Today's Topics:
1. ait russia - WE DO NOT MATTER WHAT CLAUSE WILL
FORM THE
GOVERNMENT - IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO LIVE
GOVERNMENT - IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO LIVE
BETTER! [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. [Italy] The recurring myths of the reformist left By ANA
(pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
(pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. die plattform: Freedom for the prisoners in Chile! (ca, de,
en, gr, fr, it, pt, tr) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
en, gr, fr, it, pt, tr) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #311 - Spotlight,
Politics, Federal press release: "Global security " bill : less
freedom, more repression (de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Politics, Federal press release: "Global security " bill : less
freedom, more repression (de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. zabalaza.net: Building Trade Union Democracy as
Prefigurative Politics in South Africa -- SIFUNA ZONKE
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Prefigurative Politics in South Africa -- SIFUNA ZONKE
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Czech, Ostrava Anarchist Federation OAF: People seem
intimidating [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
intimidating [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. die plattform: Statement on the clearing of the Dannenröder
forest! #DanniBleibt (de) [machine translation]
forest! #DanniBleibt (de) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Statement by the Russian Regional Section of the International Workers
Association ---- We demand real freedom of assembly, meetings, strikes, trade
union activity! ---- We demand an end to anti-social policies: a policy of low
wages and a systematic decrease in real incomes of broad strata of the
population, destruction of social guarantees, commercialization of education and
medicine, privatization, constant price increases ... ---- We demand an end to
"economic reforms", from which entrepreneurs, bankers and officials get rich, and
ordinary people get poorer and poorer. All these measures must be canceled
immediately! ---- We demand that the shameful law against "extremism" be
abolished, the arbitrariness of the overt and secret police, small and large
bosses must cease: people need rights, not repression and extortions!Our cities
and villages are for residents, not officials!
We do not need "fair elections" in which "Putinists", liberals, "pseudo-reds" and
"browns" are fighting for who will tear three skins from us. We need a decent life!
We demand:
- raising the level of wages to the average European level
- automatic growth of wages in line with price increases
- 6 hour working day and 5 day working week without reducing earnings
- paid leave for a period of at least 1 month and paid sick leave for all workers
- reduction and freezing of prices for basic goods and services
- prohibition of dismissals without the consent of the labor collective
- free medicine, education, urban transport and housing and communal services
- complete cancellation of the "pension reform" of 2018
Any government that does not accept these demands must leave immediately!
We do not believe that representative democracy, with its elections, presidents,
governments and Dumas, can solve our problems. They have no right to decide and
speak for us. Only with a system of universal self-government and "direct
democracy" at the place of residence, work and study can we all become masters of
our destiny.
Let's take our life into our own hands!
Resistance - Self-Organization - Self-Government!
Russian Section of the International Workers Association
Read on the topic:
Chronicles of a dive "bomber": Tale of the 2011 Duma elections in three parts
with an addition
By admin3 on 12/08/2011 - 10:42 KRAS-MAT protests Russia
https://aitrus.info/node/1800
------------------------------
Message: 2
On November 8, Tlon, a small publisher from the Italian reformist left with some
social media follow-up, published a post in which it launched an attack against
those who, critically analyzing the American elections, do not consider the
victory of the Democrats as a step in towards the magnificent destiny of social
emancipation. ---- In that post, stuck to a four-eyed image of Smurf, those
responsible for the publisher took revenge for what they believe to be the
horrible "leftist defeatism" that "(...) whenever something good happens - see
the rotten, the imperfect and forget everything the most. It is not complexity,
it is inaction. It is a lack of foresight, but it is also a lack of listening. It
is the attitude of an elite that does not ask what the United States really is ".
So let us take this post from the Tlon publishing house, which caused a certain
stir in the circles of left-wing social networks, as a starting point for some
general reflections.
It is not uncommon for those who critically look at anarchism to try to be
challenged by reformist leftists with such arguments. Let us start with some
basic questions: it is not just us anarchists who are demanding, the usual
extremists who are never satisfied, to criticize, by words and actions, the
Democratic Party's model of government. There have been tides of people taking to
the streets during these months of fire in cities governed by the Democratic
Party in the United States. There were those who were shot with flash grenades by
the Obama federal police during the Standing Rock protests. There is an American
revolutionary unionism.
Naturally, part of this diverse movement called Black Lives Matter tactically
voted in favor of the Biden-Harris duo, identifying Trump as an enemy to be
removed from the field as soon as possible. However, a substantial part stayed
away from research: some by tactical choice, others by strategic choice, others
by instinctive rejection. Almost nobody did it to sit in his chair and make
judgments. This consideration would be enough to take Tlon's allegedly smart
publication and file it under the label "nonsense". However, we are not easily
satisfied people and, as previously announced, we would like to make some more
general observations.
Did Biden-Harris propose to withdraw American troops stationed in Europe? There
is no evidence. So we can imagine that they will remain here, as will the large
air bases in northern Italy, a prime target for a beautiful atomic warhead in the
event of a major conflict, as well as those large areas of Sardinia transformed
into military polygons for the benefit of NATO ( this would still be the case
even without the USA and NATO: the glorious Italian army is sufficient and
capable of causing environmental damage). At most, there will be a reduction of
certain military presences in favor of the Eastern theater: nothing that the
Trump administration was not doing, but nothing incisive and, in any case, it is
about moving military presences, not eliminating them.
But let's go back to the United States. Kamala Harris, a character for whom a
large part of the reformist left, from Tlon to Il Manifesto, went into ecstasy,
has a series of past events worth mentioning:
- she voted to cut funding for access to abortion;[1]
- did little or nothing against the private prison business in California, where
she practiced law and was a prosecutor;[two]
- strongly wanted a law that would allow the arrest of parents of absent children
"without a valid excuse" on more than ten percent of school days:[3]a law that
discriminates against single-parent and lower-class families. This is a perfect
example of the "criminalization of society" process that states like California
were forced to go through;
- opposed the abolition of the three strikes law;[4]
- personally was committed to strictly enforcing the "War on Drugs", harshly
attacking the African American community;[5]
- ensured that transgender prisoners remain or end up in male prisons;
- her actions as a public prosecutor, marked by minor events and with few
implications, such as trying to execute an innocent man, even attracted the ire
of an editorial in the New York Times, a newspaper that is not entirely opposed
to the political arena to which Harris belongs;
- she was also in favor of all possible military interventions.
In short, you don't even have to be anti-election revolutionaries to realize that
Kamala Harris is a representative of that system of structural oppression by
which millions of human lives are destroyed. In fact: even without being great
critics of the State and Capital, it can be said, in all honesty and without
fear, that there are no arguments to prove us wrong and that Kamala Harris is
humanly disgusted with what is evidently wrong with us. USA.
Now, one can ask whether the entire policy area that joined the chorus of praise
for the future Vice President of the United States is aware of all these issues.
Our hypothesis is that they are not completely aware of them, but that even if
they knew about them, they would get them out of their consciousness. They could
have been as moved by Kamala Harris as they were twelve years ago by Obama.
Tomorrow they will be excited about the premiere of some other country. They will
have more or less lasting loves: Justin Trudeau or Jacinda Ardern. Their
conscience will be firm, strong and clear.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of American ghettos will continue to end up in prison
for deliberately invented crimes, Iraqis, Afghans or whoever continues to be
bombed, the exploited will continue to be exploited and the exploiters will
continue to exploit. But the ruling class executive committee will have a black
woman as deputy chief, and good emotions will triumph. In short, nothing new
under the sun.
Lorcon
Grades:
[1]https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/06/06/guess-who-else-voted-against-federal-funding-for-abortion-443667
[2]https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/08/29/mercury-news-editorial-kamala-harris-needs-to-tackle-prison-standoff/
[3]https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-arrests-2020-progressive-prosecutor_n_5c995789e4b0f7bfa1b57d2e?guccounter=1
[4]https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/reforming-three-strikes/tnamp/
[5]https://afropunk.com/2019/01/kamala-harris-has-been-tough-on-black-people-not-crime/
[6]https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/05/05/harris-renews-effort-to-block-gender-reassignment-for-trans-inmate/
[7]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
Source: https://umanitanova.org/?p=13160
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
Today we have published another international declaration together with many
friendly class struggle anarchist organizations from all over the world. The
reason for this is the current struggle in Chile for the release of the people
arrested during the social revolt. ---- This social revolt began a good year ago,
in October 2019, with the determined protests and direct actions of young people
against the increase in bus and metropolitan prices in the capital Santiago. The
protests spread like wildfire to large parts of the oppressed class and many
regions of the country. Millions took the streets to stand up for a dignified
life and resisted a brutal police apparatus that tortured, raped and murdered
dozens of people over the course of a few weeks. Thousands of people were also
arrested during these weeks and locked in the dark prisons of the Chilean state.
Many of them are still in custody a year later, when the people have not stopped
fighting, often in appalling conditions.
With our declaration we support the demand for the immediate release of all
political prisoners. Resistance to this inhuman system is justified, anywhere,
anytime.
Down with class justice all over the world! Long live unlimited solidarity!
“That our companions do not feel alone, the people with whom they shared joys and
sorrows, failures and victories, are with them more than ever, fighting with
stubborn fervor. Feeling more love and hate every day. That love, and hate with
which, together, we will change the world of bases”. (Juan C. Mechoso – Acción
Directa Anarquista: Una Historia de FAU)
1.
More than a year has passed since the struggle overflowed the streets of
different cities in the territory dominated by the State of Chile. And since that
October, the peoples have maintained the cope without rest. Despite the
repression, the pandemic, and hunger, the will to organize and fight flourishes.
We are in times of fight and resistance in territories around the world, from the
indigenous people in Ecuador to the proletarians in France. The peoples rise
against the system of domination.
That is why internationalism, that old practice of the oppressed class, becomes
urgent. The word and the action of solidarity is a constitutive principle of
these fights. It is what leads it to project on a horizon of emancipation.
2.
