Today's Topics:
1. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL AL #310 -
Antipatriarchy, Black feminism: self-defining, a vital necessity
(de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Antipatriarchy, Black feminism: self-defining, a vital necessity
(de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. 14 years of Rusga Libertária - firm steps in building the
Organized Anarchism in Mato Grosso (pt)
Organized Anarchism in Mato Grosso (pt)
[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Germany, We are "die plattform" (ca, de, it, pt)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. anarkismo.net: Students Lead the Militancy! by Laya
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
In her book, the Brazilian Joice Berth returns to the concept of "empowerment"
which she considers "emptied of its original meaning and has lost its
transformative power to become an individualist, careerist practice, recovered by
neoliberalism". What if the challenge was to reappropriate this concept in its
ambition for social transformation? ---- Empowerment refers to developing one's
individual and collective capacity to act for the purpose of social
transformation. The development of this power to act is a necessity for the
oppressed social groups, which must, in order to fight and in struggle, free
themselves from the structural mechanisms which reduce them to impotence,
"afeeling of being unable to flee or to fight, to be trapped,"[impotence]"is an
effect of symbolic violence which means that we have integrated our illegitimacy
into our conceptions (what we think, what we are able to conceive), and also in
our bodies (which we feel capable of doing)" . [1]
The term empowerment has been used since the 1970s by feminists in Southeast Asia
and in the United States, but also by popular education movements in Latin
America (notably Paulo Freire), or even by Black activists. power in the United
States.
They pose the fact that the power of the oppressors over the oppressed rests,
among other things, on the alienation of these. The activists underline the need
for a collective work of "consciousness-raising " , to promote awareness of the
mechanisms which are imposed on individuals and social groups and determine their
place in society.
Identify and combat instrumentalisation
From the 1990s, the concept of empowerment was taken over by the liberals and
neoliberals who reduced it to its individual dimension and neglecting its
collective and social dimensions (and therefore responsibility). The whole issue
of empowerment lies in this tension between individual responsibility and
collective and social responsibility. Because if emancipation requires taking
responsibility, it cannot be done alone: liberation is a social act, there is no
self-liberation possible in an untransformed society. However, one can only free
oneself, and no one can free others: "do not free me, I take care of it", say
feminists.
It is by concealing the collective responsibility for social transformation, in
the name of an exit from "assistantship", that liberal ideology has misled the
concept of empowerment by reducing it to an individualizing and guilt-ridden
definition: " Take- you in hand: when we want we can."
Through the use of the term empowerment, we find the tension between libertarian
conception and liberal conception of emancipation. Both affirm that freedom is
inseparable from responsibility. However, the libertarian conception considers
that freedom is also inseparable from equality, that it can only really exist if
we abolish the oppressive mechanisms that are imposed on each and every one. On
the other hand, the liberal conception affirms that no one can be hindered in his
freedom, exploitation and oppression being considered as insurmountable. The
liberal and neoliberal ideology over-responsibility people and social groups for
the resolution of the problems of which they are victims because of the social
organization. One of the challenges of empowerment is therefore to move
from"Naive consciousness,[in which]oppression is understood as a problem linked
to individuals and not to the system", to a "critical consciousness,[in
which]individuals identify the oppressor as a collective actor, and focus on the
transformation of the system"[2].
Empowerment is a long-term process, that of emancipation and social
transformation. In our societies where capitalism and neoliberalism think short
term, it is difficult to foster this type of process.
Joice Berth details in her book four strategies to be developed to promote
empowerment processes. These strategies are not enough for social transformation.
However, they require struggling to be developed, and their development in turn
promotes the ability to struggle.
Berth analyzes critical pedagogy [3]and the practices that promote the
development of a critical mind and that encourage students to question and
challenge the beliefs and practices taught to them. In a critical analysis of
microcredit[4](notably Bolsa Familia in Brazil) [5]it comes back to economic
strengthening, as an absolute necessity for the dominated social groups to move
towards a dignified existence. It presents social participation and access to
decision-making spaces in society, as one strategy of resistance among others,
which aims to make the voices of those usually silenced.
