Today's Topics:
1. [Europe] This is MV Louise Michel - An independent
high-speed lifeboat patrolling the Mediterranean By ANA (pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
high-speed lifeboat patrolling the Mediterranean By ANA (pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. [Porto Alegre-RS] Posters in solidarity with the presbyted
anarchists By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
anarchists By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. bandilang itim: An Open Letter of a Part-Time Instructor
from PUP (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
from PUP (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. UK, ACG: Fascist shenanigans in Dover (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. APO: [Patra] Assembly for the organization of
anti-state-anti-fascist-anti-repression demonstration on
anti-state-anti-fascist-anti-repression demonstration on
the day of the assassination of P. Fyssas [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. ait russia: 94th Yellow Vest Weekly Protest Act [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. anarkismo.net: What do anarchists mean by "federalism"? by
Daniel al-Rashid * (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
It may seem unbelievable that there is a need for a home-made emergency vehicle on one of Europe's busiest waterways, but there are. The
migrant crisis means that European states are instructing their Coast Guard not to respond to distress calls from "non-Europeans", leaving
desperate people adrift and helpless at sea. To make matters worse, the authorities prevent other boats from providing assistance, arresting
crews and confiscating vessels that do so. ---- Louise Michel is an old French Navy boat that we customize to search and rescue. She is as
agile as she is pink. With a length of 30 meters and a capacity of 28 knots (about 52 km / h), it was purchased with the income obtained
from the sale of a work by Bansky - who then decorated it with a fire extinguisher. It is commanded and manned by a team of rescue workers
from across Europe. It works under a horizontal hierarchy and a vegan diet.
Our mission
Defend maritime law and rescue anyone in danger, without prejudice. We, aboard Louise Michel, believe that we are all individuals, and
nationality should not make a difference in each other's rights and in the way we treat each other. We answer the SOS call of everyone in
danger, not just to save their souls - but ours.
How to support
MV Louise Michel needs:
* Funding to do this work, face legal proceedings and replace seized equipment.
* Help to disseminate content about these inhumane policies. #searescueisnotacrime
People at sea are not unlucky victims of the elements of nature. This crisis is not a natural disaster. It is created by political decisions
and by a failure of humanity. It cannot be solved by lifeboats. If we want to prevent drowning in a sustainable way, we have to stop forcing
people to get on these boats. So, if you want to contribute - speak out against racism, join movements for climate justice - take any action
to defend global respect for all forms of life, near and far.
How societies manage migration is a complex issue that involves us all. But he should never be one who casually waives the death penalty.
Search and Rescue
Solidarity and Resistance
mvlouisemichel.org
Translation> Erico Liberatti
Related content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2020/08/31/reino-unido-barco-financiado-pelo-artista-plastico-banksy-ajuda-a-resgatar-imigrantes-no-mediterraneo/
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 2
Responding to the international call of the Week of Agitation Pelxs Presxs Anarchists, some posters were spread on the walls of the city of
Porto Alegre reminding the combative life of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti and affirming our deepest contempt for bourgeois justice and,
above all, its materialization through the existence of the prison. ---- This small gesture is dedicated to the companions Mónica Caballero
and Francisco Solar who, once again, demonstrate that their convictions are stronger than any punishment or threat from the State. ---- We
also could not fail to demonstrate our deep solidarity with the Mapuche political prisoners on a hunger strike, an example of strength and
dignity for any rebel or revolutionary!
FIRE TO PRISONS AND FIRE TO FASCISTS!
COMBATING SOLIDARITY WITH TODXS XS PRESXS FOR FIGHTING!
LIVE THE ANARCHY!
Related content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2020/08/29/porto-alegre-rs-cartazes-semana-de-agitacao-pelos-anarquistas-presxs/
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
A submitted open letter by Jose Mario De Vega with a foreword and afterword by Simoun Magsalin. ---- A Foreword ---- Simoun Magsalin ----
Bandilang Itim received this open letter from a former part-time instructor from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), a
state university. ---- President Rodrigo Duterte ran on the platform to end contractualization yet contractualization remains the norm both
in private and public workplaces. Rather than banning contractualization, the state instead institutionalized it in the private sector while
doing the bare minimum to curb the practice in the public sector. Two years ago in 2018, there are approximately 2.4 million government
workers of which 27 percent of these are contractual workers. De Vega's open letter is one account of the experience of being a contractual
worker in a state university.
In the open letter, De Vega details the absurdities in being a contractual worker in a state university. Contractual workers essentially
have the same responsibilities and tasks as regular workers but are denied tenure and benefits like GSIS (high interest state pension).
Additionally, part-time instructors are expected to perform free labor on university projects in which their superiors earn bonuses while
the part-time instructors get nothing in return.
After the open letter, we will return to this discussion of contractualization in the public sector and some strategies to combat it.
An Open Letter of a Part-Time Instructor from PUP
Jose Mario De Vega
I am compelled both my indignation and academic duty to write to your newspaper to bring into your attention the grave injustices, the
discrimination and the rampant exploitation of intellectual labor being systematically committed and still being practiced up to this very
day by the university where I formerly taught.
My name is Jose Mario D. De Vega, an ex-faculty member of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities of the College of Arts and Letters of
the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). For the record, I've been teaching at the said school since 2012 with a brief service
interruption from 2014 up to 2016 due to the political power-play within, which is so bloody toxic.
As a part-time instructor, based on the law of the land, I am a contractual employee. Hence, I do not enjoy any of the rights and privileges
of a regular government employee.
As a part-timer, the administration of PUP are exploiting and discriminating us. How? Please do allow me to explain even in brief their
unscrupulous and hideous evil scheme.
As contractuals, we asked us to prepare and deliver presentations which has no honorarium whatsoever, they asked us to participate to the
school activities beyond our time, with no compensation. They even used and utilized all our academic files, intellectual achievements and
the whole of our academic dossiers for their so-called accreditation.
Later, they will used the result which comes from our accomplishments and achievements for their report which will be the basis of their
performance bonus.
The regulars will have it, while we, the contractuals, which are one who contributed a lot for the said accomplishment report will not even
get even a single centavo.
During the whole course of this pandemic, which is still on-going, we contractuals did not even received even a single peso from our school,
as a form of "ayuda," "abuloy," "donasyon," "limos" or whatever!
The reason? We are not regular, we are contractual. Yet, it did not stop them last May 30th to issue a memo which requires faculties to
prepare and create teaching materials in preparation to the so-called blended/on-line/virtual learning under the "new normal."
This is unjust, discriminatory and utterly unfair. When it comes to salaries, benefits and privileges, we contractuals are excluded, but
when it comes to other added tasks and extra labor - which has no compensation nor allowances - why the hell we are included?
This is precisely the reason why I decided to leave that so-called "people's university" for the second time in my life. I can no longer
tolerate their nefarious and insidious evil practices.
I would like to stress the following:
What is the moral and legal right of the administration of the PUP to issue that discriminatory memo?
How come that memo did not clearly stipulated that the same is only applicable to the regular employee?
If indeed, the said is only for the regular employee, how come it is course or transmitted and/or posted to the group chat of both the
regular and part-time employees?
How come there has been no consultation that were conducted relative to the said memo?
Why it is that the administration did not even give anything whatsoever to the contractual employees of the university?
I've written to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to complain about this fiasco and injustice. They required the administration to reply to
my complaint. When I answered by way of a rejoinder, the CSC told me that their job is merely to ask the PUP to reply to my complaint and
further advised me to transmit my complaint to the Commission on Higher Education.
This irritates me! So, I retorted: You are a constitutional creation, why the hell on earth you are directing me to go to an agency that is
merely created by a special law?
I have also written to the Commission on Higher Education with the help and solidarity of the Teachers' Dignity Coalition. Until today, we
are still waiting for the reply and/or report of those government agencies with regard to our queries and/or petition.
All I wanted is to get an official pronouncement from them on the morality, legality, constitutionality and propriety of the Memo issued by
the administration of PUP.
In my view, the whole higher educational system is rubbish, broken and fucked up! It is based not on merit, justice and integrity, but
rather on injustice, politics, exploitation, careerism, degradation, and indeed, bastardization of principles and prostitution of values!
This is a shame!
The constitution states that we have the so-called state protection of labor.
Now, the whole thing is absolutely clear. It's a blatant lie, a hoax and mere propaganda.
All I am asking you, sir/madame is simply to publish this letter of mine as a notice to the public and to the whole world.
I beseech thee, please give us the justice and due recognition that we justly deserve. Highlight our voices, print our images and fight with
us in our quest for justice, dignity and honor!
We want our people to know and so as the rest of the world; the undeniably horrible and absolute horrendous plight of our part-time
instructors from our so-called state universities and colleges all over the country.
Same with our front-liners, our dearest doctors and beloved nurses, we, contractuals/part-time instructors are also degraded, neglected,
abused and exploited by a rubbish, incontestably unfair and utterly broken system!
Our respective schools abandoned us and the government betrayed us!
Shame! Shame! Super bloody shame!!!!
Thank you!
Respectfully yours,
Jose Mario De Vega
AB Political Science, 1999
MA in Philosophy, 2004
LlB, 2007
PhD, 2016 - present
An Afterword
Simoun Magsalin
De Vega's account is not unique. In many branches of government, there are two tiers of workers: plantilla and contractual. Plantilla
workers have tenure and enjoy state-mandated benefits like a special pension in the GSIS. Contractual workers (also called job orders) are
denied these state-mandated benefits and are not recognized as regular workers despite having the very same duties and responsibilities as
regular workers. Contractual workers in government often work on a no-work-no-pay basis where they are denied sick leave and are excluded
from most bonuses. They must have their contracts renewed every year. Contractual workers must also compete against each other should
positions open up in the plantilla. However it is not uncommon that there are contractual workers in government who receive "loyalty awards"
for working at that office for a decade or more yet have not yet been regularized.