With the inherent difficulties of living, the fight communities using barricades,
pots and pans, and self-defense, have exercised resistance in the territory
dominated by the State of Chile. This has responded with bloody repression,
wounded are thousands, maimed are hundreds, tens of dead, and thousands of
prisoners. All this carried out by his henchmen defend their class interests,
attacking our precarious lives, bodies, and territories.
Not only bullets and tear gas have been used against our class, but also severe
repressive laws, which with the support of social democracy have been concretized
in the “Anti-Barricades Law”, in the “modernization” of repressive State
apparatuses such as the National Agency for Intelligence (ANI) by giving it new
infrastructure to Special Forces in order to develop their state terrorism.
This repression, as is known, falls only on our class, since when war weapons and
combat equipment for the State have been discovered in armed groups of the ruling
class, they are considered only utensils. While breaking a showcase of a bank is
terrorism for the State and, they can keep you kidnapped for years for such
action. Today for us, to go out with a spoon and a pan in our hands or a sign
shouting for social rights is a danger. We can go to jail because of that. Prison
is a class issue.
3.
Currently, there are almost 2,500 colleagues subjected to brutal judicial
processes, processes that have dragged on for more than a year, keeping thousands
behind bars, without any sentence, using “pretrial detention” as legal derision
for those who have fought alongside their class in this year of the social
outbreak. On the other hand, the few convicted face brutal sentences, between 11
and 20 years due to speculations of a prosecutor’s office which with the
intention of revenge intends to punish those who have challenged the system of
domination, for those who have dared to question the mercantilism and
precariousness of our lives.
As if the above were not enough, the prisoners of the social outbreak have been
kept in isolation, torturing them in their daily lives, preventing visits, or any
other prison benefit.
4.
We make a call for active solidarity, to put our minds and our bodies for the
freedom of our prisoners, to organize days of protest in all the territories in a
fight to achieve a GENERAL AMNESTY AND WITHOUT CONDITIONS. Whoever forgets the
prisoners forgets the struggle. Therefore, achieving their freedom is imperative
for the communities that are struggling. We call to strengthen popular
organizations, to take the freedom flag from our comrades, to take part
concretely in the various activities and days of protest that are being raised.
5.
Finally, the reality of the political prisoners was not born on October 18, but
it is a situation that has existed for decades. Historically, the State has
sought to punish those who have fought for the breakdown of class society. For
this reason, we also show solidarity with the Mapuche p
? Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira - CAB (Brasilien)
? Federación Anarquista Uruguaya - FAU (Uruguay)
? Federación Anarquista de Rosario - FAR (Argentinien)
? Organización Anarquista de Córdoba - OAC (Argentinien)
? Federación Anarquista Santiago - FAS (Chile)
? Grupo Libertario Vía Libre (Kolumbien)
? Union Communiste Libertaire (Frankreich)
? Embat - Organització Libertària de Catalunya (Katalonien)
? Alternativa Libertaria - AL/fdca (Italien)
? Die Plattform - Anarchakommunistische Organisation
? Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet - DAF (Türkei)
? Organisation Socialiste Libertaire - OSL (Schweiz)
? Libertäre Aktion (Bern/Schweiz)
? Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group - MACG (Australien)
? Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement - AWSM (Aotearoa / Neuseeland)
? Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front - ZACF (Südafrika)
? Federation of Anarchism Era (Afghanistan/Iran)
? Workers Solidarity Movement - WSM (Irland)
? Anarchist Communist Group - ACG (Großbritannien)
? Anarchist Federation (Griechenland)
? Tekosina Anarsist - TA, (Rojava - Nordost-Syrien)
? Organizacion Anarquista
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/12/09/freiheit-fuer-die-gefangenen-in-chile-de-eng-esp/#more-1641
------------------------------
Message: 4
For several years, the freedom-killing laws have multiplied[2]. Last September,
the Ministry of the Interior presented its new law enforcement plan which
provides for new freedom-killing measures under the pretext of protecting
demonstrators. The "comprehensive security " billtabled on October 20 continues
this process. The government confirms its authoritarian will to offer the police
all the impunity it wishes to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie by relying
in particular on the mass surveillance of the population. ---- The bill under
discussion is dangerous and must be fought for what it establishes. ---
Generalized coping. --- The risks of breaches of privacy are numerous: Articles
20 and 21 provide for authorizing municipal police officers and agents of the
city of Paris in charge of a police department to access the images recorded by
from video surveillance cameras, to recordings from individual cameras as well as
the possibility of real-time transmission of these images to the cops.
Increased surveillance from the air
Article 22 of the proposed law allows the use of drones with an on-board camera
as a surveillance tool, particularly during demonstrations. Their use will
facilitate the identification of individuals and the massive collection of
personal data.
A desire to make police violence invisible
Article 24 creates a new offense relating to the dissemination, by any means
whatsoever, of images of the police, "with the aim of harming[their]physical or
mental integrity". Article 23, for its part, aims to exclude from the benefit of
reduced sentences the perpetrators of certain offenses "committed to the
prejudice of a person invested with a public elective mandate, of a soldier of
the national gendarmerie, of a civil servant. the national police or a
professional or voluntary firefighter".These offenses which would lose the
benefit of reduced sentences correspond to attacks on life, physical integrity
and threats and acts of intimidation and therefore also the dissemination of
images of police officers. New offense therefore, and aggravated penalties.
Marche des Libertes, Paris, November 28, 2020. A protester carries a sign on
which she wrote: Global surveillance law.
cc Red Photo Library / Martin Noda / Hans Lucas
Institutional racism still active
Article 10 provides for the addition of a minimum five-year residence permit for
foreign nationals for the issue of professional cards for private security agents.
Faced with these serious attacks on individual and collective freedoms, the
initiative initiated by the Quadrature du net and supported by dozens of
associations and collectives[1]is laudable but the only questioning of the
deputies appears to us well below the current issues. Other organizations such as
Amnesty International, LDH and journalists' unions have launched campaigns to
denounce this bill.
Faced with these serious abuses that threaten activists but also everyone, we
must act. We call for initiatives to demand the abandonment of the "Global
Security" billand we make this proposal to all the forces of the social movement.
Libertarian Communist Union November 14, 2020
Validate
[1] 55 organizations against "global security" , La Quadrature du net, November
12, 2020
[2] 2001- law on daily security, 2003 - law on internal security, 2006 - law on
the fight against terrorism, 2015 to 2017 - state of emergency, 2016 - secure
electronic securities, 2017 - anti-terrorism law which establishes a permanent
state of emergency
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Communique-federal-Projet-de-loi-securite-globale-moins-de-liberte-plus-de-8897
------------------------------
Message: 5
In examining the possibilities for politics within and at a distance from the
state, it is important to revisit the democratic traditions of the working class,
which are often learned through struggles and strikes - and which were
exemplified by the new unions of the 1970s and 1980s. Not much of this
alternative tradition of democracy outside the state has been captured in
official histories, which present the attainment of democracy in terms of the
formation of a parliamentary government in 1994. ---- There is a larger problem
here of how the working-class heritage - the intellectual and organisational and
political traditions of labour and the left - has been side-lined in media,
textbooks, monuments and narratives; this also involves a narrowing of our
political imagination, with our view of "democracy" itself narrowed dramatically.
There has been a focus on elections and political parties and electoral politics.
This reflects and reinforces a view that assumes a separation of the political -
basically left to the state and the parties - and the economic - issues like wage
negotiations are left to unions, and union involvement in politics is
increasingly reduced to lobbying political parties.
One effect is that unions - which have almost four million members, considerably
more than the audited membership of the big three parties combined - are
presented as bit players, with the drama centred on the parties and the
politicians. The other effect is that we tend not to learn from, and remember,
the rich political traditions of the working class, both in communities and in
trade unions.
There are many examples, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, of unions and other
forces developing radically democratic, bottom-up movements, outside of the
state. For example, the most radical and innovative strands of the anti-apartheid
coalition, the United Democratic Front, developed into systems of direct
self-government - "people's power" - in places like Cradock and Alexandra. The
Young Christian Workers' movement, which was actively involved in the new unions
of the 1970s, stressed the importance of a strong moral code and an accountable
organising style, on the basis of See-Judge-Act.
In both cases, bottom-up democracy at a distance from the state was not just a
method of organising for other goals - ending apartheid, improving wages etc. -
but an aim of empowering the oppressed, giving control over daily life, and
creating a new human community.
A third example is provided by the "workers' control" and "workerist" traditions
of the new unions, which I will explore below. Let me stress here that all of
these examples had serious limitations, and, in revisiting them, I am not
suggesting that they were perfect and can be mechanically applied. We do need to
learn the lessons of their failings, but, at the same time, we also need to learn
from their successes. This, I think, provides a powerful way of engaging
contemporary challenges. We do not have to reinvent the wheel.
Focus: the "Workers' Control" and "Workerist" Traditions from the 1970s
An important example of imaginations of an alternative society and different
practices was the "workers' control" tradition of the Trade Union Advisory
Coordinating Council (TUACC), which was formed in 1973 to unite some of the new
unions.
There was a long history of unions in South Africa-unions were started more than
150 years ago - and of black-based unions, but black workers were victims of both
class exploitation and racist oppression. With colonial capitalism and apartheid,
there was systematic, institutional and legal discrimination against black
workers, especially black Africans. For example, the 1924 Industrial Conciliation
Act, which for the first time provided real union rights in South Africa,
excluded black Africans. The 1951 revision of this law banned "mixed" unions and
laid the ground for making black African strikes illegal across the board.
Generally, before the 1970s, unions in South Africa were racially fragmented,
mainly based among whites, coloureds and Indians, organisationally weak and based
among a small part of the workforce. The 1960s were noted as a "decade of
darkness," in the words of Baskin,[1]with union decline and the apartheid state
crushing opposition.
The "Workers Control" Tradition and the TUACC
This changed in the 1970s with the rise of new unions, which changed the
landscape forever. The new unions were not just a revival of the old, and were
not just considerably larger - the biggest black-based union federation in the
mid-1950s, the SA Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) was less than 60,000 in total,
the new unions reached one million in the mid-1980s - but also involved new modes
of organisation.
