Today's Topics:
1. anarkismo.net: Attitude regarding the conjuncture by Prot.
Anarchists Ag. Anargyros [machine translation]
Anarchists Ag. Anargyros [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Czech, AFED: Anarchism for beginners [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #311 - Unionism,
Metallurgy: an instrumentalised suicide to smear the CGT
Metallurgy: an instrumentalised suicide to smear the CGT
(ca, de,
it, fr, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
it, fr, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. [Spain] Noam Chomsky starts the CGT Valencia Libertarian
Days By ANA (ca, de, en, fr, it) [traduccion automatica]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Days By ANA (ca, de, en, fr, it) [traduccion automatica]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. anarkismo.net - Book Review: 'Fascists Among Us' by LAMA -
AWSM (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
No social revolution in history has taken place without the prior preparation of
the foundations of the future society, its organizational cells, its qualitative
characteristics, all these elements that crystallize and develop their most
advanced forms in the living social evolution and integration. of the
revolutionary transition. The outline of the post-revolutionary society we
propose should not be abstract. It can gain realistic power through its
concretization in a modern programmatic and strategic planning that only a broad
anarchist political organization can develop. ---- It has been 10 months since
the diagnosis of the first positive coronavirus case in Greece and 9 months since
the imposition of the first lockdown, which inaugurated a "new normality" that
brought us all face to face with unprecedented situations. This "new normality"
is defined through the portrait of the time shaped by the coronavirus health
crisis and the ongoing structural crisis of the global capitalist economy since
2008. The combination of the health crisis and the escalation of the financial
crisis have brought to the fore an unprecedented dystopia which is embodied in
the implementation of comprehensive measures of discipline and control, the
imposition of mass confinement, social isolation and travel and assembly bans. At
the same time,
It is a fact that in recent months a rapid deregulation of labor relations has
taken place. Workers' acquis and social freedoms that have been won through
struggle and have been secured for centuries are being challenged and attempted
to be catalyzed as past concessions of class balance. The impoverishment of large
sections of society is growing. At the same time, every effort is being made to
ensure that the cogs of production continue to operate at any cost to the health
of workers who are crowded by the hundreds in the workplace without even the
basic collective protection measures being met. As we saw a few months ago, the
tourism industry operated normally in Greece.
Now, going through a second wave of the pandemic, the weaknesses and shortcomings
of the state-trained austerity system are manifested in the most emphatic way and
it is becoming clear that the chronic state deterioration of health has been
catastrophic for the management of the health crisis. The number of cases and
deaths from coronavirus has multiplied within a few months and the health system
has exceeded the limits of its capacity to provide care. Having more than 8
months to plan to deal with the pandemic and having the experience of the first
wave, all the excuses invoked by government officials over the past period have
clearly failed.
It is a fact that since the outbreak of the pandemic until today, scientific
research on the coronavirus has advanced to a great extent and now there is
reliable data on the nature, evolution, transmissibility and effects of the virus
in human organisms. The occurrence of the second wave of the pandemic was neither
something unpredictable nor something that was ruled out to follow. On the
contrary, both the state and its committee of experts were well aware that a
strong outbreak of cases was expected during the winter. Nevertheless, the
state's choice was not to take any substantial measures and not to make any
substantial preparations to avoid and deal with an even stronger wave. Alongside,
Specifically, within the margin of 8 months from the first lockdown, there was no
political will to make moves for the adequate staffing of the NSS with permanent
medical staff, the necessary equipment in machinery and hospital infrastructure,
with the result that it now has fewer and fewer workers compared to other years
before the coronavirus. At the same time, diagnostic tests have become more of a
speculation than a useful tool for mapping cases and securing secure data. Apart
from the limited number of tests performed daily, there was no design to create
mechanisms and structures that would provide free and open access to the
coronavirus diagnosis test without creating delays and congestion conditions.
Preventive mass tests were not performed on employees who are crowded daily by
hundreds in the workplace, while there are complaints from employees who testify
that even after diagnosed cases of their colleagues the workplaces remained in
normal operation and the rest of the employees were not tested. They were
"unable" to bear the cost. In terms of case detection, the active tracking
mechanism, which is occasionally excluded from government officials' statements,
consists of just 190 employees, and even European directives indicate the need
for 3,000 staff according to the country's population. In a recent relevant
question asked to Hardalias regarding the small number of "trackers", The deputy
minister-karagiozis of the government replied that the cases are few in order to
have a bigger tracking mechanism. We imagine that it did not cross his mind that
if the number of employees in the tracking mechanism increases, the recorded
cases will also increase...
So, while the main argument for enforcing the first lockdown was the "time
market" to stop the big spread and prepare for the aftermath of the epidemic,
society's health shield was omitted and shifted to "individual responsibility" .
Essentially, what was achieved was the postponement of a larger spread of the
virus in the future without taking the necessary steps to prevent it as much as
possible and to treat it under better conditions. On the contrary, all this time
we are experiencing in our own skin the paradoxes and structural contradictions
of the capitalist system of production, a system whose priorities are regulated
on the basis of the interests of a minority parasitic class and not on the basis
of the needs of the social majority. This situation becomes even more intense in
times of crisis, with the result that in times of pandemic we see government
spending being diverted to the strengthening of the military and police
repressive forces and not to the strengthening of the health system and
preventive measures. Instead of hiring doctors and nurses, the prime minister's
announcements at this year's TIF in September focused on buying military
armaments by paying huge sums of billions and strengthening the armed forces with
15,000 permanent recruits in the background of the transnational Middle East.
Instead of creating new hospital infrastructure, large sums of money were wasted
on failed "Europeanization" and "beautification" projects in the city center (see
long walk). Instead of recruiting in hospitals, thousands of new positions were
announced for the police and the creation of new special forces was promoted (see
university police). Under this treaty, the well-funded 20m state-funded media
played the game of government by obscuring state irresponsibility and
highlighting scapegoats as responsible for spreading the virus: in the beginning,
it was the unruly citizens who were responsible. the measures, then the young
people who gathered in the squares and took vacations and finally the immigrants
who were named in many cases as health bombs.
The success story of the government that projected the great success in the
management of covid 19 all the previous time has now collapsed. November became
the most tragic month of the pandemic, with coronavirus deaths reaching 1780,
accounting for 74% of all deaths since the pandemic began. The comparison of the
Greek pandemic data made every now and then by government representatives with
data from other European countries does not prove any success of the Greek state
but on the contrary reveals the utter failure of global capitalism and state
mechanisms to manage the health crisis and the protection of public health.
The bell had already rung since the beginning of October when there was an
aggressive increase in cases which reached record numbers for the season. At the
time, Mitsotakis stated that the scenario for a second lockdown "was almost
unthinkable" and even stressed that "universal measures bring tragic consequences
to the economy and great injustices in society as the horizontal restriction is
unfair as it equals different weights on everyone's backs". Nevertheless, the
lockdown was again imposed as a solution - a counterweight to the state's
inability to deal with the spread of the virus and its criminal negligence in
enforcing adequate conditions of prevention and hospital care. The chances for
this choice increased as the risk of the collapse of the state health system
became more and more visible.
As we noted in our previous text during the first lockdown: "States between
social disenfranchisement and the discontent that will cost them the hundreds of
thousands of cases that will not be able to manage the collapsed health systems
and the devastating consequences of the traffic ban on capitalist profitability,
they are currently choosing the latter. With the important footnote, that they
know very well how the burdens of the economic consequences of the pandemic and
the new episode of the capitalist crisis will be transferred to the backs of the
social majority of the employed, the unemployed, the youth ". And this time, Most
states, including the Greek one, followed the same tactics with the difference
that in this case they tried until the last moment to prevent the freezing of the
capitalist economy for the second time. Thus, the decision to ban the traffic was
taken only when it was now certain for the state officials that the situation was
completely out of their control and the health system would soon collapse. The
scenario that is often heard lately for consecutive rolling lockdowns until a
satisfactory degree of immunity is obtained through the vaccine foreshadows
exactly the continuation of this tactic. The state will continue to pursue the
same criminal policy with all the shortcomings and contradictions described
above, will open the economy for short periods of time or will open specific
sectors that are in demand depending on the season in order for the market to
move and when the health system reaches its limits it will impose the mass
closure again. In the meantime, cases and deaths will increase and the endurance
of the health system will become more and more exhausted.
In the current situation, for a month now, the National Health System is showing
a picture of disintegration. Statements that the health system "has endured and
will endure" are far from the truth. The truth is that the health system has
collapsed and the workers are fighting a great battle to save as much as
possible. Recently, the occupancy rate in ICUs in Northern Greece has reached
100% in many cases, while in the whole territory it has reached 87%. But even the
additional Intensive Care Units that are set up on a temporary basis and occupy
wards of other specialties, operating rooms, and resuscitation rooms can not
function with the required adequacy due to the lack of specialized personnel. It
is obvious that the creation of the ICU does not require only new beds and
machines but much more the specialized doctors and nurses and in this part the
shortcomings are huge and the planning is non-existent. The recruitments made are
a drop in the ocean in relation to the real needs of the health system in
general, let alone in a period of pandemic. So instead of the necessary
recruitment and increasing the number of beds, the government's strategy includes
air travel and ready-made trains to transport coronavirus patients from
Thessaloniki to Athens, practices that many doctors have expressed concern about.
Along with all this situation, the normal operation of the hospitals has
presented serious problems.
