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vrijdag 19 maart 2021

#WORLDWIDE #WORLD #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - FRIDAY 19 MARCH 2021

 


Today's Topics:

   
1.  die plattform: No more empty promises?! A call for critical
      solidarity for the global climate strike on March 19th (ca, de,
      it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Czech, AFED:"Even those who are closed have their share in
      change" [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Poland, Workers Initiative: Let us be in solidarity! -
      commission position at the MSN in Warsaw on the occasion 
     of March
      8 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  UK, anarchist communist ACG: The Police and Violence against
      Women (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  awsm.nz: The State and the power of Business By Zaher Baher
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  France, UCL - Webdito, Delivery man on two wheels: we want
      Uber's butter and money (ca, de, it, fr, pt)
      [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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

Message: 1


In about a week, on March 19, the next global climate strike will take place. Our
in-house Climate Action Committee took this as an opportunity to express itself
in a lengthy, solidary commentary on the motto of this global strike -
#NoMoreEmptyPromises - and also on current developments in the climate justice
movement. ---- In the text, they address, among other things, why more appeals to
the rulers will not save the climate and show that the path to parliaments is
also wrong. In the end, they draw conclusions and point out perspectives for a
different climate movement that no longer stops just hoping for the politicians,
but takes system change into its own hands. ---- The text has become really very
readable, which is why we would be happy if you read it, spread it and discuss it
with your fellow fighters.

See you on the street on March 19th! For a militant climate movement against
capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression!

No more empty promises?! For a militant climate movement instead of more appeals
to those in power!
These days, preparations are already underway in many cities in Germany for the
next global climate strike, which the worldwide Fridays For Future movement has
announced for March 19. Again people in dozens of countries are being called to
take the streets with rallies and demonstrations and to protest for climate
justice. After September 25, 2020, this is now the second global climate strike
under pandemic conditions.
And again the global strike is taking place at a time when the climate justice
movement has to fight for attention worldwide for its cause. The reason is clear:
unlike in 2019, when the topic of climate justice was present in the media for
weeks, even months, it is now drowned in the daily flood of corona reports and
news about an impending economic crisis after the pandemic. So now the hundreds
of thousands of activists in the climate justice movement have to fight once more
to make themselves heard and to make it clear that the climate crisis is far from
over just because the media no longer put them on their front pages. Because one
thing is clear: the ruling politics and the system of state and capitalism that
administers them, will continue to reliably drive our climate and thus our world
into disaster in 2021. Even a small cut in economic growth thanks to the corona
lockdown has not changed anything.

Fortunately, more and more people are now realizing what a catastrophic future
the ruling politics are heading towards, despite empty slogans on election
posters and expensive image campaigns by the federal government. More and more
people realize that the rulers don't care about saving the climate, that they are
ready to make the lives of millions of people worldwide just so that the economy
can continue to grow. The ridiculous promises of the rulers to be able to
reconcile climate rescue and economic growth are falling apart more and more.
Realistically speaking, even five years after the much-acclaimed Paris Climate
Agreement, solutions to the climate crisis are still not in sight. Instead,
governments are postponing phase-out periods from fossil fuels for decades.
Corporations like RWE , who want to continue to earn money by promoting and using
the climate killer coal, can still safely count on the state apparatus for their
projects, which clears the way for their excavators with hundreds of police
officers. We last saw this in the small town of Lützerath near Garzweiler.

So it's only logical that more and more people who are active in the local groups
of Fridays For Future understand that what politicians want to sell them as
solutions are nothing more than empty promises. So how fitting is the motto of
this next global strike on March 19th: #NoMoreEmptyPromises - No more empty promises.

What else are they supposed to offer us?

So no more empty promises. This saying and other passages from the Fridays For
Future appeal are clearly and unmistakably aimed at ruling politics and its
actors. The call appeals to politicians not to tell us the truth, but to actually
take measures to save the climate. At first glance, an understandable wish,
right? If anyone can pull the cart out of the mud and save our climate, then it
is the smart heads in the chic suits who love to play a debate club under the
glass dome and sometimes grin more or less sympathetically at the camera or from
election posters. Or?
 From the appeal by Fridays For Future speaks the conviction that if the
politicians are only rightwanted, then they could manage the climate crisis. In
short: The appeal accuses individual politicians and their individual misconduct.
But is that really the source of the problem? Is it that easy? Do the politicians
just not want to listen to the good advice of their experts?

We think it's not that easy. We believe that the source of the problem, the
source of all the empty promises, lies deeper. Not in the bad will of individual
politicians, but in the nature of the system in which we live. This system is
called capitalism.
Capitalism depends on constant economic growth. Companies have to grow, develop
new sales markets, and generate more and more profit. These companies compete
with others in the market. It's a constant hitting and stabbing. Those who don't
grow fast enough are left behind, go bankrupt, are bought up. The main burden of
the endless striving for growth and profit is borne by the environment, the
climate and of course all those who, as workers, unemployed or future workers
(for example pupils, trainees, students) in capitalist competition are nothing
more than useful cogs of inhuman machinery. Because anyone who wants to be
economically successful cannot afford to be careful with the environment or the
workers. Instead, the ruthless exploitation of the planet's natural resources and
the labor of the working population comes first. In this system, it is the task
of the state, its parliaments and its politicians to provide and secure the
framework conditions for economic growth so that profits can continue to be made.
The states themselves are in constant competition with one another. Each state
tries to give its national economy an advantage over the other. so that profits
can continue to be made. The states themselves are in constant competition with
one another. Each state tries to give its national economy an advantage over the
other. so that profits can continue to be made. The states themselves are in
constant competition with one another. Each state tries to give its national
economy an advantage over the other.