First, there was a mass strike wave in 1973-1974. Running alongside this was a
new worker-focused infrastructure: the Urban Training Project, the Industrial Aid
Society, the Western Cape Province Workers Advice Bureau, and the General Factory
Workers Benefit Fund. This last-named was not an NGO, but a worker-run,
worker-funded funeral scheme that also funded worker education and the new unions.
Then there were new unions, some founded in 1973, joined by some of the
established mainly Coloured unions, especially in the Cape. Then there were new
federations, notably the TUACC.
TUACC's critical contributions to the movement were the ideas, first, of
"building tomorrow today," meaning that how we organise today shapes the future
we can win (so, for a democratic future, build a democratic workers movement);
and, second, a stress on "workers' control," which meant strong, non-racial,
independent, democratic shop-floor-based unions centred on assemblies and shop
stewards.What this also meant is that unions should not be controlled by
political parties or by the government.
We can summarise this as follows:
Coherent organisational strategy: unions would build factory-to-factory,
targeting winnable battles.
A "tight federation": this meant joint policies and shared resources across the
federation.
"Open" unions: the TUACC unions rejected apartheid laws that racially segregated
unions, and racist measures; it redefined unions to lay the basis for (prefigure)
a non-racial, common future. In the Eastern Cape, this included bridging the
divide between black African and Coloured workers, for example.
Industrial unions: unite workers across industry and South Africa, regardless of
skill, job, colour, belief or gender or language.
Shop-floor democracy: this meant democracy from the bottom-up, with ordinary
workers in control of all parts of the unions, based on elected and recallable
representatives that dominate decision-making at all levels of the union, and no
voting rights for hired officials, who also would get standard workers' wages.
Prioritising worker education: unions would control their education programmes,
stressing the value of both technical skills - like negotiating - and of a
broader understanding of society - allowing people to understand the problems,
and decide on solutions.
The "Workerist" Tradition of FOSATU
This "workers' control" idea, created in great part from below by TUACC workers,
was expanded in the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), which was
formed 1979 in large part by TUACC. In FOSATU, the idea of "workers' control"
developed into a project to build a larger "working class movement" at the centre
of the struggle.According its general-secretary Joe Foster in a famed
1981 speech that movement would:[2]
Challenge apartheid and capitalism at the same time, rather than defer socialism
to a later stage, after majority rule.
Challenge apartheid and capitalism with a single movement, where unions would
undertake both political and economic struggles, rather than outsource one to a
party.
Build class consciousness, rejecting nationalist multi-class alliances - FOSATU
looked north, and saw a pattern of nationalist parties like ZANU in Zimbabwe
suppressing or capturing unions after majority rule.
The larger "working class movement" would include community-based struggles,
co-operatives and a socialist media.
Meanwhile, FOSATU retained key TUACC positions, like control via assemblies and
shop-stewards, a tight federation, non-racialism, and struggle.
This FOSATU approach was labelled "workerism" by its critics, and was rejected by
the ANC and SACP, who were then labelled the "populists" by their critics. The
workerist-populist debate would continue in the early years of the Congress of
South African Trade Unions (COSATU), formed 1985 at the initiative of FOSATU and
uniting many unions, including from outside FOSATU, into a giant.
So, for "workerism," unions were to be the centre of a larger "working-class"
movement that would challenge both apartheid and capitalism, and lay the basis
for a radically democratic South Africa.
The ideas were as follows:[3]
Workers' control of unions would be expanded into workers' (and working class)
control more widely, including the economy and production, and democratising society.
Workers' control over "reproduction" would also be attempted - i.e. organising in
the neighbourhoods - which was expressed in activities of FOSATU veterans like
Moses Mayekiso. Mayekiso organised street and block committees in Alexandra
township, modelled on the unions' assemblies and shop-steward structure.
A "working class movement" that could fight for both socialism and national
liberation on its own terms - a worker-led national liberation -that rejected the
idea that nationalism is the only form of national liberation. It rejected the
idea that there was a separation between class straggle and the struggle against
apartheid, since the working class needed to make national liberation serve its
own interests.
It was socialist (anti-capitalist and anti-apartheid), but sceptical of the ANC
and SACP.
It stressed building a working-class counter-culture - including education,
history, songs, poetry and theatre - to develop a radical socialist and class
consciousness.
At a Distance from the State?
What this meant was that unions would be political, but autonomous of parties.
Politics would involve debate and learning through practice and struggle. Workers
would make their own political decisions, rather than just carry out decisions
taken somewhere else, which would be undemocratic, and which could lead unions
into battles they did not need and could not win.
So, the new unions of TUACC and FOSATU aimed at reforms in the workplace that would:
Win tangible improvements for members.
Build confidence.
Take place bottom-up: winnable demands and measurable day-to-day victories within
a few targeted workplaces were to be won in ways that strengthened workplace
organisation and rank-and-file participation.
At the same time, the TUACC and FOSATU unions accepted tactical engagement with
the state and law. While the apartheid state was obviously oppressive, they
argued that democratic organisations such as unions could pressure the state to
make concessions, without being co-opted. They could even use state systems -
such as labour law, industrial councils, and courts - so long as
checks-and-balances were in place and this did not change the unions' focus on
struggle. For example, in the so-called "registration debate," FOSATU chose to
register with the state for the purposes of using labour laws, but refused to
register until certain demands were met - the removal of restrictions on migrant
workers, for example - and so long as the unions did not become part of the state.
Rather than building completely outside and against the state in pursuit of the
new society, some workerists clearly envisaged some social change occurring from
within the institutions of the state, through participation and engagement in
these structures. In this, they helped lay the basis for the idea that a gradual
series of ongoing reforms within and through the capitalist state could
cumulatively change society.
One child of this approach was the "radical reform" of the 1990s COSATU unions,
which is discussed in Chapter 4.3. (See the book Strategy: Debating Politics
Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien van der Walt)
Decline: why so Fragile?
What happened to these traditions? At one level, they left a real imprint on
COSATU. For example, COSATU adopted the principles of a tight federation,
workers' control, and unions playing a political role. We can even see some of
the roots of "radical reform" thinking in FOSATU.
In the early period of COSATU, too, the "workerist" stress on remaining political
but outside of party alliances also stayed in place. The first COSATU congress in
fact resolved in 1985 that the new federation would play an active political
role, but "not affiliate to any political tendency or organisation."[4]
However, within two years the federation had openly aligned with ANC, and even in
1985, its leadership included many ANC supporters, while the name "Congress"
itself identified the federation with ANC and SACTU. In 1990, it formally allied
with the ANC and SACP, which persists to this day, a decision backed even by
former "workerist" unions, like the National Union of Metalworkers of South
Africa (NUMSA).
We can blame repression, but the "workerists" also had significant political
weaknesses. They did not have a strategy linking their immediate struggles to the
longer-term socialist transformation that they sought. Their ideas were not
always clear, and this led to some serious misjudgements.[5]
There was an ongoing, unresolved tension between more social democratic and more
quasisyndicalist strands within "workerism." The first-named was expressed in the
idea of ongoing reforms leading to socialism through the state (see above); the
second-named pushed for more complete autonomy from the state, and more direct
efforts by the workers themselves to take direct power in factories and
townships. This tension between a social democratic focus on tactical use of the
state, and quasi-syndicalist emphasis on autonomous counter-power, was not even
addressed openly. A heavy stress on practical issues and a dismissal of what were
labelled by some as "armchair theorising" meant that theoretical reflection was
neglected; meanwhile the "workerists" did not organise within FOSATU as a
coherent political group, which created more problems.
That said, these ideas are worth revisiting - to understand where we come from,
and to judge where we are now. There are no easy answers.
Footnotes:
Baskin, J. 1991. Striking Back: A history of COSATU. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Foster, J. 1982. "The Workers' Struggle: Where does FOSATU stand?" reprinted in
Review of African Political Economy, Vol 9 (24): 99-114. See Byrne, S. and N.
Ulrich. 2016. "Prefiguring Democratic Revolution? ‘Workers' control' and
‘workerist' traditions of radical South African labour, 1970-1985." Journal of
Contemporary African Studies, Vol 34 (3): 368-387.
Byrne, S., N. Ulrich and L. van der Walt. 2017. "Red, Black and Gold: FOSATU,
South African ‘workerism', ‘syndicalism' and the nation." In Webster. E. and K.
Pampallis. (eds.). Hidden Voices: The unresolved national question in left
thinking in South Africa under apartheid. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions). 1985. Minutes of COSATU
Inaugural Congress held at the University of Natal from 29 November-1 December
1985, AH2373,Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Papers, 1984-1997,
5.1,annexure I: 5. Held at Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand.
Byrne et al, "Red, Black and Gold."
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and
at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien van der Walt published
by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda,
South Africa.
This pamphlet can be downloaded in PDF format from Zabalaza Books here.
Front cover graphic: Workers meet during the Firestone Strike, August 1983. Photo
by Paul Weinberg, Taffy Adler Papers
Source: ‘The future is in the hands of the workers': A History of FOSATU by
Michelle Friedman
https://zabalaza.net/2020/12/07/building-trade-union-democracy-as-prefigurative-politics-in-south-africa/#more-6474
------------------------------
Message: 6
We have prepared an interview with journalist Petra Dvoráková, who brings a
personal view of Polish protests against the ultra-conservative government. ----
You personally took part in Polish anti-government protests, to which the
government reacts with contemptuous arrogance. What impressions did you get from
that? ---- Unfortunately, I did not make it to the biggest demonstration on 31
October. At that time, about a hundred thousand people marched through the
streets of Warsaw, and about half a million of them protested in cities all over
Poland. ---- Protests continue to take place almost every day. Families with
children go to protest walks in the park every Sunday, Opposition grandmothers
protest again on Thursdays, and autonomous left groups organize solidarity
demonstrations in support of detained protesters.
People who continue to take to the streets seem unstoppable and intimidating.
Their anger at the ultra-conservative government, which is incapable of the
slightest self-reflection and, on the contrary, intensifies, is too great to be
stopped by police repression, a pandemic or the December frost.