The collapse of the state health system is also reflected in the increasing
number of deaths on a daily basis. There are many statements of doctors and
nurses that report cases of intubation and deaths from coronavirus in simple
treatment wards due to the fullness of the ICU. The mortality rate has increased
compared to the spring and Greece is now in 4th place among EU countries in terms
of deaths compared to recorded cases. It is obvious that the increase in deaths
is due to the conditions of hospitalization of patients which are characterized
by all the deficiencies and problems that we mentioned. We can easily conclude
that in different circumstances many lives could have been saved.
The political responsibilities of the government, which continues to pursue its
death policy to the detriment of public health and the needs of the people, are
great. On the other hand, the loud announcements and complaints from the
opposition about the shortcomings and inadequacies of the NSS can only cause
grief. So against the short-lived memory of the old rulers and their followers,
we will recall the obvious: the current state of the state health system has not
fallen from the sky. Anyone who has needed to be hospitalized, examined or
operated on in a public hospital has experienced first-hand the inadequacies,
shortcomings and delays that characterize the NSS, which even before the outbreak
of the pandemic had been fatal for many lives.
During the 4.5 years of the SYRIZA memorandum government we did not see any
improvement in the NSS and the bankrupt model of economic Keynesianism that was
on the party's election agenda was not implemented at all, precisely because of
its incompatibility with modern capitalist data. The Social Democratic government
has unhesitatingly implemented the neoliberal austerity reforms in full
accordance with the memorandum budgets and the fiscal strategy agreed with the
"lenders". What we remember from the SYRIZA government is not the recruitment and
strengthening of the NSS but the demands of the thousands of contract workers in
the Health sector for permanent employment who fell into the vacuum and the
struggles of the hospital cleaners who were fired, violently losing their jobs.
At this point let us make a point about an issue that has come to the fore: the
issue of the requirements of private hospitals. It is a fact that lately the
concept of imperative is defined and colored politically and ideologically by
everyone in a different way. The government, realizing that the margins of the
state hospitals have been exhausted in areas such as Thessaloniki, proceeded to
"demand" private beds, first for the treatment of simple cases and then for the
introduction of cases with coronavirus. But what actually happened was the
renting of private hospital beds, a purchase of private sector services by the
state to fill the gaps in the national health system. In fact, this rental was
done not at cost prices but the compensations that were given ensured a
satisfactory profit for the clinicians. As a government official also stated,
"the imposition means a great cost for the public". At the same time, demands are
being made by opposition parties for the full integration of private hospitals
into state planning to deal with the pandemic.
The use of private services by the state in return for compensation to cover its
weaknesses can not be seen as a kind of "social policy" but as a solution of
necessity that protects "cooperation" with the private sector. The framework of
this cooperation is not transformed but regulated by the state itself and is
defined in the exploitative treaty of capitalism which places the interests of
the few above the protection of the public health good which has been reduced to
a commodity. From a trade union point of view, in this treaty we will be allies
in the claims of hospital staff seeking the inclusion of private beds in the
state health system on the one hand on the basis of their relief from the
nightmare of living in intensified work rhythms and on the other hand on the
basis of the possibility of providing care more people in need of
hospitalization. For our part, as the political core of anarchists, we do not
programmatically promote the state order of private hospitals. We propose and
fight for the total social demand of both private and state hospitals, their
management by the employees themselves and the federal organization of a truly
public and freely accessible health system, guided by social needs.
The responsibility for the murderous trajectory taken by the pandemic and the
criminal policy pursued domestically and internationally lies at the roots of the
current political and economic system based on exploitation and oppression.
Everywhere in the world, states under any political rule - right or left, liberal
or social democratic - fail to address the health crisis on terms that do not
restrict social freedoms and do not violate human rights. After all, it could not
be done differently in a system that has based its own creation and existence on
the death, exploitation and violation of the needs and freedoms of the vast
majority of the lower social strata. In times of crisis, states and capitalists
show their most greedy face and the antagonisms of capitalism intensify. Thus, in
the crisis we are experiencing today, at the heart of the political management of
states is the economic, social and biological extermination of the people of the
lower social strata, of all those who are the expendable citizens of their state,
of those who are a cog in the machine of capitalism. that when it does not
perform its work effectively or when it is in excess they throw it away.
The pandemic is being used as a golden opportunity by the state, which finds new
roads and new tools to impose its universal sovereignty and anti-social plans
through the implementation of its murderous policy. This opportunity used by the
state comes in a special context determined by the recessionary trajectory that
characterizes the course of the world economy since the last quarter of 2019. In
the ongoing new and stronger episode of the 12-year global capitalist crisis , it
is clear that state and capitalist losses will be attempted to be covered once
again by the sacrifices and economic plunder of the proletarian strata. Of course
at this point we should point out that the existing power relations in class and
social competition are the ones that determine whether a crisis like the one we
are experiencing will develop to the detriment or to the benefit of the
exploited. In the present period, apart from the social calm and the fall of the
social and class resistance that has prevailed for at least the last 6 years, it
is also the imposed regime of the prohibition of traffic and gatherings that
weakens the power and mass of the struggles and is recruited ostensibly for their
pre-suppression.
And at this very point, the end of the lively struggle and the immediate
resistance, lies the great pressure for the state and capitalist invasion by
imposing measures that in other periods would have seemed far-fetched dreams to
even the most optimistic honorer of the capitalist system. In the conditions of
the social cemetery that have been imposed, with the gatherings and
demonstrations being banned, the Greek parliament from the first lockdown until
today has passed a series of reactionary, anti-labor and anti-social bills and
measures. The anti-education bills, the bill that instituted the further looting
of nature for the benefit of large business groups, the law banning
demonstrations, The new bankruptcy code and finally the anti-labor / anti-strike
bill that institutionalizes 10-hour work and puts new stronger barriers to trade
union claims are the first steps on the path of the new cycle of imposing
neoliberal measures of austerity and bloodshed on the system. The worst is yet to
come and will come to the surface in the very near future when the consequences
of the new episode of the crisis unfold in all their magnitude.
The intensity of state repression before and after the manifestation of the new
Great Recession comes as an expected and necessary consequence of the
intensification of class exploitation and the new unbearable measures and
restrictions that affect and will affect the masses. The general planning of
policing and state repression is guided in each period by the tactical and
strategic goals of the state and is not left to the "ideological obsessions" and
the authoritarianism of each government or the arbitrariness of its salaried
guards. It is historically proven by recent domestic experience that before major
crises occur, states organize their internal defense,
At present, the imposition of state omnipotence through the bat and the plans of
preventive counter-insurgency and counter-revolution are in full force. The state
mechanism, taking advantage of the health crisis, adds new weapons to the quiver
of repression and social control. The ban on traffic, the ban on gatherings,
rallies and demonstrations, the financial repression of the fine that comes to
add to the physical repression are new elements of the dystopian reality we are
experiencing. All of the above are applied under the guise of health protection
which is imposed with the globs of the cops, the police in the cities, the
beatings, the arrests in the pile and the crowd of those arrested in the GADA
detention centers.
The situation that has developed recently refutes the theory that the level and
intensity of state repression increases when the resistance intensifies,
radicalizes and takes on insurgent proportions. On the contrary, the state
mechanism presses on the retreat of the struggles and in the absence of militant
resistance in order to impose its omnipotence. The material power relations in
the field of conflict shape the conditions of the match, the capabilities of the
opponents and consequently the strategy they will follow. We do not fight for the
assertion and guarantee of our "democratic right to demonstrate" but we propose
the social, class and political necessity to express the right of our struggle on
the street, whether it is legal or illegal.
It is a fact that in recent years, after the great demonstrations and the
conflict events of 2006-7 on the occasion of the revision of Article 16, the
uprising of December 2008 and the two years 2010-12, the state has largely won
the ability to be imposed on the street through its armed forces, to disperse
demonstrations and not to collect due. The main reason lies in the frustration of
large sections of society with a radical conscience that did not find a way out
of all these struggles, who were demobilized and abandoned in the streets, as
they could not organize on anarchist, class and revolutionary bases. At the same
time, The "kinematic" water carriers of the syriza government bear great
responsibility who for 4 years tried to calm down the intensity of the struggles
and did not miss the opportunity to condemn any militant action as a "dead end
uprising", even if it did not lack class references, social direction and
revolution drafts. An attitude that proved to be purely opportunistic, since
during the rule of the N.D. the same forces exhaust their themes in the "extreme
right" repressive strategy of the "fascist N.D." embracing every "dead end
insurgency" wherever it comes from, as long as you do not lack (not class), but
anti-nd references. social direction and revolutionary proposals. An attitude
that proved to be purely opportunistic, since during the rule of the N.D. the
same forces exhaust their themes in the "extreme right" repressive strategy of
the "fascist N.D." embracing every "dead end insurgency" wherever it comes from,
as long as you do not lack (not class) but anti-nd references. social direction
and revolutionary proposals. An attitude that proved to be purely opportunistic,
since during the rule of the N.D. the same forces exhaust their themes in the
"extreme right" repressive strategy of the "fascist N.D." embracing every "dead
end insurgency" wherever it comes from, as long as you do not lack (not class),
but anti-nd references.
In the current political-economic and social conditions that foreshadow great
outbursts of social anger and reshuffle in the political scene, we must learn
from the failures and inadequacies of the past, break the climate of fear that
prevails and re-pave the path of organization and resistance. The specific effort
to become successful and effective, in order not to end up in assimilation and
frustration again, must be based on strong organizational, value and political
foundations. The upgrading and intensification of our action and social
intervention in combination with the promotion of the organization at the
political and class / social level, as well as the formation of a revolutionary
plan and program are important issues for the revolutionary and class struggle.