The division the government places between plantilla and contractual workers are tools to divide the energies of the working class. The
existence of a class of contractual workers is a threat - a blackmail even - to keep plantilla workers in line. Meanwhile the class of
contractual workers are pitted against each other to compete for plantilla slots that may never even open. Government appointees enjoy their
fat salaries on the top of the hierarchy while they blackmail the plantilla into submission and overwork the contractuals below them.
Between competition and blackmail, government workers are made too preoccupied to organize into unions. The government workers' unions that
do exist are toothless mechanisms as government workers do not have the right to strike.
What then are the anarchist tasks on the problem of contractualization in the public sector? The tasks of the anarchists is to promote a
self-directed labor militancy within the state apparatus. The promotion of labor militancy within the state apparatus is not the endorsement
of the state apparatus, just as neither is the promotion of labor militancy in private firms an endorsement of that firm. This self-directed
labor militancy must include all workers - both plantilla and contractuals - and specifically exclude the bosses and appointees. Such a
self-directed labor movement ought be organized in an egalitarian manner where workers relate to each other as equals regardless of their
position in the office hierarchy. Solidarity is the weapon against contractualization.
If the byzantine and convoluted regulations around government workers prevent them from forming formal state-recognized unions, then they
can instead form strike committees around specific demands to manage their self-directed struggles. While these strike committees will not
be recognized as official bodies for collective bargaining, they can still enforce demands given the right circumstances. Against the fact
that government workers do not have the right to strike, we recall that striking was once an illegal act. The only illegal strike is the
strike that loses. As contractual workers constitute a minority in some state agencies, it is critical that plantilla workers join them in
withdrawing their labor and show that solidarity is stronger than the bosses. Together and self-directed, the working class can conquer
gains from the bosses.
Information on direct action, self-directed labor militancy, and strike committees can be read from Part II of Workers' Councils by Anton
Pannekoek. Methods for self-directed labor militancy can be read from Chapter 5 of Anarcho-Syndicalism by Rudolf Rocker.
If you are a contractual worker in government, reach out to your peers and discuss among yourselves the problems you face. When organized as
a group, you are stronger together. Keep your activities away from the prying eyes and ears of the bosses as they will do everything in
their power to frustrate you. Then as a group, reach out to labor groups in the country to ask who can help you. You can also reach out to
Bandilang Itim who can point your group to other self-directed labor struggles in the country.
Tags
Jose Mario De Vega, labor struggles, Simoun Magsalin
https://bandilangitim.noblogs.org/2020/08/21/open-letter-of-a-part-time-instructor/
------------------------------
Message: 4
A far-right and fascist anti-refugee action is taking place on 5th September in Dover, Kent. Information is contained within a recent
YouTube video by ‘The Little Veteran' who is organising this along with others on the far-right (we're not going to link to this nonsense
but if you're desperate to have a look, it's not hard to find). ---- These far-right activists claim they are planning to block roads with
vehicles and try to stop trucks with refugees in getting out of Dover. We have been informed that they are planning to blockade the port,
which is currently being monitored by these far-right activists in Dover, on the seafront opposite and around the Port and at the Lorry
parks. Nigel Marcham AKA The Little Veteran (who is behind this) wants activists and people to put the affiliations of organisations aside
and unite for this action and it is likely that this demo could be popular in the Dover area, a place where racist and xenophobic attitudes
are not uncommon. At the same time, the blocking of roads is likely to annoy local people. The organisation Hope Not Hate have published an
article that is worth reading to get an idea of the attraction Dover is for the far-right and who is likely to be involved in this action,
and others, in Dover.
It is likely that all of these groups will show up on the day. On the same day at Market Square (11am-1pm) there will be an event organised
by Kent Anti-Racism Network held in solidarity with refugees called We Stand With You. It is possible that this event will be targeted by
the far-right on the day.
It's worth noting, about Dover, that it comes across as rather a pro-military place. Of course it's a symbolic place for patriotic and
nationalistic people and it's a former barracks town. If you walk around the town you will notice not only a war memorial, but plastic
poppies everywhere that the council have had tied to posts (some of them turning pink, and even white, as their colour fades); you will
notice that a new commemorative wall covering has been added to the war memorial, the memorial itself not being enough. And then there are
the other new things that have popped up, a poppy sculpture that has appeared in Pencester, and a statue of a soldier that has appeared on
the seafront, along with all the other commemorative war related things on the seafront that were already there.
And if you spend long enough in the Dover area you will notice some people wearing Help for Heroes tops, people wearing poppies all year
round, and people wearing poppy covered clothes and face masks can even be seen.
This gives you an idea of the mentality of some of the people who live there, and bear in mind that there has been significant support for
UKIP and the Brexit Party there, as well as the Tories and even other far-right groups have done well there in getting local support (such
as the BNP in their day, and more recently, Britain First and the EDL). It is certainly possible that a veteran (despite dodgy far-right
connections) will be welcomed in the area. It is obvious to see why far-right veterans (and the far-right in general) are focussing on the
Dover area.
At the same time of course, there are strong anti-fascist connotations with the Dover area (ironically) and not everyone is supportive of
nationalistic sentiment. People in the local area should be aware that Nigel Marcham is aligning himself, with this action, with out and out
fascists (such as Britain First and For Britain). The National Front and Mark Colett's Patriotic Alternative were also initially welcomed
for this action (but have since been told to stay away) and have their own plans for activity in the Dover area. These people are trying to
manipulate and use the patriotic symbolism of the area and anti-refugee propaganda coming from the bourgeois media and the far-right, racist
Johnson government. Marcham has been spreading racist lies about asylum seekers on his YouTube channel, vulnerable working class people who
have every right to be protected from war and persecution. Marcham AKA The Little Veteran harps on about all the things refugees supposedly
get at ‘the expense of the people of this country' when in fact, if they are allowed to settle here they only get about £30 a week as they
are not allowed to work (an insignificant pittance, especially considering the vast amount of wealth and resources and ownership and power
hoarded by the ruling class in this country and all over the world).
Refugees are vulnerable working class people who deserve our respect and solidarity and nationalists and fascists work hard to divide us,
distracting us from the real enemy, the real problem - the ruling class and their failing capitalist system; a system that increasingly
fails us, but works all too well for the rich ruling class. Nationalism and fascism are anti-working class ideologies and are poison for
working class people.
And with far-right veterans showing up on the 5th September, along with their fascist allies, it is worth noting that this veteran schtick
and the opportunistic targeting of the Dover area with all its patriotic symbolism ties in perfectly with Fascism itself. Characteristics of
fascism (an extreme form of nationalism) include a kind of worship of militarism and a belief in the supremacy of the military, as well as
an obsession with national security and the regimentation of society. Other characteristics include a disdain for human rights, clearly
expressed by these far-right activists who are opposed to the rights of refugees and the identification of scapegoats - clearly on display
here. Other fascist characteristics are as follows: rampant sexism, protection of corporate power, suppression of labour power, religion and
government intertwined, a controlled mass media and powerful and continuing nationalism. Marcham himself denies being far-right and racist,
however he has been seen berating non-white protesters and bragging about how his family heritage is white (and therefore British) and that
the people he was shouting at "should go back to your own country" despite the fact that they were British. He is clearly a racist
nationalist, but is not brave enough to be honest about it.
Anti-fascists and anti-capitalists would do well to keep a close eye on what is going on in the Dover area, and the groups and personalities
of the far-right that it is attracting.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/08/31/fascist-shennanigans-in-dover/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Patras: Invitation to an open assembly for the organization of anti-state-anti-fascist-anti-repression demonstration... 7 years after the
murder of Pavlos Fyssas ---- In the last year, the assumption of political management by the neo-liberal and far-right New Democracy
government has marked the continuation, in even harsher terms, of the policies of plunder and repression of the majority of society. At the
same time, the outbreak of the covid19 pandemic in combination with the state and capitalist attack on the society that accompanies it and
which is further exacerbated by it, form a suffocating framework for the social majority, both domestically and internationally.
The main targets of this attack are:
The beginning of a new round of looting of the social base with the main peaks being the further devaluation of labor, the reduction to the
practical abolition of social security, the continuation of privatizations, the restructuring of the education system, the criminalization
of trade union action.
The perpetuation of the Emergency Regime through the suppression and subjugation of social and class movements and especially the
anarchist-anti-authoritarians, who as a political space have been at the forefront of social struggles for the last 40 years and more. This
crackdown includes evacuations of occupied battlefields, police occupation of entire areas, a ban on demonstrations and a general upgrade of
the legal arsenal to the detriment of militants.
The expansion of the war against refugees and immigrants, as the most vulnerable and underestimated part of society with the aim of
demonizing them, disappearing them from the public sphere, confining them in concentration camps, and even physically exterminating them in
order to the most conservative social reflexes emerge and the bonds of solidarity between the oppressed are broken.
The intensity of the plunder of the natural world through the activation of the machines of capitalist development that will devastate local
communities, mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, forests in the name of profit and full imposition on man and nature.
For our part, as social activists, we must in the near future intensify the struggle against state and capitalist aggression:
-To organize and put up embankments in the repressive and ideological attack carried out by the current political management towards the
world of struggle and the infrastructure of the movement.
-To highlight the illusions of the change of political management and the impasse of the parliamentary path by emphasizing the very
anti-social nature of the state that impoverishes the social majority, exterminates those who "surplus", targets those who resist, plunders
and destroys the deceiver.