Although the protests are significantly smaller than in the first days of the
Constitutional Court's verdict, it seems unlikely that they could soon cease. And
the fact that not enough people are protesting in the streets to talk about a
real revolution does not mean that the public mood is not turning against the
government. Posters with red lightning, a symbol of the All-Poland Women's Strike
movement, are affixed to the protests in the shop windows of many cafes and
shops, and people wear lightning veils or canvas bags in rainbow colors to
support the LGBT minority. Cars passing by protests in support of the movement
are cheerfully honking, some of them playing aloud a protest cover version of the
hit Call on me.
For the first time since 1989, the Straik Kobiet initiative has been able to
mobilize women against patriarchal oppression and organize a women's strike
throughout the country. How did it actually work and how was it organized?
I don't know much about the strike that took place before my arrival. But it was
not the first, strikes were organized in 2016 during the so-called black protests.
Do more radical or liberal voices predominate among Straik kobiet supporters?
According to surveys, protests are generally supported by seventy percent of
Polish society - including some of those who voted for PiS in previous elections.
While at the protests in Zyrardow, 40,000, protesters told me who they voted for
that they did not remember, in Warsaw the streets are mostly left-wing voters.
Autonomous radical left-wing groups are also strongly represented at the protests
in Warsaw, and they manage to take their thoughts and slogans to the streets. For
example, people chant in unison that the fascists and the police are one
coalition - which is not surprising given the behavior of police officers towards
demonstrators. What is happening in the street is permeating a strong sense of
mutual solidarity: the protesters are calling for radical solidarity and radical
empathy.
The Strajk kobiet movement itself is then bold in its demands for Polish
conditions - for example, it does not only want to withdraw the verdict of the
Constitutional Court, but free legal abortions within twelve weeks without the
need to give a reason. But against the liberalization of abortion - which is not
a radical idea, but a simple demand for respect for women's reproductive rights -
is not only the Government of Law and Justice, but also the largest opposition
party, the Civic Platform. Although it expresses cautious support for the
protests, it calls for an investigation into police violence against
demonstrators, but it is conservative on socio-cultural issues. And it is she who
benefits from the protests, her support is already rising slightly at the expense
of PiS.
It is true that the protests are supported by a wide-ranging public, almost
everyone except the ultra-Catholic hardcore electoral core of the Law and Justice
party. But not everyone supports the demands of the movement, they are really
perceived by radical society as radical - even though they are the standard in
the rest of Europe. At the same time, however, it is necessary to keep in mind
that even as a result of the current protests, the nature of society is changing,
opening up. No other European country is facing such a rapid decline in believers
as Poland. The young generation of the freedom-seeking generation is taking the
floor, and it is becoming increasingly clear that politicians are more
conservative than society.
The law on abortions passed due to the fact that the ruling party PiS installed
its own people in the constitutional court. Is it even possible to respect the
Constitutional Court under such conditions?
The abortion law has not yet passed. In response to the initiative of deputies of
the ruling Law and Justice party, the Constitutional Court only declared a
verdict, according to which abortion due to fetal damage is in conflict with the
Polish constitution. The verdicts of the Constitutional Court are to be published
within two weeks of their promulgation - only after their publication do they
come into force. At the same time, the legislation is to be adapted to the
published verdict.
However, the verdict on abortion has not yet been published. Its publication has
been postponed because the government is trying to find a consensus - there is no
consensus on how much abortion should be limited. At the same time, it seems
likely that the protests will continue to develop.
Moreover, as you suggest, some lawyers question the validity of a verdict that
was supposed to satisfy a political order with reference to the politicization of
the Constitutional Court. Moreover, its justification is not yet known - it will
probably be published only with the verdict.
Police against Straik Kobiet hardened against the activists. How do you think the
situation will develop?
It has been two weeks since the police confirmed the crackdown and did not deter
the protesters from protesting - on the contrary, they are trying to adapt to the
situation. He wears a written number of the anti-repressive department of the
Strike Kobiet on his arm, he goes to demonstrations equipped with ski goggles in
case the police use tear gas or hot tea in case they harden on the street for a
long time, because the police cordon blocks them and does not let them go for an
hour or two end of the demonstration home. As I wrote above, the protests do not
seem to have subsided, although they have diminished, although there are those
who remain at home in fear of police repression.
However, although Strajk Kobiet demands, among other things, the resignation of
the government, even though his leader speaks of a "revolution" and inspiration
from Belarus, I do not expect a revolution in the true sense of the word.
However, the demonstrations, the turning point in the public debate, the
declining support of the government and the church are, of course, creating
increasing pressure on the governing coalition, which has been divided since the
September disagreement over the animal protection law. I therefore hope that the
government will fall apart on its own due to internal contradictions. I prefer
not to think about what she could still do, given that the next elections will
take place in three years' time.
What is happening now, however, is already influencing the thinking of Polish
society. Dogmas are falling, the church is being publicly ridiculed, women's
rights, the LGBT minority and sex education are being talked about. How far the
government has gone, paradoxically, as a result, has kicked Polish society into
an open call for progressive values, progressive politics. Many of the people I
spoke to agreed that this was the beginning of the end of the Law and Justice
party anyway.
Due to the fact that I intend to stay in Poland for a while longer, then I can
recommend watching the Diary Referendum for those interested in news from Poland.
For example, I am going to report on abortion or the LGBT minority, and of course
I will continue to monitor protests and political events.
How is the cooperation between Czech and Polish feminists and feminists?
In October, the Ciocio Czesia initiative was established by Poles living in the
Czech Republic, which wants to help Poles determined to end their pregnancies to
have an abortion in the Czech Republic. Solidarity demonstrations took place in
front of the Polish embassy in Prague. I don't know more about Czech-Polish
cooperation.
https://oafed.noblogs.org/post/2020/12/06/lide-se-zdaji-nezastrasitelni/
------------------------------
Message: 7
In the last few days, our Climate Action Committee has drawn up another statement
on the occasion of the preliminary end of the clearance work in the Dannenröder
Forest. In the text, they discuss possible future developments in the struggle
against the construction of the A49 motorway and show the prospects for the
climate movement arising from the past months of the Danni occupation. Last but
not least, the text explains why parties like the Greens, but also the so-called
"climate list", which has recently started to overtake the Greens as an
"eco-party", are not part of the solution, but part of the problem why only
self-organization from below shows a way out of the climate crisis.
We look forward to your sharing the text in your local climate groups and we look
forward to your feedback! Have fun while reading!
Click here for the text:
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/12/11/das-letzte-baumhaus-ist-geraeumt-doch-der-kampf-geht-weiter-danni/
The last tree house has been cleared ...
... but the fight continues!
A path of devastation runs through the Dannenröder forest. There are now only a
handful of trees left where the state will soon have truckloaded building
materials to build the A49 motorway and bury the dreams and hopes of thousands of
people under tons of asphalt. Neither the Gigapod in the line-up of "Nirgendwo",
nor the mass actions of the end of the terrain could change anything in the end.
The forest has been cleared, the route cleared. How now?
An eviction is not the end
The road is expected to be completed in 2024 and that this date is not realistic
seems to be clear to everyone. The A49 as a symbol of German auto capitalism will
only be built against resistance in the next few years. Construction
interruptions due to blockades and acts of sabotage will hopefully not be
uncommon, but will be a habit for a state that has hectares of healthy forest
felled for profit.
For this specific struggle we will have to acquire new skills or spread old ones,
but no matter what, we remain the weeds that keep popping up and breaking the
asphalt.
But what could this look like? Massive "digger diving", that is, occupying
excavators and stopping the construction work with lock-ons or wandering hut
villages as with the A33 20 years ago, provide opportunities for the fight to
continue. Or will everything turn out very differently? Little seems certain
these days ...
To carry the resistance to many places
But there is one thing that everyone who fought in and for Danni knows very well:
The seeds of resistance not only spread around the forest, but have flown much
further. Hundreds of activists have learned to climb, build tree houses and
platforms and have lived a utopia. This potential for living resistance hitting
the destructive machinery of state and capitalism will not simply go away. The
militant climate movement that has bravely stood in the way of the helmeted
hundreds in the last weeks of the evacuation will not disappear. Instead, this
movement will pick up the struggle at other times, in other places with the same
determination.
A look at the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan shows that this is sorely
needed: by 2030, over 800km of this outdated mobility infrastructure are to be
built in Germany, but numerous individuals and groups have already taken a stand.
Joint alliances against ecocide, the climate crisis, state (transport) policy and
capital interests from radical climate groups, anarchists and local residents
seem to be within reach in many places. The resistance in Danni has shown that it
is possible to build bridges of solidarity in struggle between different parts of
the wage-dependent class if the people involved pursue the same concrete goal.
The resistance in Danni has shown what enormous power human self-organization can
develop. This resistance, We have to carry this self-organization from below into
local initiatives across the country. The state can perhaps cart a few thousand
police officers into a forest for a few weeks so that they can cut people
together for its own interests. But can he still do that when there are five
forests at the same time? Or 10? Or 20?
Our self-organization saves forests and the climate - political parties destroy them
What was clear to us as anarchists long before the fight for the Danni has been
made more than clear to many of our fellow fighters in the last weeks of the
resistance: If we give up the power to determine our lives and put them in the
hands of parties and we shall lose. Because no matter which party and no matter
what it is called and what color it is, we cannot rely on any of them. Regardless
of whether the Greens, who sent brutal hundreds into the forest, leaving behind
serious injuries and destruction, or some alleged "climateists", they all have to
submit to the capitalist game once they have made it to power. We cannot and
should not hope for salvation from them.
Instead, the power to save the climate rests in our hands; only we can make it,
but only if we organize ourselves and offer resistance in broad movements against
the capitalist system and the state that protects it!
As anarchists and anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists, it is now our task to
become even more active in these movements and to spread ideas and practices in
the fight against man-made climate change that advance the movements and thus
also us.
The time to wait is over, we can no longer do things by halves and compromises.
So let's organize and fight with the people of our class!
In the fight against the eviction we may have suffered a defeat on Tuesday, but
to say it with the broken pieces: "Every battle we lose means our next victory!"