It is under these framework conditions that the politicians to whom the call for
a global strike is addressed make their decisions; it is under these framework
conditions that they make promises. So it is really no wonder that politicians
make "empty promises", what else can they offer us? Should they act against the
interests of the capitalist class, against the fundamental mechanisms of the
capitalist system? Should they take measures such as environmental regulations
that curb economic growth when capitalism cannot exist without economic growth?
The emptiness of their promises is not a result of weakness of character, but of
the fundamental mechanisms of the capitalist system. Politicians are unable to
consistently in the interests of the climate, thus also to act in our interest.
Anyone who criticizes empty promises has to start with his criticism of the
mechanisms of capitalism, he has to question capitalism itself.
The slogan of the hour is once again: system change not climate change!

Change the system from within?

A tendency that has accompanied the climate movement - especially in Germany -
since it flared up again in 2019, but in a similar form since the environmental
movement of the 1980s, is the belief in the system that destroys the environment
and the climate and exploits people's labor to be able to change from within. It
is not the resistance from outside against the structures of injustice that is
supposed to remedy the existing problems, but rather the integration and
participation in these structures.

The belief that the structures of a fundamentally wrong system can be changed
from within through cooperation is a dangerous misconception. It is a
misconception that has led to the fact that the political descendants of an
ecological, left-wing mass movement, as it was on the streets all over Germany in
the 1980s, are now sitting in the parliaments of this country and decide on
military operations, mass deportations and clearing forests there. The Greens are
not a mistake in history, they are the logical consequence of a fundamentally
wrong strategy.
Social movements do not benefit from being elected to parliaments and from
participating in the structures of the system, which they should actually
vigorously fight from outside. Over time, the representatives of the social
movements get used to the chic life that comes with participating in the
structures. To the company cars and the beautiful lobby events. They are slowly
exchanging the sports shoes and long beards with which they may have "shocked"
the parliamentary process at the beginning for the same dark suits and the same
hypocritical grin that the rest of their colleagues have perfected. In the end,
all that's left is the green tie that sets her apart from the rest of her colleagues.

We have already shown above how little room for maneuver remains for politicians
within the channels of the system. Even the most idealistic newcomers to politics
will not pass any laws that decisively slow down economic growth and over time it
will be more convenient to submit to the structures and give up idealism.
Actually, we think that it should take no more than the historical example of the
Greens to make people who fight for climate justice understand that the path to
parliaments is wrong. It is with great regret that we have to say that this is
not the case.

For some time, actually since the Fridays For Future movement took to the streets
in Germany, there have been voices promoting the path to parliaments and big
politics. Now, at the beginning of 2021, we are facing what is known as a "super
election year". In some federal states, for example Baden-Württemberg or
Saxony-Anhalt, state elections are pending, and to top it off, the federal
elections await us in September. Reason enough for some "representatives" of the
climate movement to announce their candidacies in the various elections. On the
lists of the SPD, the Greens or the Left Party, these people want to make the
leap into the parliaments and ostensibly to anchor the movement's positions in
the parliamentary process. What will happen is already clear: Integration into
the political institutions and that was it with "system change". The result is
character masks who care more about their jobs than the climate, and that's it.
But at least these activists are not alone with their mistaken belief in the path
of parliamentarism: For a few months now, a flag with a blue-green "K" on a
mostly white background has been seen more and more often at protests by the
climate movement. It is the symbol of the "climate list", a newly founded small
party that wants to distinguish itself by being greener than the Greens. On its
website, the new party announces that it wants to run nationwide in local
elections, while its supporters in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate are
cheerfully running on state election lists. In the end, this project will also
have the bitter experiences that the Greens had before him.

All these developments show that in large parts of the climate movement the
belief that a reform of capitalism is possible and that it makes sense to
participate in parliaments is still deeply rooted. It is our task to resolutely
counteract this mistaken belief and to disenchant it as having no perspective.
The fight against the climate crisis and the capitalism that causes it is neither
waged nor won in parliaments.

What does it take instead?

If not in parliaments and parties, where else should we fight for climate
justice? Our answer seems simple, yet complex: we need to go back to where we
started the fight. That means on the street - with demos, with strikes and with
other actions. We need to focus more on being on site in the local groups of
Fridays For Futureor to organize in similar grassroots organizations such as open
climate meetings. We have to make offensive demands on local politics, promote
social and climate justice and fight for their implementation with pressure from
below. On the basis of these successes, we then have to move forward and make
further demands. We must consistently reject politicians' attempts to ingratiate
themselves with the movement and make it clear that we are taking to the streets
for our interests, not for election campaign purposes by some alleged
"eco-party". It is important to distance yourself from the mechanisms of the
state and the capitalist economy, not to approach them.

But it is also clear: In this system, our demands can only be met to a certain
extent, because even the strongest pressure from below will not induce politics
to act against the fundamental interests of the capitalist class. Therefore,
meaningful demands are necessary, but not sufficient. We need to complement them
with actions that call the whole system into question. Mass civil disobedience,
as it comes to fruition, for example, in the mass actions of the end of the
terrain, can be a first important step in the right direction, as it makes it
clear that we are - even if only for a short time and only in one place - be able
to successfully oppose the destruction of the climate. At the same time, these
actions make it clear
But symbolic actions alone are not enough, because in the end they only reach a
small part of the population that we have to convince of a system change and
organize for it. So we need to broaden the approach of the movement. We have to
create local educational and organizational offers that no longer only appeal to
the young, mostly academic milieu, but to the broad, wage-dependent population of
all age groups. We have to reach those who have not yet had a place in the
climate movement. The same naturally applies to migrant people who have so far
been severely underrepresented in a white-dominated movement. Here it is
important to emphasize the connections between climate injustice, colonialism and
a state based on racist structures and to fight them together.

We need to create a broad awareness that a solution to the climate crisis
necessarily involves overcoming capitalism. We have to motivate the broad mass of
the working population, not just the students, to go on strike en masse for their
interests. To do this, we have to build bridges to the large and small unions and
also strengthen radical and ecological forces within them. In the future, the
climate movement must take place in the pit as well as in front of the factory
gate. For only if we interrupt the smooth functioning of capitalism can we
succeed in bringing this murderous machinery to a standstill forever.