No social revolution in history has taken place without the prior preparation of
the foundations of the future society, its organizational cells, its qualitative
characteristics, all these elements that crystallize and develop their most
advanced forms in the living social evolution and integration. of the
revolutionary transition. The outline of the post-revolutionary society we
propose should not be abstract. It can gain realistic power through its
concretization in a modern programmatic and strategic planning that only a broad
anarchist political organization can develop. However, such an organization is
not sufficient if the proposal, the plan, the idea of a new society does not come
to life as a revolutionary perspective in the heart of the working class itself
and of the whole exploiting society. Anarchist society is not imposed by isolated
elites, because then neither anarchist nor a society of real equality will be.
Let us fight with a plan on all battlefields: social, class, political. The
triumph of the Social Revolution will be a triumph for all humanity. It is up to
us to do it.
Organization now
Struggle for Social Revolution, Anarchy, Free and Classless Society
Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros - Kamatero
& facebook
Related Link: http://protaanka.espivblogs.net
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2020/12/14/topothetisi-schetika-me-tin-sygkyria/
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32125
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Message: 2
The AF publishing house has published a brief introduction to the ideas of
anarchism and the practice of the contemporary anarchist movement. ---- The
long-planned, but only realized this year brochure introduces the basic
principles of anarchism, the anarchist view of the world, but also of oneself. In
addition, it shows the breadth of interests and activities of the anarchist
movement, which concern a wide range of aspects of human life, society and the
movement itself. ---- Don't expect any long quotes from classics, an excess of
foreign words, incomprehensible philosophical analyzes or a historical excursion
full of names and dates. The publication is a very illustrative introduction to
the ideas of anarchism from a perspective that corresponds to the current time.
It is suitable for both anarchists and anarchists, as well as for people who have
never encountered the ideas of anarchism in their lives.
The draft text of this well-arranged booklet was given for comments to the
members of the Anarchist Federation (AF), so that its final form can be
considered a kind of collective work of AF. Our publishing house believes that
Anarchism for Beginners will attract new readers to anarchist ideas and encourage
their further study, and especially practical activity.
" Anarchism?"
"Yes, anarchism!"
"And why?"
"Because... hmm... Where to start? Because our economic and political oppression
annoys us. Because we cannot be blind enough to believe the tale of parliamentary
democracy. Because we reject unnatural authorities who dictate to us what we can
and cannot do, and force us to survive our lives. Because we cannot tolerate
social injustice and discrimination just because someone was born in a certain
social group, with a certain skin color or gender. Because- "
" But everyone can criticize. "
" Unfortunately, they can't. "
" But that's the way it is in the world. "
" Nonsense. We refuse. Another world is possible. You just have to turn down the
old one. "
" What about him? "
"After all, a society that will be free, where everyone will have the opportunity
to talk about what their lives will look like. Where to live instead of surviving
in a circle, work and consume. Where everyone has an equal voice and the life of
society will determine its needs and not the financial interests of the richest
and most powerful per mille in the world's population. "
" That sounds good. And is it possible to learn more about anarchism somewhere? "
" Definitely. What about this brochure, for example? "
Anarchism for Beginners
Published by the Publishing House of the Anarchist Federation.
84 pages A6, recommended contribution to cover costs CZK 55.
You can buy them at some events of the anti-authoritarian movement, concerts and
festivals and at distribution points, you can find an overview HERE (publications
of the AF Publishing House usually appear at individual distribution points with
a delay - thank you for your understanding). We recommend ordering in the
Roleta39 e-shop .
https://www.afed.cz/text/7269/anarchismus-pro-zacatecniky
------------------------------
Message: 3
For years, it was necessary to campaign despite the stink balls and the rumors.
But the charge of moral harassment following the hanging of a worker is
undoubtedly the most painful affair that the CGT union in Constellium, in
Issoire, has had to face. Everything seems to blame lean management and the
company's new financial culture. ---- Fire any wood - even the most twisted and
rotten - to strike its target. This seems to be the strategy at work to smear the
CGT union in Constellium-Issoire. Unless it is a diversion ? Because creating a
scapegoat can be tempting for an industrial site which, in less than four years
(2011-2015), recorded six suicides among its 1,600 employees [1]...
There is in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme) one of the main aeronautical sheet factories in
the world, a jewel of the Constellium group (see box) .
Four large workshops are spread over 100 hectares. The sheet metal works and its
rolling hall of more than 500 meters, with 300 workers producing thin sheet. The
heavy plate, which also employs 300 workers, is in a brighter and more spacious
building, the "ATF". At spinning, an old concrete building, 30 to 40 workers
manufacture profiles by extrusion. Finally, at the foundry, a steel building full
of corridors, machines and piping, 300 workers make alloys and cast trays. The
high technicality of the work would make relocation difficult. The employees are
aware and proud of this, and this translates into a fairly high level of
combativeness.
In Issoire, the struggle unionism is embodied by the CGT, with 115 members, and
which has its main point of support in the sheet metal, considered a "Gallic
village" - understand "irreducible" - by the management. Obviously, the
Constellium union weighs heavily within the UD-CGT of Puy-de-Dôme where, when we
call for interpro action, it always responds.
His secretary, Christian Lacoste, briefly publicized in 2011 for refusing to
shake hands with Sarkozy, plays a leading role. Not surprisingly, this is the
target to shoot down. It is the trade unionist in the field whom Constellium asks
to be removed from the CGT delegation during a meeting on suicides at the UIMM in
Paris, in 2013. It is the nuisance whose management of Issoire offers to finance
the temporary secondment to UD-CGT, in 2019 ... on condition that he does not set
foot in the factory !
During a walkout on the site in support of an employee who was the victim of an
unfair dismissal (on the left, Christian Lacoste).
cc France 3
The family files a complaint for "harassment"
Because Issoire is a factory where we suffer. In the 2010s, the takeover of
Constellium by a pension fund with a purely financial culture created a
deleterious climate. The implementation of lean management - inspired by Toyotism
- has created stress and competition between employees. A first drama occurred in
May 2011: a young engineer threw himself into a molten furnace.
In 2012, an executive hanged himself at his home. An independent expert report
and an investigation conducted by the CHSCT, unsurprisingly, questioned the
working conditions [2]. There will be four other victims: two workers and a
technician hanged at their home in 2013-2014 ; a worker immolated near the
factory in March 2015.
But it is a particular drama, in 2013, which will be exploited to strike the CGT.
On July 31, 2013, in a locker room, an altercation broke out between two
employees, characteristic of the discord created by the atmosphere of suspicion
and denunciation to which the "lean" grows . One of the two is made redundant,
which is felt to be an injustice within the factory [3]. The CGT denounces this
arbitrariness, no blow having been struck. In a very tense atmosphere, the second
employee, Mathieu Lèbre, more and more uncomfortable, went on sick leave. On
September 10, he hanged himself at his home.
At the factory, it's a shock. A drama can give rise to awareness, in seriousness
and dignity. But it can also lead to opportunistic instrumentalization. In this
case, it took the turn of a violent anti-CGT campaign. Its managers are called by
the management ; then by the gendarmes. The professional email of his secretary,
Christian Lacoste, is blocked to prevent him from speaking. The management will
go so far as to take advantage of the funeral of the victim to spread insinuations.
Lean management is abandoned
A few months later, the Labor Inspectorate, like the CGT, concluded that the
organization of work was responsible for suicide [4]. Two years later, in 2016,
after three additional suicides, lean management will finally be abandoned. For
the CGT, which has never ceased to denounce it, it is a victory. We're going to
make him pay it.
In 2017, Christian Lacoste was again summoned to the gendarmerie. The reason is
nebulous: a clash between two employees at the coffee machine ; a worker
sanctioned, again wrongly, was assisted by the CGT. Nothing else ? No. Bullying.
It starts again in 2018. The gendarmerie summons Lacoste for a new story of
altercation and graffiti in the toilets ! And suggests that the management will
send it willingly to the convocation. Furious, Lacoste hangs up ; he won't go.
Rally in support of the secretary of the CGT union of the plant, October 23, 2020.
cc CGT Randstad
In September 2020, finally, it is a real "stink ball operation". Christian
Lacoste is accused of sheet metal theft, liable to dismissal. The accusation is
so grossly false that it will collapse in less than two weeks: an extraordinary
CSE votes unanimously against his dismissal.
But in the meantime, the "case" created from scratch has allowed an internal
Flash management press release announcing the suspension until further notice of
the transfer of metal to employees for their personal use. Collective punishment.
"Thanks to whom ?" Can we read shortly after on a photomontage decorated with a
crocodile (Lacoste) relayed by a bogus Facebook account launching: "Without me on
October 5", the day of a rally in support of the trade unionist.
"Obviously, nothing holds, comments Christian Lacoste: harassment, theft,
graffiti ... But by the time justice proves us right, the management will have
obtained what it wanted: media evoking our indictment, rumors of theft...
Anything that can encourage employees to be wary of the CGT." [5]
Since June 2019 finally, the Lèbre affair has rebounded, with a new complaint
from the family. This time, the judge is indicting three employees, including
Christian Lacoste, despite a file still so empty. In the spring of 2020, the
prosecution also issues a notice of non-suit. Despite this, the judge persisted,
and referred the case to correctional. We're waiting for the trial date.
