territories, as we point out in our manifesto: "   Each region of the world must be able
to produce what it needs once it is freed from the dependence of multinationals. This does not mean self-sufficiency, but short exchange
circuits, and the limitation of long exchanges to that which cannot be produced locally.  "  [3]

It is therefore necessary to have a dynamic of mutualisation to create networks capable of maintaining a balance of power with the perpetual
advance of capitalism. The Confédération paysanne is not mistaken, it has been recognized for a long time that this agricultural system is
not sustainable and that it is peasant agriculture that can change the situation. In this perspective, it is necessary to support the
peasant struggles against multinational agrifoods, for the end of agriculture and industrial breeding.

We must also build the alliance between the dominated classes of cities and countryside, around food justice: so that quality food is
accessible to all and all, at the right price, for an autonomous control of production. by the peasants, thought locally according to the needs.

Members of the UCL Ecology Commission

Validate

[1] "   Towards a major crisis in agriculture  ?  "

[2] "   Faced with the crisis, let's fight for food autonomy   "

[3] "   The ecological and social emergency   "

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Consommateurs-et-paysan-nes-jonction-pour-la-justice-alimentaire

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Message: 3



Introduction ---- The ongoing capitalist crisis, and the impacts of COVID19, have made it clear that the capitalist and state system we live
under is neither efficient nor just. Inequality has hit record levels and a small elite has more wealth than ever, while the very basics -
such as a decent healthcare, water, housing, sanitation, food and electricity - cannot be effectively financed, run nor delivered. Because
of the profit motive of capitalism there was no real preparation for a health crisis such as COVID19 - it is not profitable for capital to
prepare for long term threats - even though scientists warned as early as 2006 that the possibility of some form of viral pandemic was
likely at some point due to the destruction by corporations of natural barriers, like rain forests. Politicians in every state abuse their
power too and corruption is rife, only its severity varies. We see this even when there is a pandemic - some local politicians have even
sold food parcels meant to alleviate people's hunger during the COVID 19 lockdown.

Parliamentary democracy is largely hollow with a majority of people having no real political power. The oppression of women and people of
colour continues unabated and imperialism deepens everyday. Due to the ever-expanding nature of capitalism the ecology is on the verge of
collapse. It is clear a movement for change and an alternative to capitalism and the state system is needed.

One alternative that is proving to be viable in large parts of the Kurdish majority areas of the Middle East is Democratic Confederalism. In
South Africa there is much we can learn, adopt and adapt from Democratic Confederalism for local movement building.

What is Democratic Confederalism?
Democratic Confederalism is a revolutionary ideology, practice and way of organising that has arisen in the Kurdish Freedom Movement in
parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iran. Democratic Confederalism is a form of socialism that looks to eventually replace the state and capitalism
with a radical democratic form of People's Power. It involves people organising themselves into communes, councils and committees to
democratically run every aspect of their lives - including education, safety, politics, healthcare, housing and food - and to create a
communal economy based on co-operatives that are democratically controlled through street communes and confederated councils of mandated
delegates.

This is not only a vision that activists aim for in the future after a revolution, but is a way of organising today. The aim is to expand
People's Power into a dual power, while diminishing the power of the state and capitalism, and to eventually replace these through a social
revolutionary process with the communes and councils' people have already created.

Democratic Confederalism argues that self-defence is a right of the communes, councils and assemblies if they are attacked by capital and/or
the state. Democratic Confederalism, therefore, aims to build a dual power peacefully if not attacked by the state, but is not a pacifist
movement in that Democratic Confederalism promotes self-defence against capital and the state. Democratic Confederalism is not just about
the Kurdish liberation struggle - it aims ultimately for an international social revolution through building structures of radical democracy
outside the control of states and capitalism, which can replace these systems one day

Pillars and principles of Democratic Confederalism
Democratic Confederalism has three main pillars that are underpinned by a number of principles.