Finally, she looks at aesthetics and affectivity as issues to develop self-esteem
and group solidarity. Joice Berth underlines "the power generated by confidence
in one's own image" , especially in Western cultures where "the beautiful is
synonymous with superiority, that is to say that it goes beyond the field of
aesthetics: according to the common sense, all that is beautiful can only be
good" . The pride that we have in ourselves and in our social group is at stake,
in a context where, "in dominant groups, self-love is built throughout their life" .
Berth also denounces the "stifling of testimony" to which the dominated are
forced to keep silent about the realities that the oppressive group is not
prepared to assimilate[6]. Defining "assertiveness" as "assertiveness, the
ability to express oneself and to defend one's rights without infringing on those
of others" , she underlines the vital need to define oneself, to move from
victimization to resistance and creativity, sources of pride and strength.
Take concrete action
Social transformation cannot mean the reversal of the poles of oppression, it
requires the abolition of these. However, at first, every oppressed seeks to
resemble his oppressor: it is very difficult not to wish to have what is unfairly
denied to us. As soon as possible, our struggles must go further, not just take a
position "against" or seek to limit inequalities in a fundamentally unchanged
system. It is in this perspective that the ambition of empowerment and
emancipation must accompany all our struggles.
Adeline (UCL Paris North East)
Joice Berth, Empowerment and black feminism , Anacaona, 2019, 155 pages, 12 euros.
Validate
[1] Adeline de Lépinay, Let's get organized ! Critical manual , Out of reach, 2019.
[2] Joice Berth, presenting the thought of Paulo Freire.
[3] Irène Pereira, Critical pedagogies , Laurence De Cock and Irène Pereira
(dir.), Agone, 2019.
[4] And in particular the Grameen Bank (literally: village bank), a bank
specializing in microcredit created in 1983 by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh.
[5] Family scholarship, set up by the Lula government.
[6] Robin DiAngelo, White fragility: why is it so hard to talk to whites about
racism , State of exception, 2015.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Feminisme-noir-s-autodefinir-une-necessite-vitale
------------------------------
Message: 2
We continue, another year, convinced of our ideological and programmatic
principles, under a harsh and violent confrontation in the face of everything
that dominates us; we continue, one more year, convinced that we are moving
towards a better direction, even in an increasingly miserable context; we
continue, one more year, firm in sowing resistant seeds to contribute to the
construction of a strong people for Popular Power. ---- When we speak of Popular
Power, we do not speak lip service, because, for us, popular power aims at the
suppression of capitalism, the State and domination relations in general,
replacing them with a new power structure, established at from the places of
residence, work and studies; it can only be consolidated, therefore, through a
revolutionary process. (CAB, 2012). It will not take place through election
elections, in the choice of representatives through the State; either as the
choice of the least worst, or as an "anti-fascism vote". If there is no constancy
in the quest to build a strong, organized, combative people, with solidarity and
class independence, through direct democracy and through direct action ...
Against all injustices and domination imposed through capitalism and racist and
patriarchal social structure ... we continue to act in the struggles of the low
and low, shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed ... walking with firm steps for
another society ... we continue, in organized anarchism of a specifist, Latin
American matrix, with: ethics, commitment, solidarity, organization and
resistance ... for the contribution in the construction of a strong people, for
the popular power ... towards Libertarian Socialism!
November 18, 2016, in our 10-year milestone, was the date chosen for the memory
and firmament of our birth ... Date that marks the 1918 Anarchist Insurrection in
history, in Rio de Janeiro, and also the birth of other sister organizations:
FAG, in Rio Grande do Sul; OASL, in São Paulo. This date certainly marks the most
varied struggles, resistance and popular confrontations around the world. The
date that we will follow, so we carry such a desire in our hearts - as Durruti
said -, reaffirming our political program, our commitment to the struggles of the
people from below and, above all, our ideological firmness against class
conciliation, individualism and political reformism has been plaguing the
possibilities of greater force in our struggles: for rights, housing, education,
health ... Against all the injustices of capitalism, state and patriarchy. We
continue and we will continue another year, day after day in struggle, we are at war!
Rusga Libertária, Mato Grosso
Member of the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination
https://www.facebook.com/rusgalibertariamt/posts/2117735538357473
------------------------------
Message: 3
We are "die plattform", an anarcha-communist organisation from and for the
German-speaking region. Our aim is to overcome all forms of oppression and to
build a society without domination, class or state on the basis of anarchist
communism. ---- In order to advance the struggle for this society, we have come
together at the beginning of 2019 under the name "die plattform". As of now we
have local groups in several cities as well as a supra-regional group which
unites all members of our organisation who are not yet able to form a local group
in their own city or region. ---- As anarcha-communists, we are convinced that
the key to long-term social change towards our vision of a liberated society lies
in the social movements of the wage-dependent class.