But we need to build connections not only with the unions, but also with other
social movements. For example, to the feminist movement and the women * strikes,
to rent fights, to anti-racist and anti-fascist struggles, i.e. wherever people
like you and we organize and fight against various forms of oppression. Let's
build a common movement against the state, capitalism and all forms of
oppression. Let us resolutely fight for the good life for all!

As organized anarchists, we see our task in promoting the developments in the
climate movement described above together with other radical, anti-authoritarian
forces. We want to show alternatives to the existing system and anchor anarchist
ideas and principles such as anti-capitalism, class consciousness, criticism of
the state and self-organization in the common struggle. We want to act
aggressively, but always at eye level with our fellow fighters. If you want to
tackle this task together with us, then contact us by email at
kontakt@dieplattform.org and get active together with us.

And because we have to start somewhere with our demanding task, we only have a
small appeal to you at the end: Take part in your local climate strike on March
19th. Makes anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian positions audible and visible
with slogans, signs and banners. But do not stop there, but organize yourself
long-term and locally with others, because only self-organization from below can
overcome this system without a future!

With this in mind: see you on the street!

https://www.dieplattform.org/2021/03/13/keine-leeren-versprechen-mehr-ein-kritisch-solidarischer-aufruf-zum-gobalen-klimastreik-am-19-maerz/

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

Message: 2



Interview with our friend Nikola Dziadok, who was detained, tortured and
imprisoned by an authoritarian regime in Belarus. ---- On March 11, 4 months have
passed since the arrest of Mikola Dziadok , a Belarusian blogger, political
analyst and anarchist - today he is in fact a prisoner of the dictatorial regime
of Lukashenko. We know that the Belarusian prison is a harsh place where
political prisoners are experiencing pressure and suffering. That is why we must
spread their voices. Mikol managed to answer the questions of his friends and
comrades-in-arms from prison. ---- Mikolo, you are one of the few bloggers who
have decided to stay in Belarus despite the prosecution. Why didn't you go
abroad, as you thought?
Right from the beginning of the revolutionary events, I hesitated whether to
leave. On the one hand, you can't challenge people to any more serious actions
when you're abroad. There, too, one has a reduced view and less opportunity to
influence the situation. In Belarus, again, I was in danger of being arrested.

I had to choose between relative freedom, a sense of duty and security. It
occurred to me that I could leave, but I couldn't think of any way I could do it
safely, so I gave up thinking. Then any thoughts of leaving went aside. I was
very influenced by the deed of Maria Kolesnikova, who preferred prison to emigration.

Before your arrest, you were quite optimistic about the chances of the protests
being successful. Have you changed your mind now?

I corrected him. But optimism has not disappeared. Everyone was waiting for
victory in August. But today I understand that if we had won even then, there
would have been no large foundations of solidarity aid, no self-organization of
courtyards, no street creativity. During these months, the political
consciousness of the people has grown considerably, so I think that everything is
going as it should, and that the victory of the protesters is a matter of
imaginable future.

This is not the first time you have been in the clutches of the Belarusian state
machine for repression: you have served five years. What is the difference
between your then experience and today's experience?

The first and fundamental difference for me personally is that they now press me
hard from the beginning, not gradually, as it was last time. I am also now
sitting with people who have been serving their sentences once, I am on a
so-called stricter regime, and there is also a difference.

Some prisoners talk about some kind of miraculous support from the bachelors. Do
you have any experience with that? How do prison staff treat you?

Yes, I've experienced that support more than once, but now I can't talk about it
so as not to reveal anyone.

Recently released political prisoner Mikhail Zhemzuzhny said that there were even
such micro-protests in prisons in August that everyone watched developments. What
do you think ordinary prisoners think of what is happening?

I have not met a single prisoner in the Lukashenko regime's time. More or less
everyone supports the protests and hates the state power because of the
injustices it commits.

You were beaten and tortured a lot. Why did they do it, what did they want to
achieve? How did you decide to let the information about torture out?

They had several reasons for this, and above all it was personal hatred for my
ridiculous scathing publications about the Organized Crime Unit (GUBOPiK). The
second reason was probably that they couldn't find me for a long time. One of the
Gestapo shouted at me during the torture, "I could no longer hear your name at
every meeting!" My example was proof that they are not as omnipotent as they try
to look, and they could not forgive me.

At first I was a little afraid to talk about torture, they threatened me with
further torture if the information got out. In that situation, I compared myself
to the extras in the Network case in Russia, and I understood that they had
talked about torture in even more difficult situations, so I had to do the same.

Do you know about actions of solidarity with you and other anarchists? What are
you experiencing in this context? During your last imprisonment, solidarity came
mainly from your comrades-in-arms...

Yes, I know about them. It warms me up a lot and discourages the Gestapo from
further torture.

Solidarity helps prisoners a lot to maintain a fighting spirit. Could you give
some examples of such support that you received in prison?

I feel that support every time I find out about solidarity actions. This helps me
understand that being in prison is also part of the evolutionary process, and
that even those who are imprisoned have their share of change. That is why the
physicists try to isolate a person as much as possible (they keep letters,
newspapers, prevent contacts with a lawyer).

Some prisoners have the status of prisoners of conscience, others do not. We have
over 260 political prisoners on one list, and over 410 on the Belarusian
Anarchist Black Cross list. This means that some political prisoners do not have
the same support as the others. Did you meet any of them in prison?

He has not met, but those I have met are in a good and positive mood, whether or
not they are on Vesna 96's conscience lists.

What are the current conditions you are in?

I'm in a cell, it has 15 seats and they are all occupied. Just a normal prison.:)

What helps keep you in the mood in prison? Share a few tips...

It is important not to smoke, not drink a jerk, play sports and avoid quarrels.
There is no need to prove to everyone that you are right. Remember what can hurt you.

Do you think the protests will resume in the spring?

I would very much like that.

How can we help you?

