#Worldwide Information Blogger #LucSchrijvers: Update: #anarchist information from all over the #world - THUSDAY 21 JULY 2020

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Czech, afed: Say goodbye to the Roman Catholic Church
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Greece, Athens - anarchist-federation: Calling the courts -
      Against censorship (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  AND: Elephant in the room - authoritarian politics,
      anarchists and refugees in time of Coronavirus in Greece
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  nigra: I failed the anarchy test ... (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Anarchistische Gruppe Freiburg: Solidarity Action with
      Dragon Sweater Workers in Freiburg (Germany) (de)
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 6.  Lucio Urtubia: An anarchist life 1931 - 2020 (ca)
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group: CHOCOLATE FISH, RED
      HERRINGS & BILLIONAIRES by ablokeimet (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1


A text about the relationship to the church from our sympathizer ---- One becomes part of the Catholic Church on the basis of baptism.
Information about this event is written by the pastor in the book of the baptized, in order to satisfy the bureaucracy as well. Mostly small
children are baptized, so one becomes a bureaucratic part of the Catholic Church at an early age. According to the Catholic Church, 15,151
children under the age of one, 3,643 older children and 1,138 adults were baptized in the Czech Republic in 2019 ( HERE ). In these numbers,
the baptisms performed in Moravia predominate very significantly. ---- In the church ---- I, too, became part of the Catholic Church as a
newborn. Although I said goodbye to her bureaucratically only after many years, but in reality much earlier, I was not a practicing
Catholic. This means that, at the age of eight, I stopped attending church, confession, and communion for many reasons. However, I remained
an administrative part of the church.

Out of the church. I officially...

In 2012, the intolerant and senseless statements of Pope Benedict XVI accumulated. In the Czech Republic, the struggle for ecclesiastical
restitution culminated, on the basis of which the Roman Catholic Church in particular acquired huge assets, thanks to which it was able to
further deepen its influence in society. At that time, Miroslav Kalousek, among others, who will be discussed later, explained to us that
what had been stolen from the churches must be returned to us.

In connection with this event, first my astonishment grew at how such a thing was possible, my astonishment turned into disgust and then
into anger at the Catholic Church. That's why I decided to make a symbolic dot, ie. leave the church officially. I wrote an e-mail
requesting removal from the book of the baptized to the parish, within a week I received an answer instructing me to "send my decision and
request for removal from the Roman Catholic Church by post and write it by hand and also sign it in my full name including date of birth and
residence '. After sending the registered letter, I ceased to be an official part of the Catholic Church.

In the following year, however, a similar letter would not be enough, I would have to fill out the appropriate form ( HERE ). In it, I
should choose one of three options: " 1) I reject communion with members of the Church (schism); 2) I want to fall away from the Christian
faith (apostasy); 3) I deny any truth that must be believed by divine and Catholic faith (heresy). " As a result of such a decision, " I
will be separated from the church (ie, I will fall into excommunication), so I will not be able to access the sacraments and have the right
to a church funeral. "

Completed forms just never get enough...

Orel Kalousek

It is interesting that Miroslav Kalousek ( HERE ) has recently considered resigning from the Catholic Church . This was in connection with
Hana Lipovská, who became a member of the Czech Television Council and was nominated by the Czech Bishops' Conference. Kalousek wrote to
Dominic Duke: "Father Cardinal, the person nominated by you stated that he did not understand the meaning of the public media. Ideal
qualification for CT councilors. Thanks to you, I have been proud of being a Catholic for decades. Because of you, I am thinking today of
leaving the Catholic Church. "

It would certainly be a difficult decision for him, because not only did he value Duke in his words (until recently?), But he also helped to
give the church so many billions in restitution. And now this, such disappointment...

All the worse because Kalousek is also a proud member of the Eagle. In 2018, when the Sokolovs booed Andrej Babiš, Kalousek wrote: "I would
like to bow to the Falcons and their tradition. They are dudes and patriots. Babiš's leaflet was distributed in Velehrad, everyone was
babbling, but no one came out and said a clear word. He is Suis Sokol .... Even though I am an Eagle. " ( HERE ) Orel is a Catholic
association dedicated to sports, its motto is"... Pray and work! Pray and play sports! " If I have to imagine someone under this motto, I
see the eagle Kalousek. As he prays, he works, then he prays again, and in order to rest from further prayer, he sports, and so on all the
time...