In these social movements from below, people come together who are fighting for
concrete improvements of their living conditions; who stand up against high rents
and gentrification, who organise themselves against patriarchy and the
never-ending femicides, who rise up against the capitalist destruction of our
climate and planet and who resolutely oppose the everyday racism of the state and
inside the rest of society.
We want to get involved in the social movements of our time as a well-organised
anarchist power and in them, side by side with the people of our class, we want
to push forward the struggle for our common interests.
The social revolution is not only still possible. It is necessary - but it will
not come out of nowhere. From the daily imposition that is wage labour, the
increasing displacement caused by high rents, the thousands of dead refugees in
the Mediterranean, society's shift to the right, the climate crisis which is
getting worse every day and the constant, brutal class struggle from above, there
are many reasons to work hard for it. Precisely because this will not be easy:
Let's do it together!
To be able to work effectively as an organisation, we consider it essential to
work out a common analysis of the existing social conditions, a shared political
basis and a common strategic understanding. We have laid a foundation for this
with our first text, which we published at the beginning of 2019 (-> Link).
https://www.dieplattform.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KE1%20englisch.pdf
We are fed up with continuing to wage mere defensive struggles in order to
preserve the last remnants of freedom and self-determination that the state and
capitalism have left us.
We want the future to be about fighting for liberty for all. Just as in the days
when anarchism was still a mass movement.
We want a realistic, revolutionary perspective against the existing misery.
If you are curious, we have created a small FAQ (-> Link)
https://www.dieplattform.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KE4%20englisch.pdf with
frequently asked questions about our initiative and our attempts to answer them.
We are "die plattform" for all those who have not yet come to terms with this
system - for all those who want to move forward on the way to a society without
oppression or domination.
If you would like to join us on this path, then write to us! (->
kontakt@dieplattform.org) or contact our local structures directly.
If you are not from a German-speaking country, but still interested in our
organisation or would like to work with us, please contact our e-mail address for
international communication (-> international@dieplattform.org)
Local structures
Berlin - berlin.dieplattform.org - Twitter
Ruhr area - ruhr.dieplattform.org - Facebook - Twitter
Rostock region - rostock.dieplattform.org - Twitter
Trier - trier.dieplattform.org - Facebook - Twitter
A further group is currently being set up in Leipzig. e-Mail
and in Essen e-Mail
Our individual members from different cities together form the supra-regional
group. So we are also happy about individuals who want to become active!
https://www.dieplattform.org/englisch/
------------------------------
Message: 4
These universities are not alone. In fact, this struggle for our lives, for our
freedom to dictate our destiny, is the struggle of every student, in every
institution across the archipelago! All schools, colleges, and universities have
their own versions of our very native concept of bayanihan, that entails a
camaraderie and solidarity where no one will be left behind. It is in our values
and in our history that we can learn what it takes to take our liberty now. ----
The whirlwinds of danger have raised around us again. Unfortunately for the
archipelago, it was in its most literal sense. Over October and the beginning of
November 2020, right at the tail end of the yearly typhoon season, five
consecutive storms ravaged the Philippines, particularly the easterly provinces
of Luzon and Visayas. Marikina and Cagayan are deluged. Bicol and Catanduanes are
flattened. This all happened while the government continues to to have no
national plan for mass testing and continued mismanagement of the pandemic.
Thousands are dead-victims of police killings, pandemic mismanagement, and now,
typhoons.
The state's response to these consecutive calamities has been equally disastrous.
The state as an institution has seized the functions of society into and for
itself, which include pandemic and calamity response. Yet the state abdicates
this responsibility. In the place of the state we saw an outpouring of
previously-established and spontaneously-formed affinity groups to practice
mutual aid.