Participate in the liberation movement as much as possible to make changes as
soon as possible. That will be the best help.

What would you like to say and wish to your comrades?

Work on yourself, strengthen your spirit and physical form. Always be prepared
for exams and appreciate normal human relationships and contacts. You will miss a
lot in prison.

Source:
https://telegra.ph/I-ty-dazhe-buduchi-v-tyurme-prinosish-polzu-03-08

https://www.afed.cz/text/7322/i-ten-kdo-je-zavreny-ma-svuj-podil-na-zmene

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

Message: 3



The year 2020 was a time of trials not only for the women's movement, the events
of recent months have divided the environment, weakened alliances, forced many
and many of us to rethink and redefine ourselves in our activist activities and
within the trade union. ---- Many of us have lost loved ones and fell ill in the
pandemic, many have lost their jobs and insurance, many have found themselves in
a homeless crisis, many of us are at risk of poverty. Fear for the health of
children, for the life of older relatives, and for maintaining employment, often
intensifies the shame that we found ourselves in such a situation that we allowed
this to happen to us.

For over 27 years, the right to decide about oneself and one's own body has been
the bargaining chip of representatives of successive governments of the Republic
of Poland. With the transformation of the system, Poles and Poles were stripped
of the basic right to decide about their own fertility. The initial compromise
and the current ban on abortion take away the possibility of self-determination
about the body and future of an individual, imposing the need to make heroic
decisions about continuing unwanted pregnancies, while lacking support from the
social welfare system.

In October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal issued a judgment that practically
prohibits abortion in Poland. Polish women and Poles lost the right to terminate
a pregnancy which threatens the health and life of a woman, a pregnancy which
threatens the proper development of the fetus.

Reproductive rights are workers' rights The right to abortion is a human right,
so it should be universal, inalienable and inviolable.

Let's defend our rights!

We live in a patriarchal society that marginalizes the voice of women in public
debate. The abortion ban is only the top of the mountain of exploitation of half
of the population. It is women who take up low-paid and marginalized jobs,
choosing to work in nursing or caring, despite the scandalous employment conditions.

On March 8, on the international Women's Day, women and their allies will appear
on the streets of cities all over the country. Women and workers in the cultural
sector are planning a protest in solidarity with women all over Poland.

In 2013, the members of the "Women with Initiative" group at the Polish Workers
Initiative Trade Union to "politicians: technocrats, wise economists and soulless
officials of the city of Poznan" said:

"You expect and entrust us with the care of children, youth, sick or disabled
elderly people - for free in households or for half free. After all, "we have a
natural caring instinct", and "a child's smile will compensate for everything".
Even if you have to survive on the salary of a caregiver in a nursery or a nurse
on 1500 PLN.

In 2021, many of us, not only in Poznan but all over Poland, can repeat these
words. The pandemic forced many of us to return home, where we do remote work,
housework and childcare work, where we not only help children with their lessons,
but also teach them to help the state. Many of us lost our jobs because we had no
one to leave them with. For many of us, home is not a safe place, the pandemic
has locked us and our children often in one space with the perpetrators of
violence. Many of us fell ill not with COVID, but with depression, which not only
makes it difficult, but often makes it impossible to work and care for loved
ones. Lack of access to safe, legal abortion and the mental health crisis are two
aspects of the collapse of the Polish health system, which has long been neither
free nor universal. Collapses,

We demand:

1. The right to a safe and free abortion up to 12 weeks under the public health
care system, as only this solution is socially equitable.
2. Wage growth in a highly feminized care sector where wages (such as nursery
workers, for example) are outrageously low.
3. Shortening the working time without reducing wages, which will allow for
fairer distribution of unpaid domestic work between different genders within
households

The Works Committee of the OZZ "Inicjatywa Pracownicza" at the Museum of Modern
Art in Warsaw

https://ozzip.pl/dokumenty/oswiadczenia/item/2749-badzmy-solidarne-stanowisko-komisji-msn-warszawa-8-marca

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

Message: 4



First of all, we in the ACG wish to extend our sympathy to the family and friends
of Sarah Everard, a victim of a horrendous murder committed by a member of the
Metropolitan Police. Yes, the Metropolitan Police, supposedly there to protect
us. ---- Widespread shock and disbelief have been expressed that this could
happen, that a cop could murder a young woman. But those who have been on the
receiving end of police treatment on an everyday level, are less surprised. Those
who have experienced the everyday harassment, brutality and violence meted out to
members of the Black, Asian and minority ethnic population of the UK, including
an increasing number of deaths in custody are less surprised. Those who have
experienced police surveillance and restriction of civil liberties, attacks on
demonstrations, infiltration of groups and organisations by spy cops, up to the
condoning and encouragement of sexual relations by their controllers with members
of these groups, are less surprised.

The police are a violent institution. It is there to protect the rich and it is
riddled with sexist, racist and homophobic ideas. The charity, Centre for Women's
Justice (CWJ), revealed last year the widespread abuse of women by the police
with no comeback, in what they described as locker room culture, and the
harassment and punishment of women who complained about abuse by fellow male
police officers. The charity had gathered data from 30 of the 43 police forces in
England and Wales, and reported on 666 reports of domestic abuse by police
officers and support staff over a period of three years. One woman police officer
was forced out of her job after complaining about her violent partner, also a
police officer. One woman who came forward had a husband who was a policeman.
When she reported him for violent abuse, the local force handed the cop a copy of
her statement, and then, strangely, lost the statement. The cop told her "I'm a
police officer, no one's going to believe you".

In another report in 2019, at least 415 officers and civilian support staff were
accused of abusing their power for sexual gratification in the previous three
years - one every three days. The police watchdog HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
(HMIC) believed that this is just the tip of the iceberg , with many cases going
unreported and predatory personnel taking advantage of susceptible women by
getting them to perform sex acts .