That was not the end, but the beginning: Let's keep fighting - for climate
justice and against the state and capitalism!
Climate Action Committee
Also exciting: Our podcast in conversation with an occupier from the Dannenröder
forest!:
Gespräch mit Besetzer aus dem Dannenröder Wald (Podcast)
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/12/10/1645/
dieplattform.org/2020/12/11/das-letzte-baumhaus-ist-geraeumt-doch-der-kampf-geht-weiter-danni/
------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Statement by the Russian Regional Section of the International Workers
Association ---- We demand real freedom of assembly, meetings, strikes, trade
union activity! ---- We demand an end to anti-social policies: a policy of low
wages and a systematic decrease in real incomes of broad strata of the
population, destruction of social guarantees, commercialization of education and
medicine, privatization, constant price increases ... ---- We demand an end to
"economic reforms", from which entrepreneurs, bankers and officials get rich, and
ordinary people get poorer and poorer. All these measures must be canceled
immediately! ---- We demand that the shameful law against "extremism" be
abolished, the arbitrariness of the overt and secret police, small and large
bosses must cease: people need rights, not repression and extortions!Our cities
and villages are for residents, not officials!
We do not need "fair elections" in which "Putinists", liberals, "pseudo-reds" and
"browns" are fighting for who will tear three skins from us. We need a decent life!
We demand:
- raising the level of wages to the average European level
- automatic growth of wages in line with price increases
- 6 hour working day and 5 day working week without reducing earnings
- paid leave for a period of at least 1 month and paid sick leave for all workers
- reduction and freezing of prices for basic goods and services
- prohibition of dismissals without the consent of the labor collective
- free medicine, education, urban transport and housing and communal services
- complete cancellation of the "pension reform" of 2018
Any government that does not accept these demands must leave immediately!
We do not believe that representative democracy, with its elections, presidents,
governments and Dumas, can solve our problems. They have no right to decide and
speak for us. Only with a system of universal self-government and "direct
democracy" at the place of residence, work and study can we all become masters of
our destiny.
Let's take our life into our own hands!
Resistance - Self-Organization - Self-Government!
Russian Section of the International Workers Association
Read on the topic:
Chronicles of a dive "bomber": Tale of the 2011 Duma elections in three parts
with an addition
By admin3 on 12/08/2011 - 10:42 KRAS-MAT protests Russia
https://aitrus.info/node/1800
------------------------------
Message: 2
On November 8, Tlon, a small publisher from the Italian reformist left with some
social media follow-up, published a post in which it launched an attack against
those who, critically analyzing the American elections, do not consider the
victory of the Democrats as a step in towards the magnificent destiny of social
emancipation. ---- In that post, stuck to a four-eyed image of Smurf, those
responsible for the publisher took revenge for what they believe to be the
horrible "leftist defeatism" that "(...) whenever something good happens - see
the rotten, the imperfect and forget everything the most. It is not complexity,
it is inaction. It is a lack of foresight, but it is also a lack of listening. It
is the attitude of an elite that does not ask what the United States really is ".
So let us take this post from the Tlon publishing house, which caused a certain
stir in the circles of left-wing social networks, as a starting point for some
general reflections.
It is not uncommon for those who critically look at anarchism to try to be
challenged by reformist leftists with such arguments. Let us start with some
basic questions: it is not just us anarchists who are demanding, the usual
extremists who are never satisfied, to criticize, by words and actions, the
Democratic Party's model of government. There have been tides of people taking to
the streets during these months of fire in cities governed by the Democratic
Party in the United States. There were those who were shot with flash grenades by
the Obama federal police during the Standing Rock protests. There is an American
revolutionary unionism.
Naturally, part of this diverse movement called Black Lives Matter tactically
voted in favor of the Biden-Harris duo, identifying Trump as an enemy to be
removed from the field as soon as possible. However, a substantial part stayed
away from research: some by tactical choice, others by strategic choice, others
by instinctive rejection. Almost nobody did it to sit in his chair and make
judgments. This consideration would be enough to take Tlon's allegedly smart
publication and file it under the label "nonsense". However, we are not easily
satisfied people and, as previously announced, we would like to make some more
general observations.
Did Biden-Harris propose to withdraw American troops stationed in Europe? There
is no evidence. So we can imagine that they will remain here, as will the large
air bases in northern Italy, a prime target for a beautiful atomic warhead in the
event of a major conflict, as well as those large areas of Sardinia transformed
into military polygons for the benefit of NATO ( this would still be the case
even without the USA and NATO: the glorious Italian army is sufficient and
capable of causing environmental damage). At most, there will be a reduction of
certain military presences in favor of the Eastern theater: nothing that the
Trump administration was not doing, but nothing incisive and, in any case, it is
about moving military presences, not eliminating them.
But let's go back to the United States. Kamala Harris, a character for whom a
large part of the reformist left, from Tlon to Il Manifesto, went into ecstasy,
has a series of past events worth mentioning:
- she voted to cut funding for access to abortion;[1]
- did little or nothing against the private prison business in California, where
she practiced law and was a prosecutor;[two]
- strongly wanted a law that would allow the arrest of parents of absent children
"without a valid excuse" on more than ten percent of school days:[3]a law that
discriminates against single-parent and lower-class families. This is a perfect
example of the "criminalization of society" process that states like California
were forced to go through;
- opposed the abolition of the three strikes law;[4]
- personally was committed to strictly enforcing the "War on Drugs", harshly
attacking the African American community;[5]
- ensured that transgender prisoners remain or end up in male prisons;
- her actions as a public prosecutor, marked by minor events and with few
implications, such as trying to execute an innocent man, even attracted the ire
of an editorial in the New York Times, a newspaper that is not entirely opposed
to the political arena to which Harris belongs;
- she was also in favor of all possible military interventions.
In short, you don't even have to be anti-election revolutionaries to realize that
Kamala Harris is a representative of that system of structural oppression by
which millions of human lives are destroyed. In fact: even without being great
critics of the State and Capital, it can be said, in all honesty and without
fear, that there are no arguments to prove us wrong and that Kamala Harris is
humanly disgusted with what is evidently wrong with us. USA.
Now, one can ask whether the entire policy area that joined the chorus of praise
for the future Vice President of the United States is aware of all these issues.
Our hypothesis is that they are not completely aware of them, but that even if
they knew about them, they would get them out of their consciousness. They could
have been as moved by Kamala Harris as they were twelve years ago by Obama.
Tomorrow they will be excited about the premiere of some other country. They will
have more or less lasting loves: Justin Trudeau or Jacinda Ardern. Their
conscience will be firm, strong and clear.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of American ghettos will continue to end up in prison
for deliberately invented crimes, Iraqis, Afghans or whoever continues to be
bombed, the exploited will continue to be exploited and the exploiters will
continue to exploit. But the ruling class executive committee will have a black
woman as deputy chief, and good emotions will triumph. In short, nothing new
under the sun.
Lorcon
Grades:
[1]https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/06/06/guess-who-else-voted-against-federal-funding-for-abortion-443667
[2]https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/08/29/mercury-news-editorial-kamala-harris-needs-to-tackle-prison-standoff/
[3]https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-arrests-2020-progressive-prosecutor_n_5c995789e4b0f7bfa1b57d2e?guccounter=1
[4]https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/reforming-three-strikes/tnamp/
[5]https://afropunk.com/2019/01/kamala-harris-has-been-tough-on-black-people-not-crime/
[6]https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/05/05/harris-renews-effort-to-block-gender-reassignment-for-trans-inmate/
[7]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
Source: https://umanitanova.org/?p=13160
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
Today we have published another international declaration together with many
friendly class struggle anarchist organizations from all over the world. The
reason for this is the current struggle in Chile for the release of the people
arrested during the social revolt. ---- This social revolt began a good year ago,
in October 2019, with the determined protests and direct actions of young people
against the increase in bus and metropolitan prices in the capital Santiago. The
protests spread like wildfire to large parts of the oppressed class and many
regions of the country. Millions took the streets to stand up for a dignified
life and resisted a brutal police apparatus that tortured, raped and murdered
dozens of people over the course of a few weeks. Thousands of people were also
arrested during these weeks and locked in the dark prisons of the Chilean state.
Many of them are still in custody a year later, when the people have not stopped
fighting, often in appalling conditions.
With our declaration we support the demand for the immediate release of all
political prisoners. Resistance to this inhuman system is justified, anywhere,
anytime.
Down with class justice all over the world! Long live unlimited solidarity!
“That our companions do not feel alone, the people with whom they shared joys and
sorrows, failures and victories, are with them more than ever, fighting with
stubborn fervor. Feeling more love and hate every day. That love, and hate with
which, together, we will change the world of bases”. (Juan C. Mechoso – Acción
Directa Anarquista: Una Historia de FAU)
1.
More than a year has passed since the struggle overflowed the streets of
different cities in the territory dominated by the State of Chile. And since that
October, the peoples have maintained the cope without rest. Despite the
repression, the pandemic, and hunger, the will to organize and fight flourishes.
We are in times of fight and resistance in territories around the world, from the
indigenous people in Ecuador to the proletarians in France. The peoples rise
against the system of domination.
That is why internationalism, that old practice of the oppressed class, becomes
urgent. The word and the action of solidarity is a constitutive principle of
these fights. It is what leads it to project on a horizon of emancipation.
2.
With the inherent difficulties of living, the fight communities using barricades,
pots and pans, and self-defense, have exercised resistance in the territory
dominated by the State of Chile. This has responded with bloody repression,
wounded are thousands, maimed are hundreds, tens of dead, and thousands of
prisoners. All this carried out by his henchmen defend their class interests,
attacking our precarious lives, bodies, and territories.
Not only bullets and tear gas have been used against our class, but also severe
repressive laws, which with the support of social democracy have been concretized
in the “Anti-Barricades Law”, in the “modernization” of repressive State
apparatuses such as the National Agency for Intelligence (ANI) by giving it new
infrastructure to Special Forces in order to develop their state terrorism.
