Today's Topics:
1. Britain, London Anarchist Federation Anarchist Reading group
#1 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #283 - Large Distribution:
Caddy Dams Against Restructuring (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, afed: THE CANADIAN TOWN THAT TRIED
TO BAN ANARCHISM
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, [Patras] Update from the auction against the
auctions and a new call for tomorrow, Posted by dwarf horse [APO]
on May 23, 2018 (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
London Anarchist Federation held their first reading group looking at two chapters in
volume 1 of ‘Anarchism, a documentary history of libertarian ideas', edited by Robert
Graham. We read chapters 8 ‘Anarchist Communism' and 9 ‘Anarchy and anarchism'. A pdf of
the texts can be found over at libcom: https://tinyurl.com/jcv5s7f. Below we present some
of the talking points during the discussion, hastily jotted down as notes by one of our
members. ---- Parts of the texts are strikingly modern (particularly Kropotkin) and seem
readily applicable to situation the working class finds itself in today. Has anything
really changed, then? The texts speak of the coming automation of labour and the need,
therefore, to make sure workers are in control so this can be a post-scarcity utopia
rather than a high unemployment, high exploitation dystopia (hello Inventing the Future:
Postcapitalism and a World Without Work 2016). Within this Cafiero acknowledges that many
jobs could already be automated but it's cheaper for capital to exploit labour, so we are
condemned to drudgery (hello Bullshit Jobs, A Theory 2018). Although the texts on
anarchist communism mainly focus on work and production, there is also an acknowledgement
of the impossibility of valuing work and the need to consider mental health, social work
and other functions of society which fall outside capitalism.
The texts are incredibly optimistic about the future (is this related to their form? i.e.
speeches given at conferences), which is surprising given they were written at the height
of the industrial revolution when seemingly capitalism was expanding without hinderance
and ecological boundaries weren't a consideration. Perhaps the authors were seeing the
condition of the working class and predicting a breaking point? Looking back to the Paris
Commune and seeing potential?
Education is a recurring theme within the texts as a requirement to increase worker power
and break the spell of the dominant capitalist ideology. How do we define ‘good'
education, though? And what are we educating towards? The working class is educating
itself, however it is doing so within the dominant ideology. Information is more readily
available than ever before but most people would surmise that market economics was the
only possible system, given its prevalence and dominance in academia. Perhaps we need to
focus on teaching complexity, so people are better equipped when the media offers them
simple solutions (e.g. it's the migrants' fault) to economic problems.
We need to understand the power of education and building a libertarian culture. The
Spanish resistance to Franco did not happen overnight, there was decades of education and
community building leading up to it. Opposition to nationalism and war seem to be key
areas where education, and subsequent questioning of authority, could lead to positive
outcomes for the working class and anarchist milieu. The Landauer text discusses that
capitalism does not need to justify itself, it is simply there, it is tradition and there
seems to be no possibility outside it (hello Capitalist Realism, 2009) and so as
anarchists we are forced to provide detail of how a future society might work. We do this
in an asymmetrical fashion: we don't have access to the mainstream media so the
marketplace of ideas doesn't really exist. Ultimately, we do not want to just take over
running this society, we want to create a new one.
One of the practical examples of education is ‘propaganda of the deed' but meant as a
reclamation of the original meaning of the phrase so less bomb throwing, more building
self-organised networks of solidarity and mutual aid. These moments of mass worker
organisation can ‘break new ground', demonstrating our ideas and how they can work
practically. Here we mentioned the situation in Greece where, for example, anarchists are
providing health care in free clinics and providing for refugees. This has, however, come
about due to the massive retreat of the state after the financial crisis so is partly from
necessity rather than ideology. Is there some way for us to side-step this or do our
living conditions have to get as bad as Greece before the working class will organise in
this way? There are not only positive outcomes if this happens- spectre of fascism if the
working class looks like rising up, or perhaps universal basic income would be used to
mollify the public in a similar way to the post-war economic consensus? The financial
crisis has changed public opinions and made some ideas fashionable again (c.f. Corbyn and
re-nationalisation agenda) so this seems a possibility. Do good material conditions mean
the working class has more time for education and organising? Is accelerationism,
therefore, going in the wrong direction?