The first pillar is women's liberation. The Kurdish Freedom Movement feels that this is the most important pillar. The reason why is that
they analysed that the oppression of women and the exploitation of women's labour was the first hierarchy that arose over 5000 years ago
when states and classes first arose in the Middle East - states are instruments of minority ruling class rule (historically the ruling class
were only elite men). It was the oppression of women on which the later oppression and exploitation of impoverished men was built too. To
free everyone, therefore, women have to achieve liberation.

The second pillar is to build an ecological society. Democratic Confederalism views human beings as part of the ecology, not above it.
Capitalism, however, views the ecology as something to exploit in the pursuit of ever-increasing profits. Indeed, capitalism is based on the
principle of growth or death. If the human species is to survive, capitalism needs to be replaced by an ecological economy to meet peoples'
needs, without oppression and exploitation of humans and the destruction of the ecology. Hence, Democratic Confederalism's commitment to
social ecology.

The third pillar is to extend a participatory democracy into all areas of life be they social, political and economic to overcome patriarchy
and all hierarchies including class and race. The key principles and practices underlying these pillars are solidarity, mutual aid, respect,
dignity, collective discipline, self-reflection, communalism and self and collective criticism

Why these principles and practices?
Democratic Confederalism as an ideology, political vision and way of organising developed out of a reflective process by activists within
the Kurdish Freedom Movement.

Before the late 1990s, activists that were linked to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) aimed to achieve national liberation through armed
struggle and founding a workers' state with the PKK as the vanguard.

In the late 1990s these activists began to critically analyse whether this was the best path by examining the history of national liberation
struggles and past revolutions - including the Russian Revolution. Activists also studied the history of the Middle East and how patriarchy,
class and states arose and why. Through this, they came to see that hierarchies and states could not bring about liberation. The activists
also looked at other revolutionary traditions beyond Marxist-Leninism.

They drew on the social ecologist and libertarian socialist writings of Murray Bookchin (who was an activist in the USA who started as a
trade unionist, moved away from Stalinism to libertarian socialism and developed the theory of social ecology). They also drew elements from
activist-analysts like Immanuel Wallerstein (who was sociologist who was deeply impacted by the worldwide revolutionary upheavals of 1968
and who helped develop the world system theory that views capitalism as divided into a core and periphery. The core are high tech producing
developed countries; while the periphery are countries that offer low wage production and are producers of primary goods. In this theory
too, capitalism is seen commodifying every aspect of the social and natural world). As part of the reflection, activists in the Kurdish
Freedom Movement also looked at some of the practices of movements like the Zapatistas (the Zapatistas are a non-hierarchical movement that
also broke with Marxist-Leninism and are struggling for self-governance, autonomy and a cooperative economy against capitalism and the state
in Mexico).

Through reflection, mass education and critical thinking the activists in the Kurdish Freedom Movement formulated Democratic Confederalism
and moved away from trying to create a Kurdish socialist state. They rather chose to build a mass movement to win struggles for housing,
water and sanitation today, but with the aim of also creating socialism without a state based on structures of direct democracy and an
economy to meet the needs of all, called communalism, in the future.

Democratic Confederalism, ideology and education
Ideology and political education are seen as vital within Democratic Confederalism. The reason being: if a movement does not have its own
very clear ideology it will come to incorporate aspects of the dominate ideology linked to hierarchies, capitalism, racism, patriarchy and
nation states.

Therefore, a clear ideology is vital for struggle and provides a practice, vision and aim. Through extensive analyses of the problems of
capitalism, nation states, past revolutions and critical self-analysis, reflection, discussion and debate Democratic Confederalism became
underpinned by a clear ideology. To ensure all activists and people can analyse and participate in the movement, based on the ideology of
Democratic Confederalism, mass education is central. Education to assist build the consciousness, the abilities and confidence of activists
is vital so that everyone can collectively and actively create new forms of organisation and implement the principles and aims of Democratic
Confederalism, rather than rely on "big men" or so-called messiahs to bring liberation.