This repression, as is known, falls only on our class, since when war weapons and
combat equipment for the State have been discovered in armed groups of the ruling
class, they are considered only utensils. While breaking a showcase of a bank is
terrorism for the State and, they can keep you kidnapped for years for such
action. Today for us, to go out with a spoon and a pan in our hands or a sign
shouting for social rights is a danger. We can go to jail because of that. Prison
is a class issue.
3.
Currently, there are almost 2,500 colleagues subjected to brutal judicial
processes, processes that have dragged on for more than a year, keeping thousands
behind bars, without any sentence, using “pretrial detention” as legal derision
for those who have fought alongside their class in this year of the social
outbreak. On the other hand, the few convicted face brutal sentences, between 11
and 20 years due to speculations of a prosecutor’s office which with the
intention of revenge intends to punish those who have challenged the system of
domination, for those who have dared to question the mercantilism and
precariousness of our lives.
As if the above were not enough, the prisoners of the social outbreak have been
kept in isolation, torturing them in their daily lives, preventing visits, or any
other prison benefit.
4.
We make a call for active solidarity, to put our minds and our bodies for the
freedom of our prisoners, to organize days of protest in all the territories in a
fight to achieve a GENERAL AMNESTY AND WITHOUT CONDITIONS. Whoever forgets the
prisoners forgets the struggle. Therefore, achieving their freedom is imperative
for the communities that are struggling. We call to strengthen popular
organizations, to take the freedom flag from our comrades, to take part
concretely in the various activities and days of protest that are being raised.
5.
Finally, the reality of the political prisoners was not born on October 18, but
it is a situation that has existed for decades. Historically, the State has
sought to punish those who have fought for the breakdown of class society. For
this reason, we also show solidarity with the Mapuche p
? Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira - CAB (Brasilien)
? Federación Anarquista Uruguaya - FAU (Uruguay)
? Federación Anarquista de Rosario - FAR (Argentinien)
? Organización Anarquista de Córdoba - OAC (Argentinien)
? Federación Anarquista Santiago - FAS (Chile)
? Grupo Libertario Vía Libre (Kolumbien)
? Union Communiste Libertaire (Frankreich)
? Embat - Organització Libertària de Catalunya (Katalonien)
? Alternativa Libertaria - AL/fdca (Italien)
? Die Plattform - Anarchakommunistische Organisation
? Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet - DAF (Türkei)
? Organisation Socialiste Libertaire - OSL (Schweiz)
? Libertäre Aktion (Bern/Schweiz)
? Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group - MACG (Australien)
? Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement - AWSM (Aotearoa / Neuseeland)
? Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front - ZACF (Südafrika)
? Federation of Anarchism Era (Afghanistan/Iran)
? Workers Solidarity Movement - WSM (Irland)
? Anarchist Communist Group - ACG (Großbritannien)
? Anarchist Federation (Griechenland)
? Tekosina Anarsist - TA, (Rojava - Nordost-Syrien)
? Organizacion Anarquista
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/12/09/freiheit-fuer-die-gefangenen-in-chile-de-eng-esp/#more-1641
------------------------------
Message: 4
For several years, the freedom-killing laws have multiplied[2]. Last September,
the Ministry of the Interior presented its new law enforcement plan which
provides for new freedom-killing measures under the pretext of protecting
demonstrators. The "comprehensive security " billtabled on October 20 continues
this process. The government confirms its authoritarian will to offer the police
all the impunity it wishes to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie by relying
in particular on the mass surveillance of the population. ---- The bill under
discussion is dangerous and must be fought for what it establishes. ---
Generalized coping. --- The risks of breaches of privacy are numerous: Articles
20 and 21 provide for authorizing municipal police officers and agents of the
city of Paris in charge of a police department to access the images recorded by
from video surveillance cameras, to recordings from individual cameras as well as
the possibility of real-time transmission of these images to the cops.
Increased surveillance from the air
Article 22 of the proposed law allows the use of drones with an on-board camera
as a surveillance tool, particularly during demonstrations. Their use will
facilitate the identification of individuals and the massive collection of
personal data.
A desire to make police violence invisible
Article 24 creates a new offense relating to the dissemination, by any means
whatsoever, of images of the police, "with the aim of harming[their]physical or
mental integrity". Article 23, for its part, aims to exclude from the benefit of
reduced sentences the perpetrators of certain offenses "committed to the
prejudice of a person invested with a public elective mandate, of a soldier of
the national gendarmerie, of a civil servant. the national police or a
professional or voluntary firefighter".These offenses which would lose the
benefit of reduced sentences correspond to attacks on life, physical integrity
and threats and acts of intimidation and therefore also the dissemination of
images of police officers. New offense therefore, and aggravated penalties.
Marche des Libertes, Paris, November 28, 2020. A protester carries a sign on
which she wrote: Global surveillance law.
cc Red Photo Library / Martin Noda / Hans Lucas
Institutional racism still active
Article 10 provides for the addition of a minimum five-year residence permit for
foreign nationals for the issue of professional cards for private security agents.
Faced with these serious attacks on individual and collective freedoms, the
initiative initiated by the Quadrature du net and supported by dozens of
associations and collectives[1]is laudable but the only questioning of the
deputies appears to us well below the current issues. Other organizations such as
Amnesty International, LDH and journalists' unions have launched campaigns to
denounce this bill.
Faced with these serious abuses that threaten activists but also everyone, we
must act. We call for initiatives to demand the abandonment of the "Global
Security" billand we make this proposal to all the forces of the social movement.
Libertarian Communist Union November 14, 2020
Validate
[1] 55 organizations against "global security" , La Quadrature du net, November
12, 2020
[2] 2001- law on daily security, 2003 - law on internal security, 2006 - law on
the fight against terrorism, 2015 to 2017 - state of emergency, 2016 - secure
electronic securities, 2017 - anti-terrorism law which establishes a permanent
state of emergency
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Communique-federal-Projet-de-loi-securite-globale-moins-de-liberte-plus-de-8897
------------------------------
Message: 5
In examining the possibilities for politics within and at a distance from the
state, it is important to revisit the democratic traditions of the working class,
which are often learned through struggles and strikes - and which were
exemplified by the new unions of the 1970s and 1980s. Not much of this
alternative tradition of democracy outside the state has been captured in
official histories, which present the attainment of democracy in terms of the
formation of a parliamentary government in 1994. ---- There is a larger problem
here of how the working-class heritage - the intellectual and organisational and
political traditions of labour and the left - has been side-lined in media,
textbooks, monuments and narratives; this also involves a narrowing of our
political imagination, with our view of "democracy" itself narrowed dramatically.
There has been a focus on elections and political parties and electoral politics.
This reflects and reinforces a view that assumes a separation of the political -
basically left to the state and the parties - and the economic - issues like wage
negotiations are left to unions, and union involvement in politics is
increasingly reduced to lobbying political parties.
One effect is that unions - which have almost four million members, considerably
more than the audited membership of the big three parties combined - are
presented as bit players, with the drama centred on the parties and the
politicians. The other effect is that we tend not to learn from, and remember,
the rich political traditions of the working class, both in communities and in
trade unions.
There are many examples, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, of unions and other
forces developing radically democratic, bottom-up movements, outside of the
state. For example, the most radical and innovative strands of the anti-apartheid
coalition, the United Democratic Front, developed into systems of direct
self-government - "people's power" - in places like Cradock and Alexandra. The
Young Christian Workers' movement, which was actively involved in the new unions
of the 1970s, stressed the importance of a strong moral code and an accountable
organising style, on the basis of See-Judge-Act.
In both cases, bottom-up democracy at a distance from the state was not just a
method of organising for other goals - ending apartheid, improving wages etc. -
but an aim of empowering the oppressed, giving control over daily life, and
creating a new human community.
A third example is provided by the "workers' control" and "workerist" traditions
of the new unions, which I will explore below. Let me stress here that all of
these examples had serious limitations, and, in revisiting them, I am not
suggesting that they were perfect and can be mechanically applied. We do need to
learn the lessons of their failings, but, at the same time, we also need to learn
from their successes. This, I think, provides a powerful way of engaging
contemporary challenges. We do not have to reinvent the wheel.
Focus: the "Workers' Control" and "Workerist" Traditions from the 1970s
An important example of imaginations of an alternative society and different
practices was the "workers' control" tradition of the Trade Union Advisory
Coordinating Council (TUACC), which was formed in 1973 to unite some of the new
unions.
There was a long history of unions in South Africa-unions were started more than
150 years ago - and of black-based unions, but black workers were victims of both
class exploitation and racist oppression. With colonial capitalism and apartheid,
there was systematic, institutional and legal discrimination against black
workers, especially black Africans. For example, the 1924 Industrial Conciliation
Act, which for the first time provided real union rights in South Africa,
excluded black Africans. The 1951 revision of this law banned "mixed" unions and
laid the ground for making black African strikes illegal across the board.
Generally, before the 1970s, unions in South Africa were racially fragmented,
mainly based among whites, coloureds and Indians, organisationally weak and based
among a small part of the workforce. The 1960s were noted as a "decade of
darkness," in the words of Baskin,[1]with union decline and the apartheid state
crushing opposition.
The "Workers Control" Tradition and the TUACC
This changed in the 1970s with the rise of new unions, which changed the
landscape forever. The new unions were not just a revival of the old, and were
not just considerably larger - the biggest black-based union federation in the
mid-1950s, the SA Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) was less than 60,000 in total,
the new unions reached one million in the mid-1980s - but also involved new modes
of organisation.
First, there was a mass strike wave in 1973-1974. Running alongside this was a
new worker-focused infrastructure: the Urban Training Project, the Industrial Aid
Society, the Western Cape Province Workers Advice Bureau, and the General Factory
Workers Benefit Fund. This last-named was not an NGO, but a worker-run,
worker-funded funeral scheme that also funded worker education and the new unions.
Then there were new unions, some founded in 1973, joined by some of the
established mainly Coloured unions, especially in the Cape. Then there were new
federations, notably the TUACC.
