#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #France, #UCL AL #320 - Politics, I st #Congress: UCL, a federation, a tool to act together (ca, de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]

 After more than a year and a half of pandemic and its share of virtual meetings,

a hundred delegates were able to elbow each other during the 1st UCL Congress. A
militant time that wanted to be constructive, to make the federation a tool at
the service of the social revolution. ---- Two years after its foundation, the
Union Communiste Libertaire held its I st Congress in Fougeres (Ille-et-Vilaine),
from 28 to 30 August at self Fougerais Social Center (see page 20). A lot has
happened in two years. The organization experienced its baptism of fire with the
great strike movement of winter 2019-2020 in defense of pensions, then went
through the Covid pandemic, which has impacted all economic, social and political
life. It has acquired its own identity, culture and visibility. It brought
together a number of members far greater than the simple addition of the previous
strengths of AL and CGA.

It is an undeniable success, but which does not dispense with modesty, in a
context of global weakening of the organizations of struggle and of economic and
political crisis, opening a possible path towards fascism. Libertarian Communists
cannot be satisfied with building a libertarian "island" in a vast ocean of
capitalist and authoritarianism.

Thinking about intervention in the social movement
The strategic debates therefore punctuated the exchanges around the general
orientation motion: "Our first militant investment goes in the development of
counter-powers, that is to say of organizations not specifically libertarian, of
class, of mass. and democratic. We intervene there both to stimulate combative
practices, on the ground, and to promote the convergence and construction of all
together."

Far from being out of date, the revolutionary unionist strategy retains a driving
role in this perspective, to be combined with the other fronts of struggle
(environmentalists, anti-racists, feminists, LGBTI, etc.).

Our strategy against racism (s) in France has also been refined. Neither "moral"
nor "liberal", libertarian anti-racism is indeed "materialist and political". It
is deployed on three fronts: through specific anti-racist action ; through the
social and trade union movement ; within the libertarian organization itself:
"The system of racist domination is historically and socially constructed. It can
therefore disappear. The final aim of the libertarian communist struggle in this
area is a society free from all processes of domination and racial
hierarchy[...]at all levels of social organization."

On the anti-patriarchal front, the UCL notes that the growing number of women in
the street in recent years to defend their rights does not generate lasting
militant structuring. There is therefore a strong stake in "female unionization"
which should allow women to "create their own demands. Attention can be paid to
the link made between demands specific to work, and demands related to the rest
of a woman's life, in order to demonstrate the continuum of patriarchy in all
aspects of life".

Demonstration on October 17, 2020 in Paris, for the arrival of the march of
undocumented migrants.
cc Mohamed / UCL Paris north-east
Digital, imperialisms, relocations ...
The UCL is not immune to the debates which animate the emancipation movements.
The interest of the intersectional approach was confirmed, stressing that even
before the word existed, this logic irrigated the practice of struggle unions,
feminist or anti-racist collectives, by articulating specific demands (on
disability, women, migrants ...) and general demands concerning the proletariat
in all its diversity (work, income, social protection ...). The congress
recalled, on this occasion, that the battles of vocabulary - which also impact
the UCL ! - will never replace concrete militant work: if rhetoric divides,
struggle unites !

UCL needed a common analysis on the increasing digitization of capitalist
society, which few revolutionary organizations have done so far. Faced with "
surveillance capitalism" -"aform of capitalism, which appeared in the 2000s at
Google, specializing in the extraction of personal data, their refining and the
trade in the products obtained"- and the "technopolice" -"put under total
surveillance of urban space for police purposes"-, UCL has adopted a political
line in line with freelance associations and in support of the unionization of
digital employees.

Internationally, rejecting the false opposition "protectionism vs free trade ",
the UCL will fight for the "productive autonomy" of each region of the world.
"The relocation of productions is a necessity. This does not mean a
phantasmagoric "autarky", but short circuits of exchange, and the limitation of
long exchanges to what cannot be produced locally. Finally, this notion of
productive autonomy echoes the notion of self-management by workers, and that of
democratic planning."

