Today's Topics:
1. Libertarian Anarchist Collective - Livorno: For Lorenzo, for
Rojava, for freedom (it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Rojava, for freedom (it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. [Italy] The memory of the Paris and Kronstadt communes is
still alive in the struggle! By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
still alive in the struggle! By ANA (pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. US, WSA, Ideas & Action: Political and Economic Power in a
Period of Social Transformation By Tom Wetzel
Period of Social Transformation By Tom Wetzel
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. RUSGA LIBERTÁRIA MT: 7 thousand dead: follow the profit for
the few, death prevails for general | cab anarquista (ca, de, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
the few, death prevails for general | cab anarquista (ca, de, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira: 300 thousand dead! For
a revolt by and from below for the end of the
a revolt by and from below for the end of the
government! (ca,
de, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
de, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. UK, anarchist communist ACG: Bristol riot: what do they
expect? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
expect? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Poland, rozbrat: ABORTION IS OUR - REPORT FROM
THE TORUN
MANIFA WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF SAMBA HAlASTRA
MANIFA WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF SAMBA HAlASTRA
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Today also in Livorno we remembered Lorenzo Orsetti in front of the tombstone of
the partisan. Two years ago, a few days after his death in Baghouz, when we found
ourselves in this same place, the war seemed to be nearing its end. But the
alternative experience of Rojava continues to have to defend itself from the war
of the states. About sixty people participated in this initiative of memory and
struggle, organized by the Anarchist Libertarian Collective and the Anarchist
Federation of Livorno, which also took part in the former Occupied Barracks,
Power to the People and some companions of the Jin Network. The speeches recalled
Lorenzo's commitment as an anarchist alongside the revolutionary experience of
Rojava, the value of social liberation and peace of the alternative experience
taking place in those regions, crushed by the wars of the states. Solidarity was
expressed with Eddi Marcucci and all the comrades who in Italy as in other
countries have been and still are persecuted for their internationalist
commitment. Also recalled was the dramatic situation of all * those who are
imprisoned * in prisons, everywhere in the world, in particular political
prisoners in Turkey. In particular, the appeals circulated in recent days for
solidarity initiatives with Öcalan and the other political prisoners buried alive
on the prison island of Imrali who have not had contact with their lawyers since
27 April last year were recalled.
March 18 is also a symbolic date for international revolutionary movements, today
it is 150 years since the insurrection of the Paris Commune and 100 years since
the fall of the Kronstadt Commune. The social revolution is today the only
possible prospect in the face of the failure of the state, capital and patriarchy
that on a global level tighten the authoritarian grip on billions of people in
order to maintain power, privileges and profits.
Below is the text of the convocation of the presidium:
For Lorenzo, for Rojava, for freedom
Thursday 18 March 2021
18 hours
In front of the Tombstone of the partisan
Via Ernesto Rossi, Livorno
Two years ago Lorenzo Orsetti was killed in Baghouz, in northeastern Syria, while
he was fighting for freedom and internationalism. Following the ideals of
justice, freedom and equality he had chosen to join the struggle of the
populations of Rojava and the YPG / YPJ in 2017, fighting against the Islamic
State alongside the Tikko and in recent months in the Tekosina anarsist
(anarchist struggle) formation with the name of Tekoser Piling.
In these two years the Turkish state has continued with bombings and land attacks
to bring the war against the Kurdish population and the Kurdish liberation
movement in Rojava and northern Iraq. This war aims to erase that prospect of
peace and radical change in society for which even Lorenzo fought by sacrificing
his own life.
This war against freedom is waged not only by Turkey but by all states. Because
an alternative experience like that of Rojava is in itself a threat to the
hegemonic and war dimension produced by the states. But also because such an
example risks rekindling the hope of social revolution in other parts of the
world as well. For this reason, also in Italy, as in Germany, France and other
countries, comrades who directly supported the struggle of the people of Rojava
have been or are still subject to state persecution.
We invite all * those who want to remember Lorenzo, show support for Rojava and
express solidarity with all the comrades who are persecuted for their
internationalist commitment in Italy too.