Except that at the same time, the situation was complicated for the management of
Constellium. On May 14, the Lèbre family also lodged a complaint against the
company for failure to meet its obligations to protect the "physical and mental
health of employees" . On June 30, the CGT in turn lodged a complaint for "moral
harassment" and "manslaughter" over the period 2011-2015. For the lawyer of the
CGT, Me Duplessis[6], the trial "will be an opportunity to highlight the poor
working conditions in this company, in which the State holds shares.[...]There
have been deaths and everyone is washing their hands of them. In this
investigation, we covered the employer."
Zouheir (UCL Livradois), with Guillaume (UCL Montreuil)
THE CONSTELLIUM UNIVERSE
Constellium is specialized in the transformation of aluminum for aeronautics,
boxing, automobile, road transport, naval, rail... It is present in several
countries, but especially in France where it has 13,000 employees. The Apollo
Management investment fund took control in 2011 ; the State retains 12% of the
capital via Bpifrance. In 2019, the turnover was 6 billion euros, for 64 million
profits.
The CGT union, with 115 members, has its main point of support in the sheet metal
industry. Here at a rally in December 2015.
cc Zouheir / UCL Livradois
Validate
[1] In November 2020, we again learned of the suicide of an employee, at his home.
[2] Report from the firm Émergences for the CHSCT, March 14, 2013 ; Secafi
report, September 18, 2013.
[3] Survey by the Labor Inspectorate, July 16, 2014.
[4] Report from the firm Émergences for the CHSCT, March 14, 2013 ; Secafi
report, September 18, 2013.
[5] The daily La Montagne relayed this strategy by choosing. titles implicating
the CGT. France 3 and France Bleu have chosen a more impartial treatment.
[6] La Montagne, June 3, 2020.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Metallurgie-un-suicide-instrumentalise-pour-salir-la-CGT
------------------------------
Message: 4
The 22nd Libertarian Journeys of the CGT of Valencia began on Monday, December
21, with a video conference interview with linguist, philosopher and activist
Noam Chomsky, broadcast on the social networks of the anarcho-syndicalist
organization. ---- Noam Chomsky, a linguist, philosopher and activist, was tasked
with starting the 22nd CGT Conference in Valencia with an interview conducted by
the anarcho-syndicalist organization, in which he addressed various aspects of
today's society. The veteran American thinker showed that he still shines at 92
years of age, continues to teach and holds regular meetings with other linguists
from different parts of the world, as Chomsky himself explains in the interview,
while stating that he "never abandoned their social activism since the age of 10
or 11 ".
This year, the Libertarian Days of the CGT in Valencia are 22 years old and aim
to reflect on mutual support as a pillar for the construction of a new society.
Asked about this point, Noam Chomsky states that "Kropotkin was right" and gives
as an example "the spontaneous human reaction" that occurred in different places
during the COVID-19 pandemic with "people helping each other and working together
to overcome the situation ", Despite" the structures designed to undermine it ".
Chomsky also relies on unions as a tool to deal with the "small sector of the
population" that has increased profits, while "the vast majority have stagnated
or decreased their resources".
Noam Chomsky calls what happened this summer in Europe with the pandemic a
"catastrophe". "They wanted to enjoy Spanish beaches or ski in the Alps",
explains the linguist, adding that "the most serious crisis we are facing is the
environmental one, much more than the pandemic", because according to the
American thinker "there is no going back, the ice caps are melting, we cannot fix
them "and he believes that" we still have a few decades to try to overcome it
and, if we don't take the opportunity, the human species will be finished ".
The end of the interview is a call to action by Noam Chomsky: "it is possible, it
is within our reach to make a better world, but we have to do it".
Source:https://www.cgtpv.org/comunicats/noam-chomsky-da-el-pistoletazo-de-salida-a-las-jornadas-libertarias-de-cgt-valencia
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 5
A review of a book about the ideology of the Christchurch massacre perpetrator.
---- Whenever a terrorist incident occurs somewhere in the world, a tell-all book
or movie-of-the-week is sure to follow. Mostly it's an exploitative response that
is shallow and adds nothing to anyone's understanding of the phenomenon. Fascists
Among Us by Jeff Sparrow is not such a book. It covers the Christchurch mosque
attack but eschews such approaches as pseudo-first-person narrative or lurid
descriptions of events by on-the-scene observers. Rather, it makes an honest
attempt to get into the motivations behind the attack. The most commendable
aspect of this being the rejection of superficial psychological explanations, in
favour of acknowledging the political impetus behind events. For example, Sparrow
argues Brenton Tarrant's manifesto "...expresses-with stark clarity-a distinctive
political program." (p.10). He references the term ‘autogenic' to describe
massacres driven by psychopathology or personal problems but explicitly notes
that the murderer says in his document on the killings that they were "...a
politically motivated terrorist attack" but "...he used them to rewrite the
massacre script, injecting political content into an apolitical form" (p. 73).
Any book with the word ‘Fascist' in the title should not shy away from attempting
a definition of what is a notoriously difficult phenomenon to pin down. Sparrow
tackles this with reference to some of the acknowledged academic experts in the
field such as Paxton, Griffin, and Mosse as well as quotes from Mussolini, Hitler
and Mosley. He is then careful to place Tarrant's own words into the mix, showing
undeniable links to these ideological predecessors.
The author recognises that despite radical sounding elements, it is the
reactionary nature of classical fascism that ultimately defines it. For
anarchists, it is a welcome recognition that one element of this reactionary
politics is its emphasis on the creation of "...an authoritarian regime based on
supposed natural hierarchies" (p.43). Sparrow again places the shooter within
that tradition, condemned by his own words, quoting from his manifesto ‘Diversity
is unequal, hierarchies are certain' (p.13). This highlights two important
points. Firstly, that while others may waver in their opposition to fascism,
anarchists always have been and always will be their most consistent opponents.
Wishing to establish a world of social and economic equality and our implacable
rejection of hierarchies as an organising principle puts us in existential
opposition to fascism in ways that other political movements are not. Secondly,
it shows the bankruptcy of some on the conservative Right who erroneously define
fascism as a Left-wing movement.
Despite the very real continuities with the past, it's also important to look at
the factors that have aided the contemporary fascists. On a macro scale, this has
included the primacy of Islamophobia as a bogeyman that works better as a
motivator than the lingering traditional anti-Semitism. Sparrow spends a chapter
showing how the fuel of US state actions post-9/11 has created an environment
where ‘Islam' "...has become for many an essentialised, almost biological, term"
(p.29). One of Tarrant's obsessions as outlined in his screed was the birthrates
within ‘Islam' being higher than others and the threat, he saw this having to
those he identified with.
Another more recent and obvious influence has been the rhetorical enabling the
Trump administration has had upon the fascists. The writer is careful to show
that despite being odious in his own right, the fascist label doesn't apply to
Trump. In his chapter on this, Sparrow also outlines how different tactical
options were explored that took internet traffic in the direction of street
activism. The culmination being the Fascist riot in Charlottesville in 2017 and
the death of Heather Heyer. In the end, this was a dismal failure for the
fascists and goes some way to explaining the attraction of non-net-based lone
wolf actions rather than internet shitposting, incel whining, or LARPing.
Add to the above an interest in eco-fascism and accelerationism, combined with
personal experiences in both Australia (where fascists targeted Anarchist social
locations) and Europe, and you get some taste of the eclectic toxic political
brew Tarrant created for himself. Sparrow does a good job in outlining all of
this and clearly separates out different strands of thought that do or don't
apply in this case.
In the conclusion, the author criticises sections of the mainstream media who
argued that it was wrong to publish extracts from Tarrant's manifesto. They said
that just mentioning he was radicalised in Europe was enough. Sparrow rightly
takes them to task for this by pointing out "He was ideologically committed to
fascism, a movement that is consistently handed propaganda victories by a mass
media unwilling or incapable of understanding it." (p.116). An excellent point.
It feels necessary to take issue with Sparrow though on a related informational
issue. He chooses early in the book to consistently refer to Tarrant as ‘Person
X'. The two central explanations being that by naming Brenton Tarrant it somehow
diminishes his victims and that since he was anonymous prior to the attack and
that there are others similar to him out there, such a pseudonym makes him
emblematic of future such operators in the future (pp. 4-5). There are a few
problems with this no doubt well-meaning sensitivity. Firstly, this book isn't
about the victims, but the perpetrator. A book that examines the lives of the
victims would be a worthwhile project, but this isn't it. Secondly, by allowing
Tarrant to retain his anonymity it if anything lets him off the hook for personal
responsibility for his actions. Yes, he is a ‘type' but not just an abstraction.
He is a living individual who did something. Thirdly, the excellent analysis
provided describing how Tarrant became Tarrant applies to him. Future fascist
terrorists will not be carbon copies of him, in the same way, that he was
inspired by, but was not a direct copy of others. Fourthly, Sparrow sensibly
adopts the usual journalistic and academic convention of footnoting. Fine except
the writer explicitly names Brenton Tarrant and the title of his manifesto in the
very first footnote of chapter 1 of the book! This undermines the moral high
ground attempted in the explanation of the Introduction and makes ongoing use of
‘Person X' redundant. Also, if Sparrow has no problem mentioning Hitler, who
surely had a far more devastating and lasting impact than Tarrant, the reader
should be able to handle seeing the name of the latter. Lastly, there's a bit of
an air of fundamentalist Christianity to it, as if invoking the name will somehow
empower Satan. Given Sparrow's worthwhile quest to inform, including the
perpetrator's name just would've made more sense.