TUACC's critical contributions to the movement were the ideas, first, of
"building tomorrow today," meaning that how we organise today shapes the future
we can win (so, for a democratic future, build a democratic workers movement);
and, second, a stress on "workers' control," which meant strong, non-racial,
independent, democratic shop-floor-based unions centred on assemblies and shop
stewards.What this also meant is that unions should not be controlled by
political parties or by the government.
We can summarise this as follows:
Coherent organisational strategy: unions would build factory-to-factory,
targeting winnable battles.
A "tight federation": this meant joint policies and shared resources across the
federation.
"Open" unions: the TUACC unions rejected apartheid laws that racially segregated
unions, and racist measures; it redefined unions to lay the basis for (prefigure)
a non-racial, common future. In the Eastern Cape, this included bridging the
divide between black African and Coloured workers, for example.
Industrial unions: unite workers across industry and South Africa, regardless of
skill, job, colour, belief or gender or language.
Shop-floor democracy: this meant democracy from the bottom-up, with ordinary
workers in control of all parts of the unions, based on elected and recallable
representatives that dominate decision-making at all levels of the union, and no
voting rights for hired officials, who also would get standard workers' wages.
Prioritising worker education: unions would control their education programmes,
stressing the value of both technical skills - like negotiating - and of a
broader understanding of society - allowing people to understand the problems,
and decide on solutions.
The "Workerist" Tradition of FOSATU
This "workers' control" idea, created in great part from below by TUACC workers,
was expanded in the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), which was
formed 1979 in large part by TUACC. In FOSATU, the idea of "workers' control"
developed into a project to build a larger "working class movement" at the centre
of the struggle.According its general-secretary Joe Foster in a famed
1981 speech that movement would:[2]
Challenge apartheid and capitalism at the same time, rather than defer socialism
to a later stage, after majority rule.
Challenge apartheid and capitalism with a single movement, where unions would
undertake both political and economic struggles, rather than outsource one to a
party.
Build class consciousness, rejecting nationalist multi-class alliances - FOSATU
looked north, and saw a pattern of nationalist parties like ZANU in Zimbabwe
suppressing or capturing unions after majority rule.
The larger "working class movement" would include community-based struggles,
co-operatives and a socialist media.
Meanwhile, FOSATU retained key TUACC positions, like control via assemblies and
shop-stewards, a tight federation, non-racialism, and struggle.
This FOSATU approach was labelled "workerism" by its critics, and was rejected by
the ANC and SACP, who were then labelled the "populists" by their critics. The
workerist-populist debate would continue in the early years of the Congress of
South African Trade Unions (COSATU), formed 1985 at the initiative of FOSATU and
uniting many unions, including from outside FOSATU, into a giant.
So, for "workerism," unions were to be the centre of a larger "working-class"
movement that would challenge both apartheid and capitalism, and lay the basis
for a radically democratic South Africa.
The ideas were as follows:[3]
Workers' control of unions would be expanded into workers' (and working class)
control more widely, including the economy and production, and democratising society.
Workers' control over "reproduction" would also be attempted - i.e. organising in
the neighbourhoods - which was expressed in activities of FOSATU veterans like
Moses Mayekiso. Mayekiso organised street and block committees in Alexandra
township, modelled on the unions' assemblies and shop-steward structure.
A "working class movement" that could fight for both socialism and national
liberation on its own terms - a worker-led national liberation -that rejected the
idea that nationalism is the only form of national liberation. It rejected the
idea that there was a separation between class straggle and the struggle against
apartheid, since the working class needed to make national liberation serve its
own interests.
It was socialist (anti-capitalist and anti-apartheid), but sceptical of the ANC
and SACP.
It stressed building a working-class counter-culture - including education,
history, songs, poetry and theatre - to develop a radical socialist and class
consciousness.
At a Distance from the State?
What this meant was that unions would be political, but autonomous of parties.
Politics would involve debate and learning through practice and struggle. Workers
would make their own political decisions, rather than just carry out decisions
taken somewhere else, which would be undemocratic, and which could lead unions
into battles they did not need and could not win.
So, the new unions of TUACC and FOSATU aimed at reforms in the workplace that would:
Win tangible improvements for members.
Build confidence.
Take place bottom-up: winnable demands and measurable day-to-day victories within
a few targeted workplaces were to be won in ways that strengthened workplace
organisation and rank-and-file participation.
At the same time, the TUACC and FOSATU unions accepted tactical engagement with
the state and law. While the apartheid state was obviously oppressive, they
argued that democratic organisations such as unions could pressure the state to
make concessions, without being co-opted. They could even use state systems -
such as labour law, industrial councils, and courts - so long as
checks-and-balances were in place and this did not change the unions' focus on
struggle. For example, in the so-called "registration debate," FOSATU chose to
register with the state for the purposes of using labour laws, but refused to
register until certain demands were met - the removal of restrictions on migrant
workers, for example - and so long as the unions did not become part of the state.
Rather than building completely outside and against the state in pursuit of the
new society, some workerists clearly envisaged some social change occurring from
within the institutions of the state, through participation and engagement in
these structures. In this, they helped lay the basis for the idea that a gradual
series of ongoing reforms within and through the capitalist state could
cumulatively change society.
One child of this approach was the "radical reform" of the 1990s COSATU unions,
which is discussed in Chapter 4.3. (See the book Strategy: Debating Politics
Within and at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien van der Walt)
Decline: why so Fragile?
What happened to these traditions? At one level, they left a real imprint on
COSATU. For example, COSATU adopted the principles of a tight federation,
workers' control, and unions playing a political role. We can even see some of
the roots of "radical reform" thinking in FOSATU.
In the early period of COSATU, too, the "workerist" stress on remaining political
but outside of party alliances also stayed in place. The first COSATU congress in
fact resolved in 1985 that the new federation would play an active political
role, but "not affiliate to any political tendency or organisation."[4]
However, within two years the federation had openly aligned with ANC, and even in
1985, its leadership included many ANC supporters, while the name "Congress"
itself identified the federation with ANC and SACTU. In 1990, it formally allied
with the ANC and SACP, which persists to this day, a decision backed even by
former "workerist" unions, like the National Union of Metalworkers of South
Africa (NUMSA).
We can blame repression, but the "workerists" also had significant political
weaknesses. They did not have a strategy linking their immediate struggles to the
longer-term socialist transformation that they sought. Their ideas were not
always clear, and this led to some serious misjudgements.[5]
There was an ongoing, unresolved tension between more social democratic and more
quasisyndicalist strands within "workerism." The first-named was expressed in the
idea of ongoing reforms leading to socialism through the state (see above); the
second-named pushed for more complete autonomy from the state, and more direct
efforts by the workers themselves to take direct power in factories and
townships. This tension between a social democratic focus on tactical use of the
state, and quasi-syndicalist emphasis on autonomous counter-power, was not even
addressed openly. A heavy stress on practical issues and a dismissal of what were
labelled by some as "armchair theorising" meant that theoretical reflection was
neglected; meanwhile the "workerists" did not organise within FOSATU as a
coherent political group, which created more problems.
That said, these ideas are worth revisiting - to understand where we come from,
and to judge where we are now. There are no easy answers.
Footnotes:
Baskin, J. 1991. Striking Back: A history of COSATU. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Foster, J. 1982. "The Workers' Struggle: Where does FOSATU stand?" reprinted in
Review of African Political Economy, Vol 9 (24): 99-114. See Byrne, S. and N.
Ulrich. 2016. "Prefiguring Democratic Revolution? ‘Workers' control' and
‘workerist' traditions of radical South African labour, 1970-1985." Journal of
Contemporary African Studies, Vol 34 (3): 368-387.
Byrne, S., N. Ulrich and L. van der Walt. 2017. "Red, Black and Gold: FOSATU,
South African ‘workerism', ‘syndicalism' and the nation." In Webster. E. and K.
Pampallis. (eds.). Hidden Voices: The unresolved national question in left
thinking in South Africa under apartheid. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions). 1985. Minutes of COSATU
Inaugural Congress held at the University of Natal from 29 November-1 December
1985, AH2373,Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Papers, 1984-1997,
5.1,annexure I: 5. Held at Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand.
Byrne et al, "Red, Black and Gold."
This pamphlet is an extract from the book Strategy: Debating Politics Within and
at a Distance from the State - Eds. John Reynolds & Lucien van der Walt published
by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Rhodes University, Makhanda,
South Africa.
This pamphlet can be downloaded in PDF format from Zabalaza Books here.
Front cover graphic: Workers meet during the Firestone Strike, August 1983. Photo
by Paul Weinberg, Taffy Adler Papers
Source: ‘The future is in the hands of the workers': A History of FOSATU by
Michelle Friedman
https://zabalaza.net/2020/12/07/building-trade-union-democracy-as-prefigurative-politics-in-south-africa/#more-6474
------------------------------
Message: 6
We have prepared an interview with journalist Petra Dvoráková, who brings a
personal view of Polish protests against the ultra-conservative government. ----
You personally took part in Polish anti-government protests, to which the
government reacts with contemptuous arrogance. What impressions did you get from
that? ---- Unfortunately, I did not make it to the biggest demonstration on 31
October. At that time, about a hundred thousand people marched through the
streets of Warsaw, and about half a million of them protested in cities all over
Poland. ---- Protests continue to take place almost every day. Families with
children go to protest walks in the park every Sunday, Opposition grandmothers
protest again on Thursdays, and autonomous left groups organize solidarity
demonstrations in support of detained protesters.
People who continue to take to the streets seem unstoppable and intimidating.
Their anger at the ultra-conservative government, which is incapable of the
slightest self-reflection and, on the contrary, intensifies, is too great to be
stopped by police repression, a pandemic or the December frost.
Although the protests are significantly smaller than in the first days of the
Constitutional Court's verdict, it seems unlikely that they could soon cease. And
the fact that not enough people are protesting in the streets to talk about a
real revolution does not mean that the public mood is not turning against the
government. Posters with red lightning, a symbol of the All-Poland Women's Strike
movement, are affixed to the protests in the shop windows of many cafes and
shops, and people wear lightning veils or canvas bags in rainbow colors to
support the LGBT minority. Cars passing by protests in support of the movement
are cheerfully honking, some of them playing aloud a protest cover version of the
hit Call on me.