New Wave of Student Militancy
It is in the context of the Duterte administration's neglect and mismanagement
that students around the country have decided that they have had enough. What
began as a single student petition from the Ateneo de Manila University has
ignited conversations all across the archipelago. At the moment of writing,
students all over the Philippines continue to discuss and plan for a strike to
protest the government. The whirlwinds of danger, both literal and figurative,
have taken the archipelago by storm, giving the youth a clear idea of the
inequity that exists in the society that they are a part of, and calls them to
stand for the rights of their fellowmen in their most vulnerable hour.
Students have shown they have real power in their hands. The first call for a
mass student strike-signed by more than five hundred students from the Ateneo de
Manila University-forced the hand of school administrators to cancel classes for
a week. Students from other universities like De La Salle University, the
University of Santo Tomas, and the University of the Philippines-Diliman were
similarly able to get their school administrations to cancel classes. Workers
from the University of the Philippines-Diliman took the charge in declaring their
own strike as well. Students and workers elsewhere are similarly agitated.
Student militancy is not new in the archipelago. In the dark days leading up to
the Marcos dictatorship in 1970, students rallied against the budding dictator in
a stormy period now known as the First Quarter Storm. One of the infamous
episodes of the First Quarter Storm was the student insurrection known as the
Diliman Commune in 1971.
Now history seems to be repeating itself with unprecedented student militancy
under the budding dictatorship of President Duterte. The same president who has
time and again allied himself with the Marcos family and who, months after his
inauguration, arranged for a state funeral of the old dictator, triggering a wave
of student militancy against the regime.
Push for a Self-Directed Militancy!
As anarchists in the archipelago, we push for a self-directed militancy. This
means that we prefer for struggles to be managed and directed by the people
themselves. In labor, this looks like workers leading workers, with workers
uniting and organizing among themselves without being bossed around by party
cadre or union bureaucrats. In the student struggle, self-directed militancy
means students leading students without intermediaries like student government or
school officials. So initiatives like the call for a student strike by the Ateneo
students are exactly the kinds of initiatives we anarchists want to amplify.
The latest news from Ateneo is that the Sanggunian-the Ateneo autonomous student
government-failed a vote to formally endorse the mass student strike. To us
anarchists, this only affirms that we cannot rely on official structures to push
for the militancy we want to see. However to give credit where it is due, the
Council of Student Leaders of the University of the Philippines Los Baños has
officially declared a strike. We can only hope other organizations follow.
If the Ateneo strikers cannot secure endorsement from their Sanggunian, then
perhaps they must direct their own militancy themselves. Perhaps they can form
strike committees independent from their Sanggunian. Politics is too important to
be left to elected officials, and more so the national politics against the
state's disastrous policies.
A strike that spreads is a strike that wins. What the student strikers are
already doing is to connect with students from other schools that want to partake
in such a strike. Perhaps strike committees from various schools can federate
with another and scale up their efforts.
The strike cannot be limited to the students. Unions and workers must join the
fray. Indeed the faculty at the University of the Philippines-Diliman have taken
the charge in this. Other unions have also endorsed the mass student strike.
But not all unions are so daring. Perhaps if formal union endorsement cannot be
secured, rank-and-file and unorganized workers can also form strike committees in
support of the student strikers.
Towards the Welgang Bayan
In the time of dictators and bonapartists, workers and students banded together
for the welgang bayan (lit. peoples' strike; general strike). The welgang bayan
has been used against the dictator Marcos and in the second People Power revolution.
Will these steps by students for mass student strikes lead to the welgang bayan?
We can only hope so. And if these steps do lead to the welgang bayan, we must
work with strikers to push for self-directed militancy against those that might
co-opt or dilute the militancy.
As the Ateneo saying goes, "Magis!" (lit. more; excel). As the Lasallian saying
goes, "Let us start the change we want to see; the change that begins in me." The
Iskos have their honor and excellence and they have proven themselves time and
time again. The Thomasians pride themselves in their commitment, compassion, and
competence and have a history of militancy since the times of Burgos, Rizal, and
Del Pilar.
These universities are not alone. In fact, this struggle for our lives, for our
freedom to dictate our destiny, is the struggle of every student, in every
institution across the archipelago! All schools, colleges, and universities have
their own versions of our very native concept of bayanihan, that entails a
camaraderie and solidarity where no one will be left behind. It is in our values
and in our history that we can learn what it takes to take our liberty now.
Everything we need is already within reach. Alone we are weak but together we can
be a whirlwind against the regime. Act now! The power to strike lies with you.