This congress was also an opportunity to deepen UCL's analysis of the "new
geopolitical chessboard", the United States, China, Russia, the European Union...
What guides their policy ? What are the risks and consequences for the people ?
How does French imperialism fit into this ensemble ? While reaffirming its
opposition to all imperialisms (against the selective anti-imperialism of the
"campists"), the UCL underlines that French military interventionism is "in the
medium and long term,[...]globally counterproductive . Sometimes because it
prolongs and worsens wars; fundamentally because it maintains bonds of vassalage
and interference which are an obstacle to the autonomy of peoples, to their
ability to take the destiny of their country in hand."

In the street in Amiens, on 1 stMay 2021.
cc UCL Amiens
Strengthen the organization
The 1st UCL Congress enabled everyone, regardless of their background or
political background, to share their experiences and learn from others. Some
disagreements appear to be transcendable, on condition of trusting collective
intelligence. So that the main orientations adopted - a minimum of 60% approval
was necessary - do not remain in the state of incantations, the UCL will have, in
the months to come, to strengthen its activist teams, quantitatively and
qualitatively (by training), further facilitate their coordination and
integration into struggles. A vast, demanding program, but our revolutionary
ideal is well worth it !

UCL Congress Commission

All the orientations adopted can be viewed in the Reflect / Congresses tab of
Unioncommunistelibertaire.org
AN IMPECCABLE WELCOME BY THE STORM WORKSHOP
For its 1st congress (see pages 6-7), the Libertarian Communist Union was hosted
in Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), at the Atelier de la tempête, the new space of the
self-managed Fougerais social center, created in 2016.

This magnificent workshop, a vast industrial premises, is run by a team of
activists who want to make it a "place of sociability, non-profit, concerned with
inclusiveness, offering practical, cultural, popular education and activities.
place of support for struggles". To begin with, they undertook an impressive
renovation and development work: a large meeting room, a kitchen, adjoining rooms ...
The UCL delegates were quite amazed by the work done by the comrades. Thank you
to the sympathizers who took part in the preparation and the service of the
meals, ensured the service at the bar, the nursery, etc. Long live this social
center, Alternative Libertaire will not fail to talk about it again !

The congress committee

Fougerais self-managed social center:
The Birds of the Storm, 14 rue de la Pinterie
L'Atelier de la tempête, 5, place Edmond-Herbert, Fougères (35)

cc UCL Ferns

POINT OF VIEW: A CONGRESS TO GO BACK ?
A group of comrades wished to express a minority point of view. Alternative
libertarian gives them the floor.

The 1st UCL Congress ended with a political break with the orientations defended
since 1975, first at UTCL then within AL until its dissolution within UCL in
2019. Heir to this history, the UCL Manifesto affirms that the class struggle is
at the heart of our revolutionary struggle, without locking itself into a narrow
workerism which considers other struggles as secondary. This orientation has not
been implemented within UCL, note the editors of this text.

Indeed, a strategic motion had been presented to reaffirm the centrality of the
class struggle. It aimed in particular to set up a system of Youth and Work
branches in order to strengthen UCL's intervention in these spaces. This motion
was enriched by a set of amendments allowing better consideration of the
diversity of activist situations. It only received 27% of the warrants.

Faced with it, the majority defended the splitting of the organization into a
multitude of sectors and local groups, each deciding their own priorities. Thus,
within the UCL, the class struggle is now only one subject among others, in
reverse of the central role given to it by its Manifesto.

However, it is from the places of wealth creation that the solidarity of the
exploited and oppressed is most effective, that the fight against all systems of
domination remains the most unified and that the society that will collectivize
can be born. the means of production and redistribute this wealth !

On the other hand, the withdrawal into an anarchist precinct, embodied by the
rejection of all the amendments wanting to affirm the desire of the UCL to work
for popular unity by coordinating with others, can only lead to a policy of the
inter-self which constitutes a dead end.

Libertarian communist activists from the UCL

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Ier-congres-L-UCL-une-federation-un-outil-pour-agir-ensemble
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