Anarchic update news all over the world - 20.12.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  International of Anarchist Federations: About the "yellow
      vests" (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Britain, CLASS WAR CALLS FOR 'NEW POLL TAX DEMONSTRATIONON
      on NIGHT OF 'MEANINGLESS VOTE' JANUARY 21st. 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Class War, Ian McBone: Something is happening before us
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Poland, ozzip: The voice of the Amazon crew: A conversation
      with an agency worker [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  anarchist communist group ACG: Brexit isn't about you or the
      EU (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Greece, ipposd: [Patra] Information from the course against
      the murder of Eleni T. by denial horse on (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1





Several weeks ago, a movement of anger as we have not seen in a longtime appeared in 
France, totally disorienting the state power. It is understandable and legitimate in 
regard to the suffered social violence; the diversity of its participants is an indication 
of how much people are fed up with the successive, more or less hidden, austerity 
politics. Even if impressive, this revolt is only adding to the recent social movements 
taking place throughout France in the hospitals, the rail company, universities, 
high-schools etc. ---- The main characteristic of this movement is the rejection of 
representation by politicians and of self-proclaimed leaders. On the occupied roundabouts, 
new modes of social interaction are being invented. Anarchists approve of this attitude 
which has always been theirs. However, the revolt will be in vain if it is not followed by 
proposals. They exist, for example in Saint-Nazaire or Commercy, and even if they don't 
fully satisfy the anarchists, they deserve to be supported as long as they are moving 
toward emancipation.

We are condemning and denouncing the many cases of violent State repression (arbitrary 
arrests, flash trials, mutilations from police ‘non-lethal' rounds and other offensive 
police weapons) as the only answer to the protests.

The victory of this movement will not be the dissolution of the Assemblée nationale 
(editor's note: French Parliament) in order to fill it with demagogues/populists and/or 
nationalists who themselves would not tolerate such demonstrations, but in its disruption 
through the establishment of self-organising and anarchist federalism.

Fédération Anarchiste

https://federation-anarchiste.org/

------------------------------

Message: 2





'We got rid of Thatcher by the Trafalgar Square action against the poll tax now we can get 
rid of May as well' said a spokesperson.
We're fed up with false choices while our class suffers. ENOUGH!

------------------------------

Message: 3





The people from the margins are taking over parliament - more and more everyday noisier 
and rowdier - these are our revolutionaries but we wont see it cos they don't look like 
our yellow jacket comrades or come with perfectly formed ideas - they are old and don't 
come from anypolitcal background....they are enthused by STEVE BRAY the coin collector 
from PORT TALBOT who has found new ways of giving people a voice - a direct democracy in 
contrast to those waffling inside.
i'm down there noon tomorrow for PMQ's - come and see, come and shout, come and stay

------------------------------

Message: 4






Thanks to twitter.com/balcerowicz_com for mem and support. ---- The interview appeared in 
the company newspaper of the Employee Initiative Commission operating in Amazon, entitled 
"Voice of the Amazon crew". The newspaper is published in a circulation of 10,000 and 
distributed to Amazon warehouse employees on interchange. The whole number can be 
downloaded in the link below or HERE . ---- During the Peak period, Amazon hired many 
temporary employees through the Randstad and Adecco agencies. How would you rate the 
proposed conditions? ---- First of all, the term "temporary employees" is a great 
simplification. Many of us have previously worked in Amazon by agencies in this or other 
periods, some have had such experience for 4 years. These are permanently temporary 
employees. At this peak Amazon, the agency offered a higher rate than before - PLN 18.5 
gross. However, we do not get a package of medical care or health insurance, although at 
the same time we work just as hard. Some even harder, because regular employees often know 
better methods to save the body from exhaustion. Work at Amazon is not a black magic, 
tasks are spontaneous. Except for some exceptions, after a few days even very fresh 
employees are productive enough. Everyone's legs, back, and hands hurt in the same way. We 
should have the same recovery options in case of injury.