Jeff Sparrow has done a mostly solid job of showing what (if not who) lay behind
the Christchurch massacre. It's a text that can be recommended to anyone who
wants to understand the political poison of Fascism, how it began, and how it has
morphed across time. For anarchists, it is a reminder that we can never afford to
let others do the work of Anti-fascism for us and must remain eternally vigilant
and active in pursuit of a better world. No Pasaran!
Related Link: https://awsm.nz/?p=8169
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32123
------------------------------
AWSM (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
No social revolution in history has taken place without the prior preparation of
the foundations of the future society, its organizational cells, its qualitative
characteristics, all these elements that crystallize and develop their most
advanced forms in the living social evolution and integration. of the
revolutionary transition. The outline of the post-revolutionary society we
propose should not be abstract. It can gain realistic power through its
concretization in a modern programmatic and strategic planning that only a broad
anarchist political organization can develop. ---- It has been 10 months since
the diagnosis of the first positive coronavirus case in Greece and 9 months since
the imposition of the first lockdown, which inaugurated a "new normality" that
brought us all face to face with unprecedented situations. This "new normality"
is defined through the portrait of the time shaped by the coronavirus health
crisis and the ongoing structural crisis of the global capitalist economy since
2008. The combination of the health crisis and the escalation of the financial
crisis have brought to the fore an unprecedented dystopia which is embodied in
the implementation of comprehensive measures of discipline and control, the
imposition of mass confinement, social isolation and travel and assembly bans. At
the same time,
It is a fact that in recent months a rapid deregulation of labor relations has
taken place. Workers' acquis and social freedoms that have been won through
struggle and have been secured for centuries are being challenged and attempted
to be catalyzed as past concessions of class balance. The impoverishment of large
sections of society is growing. At the same time, every effort is being made to
ensure that the cogs of production continue to operate at any cost to the health
of workers who are crowded by the hundreds in the workplace without even the
basic collective protection measures being met. As we saw a few months ago, the
tourism industry operated normally in Greece.
Now, going through a second wave of the pandemic, the weaknesses and shortcomings
of the state-trained austerity system are manifested in the most emphatic way and
it is becoming clear that the chronic state deterioration of health has been
catastrophic for the management of the health crisis. The number of cases and
deaths from coronavirus has multiplied within a few months and the health system
has exceeded the limits of its capacity to provide care. Having more than 8
months to plan to deal with the pandemic and having the experience of the first
wave, all the excuses invoked by government officials over the past period have
clearly failed.
It is a fact that since the outbreak of the pandemic until today, scientific
research on the coronavirus has advanced to a great extent and now there is
reliable data on the nature, evolution, transmissibility and effects of the virus
in human organisms. The occurrence of the second wave of the pandemic was neither
something unpredictable nor something that was ruled out to follow. On the
contrary, both the state and its committee of experts were well aware that a
strong outbreak of cases was expected during the winter. Nevertheless, the
state's choice was not to take any substantial measures and not to make any
substantial preparations to avoid and deal with an even stronger wave. Alongside,
Specifically, within the margin of 8 months from the first lockdown, there was no
political will to make moves for the adequate staffing of the NSS with permanent
medical staff, the necessary equipment in machinery and hospital infrastructure,
with the result that it now has fewer and fewer workers compared to other years
before the coronavirus. At the same time, diagnostic tests have become more of a
speculation than a useful tool for mapping cases and securing secure data. Apart
from the limited number of tests performed daily, there was no design to create
mechanisms and structures that would provide free and open access to the
coronavirus diagnosis test without creating delays and congestion conditions.
Preventive mass tests were not performed on employees who are crowded daily by
hundreds in the workplace, while there are complaints from employees who testify
that even after diagnosed cases of their colleagues the workplaces remained in
normal operation and the rest of the employees were not tested. They were
"unable" to bear the cost. In terms of case detection, the active tracking
mechanism, which is occasionally excluded from government officials' statements,
consists of just 190 employees, and even European directives indicate the need
for 3,000 staff according to the country's population. In a recent relevant
question asked to Hardalias regarding the small number of "trackers", The deputy
minister-karagiozis of the government replied that the cases are few in order to
have a bigger tracking mechanism. We imagine that it did not cross his mind that
if the number of employees in the tracking mechanism increases, the recorded
cases will also increase...
So, while the main argument for enforcing the first lockdown was the "time
market" to stop the big spread and prepare for the aftermath of the epidemic,
society's health shield was omitted and shifted to "individual responsibility" .
Essentially, what was achieved was the postponement of a larger spread of the
virus in the future without taking the necessary steps to prevent it as much as
possible and to treat it under better conditions. On the contrary, all this time
we are experiencing in our own skin the paradoxes and structural contradictions
of the capitalist system of production, a system whose priorities are regulated
on the basis of the interests of a minority parasitic class and not on the basis
of the needs of the social majority. This situation becomes even more intense in
times of crisis, with the result that in times of pandemic we see government
spending being diverted to the strengthening of the military and police
repressive forces and not to the strengthening of the health system and
preventive measures. Instead of hiring doctors and nurses, the prime minister's
announcements at this year's TIF in September focused on buying military
armaments by paying huge sums of billions and strengthening the armed forces with
15,000 permanent recruits in the background of the transnational Middle East.
Instead of creating new hospital infrastructure, large sums of money were wasted
on failed "Europeanization" and "beautification" projects in the city center (see
long walk). Instead of recruiting in hospitals, thousands of new positions were
announced for the police and the creation of new special forces was promoted (see
university police). Under this treaty, the well-funded 20m state-funded media
played the game of government by obscuring state irresponsibility and
highlighting scapegoats as responsible for spreading the virus: in the beginning,
it was the unruly citizens who were responsible. the measures, then the young
people who gathered in the squares and took vacations and finally the immigrants
who were named in many cases as health bombs.
The success story of the government that projected the great success in the
management of covid 19 all the previous time has now collapsed. November became
the most tragic month of the pandemic, with coronavirus deaths reaching 1780,
accounting for 74% of all deaths since the pandemic began. The comparison of the
Greek pandemic data made every now and then by government representatives with
data from other European countries does not prove any success of the Greek state
but on the contrary reveals the utter failure of global capitalism and state
mechanisms to manage the health crisis and the protection of public health.
The bell had already rung since the beginning of October when there was an
aggressive increase in cases which reached record numbers for the season. At the
time, Mitsotakis stated that the scenario for a second lockdown "was almost
unthinkable" and even stressed that "universal measures bring tragic consequences
to the economy and great injustices in society as the horizontal restriction is
unfair as it equals different weights on everyone's backs". Nevertheless, the
lockdown was again imposed as a solution - a counterweight to the state's
inability to deal with the spread of the virus and its criminal negligence in
enforcing adequate conditions of prevention and hospital care. The chances for
this choice increased as the risk of the collapse of the state health system
became more and more visible.
As we noted in our previous text during the first lockdown: "States between
social disenfranchisement and the discontent that will cost them the hundreds of
thousands of cases that will not be able to manage the collapsed health systems
and the devastating consequences of the traffic ban on capitalist profitability,
they are currently choosing the latter. With the important footnote, that they
know very well how the burdens of the economic consequences of the pandemic and
the new episode of the capitalist crisis will be transferred to the backs of the
social majority of the employed, the unemployed, the youth ". And this time, Most
states, including the Greek one, followed the same tactics with the difference
that in this case they tried until the last moment to prevent the freezing of the
capitalist economy for the second time. Thus, the decision to ban the traffic was
taken only when it was now certain for the state officials that the situation was
completely out of their control and the health system would soon collapse. The
scenario that is often heard lately for consecutive rolling lockdowns until a
satisfactory degree of immunity is obtained through the vaccine foreshadows
exactly the continuation of this tactic. The state will continue to pursue the
same criminal policy with all the shortcomings and contradictions described
above, will open the economy for short periods of time or will open specific
sectors that are in demand depending on the season in order for the market to
move and when the health system reaches its limits it will impose the mass
closure again. In the meantime, cases and deaths will increase and the endurance
of the health system will become more and more exhausted.
In the current situation, for a month now, the National Health System is showing
a picture of disintegration. Statements that the health system "has endured and
will endure" are far from the truth. The truth is that the health system has
collapsed and the workers are fighting a great battle to save as much as
possible. Recently, the occupancy rate in ICUs in Northern Greece has reached
100% in many cases, while in the whole territory it has reached 87%. But even the
additional Intensive Care Units that are set up on a temporary basis and occupy
wards of other specialties, operating rooms, and resuscitation rooms can not
function with the required adequacy due to the lack of specialized personnel. It
is obvious that the creation of the ICU does not require only new beds and
machines but much more the specialized doctors and nurses and in this part the
shortcomings are huge and the planning is non-existent. The recruitments made are
a drop in the ocean in relation to the real needs of the health system in
general, let alone in a period of pandemic. So instead of the necessary
recruitment and increasing the number of beds, the government's strategy includes
air travel and ready-made trains to transport coronavirus patients from
Thessaloniki to Athens, practices that many doctors have expressed concern about.
Along with all this situation, the normal operation of the hospitals has
presented serious problems.
The collapse of the state health system is also reflected in the increasing
number of deaths on a daily basis. There are many statements of doctors and
nurses that report cases of intubation and deaths from coronavirus in simple
treatment wards due to the fullness of the ICU. The mortality rate has increased
compared to the spring and Greece is now in 4th place among EU countries in terms
of deaths compared to recorded cases. It is obvious that the increase in deaths
is due to the conditions of hospitalization of patients which are characterized
by all the deficiencies and problems that we mentioned. We can easily conclude
that in different circumstances many lives could have been saved.