The Gwent police were accused in 2019 of protecting a police officer who was
controlling and physically abusing several younger female trainees he was going
out with. Also, within the Metropolitan Police, between 2012 and 2018, there were
594 complaints of sexual misconduct against police officers, of which only 119
were upheld. A serving cop was among 15 men charged for historic sexual offences
against three girls in the Halifax area between 2006 and 2009. A serving police
officer with Cheshire Constabulary, described as a committed paedophile, was
convicted for raping a thirteen year old girl in 2018. A cop serving with the
Met, was caught masturbating openly in a first class carriage in 2018.An
anti-terror cop from Reading was sentenced to eight years for having sex with a
14-year old girl in 2019. An officer with Dyfed-Powys police ended up before a
misconduct panel for telling colleagues he was planning a wankathon, for
repeatedly touching a female colleague and making inappropriate sexual comments,
but only received a final written warning. A Merseyside cop stopped female
drivers for motoring offences, and then offered to punish them for less serious
alternatives. He then used thankful motorists' personal details to contact them
by phone and in person, sending one woman a picture of his penis. He started
sexual relationships with at least two of these women. Eleven victims were
discovered, and the cop was sentenced to 28 months in prison.

One Met officer bought pornography at the family home of a dead child whilst
waiting for an undertaker to arrive, using their Virgin TV account to make 4
purchases, at least two of which were made whilst the dead child was still in the
house. He was jailed for 12 months in 2019.

In May 2020 in Dorset, a married cop strangled his lover, after she exposed his
affair.

In summer 2020 two police officers took selfies in front of the bodies of two
black women stabbed to death in a Wembley park. They were suspended, whilst
another six cops involved avoided suspension. As their mother said "If we ever
needed an example of how toxic it has become, these police officers felt so safe,
so untouchable, that they felt they could take photographs of dead black girls
and send them on. It speaks volumes of the ethos that runs through the
Metropolitan Police."

The police officer arrested for Sarah Everard's murder, Wayne Couzens, had three
days before indecently exposed himself twice in a fast food restaurant and
complaints about this were not dealt with in any meaningful way. He was not
arrested and allowed to continue to work as a gun cop.

Sarah's murder ignited a wave of anger, not just against the murderer but against
the Met itself, who indulged in a bout of victim blaming by advising women in
Clapham not to go out alone.

When Reclaim These Streets called a socially-distanced vigil for Saturday 13th of
March on Clapham Common, the Met responded by threatening the organisers with
fines of £10,000 pounds each and charges of conspiracy to commit a crime. When
they appealed at the High Court, the judge sided with the Met. How ironic it was
that during the week of International Women's Day on March 8th, the Met organised
events to celebrate that day!

The police are a violent institution, who feel assured that they are untouchable.
Women can expect little from them in terms of protection, and the same goes for
the courts, as has been revealed time and time again, the latest High Court
decision underlining it all.

Meanwhile, daily sexual harassment, violence, domestic abuse, and rape continue
whilst women are told to change their behaviour by not going out at night and
changing what they wear.

Boris Johnson tells us how shocked and appalled he was about the murder. In 1996
whilst working as a Daily Telegraph journalist, he produced an article talking
about the quality of the "hot totty" at the Labour Party conference, continuing
"Time and again the ‘Tottymeter' has gone off as a young woman delegate mounts
the rostrum." His motoring column for the magazine GQ was riddled with sexist
remarks. These are just two examples of a long history of misogynist and sexist
comments by Johnson.

Meanwhile Keir Starmer responded to the murder by calling for more police on the
streets. Wait a minute, Keir, who was it who committed the murder?

Women are becoming increasingly sickened by the everyday harassment and violence
they have to face. The system of patriarchy is intimately entwined with
capitalism, and the subjection and oppression of women is perpetuated throughout
society in the media, in advertising, education, and the courts. This anger is
worldwide, as witness the movement against sexual harassment in the USA, the
large demonstrations for abortion rights in Poland, the massive demonstrations in
India against sexual violence and rape. Here it is to be hoped that women will
not be deterred by the actions of the police and the courts and turn out in large
numbers in the streets to express their anger.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2021/03/13/the-police-and-violence-against-women/