-To stand in solidarity with the refugees and immigrants, supporting their occupations and structures as a social counter-proposal to the
confinement, repression and death promised by the state on the borders of Evros, in the concentration camps it sets up throughout the
territory. To mobilize immediately to close Moria type infernos and to break the modern Apartheid that has been imposed on them.
-To crush state and parastate terrorism, where it manifests itself. For the time being, it may seem that the state is incorporating all the
repressive tactics, incorporating in its mechanisms the parastatal action of the assault battalions, however, the fascists are always its
useful reserve and will use them again when the need arises.
-To break the nationalist frenzy and to resist the war scenarios that are intensifying in our region due to the transnational rivalries and
the interests of the bosses. International solidarity is the weapon of the peoples!
-To be on the streets, on the side of the social and class base that is being brutally affected by the new round of state and capitalist
aggression. To strengthen the mutual aid structures that, especially for our most vulnerable fellow human beings, are especially useful
today, in a period of complete collapse of any state support structures.
We call for an open assembly on Tuesday, September 8 at 19.00 in the self-managed area On the Face (87 Patreos Street) for the organization
of an anti-state-anti-fascist-anti-repression demonstration on the 7th anniversary of the assassination of Pavlos Fyssas, in order to give
an organized and mass movement , anti-social and anti-movement attacks of the state.
Five and a half years after the start of the ATHEX trial, which tried to promote the state as the only guarantor of "democratic normalcy",
to consolidate the theory of the two extremes and to wash away the action of the parastatal neo-Nazis, and 7 years after the assassination
of Pavlos Fyssas from the golden Roupakia, to meet again in the streets, where fascism is practically crushed, where everything is still open...
AGAINST STATE, CAPITAL AND FASCISTS....
TO RESUME THE FOCUS OF SOCIAL AND CLASS WAR
anarchist group "bad horse" - member of the APO
ipposd.wordpress.com
https://ipposd.wordpress.com/
------------------------------
Message: 6
On August 29, rallies and pickets of the "yellow vests" movement took place throughout France. In addition to their own events - marches and
picketing of crossroads - the participants of the movement came to support the rally against the forced wearing of masks in Paris. ----
Hundreds of people gathered at 1 pm on the Place de la Nation in Paris to protest against the forced wearing of muzzles. The audience
chanted: "Freedom! Freedom!" The demonstrators accused the government of "manipulating people with fear" and imposing masks in large cities
without any scientific basis. The crowd was quickly surrounded by the police. As a result, 123 people were fined 135 euros each for not
wanting to muzzle over their faces. 1 person was detained for insubordination and riot. It was one of the first anti-mask demonstrations in
France.
In Paris, the "yellow vests" held their 80th demonstration on August 29, which this time was allowed. The participants gathered at 11.30 at
the gates of Champerre and at 13.00 marched towards the Place de la Bastille. On banners and posters one could read: "Strike - 2nd wave in
September", "Revolution", etc. The route of the procession led through the square and boulevard de Clichy, boulevard Magenta and the square
of the Republic (https://blogs.mediapart.fr/ceinna-coll/blog/300820/gj-acte-80-sem94-paris-29082020-ne-lache-rien)
In Toulouse, the yellow vests picketed the Sequières roundabout where leaflets were handed out and then tried to block the toll checkpoint
on the Toulouse-North road, but were dispersed with tear gas. After that, some of the protesters returned to the denouement. Some took part
in a demonstration against animal cruelty (
https://actu.fr/occitanie/toulouse_31555/toulouse-de-retour-sur-les-ronds-points-les-gilets-jaunes-tentent-de-bloquer-un-peage_35795396.html)
In Tarba, hundreds of yellow vests and civic activists protested against police violence. Moving away from Place Verdun, the protesters
stopped at the courthouse where the rally was held. Walking along Foch Street, the demonstrators reached the Old Labor Exchange and
organized a picnic-discussion there on the problems of police violence and opposition to it (
https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/08/30/une-manifestation-pacifique-9040386.php )
In the Ile-de-France region around Paris, the "yellow vests" gathered on August 30 in the Born-Blanche park in Combe-la-Ville. A meeting was
organized at which activists discussed further actions and prospects for resistance (
https://www.leparisien.fr/seine-et-marne-77/seine-et-marne-les-gilets-jaunes-font-leur-universite-d-ete-en-plein-air-30-08-2020-8375565.php).
On the same day, the second general assembly of the "yellow vests" of Tarn-y-Garona was held in Montauban. Crossroads actions and protests
scheduled for September 12 were discussed (
https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/08/31/tarn-et-garonne-lassociation-citoyen-ne-s-et-gilets-jaunes-prepare-sa-rentree-sur-les-ronds-points-9041339.php
A demonstration with hundreds of "yellow vests" took place in Deauville, Normandy (
https://www.ouest-france.fr/normandie/calvados/deauville-les-gilets-jaunes-sur-les-planches-6952494)
Promotions of "yellow vests" at roundabouts and crossroads on August 29 are reported from Plantin de Liller (department of Nord -
https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/857647/article/2020-08-29/les-gilets-jaunes-reprennent-du-service-encore-timidement-au-plantin-lillers),
Saint-Lo (Normandy -
https://www.lamanchelibre.fr/actualite-903226-saint-lo-gilets-jaunes-il-faut-que-les-gens-voient-que-nous-sommes-toujours-la), Chaumette
(Monistrol-de-Loire, Haute Loire -
https://www.lamanchelibre.fr/actualite-903226-saint-lo-gilets-jaunes-il-faut-que-les-gens-voient-que-nous-sommes-toujours-la
https://www.leprogres.fr/social/2020/08/29/les-gilets-jaunes-de-haute-loire-sont-toujours-la), Le Mans (
https://lemans.maville.com/actu/actudet_-le-mans-les-gilets-jaunes-en-repetition_14-4249423_actu.Htm), Löhlingema (Pas de Calais -
https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/857701/article/2020-08-29/des-gilets-jaunes-leulinghem-veut-montrer-qu-est-toujours-la), and other places.
In Saint-Arnoux (department of Yvelines), "yellow vests" opened barriers and allowed cars to pass free of charge on the toll road
(https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/les-gilets-jaunes-de-retour-au-peage-de-saint-arnoult-pour-une-operation-ouverture-des-barrieres-1598716996
)
https://aitrus.info/node/5544
------------------------------
Message: 7
As Guillaume describes it, collective power is the result of the federation of groups and acts to maintain and guarantee the federal
convention. It does not become something higher than the federal communities, such as the state, that is, power over the existing society.
The government is disintegrating and we are really entering a state of "anarchy, that is, the absence of a central government." ---- What do
anarchists mean by "federalism"? ---- The notion of federalism is something that appears again and again in anarchist literature and
anarchist activity, but today it is rarely developed - at least in English. You are more likely to hear people talk about "direct
democracy", "decentralization", "horizontality" and other slightly different concepts instead of "federalism" simple and clear. This article
is intended to give a decent introduction to this federalism, simply and clearly, while elaborating a little more on its significance.
What is federalism?
Federalism is a method of organization that argues that society must be structured from the bottom up. The whole momentum moves upwards,
from the periphery to the center - the sections a little higher are just the direct expression of the lower sections that combine and
outsource specific tasks, such as administration and coordination for practical reasons.
In a federation, the constituent groups are autonomous and self-determined. This means that they can be connected or disconnected as they
wish, without any restrictions beyond the principles and goals that everyone agreed on during the federation process. There is no central
body to issue orders from above, as is the case with governments or capitalist enterprises. the direction of the organization is determined
by its constituent units that work freely with each other. There may be top-level committees and councils, but they have no authority to
direct the organization itself and are made up of representatives with strict, revocable mandates. Units have complete freedom to disconnect
if they wish,
There is no specific decision-making method that will be transferred within the component units or in negotiations between them. The exact
way in which teams make decisions is left to the teams, figuring out which methods work best for each in their particular circumstances. The
crucial thing is that the right of free connection is respected. For example, some groups operate by consensus. Decisions are not made until
everyone agrees. Others work through a modified consensus system, where members try to reach unanimity but are able to reach a resolution if
one or two members can hold out independently. Others may use a simple majority,
Finding a solution to these problems also brings about finding the right combination of solidarity and autonomy - team commitment and free
association. It is foolish to expect the same approach that works for a kinship group or for five fighters to be applied to a union of tens
of thousands of members, so that the exact decisions on these issues are left to the people who know best how to decide - the respective
groups. and the individuals themselves.
This kind of free association is not something foreign to society, and was not developed by anarchists out of nothing. It was largely a
matter for the libertarians to discover these methods of organization in trade unions, associations and cultural associations, and then to
extend their importance and push for their adoption in politics and economics.
Federalism: theirs and ours
Although we have our own particular understanding of the concept, we do not have a monopoly, as should be obvious to anyone familiar with
the Australian political system. Although anarchists use federalism to refer to a means of organizing society in a way that is completely
bottom-up, it has a broader, more common meaning among the major ideologues to refer to a system of state-building.
In this basic understanding, federalism means the decentralization of the majority of state power to more local units. For example, the
state of New South Wales is responsible for policing, health care, transportation, education, and other functions in New South Wales - not
the federal government. It sets its own laws, provided they do not conflict with the Constitution, and other functions such as garbage
collection and park management that are considered local and transferred to municipal councils accordingly.
The most prominent federal states are the United States, with its bizarre bizarre federal voting system, Switzerland, with the famous
"direct democracy" of the cantons, and India, whose constituent states have their official languages.