The political responsibilities of the government, which continues to pursue its
death policy to the detriment of public health and the needs of the people, are
great. On the other hand, the loud announcements and complaints from the
opposition about the shortcomings and inadequacies of the NSS can only cause
grief. So against the short-lived memory of the old rulers and their followers,
we will recall the obvious: the current state of the state health system has not
fallen from the sky. Anyone who has needed to be hospitalized, examined or
operated on in a public hospital has experienced first-hand the inadequacies,
shortcomings and delays that characterize the NSS, which even before the outbreak
of the pandemic had been fatal for many lives.
During the 4.5 years of the SYRIZA memorandum government we did not see any
improvement in the NSS and the bankrupt model of economic Keynesianism that was
on the party's election agenda was not implemented at all, precisely because of
its incompatibility with modern capitalist data. The Social Democratic government
has unhesitatingly implemented the neoliberal austerity reforms in full
accordance with the memorandum budgets and the fiscal strategy agreed with the
"lenders". What we remember from the SYRIZA government is not the recruitment and
strengthening of the NSS but the demands of the thousands of contract workers in
the Health sector for permanent employment who fell into the vacuum and the
struggles of the hospital cleaners who were fired, violently losing their jobs.
At this point let us make a point about an issue that has come to the fore: the
issue of the requirements of private hospitals. It is a fact that lately the
concept of imperative is defined and colored politically and ideologically by
everyone in a different way. The government, realizing that the margins of the
state hospitals have been exhausted in areas such as Thessaloniki, proceeded to
"demand" private beds, first for the treatment of simple cases and then for the
introduction of cases with coronavirus. But what actually happened was the
renting of private hospital beds, a purchase of private sector services by the
state to fill the gaps in the national health system. In fact, this rental was
done not at cost prices but the compensations that were given ensured a
satisfactory profit for the clinicians. As a government official also stated,
"the imposition means a great cost for the public". At the same time, demands are
being made by opposition parties for the full integration of private hospitals
into state planning to deal with the pandemic.
The use of private services by the state in return for compensation to cover its
weaknesses can not be seen as a kind of "social policy" but as a solution of
necessity that protects "cooperation" with the private sector. The framework of
this cooperation is not transformed but regulated by the state itself and is
defined in the exploitative treaty of capitalism which places the interests of
the few above the protection of the public health good which has been reduced to
a commodity. From a trade union point of view, in this treaty we will be allies
in the claims of hospital staff seeking the inclusion of private beds in the
state health system on the one hand on the basis of their relief from the
nightmare of living in intensified work rhythms and on the other hand on the
basis of the possibility of providing care more people in need of
hospitalization. For our part, as the political core of anarchists, we do not
programmatically promote the state order of private hospitals. We propose and
fight for the total social demand of both private and state hospitals, their
management by the employees themselves and the federal organization of a truly
public and freely accessible health system, guided by social needs.
The responsibility for the murderous trajectory taken by the pandemic and the
criminal policy pursued domestically and internationally lies at the roots of the
current political and economic system based on exploitation and oppression.
Everywhere in the world, states under any political rule - right or left, liberal
or social democratic - fail to address the health crisis on terms that do not
restrict social freedoms and do not violate human rights. After all, it could not
be done differently in a system that has based its own creation and existence on
the death, exploitation and violation of the needs and freedoms of the vast
majority of the lower social strata. In times of crisis, states and capitalists
show their most greedy face and the antagonisms of capitalism intensify. Thus, in
the crisis we are experiencing today, at the heart of the political management of
states is the economic, social and biological extermination of the people of the
lower social strata, of all those who are the expendable citizens of their state,
of those who are a cog in the machine of capitalism. that when it does not
perform its work effectively or when it is in excess they throw it away.
The pandemic is being used as a golden opportunity by the state, which finds new
roads and new tools to impose its universal sovereignty and anti-social plans
through the implementation of its murderous policy. This opportunity used by the
state comes in a special context determined by the recessionary trajectory that
characterizes the course of the world economy since the last quarter of 2019. In
the ongoing new and stronger episode of the 12-year global capitalist crisis , it
is clear that state and capitalist losses will be attempted to be covered once
again by the sacrifices and economic plunder of the proletarian strata. Of course
at this point we should point out that the existing power relations in class and
social competition are the ones that determine whether a crisis like the one we
are experiencing will develop to the detriment or to the benefit of the
exploited. In the present period, apart from the social calm and the fall of the
social and class resistance that has prevailed for at least the last 6 years, it
is also the imposed regime of the prohibition of traffic and gatherings that
weakens the power and mass of the struggles and is recruited ostensibly for their
pre-suppression.
And at this very point, the end of the lively struggle and the immediate
resistance, lies the great pressure for the state and capitalist invasion by
imposing measures that in other periods would have seemed far-fetched dreams to
even the most optimistic honorer of the capitalist system. In the conditions of
the social cemetery that have been imposed, with the gatherings and
demonstrations being banned, the Greek parliament from the first lockdown until
today has passed a series of reactionary, anti-labor and anti-social bills and
measures. The anti-education bills, the bill that instituted the further looting
of nature for the benefit of large business groups, the law banning
demonstrations, The new bankruptcy code and finally the anti-labor / anti-strike
bill that institutionalizes 10-hour work and puts new stronger barriers to trade
union claims are the first steps on the path of the new cycle of imposing
neoliberal measures of austerity and bloodshed on the system. The worst is yet to
come and will come to the surface in the very near future when the consequences
of the new episode of the crisis unfold in all their magnitude.
The intensity of state repression before and after the manifestation of the new
Great Recession comes as an expected and necessary consequence of the
intensification of class exploitation and the new unbearable measures and
restrictions that affect and will affect the masses. The general planning of
policing and state repression is guided in each period by the tactical and
strategic goals of the state and is not left to the "ideological obsessions" and
the authoritarianism of each government or the arbitrariness of its salaried
guards. It is historically proven by recent domestic experience that before major
crises occur, states organize their internal defense,
At present, the imposition of state omnipotence through the bat and the plans of
preventive counter-insurgency and counter-revolution are in full force. The state
mechanism, taking advantage of the health crisis, adds new weapons to the quiver
of repression and social control. The ban on traffic, the ban on gatherings,
rallies and demonstrations, the financial repression of the fine that comes to
add to the physical repression are new elements of the dystopian reality we are
experiencing. All of the above are applied under the guise of health protection
which is imposed with the globs of the cops, the police in the cities, the
beatings, the arrests in the pile and the crowd of those arrested in the GADA
detention centers.
The situation that has developed recently refutes the theory that the level and
intensity of state repression increases when the resistance intensifies,
radicalizes and takes on insurgent proportions. On the contrary, the state
mechanism presses on the retreat of the struggles and in the absence of militant
resistance in order to impose its omnipotence. The material power relations in
the field of conflict shape the conditions of the match, the capabilities of the
opponents and consequently the strategy they will follow. We do not fight for the
assertion and guarantee of our "democratic right to demonstrate" but we propose
the social, class and political necessity to express the right of our struggle on
the street, whether it is legal or illegal.
It is a fact that in recent years, after the great demonstrations and the
conflict events of 2006-7 on the occasion of the revision of Article 16, the
uprising of December 2008 and the two years 2010-12, the state has largely won
the ability to be imposed on the street through its armed forces, to disperse
demonstrations and not to collect due. The main reason lies in the frustration of
large sections of society with a radical conscience that did not find a way out
of all these struggles, who were demobilized and abandoned in the streets, as
they could not organize on anarchist, class and revolutionary bases. At the same
time, The "kinematic" water carriers of the syriza government bear great
responsibility who for 4 years tried to calm down the intensity of the struggles
and did not miss the opportunity to condemn any militant action as a "dead end
uprising", even if it did not lack class references, social direction and
revolution drafts. An attitude that proved to be purely opportunistic, since
during the rule of the N.D. the same forces exhaust their themes in the "extreme
right" repressive strategy of the "fascist N.D." embracing every "dead end
insurgency" wherever it comes from, as long as you do not lack (not class), but
anti-nd references. social direction and revolutionary proposals. An attitude
that proved to be purely opportunistic, since during the rule of the N.D. the
same forces exhaust their themes in the "extreme right" repressive strategy of
the "fascist N.D." embracing every "dead end insurgency" wherever it comes from,
as long as you do not lack (not class) but anti-nd references. social direction
and revolutionary proposals. An attitude that proved to be purely opportunistic,
since during the rule of the N.D. the same forces exhaust their themes in the
"extreme right" repressive strategy of the "fascist N.D." embracing every "dead
end insurgency" wherever it comes from, as long as you do not lack (not class),
but anti-nd references.
In the current political-economic and social conditions that foreshadow great
outbursts of social anger and reshuffle in the political scene, we must learn
from the failures and inadequacies of the past, break the climate of fear that
prevails and re-pave the path of organization and resistance. The specific effort
to become successful and effective, in order not to end up in assimilation and
frustration again, must be based on strong organizational, value and political
foundations. The upgrading and intensification of our action and social
intervention in combination with the promotion of the organization at the
political and class / social level, as well as the formation of a revolutionary
plan and program are important issues for the revolutionary and class struggle.