" Father Cardinal"

As for Dominika Duka, however, it is true that for many other Catholics and Christians in general (not only for the false Kalousek, whose
moral zeal I believe as Babiš's honesty), Duka is an example of what the representatives of the Catholic Church should definitely not be.
(eg HERE )

Duka likes strong and exaggerated words. Recently, during a sermon in Velehrad, on the occasion of the celebrations of the arrival of Cyril
and Methodius in Moravia, he grieved that society was so divided. "Society is not only divided by the helpless fragmentation of political
ideas with fading values, but this fragmentation is fully supported by irreconcilable attacks, mostly by media, especially social networks.
They send protesters to the streets and call for demonstrations. We build and cut sculptures, " said Duka. "The current unrest, acts of
violence, vandalism of mass demonstrations are affecting today's world. What happens next are politicians, economists, businessmen, but also
our families, our friends. We, believing Christians, also ask this question, " he also said. (all sermons HERE )

Perhaps society would be less divided if Duka and some other "believing Christians" stopped contributing to such a rift. But I think that
Duke, rather than the division of society, is bothered by the fact that only a small part of Czech society perceives him as a (church)
authority, that people do not listen to him. At present, Duke's favorite method of merging, understanding and tolerance of lawsuits is...

This year, Sylva Bernardová, co-founder of the Movement for Life, was also awarded the commemorative medal of the Czech Bishops' Conference
in Velehrad . We know this organization well. One of her projects is called "We Don't Judge. We help. " However, this motto is not really
followed much when its representatives are actively involved in other people's lives. The Movement for Life is not really an organization
that would help close the cracks in society, but rather deepen them, just like their idol "Father Cardinal".

In conclusion

As I reflect today on my official resignation from the Church, I wonder whether it was necessary to approach bureaucratic games and speak
officially. I don't know, today I say to myself, rather not. E.g. in Austria, if I remained part of the Catholic Church, I would have to pay
part of my salary to it. Of course, there is no such law in the Czech Republic, so the church did not have any funds from me.

The church probably didn't even include me in its statistics at the time, so I didn't raise the numbers of Catholic "sheep." It seems that
the census of Catholics at that time took place in such a way that each pastor counted how many believers go to church for worship, the sum
then stated the number of believers ( HERE ).

Nevertheless, at the time I left the church, this step was a kind of therapeutic catharsis for me. I was annoyed by the attitude of
Catholics, who considered me part of the church solely on the basis of my baptism, despite how I perceived the matter ("once baptized,
forever ours"). I simply no longer wanted, albeit purely formally, to belong to an institution such as the Catholic Church.

Of course, I do not regret my decision to leave the church in the slightest, even though nothing has really changed it. My attitude towards
the church has remained and remains the same - negative. The posthumous punishment in the form of fiery hell also leaves me cold as an
atheist. And that I will not be allowed a church funeral? I hope to survive that too...

https://www.afed.cz/text/7205/dat-sbohem-rimskokatolicke-cirkvi

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Message: 2


We declare our full support for our comrade Spyros Dapergolas against the slanderous lawsuit and we declare that we are against attitudes
that abolish the freedom of speech.
We call everyone to the courts of Evelpidon
Saturday 18-7, Time 12.00 building 16
Solidarity is our weapon. FRONT COMPANIONS
BACK THE ROUFIANS
ATHENS REGION
https://www.anarchist-federation.gr/archives/2242

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Message: 3



https://archive.org/download/greece_coronavirus/greece_online.mp3 ---- In this edition of Elephant in the Room we spoke to our friend
Michalis - anti-authoritarian activist from north of the country. ---- Coronavirus seems to provoke even bigger economical crisis than the
one that started in 2009. The right wing government that came recently to power is pushing further the politics of Syriza on privatization
and antisocial reforms. Meanwhile anarchists became the enemy number one for the greek state and right wing politicians. ---- We spoke to
Michalis as well about situation or refugees in the country that are held in small isolated areas named by anarchists as "concentration camps".
Music: ---- Taburo Bota ---- Villagers of ioannina city
https://and.notraces.net/2020/07/17/elephant-in-the-room-authoritarian-politics-anarchists-and-refugees-in-time-of-coronavirus-in-greece/

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Message: 4



On the Zündlumpen blog is an answer to my answer to the polemic against my Corona text the other day in the supermarket ... "The ball has to
roll! published." https://nigra.noblogs.org/post/2020/05/18/neulich-im-supermarkt-der-ball-muss-rollen/
Read the text failed in the anarchy test ... here. https://zuendlumpen.noblogs.org/post/2020/07/16/im-anarchie-test-durchgefallen/
For me it is good now. The views of the world diverge too far.
https://nigra.noblogs.org/post/2020/07/17/im-anarchie-test-durchgefallen/