Conclusion: are modern academics just regurgitating these same ideas? It all seems so
familiar (and depressing that 130 years later we have not escaped). Seemingly it all comes
down to education, education, education so perhaps we should go there for our next text!
Phew, that was some speedy note taking. I'm sure I missed a lot of the discussion, but
this covers a good deal of what we talked about.
We will be meeting again on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at Freedom Bookshop and next time
will be looking at texts on anarchist education as this was one of the themes pulled form
this months' texts. Details will be announced asap on our blog, twitter and facebook.
https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/anarchist-reading-group-1/
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Message: 2
Boss at Carrefour is not a panacea. Militating in some stores where there is a racist
atmosphere, it is even less so. However, the sector is in turmoil, and the employees will
pay very dearly ! Story of the strike of March 31 in a hypermarket of Herault. ---- This
morning, like six mornings out of seven, I get up at 3am to go to work. Usually it is not
joy, but today I do not speed myself. I wonder how this day is going to unfold. ---- We
are indeed Saturday, March 31, 2018, and today is a national strike in Carrefour stores.
Will it have, as was the case in 2005 - my first strike at Carrefour, organized by FO -
the appearance of a funeral march ? At the time FO had negotiated with management to stop
the strike at 14 hours ... and we had learned a few minutes before: end of strike, resume
the taf otherwise there will surely be sanctions ! Following this episode, the CFDT was
formed and FO was virtually eliminated in the following elections.
For the strike of this year, at the call of the inter-union CGT-CFDT-FO, was planned a
distribution of leaflets - normal - but, innovation, we had to filter the entrances and
exits in the store during all the day. When I tumble around 4:20, I find a dozen
colleagues. Gradually our group grows. Around 7 o'clock, we discover that the management
makes the non-striking staff return by the drive to avoid being pressured ... and that the
deputy of the CGT staff delegate is among them ! Indignation in the ranks.
As often, the walkout was maximum in reserve and on the stalls - up to 90 % at the fish
shop, 100 % at the bakery - and very low on the crates. The majority of the employees are
women in precarious situations, with open hours, who can not afford to lose a penny.
Thepenization of spirits
At the three entrances of the hypermarket, our filter dams are composed of Caddy clusters.
By taking a leaflet, we let the vehicles of families with children and those who go to
drive. Good surprise: a delegation of the university of letters of Montpellier pays us a
visit. His proposal for a convergence of struggle is perceived positively, even if
oppositions are heard.
You should know that most of the employees come from the surrounding villages, bathed by
the ideas of hunting, fishing, nature and tradition, De Villiers and, more recently, the
FN or Debout France ... At one time in the shop, there were even two CGT delegates who
were propaganda for the FN - one was excluded and the other joined the CFDT before being
excluded in turn. In short, all this maintains a mentality neither very solidarity nor
very combative (euphemism). For example, when I use the word worker to define us, it often
provokes protests: " Oh no ! We are employees, we have nothing to do with it ! And when
the anger rumbling, it is often enough for the management to organize a small evening or a
small barbecue at noon to be well seen and calm the recriminations.
But there is worse. When the news is marked by Islamist attacks, the colleagues of Muslim
origin morflent badly. After the massacre of the Bataclan, for several days, on the
reserves, employees had fun writing hate messages about halal products - like " go home
", " suitcase or coffin ", etc. . And the delegates did not want to alert management to
stop it. Some went as far as defecating next to the toilets and registering with the
marker " go back from where you came from " - message to the cleaning staff, mostly of
Maghrebi or Malagasy origin.
In other words, organizing a strike can be a breath of fresh air, a parenthesis of class
solidarity that creates a different atmosphere for a while.
However, there are reasons for protest. Productivity is rising steadily, sometimes
bordering on harassment, with gradual reductions in numbers, so that we do not feel too
much, and unskilled equipment that breaks down.
The motto is " savings, savings ", not because Carrefour is deficit, far from it. Its
profits are enormous, but considered insufficient by the shareholders.