Libertarian Anarchist Collective
Leghorn Anarchist Federation
https://collettivoanarchico.noblogs.org/post/2021/03/19/18-marzo-per-lorenzo-per-il-rojava-per-la-liberta/
------------------------------
Message: 2
On March 18, 150 years ago, the Paris Commune was born. Fifty years later, on
March 18, 1921, the Kronstadt Commune was bloodily repressed. ---- The Paris
revolt gave rise to the first important experience of popular self-government.
Parisian workers rose and abolished the standing army and the repressive organs
of the authoritarian and hierarchical order. The factories abandoned by the
owners who had taken refuge in Versailles were self-managed by workers. The
center of political decision-making was the popular assemblies, any term of
office becoming revocable. Women were protagonists on an equal footing with men
in decision-making and armed defense. The repression, led by Versailles head of
government Adoplhe Thiers, was appalling, at least 30,000 comuneros were shot,
thousands were deported. The mayors telegraphed: "The ground is full of their
corpses. This terrible spectacle will serve as a lesson.
In March 1921, a massive strike paralyzed Petrograd. The workers fought against
the militarization of factories, the bureaucratization, the centralization of
political power implemented by the leadership of the Bolshevik party, against the
emptying of the Soviets as an instrument of self-government, reduced to a chain
of transmission by the Communist Party. The Kronstadt sailors, who were among the
main protagonists of the October Revolution, stood up and declared: "All power to
the soviets and not to the party". Once again, the repression hit the
revolutionaries hard, the troops of the Red Army led by Lev Trotsky smothered
with blood the hopes of a world of free and equal people.
The memory of the Paris and Kronstadt communes is still alive in the struggle!
Let us drink to the insurgents of Paris and Kronstadt, and to all the
revolutionary experiences of self-government and self-management, from Spain in
1936 to the workers' councils of Turin in the 1920s, from the peasants of Ukraine
during the Russian revolution to German workers in the 1920s, from the Budapest
insurgents in 1956 to the experiments in Chiapas and Kurdistan. Wherever the
exploited have fought for freedom and equality, they have given themselves their
own forms of self-management, outside and against the state and employers.
Long live the Social Revolution!
Long live Anarchy!
Anarchist Federation of Turin - FAI
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
How does the working class liberate itself from being a subordinate and exploited
class? This is where we need thinking about the overall strategy and our vision
about new structures to replace the capitalist regime. ---- The working class has
to build its capacity to actually do this. This capacity is built through the
more or less protracted process of class formation. This is the process through
which the working class overcomes fatalism and internal divisions (as on lines of
race or gender), and builds the confidence, organizational capacity and the
aspiration for social change. This is the process through which the working class
"forms" itself into a force that can effectively challenge the dominating classes
for control of society. This is likely to require a kind of social movement
alliance that brings together the grassroots worker organizations (such as
unions) and social movement organizations that have emerged around the various
other areas of struggle in a particular period - tenant unions, environmental
justice organizations, and groups that emerge around racial and gender fault
lines. And thus the agenda for change is going to reflect the various priorities
of these movements.
But what steps should this movement aim at in the transition to socialism? In
fact it's going to be essential for a consensus to emerge already within such a
mass movement about the basic structural changes that we need to initiate.
Syndicalists have always argued that a crucial initial task in the transition to
a self-managed socialism is direct worker takeover of the workplaces - creating
new democratic organizations through which workers can exercise direct power over
the labor process. An impressive feature of the Spanish worker revolution in
1936-37 was the widespread expropriation of industries and collectivization of
land in rural areas. Although the political events of that moment were not
entirely predictable, the movement for worker control was not simply
"spontaneous." The militants of the unions in Spain had discussed for decades the
need for workers to take over the industries and re-organize them under worker
self-management. This was part of their revolutionary preparation.