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Message: 5



Around 20 people gatherd in Freiburg (Germany) for a solidarity action with the struggle of garment workers of dragon sweater factory in
Dhaka. The protest took place in front of a "New Yorker" store, which sell the clothes produced by dragon sweater. Members of
anarcho-syndicalist union FAU, feminist organisations and socialist party "Die Linke" demanded the management of New Yorker to force their
buisnesspartner dragon sweater to pay & rehire the workers, and also to respect the right to unionize.
Long live international solidarity of the working class!
facebook.com/agfreiburg/photos/a.171437186268257/3128355470576399

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Message: 6



Social rebel, counterfeiter, bandit, modern Robin Hood - the list of titles with which our anarchist comrade Lucio Urtubia was honoured is
long. His life, which sounds like an adventure novel, is a mirror of the revolutionary movements in Europe in the second half of the 20th
century. Lucio Urtuba passed away today. ---- Rest In Power Lucio! ---- Published by Enough 14. ---- Lucio Urtubia was born in 1931 in a
small village in Navarre and grew up in poor conditions. When he was called up for military service, he deserted to France shortly
afterwards, where he worked as a bricklayer from then on. He came into contact with anarchist groups and met his political foster father:
the legendary Sabaté, who organized the armed resistance against the Franco dictatorship from France. Forging documents, hiding underground
fighters and illegal fundraising activities play a major role in his life from then on. Numerous resistance organisations, which have a base
of operations in France or are looking for a place to retreat, benefit from his skills: Black Panthers, Tupamaros, European guerrillas.
Lucio's solidarity is with every act of revolt aimed at a more just social order.

In 1962, he proposed to Che Guevara, then head of the National Bank of Cuba, to flood the world market with counterfeit dollar bills in
order to destabilize the US economy. The proposal meets little approval on the Cuban side, but the idea remains alive in Lucio. In 1980 he
succeeds in his greatest coup: by printing traveller's cheques from Citibank with a value of several million dollars he brings the then most
powerful bank in the world on its knees.

But the list of his activities is not completed. Lucio is also a master of conspiracy, however, who manages to spend only a few months in
prison in his not exactly law-abiding life. He breaks the silence at the age of well over 70. There is a book and also a movie (Watch here)
about Lucio Urtubia.

Lucio, The Good Bandit: Reflections of an Anarchist
Marie Trigona, Toward Freedom (05/06/2008)

Outspoken and charismatic, Lucio speaks like a true anarchist. When asked what it means to be an anarchist, Lucio refutes the misperception
of the terrorist, "The anarchist is a person who is good at heart, responsible." Yet he makes no apologies for the need to destroy the
current social order, "it's good to destroy certain things, because you build things to replace them."

Lucio has old friends in the Southern Cone. Funds from the forgery operatives helped hundreds from revolutionary organizations exile and
finance clandestine actions against the bloody dictatorships which disappeared ten thousands of activists, students and workers during the
1970's throughout Latin America. In Uruguay, funds from falsified Citibank travelers' checks funded the guerilla group Tupamaros, in the US
the Black Panthers and other revolutionary groups throughout Europe.

During his recent visit to South America, Lucio stayed at the worker run BAUEN Hotel in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. He was astounded
by the accomplishments of the workers without bosses. At the BAUEN hotel, workers are putting into practice workers autogestíon or
self-management. Self-management has been a mainstay of anarchist thought since the birth of capitalism. Rather than authority - obey
relationship between capitalists and workers, self-management implies that workers put into practice an egalitarian system in which people
collectively decide, produce and control their own destinies for the benefit of the community. But for such a system to work, participants
have to be hard working and responsible, one of the most important attributes a man or woman should have according to Lucio. "The anarchist
movement was built by workers. Without work we can't talk about self-management, to put self-management into practice we need to know how to
do things, to work. It's easy to be bohemian."

Lucio explains that his anarchism is based in his poor childhood in fascist Spain. "My anarchist origins are rooted in my experience growing
up in a poor family. My father was leftist, had gone to jail because he wanted the automony of the Basque country. For me that's not
revolution, I'm not nationalist. With nationalism humanity has committed a lot of mistakes. When my father got out of jail he became a
socialist. We suffered a lot. I went to look for bread and the baker wouldn't give it to me, because we didn't have money. For me poverty
enriched me, I didn't have to make any effort to lose respect for the establishment, the Church, private property and the State."

In Spain, fascism persevered 30 years after the end of World War II. Hundreds were placed in jail for resisting the Franco dictatorship.
Anthropologists have estimated that from the onset of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 to Franco's death in November 1975, Franco's
Nationalists killed between 75,000 and 150,000 supporters of the Republic.