There are currently big questions about the economic model of large retailers. Hexagonal
heavyweights (Carrefour, Casino, Leclerc, Casino, Cora) fear the arrival of outsiders like
the American Amazon or Chinese Alibaba, doped with digital and advanced robotics. To
maintain their margins, they rely on the help of the State (break the Labor Code, property
tax exemption and other tax gifts like the CICE), put pressure on the employees (openings
in the evening and Sunday ) and launch restructuring plans with wagons of redundancies.
The race to automation
Everyone is committed to its visionary plan: " Vision 2025 " is precisely that of
Auchan, which announces an envelope of 1.3 billion euros to restructure, with 800
deletions of posts at the key, negotiated with the CFTC and the GSC. Groups merge their
central purchasing offices (Casino and Intermarché, Auchan and Système U). Automated
checkouts are poised to expand as customers are increasingly " educated ", and Casino
wants to emulate British Ocado's robotic system, which would prepare a basket of 50 items
in less than six minutes.
Carrefour, like Casino, wants to reduce its surfaces, or exploit them in partnership with
other brands (the Fnac, for example). Some departments may be limited to the withdrawal of
products ordered online. The drive formula of Carrefour (we drive away the order placed on
the Internet) continues to grow: there are now more than 4,000, and even recently, "
pedestrian drive ".
Finally, there is the solution to get rid of stores deemed too unprofitable, either by
closing or renting them. This is currently the case for 273 Carrefour City or Contact
stores. However, the lease-management is the promise of a decline in social conditions for
employees transferred. In some areas, staff reductions of 10 to 30 % and up to 20% of pay
cuts have been noted .
In short, the large distribution is in turmoil, and the bosses are doing everything so
that the shareholders receive their dividends as if nothing had happened. These are the
employees who suffer on their payrolls, in their shoulders, in their legs, in stress ...
We will need collective struggles to stop this, and to raise the level of consciousness
against this ruthless capitalist system.
Eric (AL Montpellier)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Grande-distribution-Barrages-de-Caddie-contre-les-restructurations
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Message: 3
City authorities in Hamilton, Ontario, recently decided that the circle-A is ‘hate
material'. A local Anarchist Social centre was ordered to remove the famous anarchist
symbol from its window, using a bylaw usually reserved for issues around improper
maintenance. The city's Mayor was quick to state his support for the actions, announcing
his belief that the circle-a is a ‘hate symbol'. This went against statements made by the
local police, and even against statements that would later be made by the Mayor (yes, the
same mayor). ---- If you think this sounds like it's getting rather confused, you're not
wrong. We should probably take you back to the beginning of this saga. In March, during
the evening of Hamilton's anarchist bookfair, a group of anti-gentrification activists
marched down Locke Street behind a banner reading ‘we are the ungovernable'. The banner
also featured the dreaded circle A. They caused an estimated $100,000 of damage to the
street hailed as the cities ‘gentrification success story' before disappearing into the
night. This was just the latest, and boldest, act taken against the cities gentrifiers.
With no arrests on the night, and no solid leads, authorities were left embarrassed and
looking for someone to blame.
Police attention quickly turned to the bookfair itself, with suspected organisers raided
by a swat team, who broke into their home, threw a stun grenade, dragged them out of bed,
trashed their rooms, seized computers, phones and books, and arrested one of them on
‘conspiracy' charges. Focus was also on the most visible part of the local anarchist
scene, The Tower, a social and events space. The Tower maintained a policy of unapologetic
support for the actions of anyone fighting the class war from the side of the oppressed,
refusing to play into the hands of the ‘good anarchist/bad anarchist' narrative. Along
with a barrage of threats from the far right came two actual attacks on The Tower,
resulting in a smashed front window. Which is where the latest act of pettiness from the
City Authorities comes in.
