Today's Topics:
1. ait russia: "Yellow vests": "act 90" [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Britain, anarchist communist group ACG: The more things
change...? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
On August 1, yellow vests activists once again went to demonstrations and pickets at roundabouts and crossroads in various parts of the
country. Like a year ago, in the summer months, in the midst of the heat, their actions are not crowded and are rather symbolic. Objective:
To keep the fire going until the end of the holiday season, when large-scale protests are scheduled to resume. Agitation for massive
demonstrations on 12 September is already underway. ---- In some cases, pickets of the "yellow vests" were simply demonstrated at
intersections. In others, they arranged free travel, letting cars on toll roads free of charge. Here are just some of the messages from the
field: ---- In Paris, due to the heat, no major events were organized this weekend. Only individual people, wearing vests, walked around the
city individually, campaigning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZzLGmLqjP8 )
In Besançon on August 1, the "yellow vests" held several actions at once. A demonstration around the city, a Neuchâtel roundabout and
leaflet distribution were organized ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4AVuR_UEd8 )
In Kalomje near Toulouse, activists picketed the Perget roundabout ( https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1604070003087081&type=3) /
Another group is located on the bridge and at the intersection in Montastrück
(https://www.facebook.com/GiletsJaunesToulouse/videos/333029207733315/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDpMAlBjgvWeBydKt0Gcr26BCenHUoMwvO6Ahjk6lTrLnka6AvZ-VkM0ZwFPqWOiqKj-mKiR0hiCQ79i5BFKJ_6LtQG1spoWRY2veTfnnsOggo9RQx1F-gdiILtZq2vUZdV-DPpUJnH1IJSV_tU0lxhVDix1C0pR7-Bsb-4t0HNwEdCwKYEHrVwzAYiC42tReGegfr6Dr-_1ITOLPFtdBMZCDhD2IXoOmdjwjQERcnoHyn5-yc9XdadDFNGfBRZ0NBdiTq1DnzcRn-iYyvIwsJhvger4CX5TrxT2bLKd5PTdPJeFVXRxa7Vp4mGJJDakSeigO2_O_Owd_cFbSICdCjw2_MxSlCNwqphvQ&__tn__=-R).
There, on July 31 - August 1, a meeting of all local picketers from different intersections was held
(https://www.facebook.com/events/316284573049006/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%223%22%2C%22ref_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%7D&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARA6LBkiKSQc8lureIvo7Uihn142CbBPAtSUhJNFy7RAVKsweFsLQCbWpws3HC7WiwcVrSlSWlrX7oHPsyIyGS1gnzqkFGMCQ4QP-yQvKVG7G4K17arYVQM9dk4M_sjIz0cKVVbxyRPngNLHkM0gk0tthw-uQJaI387tW4uj6VUewjpC31Q2DVnsBavwsoATcLgnErw789iR2iXjyQRLGZ5yC9W4UmfMx4g0YtqR-97MwWFhZsQqbu6mzyf6O_DOPoDzzzkvkYrBym2ZHcM26oee-_jQDqH1RjVTBrs2DlQ8NBYHHWcnsemjECBMENSXOgVF65I5otDn2oT2GjkAyJNPHXOd&__tn__=HH-R)
On August 1, the regional organizing committee of "yellow vests" met to prepare the first assembly of the movement "yellow vests" of
Occitania. The meeting was attended by representatives of 11 groups (Millot, Saint-Afrique, Limoux, Narbonne, Carcassonne, Beziers,
Pic-Saint-Loup, RPPA, Sommierre, Ardèche, Convergence 34). The assembly will be held on September 19-20
(https://www.lindecapant.fr/articles/23487/occitanie-l-assemblee-regionale-des-gilets-jaunes)
In Cannes, southern France, the yellow vests took over the Victoire roundabout. Despite the heat, they again came out to the crossroads with
their slogans. Many motorists expressed their sympathy to them by beeps or verbally. Travelers were given leaflets explaining the goals and
objectives of the protest movement against the tyranny of the ruling minority and for the common good
(https://www.nice-provence.info/2020/08/01/gilets-jaunes-cannes-victoire-pronent-bien-commun/)
In Sarthe department on July 30, protesters hung slogans and banners of "yellow vests" on the bridge (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1zEipsuhac )
In Auxerre, the People's Assembly, uniting local "yellow vests," held rallies in various parts of the city on the night of July 31 to August
1. In various parts of the city center, slogans against racist entrepreneur Paul Burt were displayed or written
(https://www.lyonne.fr/auxerre-89000/actualites/debut-d-incendie-dans-une-entreprise-action-des-gilets-jaunes-contre-paul-bert-le-point-sur-les-derniers-faits-divers-dans-l-yonne_13819102/)
Outside France, the "yellow vests" took part in demonstrations in Berlin on August 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY-XG92WI7I),
Amsterdam ...