The anarchists criticize this republican federalism because it is essentially federalism only in name, limiting federalism to the realm of
politics, keeping it away from the huge, authoritarian centralism that is capitalism. James Guillaume, one of Mikhail Bakunin's close
associates, summed it up: a country like Switzerland is "merely a federal state, and that word alone expresses all the differences between
these two systems" 1.
Guillaume notes that the Swiss cantons have a certain ability to manage their own affairs, but are not considered "separate individuals and
absolute sovereigns". Instead, they are considered simple fractions of a whole called the Swiss nation. The autonomy of the cantons is
legally limited by the federal Constitution, which is not in itself a free contract, but an enforcement. The canton has no right to secede,
and so such federalism is attacked as "words only" federalism.
In addition, anarchists challenge the idea that federalism can exist if the individuals of each federal unit are not themselves equally
free. Writing about the pre-war United States, Proudhon notes that it seems impossible for a slave state to belong to a federation. It does
not seem more logical than the idea of an authoritarian state uniting with something else. "The slavery of a part of the nation is the very
denial of the federal authority" 2.
In fact, republican federalism means outsourcing government repressive functions to more local elites. The most basic functions of
government, the protection of the institution of private property and the subjugation of workers to the capitalists, are maintained. When
workers go on an "unauthorized" strike, police at the state level move in to harass and attack them, instead of the federal police. Although
it will never matter that the federal forces are always free to move if things really get out of hand. The result is the same as a typical
central state. it just becomes another form of authoritarianism, and we oppose it like any other form of government.
The Importance of Federalism
Guillaume's article is interesting, not only because it distinguishes our federalism from theirs, but also because it brings to the surface
some critical concepts and a clear influence from an old master. He states that federalism in the sense given to it by the Paris Commune,
and in the sense given to it by Proudhon, is "above all, the denial of the nation and the state." The nation ceases to exist and is replaced
by a federation of communities. The decisive principle of this federation is not national unity or territorial sovereignty, but merely the
mutual interest of the parties concerned, which "does not give importance to matters of nationalism and territory".
When the state ceases to exist, there is no longer a central power that is "superior" to the groups of the federation, to impose its power
on them.
All that remains is "collective power."
This little-known idea is vital to a full understanding of anarchism, at least as suggested by Proudhon. This idea was first developed in
Proudhon's first major work, the famous "What is Property" and may be his most important intellectual contribution. Collective strength
refers to the result produced by individuals who unite their efforts, producing a force greater than the sum of their parts. In Proudhon's
words, it refers to "the enormous power that results from the union and harmony of the workers, the convergence and the simultaneous effort" 3.
Collective power is first developed in "What is Property" as part of a critique of individual property and wage labor. Even assuming that
individual employees in a company are remunerated enough for their work through wages, the collective power resulting from the workers
working together is not paid. There is always a debt that remains. He uses the following example:
"A force of thousands of men working twenty days has been paid the same wages as they would have been paid for fifty-five years of work. But
this power of a thousand has done in twenty days what a man could not achieve, even though he had worked for a million centuries. "
Elsewhere, he uses the example of two hundred men who put an obelisk in its base in two hours, noting that a man could not have done the
same thing in two hundred days.
Proudhon later put the concept of collective power in different contexts, extending its meaning. He used it to refer to collective
discourse, the result of combined spiritual work. Social power, the constitution of society based on the actions of the individuals and
groups that make it up. Collective being, the way in which individual freedom can be real only in the light of the individual's social
relations and as a kind of theory of alienation, according to which people fall into the wrong "effects of causes" - such as seeing a leader
as a source of power instead of the people who obey him, or to see money as a source of self-worth instead of the collective agreement that
gives money its value. 4
As Guillaume describes it, collective power is the result of the federation of groups and acts to maintain and guarantee the federal
convention. It does not become something higher than the federal communities, such as the state, that is, power over the existing society.
The government is disintegrating and we are really entering a state of "anarchy, that is, the absence of a central government."
This is a critical argument of the perpetual myth that federalism, like liberal organization, is simply the realization of individualism and
disorganization. This myth is kept alive by critics of anarchism - usually Marxists, who insist that centralism is necessary for effective
coordination and cooperation - but also by some proponents of anarchism: that is, individualists who consider any organization beyond the
level of simple informal kinship groups, as a violation of their freedoms.
Federalism is a recognition that the individual can become free only through his social relations with others. Only on this basis can a
significant socialism be built. The various components are linked autonomously through agreements, with incentives of solidarity and mutual
interest. Freedom is not sacrificed in this process - it is certain.
Federalism: an obstacle to unity?
The identification of federalism with division, chaos and disorganization is a valuable propaganda tool for the centrists of all kinds, and
this category reveals probably the most important line of error that separates anarchists from other socialists. For us, the most important
thing to emphasize is that unity must be distinguished from uniformity.
The accusation that consistent federalism would lead to a variety of differences of opinion and strategy is one that is accepted by
anarchists. In fact, this is one of the main reasons we support it. Our living conditions vary in such a wide range and are transformed so
quickly that assigning a stable model of an organization to society would only lead to chaos. The resentment that naturally arises from
different people and different groups working together for a common goal is essential to keeping organizations alive.
Liberal socialism manifests itself not only as a revolt against authoritarian political and economic structures, but as a revolt against the
authoritarianism at its root. To justify the right of the constituent parts of a federation to secede, even after their agreement on a
federation, Bakunin states that "no lasting obligation can be offset by human justice, the only one that can claim any power among us." ,
and that without the right to free assembly and free secession, "the confederation would be nothing more than a central disguise." 5
The diversity that results from a federation is not considered a defect, but a fundamental characteristic. Again, we return to Bakunin for
an eloquent justification:
"I will never tire of repeating it: Uniformity is death. Diversity is life. Disciplinary unity that can only be created in any social
environment to the detriment of spontaneous creativity and life, kills nations. The living, really strong unity, the unity that we all want,
is what freedom creates in the heart of the free and different manifestations of life, expressing itself through struggle: it is the balance
and harmonization of all living forces ". 6
Elsewhere, he quotes a similar point: "Uniformity is not unity at all, it is its removal, capuut mortuum 7, its death. "Unity is real and
lives in the midst of the greatest diversity." 8 In particular, for Bakunin, the imposition of a particular doctrine or form by a supreme
council on a federation would turn that federation into a single church and the council into a "collective pope" who would speak ex
cathedra, with the orders to make laws. 9
For a final argument, we can rely on Proudhon:
"You, who can not capture unity without a whole mechanism of legislators, prosecutors, attorney generals, customs officers, police, never
know what real unity is! What you call unity and concentration is nothing but constant chaos, serving as the basis for endless tyranny. It
is the progress of the chaotic state of social forces as an argument for despotism - a despotism that is really the cause of chaos. " 10
From citizens to producers
Federalism is the most crucial element for the cohesion of the labor movement that will abolish private property and government and build a
free socialism in their place. While the former society is organized by divisions of nations according to the needs of politics, the new
society will be organized by federations of industrial groups according to the needs of production. In the words of ilemile Pouget: "from
now on, the producer is in front of the existing society that recognizes only the citizen". 12
I will end this article with another excerpt from Proudhon. In my view, it accurately summarizes the mission of anarchism and the crucial
role of federalism within it:
"It's the industrial organization with which we will replace the government.
Instead of laws, we will put contracts. - No more laws that were passed by a majority or even unanimously. Every citizen, every community or
company, creates their own.
In the place of the political forces, we will put the economic forces.
In place of the ancient classes of nobles, peasants, or the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, we will put the general titles and special
sections of industry: Agriculture, Construction, Trade, etc.
In the place of state power, we will put collective power.
In place of the standing armies, we will place industrial associations.
In the place of the police, we will put the identity of interests.
In the place of political centralism, we will put economic centralism. "
* Thanks to Tommy Lawson and René Berthier for their help in writing this text.
Notes (based on the English version of the text):
1. Federalism by James Guillaume, published in Solidarité (1871), in English translation by Shawn Wilbur, available at:
https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/bakunin-library/ james-guillaume-federalism-1871 / .
2. The Federal Principle and the Necessity of Reconstituting the Party of the Revolution by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in Property is Theft! A
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology (2011), edited by Iain McKay, by AK Press.
3. What is Property? - Or, an inquiry into the principle of right and of government, in the same.
4. From Iain McKay's Glossary to the same.
5. An Internationalist Federalism by Mikhail Bakunin, published in No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism (2005), edited by Daniel
Guérin, translated by Paul Sharkey and published by AK Press. This text is based on a speech by Bakunin at the League of Peace and Freedom
Conference. It is an important document as it marks a key stage in the development of Bakunin thought. The Union for Peace and Freedom, a
liberal-humanitarian group, did not accept his proposal to merge peace concerns with workers' concerns. This failure of Bakunin marked a
turning point in the belief that only the proletariat, acting as an independent force, could bring about the necessary radical social
changes. Consequently,
6. From Bakunin's letter to Ceretti, dated 13-27 March 1871, translated into English by Shawn Wilbur and available here:
https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/bakunin-library/bakunin-on -life-harmony-and-struggle-1872 /
7. Latin for "dead head", which means "useless remains".
8. From Bakunin's letter to the Gazzettino Rosa, dated 23 December 1871, as quoted on page 140 of Wolfgang Eckhardt's book The First
Socialist Schism: Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Workingmen's Association, PM Press, 2016.