In the most apt use of the famous Durruti quote we've seen, The Tower sprayed the plywood
board covering their newly broken window with the phrase ‘We are not in the least afraid
of ruins, for we carry a new world here in our hearts (A)‘ . A ‘property standards order'
was issued to remove the offending enclosed letter, with a spokesperson later telling the
press "The anarchist symbol is considered hate material by the City of Hamilton and
Hamilton Police Services and as such, must be removed". Only... is it? Even the Hamilton
Police Department distanced themselves from the claim, saying "It does not meet the
threshold of a hate crime", and they were the ones who sent a swat team after the local
anarchists! Experts on both hate symbols and free speech were quick to weigh in and defend
the symbols use. Quite a few pointed out anarchists are most often found fighting against
those that spread hatred based on the criteria listed in hate crime laws.
The response from most people, and not just the anarchists, was a resounding ‘WTF?'.
Hamilton's Mayor stepped in to answer this question, saying "Certainly the anarchists that
have locally presented themselves have done things that would be considered to be
inappropriate, so if you tie the two of them together, I would say that's a symbol of
destruction and mayhem and causing a crisis to a particular area, is that hateful? I think
it is". This shows a willingness to support some pretty totalitarian practices. Is
associating with people who are ‘considered to be inappropriate' enough to warrant state
censorship? Apparently so. It's nice to be reminded that the freedom offered by liberal
democracies is only ever freedom to do as you're told!
Still, it seems Mayor Eisenberger wasn't quite ready to put himself in the firing line for
his beliefs. Perhaps it was the talk of a constitutional legal case which triggered his
change of heart, or maybe he was worried about how unpopular it was making him, could be
he started to realise that an action like this might lead to MORE anarchist graffiti in
his city - anarchists not being known for doing as they're told. His current line is "it
is clear the anarchy symbol is not a hate symbol and efforts are being undertaken to
immediately update staff training". We can only hope the staff training includes
information on syndicalist struggle in the work place, and some good introductory texts
(we're quite partial to Errico Malatesta's At the Cafe) . If not, there's always the next
Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair.
Whilst this bit of state interference was relatively harmless, the political conspiracy
charges against the arrested anarchist Cedar aren't. If you can spare some cash to help
support Cedar and their legal defence, you can donate via Hamilton Anarchist Support.
http://afed.org.uk/the-canadian-town-that-tried-to-ban-anarchism/
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Message: 4
Approximately 80 people participated in today's concentration against the auctions in
Patras. Initially, a gathering took place at Georgiou Square and then the protesters moved
to Ravazoula's notary, stood for a long time shouting slogans. We then headed for the
second office that is conducting auctions in the city, that of Papageorgiou, in Votsi 21.
---- Tomorrow, auctions are scheduled again in all 2 offices. ---- For our part, we point
out that the only way to be able to respond to the attack by the state, the banks and the
bosses is the road of social and class struggles. Employees, unemployed, youth, locals and
immigrants, knowing their real needs, must live in their own hands, organize themselves
and fight, collectively, self-organized and uninvolved, away from all sorts of mediation
and factories. In every social and workplace, in schools and schools, workplaces,
neighborhoods and streets, away from any party and syndicalist manipulation that
inevitably leads to the weakening and degeneration of the social and class movement. It is
now perceived that people from the bottom of society, they can not have any confidence and
can not wait for anything from the various aspiring managers and mediators of social
anger. The only way to abolish exploitation and oppression is the self-organized,
unconditional social and class struggles of the base, the total rupture with the rotten
system and the overthrow of the state and capitalism.
We emphasize that the insidious approaches of the state, the bosses, the bankers and their
notaries will fall into the gap. No attempt to evict will be tolerated. Safeguard our
neighborhoods, apply social solidarity and class self-organization in practice.
To link the few and demanding struggles for permanent and stable work, access to the
social goods of housing, care, education, for the defense of labor and social rights, with
the comprehensive and timely social and political demand to overthrow the world power and
the libertarian transformation of society. For the society of equality and solidarity. Of
justice and freedom.
NO PEOPLE WITHOUT HOUSE
TO ORGANIZE SOCIAL SELF-MADE AND CASUAL COMPETITION!
CONCENTRATION: THURSDAY 24 MAY, 1pm ON THE SQUARE OF GEORGE (KORINTHOS)
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