Lucio exiled to France where he discovered anarchism. He had deserted the nationalist army and escaped to France. Paris in the 1960's was a
bourgeoning city for anarchist intellectuals, organizers and guerillas in exile. It was there that Lucio met members from the
anarcho-syndicalist trade union, Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (CNT). He was anxious to participate.

During his early years in France, Lucio met Francisco Sabate, the legendary anarchist and guerilla extraordinaire. At this time Sabate,
otherwise known by his nickname "El Quico" was the most sought after anarchist by the Franco regime. French police were also looking for
Sabate, who led resistance against Franquismo. "When I met Quico, I was participating in the Juventud Libertarias. They asked me if I could
help Sabate, me an ignorant, I didn't know who he was." Sabate used Lucio's house as a hide out. The young Lucio, listened to Sabate's tales
of direct action and absorbed whatever wisdom he had to offer, like methods for sniffing out infiltrators. "I met guerillas that put me on
the road to direct action and expropriations. Sabate taught me to lose respect for private property."

It was then that Lucio began participating in bank robberies. "There are no bigger crooks than the banks," says Lucio in the defense of
expropriation. "[This was the]only means the anarchist had, without funding from industry or government representatives to fund them. The
money was sent to those suffering from Franco's regime." Student organizations and worker organizations received the funds to carry out
grass roots organizing. In other cases the money was used for the guerilla actions against Franco's regime, such as campaigns for the
release of political prisoners in the nationalist jails.

To save the lives of exiles, Lucio thought of a master plan to falsify passports so Spanish nationals could travel. "Passports for a refugee
means being able to escape the country and lead safe lives elsewhere," he explains. Not only in Europe but in the US and South America,
dissidents used false ID's to lead their lives and direct actions.

In 1977, Lucio's group began forging checks as a direct form to finance resistance. Lucio was essentially the "boss" of the operation-he
made, distributed and cashed the checks. The checks were harder to falsify than counterfeit bills. Lucio thought they should target the
largest banking institution in the world, National City Bank. The distribution of the checks went to different subversive groups who used
the funds to finance solidarity actions. Lucio explains that "no one got rich" from the checks. Most of the funds went to the cause. All
over Europe, these checks with the same code number were cashed at the same time.

Lucio's master plan cost City Bank tens of millions of dollars in forged travelers' checks. But many say a much larger sum was expropriated.
City Bank was at the mercy of the forger, who had cost so much that the bank had to suspend travelers checks, ruining the holiday for
thousands of tourists. At the time, people did not use check cards or credit cards. Lucio was arrested in 1980 and found with a suitcase
full of the forged checks. In the meantime during Lucio's arrest, Citibank continued to receive false travelers' checks.

Citbank became worried. Representatives from the bank agreed to negotiate. Lucio would be released if he handed over the printing plates for
the forged checks. The exchange was made, and Lucio became a legend for his mastermind plan. Although his life as a forger ended at
50-years-of-age, his life as an anarchist continued.

Lucio had always worked as a bricklayer. "What's helped me the most is my work, Anarchists were always workers." Lucio-bricklayer,
anarchist, forger and expropriator has left a legacy like his predecessors. "People like Loise Michel, Sabate, Durruti, all the
expropriators taught me how to expropriate, but not for personal gain, but how to use those riches for change." At 76-years-of-age he does
not apologize for his actions. "I've expropriated, which according to the Christian religion is a sin. For me expropriations are necessary.
As the revolutionaries say, robbing and expropriation is a revolutionary act as long as one doesn't benefit from it."

https://www.cnt.es/noticias/obituario-lucio-urtubia/

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Message: 7



This article is republished by agreement from the blog of the Aotearoa* Workers Solidarity Movement. We think they're AWSM: CHOCOLATE FISH,
RED HERRINGS AND BILLIONAIRES ---- The rich become that way because they work hard to provide the everyday things that our nation needs. So
runs the story that underpins the economic system we live under. It's something that is so taken for granted, it often goes uncommented
upon. It seems as natural and obvious as sun in summer or chocolate fish tasting like chocolate rather than fish. Other times you will see
the corporate media actively propagating this idea somewhere in the business section of your paper. By the way, that's the bit you often
skip over to get to the crossword at the back, in case you weren't sure what that was. Overall, it feels like there's not much to be said
about it, right? Wrong.