9. It is difficult to underestimate the importance of opposition to religion in the development of anarchism.
10. From The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, included in Iain McKay's Anthology, as above.
11. From the second part of The Principles and Organization of the International Revolutionary Society, written by Bakunin, published in
1866, translated into English by Shawn Wilbur and available at: https://web.archive.org/web
/20160707152937/http://library.libertarian-labyrinth.org/items/show/2671
12. From Actionmile Pouget's Direct Action, published in 1910, translated into English and published by the Kate Sharpley Library, and
accessible at address: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vhhngg
* This text was published in the Sydney Anarcho-Communists, Bulletin # 1, August 2020. Translation: "Neither God nor Master".
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32021
------------------------------
Daniel al-Rashid * (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
It may seem unbelievable that there is a need for a home-made emergency vehicle on one of Europe's busiest waterways, but there are. The
migrant crisis means that European states are instructing their Coast Guard not to respond to distress calls from "non-Europeans", leaving
desperate people adrift and helpless at sea. To make matters worse, the authorities prevent other boats from providing assistance, arresting
crews and confiscating vessels that do so. ---- Louise Michel is an old French Navy boat that we customize to search and rescue. She is as
agile as she is pink. With a length of 30 meters and a capacity of 28 knots (about 52 km / h), it was purchased with the income obtained
from the sale of a work by Bansky - who then decorated it with a fire extinguisher. It is commanded and manned by a team of rescue workers
from across Europe. It works under a horizontal hierarchy and a vegan diet.
Our mission
Defend maritime law and rescue anyone in danger, without prejudice. We, aboard Louise Michel, believe that we are all individuals, and
nationality should not make a difference in each other's rights and in the way we treat each other. We answer the SOS call of everyone in
danger, not just to save their souls - but ours.
How to support
MV Louise Michel needs:
* Funding to do this work, face legal proceedings and replace seized equipment.
* Help to disseminate content about these inhumane policies. #searescueisnotacrime
People at sea are not unlucky victims of the elements of nature. This crisis is not a natural disaster. It is created by political decisions
and by a failure of humanity. It cannot be solved by lifeboats. If we want to prevent drowning in a sustainable way, we have to stop forcing
people to get on these boats. So, if you want to contribute - speak out against racism, join movements for climate justice - take any action
to defend global respect for all forms of life, near and far.
How societies manage migration is a complex issue that involves us all. But he should never be one who casually waives the death penalty.
Search and Rescue
Solidarity and Resistance
mvlouisemichel.org
Translation> Erico Liberatti
Related content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2020/08/31/reino-unido-barco-financiado-pelo-artista-plastico-banksy-ajuda-a-resgatar-imigrantes-no-mediterraneo/
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 2
Responding to the international call of the Week of Agitation Pelxs Presxs Anarchists, some posters were spread on the walls of the city of
Porto Alegre reminding the combative life of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti and affirming our deepest contempt for bourgeois justice and,
above all, its materialization through the existence of the prison. ---- This small gesture is dedicated to the companions Mónica Caballero
and Francisco Solar who, once again, demonstrate that their convictions are stronger than any punishment or threat from the State. ---- We
also could not fail to demonstrate our deep solidarity with the Mapuche political prisoners on a hunger strike, an example of strength and
dignity for any rebel or revolutionary!
FIRE TO PRISONS AND FIRE TO FASCISTS!
COMBATING SOLIDARITY WITH TODXS XS PRESXS FOR FIGHTING!
LIVE THE ANARCHY!
Related content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2020/08/29/porto-alegre-rs-cartazes-semana-de-agitacao-pelos-anarquistas-presxs/
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
A submitted open letter by Jose Mario De Vega with a foreword and afterword by Simoun Magsalin. ---- A Foreword ---- Simoun Magsalin ----
Bandilang Itim received this open letter from a former part-time instructor from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), a
state university. ---- President Rodrigo Duterte ran on the platform to end contractualization yet contractualization remains the norm both
in private and public workplaces. Rather than banning contractualization, the state instead institutionalized it in the private sector while
doing the bare minimum to curb the practice in the public sector. Two years ago in 2018, there are approximately 2.4 million government
workers of which 27 percent of these are contractual workers. De Vega's open letter is one account of the experience of being a contractual
worker in a state university.
In the open letter, De Vega details the absurdities in being a contractual worker in a state university. Contractual workers essentially
have the same responsibilities and tasks as regular workers but are denied tenure and benefits like GSIS (high interest state pension).
Additionally, part-time instructors are expected to perform free labor on university projects in which their superiors earn bonuses while
the part-time instructors get nothing in return.
After the open letter, we will return to this discussion of contractualization in the public sector and some strategies to combat it.
An Open Letter of a Part-Time Instructor from PUP
Jose Mario De Vega
I am compelled both my indignation and academic duty to write to your newspaper to bring into your attention the grave injustices, the
discrimination and the rampant exploitation of intellectual labor being systematically committed and still being practiced up to this very
day by the university where I formerly taught.
My name is Jose Mario D. De Vega, an ex-faculty member of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities of the College of Arts and Letters of
the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). For the record, I've been teaching at the said school since 2012 with a brief service
interruption from 2014 up to 2016 due to the political power-play within, which is so bloody toxic.
As a part-time instructor, based on the law of the land, I am a contractual employee. Hence, I do not enjoy any of the rights and privileges
of a regular government employee.
As a part-timer, the administration of PUP are exploiting and discriminating us. How? Please do allow me to explain even in brief their
unscrupulous and hideous evil scheme.
As contractuals, we asked us to prepare and deliver presentations which has no honorarium whatsoever, they asked us to participate to the
school activities beyond our time, with no compensation. They even used and utilized all our academic files, intellectual achievements and
the whole of our academic dossiers for their so-called accreditation.
Later, they will used the result which comes from our accomplishments and achievements for their report which will be the basis of their
performance bonus.
The regulars will have it, while we, the contractuals, which are one who contributed a lot for the said accomplishment report will not even
get even a single centavo.
During the whole course of this pandemic, which is still on-going, we contractuals did not even received even a single peso from our school,
as a form of "ayuda," "abuloy," "donasyon," "limos" or whatever!
The reason? We are not regular, we are contractual. Yet, it did not stop them last May 30th to issue a memo which requires faculties to
prepare and create teaching materials in preparation to the so-called blended/on-line/virtual learning under the "new normal."
This is unjust, discriminatory and utterly unfair. When it comes to salaries, benefits and privileges, we contractuals are excluded, but
when it comes to other added tasks and extra labor - which has no compensation nor allowances - why the hell we are included?
This is precisely the reason why I decided to leave that so-called "people's university" for the second time in my life. I can no longer
tolerate their nefarious and insidious evil practices.
I would like to stress the following:
What is the moral and legal right of the administration of the PUP to issue that discriminatory memo?
How come that memo did not clearly stipulated that the same is only applicable to the regular employee?
If indeed, the said is only for the regular employee, how come it is course or transmitted and/or posted to the group chat of both the
regular and part-time employees?
How come there has been no consultation that were conducted relative to the said memo?
Why it is that the administration did not even give anything whatsoever to the contractual employees of the university?
I've written to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to complain about this fiasco and injustice. They required the administration to reply to
my complaint. When I answered by way of a rejoinder, the CSC told me that their job is merely to ask the PUP to reply to my complaint and
further advised me to transmit my complaint to the Commission on Higher Education.
This irritates me! So, I retorted: You are a constitutional creation, why the hell on earth you are directing me to go to an agency that is
merely created by a special law?
I have also written to the Commission on Higher Education with the help and solidarity of the Teachers' Dignity Coalition. Until today, we
are still waiting for the reply and/or report of those government agencies with regard to our queries and/or petition.
All I wanted is to get an official pronouncement from them on the morality, legality, constitutionality and propriety of the Memo issued by
the administration of PUP.
In my view, the whole higher educational system is rubbish, broken and fucked up! It is based not on merit, justice and integrity, but
rather on injustice, politics, exploitation, careerism, degradation, and indeed, bastardization of principles and prostitution of values!
This is a shame!
The constitution states that we have the so-called state protection of labor.
Now, the whole thing is absolutely clear. It's a blatant lie, a hoax and mere propaganda.
All I am asking you, sir/madame is simply to publish this letter of mine as a notice to the public and to the whole world.
I beseech thee, please give us the justice and due recognition that we justly deserve. Highlight our voices, print our images and fight with
us in our quest for justice, dignity and honor!
We want our people to know and so as the rest of the world; the undeniably horrible and absolute horrendous plight of our part-time
instructors from our so-called state universities and colleges all over the country.
Same with our front-liners, our dearest doctors and beloved nurses, we, contractuals/part-time instructors are also degraded, neglected,
abused and exploited by a rubbish, incontestably unfair and utterly broken system!
Our respective schools abandoned us and the government betrayed us!
Shame! Shame! Super bloody shame!!!!
Thank you!
Respectfully yours,
Jose Mario De Vega
AB Political Science, 1999
MA in Philosophy, 2004
LlB, 2007
PhD, 2016 - present
An Afterword
Simoun Magsalin
De Vega's account is not unique. In many branches of government, there are two tiers of workers: plantilla and contractual. Plantilla
workers have tenure and enjoy state-mandated benefits like a special pension in the GSIS. Contractual workers (also called job orders) are
denied these state-mandated benefits and are not recognized as regular workers despite having the very same duties and responsibilities as
regular workers. Contractual workers in government often work on a no-work-no-pay basis where they are denied sick leave and are excluded
from most bonuses. They must have their contracts renewed every year. Contractual workers must also compete against each other should
positions open up in the plantilla. However it is not uncommon that there are contractual workers in government who receive "loyalty awards"
for working at that office for a decade or more yet have not yet been regularized.