https://aitrus.info/node/5529
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Message: 2
2020 will not be a year that is soon forgotten, even in the highly unlikely scenario that "it will be all over by Christmas", the results of
the Covid-19 pandemic will be long lasting. Yet for all that the consequences of Covid-19 has perhaps not changed things so much as
fast-forwarded them. There have been many pieces asking what the economic consequences of Covid-19 will be (1, 2) but that very question
already continues the separation of the economic and political. The economy exists because of the political forces that create it. ----
Businesses are using the pandemic to push forward policies and changes they have long desired, as many times before "flexibility" is the
excuse made to increase workloads and diminish conditions. The decline of cash transactions meant that access to cash, hugely important for
many working class communities, was already under threat, the lockdown and increase of online shopping can only have compounded the matter.
Likewise, the Covid-19 crisis will only have exacerbated closure of street shops, resulting in lost jobs and emptied town centres.
Yet while the response of capital and states to Covid-19 have been (and will continue be) to protect and expand their own interests at the
expense of the workers there are key differences in between 2020 and the response to the 2008 global financial crisis. It is telling that
the Financial Times, capital's house paper, which backed Conservative-led austerity post-2008 is in 2020 making an argument for a new type
of civic contract and increased government spending (as well as being highly critical of the Johnson government). And the spending of
governments in response to Covid-19, while usually wrongly directed, has been at incredible levels (again this change was already in the
wind prior to Covid-19, in 2010 all three UK national parties backed austerity, by 2019 all three had, at least rhetorically, broken with it).
The altered response of liberalism in 2020 can be put down to pressure from two sources, On one side there has been the growth of (national)
populism, liberal politics has largely been unable to effectively combat the growth of, often hard right, populisms. The Covid-19 crisis
could act as a check on the growth of populism with rise in the popularity of technocratic measures, or alternatively it may be another
trend that will be fast-forwarded by Covid-19, certainly the idea of "strengthened" border controls favoured by national populists align
well with Covid-19 "security". Mostly likely we will see a combination of both factors, with the degree of each playing out differently in
different countries. However, even if there is move back towards liberal parties in the immediate aftermath of Covid-19, liberalism itself
will ensure that there will be no end to populism. The other source of pressure on liberalism has come from labour. For all the failure and
waste of energy that went into the Corbyn and other social democratic movements they did manage to tap into a swell of opposition to
marketisation such that even the ideological liberals of the Financial Times and like have been forced to recognise that capital is feasting
off labour to such a degree that it is in danger of harming itself.
For some social democrats the altered response of capital represents a rapprochement between liberals and social democrats (with an
accompanying love in for a Starmer led Labour Party), or even signals the end of neoliberalism. Yet neoliberalism has always required a
strong state, the different moves now being made are not to bury neoliberalism but rather to praise, and so save, it. A "return" to the
state cannot provide labour with the means to restore the type of conditions that labour (or rather a section of it) may have enjoyed in the
years after the Second World War. For good or ill the post-war social contract is gone and material interests that led to it will not repeat
themselves. But that does not mean that labour cannot make gains, push back the power of the state and capital, and even end its own
exploitation. The fallout of Covid-19 will result in both new dangers and new opportunities it is up to us to ensure that those dangers are
averted and the opportunities exploited.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/08/02/the-more-things-change/
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