The National Business Review (https://www.nbr.co.nz/) is one of the key information organs of those who run capitalism here. It's worth
reading now and then. It tells you what our masters think is important. The NBR publishes an annual list of the local richest individuals.
At present the top person on that list is Graeme Hart, with a fortune of approximately $10 billion. However, the news of the moment is that
he may be eclipsed by somebody called Peter Thiel. If you know who he is, that's great, but chances are most of us don't. Stop and think
about that for a second. Here is nearly the richest individual on these islands and you probably don't know his name, what exactly he does
or what he looks like.

So who is Thiel? He was born in Germany but mostly grew up in the United States and was living in California when he first came to attention
here. That's because it was discovered in 2017 that he had been granted fast-tracked New Zealand citizenship in 2011 despite only having
spent 12 days here! (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11883554). The reason was not that he had escaped
a war torn country and desperately needed asylum, but simply he had put lots of money into some businesses here.

There are some aspects of his investment history that (if you wanted to be very generous), you could argue have been relatively benign and
possibly even useful, such as PayPal. In other cases he got in on the ground floor of things and did well for himself, such as an early
stake in Facebook. On the other hand, there are some downright dodgy aspects to how he accumulated his wealth.

In 2004 Thiel co-founded an outfit called Palantir. This is a software company that could best be described as handmaidens to the
totalitarian surveillance society. That's because they work closely with an alphabet soup of nice organisations like the CIA, NSA, ICE and
the FBI to mine huge amounts of online data from electronic surveillance. As for a connection to local spies, according to media sources
here, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) will neither confirm or deny if they are
clients of Palantir. However, they have an office in Wellington and the GCSB have advertised for staff that know Palantir's software. That's
about as close to a smoking gun as you can get! Other research has exposed that the NZ Defence Force has spent millions of dollars with
Palantir (Daily Post 9/7/20). At this point it's not exactly clear how much of Palantir Thiel owns, but part of the reason he may overtake
Hart as the richest person here is that there is talk of listing the company on the stock exchange.

Thiel was also an early financial backer of Clearview AI. This is a company involved in facial recognition technology. It can match faces to
billions of images scraped from the internet.
Clearview AI has been controversial since its inception due to its links to neo-Nazis, data leaks, lawsuits, questions about its accuracy,
bans and strong opposition from various organisations. The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, labelled its technology a "dangerous
and untested surveillance product". Interest locally comes from the fact that the police here contacted the company and conducted an
unauthorised trial of the technology earlier this year
(https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/416483/police-trialled-facial-recognition-tech-without-clearance).

Apart from his delightful business involvements, Thiel has also taken an active interest in the formal political arena. He has long been a
supporter of the Republican Party in the USA and contributed financially to a range of conservative and right-wing activists and politicians
from Ann Coulter, Ron Paul, Ted Cruz and Trump. What he has done in this regard in Aotearoa is not known.

So that's the soon-to-be richest person here.

What does Thiel's biography tell us about how things really are? Firstly, in 2020 you don't actually have to make tangible, useful stuff
that exists in the real world like tables or bread, in order to be mega-rich. Secondly, despite rhetorical claims to be interested in social
‘freedom' and the economic ‘free-market', business and government often work together to control those who actually do produce real stuff,
that is, the vast majority of us. Surveillance technology is only the latest in a long line of tools used to keep us under the thumb of the
rich and powerful. Thirdly, the behaviour of our rulers gives the lie to their own myths. They want us to believe that being born or living
long-term in a particular geographical space separates those people from others elsewhere. There's a nation called New Zealand, ‘we' are
Kiwis and ‘they' aren't. It's a useful way to divide and rule. Clearly however, if you can spend less than a fortnight in that place and
magically be included among ‘the nation' on the basis of having lots of money, it shows the whole thing to be the nonsense that it is.

It could be argued that Thiel is just one guy, that not everyone among the ruling class likes him and that he has provided money that has
helped provide people with jobs. Well, obviously he is an individual and yes, sometimes there is contestation and squabbling among differing
factions among our rulers. The indisputable truth is, however, that if the economic and political system had a fundamental problem with an
individual like him, he wouldn't be in the position he is in. As for the money he has, this has come from the collective efforts of other
people, since no single person could literally do everything him/herself. The jobs this money has in turn created are either not really
conducive to social freedom or in the few cases that they are, could be arrived at without the intervention of a billionaire autocrat.

We read about the amazing feats of the rich and powerful and are encouraged to accept them. Their existence is seen as natural and
beneficial. Thiel's story shows we don't need to buy into this and shouldn't, whether you like chocolate fish or not.

* If you don't know where Aotearoa is, remember that settlers call it "New Zealand". But Aotearoa is the name given by the people who were
there first.

https://melbacg.wordpress.com/2020/07/18/chocolate-fish-red-herrings-billionaires/

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