The division the government places between plantilla and contractual workers are tools to divide the energies of the working class. The
existence of a class of contractual workers is a threat - a blackmail even - to keep plantilla workers in line. Meanwhile the class of
contractual workers are pitted against each other to compete for plantilla slots that may never even open. Government appointees enjoy their
fat salaries on the top of the hierarchy while they blackmail the plantilla into submission and overwork the contractuals below them.
Between competition and blackmail, government workers are made too preoccupied to organize into unions. The government workers' unions that
do exist are toothless mechanisms as government workers do not have the right to strike.
What then are the anarchist tasks on the problem of contractualization in the public sector? The tasks of the anarchists is to promote a
self-directed labor militancy within the state apparatus. The promotion of labor militancy within the state apparatus is not the endorsement
of the state apparatus, just as neither is the promotion of labor militancy in private firms an endorsement of that firm. This self-directed
labor militancy must include all workers - both plantilla and contractuals - and specifically exclude the bosses and appointees. Such a
self-directed labor movement ought be organized in an egalitarian manner where workers relate to each other as equals regardless of their
position in the office hierarchy. Solidarity is the weapon against contractualization.
If the byzantine and convoluted regulations around government workers prevent them from forming formal state-recognized unions, then they
can instead form strike committees around specific demands to manage their self-directed struggles. While these strike committees will not
be recognized as official bodies for collective bargaining, they can still enforce demands given the right circumstances. Against the fact
that government workers do not have the right to strike, we recall that striking was once an illegal act. The only illegal strike is the
strike that loses. As contractual workers constitute a minority in some state agencies, it is critical that plantilla workers join them in
withdrawing their labor and show that solidarity is stronger than the bosses. Together and self-directed, the working class can conquer
gains from the bosses.
Information on direct action, self-directed labor militancy, and strike committees can be read from Part II of Workers' Councils by Anton
Pannekoek. Methods for self-directed labor militancy can be read from Chapter 5 of Anarcho-Syndicalism by Rudolf Rocker.
If you are a contractual worker in government, reach out to your peers and discuss among yourselves the problems you face. When organized as
a group, you are stronger together. Keep your activities away from the prying eyes and ears of the bosses as they will do everything in
their power to frustrate you. Then as a group, reach out to labor groups in the country to ask who can help you. You can also reach out to
Bandilang Itim who can point your group to other self-directed labor struggles in the country.
Tags
Jose Mario De Vega, labor struggles, Simoun Magsalin
https://bandilangitim.noblogs.org/2020/08/21/open-letter-of-a-part-time-instructor/
------------------------------
Message: 4
A far-right and fascist anti-refugee action is taking place on 5th September in Dover, Kent. Information is contained within a recent
YouTube video by ‘The Little Veteran' who is organising this along with others on the far-right (we're not going to link to this nonsense
but if you're desperate to have a look, it's not hard to find). ---- These far-right activists claim they are planning to block roads with
vehicles and try to stop trucks with refugees in getting out of Dover. We have been informed that they are planning to blockade the port,
which is currently being monitored by these far-right activists in Dover, on the seafront opposite and around the Port and at the Lorry
parks. Nigel Marcham AKA The Little Veteran (who is behind this) wants activists and people to put the affiliations of organisations aside
and unite for this action and it is likely that this demo could be popular in the Dover area, a place where racist and xenophobic attitudes
are not uncommon. At the same time, the blocking of roads is likely to annoy local people. The organisation Hope Not Hate have published an
article that is worth reading to get an idea of the attraction Dover is for the far-right and who is likely to be involved in this action,
and others, in Dover.
It is likely that all of these groups will show up on the day. On the same day at Market Square (11am-1pm) there will be an event organised
by Kent Anti-Racism Network held in solidarity with refugees called We Stand With You. It is possible that this event will be targeted by
the far-right on the day.
It's worth noting, about Dover, that it comes across as rather a pro-military place. Of course it's a symbolic place for patriotic and
nationalistic people and it's a former barracks town. If you walk around the town you will notice not only a war memorial, but plastic
poppies everywhere that the council have had tied to posts (some of them turning pink, and even white, as their colour fades); you will
notice that a new commemorative wall covering has been added to the war memorial, the memorial itself not being enough. And then there are
the other new things that have popped up, a poppy sculpture that has appeared in Pencester, and a statue of a soldier that has appeared on
the seafront, along with all the other commemorative war related things on the seafront that were already there.
And if you spend long enough in the Dover area you will notice some people wearing Help for Heroes tops, people wearing poppies all year
round, and people wearing poppy covered clothes and face masks can even be seen.
This gives you an idea of the mentality of some of the people who live there, and bear in mind that there has been significant support for
UKIP and the Brexit Party there, as well as the Tories and even other far-right groups have done well there in getting local support (such
as the BNP in their day, and more recently, Britain First and the EDL). It is certainly possible that a veteran (despite dodgy far-right
connections) will be welcomed in the area. It is obvious to see why far-right veterans (and the far-right in general) are focussing on the
Dover area.
At the same time of course, there are strong anti-fascist connotations with the Dover area (ironically) and not everyone is supportive of
nationalistic sentiment. People in the local area should be aware that Nigel Marcham is aligning himself, with this action, with out and out
fascists (such as Britain First and For Britain). The National Front and Mark Colett's Patriotic Alternative were also initially welcomed
for this action (but have since been told to stay away) and have their own plans for activity in the Dover area. These people are trying to
manipulate and use the patriotic symbolism of the area and anti-refugee propaganda coming from the bourgeois media and the far-right, racist
Johnson government. Marcham has been spreading racist lies about asylum seekers on his YouTube channel, vulnerable working class people who
have every right to be protected from war and persecution. Marcham AKA The Little Veteran harps on about all the things refugees supposedly
get at ‘the expense of the people of this country' when in fact, if they are allowed to settle here they only get about £30 a week as they
are not allowed to work (an insignificant pittance, especially considering the vast amount of wealth and resources and ownership and power
hoarded by the ruling class in this country and all over the world).
Refugees are vulnerable working class people who deserve our respect and solidarity and nationalists and fascists work hard to divide us,
distracting us from the real enemy, the real problem - the ruling class and their failing capitalist system; a system that increasingly
fails us, but works all too well for the rich ruling class. Nationalism and fascism are anti-working class ideologies and are poison for
working class people.
And with far-right veterans showing up on the 5th September, along with their fascist allies, it is worth noting that this veteran schtick
and the opportunistic targeting of the Dover area with all its patriotic symbolism ties in perfectly with Fascism itself. Characteristics of
fascism (an extreme form of nationalism) include a kind of worship of militarism and a belief in the supremacy of the military, as well as
an obsession with national security and the regimentation of society. Other characteristics include a disdain for human rights, clearly
expressed by these far-right activists who are opposed to the rights of refugees and the identification of scapegoats - clearly on display
here. Other fascist characteristics are as follows: rampant sexism, protection of corporate power, suppression of labour power, religion and
government intertwined, a controlled mass media and powerful and continuing nationalism. Marcham himself denies being far-right and racist,
however he has been seen berating non-white protesters and bragging about how his family heritage is white (and therefore British) and that
the people he was shouting at "should go back to your own country" despite the fact that they were British. He is clearly a racist
nationalist, but is not brave enough to be honest about it.
Anti-fascists and anti-capitalists would do well to keep a close eye on what is going on in the Dover area, and the groups and personalities
of the far-right that it is attracting.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2020/08/31/fascist-shennanigans-in-dover/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Patras: Invitation to an open assembly for the organization of anti-state-anti-fascist-anti-repression demonstration... 7 years after the
murder of Pavlos Fyssas ---- In the last year, the assumption of political management by the neo-liberal and far-right New Democracy
government has marked the continuation, in even harsher terms, of the policies of plunder and repression of the majority of society. At the
same time, the outbreak of the covid19 pandemic in combination with the state and capitalist attack on the society that accompanies it and
which is further exacerbated by it, form a suffocating framework for the social majority, both domestically and internationally.
The main targets of this attack are:
The beginning of a new round of looting of the social base with the main peaks being the further devaluation of labor, the reduction to the
practical abolition of social security, the continuation of privatizations, the restructuring of the education system, the criminalization
of trade union action.
The perpetuation of the Emergency Regime through the suppression and subjugation of social and class movements and especially the
anarchist-anti-authoritarians, who as a political space have been at the forefront of social struggles for the last 40 years and more. This
crackdown includes evacuations of occupied battlefields, police occupation of entire areas, a ban on demonstrations and a general upgrade of
the legal arsenal to the detriment of militants.
The expansion of the war against refugees and immigrants, as the most vulnerable and underestimated part of society with the aim of
demonizing them, disappearing them from the public sphere, confining them in concentration camps, and even physically exterminating them in
order to the most conservative social reflexes emerge and the bonds of solidarity between the oppressed are broken.
The intensity of the plunder of the natural world through the activation of the machines of capitalist development that will devastate local
communities, mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, forests in the name of profit and full imposition on man and nature.
For our part, as social activists, we must in the near future intensify the struggle against state and capitalist aggression:
-To organize and put up embankments in the repressive and ideological attack carried out by the current political management towards the
world of struggle and the infrastructure of the movement.
-To highlight the illusions of the change of political management and the impasse of the parliamentary path by emphasizing the very
anti-social nature of the state that impoverishes the social majority, exterminates those who "surplus", targets those who resist, plunders
and destroys the deceiver.
-To stand in solidarity with the refugees and immigrants, supporting their occupations and structures as a social counter-proposal to the
confinement, repression and death promised by the state on the borders of Evros, in the concentration camps it sets up throughout the
territory. To mobilize immediately to close Moria type infernos and to break the modern Apartheid that has been imposed on them.