To undertake mass education, every street -which is a commune - where Democratic Confederalism is organised in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq
has an "academy". Academies are spaces of learning and reflection - it can even be someone's house - where political education is undertaken
and where there are ongoing educational sessions on women's oppression, limits of the nation state, critiques of capitalism, social ecology
and importantly on Democratic Confederalism. Academies also have practical courses that benefit each street commune collectively such as
healthcare.

States and capitalism aim to educate members of the working class to obey orders and be useful to produce profit for bosses and taxes for
the state. Activists need to educate each other for liberation and this is at the heart of Democratic Confederalism.

Democratic Confederalism as a resistance movement and way of organising
Democratic Confederalism as a resistance movement to capitalism, patriarchy and the state involves organising at a street level where
between 20 to 400 households form a "commune". The commune meets regularly and is open to everyone regardless of gender, age, religion and
race and is based on direct democracy. In the commune there are different committees through which people run the politics, law, economy,
healthcare, women's organising, youth organising, media, safety and political education at a street level. Communes are then federated
together at a neighbourhood level, a city level, a provincial level, a national level and even an international level through mandated and
recallable communal delegates to councils. This differs from representative democracy (seen today in political parties, many social
movements, trade unions, parliaments and the state) where power is given to representatives to make decisions.

Rather in Democratic Confederalism communes have the power: delegates to structures such as city, provincial and national councils carry
mandates. This means delegates are given instructions by the communes and under those mandates they co-ordinate and carry out administrative
functions. If they go beyond their mandates, they can be recalled and replaced. Through these structures protests are undertaken and broad
self-defence organised.

At an economic level, in places where Democratic Confederalism is a resistance movement, worker and women co-operatives are established to
meet very basic needs on a street level, such as bread. They assist people to meet very basic needs even though capitalism remains in place
- in other words they help communities alleviate the worst aspects that capitalism causes, such as hunger, whilst actively resisting the system.

Democratic Confederalism and the Rojava Revolution
One place where activists have fully replaced the state with Democratic Confederalism through a revolution is in Rojava in north eastern
Syria. In Rojava people overthrew the Syrian state in 2012 through mass protests and taking over military bases and state buildings as part
of the Arab Spring.There a new society without the state has been organised based on communes and there are different committees at street
level to deal with healthcare, housing, women's liberation etc.

The communes are confederated together through delegates to neighbourhood assemblies, city councils, provincial councils and an overarching
coordinating structure called the Syrian Democratic Council. The delegates at each structure are always comprised of two people: a man and a
woman. The delegates do not have decision making powers on their own - decisions are made by the communes and coordinated by delegates in
the councils.

There are also women's formations in the communes, assemblies and councils that are confederated under the banner of the women's movement
called Kongra Star. If a majority of women within any structure feel a decision is wrong, even if there is an overall majority of men and
some women, the women can override the decision, which is aimed at addressing patriarchy. Each commune has its own structures of community
self-defence - in which women of all ages play a key role - and a participatory court to ensure community safety. There is no police force
as there would be in a state as through self-defence by all at a commune level safety is ensured.

In Rojava it is not just Kurdish people who are involved in the communes and councils, but also Arab, Assyrian and Turkish people.
Democratic Confederalism has, therefore, started to overcome racism within northern Syria (the Kurdish people were racially oppressed in
northern Syria but view Democratic Confederalism as central to everyone's liberation).

In terms of the economy, state owned land in northern Syria (which was the dominant form of property) has been redistributed to agricultural
co-operatives that have been established and linked to the communes. The only big industry in Rojava is oil and it has been socialised under
the Syrian Democratic Council, and it is mandated to produce to meet the needs of all people in Rojava. As a way to overcome capitalism,
many worker co-operatives have been formed to produce for need and not profit - these too are directly linked to communes. Some of these
co-operatives are large: there is one housing co-operative for women that has 20 000 members and is organised through Kongra Star, but most
are small or medium sized. Small and medium sized businesses still exist and even still outnumber the co-operatives, but they are
accountable to communes to ensure they have role to play in meetings people's needs. While they can make some profit, communes have the
power to prevent profit gouging as businesses are answerable to the community in the commune if they do so.