Draw your friends and allies close. You are not alone.
No Online Classes Until Duterte Steps Down!
?Support Student Strikes across the Archipelago!
?Our Struggles Interlinked!
Mabuhay ang welga!
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32092
------------------------------
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
In her book, the Brazilian Joice Berth returns to the concept of "empowerment"
which she considers "emptied of its original meaning and has lost its
transformative power to become an individualist, careerist practice, recovered by
neoliberalism". What if the challenge was to reappropriate this concept in its
ambition for social transformation? ---- Empowerment refers to developing one's
individual and collective capacity to act for the purpose of social
transformation. The development of this power to act is a necessity for the
oppressed social groups, which must, in order to fight and in struggle, free
themselves from the structural mechanisms which reduce them to impotence,
"afeeling of being unable to flee or to fight, to be trapped,"[impotence]"is an
effect of symbolic violence which means that we have integrated our illegitimacy
into our conceptions (what we think, what we are able to conceive), and also in
our bodies (which we feel capable of doing)" . [1]
The term empowerment has been used since the 1970s by feminists in Southeast Asia
and in the United States, but also by popular education movements in Latin
America (notably Paulo Freire), or even by Black activists. power in the United
States.
They pose the fact that the power of the oppressors over the oppressed rests,
among other things, on the alienation of these. The activists underline the need
for a collective work of "consciousness-raising " , to promote awareness of the
mechanisms which are imposed on individuals and social groups and determine their
place in society.
Identify and combat instrumentalisation
From the 1990s, the concept of empowerment was taken over by the liberals and
neoliberals who reduced it to its individual dimension and neglecting its
collective and social dimensions (and therefore responsibility). The whole issue
of empowerment lies in this tension between individual responsibility and
collective and social responsibility. Because if emancipation requires taking
responsibility, it cannot be done alone: liberation is a social act, there is no
self-liberation possible in an untransformed society. However, one can only free
oneself, and no one can free others: "do not free me, I take care of it", say
feminists.
It is by concealing the collective responsibility for social transformation, in
the name of an exit from "assistantship", that liberal ideology has misled the
concept of empowerment by reducing it to an individualizing and guilt-ridden
definition: " Take- you in hand: when we want we can."
Through the use of the term empowerment, we find the tension between libertarian
conception and liberal conception of emancipation. Both affirm that freedom is
inseparable from responsibility. However, the libertarian conception considers
that freedom is also inseparable from equality, that it can only really exist if
we abolish the oppressive mechanisms that are imposed on each and every one. On
the other hand, the liberal conception affirms that no one can be hindered in his
freedom, exploitation and oppression being considered as insurmountable. The
liberal and neoliberal ideology over-responsibility people and social groups for
the resolution of the problems of which they are victims because of the social
organization. One of the challenges of empowerment is therefore to move
from"Naive consciousness,[in which]oppression is understood as a problem linked
to individuals and not to the system", to a "critical consciousness,[in
which]individuals identify the oppressor as a collective actor, and focus on the
transformation of the system"[2].
Empowerment is a long-term process, that of emancipation and social
transformation. In our societies where capitalism and neoliberalism think short
term, it is difficult to foster this type of process.
Joice Berth details in her book four strategies to be developed to promote
empowerment processes. These strategies are not enough for social transformation.
However, they require struggling to be developed, and their development in turn
promotes the ability to struggle.
Berth analyzes critical pedagogy [3]and the practices that promote the
development of a critical mind and that encourage students to question and
challenge the beliefs and practices taught to them. In a critical analysis of
microcredit[4](notably Bolsa Familia in Brazil) [5]it comes back to economic
strengthening, as an absolute necessity for the dominated social groups to move
towards a dignified existence. It presents social participation and access to
decision-making spaces in society, as one strategy of resistance among others,
which aims to make the voices of those usually silenced.
Finally, she looks at aesthetics and affectivity as issues to develop self-esteem
and group solidarity. Joice Berth underlines "the power generated by confidence
in one's own image" , especially in Western cultures where "the beautiful is
synonymous with superiority, that is to say that it goes beyond the field of
aesthetics: according to the common sense, all that is beautiful can only be
good" . The pride that we have in ourselves and in our social group is at stake,
in a context where, "in dominant groups, self-love is built throughout their life" .