-To crush state and parastate terrorism, where it manifests itself. For the time being, it may seem that the state is incorporating all the
repressive tactics, incorporating in its mechanisms the parastatal action of the assault battalions, however, the fascists are always its
useful reserve and will use them again when the need arises.
-To break the nationalist frenzy and to resist the war scenarios that are intensifying in our region due to the transnational rivalries and
the interests of the bosses. International solidarity is the weapon of the peoples!
-To be on the streets, on the side of the social and class base that is being brutally affected by the new round of state and capitalist
aggression. To strengthen the mutual aid structures that, especially for our most vulnerable fellow human beings, are especially useful
today, in a period of complete collapse of any state support structures.
We call for an open assembly on Tuesday, September 8 at 19.00 in the self-managed area On the Face (87 Patreos Street) for the organization
of an anti-state-anti-fascist-anti-repression demonstration on the 7th anniversary of the assassination of Pavlos Fyssas, in order to give
an organized and mass movement , anti-social and anti-movement attacks of the state.
Five and a half years after the start of the ATHEX trial, which tried to promote the state as the only guarantor of "democratic normalcy",
to consolidate the theory of the two extremes and to wash away the action of the parastatal neo-Nazis, and 7 years after the assassination
of Pavlos Fyssas from the golden Roupakia, to meet again in the streets, where fascism is practically crushed, where everything is still open...
AGAINST STATE, CAPITAL AND FASCISTS....
TO RESUME THE FOCUS OF SOCIAL AND CLASS WAR
anarchist group "bad horse" - member of the APO
ipposd.wordpress.com
https://ipposd.wordpress.com/
------------------------------
Message: 6
On August 29, rallies and pickets of the "yellow vests" movement took place throughout France. In addition to their own events - marches and
picketing of crossroads - the participants of the movement came to support the rally against the forced wearing of masks in Paris. ----
Hundreds of people gathered at 1 pm on the Place de la Nation in Paris to protest against the forced wearing of muzzles. The audience
chanted: "Freedom! Freedom!" The demonstrators accused the government of "manipulating people with fear" and imposing masks in large cities
without any scientific basis. The crowd was quickly surrounded by the police. As a result, 123 people were fined 135 euros each for not
wanting to muzzle over their faces. 1 person was detained for insubordination and riot. It was one of the first anti-mask demonstrations in
France.
In Paris, the "yellow vests" held their 80th demonstration on August 29, which this time was allowed. The participants gathered at 11.30 at
the gates of Champerre and at 13.00 marched towards the Place de la Bastille. On banners and posters one could read: "Strike - 2nd wave in
September", "Revolution", etc. The route of the procession led through the square and boulevard de Clichy, boulevard Magenta and the square
of the Republic (https://blogs.mediapart.fr/ceinna-coll/blog/300820/gj-acte-80-sem94-paris-29082020-ne-lache-rien)
In Toulouse, the yellow vests picketed the Sequières roundabout where leaflets were handed out and then tried to block the toll checkpoint
on the Toulouse-North road, but were dispersed with tear gas. After that, some of the protesters returned to the denouement. Some took part
in a demonstration against animal cruelty (
https://actu.fr/occitanie/toulouse_31555/toulouse-de-retour-sur-les-ronds-points-les-gilets-jaunes-tentent-de-bloquer-un-peage_35795396.html)
In Tarba, hundreds of yellow vests and civic activists protested against police violence. Moving away from Place Verdun, the protesters
stopped at the courthouse where the rally was held. Walking along Foch Street, the demonstrators reached the Old Labor Exchange and
organized a picnic-discussion there on the problems of police violence and opposition to it (
https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/08/30/une-manifestation-pacifique-9040386.php )
In the Ile-de-France region around Paris, the "yellow vests" gathered on August 30 in the Born-Blanche park in Combe-la-Ville. A meeting was
organized at which activists discussed further actions and prospects for resistance (
https://www.leparisien.fr/seine-et-marne-77/seine-et-marne-les-gilets-jaunes-font-leur-universite-d-ete-en-plein-air-30-08-2020-8375565.php).
On the same day, the second general assembly of the "yellow vests" of Tarn-y-Garona was held in Montauban. Crossroads actions and protests
scheduled for September 12 were discussed (
https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/08/31/tarn-et-garonne-lassociation-citoyen-ne-s-et-gilets-jaunes-prepare-sa-rentree-sur-les-ronds-points-9041339.php
A demonstration with hundreds of "yellow vests" took place in Deauville, Normandy (
https://www.ouest-france.fr/normandie/calvados/deauville-les-gilets-jaunes-sur-les-planches-6952494)
Promotions of "yellow vests" at roundabouts and crossroads on August 29 are reported from Plantin de Liller (department of Nord -
https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/857647/article/2020-08-29/les-gilets-jaunes-reprennent-du-service-encore-timidement-au-plantin-lillers),
Saint-Lo (Normandy -
https://www.lamanchelibre.fr/actualite-903226-saint-lo-gilets-jaunes-il-faut-que-les-gens-voient-que-nous-sommes-toujours-la), Chaumette
(Monistrol-de-Loire, Haute Loire -
https://www.lamanchelibre.fr/actualite-903226-saint-lo-gilets-jaunes-il-faut-que-les-gens-voient-que-nous-sommes-toujours-la
https://www.leprogres.fr/social/2020/08/29/les-gilets-jaunes-de-haute-loire-sont-toujours-la), Le Mans (
https://lemans.maville.com/actu/actudet_-le-mans-les-gilets-jaunes-en-repetition_14-4249423_actu.Htm), Löhlingema (Pas de Calais -
https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/857701/article/2020-08-29/des-gilets-jaunes-leulinghem-veut-montrer-qu-est-toujours-la), and other places.
In Saint-Arnoux (department of Yvelines), "yellow vests" opened barriers and allowed cars to pass free of charge on the toll road
(https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/les-gilets-jaunes-de-retour-au-peage-de-saint-arnoult-pour-une-operation-ouverture-des-barrieres-1598716996
)
https://aitrus.info/node/5544
------------------------------
Message: 7
As Guillaume describes it, collective power is the result of the federation of groups and acts to maintain and guarantee the federal
convention. It does not become something higher than the federal communities, such as the state, that is, power over the existing society.
The government is disintegrating and we are really entering a state of "anarchy, that is, the absence of a central government." ---- What do
anarchists mean by "federalism"? ---- The notion of federalism is something that appears again and again in anarchist literature and
anarchist activity, but today it is rarely developed - at least in English. You are more likely to hear people talk about "direct
democracy", "decentralization", "horizontality" and other slightly different concepts instead of "federalism" simple and clear. This article
is intended to give a decent introduction to this federalism, simply and clearly, while elaborating a little more on its significance.
What is federalism?
Federalism is a method of organization that argues that society must be structured from the bottom up. The whole momentum moves upwards,
from the periphery to the center - the sections a little higher are just the direct expression of the lower sections that combine and
outsource specific tasks, such as administration and coordination for practical reasons.
In a federation, the constituent groups are autonomous and self-determined. This means that they can be connected or disconnected as they
wish, without any restrictions beyond the principles and goals that everyone agreed on during the federation process. There is no central
body to issue orders from above, as is the case with governments or capitalist enterprises. the direction of the organization is determined
by its constituent units that work freely with each other. There may be top-level committees and councils, but they have no authority to
direct the organization itself and are made up of representatives with strict, revocable mandates. Units have complete freedom to disconnect
if they wish,
There is no specific decision-making method that will be transferred within the component units or in negotiations between them. The exact
way in which teams make decisions is left to the teams, figuring out which methods work best for each in their particular circumstances. The
crucial thing is that the right of free connection is respected. For example, some groups operate by consensus. Decisions are not made until
everyone agrees. Others work through a modified consensus system, where members try to reach unanimity but are able to reach a resolution if
one or two members can hold out independently. Others may use a simple majority,
Finding a solution to these problems also brings about finding the right combination of solidarity and autonomy - team commitment and free
association. It is foolish to expect the same approach that works for a kinship group or for five fighters to be applied to a union of tens
of thousands of members, so that the exact decisions on these issues are left to the people who know best how to decide - the respective
groups. and the individuals themselves.
This kind of free association is not something foreign to society, and was not developed by anarchists out of nothing. It was largely a
matter for the libertarians to discover these methods of organization in trade unions, associations and cultural associations, and then to
extend their importance and push for their adoption in politics and economics.
Federalism: theirs and ours
Although we have our own particular understanding of the concept, we do not have a monopoly, as should be obvious to anyone familiar with
the Australian political system. Although anarchists use federalism to refer to a means of organizing society in a way that is completely
bottom-up, it has a broader, more common meaning among the major ideologues to refer to a system of state-building.
In this basic understanding, federalism means the decentralization of the majority of state power to more local units. For example, the
state of New South Wales is responsible for policing, health care, transportation, education, and other functions in New South Wales - not
the federal government. It sets its own laws, provided they do not conflict with the Constitution, and other functions such as garbage
collection and park management that are considered local and transferred to municipal councils accordingly.
The most prominent federal states are the United States, with its bizarre bizarre federal voting system, Switzerland, with the famous
"direct democracy" of the cantons, and India, whose constituent states have their official languages.
The anarchists criticize this republican federalism because it is essentially federalism only in name, limiting federalism to the realm of
politics, keeping it away from the huge, authoritarian centralism that is capitalism. James Guillaume, one of Mikhail Bakunin's close
associates, summed it up: a country like Switzerland is "merely a federal state, and that word alone expresses all the differences between
these two systems" 1.