Capitalism, therefore, has not been fully ended but the idea is to continuously weaken it and push it towards an end. So in Rojava the forms
of organisations and structures that were built by activists as a resistance movement have, after a social revolution, become the structures
through which people collectively and democratically govern society.

Lessons of Democratic Confederalism for South Africa
There are a number of lessons we can draw for South Africa from Democratic Confederalism and its ideology and form of organising. Perhaps
the most important lesson is that it is possible to build organisations of People's Power that are participatory and based on direct
democracy - since 1994 there has been an ideological onslaught from the state, capital, political parties, and even some trade unions
against this. We do have experience with such structures of People's Power in the form of street committees, or what are called communes in
Democratic Confederalism, that were so prevalent in the 1980s in South Africa. A lesson is we need to once again begin to organise
extensively at a street level through mass meetings and street-based structures like assemblies/committees/communes if we are going to build
a new movement to bring about liberation. In other words, we as activists have to intensify organising people on our streets and building
structures, such as street level assemblies, that draw people into a movement based on the challenges and problems they face and want to
themselves overcome - which are caused by patriarchy, racism and ultimately the state and capitalism. This means energy must be focused on
building structures and organising at a street level as opposed to a situation where many activists currently spend time trying to build
centralised organisations, and only once these exist attempt to recruit people

A further lesson is that building a new movement based once again on street committees/assemblies or communes, as Democratic Confederalism
shows, has to be based on progressive principles and practices such as accountability, self-and-collective-discipline, direct democracy,
self-organisation and communalism. Therefore, we as activists should not only be promoting such principles, but living them as far as
possible in practice. It is only through building grassroots structures of People's Power that we can transform society in a progressive
direction through focusing first and foremost on struggles in our communities, on our streets and as will be discussed, also in workplaces.

Political parties and a big man who are often self-appointed leaders cannot address the inequalities, poverty and lack of real democracy for
a majority of people as they are based on state logic and hierarchy - only building new forms of organisation and organising can help to
bring liberation. Democratic Confederalism, along with our own experiences locally, gives us a model to use and adapt.

Democratic Confederalism shows that once street level structures - street assemblies/communes - and community movements have been built,
they also have to be confederated and linked via recallable mandated delegates in structures like township wide councils, city level
councils, provincial councils, a national council and perhaps even an international council.

The reason for this is because if we do not confederate structures like street assemblies/committees/communes, our organising and presence
will remain isolated, the state could easily keep struggles localised too, and our struggles could become hostile to anyone outside our
community (which in the end is self-defeating). If we are to achieve liberation and overcome state structures (which are oppressive) and
capitalism (which is exploitative) we need a dual power based on confederated street level structures, like assemblies, that involve large
numbers of people as active participants. What Democratic Confederalism shows, therefore, is we need a collective power, but one where
people at the grassroots hold and exercise such power.

So people should not be representatives who are given power to make decisions if they are sent from the street assemblies to township wide
councils for example. Rather they must be delegates who carry mandates from below and must be accountable to the people that have given them
their mandate. It is only through delegates that are mandated and that co-ordinate the wishes of the street assemblies/committees/communes
that a truly participatory dual power can be built. We should though not fool ourselves into thinking that the task of building this will be
easy. It will be hard work and will take time. There is, however, a base (although small) in the form of existing social/community movements
to begin to rebuild such as People's Power in South Africa.