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

Message: 5



Recently I was involved in a long discussion with a close friend of mine who is
not an anarchist. He believes that the destination of human beings is a kind of
socialism but not necessarily the one that anarchists want. ---- My friend thinks
the needs of the state gradually decrease, to the point where it will no longer
be necessary to run society by any separate authority, as its members will be
fully aware, conscientious and responsible so that all care for each other and
society too. Finally, he concluded by saying, "Since society would be run by its
members, law makers will become unnecessary". ---- Of course, anarchists talk
about socialism but in a wider form as it will be a classless and
non-hierarchical society. Anarchists do not design the map for future society and
how it should be managed. We think and work to create a society that would be
controlled by all, where there would be no one in charge to dominate and exploit
us; no bosses, no landlords and no government from above. We do not elaborate on
how it will be in the future. That would be the task of those who live in that
society, how they would organise it and how they would manage themselves.
There are fundamental questions arising here. Will the role of the state diminish
when capitalism gets stronger? Will the state disappear gradually or dismantle
itself? Has neoliberal theory failed to reduce some or all functions of the
state? If so, why do we see the state stronger than ever? There are many more
questions to be asked on this subject.
To begin with, I must, very briefly, look at the recent history of the state,
liberalism, and neoliberal theories. Many of us know that the state is very old,
dating back some 10,000 years, maybe longer it developed through various stages
and functioned differently in accordance with the society that the state had
emerged from.
However, it took a long time for the modern state to emerge and reach its mature
stage.
Whatever stage the state went through, historically or as it is now, there was
always a vital struggle between the business sector and the state. Although
neither could live without the other, each wanted to subdue the other for its own
benefit.
At present the state looks to have completed its functions, its essence once
embraced the liberal economy and then the neoliberal theories. While the state
was not completely compatible with the business sector in general and with the
big corporations in particular, the corporations always tried to find ways to
reform the state for their benefit in meeting their aims.
One of the major attempts to reform the economic system, in the last century was
neoliberalism. A group of liberals who helped to shape the social market economy
put forward a program at a meeting in Paris in 1938. Among the delegates were two
men who came to define the ideology, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek. They
believed in the opportunity of individualism. They found government a major
barrier as it prevented individualism. The neoliberal embraces individualism and
is opposed to "the collective society," as Margaret Thatcher put it. In 1944
Hayek, in The Road to Serfdom argued that, "Government planning, by crushing
individualism, would lead inexorably to totalitarian control"
In 1947, Hayek founded the first organisation that would spread the doctrine of
neoliberalism and it was supported financially by millionaires and their foundations.
Neoliberalism's doctrine is very exclusive in aiming to liberate the major
sections of the state and privatising them. In short, Hayek's view is that
governments should regulate competition to prevent monopolies. The ideology of
neoliberalism brought financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the
slow collapse of public health and education. Clearly it was waging a war on
every front against society; it not only created economic crises, but also caused
political crises.
On the other hand, there is Keynesian economic policy, which was developed by the
British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s. His theories were a
response to the Great Depression and he was highly critical of previous economic
theories, which he referred to as "classical economics". He stated that
intervention is necessary to moderate the booms and busts in economic activity.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Keynes's influence was at its peak, as the
developed and emerging capitalist economies enjoyed an exceptionally high rate of
growth and low unemployment. Later this was echoed by the then U.S. President
Richard Nixon, "We are all Keynesians now"
Keynesian policies did not last long. By the end of the 1960s there was a big
change and? the balance began to shift towards the power of private interests.
According to the journalists Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson, "1968 was the
pivotal year when power shifted in favour of private agents such as currency
speculators". Keynesian economic policies were officially abandoned by the
British Government in 1979. So, gradually, Keynesian policies began to crumble,
and economic crises deepened. At that time Milton Friedman remarked, "When the
time came that you had to change ... there was an alternative ready there to be
picked up".
Once Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan took power, the rest of the package soon
followed: massive tax cuts for the rich, the crushing of trade unions,
deregulation, privatisation, outsourcing and competition in public services were
all supported or promoted by multilateral bodies and treaties, like the IMF, the
World Bank, the Maastricht treaty and the World Trade Organisation, neoliberal
policies were imposed - often without democratic consent. Remarkably these
policies were adopted among parties that once belonged to the left, including the
Labour party and the Liberal Democrats. This was expected. As John Major, when he
was elected Prime Minister in 1992, famously said "1992 killed socialism in
Britain.... Our win meant that between 1992 and 1997 Labour had to change."
The Chicago School, also known as Chicago boys designed packages for several
countries including Egypt and others in South America, particularly Chile. On a
visit to Pinochet's Chile - one of the first nations in which the programme was
comprehensively applied, Hayek told a Chilean newspaper that it was possible for
a "...dictator to govern in a liberal way..." and that he preferred a "...liberal
dictator to a democratic government lacking liberalism. My personal preference
leans toward a liberal dictatorship rather than toward a democratic government
devoid of liberalism".
We should not be shocked when Friedman and Hayek happily embraced neoliberal
policies as documented by Naomi Klein in ‘The Shock Doctrine'. "Neoliberal
theorists advocated the use of crises to impose unpopular policies while people
were distracted: for example, in the aftermath of Pinochet's coup, the Iraq war
and Hurricane Katrina, which Friedman described as "an opportunity to radically
reform the educational system"
After almost forty years, the 2008 financial crash and the Great Recession
derailed neoliberalism which lost its force and fell apart. Some governments and
economists wanted to go back to Keynesian solutions to tackle the crises of the
21st century. They could not or did not want to understand or simply ignored the
reality that last century's solutions cannot resolve a crisis of the present
century. The reason for this is quite clear; it is fundamental to the nature of
capitalism itself that, whatever name or shape it takes, it will not work anymore.
Neoliberalism has gone too far and, wherever it was implemented, it brought total
disaster. One of these countries was the US where data shows that, "During the
neoliberal era, the racial wealth gap did not fare much better. In 1979, the
average hourly wage for a black man in the U.S. was 22 percent lower than for a
white man. By 2015, the wage gap had grown to 31 percent. For black women, the
wage gap in 1979 was only 6 percent; by 2015, it had jumped to 19 percent.
Homeownership is one of the central ways that families build wealth over time,
yet homeownership rates among African Americans in 2017 were as low as they were
before the civil rights revolution, when racial discrimination was legal". The
situation was so bad that leading political scientists declared that, "...the
U.S. is no longer best characterized as a democracy or a republic but as an
oligarchy-a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich".
Some economists, including Paul Krugman, also argued that economic conditions are
like those that existed during the earlier part of the 20th century.
In light of the above, we can see that government and business institutions in
any country, in many ways, are interrelated and interdependent. Their unity is
much stronger than their division, their conflicts are nothing more than efforts
to unite against society. They are inseparable. Corporate executives, political
leaders and government officials are all of the same social class.
The state is the main pillar of the system and its economy. It works to
facilitate the function of business and increased profits. It is government which
shapes business activities, providing a suitable and workable environment for
business. The aim of business is to make profit, while government's goal is to
ensure economic stability and growth. Business has a big influence on government
when investing heavily in large-scale projects.
Government, directly and indirectly, implements rules and regulations which
dictate what business organisations can and cannot do and tries to influence
those organisations' policies with taxation measures.
The main goal of business is to make a profit and the government provides
everything for them. Government is even helping to establish companies'
production facilities by offering them tax incentives in less developed regions
in the country.
As government and politicians want to return to power in coming elections, they
need support from business. They want to satisfy corporations and corporations
want to play a role in government and have a great influence.
Corporations and the rest of business know very well that the establishment that
can protect and maintain them is the government, the state. They know that the
police, the laws, the courts, the army, the spy networks, and the education
system are all under the control of the state. They know that once they face
bankruptcy, the state can bail them out or when they face threats by their own
workforces, the state will protect them by whatever means.
They need one another desperately. In today's global economy, businessmen and
entrepreneurs are the driving forces of the economy states have long been the
most powerful force in the economy.
Therefore, anarchists insist that the struggle against the system, the ownership
of the economy, and the elites, to bring about a classless and non-hierarchical
society cannot happen without a struggle against power, authority and the state.
Zaherbaher.com