This fall, Amazon was looking for people with the slogan "earn 10,000 in 10 weeks". For 
several hundred people this slogan turned out to be a scam. I know workers who calmly made 
the norm and did not take any L4 or holidays, they did not have N-ones, and yet at the end 
of November they did not renew their contract. No reason was given to them. Many employees 
learned about this on the last day of the month, 30 minutes before the end of work. They 
landed on the pavement from day to day, though some had heard a few days earlier that they 
were doing well. Such treatment is one of the reasons why I joined the union.

What is the recruitment look like now? What caught your attention?

Randstad called me back the same day my colleague recommended me. They only recruited 
Back. I made an appointment for the next day at the agency's office. Here, after a short 
introduction to work, I had to pass a psychological examination on the pad. Many questions 
related to the attitude to the theft, would I want to tighten the punishment for her in 
Poland, whether I will be loyal to bosses, satisfied with hard work and whether I will be 
co-opting in a variety of situations.

After the exam, I lined up in the queue to examine the occupational medicine doctor. These 
lasted 1-2 minutes. The doctor examined my blood pressure, asked about education, chronic 
diseases and nothing else, maybe what music I'm listening to. In total, I'm not surprised 
that this scale of research has not detected anything or influenced the type of employment 
of this 27-year-old boy who died of a heart attack when I was already working in Sady. It 
seems that he commuted from a distance, he had nicks and overtime. Amazon should not 
assign them to him, but it's only doctors' job to pat them that everyone is as healthy as 
a fish and can do anything.

Coming back to recruitment - Zero day and paid training took place in Sady. The OHS 
training of the external company left much to be desired. We should hear about real 
threats, overload confirmed by PIP research etc. There are many accidents in the Amazon 
itself, but the instructor did not mention any of them or how we should react, whether any 
issues are still departing from specific OHS rules and we should pay particular attention 
to them what has PIP already done about it, or what to ask for from a medic or 
occupational health and safety, is it worth reporting something to the union or whether 
there is a relationship at all? In return, the trainer told a couple of funny anecdotes 
from other plants where employees exaggerated health and safety issues, which 
unnecessarily condemned the bosses for additional costs.

Why did you start work?

Apart from the obvious need for income, I was interested in working in a "modern" American 
factory. I heard that this is the most developed system of work organization, where 
everything is arranged by complicated algorithms. Some even say that these algorithms are 
a recipe for justice in the future. I wanted to experience it on my own skin. After a 
month, I see that this whole system is neither objective nor fair to us, employees.
I think that in Amazon employees have no control or specific knowledge about how these 
algorithms work, how the standards are calculated. In fact, what is modern in Amazon is 
mainly the method of screwing the bolt for greater efficiency. Here, perhaps, and the 
brigadier does not catch me an instant, but I am controlled by a wireless scanner 
connected via the Internet to the manager's computer. In the end, the work is just as 
tiring every hundred years ago. The Amazon system does not predict fatigue. Even if you do 
twice as much as you need, or get twice as heavy goods, of course you will not get a text 
message "rest" and information about the nearest chair. Besides, there is no atmosphere to 
crouch on a chair and rarely get any closer. And managers only repeat on stendapach, not 
to sit on totes ... Work in this system is so hard, that after four days I'm exhausted, my 
spine, my feet, my knees hurt. No wonder they are doing a big rotation here. Modernity 
should not be reduced to driving an employee.

What do you think you need to change or improve?

You have to change a lot. There should not be such a huge difference in wages between us 
and colleagues in Germany - we work longer and harder on the same bread. For this you need 
to organize work on the plant so that we can rest without fear, sit down, go to the 
toilet, drink. To increase the number of chairs, people will not sit down on totems, which 
is very uncomfortable at the top. The toilet should also be more - on the tower B on the 
third floor there is no need to warm up with a kilometer for the need, and the standard 
flies the same as on other floors. Managers do not like to sit down on totes, and I will 
not be surprised if someone finally gets to the top of the pile. Further, the quality and 
safety costs should not fall on the employee's shoulders. Amazon says that his slogan is 
"obsession with the customer", you need to look after high quality. Secondly, all the time 
they repeat and write on mirrors in bathrooms - security is the most important thing. And 
in practice, the employee is assessed mainly on the basis of how quickly he works. The 
fast pace of work does not go hand in hand with quality and safety. Amazon rather knows 
about these contradictions - it requires high speed, and through it I'm whipping around 
myself and give me reason to slow down, because the quality of evil, too few "customers 
smiles".