Democratic Confederalism shows mass political education has to be central to movement building based on reflection, critical analysis and
developing a coherent and truly progressive ideology. Too often in South Africa activists adopt modes and ways of organising like parties
and trade unions that have failed to achieve liberation, and/or look to imitate past revolutions that too have failed. So, the lesson is
education has to develop critical thinking and to do that we have to honestly critique past revolutions and where they went wrong -
including South Africa's liberation struggle - and even our own practices and beliefs. It is only through education, reflection, discussions
and debates that a clear ideology that guides struggles can be developed for the context of South Africa. Unfortunately, in some struggles
in South Africa there has been a recent trend to stop debates, critical discussion and even freedom of speech - this is counter to
liberation and needs to be reversed.

The task, therefore, is for activists to build spaces and programmes of education for each other, but more vitally for the people in the
areas and streets where we live. Another important lesson is that there also needs to be spaces of reflection at every level, as without
reflection mistakes are often repeated, strategy never effectively developed, and appropriate tactics deployed. Indeed, without political
education there cannot be a mass movement that is participatory, that is clear about its objectives, and that has progressive principles,
values and practices.

Without political education, in short, there can be no liberation.

We can also draw lessons from Democratic Confederalism about the need for women's liberation to be central. This does not mean that we
forget about fighting other issues such as class and racism - all hierarchies, oppressions and exploitation must be actively fought through
ideology and praxis. Far too often however, structures, formations, trade unions and political parties replicate patriarchy and are
permanently headed by messiahs or big leaders that permanently hold power. This needs to change and to do so practices such as direct
democracy and accountability are needed along with political education.

Indeed, a broader women's movement is needed within People's Power that can push for the centrality of women's liberation - central to
direct democracy are women. This should not be some form of token organisation, but an organisation that is central to all struggles and
that participates in all structures. True freedom is not to be confused with the right of an individual to selfishly do as they please
because no one is free until we are all free and patriarchy needs to be overcome - along with class and racism - for this to become a
reality. In society everyone is damaged by hierarchies and oppressions - even oppressors are distorted as human beings by them - but it is
only the oppressed that can truly liberate everyone and central to this are working class women.

One major difference between South Africa and Rojava is that the development of capital in in South Africa has been extensive. Workers
within Democratic Confederalism in Rojava are organised through communes into economic committees. While in South Africa workers should be
part of street assemblies/communes and organised through these structures, this in our context will not be enough. There is a strong
capitalist class in South Africa - mostly a small part of the white population who owns the means of production, but also a smaller BEE elite.

This class is powerful, and in class terms are allies of the politicians that head the South African state. If we are to defeat capitalism
and the oppressive state system - and capitalism's accompanying racism - in South Africa there is a need for workers to also organise at
their workplaces. Workers need to win demands that better their wages and working conditions, but also stop the erosion of their rights that
they face today. These are the hard struggles that we need to fight.

But workers' struggles cannot just stop at day to day fights. Rather through day to day struggles we need to consciously build towards a
longer struggle that aims to socialise the means of production in the future under a People's Power based on confederated
assemblies/communes, councils, and forums. Without such an ideological vision we may win some gains, but we will fall back to either
begrudgingly accepting private property or hoping for nationalisation - nationalisation means the state owns and controls workplaces and
when this has happened in the past workers were still oppressed and exploited, but by states and their managers.

For workers, however, to organise today we need new forms of organisation in workplaces. Trade unions today have proven not to be the most
effective organisations to organise workers anymore - indeed they have repeatedly failed to organise the majority of workers who are
precarious, because it does not pay to do so. The majority of unions are also tied to parties and, at best, have the mistaken notion that if
the party they back comes to head a state (whether capitalist or a "workers'" state), then that state will bring liberation - which
historically has proven false.