https://awsm.nz/?p=9242

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

Message: 6



Since the fall, the mobilizations of two-wheeled delivery men have multiplied
throughout the territory. The national date set by the CGT Livreurs on December
12 was among other things widely followed with important events in Lyon, Bordeaux
and Toulouse. Several other local initiatives have also taken place in Mulhouse,
Besançon, Dijon, Reims or Nantes... In Saint-Étienne, the coursier.es have even
snatched a breakthrough during the holidays. ---- Mobilizations of delivery men
and women on two wheels have taken place regularly since 2016, with strikes at
each rate change, i.e. practically every summer since the establishment of the
platforms in France. However, these strikes remained the work of a few local
leaders who were mobilized temporarily, without national structure, without
victory and with a single organization providing media representation (the
Collectif des Livreurs Autonomes Parisien).

But in five years the mobilizations have clearly seen an increasing curve and a
diversification of struggle strategies. First of all, the proliferation of these
conflicts coincides with the deterioration of remuneration and working
conditions, with errands now paid for barely 2 euros and a few cents ! But we
have also seen an intensification of strikes since the structuring of CGT unions
in several cities (the first was born in Bordeaux in 2017). These unions are now
coordinated nationally within the National Collective of Delivery Unions-CGT.

A mixed victory at Saint-Étienne
On December 27, the striking Saint-Étienne delivery men and women won their first
victory against home-delivery giant Uber Eats. They obtained a guaranteed hourly
minimum of 10 euros between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and 12 euros between 7 p.m.
and 9 p.m., conditioned on two races per hour. This decision follows two days of
strike action at the call of CLAS 42 on December 13 and 18. A victory in the
sense that the platform had to let go of ballast to calm the slingshot but it
should be put into perspective for several reasons.

First of all, it is not a question of hourly remuneration but of a minimum which
remains conditional on a number of trips: it is therefore always a task.
Moreover, the remuneration per race has not increased. However, what the
Saint-Etienne delivery men are asking for is a minimum per race of at least 4.50
euros (until 2018, the race was 5 euros at Deliveroo, by comparison).

Second, in the absence of official union recognition, this promise does not bind
Uber Eats and has no real legal value. As a result,theSaint-Étienne " agreement "
only lasted for the holidays.

What prospects ?
Remuneration remains the first lever for mobilization. What must be understood
about the remuneration conditions within the platforms is that there is nothing
to understand or which is understandable. At Deliveroo, for example, after being
hourly, then at 5 euros per trip, the pricing has increased to the kilometer. At
Uber Eats, the pricing criteria are opaque and vary between each delivery person
; They would theoretically be a mixture of prices per run (2.85 euros) and per
kilometer (0.76 € / km, 0.81 for Paris) [1]

Beyond the demands on the increase in remuneration and minimum hours, the
granting of hardship bonuses (rain), the end of account blockings (layoffs), the
end of the rating, the transparency of the algorithm, the Delivery companies have
been highlighting the issue of platform employer responsibility for several
months. The central problem with this work status is that it forces the worker to
become independent (micro-entrepreneur regime) so that the platform shies away
from its responsibilities as an employer, particularly in terms of social
protection, by presenting itself as "client"of its"partners " delivery men. This
question has been accentuated since the start of the Frouin government mission,
whose report submitted to the government on December 2 confirms this refusal to
recognize the platforms as an employer, but in addition protects them from
requalifications as employees, which were the one of the legal weapons available
to unions. [2]

Regularization of undocumented migrants
In most large cities, the struggles of two-wheeled delivery men are now
inseparable from the struggle of undocumented migrants. Indeed, a growing part of
couriers are in an irregular situation. Some people illegally sublet their
autoentrepreneur accounts to undocumented couriers in return for a commission.
Clearly, workers without a residence permit turn to micro-entrepreneurs already
registered on the platforms to ride in their place, by giving them part of their
remuneration. A rental that can range from 25% to 80% of the tenant's turnover!
The irregular situation of a number of couriers (several hundred in large cities
such as Nantes) further complicates the possibilities of mobilization and
facilitates repression.

But once again the struggle pays off ! The status of autoentrepreneurs does not
enter into the criteria for regularization through work in the Valls circular,
reserved for employees. But the ministry had to make an exception in the face of
the determination of the undocumented deliverers of the French platform Frichti.
Nearly 200 had been dismissed after the publication of an article of libé
revealing their irregular situation. Demonstrations, blockades, occupations ...
dozens of them and they were able to undertake a process of regularization. It is
indeed a breach.

The need for external support
More publicized since the first confinement, sometimes glorified as "everyday
heroes", uberized delivery men still have their work cut out for them to conquer
their rights, but also show us that organization and struggles are possible
despite the difficulties and extreme precariousness. It is clear that these
delivery exploits need all of our support. Financial, legal and media support,
construction of a coordinated and unified union action... It is our role to
mobilize our union tools, to forge links with the collectives of undocumented
migrants and to do everything to shed light on this exploitation unworthy.