Berth also denounces the "stifling of testimony" to which the dominated are
forced to keep silent about the realities that the oppressive group is not
prepared to assimilate[6]. Defining "assertiveness" as "assertiveness, the
ability to express oneself and to defend one's rights without infringing on those
of others" , she underlines the vital need to define oneself, to move from
victimization to resistance and creativity, sources of pride and strength.
Take concrete action
Social transformation cannot mean the reversal of the poles of oppression, it
requires the abolition of these. However, at first, every oppressed seeks to
resemble his oppressor: it is very difficult not to wish to have what is unfairly
denied to us. As soon as possible, our struggles must go further, not just take a
position "against" or seek to limit inequalities in a fundamentally unchanged
system. It is in this perspective that the ambition of empowerment and
emancipation must accompany all our struggles.
Adeline (UCL Paris North East)
Joice Berth, Empowerment and black feminism , Anacaona, 2019, 155 pages, 12 euros.
Validate
[1] Adeline de Lépinay, Let's get organized ! Critical manual , Out of reach, 2019.
[2] Joice Berth, presenting the thought of Paulo Freire.
[3] Irène Pereira, Critical pedagogies , Laurence De Cock and Irène Pereira
(dir.), Agone, 2019.
[4] And in particular the Grameen Bank (literally: village bank), a bank
specializing in microcredit created in 1983 by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh.
[5] Family scholarship, set up by the Lula government.
[6] Robin DiAngelo, White fragility: why is it so hard to talk to whites about
racism , State of exception, 2015.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Feminisme-noir-s-autodefinir-une-necessite-vitale
------------------------------
Message: 2
We continue, another year, convinced of our ideological and programmatic
principles, under a harsh and violent confrontation in the face of everything
that dominates us; we continue, one more year, convinced that we are moving
towards a better direction, even in an increasingly miserable context; we
continue, one more year, firm in sowing resistant seeds to contribute to the
construction of a strong people for Popular Power. ---- When we speak of Popular
Power, we do not speak lip service, because, for us, popular power aims at the
suppression of capitalism, the State and domination relations in general,
replacing them with a new power structure, established at from the places of
residence, work and studies; it can only be consolidated, therefore, through a
revolutionary process. (CAB, 2012). It will not take place through election
elections, in the choice of representatives through the State; either as the
choice of the least worst, or as an "anti-fascism vote". If there is no constancy
in the quest to build a strong, organized, combative people, with solidarity and
class independence, through direct democracy and through direct action ...
Against all injustices and domination imposed through capitalism and racist and
patriarchal social structure ... we continue to act in the struggles of the low
and low, shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed ... walking with firm steps for
another society ... we continue, in organized anarchism of a specifist, Latin
American matrix, with: ethics, commitment, solidarity, organization and
resistance ... for the contribution in the construction of a strong people, for
the popular power ... towards Libertarian Socialism!
November 18, 2016, in our 10-year milestone, was the date chosen for the memory
and firmament of our birth ... Date that marks the 1918 Anarchist Insurrection in
history, in Rio de Janeiro, and also the birth of other sister organizations:
FAG, in Rio Grande do Sul; OASL, in São Paulo. This date certainly marks the most
varied struggles, resistance and popular confrontations around the world. The
date that we will follow, so we carry such a desire in our hearts - as Durruti
said -, reaffirming our political program, our commitment to the struggles of the
people from below and, above all, our ideological firmness against class
conciliation, individualism and political reformism has been plaguing the
possibilities of greater force in our struggles: for rights, housing, education,
health ... Against all the injustices of capitalism, state and patriarchy. We
continue and we will continue another year, day after day in struggle, we are at war!
Rusga Libertária, Mato Grosso
Member of the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination
https://www.facebook.com/rusgalibertariamt/posts/2117735538357473
------------------------------
Message: 3
We are "die plattform", an anarcha-communist organisation from and for the
German-speaking region. Our aim is to overcome all forms of oppression and to
build a society without domination, class or state on the basis of anarchist
communism. ---- In order to advance the struggle for this society, we have come
together at the beginning of 2019 under the name "die plattform". As of now we
have local groups in several cities as well as a supra-regional group which
unites all members of our organisation who are not yet able to form a local group
in their own city or region. ---- As anarcha-communists, we are convinced that
the key to long-term social change towards our vision of a liberated society lies
in the social movements of the wage-dependent class.