No social revolution in history has taken place without the prior preparation of
the foundations of the future society, its organizational cells, its qualitative
characteristics, all these elements that crystallize and develop their most
advanced forms in the living social evolution and integration. of the
revolutionary transition. The outline of the post-revolutionary society we
propose should not be abstract. It can gain realistic power through its
concretization in a modern programmatic and strategic planning that only a broad
anarchist political organization can develop. However, such an organization is
not sufficient if the proposal, the plan, the idea of a new society does not come
to life as a revolutionary perspective in the heart of the working class itself
and of the whole exploiting society. Anarchist society is not imposed by isolated
elites, because then neither anarchist nor a society of real equality will be.
Let us fight with a plan on all battlefields: social, class, political. The
triumph of the Social Revolution will be a triumph for all humanity. It is up to
us to do it.
Organization now
Struggle for Social Revolution, Anarchy, Free and Classless Society
Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros - Kamatero
Related Link: http://protaanka.espivblogs.net
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2020/12/14/topothetisi-schetika-me-tin-sygkyria/
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32125
------------------------------
Message: 2
The AF publishing house has published a brief introduction to the ideas of
anarchism and the practice of the contemporary anarchist movement. ---- The
long-planned, but only realized this year brochure introduces the basic
principles of anarchism, the anarchist view of the world, but also of oneself. In
addition, it shows the breadth of interests and activities of the anarchist
movement, which concern a wide range of aspects of human life, society and the
movement itself. ---- Don't expect any long quotes from classics, an excess of
foreign words, incomprehensible philosophical analyzes or a historical excursion
full of names and dates. The publication is a very illustrative introduction to
the ideas of anarchism from a perspective that corresponds to the current time.
It is suitable for both anarchists and anarchists, as well as for people who have
never encountered the ideas of anarchism in their lives.
The draft text of this well-arranged booklet was given for comments to the
members of the Anarchist Federation (AF), so that its final form can be
considered a kind of collective work of AF. Our publishing house believes that
Anarchism for Beginners will attract new readers to anarchist ideas and encourage
their further study, and especially practical activity.
" Anarchism?"
"Yes, anarchism!"
"And why?"
"Because... hmm... Where to start? Because our economic and political oppression
annoys us. Because we cannot be blind enough to believe the tale of parliamentary
democracy. Because we reject unnatural authorities who dictate to us what we can
and cannot do, and force us to survive our lives. Because we cannot tolerate
social injustice and discrimination just because someone was born in a certain
social group, with a certain skin color or gender. Because- "
" But everyone can criticize. "
" Unfortunately, they can't. "
" But that's the way it is in the world. "
" Nonsense. We refuse. Another world is possible. You just have to turn down the
old one. "
" What about him? "
"After all, a society that will be free, where everyone will have the opportunity
to talk about what their lives will look like. Where to live instead of surviving
in a circle, work and consume. Where everyone has an equal voice and the life of
society will determine its needs and not the financial interests of the richest
and most powerful per mille in the world's population. "
" That sounds good. And is it possible to learn more about anarchism somewhere? "
" Definitely. What about this brochure, for example? "
Anarchism for Beginners
Published by the Publishing House of the Anarchist Federation.
84 pages A6, recommended contribution to cover costs CZK 55.
You can buy them at some events of the anti-authoritarian movement, concerts and
festivals and at distribution points, you can find an overview HERE (publications
of the AF Publishing House usually appear at individual distribution points with
a delay - thank you for your understanding). We recommend ordering in the
Roleta39 e-shop .
https://www.afed.cz/text/7269/anarchismus-pro-zacatecniky
------------------------------
Message: 3
For years, it was necessary to campaign despite the stink balls and the rumors.
But the charge of moral harassment following the hanging of a worker is
undoubtedly the most painful affair that the CGT union in Constellium, in
Issoire, has had to face. Everything seems to blame lean management and the
company's new financial culture. ---- Fire any wood - even the most twisted and
rotten - to strike its target. This seems to be the strategy at work to smear the
CGT union in Constellium-Issoire. Unless it is a diversion ? Because creating a
scapegoat can be tempting for an industrial site which, in less than four years
(2011-2015), recorded six suicides among its 1,600 employees [1]...
There is in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme) one of the main aeronautical sheet factories in
the world, a jewel of the Constellium group (see box) .
Four large workshops are spread over 100 hectares. The sheet metal works and its
rolling hall of more than 500 meters, with 300 workers producing thin sheet. The
heavy plate, which also employs 300 workers, is in a brighter and more spacious
building, the "ATF". At spinning, an old concrete building, 30 to 40 workers
manufacture profiles by extrusion. Finally, at the foundry, a steel building full
of corridors, machines and piping, 300 workers make alloys and cast trays. The
high technicality of the work would make relocation difficult. The employees are
aware and proud of this, and this translates into a fairly high level of
combativeness.
In Issoire, the struggle unionism is embodied by the CGT, with 115 members, and
which has its main point of support in the sheet metal, considered a "Gallic
village" - understand "irreducible" - by the management. Obviously, the
Constellium union weighs heavily within the UD-CGT of Puy-de-Dôme where, when we
call for interpro action, it always responds.
His secretary, Christian Lacoste, briefly publicized in 2011 for refusing to
shake hands with Sarkozy, plays a leading role. Not surprisingly, this is the
target to shoot down. It is the trade unionist in the field whom Constellium asks
to be removed from the CGT delegation during a meeting on suicides at the UIMM in
Paris, in 2013. It is the nuisance whose management of Issoire offers to finance
the temporary secondment to UD-CGT, in 2019 ... on condition that he does not set
foot in the factory !
During a walkout on the site in support of an employee who was the victim of an
unfair dismissal (on the left, Christian Lacoste).
cc France 3
The family files a complaint for "harassment"
Because Issoire is a factory where we suffer. In the 2010s, the takeover of
Constellium by a pension fund with a purely financial culture created a
deleterious climate. The implementation of lean management - inspired by Toyotism
- has created stress and competition between employees. A first drama occurred in
May 2011: a young engineer threw himself into a molten furnace.
In 2012, an executive hanged himself at his home. An independent expert report
and an investigation conducted by the CHSCT, unsurprisingly, questioned the
working conditions [2]. There will be four other victims: two workers and a
technician hanged at their home in 2013-2014 ; a worker immolated near the
factory in March 2015.
But it is a particular drama, in 2013, which will be exploited to strike the CGT.
On July 31, 2013, in a locker room, an altercation broke out between two
employees, characteristic of the discord created by the atmosphere of suspicion
and denunciation to which the "lean" grows . One of the two is made redundant,
which is felt to be an injustice within the factory [3]. The CGT denounces this
arbitrariness, no blow having been struck. In a very tense atmosphere, the second
employee, Mathieu Lèbre, more and more uncomfortable, went on sick leave. On
September 10, he hanged himself at his home.
At the factory, it's a shock. A drama can give rise to awareness, in seriousness
and dignity. But it can also lead to opportunistic instrumentalization. In this
case, it took the turn of a violent anti-CGT campaign. Its managers are called by
the management ; then by the gendarmes. The professional email of his secretary,
Christian Lacoste, is blocked to prevent him from speaking. The management will
go so far as to take advantage of the funeral of the victim to spread insinuations.
Lean management is abandoned
A few months later, the Labor Inspectorate, like the CGT, concluded that the
organization of work was responsible for suicide [4]. Two years later, in 2016,
after three additional suicides, lean management will finally be abandoned. For
the CGT, which has never ceased to denounce it, it is a victory. We're going to
make him pay it.
In 2017, Christian Lacoste was again summoned to the gendarmerie. The reason is
nebulous: a clash between two employees at the coffee machine ; a worker
sanctioned, again wrongly, was assisted by the CGT. Nothing else ? No. Bullying.
It starts again in 2018. The gendarmerie summons Lacoste for a new story of
altercation and graffiti in the toilets ! And suggests that the management will
send it willingly to the convocation. Furious, Lacoste hangs up ; he won't go.
Rally in support of the secretary of the CGT union of the plant, October 23, 2020.
cc CGT Randstad
In September 2020, finally, it is a real "stink ball operation". Christian
Lacoste is accused of sheet metal theft, liable to dismissal. The accusation is
so grossly false that it will collapse in less than two weeks: an extraordinary
CSE votes unanimously against his dismissal.
But in the meantime, the "case" created from scratch has allowed an internal
Flash management press release announcing the suspension until further notice of
the transfer of metal to employees for their personal use. Collective punishment.
"Thanks to whom ?" Can we read shortly after on a photomontage decorated with a
crocodile (Lacoste) relayed by a bogus Facebook account launching: "Without me on
October 5", the day of a rally in support of the trade unionist.
"Obviously, nothing holds, comments Christian Lacoste: harassment, theft,
graffiti ... But by the time justice proves us right, the management will have
obtained what it wanted: media evoking our indictment, rumors of theft...
Anything that can encourage employees to be wary of the CGT." [5]
Since June 2019 finally, the Lèbre affair has rebounded, with a new complaint
from the family. This time, the judge is indicting three employees, including
Christian Lacoste, despite a file still so empty. In the spring of 2020, the
prosecution also issues a notice of non-suit. Despite this, the judge persisted,
and referred the case to correctional. We're waiting for the trial date.
Except that at the same time, the situation was complicated for the management of
Constellium. On May 14, the Lèbre family also lodged a complaint against the
company for failure to meet its obligations to protect the "physical and mental
health of employees" . On June 30, the CGT in turn lodged a complaint for "moral
harassment" and "manslaughter" over the period 2011-2015. For the lawyer of the
CGT, Me Duplessis[6], the trial "will be an opportunity to highlight the poor
working conditions in this company, in which the State holds shares.[...]There
have been deaths and everyone is washing their hands of them. In this
investigation, we covered the employer."