Our program for building socialism needs to address the major structural features
of the capitalist regime that we want to replace - structural features that are
at the root of the oppressive work regime, vast inequality, and ecological
destruction inherent to capitalism. The system of class oppression is rooted in
two institutional structures of class power which the movement must break. First,
we need to get rid of the private ownership of the non-human means of production,
which allows for vast extraction of profit to build the wealth of a tiny,
super-rich elite who dominate society.
But private ownership is not the only basis of oppressor class power. And here we
need to learn from mistakes of the 20th century socialist movement. The 20th
century saw major growth for a newly emergent dominating class - the bureaucratic
control class, as I call it. The power of this class is based on their
monopolization over the decision-making authority (and some related areas of
expertise) in the corporations and state, via top-down bureaucratic hierarchies.
The bureaucratic control class includes the managers who control workers
day-to-day but also high-end professionals who work with the managerial regime
such as corporate lawyers, and the people who run the state, such as professional
politicians, prosecutors, judges, military brass. A worker's liberation movement
must have a program for eliminating the power of this class over the working class.
There are several reasons why widespread expropriation and direct worker
self-management of industry needs to be an immediate task in a period of
fundamental conflict over the society's future:
To break the power of the bureaucratic control class
To ensure that the needs and desires of the population are met in a period that
may witness widespread disruption
To begin the process of re-organizing industries to diminish their ecologically
destructive effects and to make for a work environment that protects worker
health and wellbeing.
Workers will also need to bring the different facilities together into an
industrial federation to do planning and coordination for an entire industry.
Without a means to coordinated control and policy for an industry, worker groups
controlling particular facilities might be pitted against each other in
competition. Workers would be atomized and their social power diminished. In the
situation where the capitalist facilities are taken over, different companies may
have stronger or weaker competitive positions, and some workers may receive lower
pay or experience worse conditions. A basic principle of industrial unionism is
to fight to "take wages and conditions out of competition." An advantage of
coordination of the whole industry through an industrial federation is that it
enables workers to achieve better conditions for the worse off. Moreover,
splitting workers up into competing firms would atomize the working class,
putting them in a weaker position in society.
Worker Congresses and Political Power
Another major task that the working class must take on in a period of social
transformation is gaining political power - the power to decide the basic rules
and structure of the society as a whole. This is necessary to make sure that no
new class rides in to set itself up as a new oppressor class. To do this, the
working class organizations that have taken over the various workplaces can
organize election of revocable delegates from the workplace assemblies to worker
congresses for the nearby region and also for the wider region where the
revolutionary process is unfolding. This is building worker political from below.
Here we may encounter a possible objection. We are used to thinking of a
geographic basis for "democratic government" where people elect politicians to
represent the people in a district, based on universal right to vote. Thus it
might be thought that neighborhood assemblies and congresses of delegates from
neighborhoods might be sufficient for a new government system.
A revolutionary process that works to liberate the working class from
subordination to the capitalist and bureaucratic control classes needs to break
the power that the bureaucratic control class has wields over both production and
the state. This process is likely to lead to major opposition from the people in
these classes who lose power. The managers and top professionals whose power is
threatened or removed are likely to oppose their loss of power. Moreover, they
have the speaking and writing and organizing skills to build organizations and
organize in neighborhood assemblies and congresses of neighborhood delegates to
advance their class interests, and try to maintain a powerful role for their
class. They can build "political parties" that push a program that would shift
power to the high-end professionals and managers. Thus I think a purely
geographic conception of socialist governance is likely to lead to managerialist
bureaucracies set up to control workers in workplaces.
To prevent this, there needs to be political power based on workers and their
assemblies and organizations that control production. These are the organizations
that set up and control the worker congresses.
Social Self-defense and the Worker's Militia
A central part of the state used to defend the interests of dominating classes
are the police and military - the iron fist of the state. These institutions are
set up to defend the capitalist regime and keep the masses in check. This means
that the working class will need to replace them if they are gain control of the
society. In both the Spanish and Russian revolutions this happened partly through
a process where a large parts of the rank and file went over to side of the
working class movement.
A part of the governance system is the way that social self-defense is organized.