In these social movements from below, people come together who are fighting for
concrete improvements of their living conditions; who stand up against high rents
and gentrification, who organise themselves against patriarchy and the
never-ending femicides, who rise up against the capitalist destruction of our
climate and planet and who resolutely oppose the everyday racism of the state and
inside the rest of society.
We want to get involved in the social movements of our time as a well-organised
anarchist power and in them, side by side with the people of our class, we want
to push forward the struggle for our common interests.
The social revolution is not only still possible. It is necessary - but it will
not come out of nowhere. From the daily imposition that is wage labour, the
increasing displacement caused by high rents, the thousands of dead refugees in
the Mediterranean, society's shift to the right, the climate crisis which is
getting worse every day and the constant, brutal class struggle from above, there
are many reasons to work hard for it. Precisely because this will not be easy:
Let's do it together!
To be able to work effectively as an organisation, we consider it essential to
work out a common analysis of the existing social conditions, a shared political
basis and a common strategic understanding. We have laid a foundation for this
with our first text, which we published at the beginning of 2019 (-> Link).
https://www.dieplattform.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KE1%20englisch.pdf
We are fed up with continuing to wage mere defensive struggles in order to
preserve the last remnants of freedom and self-determination that the state and
capitalism have left us.
We want the future to be about fighting for liberty for all. Just as in the days
when anarchism was still a mass movement.
We want a realistic, revolutionary perspective against the existing misery.
If you are curious, we have created a small FAQ (-> Link)
https://www.dieplattform.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KE4%20englisch.pdf with
frequently asked questions about our initiative and our attempts to answer them.
We are "die plattform" for all those who have not yet come to terms with this
system - for all those who want to move forward on the way to a society without
oppression or domination.
If you would like to join us on this path, then write to us! (->
kontakt@dieplattform.org) or contact our local structures directly.
If you are not from a German-speaking country, but still interested in our
organisation or would like to work with us, please contact our e-mail address for
international communication (-> international@dieplattform.org)
Local structures
Berlin - berlin.dieplattform.org - Twitter
Ruhr area - ruhr.dieplattform.org - Facebook - Twitter
Rostock region - rostock.dieplattform.org - Twitter
Trier - trier.dieplattform.org - Facebook - Twitter
A further group is currently being set up in Leipzig. e-Mail
and in Essen e-Mail
Our individual members from different cities together form the supra-regional
group. So we are also happy about individuals who want to become active!
https://www.dieplattform.org/englisch/
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Message: 4
These universities are not alone. In fact, this struggle for our lives, for our
freedom to dictate our destiny, is the struggle of every student, in every
institution across the archipelago! All schools, colleges, and universities have
their own versions of our very native concept of bayanihan, that entails a
camaraderie and solidarity where no one will be left behind. It is in our values
and in our history that we can learn what it takes to take our liberty now. ----
The whirlwinds of danger have raised around us again. Unfortunately for the
archipelago, it was in its most literal sense. Over October and the beginning of
November 2020, right at the tail end of the yearly typhoon season, five
consecutive storms ravaged the Philippines, particularly the easterly provinces
of Luzon and Visayas. Marikina and Cagayan are deluged. Bicol and Catanduanes are
flattened. This all happened while the government continues to to have no
national plan for mass testing and continued mismanagement of the pandemic.
Thousands are dead-victims of police killings, pandemic mismanagement, and now,
typhoons.
The state's response to these consecutive calamities has been equally disastrous.
The state as an institution has seized the functions of society into and for
itself, which include pandemic and calamity response. Yet the state abdicates
this responsibility. In the place of the state we saw an outpouring of
previously-established and spontaneously-formed affinity groups to practice
mutual aid.
New Wave of Student Militancy
It is in the context of the Duterte administration's neglect and mismanagement
that students around the country have decided that they have had enough. What
began as a single student petition from the Ateneo de Manila University has
ignited conversations all across the archipelago. At the moment of writing,
students all over the Philippines continue to discuss and plan for a strike to
protest the government. The whirlwinds of danger, both literal and figurative,
have taken the archipelago by storm, giving the youth a clear idea of the
inequity that exists in the society that they are a part of, and calls them to
stand for the rights of their fellowmen in their most vulnerable hour.