Zouheir (UCL Livradois), with Guillaume (UCL Montreuil)
THE CONSTELLIUM UNIVERSE
Constellium is specialized in the transformation of aluminum for aeronautics,
boxing, automobile, road transport, naval, rail... It is present in several
countries, but especially in France where it has 13,000 employees. The Apollo
Management investment fund took control in 2011 ; the State retains 12% of the
capital via Bpifrance. In 2019, the turnover was 6 billion euros, for 64 million
profits.
The CGT union, with 115 members, has its main point of support in the sheet metal
industry. Here at a rally in December 2015.
cc Zouheir / UCL Livradois
Validate
[1] In November 2020, we again learned of the suicide of an employee, at his home.
[2] Report from the firm Émergences for the CHSCT, March 14, 2013 ; Secafi
report, September 18, 2013.
[3] Survey by the Labor Inspectorate, July 16, 2014.
[4] Report from the firm Émergences for the CHSCT, March 14, 2013 ; Secafi
report, September 18, 2013.
[5] The daily La Montagne relayed this strategy by choosing. titles implicating
the CGT. France 3 and France Bleu have chosen a more impartial treatment.
[6] La Montagne, June 3, 2020.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Metallurgie-un-suicide-instrumentalise-pour-salir-la-CGT
------------------------------
Message: 4
The 22nd Libertarian Journeys of the CGT of Valencia began on Monday, December
21, with a video conference interview with linguist, philosopher and activist
Noam Chomsky, broadcast on the social networks of the anarcho-syndicalist
organization. ---- Noam Chomsky, a linguist, philosopher and activist, was tasked
with starting the 22nd CGT Conference in Valencia with an interview conducted by
the anarcho-syndicalist organization, in which he addressed various aspects of
today's society. The veteran American thinker showed that he still shines at 92
years of age, continues to teach and holds regular meetings with other linguists
from different parts of the world, as Chomsky himself explains in the interview,
while stating that he "never abandoned their social activism since the age of 10
or 11 ".
This year, the Libertarian Days of the CGT in Valencia are 22 years old and aim
to reflect on mutual support as a pillar for the construction of a new society.
Asked about this point, Noam Chomsky states that "Kropotkin was right" and gives
as an example "the spontaneous human reaction" that occurred in different places
during the COVID-19 pandemic with "people helping each other and working together
to overcome the situation ", Despite" the structures designed to undermine it ".
Chomsky also relies on unions as a tool to deal with the "small sector of the
population" that has increased profits, while "the vast majority have stagnated
or decreased their resources".
Noam Chomsky calls what happened this summer in Europe with the pandemic a
"catastrophe". "They wanted to enjoy Spanish beaches or ski in the Alps",
explains the linguist, adding that "the most serious crisis we are facing is the
environmental one, much more than the pandemic", because according to the
American thinker "there is no going back, the ice caps are melting, we cannot fix
them "and he believes that" we still have a few decades to try to overcome it
and, if we don't take the opportunity, the human species will be finished ".
The end of the interview is a call to action by Noam Chomsky: "it is possible, it
is within our reach to make a better world, but we have to do it".
Source:https://www.cgtpv.org/comunicats/noam-chomsky-da-el-pistoletazo-de-salida-a-las-jornadas-libertarias-de-cgt-valencia
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 5
A review of a book about the ideology of the Christchurch massacre perpetrator.
---- Whenever a terrorist incident occurs somewhere in the world, a tell-all book
or movie-of-the-week is sure to follow. Mostly it's an exploitative response that
is shallow and adds nothing to anyone's understanding of the phenomenon. Fascists
Among Us by Jeff Sparrow is not such a book. It covers the Christchurch mosque
attack but eschews such approaches as pseudo-first-person narrative or lurid
descriptions of events by on-the-scene observers. Rather, it makes an honest
attempt to get into the motivations behind the attack. The most commendable
aspect of this being the rejection of superficial psychological explanations, in
favour of acknowledging the political impetus behind events. For example, Sparrow
argues Brenton Tarrant's manifesto "...expresses-with stark clarity-a distinctive
political program." (p.10). He references the term ‘autogenic' to describe
massacres driven by psychopathology or personal problems but explicitly notes
that the murderer says in his document on the killings that they were "...a
politically motivated terrorist attack" but "...he used them to rewrite the
massacre script, injecting political content into an apolitical form" (p. 73).
Any book with the word ‘Fascist' in the title should not shy away from attempting
a definition of what is a notoriously difficult phenomenon to pin down. Sparrow
tackles this with reference to some of the acknowledged academic experts in the
field such as Paxton, Griffin, and Mosse as well as quotes from Mussolini, Hitler
and Mosley. He is then careful to place Tarrant's own words into the mix, showing
undeniable links to these ideological predecessors.
The author recognises that despite radical sounding elements, it is the
reactionary nature of classical fascism that ultimately defines it. For
anarchists, it is a welcome recognition that one element of this reactionary
politics is its emphasis on the creation of "...an authoritarian regime based on
supposed natural hierarchies" (p.43). Sparrow again places the shooter within
that tradition, condemned by his own words, quoting from his manifesto ‘Diversity
is unequal, hierarchies are certain' (p.13). This highlights two important
points. Firstly, that while others may waver in their opposition to fascism,
anarchists always have been and always will be their most consistent opponents.
Wishing to establish a world of social and economic equality and our implacable
rejection of hierarchies as an organising principle puts us in existential
opposition to fascism in ways that other political movements are not. Secondly,
it shows the bankruptcy of some on the conservative Right who erroneously define
fascism as a Left-wing movement.
Despite the very real continuities with the past, it's also important to look at
the factors that have aided the contemporary fascists. On a macro scale, this has
included the primacy of Islamophobia as a bogeyman that works better as a
motivator than the lingering traditional anti-Semitism. Sparrow spends a chapter
showing how the fuel of US state actions post-9/11 has created an environment
where ‘Islam' "...has become for many an essentialised, almost biological, term"
(p.29). One of Tarrant's obsessions as outlined in his screed was the birthrates
within ‘Islam' being higher than others and the threat, he saw this having to
those he identified with.
Another more recent and obvious influence has been the rhetorical enabling the
Trump administration has had upon the fascists. The writer is careful to show
that despite being odious in his own right, the fascist label doesn't apply to
Trump. In his chapter on this, Sparrow also outlines how different tactical
options were explored that took internet traffic in the direction of street
activism. The culmination being the Fascist riot in Charlottesville in 2017 and
the death of Heather Heyer. In the end, this was a dismal failure for the
fascists and goes some way to explaining the attraction of non-net-based lone
wolf actions rather than internet shitposting, incel whining, or LARPing.
Add to the above an interest in eco-fascism and accelerationism, combined with
personal experiences in both Australia (where fascists targeted Anarchist social
locations) and Europe, and you get some taste of the eclectic toxic political
brew Tarrant created for himself. Sparrow does a good job in outlining all of
this and clearly separates out different strands of thought that do or don't
apply in this case.
In the conclusion, the author criticises sections of the mainstream media who
argued that it was wrong to publish extracts from Tarrant's manifesto. They said
that just mentioning he was radicalised in Europe was enough. Sparrow rightly
takes them to task for this by pointing out "He was ideologically committed to
fascism, a movement that is consistently handed propaganda victories by a mass
media unwilling or incapable of understanding it." (p.116). An excellent point.
It feels necessary to take issue with Sparrow though on a related informational
issue. He chooses early in the book to consistently refer to Tarrant as ‘Person
X'. The two central explanations being that by naming Brenton Tarrant it somehow
diminishes his victims and that since he was anonymous prior to the attack and
that there are others similar to him out there, such a pseudonym makes him
emblematic of future such operators in the future (pp. 4-5). There are a few
problems with this no doubt well-meaning sensitivity. Firstly, this book isn't
about the victims, but the perpetrator. A book that examines the lives of the
victims would be a worthwhile project, but this isn't it. Secondly, by allowing
Tarrant to retain his anonymity it if anything lets him off the hook for personal
responsibility for his actions. Yes, he is a ‘type' but not just an abstraction.
He is a living individual who did something. Thirdly, the excellent analysis
provided describing how Tarrant became Tarrant applies to him. Future fascist
terrorists will not be carbon copies of him, in the same way, that he was
inspired by, but was not a direct copy of others. Fourthly, Sparrow sensibly
adopts the usual journalistic and academic convention of footnoting. Fine except
the writer explicitly names Brenton Tarrant and the title of his manifesto in the
very first footnote of chapter 1 of the book! This undermines the moral high
ground attempted in the explanation of the Introduction and makes ongoing use of
‘Person X' redundant. Also, if Sparrow has no problem mentioning Hitler, who
surely had a far more devastating and lasting impact than Tarrant, the reader
should be able to handle seeing the name of the latter. Lastly, there's a bit of
an air of fundamentalist Christianity to it, as if invoking the name will somehow
empower Satan. Given Sparrow's worthwhile quest to inform, including the
perpetrator's name just would've made more sense.
Jeff Sparrow has done a mostly solid job of showing what (if not who) lay behind
the Christchurch massacre. It's a text that can be recommended to anyone who
wants to understand the political poison of Fascism, how it began, and how it has
morphed across time. For anarchists, it is a reminder that we can never afford to
let others do the work of Anti-fascism for us and must remain eternally vigilant
and active in pursuit of a better world. No Pasaran!
Related Link: https://awsm.nz/?p=8169
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32123
------------------------------