There is the potential of foreign invasion - such as a force trying to restore
capitalism. People are also going to want protection from individuals or gangs
who act in predatory, anti-social or violent ways - commit assaults, or try to
privatize public assets through theft. At the same time, there needs to be a fair
process of finding out if a person accused of such crimes is actually guilty -
based on evidence and activities of workers such as those in forensic labs.
People want to be free of the insecurity from the threat of violence. Of course,
in a society where a movement of the oppressed majority has gained power, the
self-defense roles - such as policing - would need to be done differently than
the kind of massively violent police and prison regime that exists in the USA at
present. Since their origin in the early 19th century, police in the USA have
been a central part of a racialized regime of class oppression. Thus policing
needs to be completely rebuilt on a different basis.
In the Spanish revolution, the struggle over political power played out as a
fight over control of the social self-defense function. The civil war in Spain
began when the union militias defeated the army in a large part of Spain with the
backing of some sections of the military rank and file. The syndicalist CNT then
built its own "proletarian army." The officers ("chief delegate") were elected in
each militia column. The various smaller groups in the column elected delegates
to a "war committee" - administrative committee for the column. The union
organizations of the CNT set up a national defense committee to provide overall
control of its army. This was a step in the direction of working class political
power.
A sizeable radical tendency in the CNT held that the unions need to "take power."
To do this in Catalonia would have meant overthrowing the regional state and
electing a worker congress from the union and workplace assemblies - to chart a
new course for the region and establish a system of democratic economic planning.
They also supported direct election of proposed regional and national defense
councils from the assemblies. These would provide overall direction for a unified
worker militia - controlled by all the worker assemblies and mass organizations,
not just the CNT.
We can regard the worker congresses (and elected self-defense council) as forming
the aspect of governance created by the mass worker organizations for working
class political power and to protect against the potential for renewed
subordination of workers in production. If the working class is to prevent some
dominating class from emerging at the top when the smoke clears, the working
class mass organizations must have direct control over the dominant armed power
in society. If the bureaucratic control class were to gain control of the police
and military functions, they would use this power to attack worker control of
production.
The idea that the worker mass democratic organizations need to gain control of
the dominant armed power in society in a revolution is a long-standing
syndicalist principle. Thus the 1922 principles of the syndicalist International
Workers Association said:
"Syndicalists do not forget that the decisive struggle between the Capitalism of
to-day and the Free Communism of to-morrow, will not take place without serious
collisions. They recognize violence, therefore, as a means of defense against the
methods of violence of the ruling classes, in the struggle of the revolutionary
people for the expropriation of the means of production and of the land. Just as
this expropriation cannot be commenced and carried to a successful issue except
by the revolutionary economic organization of the workers, so also the defense of
the revolution should be in the hands of these economic organizations..."
Neighborhood Assemblies and Social Accountability
Of course it is true that many decisions about social production also affect
other people apart from the workers in a particular industry. However, if workers
do not control their own work activity and the workplaces, then some other class
will - and thus the regime of class oppression will continue.
Nonetheless, we recognize that various decisions about a workplace will impact
people other than the workers in that workplace - consumers of goods or services,
people in the region affected by the air or water emissions from that facility.
This means that the worker organizations that self-manage the various industries
will have to be socially accountable to the masses who they are producing the
goods and services for, and accountable to the entire populace who share the
ecological commons.
A socialized economy requires that the worker-managed industries produce the
goods and services that the masses of people want. How do we ensure effective
accountability? A way to do this is to establish a significant scope in social
planning for neighborhood assemblies and regional delegates from these community
assemblies. This is what I call the dual governance model for a socialized
economy. This means that we take seriously the idea of self-management for
decision-making about the concerns that people have as consumers, users of public
services, or as residents affected by environmental issues like pollution. With
the dual governance model, we keep worker self-management of the industries but
we add self-management rooted in assemblies of the residents in neighborhoods.