Students have shown they have real power in their hands. The first call for a
mass student strike-signed by more than five hundred students from the Ateneo de
Manila University-forced the hand of school administrators to cancel classes for
a week. Students from other universities like De La Salle University, the
University of Santo Tomas, and the University of the Philippines-Diliman were
similarly able to get their school administrations to cancel classes. Workers
from the University of the Philippines-Diliman took the charge in declaring their
own strike as well. Students and workers elsewhere are similarly agitated.
Student militancy is not new in the archipelago. In the dark days leading up to
the Marcos dictatorship in 1970, students rallied against the budding dictator in
a stormy period now known as the First Quarter Storm. One of the infamous
episodes of the First Quarter Storm was the student insurrection known as the
Diliman Commune in 1971.
Now history seems to be repeating itself with unprecedented student militancy
under the budding dictatorship of President Duterte. The same president who has
time and again allied himself with the Marcos family and who, months after his
inauguration, arranged for a state funeral of the old dictator, triggering a wave
of student militancy against the regime.
Push for a Self-Directed Militancy!
As anarchists in the archipelago, we push for a self-directed militancy. This
means that we prefer for struggles to be managed and directed by the people
themselves. In labor, this looks like workers leading workers, with workers
uniting and organizing among themselves without being bossed around by party
cadre or union bureaucrats. In the student struggle, self-directed militancy
means students leading students without intermediaries like student government or
school officials. So initiatives like the call for a student strike by the Ateneo
students are exactly the kinds of initiatives we anarchists want to amplify.
The latest news from Ateneo is that the Sanggunian-the Ateneo autonomous student
government-failed a vote to formally endorse the mass student strike. To us
anarchists, this only affirms that we cannot rely on official structures to push
for the militancy we want to see. However to give credit where it is due, the
Council of Student Leaders of the University of the Philippines Los Baños has
officially declared a strike. We can only hope other organizations follow.
If the Ateneo strikers cannot secure endorsement from their Sanggunian, then
perhaps they must direct their own militancy themselves. Perhaps they can form
strike committees independent from their Sanggunian. Politics is too important to
be left to elected officials, and more so the national politics against the
state's disastrous policies.
A strike that spreads is a strike that wins. What the student strikers are
already doing is to connect with students from other schools that want to partake
in such a strike. Perhaps strike committees from various schools can federate
with another and scale up their efforts.
The strike cannot be limited to the students. Unions and workers must join the
fray. Indeed the faculty at the University of the Philippines-Diliman have taken
the charge in this. Other unions have also endorsed the mass student strike.
But not all unions are so daring. Perhaps if formal union endorsement cannot be
secured, rank-and-file and unorganized workers can also form strike committees in
support of the student strikers.
Towards the Welgang Bayan
In the time of dictators and bonapartists, workers and students banded together
for the welgang bayan (lit. peoples' strike; general strike). The welgang bayan
has been used against the dictator Marcos and in the second People Power revolution.
Will these steps by students for mass student strikes lead to the welgang bayan?
We can only hope so. And if these steps do lead to the welgang bayan, we must
work with strikers to push for self-directed militancy against those that might
co-opt or dilute the militancy.
As the Ateneo saying goes, "Magis!" (lit. more; excel). As the Lasallian saying
goes, "Let us start the change we want to see; the change that begins in me." The
Iskos have their honor and excellence and they have proven themselves time and
time again. The Thomasians pride themselves in their commitment, compassion, and
competence and have a history of militancy since the times of Burgos, Rizal, and
Del Pilar.
These universities are not alone. In fact, this struggle for our lives, for our
freedom to dictate our destiny, is the struggle of every student, in every
institution across the archipelago! All schools, colleges, and universities have
their own versions of our very native concept of bayanihan, that entails a
camaraderie and solidarity where no one will be left behind. It is in our values
and in our history that we can learn what it takes to take our liberty now.
Everything we need is already within reach. Alone we are weak but together we can
be a whirlwind against the regime. Act now! The power to strike lies with you.
Draw your friends and allies close. You are not alone.
No Online Classes Until Duterte Steps Down!
?Support Student Strikes across the Archipelago!
?Our Struggles Interlinked!
Mabuhay ang welga!
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32092
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