Guillaume notes that the Swiss cantons have a certain ability to manage their own affairs, but are not considered "separate individuals and
absolute sovereigns". Instead, they are considered simple fractions of a whole called the Swiss nation. The autonomy of the cantons is
legally limited by the federal Constitution, which is not in itself a free contract, but an enforcement. The canton has no right to secede,
and so such federalism is attacked as "words only" federalism.
In addition, anarchists challenge the idea that federalism can exist if the individuals of each federal unit are not themselves equally
free. Writing about the pre-war United States, Proudhon notes that it seems impossible for a slave state to belong to a federation. It does
not seem more logical than the idea of an authoritarian state uniting with something else. "The slavery of a part of the nation is the very
denial of the federal authority" 2.
In fact, republican federalism means outsourcing government repressive functions to more local elites. The most basic functions of
government, the protection of the institution of private property and the subjugation of workers to the capitalists, are maintained. When
workers go on an "unauthorized" strike, police at the state level move in to harass and attack them, instead of the federal police. Although
it will never matter that the federal forces are always free to move if things really get out of hand. The result is the same as a typical
central state. it just becomes another form of authoritarianism, and we oppose it like any other form of government.
The Importance of Federalism
Guillaume's article is interesting, not only because it distinguishes our federalism from theirs, but also because it brings to the surface
some critical concepts and a clear influence from an old master. He states that federalism in the sense given to it by the Paris Commune,
and in the sense given to it by Proudhon, is "above all, the denial of the nation and the state." The nation ceases to exist and is replaced
by a federation of communities. The decisive principle of this federation is not national unity or territorial sovereignty, but merely the
mutual interest of the parties concerned, which "does not give importance to matters of nationalism and territory".
When the state ceases to exist, there is no longer a central power that is "superior" to the groups of the federation, to impose its power
on them.
All that remains is "collective power."
This little-known idea is vital to a full understanding of anarchism, at least as suggested by Proudhon. This idea was first developed in
Proudhon's first major work, the famous "What is Property" and may be his most important intellectual contribution. Collective strength
refers to the result produced by individuals who unite their efforts, producing a force greater than the sum of their parts. In Proudhon's
words, it refers to "the enormous power that results from the union and harmony of the workers, the convergence and the simultaneous effort" 3.
Collective power is first developed in "What is Property" as part of a critique of individual property and wage labor. Even assuming that
individual employees in a company are remunerated enough for their work through wages, the collective power resulting from the workers
working together is not paid. There is always a debt that remains. He uses the following example:
"A force of thousands of men working twenty days has been paid the same wages as they would have been paid for fifty-five years of work. But
this power of a thousand has done in twenty days what a man could not achieve, even though he had worked for a million centuries. "
Elsewhere, he uses the example of two hundred men who put an obelisk in its base in two hours, noting that a man could not have done the
same thing in two hundred days.
Proudhon later put the concept of collective power in different contexts, extending its meaning. He used it to refer to collective
discourse, the result of combined spiritual work. Social power, the constitution of society based on the actions of the individuals and
groups that make it up. Collective being, the way in which individual freedom can be real only in the light of the individual's social
relations and as a kind of theory of alienation, according to which people fall into the wrong "effects of causes" - such as seeing a leader
as a source of power instead of the people who obey him, or to see money as a source of self-worth instead of the collective agreement that
gives money its value. 4
As Guillaume describes it, collective power is the result of the federation of groups and acts to maintain and guarantee the federal
convention. It does not become something higher than the federal communities, such as the state, that is, power over the existing society.
The government is disintegrating and we are really entering a state of "anarchy, that is, the absence of a central government."
This is a critical argument of the perpetual myth that federalism, like liberal organization, is simply the realization of individualism and
disorganization. This myth is kept alive by critics of anarchism - usually Marxists, who insist that centralism is necessary for effective
coordination and cooperation - but also by some proponents of anarchism: that is, individualists who consider any organization beyond the
level of simple informal kinship groups, as a violation of their freedoms.
Federalism is a recognition that the individual can become free only through his social relations with others. Only on this basis can a
significant socialism be built. The various components are linked autonomously through agreements, with incentives of solidarity and mutual
interest. Freedom is not sacrificed in this process - it is certain.
Federalism: an obstacle to unity?
The identification of federalism with division, chaos and disorganization is a valuable propaganda tool for the centrists of all kinds, and
this category reveals probably the most important line of error that separates anarchists from other socialists. For us, the most important
thing to emphasize is that unity must be distinguished from uniformity.
The accusation that consistent federalism would lead to a variety of differences of opinion and strategy is one that is accepted by
anarchists. In fact, this is one of the main reasons we support it. Our living conditions vary in such a wide range and are transformed so
quickly that assigning a stable model of an organization to society would only lead to chaos. The resentment that naturally arises from
different people and different groups working together for a common goal is essential to keeping organizations alive.
Liberal socialism manifests itself not only as a revolt against authoritarian political and economic structures, but as a revolt against the
authoritarianism at its root. To justify the right of the constituent parts of a federation to secede, even after their agreement on a
federation, Bakunin states that "no lasting obligation can be offset by human justice, the only one that can claim any power among us." ,
and that without the right to free assembly and free secession, "the confederation would be nothing more than a central disguise." 5
The diversity that results from a federation is not considered a defect, but a fundamental characteristic. Again, we return to Bakunin for
an eloquent justification:
"I will never tire of repeating it: Uniformity is death. Diversity is life. Disciplinary unity that can only be created in any social
environment to the detriment of spontaneous creativity and life, kills nations. The living, really strong unity, the unity that we all want,
is what freedom creates in the heart of the free and different manifestations of life, expressing itself through struggle: it is the balance
and harmonization of all living forces ". 6
Elsewhere, he quotes a similar point: "Uniformity is not unity at all, it is its removal, capuut mortuum 7, its death. "Unity is real and
lives in the midst of the greatest diversity." 8 In particular, for Bakunin, the imposition of a particular doctrine or form by a supreme
council on a federation would turn that federation into a single church and the council into a "collective pope" who would speak ex
cathedra, with the orders to make laws. 9
For a final argument, we can rely on Proudhon:
"You, who can not capture unity without a whole mechanism of legislators, prosecutors, attorney generals, customs officers, police, never
know what real unity is! What you call unity and concentration is nothing but constant chaos, serving as the basis for endless tyranny. It
is the progress of the chaotic state of social forces as an argument for despotism - a despotism that is really the cause of chaos. " 10
From citizens to producers
Federalism is the most crucial element for the cohesion of the labor movement that will abolish private property and government and build a
free socialism in their place. While the former society is organized by divisions of nations according to the needs of politics, the new
society will be organized by federations of industrial groups according to the needs of production. In the words of ilemile Pouget: "from
now on, the producer is in front of the existing society that recognizes only the citizen". 12
I will end this article with another excerpt from Proudhon. In my view, it accurately summarizes the mission of anarchism and the crucial
role of federalism within it:
"It's the industrial organization with which we will replace the government.
Instead of laws, we will put contracts. - No more laws that were passed by a majority or even unanimously. Every citizen, every community or
company, creates their own.
In the place of the political forces, we will put the economic forces.
In place of the ancient classes of nobles, peasants, or the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, we will put the general titles and special
sections of industry: Agriculture, Construction, Trade, etc.
In the place of state power, we will put collective power.
In place of the standing armies, we will place industrial associations.
In the place of the police, we will put the identity of interests.
In the place of political centralism, we will put economic centralism. "
* Thanks to Tommy Lawson and René Berthier for their help in writing this text.
Notes (based on the English version of the text):
1. Federalism by James Guillaume, published in Solidarité (1871), in English translation by Shawn Wilbur, available at:
https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/bakunin-library/ james-guillaume-federalism-1871 / .
2. The Federal Principle and the Necessity of Reconstituting the Party of the Revolution by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in Property is Theft! A
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology (2011), edited by Iain McKay, by AK Press.
3. What is Property? - Or, an inquiry into the principle of right and of government, in the same.
4. From Iain McKay's Glossary to the same.
5. An Internationalist Federalism by Mikhail Bakunin, published in No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism (2005), edited by Daniel
Guérin, translated by Paul Sharkey and published by AK Press. This text is based on a speech by Bakunin at the League of Peace and Freedom
Conference. It is an important document as it marks a key stage in the development of Bakunin thought. The Union for Peace and Freedom, a
liberal-humanitarian group, did not accept his proposal to merge peace concerns with workers' concerns. This failure of Bakunin marked a
turning point in the belief that only the proletariat, acting as an independent force, could bring about the necessary radical social
changes. Consequently,
6. From Bakunin's letter to Ceretti, dated 13-27 March 1871, translated into English by Shawn Wilbur and available here:
https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/bakunin-library/bakunin-on -life-harmony-and-struggle-1872 /
7. Latin for "dead head", which means "useless remains".
8. From Bakunin's letter to the Gazzettino Rosa, dated 23 December 1871, as quoted on page 140 of Wolfgang Eckhardt's book The First
Socialist Schism: Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Workingmen's Association, PM Press, 2016.
9. It is difficult to underestimate the importance of opposition to religion in the development of anarchism.
10. From The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, included in Iain McKay's Anthology, as above.
11. From the second part of The Principles and Organization of the International Revolutionary Society, written by Bakunin, published in
1866, translated into English by Shawn Wilbur and available at: https://web.archive.org/web
/20160707152937/http://library.libertarian-labyrinth.org/items/show/2671
12. From Actionmile Pouget's Direct Action, published in 1910, translated into English and published by the Kate Sharpley Library, and
accessible at address: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/vhhngg
* This text was published in the Sydney Anarcho-Communists, Bulletin # 1, August 2020. Translation: "Neither God nor Master".
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32021
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