Importantly, new forms of worker organising and organisation have started to emerge in South Africa and in these are the seeds too of
liberation. These have mainly been formed by precarious workers who built structures such as worker committees and forums. In 2012/13 there
were the farm and mineworker committees, and today there are worker forums amongst precarious workers in Gauteng and farm workers in the
Eastern Cape. In reality, why worker forums and committees are so important is that they were and are effective - through these farm workers
and miners won huge gains - and they also potentially carry the seeds of change within them. There, therefore, needs to be a focus amongst
activists of building more new forms of worker organisations in the form of committees and forums based on principles and practices of
direct democracy and accountability. It would be important too, once many worker committees and forums have been established, to begin to
confederate them through delegate systems and structures, which could be industrial area wide councils and city-wide councils etc.This would
be to ensure that individual struggles at a workplace cannot be isolated by capitalists and the state and to ensure the co-ordination of
workers' struggles across the country.

We also need to recognise that the building of worker forums and committees has, however, sometimes been a stop-start process. For example,
the farm and mine worker committees collapsed partially because the state and capital attacked them. But they also collapsed because the
workers involved failed to see how powerful these structures really were due to an ideology not existing amongst the majority of workers
that held the vision that these new forms of organisation could be political alternatives to trade unions. Like the street
assemblies/communes, therefore, workers' forums and committees would need to focus on the day to day struggles on the workplace floor, but
also need to be influenced by a vision or ideology that takes us beyond capitalism and prepares the structures we are building today to
become structures to take over the economy in the future. The forums and committees, therefore, also need to be seen as structures that can
in the long run fight for and take over the means of production for all through a process of socialisation. For this political education is
once again central.

To ensure genuine socialisation during a revolutionary process and to also connect day to day struggles of communities and workers together
before such a process, worker forums/committees would need to be directly connected to street assemblies/communes. A confederated structure
that has mandated delegates from the street assemblies/communes and worker forums/committees is one way to do this. Another way is also to
organise workers in the communes/street assemblies where they live - as workers are also community members. Through this, direct links can
be created between street assemblies/communes and workers' forums/committees and so become one movement.

For too long we have copied hierarchical ways of organising, like political parties and today's trade unions, that have divided worker and
community struggles. Expanding the organic forms of organisation - in terms of street assemblies/committees and worker forums/committees -
that have emerged amongst the working class in South Africa past and present, and combining these with the practice of confederalism and a
long term vision of a new society offers a way to move beyond the ideologies and forms of organising that have divided. Democratic
Confederalism and Rojava shows such a way of organising through direct democracy and confederating various structures is not impossible - it
has been done and it is possible.

As a famous revolutionary once said: We have a world to win.

This text was originally published by the International Labour Research and Information Group(ILRIG).

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31962

https://zabalaza.net/2020/06/29/democratic-confederalism-and-movement-building-in-south-africa/

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Message: 4



ESE-Athens participated in the Workers' Resistance and Democracy Demonstration , on Tuesday, June 23, in Chafteia. ---- Following is the
text that was shared: ---- WE WORKERS WILL NOT PAY FOR THIS CRISIS EITHER ---- We are at the cutting edge of history. The global crisis of
the Covid 19 pandemic wil is taught to future generations as we have been taught for the two worlds wars, medieval plague, colonialism, and
how they shaped it society. In every crisis, capital has always benefited by throwing the burden on the shoulders of the working class, and
making profits by literally pressing on corpses. ---- We do not need special knowledge of mathematics or statistics to be able to We say
that the probability that the people will pay for this crisis as well, they want to reach 100%.
The bosses again found the opportunity to suck their favorite candies:
"The store has no job and we go in," "You will have to work with me
half a stamp for now, because it doesn't work out any other way "," A little patience for this crisis to pass
and your salary will go up again "," I'm your friend and you know I care but unfortunately
things are difficult "and other fanfares that we all know and hate.
So, already during the quarantine but also after its end, the employer
arbitrariness again found fertile ground to flourish, with elasticization of hours,
wage cuts, intensification, layoffs, undeclared work, and the like without them
necessary hygiene measures. All this, of course, with the necessary help from the government
which with PNP, on the one hand, strangled our labor rights (wage reductions, from
shift work) and on the other hand donated millions to the capital. Like the 20 million that
were given to the media to legitimize state and employer arbitrariness
take root well in the head of every citizen.
The deadly sin of the new age is the gathering in squares where it exists
risk of spreading the virus of subversive ideas and questioning, so it did not happen
some intervention at the opening of Omonia or in the kitsch "concert" of Protopsalti on
in a truck. That is why the government is giving 34 million to him
MAT equipment, thus 'helping' the outcasts and dissidents to stay
pure from sin, drafting the new Orwellian normality while funds for
strengthening the National Health System, education, the unemployed, the poor, the
immigrants are virtually non-existent.
In the face of the new dystopia and the violation of our rights that
won with blood after years of struggle our answer is:
WE WILL NOT PAY THE EMPLOYEES AND THIS CRISIS!
Employees need to be counterattacked. Let's fight resolutely
for collective agreements and wage increases according to modern needs
Our organization in the workplace is a one-way street, so that we don't just stop
the violation of our rights, but to claim the life that belongs to us.
We participate in the Workers' Resistance Demonstration and
Claim, on Tuesday, June 23 at 7pm from Chafteia
Freedom Union of Athens