What do you and your colleagues do to improve the situation?

We struggle with exhaustion as much as possible, I see a lot of people perching at least 
for a moment and anywhere - on totes, handrails, in toilets. Although you can not and do 
not have anywhere. Managers often stress that leaving the workplace is breaking the rules. 
I hear that all the "illegal" seconds and minutes of rest sum up to thousands of "losses" 
of Mr. Bezos and the company. But he can not work constantly for three hours, doing the 
same monotonous standing movements, or walking around without using the toilet. When a 
woman has a period, it's hard to change the tampon or sanitary napkin within 3 hours of 
movement. Small breaks are done by anyone who needs to be able to work differently on some 
intense days. Some go to the canteen regardless of the official breaks for pain 
medication, leg massage or regular coffee. In this respect, hardly anyone takes bans on 
managers seriously, because these bans are against health. The other thing is software 
breaks and the end of work. Amazon would like employees to leave office in a second when 
the gong sounds. Even if the workplace is on the third floor. I am glad that it is 
difficult to find an employee who applies to it, unless he counts on some promotion before 
depletion. We all know that we have to leave the workstation early enough to be in a 
proper time, near the exit. We are trying to quickly find out what the norm is in order to 
control the pace and not go crazy. As the norm is calculated is the secret of Amazon, 
leaders sometimes say that it is "higher mathematics and you just need to trust." In 
response, we try to develop our own way of feeling at a healthy pace. We save ourselves, 
because it does not save us. Employees are willing to share strategies, how to better 
steer clear of the system if it threatens health. Managers and leaders respond to raids on 
canteens, use locks at the exit, bring punishment, but they are not able to force everyone 
to work at breakneck speed.

Thank you for the interview!

Other articles in the newspaper. Voice of the Amazon crew:

- Hard work does not pay - about the Safe Pack, expert opinions and court case against Amazon

- Legal advice: change of working time, random payment

- IP Amazon jointly with LOT employees

- The needs and opinions of Wroclaw's employees

- "Against scanning" - a position on the subject of scanning by managers 5 minutes before 
the end of work

- A conversation about critical roles

- "Idle?" on the subject of "time off task" or alleged additional breaks

  - Accidents at work - what to do?

- Information on employee transport, group insurance and others

- Crossword

- New model membership declaration

- Information on contributions, a list of people representing the relationship

http://ozzip.pl/teksty/informacje/ogolnopolskie/item/2433-glos-zalogi-amazona-rozmowa-z-pracownica-agencyjna

------------------------------

Message: 5





The reason that the government is divided over the EU is because the issue they are 
fighting over isn't Europe. ---- The real issue is capitalism, but we aren't allowed to 
talk about that. If we do start to use the ‘c' word it might be followed by words such as 
‘exploitation,' ‘parasitic ruling class,' and even ‘revolution'. ---- The EU debate is not 
about how best to protect ‘British interests' because (apart from being code for bosses' 
interests) no such thing exists. Instead it's about which group of capitalists are going 
to be favoured by the British state. All the discussion around trade agreements, custom 
unions and regulations is actually about which sections of capital gets to exploit workers 
the most. In other words, will the future regulations and government rules benefit the 
service sector or industry most, the bankers or the car makers, and so on. Whilst 
different wealthy interests might try and use popular pressure in their argument between 
each other (anger over ‘leave means leave' or calls for a ‘People's Vote') they do so 
entirely cynically. All the elements of both the ‘leave' and ‘remain' campaigns and the 
major political parties would unite to defend their ‘right' to exploit working people if 
they thought it was under threat. The 17 million plus people who voted to leave the EU did 
have an influence, but they could only influence who gets to exploit and rule them (though 
even that is not a foregone conclusion).