For the first time since 1989, the Straik Kobiet initiative has been able to
mobilize women against patriarchal oppression and organize a women's strike
throughout the country. How did it actually work and how was it organized?
I don't know much about the strike that took place before my arrival. But it was
not the first, strikes were organized in 2016 during the so-called black protests.
Do more radical or liberal voices predominate among Straik kobiet supporters?
According to surveys, protests are generally supported by seventy percent of
Polish society - including some of those who voted for PiS in previous elections.
While at the protests in Zyrardow, 40,000, protesters told me who they voted for
that they did not remember, in Warsaw the streets are mostly left-wing voters.
Autonomous radical left-wing groups are also strongly represented at the protests
in Warsaw, and they manage to take their thoughts and slogans to the streets. For
example, people chant in unison that the fascists and the police are one
coalition - which is not surprising given the behavior of police officers towards
demonstrators. What is happening in the street is permeating a strong sense of
mutual solidarity: the protesters are calling for radical solidarity and radical
empathy.
The Strajk kobiet movement itself is then bold in its demands for Polish
conditions - for example, it does not only want to withdraw the verdict of the
Constitutional Court, but free legal abortions within twelve weeks without the
need to give a reason. But against the liberalization of abortion - which is not
a radical idea, but a simple demand for respect for women's reproductive rights -
is not only the Government of Law and Justice, but also the largest opposition
party, the Civic Platform. Although it expresses cautious support for the
protests, it calls for an investigation into police violence against
demonstrators, but it is conservative on socio-cultural issues. And it is she who
benefits from the protests, her support is already rising slightly at the expense
of PiS.
It is true that the protests are supported by a wide-ranging public, almost
everyone except the ultra-Catholic hardcore electoral core of the Law and Justice
party. But not everyone supports the demands of the movement, they are really
perceived by radical society as radical - even though they are the standard in
the rest of Europe. At the same time, however, it is necessary to keep in mind
that even as a result of the current protests, the nature of society is changing,
opening up. No other European country is facing such a rapid decline in believers
as Poland. The young generation of the freedom-seeking generation is taking the
floor, and it is becoming increasingly clear that politicians are more
conservative than society.
The law on abortions passed due to the fact that the ruling party PiS installed
its own people in the constitutional court. Is it even possible to respect the
Constitutional Court under such conditions?
The abortion law has not yet passed. In response to the initiative of deputies of
the ruling Law and Justice party, the Constitutional Court only declared a
verdict, according to which abortion due to fetal damage is in conflict with the
Polish constitution. The verdicts of the Constitutional Court are to be published
within two weeks of their promulgation - only after their publication do they
come into force. At the same time, the legislation is to be adapted to the
published verdict.
However, the verdict on abortion has not yet been published. Its publication has
been postponed because the government is trying to find a consensus - there is no
consensus on how much abortion should be limited. At the same time, it seems
likely that the protests will continue to develop.
Moreover, as you suggest, some lawyers question the validity of a verdict that
was supposed to satisfy a political order with reference to the politicization of
the Constitutional Court. Moreover, its justification is not yet known - it will
probably be published only with the verdict.
Police against Straik Kobiet hardened against the activists. How do you think the
situation will develop?
It has been two weeks since the police confirmed the crackdown and did not deter
the protesters from protesting - on the contrary, they are trying to adapt to the
situation. He wears a written number of the anti-repressive department of the
Strike Kobiet on his arm, he goes to demonstrations equipped with ski goggles in
case the police use tear gas or hot tea in case they harden on the street for a
long time, because the police cordon blocks them and does not let them go for an
hour or two end of the demonstration home. As I wrote above, the protests do not
seem to have subsided, although they have diminished, although there are those
who remain at home in fear of police repression.
However, although Strajk Kobiet demands, among other things, the resignation of
the government, even though his leader speaks of a "revolution" and inspiration
from Belarus, I do not expect a revolution in the true sense of the word.
However, the demonstrations, the turning point in the public debate, the
declining support of the government and the church are, of course, creating
increasing pressure on the governing coalition, which has been divided since the
September disagreement over the animal protection law. I therefore hope that the
government will fall apart on its own due to internal contradictions. I prefer
not to think about what she could still do, given that the next elections will
take place in three years' time.
What is happening now, however, is already influencing the thinking of Polish
society. Dogmas are falling, the church is being publicly ridiculed, women's
rights, the LGBT minority and sex education are being talked about. How far the
government has gone, paradoxically, as a result, has kicked Polish society into
an open call for progressive values, progressive politics. Many of the people I
spoke to agreed that this was the beginning of the end of the Law and Justice
party anyway.
Due to the fact that I intend to stay in Poland for a while longer, then I can
recommend watching the Diary Referendum for those interested in news from Poland.
For example, I am going to report on abortion or the LGBT minority, and of course
I will continue to monitor protests and political events.
How is the cooperation between Czech and Polish feminists and feminists?
In October, the Ciocio Czesia initiative was established by Poles living in the
Czech Republic, which wants to help Poles determined to end their pregnancies to
have an abortion in the Czech Republic. Solidarity demonstrations took place in
front of the Polish embassy in Prague. I don't know more about Czech-Polish
cooperation.
https://oafed.noblogs.org/post/2020/12/06/lide-se-zdaji-nezastrasitelni/
------------------------------
Message: 7
In the last few days, our Climate Action Committee has drawn up another statement
on the occasion of the preliminary end of the clearance work in the Dannenröder
Forest. In the text, they discuss possible future developments in the struggle
against the construction of the A49 motorway and show the prospects for the
climate movement arising from the past months of the Danni occupation. Last but
not least, the text explains why parties like the Greens, but also the so-called
"climate list", which has recently started to overtake the Greens as an
"eco-party", are not part of the solution, but part of the problem why only
self-organization from below shows a way out of the climate crisis.
We look forward to your sharing the text in your local climate groups and we look
forward to your feedback! Have fun while reading!
Click here for the text:
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/12/11/das-letzte-baumhaus-ist-geraeumt-doch-der-kampf-geht-weiter-danni/
The last tree house has been cleared ...
... but the fight continues!
A path of devastation runs through the Dannenröder forest. There are now only a
handful of trees left where the state will soon have truckloaded building
materials to build the A49 motorway and bury the dreams and hopes of thousands of
people under tons of asphalt. Neither the Gigapod in the line-up of "Nirgendwo",
nor the mass actions of the end of the terrain could change anything in the end.
The forest has been cleared, the route cleared. How now?
An eviction is not the end
The road is expected to be completed in 2024 and that this date is not realistic
seems to be clear to everyone. The A49 as a symbol of German auto capitalism will
only be built against resistance in the next few years. Construction
interruptions due to blockades and acts of sabotage will hopefully not be
uncommon, but will be a habit for a state that has hectares of healthy forest
felled for profit.
For this specific struggle we will have to acquire new skills or spread old ones,
but no matter what, we remain the weeds that keep popping up and breaking the
asphalt.
But what could this look like? Massive "digger diving", that is, occupying
excavators and stopping the construction work with lock-ons or wandering hut
villages as with the A33 20 years ago, provide opportunities for the fight to
continue. Or will everything turn out very differently? Little seems certain
these days ...
To carry the resistance to many places
But there is one thing that everyone who fought in and for Danni knows very well:
The seeds of resistance not only spread around the forest, but have flown much
further. Hundreds of activists have learned to climb, build tree houses and
platforms and have lived a utopia. This potential for living resistance hitting
the destructive machinery of state and capitalism will not simply go away. The
militant climate movement that has bravely stood in the way of the helmeted
hundreds in the last weeks of the evacuation will not disappear. Instead, this
movement will pick up the struggle at other times, in other places with the same
determination.
A look at the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan shows that this is sorely
needed: by 2030, over 800km of this outdated mobility infrastructure are to be
built in Germany, but numerous individuals and groups have already taken a stand.
Joint alliances against ecocide, the climate crisis, state (transport) policy and
capital interests from radical climate groups, anarchists and local residents
seem to be within reach in many places. The resistance in Danni has shown that it
is possible to build bridges of solidarity in struggle between different parts of
the wage-dependent class if the people involved pursue the same concrete goal.
The resistance in Danni has shown what enormous power human self-organization can
develop. This resistance, We have to carry this self-organization from below into
local initiatives across the country. The state can perhaps cart a few thousand
police officers into a forest for a few weeks so that they can cut people
together for its own interests. But can he still do that when there are five
forests at the same time? Or 10? Or 20?
Our self-organization saves forests and the climate - political parties destroy them
What was clear to us as anarchists long before the fight for the Danni has been
made more than clear to many of our fellow fighters in the last weeks of the
resistance: If we give up the power to determine our lives and put them in the
hands of parties and we shall lose. Because no matter which party and no matter
what it is called and what color it is, we cannot rely on any of them. Regardless
of whether the Greens, who sent brutal hundreds into the forest, leaving behind
serious injuries and destruction, or some alleged "climateists", they all have to
submit to the capitalist game once they have made it to power. We cannot and
should not hope for salvation from them.
Instead, the power to save the climate rests in our hands; only we can make it,
but only if we organize ourselves and offer resistance in broad movements against
the capitalist system and the state that protects it!
As anarchists and anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists, it is now our task to
become even more active in these movements and to spread ideas and practices in
the fight against man-made climate change that advance the movements and thus
also us.
The time to wait is over, we can no longer do things by halves and compromises.
So let's organize and fight with the people of our class!
In the fight against the eviction we may have suffered a defeat on Tuesday, but
to say it with the broken pieces: "Every battle we lose means our next victory!"
That was not the end, but the beginning: Let's keep fighting - for climate
justice and against the state and capitalism!
Climate Action Committee
Also exciting: Our podcast in conversation with an occupier from the Dannenröder
forest!:
Gespräch mit Besetzer aus dem Dannenröder Wald (Podcast)
https://www.dieplattform.org/2020/12/10/1645/
dieplattform.org/2020/12/11/das-letzte-baumhaus-ist-geraeumt-doch-der-kampf-geht-weiter-danni/
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