https://ese.espiv.net/2020/06/29/apo-tin-diadilosi-ton-somateion-tis-23-6/

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Message: 5



Small demonstrations of "yellow vests" took place on June 27 in various cities of France. In Paris, protesters gathered at 11.30 in the
Pacific Battalion Square in Bercy (12th arrondissement), where the Ministry of Economy is located. After 13.30 they walked along the
boulevards of Vincent Oriol and Auguste Blanca (13th arrondissement), the streets of Jean The and Chateau (14th arrondissement), in front of
the Necker Hospital (15th arrondissement) to Henri Koy Square. On the way, a stop was made at the Pisce Salpetriere hospital, where the
protesters expressed their solidarity with the medical staff. ---- The demonstration was surrounded by police, but without incident. They
chanted anti-capitalist slogans and the usual "chants" of "yellow vests": "We are here - even if Macron does not want this!" Among the
demands voiced by the protesters were the suspension of the collection of general social tax (CSG) and the reduction of VAT for all
essential goods
(https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/paris_75056/carte-manifestation-des-gilets-jaunes-a-paris-le-parcours-prevu-circulation-perturbee_34564843.html;
https://francais.rt.com/france/76340-reprenons-nos-libertes-mobilisation-modeste-gilets-jaunes-paris;
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/ceinna-coll/blog/280620/gj-acte-72-lxxii-sem85-paris-27062020-reprenons-nos-libertes)
In Toulouse, despite the ban of the prefecture, dozens of "yellow vests" gathered at 14.00 and walked around the city, chanting slogans and
calling for the resignation of the mayor, president and interior minister. During the demonstration, the police imposed a fine on 13 people,
one was taken to the commissariat for identification. By 16.30, the demonstrators dispersed
(https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/06/27/a-toulouse-une-cinquantaine-de-gilets-jaunes-dans-les-rues-au-moins-13-verbalisations,8952438.php)

Protests also took place in Marseille (at the Old Port), Angers, at the crossroads in the department of Essonne, in the Givors shopping
area, in Metz (14.00 on Republic Square), Maubeuge and other cities and towns ...

https://aitrus.info/node/5510

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Message: 6



The unprecedented scope of the uprising this past week reflects widespread discontent on various levels - and widespread disdain and
criticism for the racist and repressive role of the police as an institution in the USA. The immediate issue is yet another police murder of
a black man - the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cops. But the protests have often mentioned other recent police killings of black
people. ---- We demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the many other hundreds of black people murdered by
police in the past year. Since the point blank cop shooting of Oscar Grant in 2009, more than 200 people have been shot and killed by the
police here in the Bay Area - Mario Woods, Alan Blueford, Kenneth Harding Jr and others. Just in the last few days Vallejo police shot and
killed a young man on his knees with his hands raised. No cop in Vallejo has been disciplined for deadly force in the past decade despite
the many shootings by police.