Validate

[1] https://lescoursiersfrancais.fr/faq-livreur/combien-gagne-un-livreur-uber-eats

[2]
https://www.humanite.fr/rapport-frouin-la-derniere-trouvaille-de-matignon-pour-aider-les-uber-et-autres-deliveroo-ecopher

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Livreur-ses-a-deux-roues-on-veut-le-beurre-et-l-argent-d-Uber

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

Today's Topics:

   1.  Czech, AFED: Vegan Burger Days for Space39 - Report on
        another burger benefit event [machine translation]
        (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
   2.  sicilia libertaria: CAPITAL TO THE GOVERNMENT 
       (ca, de, it,
       pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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

Message: 1



We have already become accustomed to the fact that Vegan Burger Days are held
every month in Prague's Žižkov, specifically in our very nice Prostor39 in
Rehorova Street - usually a two-day charity event consisting of handing out
burgers for a charitable contribution. And if someone doesn't, it's free. Due to
the fact that some people are in quarantine or simply do not have the opportunity
to stop on the spot due to workload at home or work, Žižkov's "anarcho softener"
also provides delivery and adds that difficult situations "use various companies
to import food, which they charge considerable commissions for it and do not even
pay their precarious employees fairly ".

This time, the charity event, which took place on March 7 and 8, focused directly
on Prostor39 . It is necessary to support spaces that also provide a background
for social activities and alternative culture. They are at risk due to the
coronavirus crisis and any financial contribution will help their operators to
maintain them, as their critical situation is not taken into account at all by
those who have to pay their rent, mortgage or loan. In addition to the burgers,
which were distributed on 400 on the first day of the event, there was also a
Parisian salad in a vegan version with soyase and robi. The planned 10 kilos of
lettuce had to be more than doubled in the end.

At the same time, until March 15, there is an auction of works by artists around
Roleta39 , paintings from the "Exhibition, which no one will close" on the facade
of the building, which was presented as part of the event "Space39 with all
senses (weekly benefits)". The proceeds will go to Prostor39. The starting price
of each work is CZK 1,000.

If you want to financially support Prostor39, you can do so at any time through a
contribution at https://www.donio.cz/prostor39 .

https://www.afed.cz/text/7319/vegan-burger-days-pro-prostor39

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

Message: 2



If a clear thing emerges from the recourse to yet another technical government,
it is that democracy, from the point of view of those who had deluded themselves
about its "magnificent and progressive destinies", has failed; for us opponents
of every government, however, democracy has thrown off its mask showing its
hidden face of totalitarianism in disguise. Instead, populisms and reformisms,
these two ways of managing neoliberalism in apparent and theatrical competition,
have committed suicide. Now the king is naked, the orgy of transformation is
underway, the bourgeois aristocracy triumphs and the tragedy of the strong man
who saves the homeland is back in vogue. There is no longer a government servant
of capital , but capital in government, with the mission of painting the
exploitation and environmental devastation green, managing theGreen New Deal (New
Green Pact: European ecological reconversion plan) and its post-pandemic litter
of the Recovery fund or Nex Generation EU (European Recovery Plan for the next
generation): a river of money for the States, which once they have to turn them
over to private individuals, discharging the debt on the population who lives on
their work or on subsidies and hopes.

And who better than Mario Draghican it fulfill this very welcome task (for high
finance, banks, the Vatican, Confindustria and associates)? His curriculum is
impeccable: at Goldman Sachs he planned the sale of Italian "jewels" and stifled
Greece by imposing drastic measures in the economy and sacrifices on the
population; from the ECB he led the reforms tears and blood of the Monti
government (the cry of the Fornero crocodile is indelible) that still burn today
in the body of Italian society. Who, therefore, better than Draghi can inflict
the fatal blow to the residues of welfare in the world of work (abolition of
layoffs, release of layoffs, burial of the right to strike), in the education and
university, social, cut public services and jobs, relentlessly on workers,
temporary workers, the unemployed, retirees and manage EU funds by distributing
money to the bosses, to the military-industrial apparatus, to the Vatican,
reinforcing servile loyalty to the USA. And provide an iron alibi (the salvation
of the country, the future of young people, the fight against the "enemy"
covid-19) to all parties to justify the big crowd, a pig who sees them all inside
passionately, without a mask and without the rhetoric of circumstance that made
us bored without pause. 5 Star Movement in the lead, now strong of the
turnarounds on Tav, Tap, Ilva, Muos etc. and kept alive only by attachment to
armchairs; with the Brothers of Italy commanded to play the role of the necessary
opposition, and the bandwagon of CGIL, CISL and UIL to sing the praises of the
rediscovered national unity (quote by Michele Riondino:

Risultato previsto: unblocking of construction sites and gutting of territories,
drilling, high-speed rail and abandonment of local transport, blaming of
migrants. The infinite state of emergency (and the appointment of the army corps
general Figliuolo in place of Arcuri as extraordinary Commissioner for the covid
emergency says a lot ...), ensures a free hand to this mafia and terrorist
phobocracy in which each party has inserted the best of the best, from the
Northern Leagueist Giorgetti to defend the North (in a very Lombard-Venetian
coalition), to Renziano Cingolani, a certainty for the national war industry
(from which he comes) and for the ecological transition managed by the sharks of
the capital; from Colao, to the digital transition at the service of the lords of
the telephony and 5G multinationals, with ultraliberal champions such as
Brunetta, Gelmini, Franco, Cottarelli, historical enemies of the workers, of the
South, of all that is public and social. With them a plethora of ignorant and
arrogant undersecretaries, well trained to serve the interests of their masters:
sentinels of Salvini and Berlusconi in the key posts of Defense, Justice,
Publishing, the Interior, scientifically distributed seats because it is the
clientel power that that matters.

With the media bombardmenton the pandemic and the state of emergency to limit a
development of political and social action, which in any case cannot be prevented
and will not be prevented, however complicated it may be to denounce this
government and thwart the maneuvers of capital, today more than hands can be it
may not go back to insisting on the shady interests underlying this pandemic
management and on the choices of governments aimed at prolonging a police state
situation in their favor; reiterating the importance of guaranteeing an income to
all the victims of the capitalist system, demanding through struggles the
reduction of working hours and full employment, the blocking of environmental
devastation and toxic industries, of great useless and harmful works, of military
spending; to make the bosses and the rich pay the price of the social chasm in
which society finds itself.

Pippo Gurrieri

http://www.sicilialibertaria.it/2021/03/06/il-capitale-al-governo/

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

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