This can be a basis for community self-management of planning for public goods
and services, protection against pollution and other issues that affect people as
consumers or residents in a region. This tells us that self-managed socialism
would have a "division of powers" between worker-based organizations like the
worker congresses and communal organizations such as neighborhood assemblies.
What Marxists Get Wrong
How does this conception of worker political power differ from what Marxists
often say? To see the difference it's useful to look at John Molyneux's pamphlet
The Future Socialist Society. Molyneux presents a democratic conception of
socialism that seems to be similar to a syndicalist view. He also proposes that
the old top-down police and military forces be replaced by a democratic worker's
militia:
"The old capitalist armed forces and police will be disbanded - in essence they
will already have been in a state of collapse for the revolution to have
succeeded. They will be replaced with organizations of armed workers - workers'
militias. ...Unless the revolution has to fight an all out civil war or invasion,
service in the militia will be on a rota basis so as to train and involve the
maximum number of workers in the armed defense of their power, and to ensure that
the militia do not separate themselves off from the working class as a whole.
The militia will also be in charge of everyday law and order - a task which,
because of their roots in the community, they will perform far more effectively
than the capitalist police. All officers in the militia will be elected..."
Molyneux also sees the regional and national worker congresses as the basis of
worker political power, although he calls them "worker councils":
"Workers' councils are regional bodies of delegates elected from workplaces which
in turn will send delegates to a national workers' council.... The democracy of
workers' councils will be based on collective debate and discussion and on the
ability of the electors... to control their representatives. The mechanism of
this control will be very simple. If delegates do not represent the will of their
electors they will simply be recalled and replaced by mass meetings in the
workplaces...
Different political parties, providing they accept the basic framework of the
revolution, will operate freely within the councils, with the party which has the
majority support from the workers forming the government. In all likelihood this
will be the party which has led the revolution."
But what is this "government" that is separate from the worker congresses? In the
Russian revolution the Council of People's Commissars was "the government" but it
simply took over the old tsarist state bureaucracies and was in practice not
under the control of the soviet congress.
Molyneux does recognize the crucial role of worker power to collectively manage
the industries, although he calls it "worker control":
"Workers' control of industry is essential. A working class that is unable to
control its own workplaces will not be able to control its own state. If control
of the new state industries is transferred to a privileged bureaucracy, as
happened in Russia, then sooner or later this will come to exert a decisive
influence in the society and class divisions will re-establish themselves."
But things get peculiar when he starts to talk about how socialization of the
economy will occur:
"The formal mechanism through which economic power will be established
is...nationalization..... the progressive takeover of the main firms and
industries. Small businesses employing only one or two workers can mostly be left
to later. The immediate task is to gain control of the decisive levers of
economic power, of the ‘commanding heights'..."
I think we can see here that there is a central inconsistency here. The creation
of the worker congresses is not likely to happen without a widespread organized
worker movement in the various industries - with mass organizations like unions,
and elected shop steward councils and worker meetings. But if there is this mass
movement for worker power there in the workplaces, why can't this movement begin
the process of socialization of industry from below? In other words, why not have
this grassroots worker movement take over the industries, and create their own
democratic control ofproduction?
Under Molyneux's conception there is an entity separate from the worker
congresses called "the government" and this entity must seize control of the
industries from above through "nationalization." We can see the problem here
right away. What is this "nationalization"? The usual idea of nationalization is
where a state creates a corporate-style managerial command structure with workers
subordinate to this control bureaucracy. When the Bolsheviks nationalized the
Russian economy in 1918, they also set up a top-down statist form of central
planning, and appointed managers from above to control workers. Thus Molyneux's
conception of the process of takeover of industry by a "government" through
"nationalization" in practice is likely destroy any real worker control in
industry. In fact it will set the stage for the emergence of the bureaucratic
control class as the new oppressor class. This is why I say that his proposal is
inconsistent.