The fact that the political and economic elite are so publicly indulging in infighting is, 
in part, a failure of the neo-liberal capitalist agenda. The comings and goings of Theresa 
May is pure theatre, an obvious attempt to head off her enemies in her own divided Tory 
party, the wrath of the DUP and within the Labour Party (aka Her Majesty's Loyal 
Opposition), while trying to cling to power. But it is also a sign of the weakness of the 
radical ‘anti-capitalist' left and the Labour Party which many of these ‘radicals' have 
flocked to. It shows that a Corbyn led Labour Party is not a meaningful challenge to the 
establishment. If any group of workers were organised enough to start resisting the 
current system then our ruling class would immediately unite.

So Anarchist Communists have neither advocated ‘leave' or ‘remain' and we aim to show 
people that Brexit isn't the important issue that faces the working class. The real issue 
is if the working class is going to organise itself so it can fight back against its 
exploitation.

But people are right to be worried about Brexit. With and kind of political insecurity, 
it's the working class that pays the price of that insecurity and it is going to have an 
effect immediately; one which will benefit some a little and harm others more. However it 
has to be understood that the few workers' rights we have left are not a gift from the EU 
or the government but are the result of the historical struggles by successful working 
class organisations.

If you are interested in getting involved in that fight, then you should consider joining 
the ACG. Have a look at our aims and principles and get in touch at the links below:

Aims and principles: www.anarchistcommunism.org/aims-and-principles/

Contact us: www.anarchistcommunism.org/join/

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/12/16/brexit-isnt-about-you-or-the-eu/

------------------------------

Message: 6





 From 12:00 on the Georgiou Square there was a call for the patras pride & blender patras, 
the initiative of women against patriarchy, the anarchist initiative and the "expel 
racism" movement. ---- Approximately 200 people ran the block along the path that followed 
shouting a number of slogans. ---- As an initiative of women against patriarchy, we traded 
with a banner that read "No delusion to the world of patriarchy, state and capitalism - 
Women's Games for Emancipation and Freedom" by sharing a relevant text . During the course 
of the process, there were chants such as: "Against State and Patriarchy, Emancipation and 
Anarchy," "Women's revolutionary struggles for emancipation all over the earth," "Gendered 
police violence hides" feminism " of "sovereignty", "From Mexico to Turkey, women's 
struggles for freedom", "Refugee workers of the land, the righteous", "The Solidarity of 
Women War in the War of the Bosses".

... This is not an isolated event. It belongs to the broader context of tension of gender 
violence and sexism. That is, all those perceptions, which degrade the woman into an 
object to be used, with rape, are the wildest expression of man's dominance over the woman.

... Perceptions that are not produced spontaneously by those who belong to the bottom of 
the social and class pyramid, but on the contrary, are cultivated and diffused by those 
who belong to the upper strata of this world. That is, from sovereignty, being the 
products of the organized society of socialization. An enterprise that has resulted in the 
awakening of the most conservative social reflexes, as was the murder and the lynching of 
the seropositive activist Zackie Oh, and the assassination of land worker Petrit Zifle by 
a fascist, Corfu...

... For us, the struggle of women to free them from the bonds of patriarchy is an integral 
part of the struggle for the abolition of state and capitalist imposition. Recognizing 
that freedom is neither granted nor granted, but is conquered through the struggles 
themselves, we choose to organize and collectivize - as women and as anarchists - and to 
fight together, with the workers, the unemployed, the students, the students, the people 
of the WORLD, to unite our voices and our action against our daily dynasties, all over the 
world, with a vision of a society of equality, dignity, freedom and solidarity. Because 
the eradication of gendered violence passes through the elimination of the rotten world of 
patriarchy, state and capital, and the building of this female emancipation,

NO REFLECTION TO THE WORLD OF PATRIARCH, STATE AND CAPITALISM

WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL AND TAX WELFARE FOR HANDLING AND FREEDOM, LIFE AND DIGNITY

women's initiative against patriarchy

enantiastinpatriarxia@gmail.com

https://ipposd.wordpress.com/

------------------------------