The problem is very deeply entrenched in this country. The police have long been allowed a special legal immunity from prosecution and given
a free hand to keep the "lower orders" in their place. The first professional police force in the USA was created in the 1790s in
Charleston, South Carolina for the purpose of keeping slaves under control. In the north the first paid police forces arose with industrial
capitalism and a "dangerous" class of property-less wage-workers employed in the early factories - and subject to periodic unemployment and
food riots and strikes. Thus the police were set up with the dual role of protecting both white supremacy and class oppression.
Local budgets throughout the USA are weighed down with vast budgets - for noise weapons and Humvee's and body armor and endless raises while
the sanctity given to the police budgets by the Chamber of Commerce types leads to less money for public services that can provide housing
and health care and education.

Even though police are often recruited from the working class, they are no more working class than are the supervisors and managers who
police us in the workplaces. Cops are supervisors of the streets. They are part of the bureaucratic control class that includes middle
managers, judges, prosecutors, corporate lawyers and military brass. Their job is to run the corporations and the state and keep everything
going for the benefit of the wealthy owning class at the top.

Part of their institutional position in the USA is their separation from any real civilian control. And the special privileges of police
unions exist to support the repressive role of the police. That's why police "unions" are allowed to negotiate over discipline and
participate in official investigations of police violence and illegality. This allows them to push back against periodic popular pressure on
politicians or police chiefs after the latest outrage. Police unions almost never show any solidarity towards other workers in struggle -
because they are an arm of the repressive system.

Workers can stand up to them - as bus drivers have done during this uprising, refusing to haul police or prisoners captured by the cops.
This is a position that has been backed up by locals of the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union.
Abolition of the police is thus a revolutionary demand. An amazing aspect of the present moment is that some members of the Minneapolis city
council are now proposing to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. City councilman Steve Fletcher has described their city's police
department as "beyond reform" and a "protection racket." "Several of us on the council are working on finding out what it would take to
disband the Minneapolis Police Department and start fresh with a community-oriented, nonviolent public safety and outreach capacity," he says.

This uprising has achieved an amazing scope - large mass marches day after day, not only in big cities, but extending far out into suburbs -
such as Walnut Creek, Clayton and Santa Rosa here in the Bay Area. Not only big urban centers but protests in small towns out on the
prairies, such as Fargo North Dakota or places like Tyler, Texas.

A Morning Consult poll says that the protests are supported - either strongly or to some extent - by 54 percent of Americans. This is vastly
more support than achieved by the astro-turf, business-supported "re-open" protests to end shelter in place protections against the
pandemic. Those were only supported by 22 percent. According to another poll, three-fourths of Americans see the killing of George Floyd as
a sign of the underlying problem of racial injustice in USA.

This wide support - and the intensity of the moment - reflects a whole series of things coming together and bearing down on the working
class majority. In the midst of the pandemic millions have lost their employer-dependent health care, and more than 40 million have filed
for unemployment benefits under a creaky unemployment system - a third of those who have filed have not received any money yet. And racial
disparities are on display in the pandemic also: The deaths to black and Latino people have been far higher than among whites.
The more than 150 wildcat strikes in the past two months are another aspect to the current discontent - including many strikes over unsafe
working conditions such as lack of personal protective gear. And with people losing their income and not having money for food, rent strikes
are also on the rise. And meanwhile the Congress focuses on more billion dollar bailouts for business interests. Thus in this situation the
oppressive and wretched reality of present American institutions bears down on millions.

The multi-racial crowds of young people in the protests are there partly because they are fed up with the engrained racist patterns of
police violence and thus express solidarity with the victims of this violence. But it's also in their own interests to participate in this
uprising because multi-racial solidarity is needed for effective struggle for the changes that would benefit them. Many see their own dire
prospects and see the way they are treated as disposable by the Lords of Capital.

https://iwa-ait.org/content/we-support-uprising

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