Tom Wetzel is the author of Overcoming Capitalism, forthcoming from AK Press.
https://ideasandaction.info/2021/03/political-economic-power-period-social-transformation/
------------------------------
Message: 4
Mato Grosso reached the record of 7 thousand deaths by COVID-19; hospitals
(public and private) continue to be overcrowded, UPAs are experiencing
difficulties in attending, there is already a lack of basic equipment for
intubation procedures, a lack of anticoagulants, and the hospitalization of
children reaching worrying numbers... but the economy, the profit of the big ones
businessmen and landowners, can't stop. ---- It follows a theater orchestrated by
professional politicians, in which it prioritizes meeting the business interests
of FIEMT (Federation of Industries of Mato Grosso), CDL (Chamber of Leading
Shopkeepers of Cuiabá) and the Agribusiness sectors. The mini lockdown made it
ineffective to contain the virus, as the agglomeration and displacement routines
remained normal - those who are hungry and payment slips end up having no choice,
leaving the sacrifice imposed by the bosses - for capitalism.
That game from the top was wide open this week when the holiday anticipation
project was put on the agenda. Although this is not ideal for preserving the
lives of workers, who would need to be at home throughout this period of great
contamination and deaths and not just 4 or 5 days, the project's non-approval
represented well what interests the State, as well as the genocidal character of
capitalism. What we saw were the ones from above fighting each other so as not to
displease the bosses and bosses as vultures over government, assembly and city
halls to bar the anticipation of holidays - the "holiday", as they were calling -
in the argument that it would be harmful to the economy place. In the end, what
we saw was the most real and concrete face of capitalism. Amidst the whole
scenario of deaths and illnesses, general collapse, vultures fell on the state so
that not even a holiday was given; even if those days were worked on later, since
it was a matter of anticipating a holiday and not leaving workers at home without
having to pay for it.
The deaths and misery that we experience in the state of Mato Grosso today are
responsible and they must be reported and must pay for them. We know that
Bolsonaro's genocidal government opens the door to death policies, but state
governments and city halls have the same role in these spheres. In Mato Grosso,
Mauro Mendes' death policies follow the federal genocidal primer and are just as
responsible as federal policies!
Planned death policy and emergency assistance
The state of Mato Grosso, in serious condition, is a sad object in the hands of
those who play with our lives. Mauro Mendes' government directly serves the
interests of entrepreneurs and agribusiness; when he rehearses any attitude to
say that he is doing something, he soon gives in to pressure from these sectors
or falls into "political tantrums" with the mayor of Cuiabá. City halls have been
silent or are consistent with the deliberate absence of actions that
characterizes Bolsonaro's genocidal government. Legislative Assembly
demonstrated, once again, that it serves Mauro Mendes, businessmen and
agribusiness. Entrepreneurs and Agribusiness continue to profit, while putting
pressure on the government, city halls and the Legislative Assembly to undermine
any rehearsal in order to preserve the lives of workers.
Everything we have endured, female and male workers (employed, formal, informal
and unemployed), is the result of the neglect that the governments (federal,
state and municipal) have been applying against the population, always favoring
the interests of the business sectors, agro-exporters and financial speculators
of all kinds - especially when their desires are: PRIVATIZATION OF EVERYTHING
THAT IS PUBLIC! Policies of precarious services that have been essential for
decades have been advancing - let us focus, at this moment, on Health - for all
those and those who do not have the financial means to pay for the high prices of
Health Plans. For years, the population has been suffering from the scrapping of
public health services: lack of equipment, reforms, adequate constructions,
contests for workers needed for the front line in care, a living wage for health
professionals, etc. - in Mato Grosso, it goes for more than 20 years without
public tender in the health area, for example.
With the pandemic of COVID-19, all this gambling has become more and more wide
open, because those who dictate the rules for the game of virus containment and
prevention of life are those who have high accumulation of money; the deniers who
claim: THE ECONOMY CANNOT STOP!
Emergency aid, national and state, will continue to keep the population in
poverty and having to sacrifice their lives to maintain a decent life. The
increase in the cost of living - food, gas, energy, fuel, water, health,
medicines - continues in the normal elevation flow. In the federal sphere, the
payment of up to R $ 375 reais is indicated and, in the state sphere (in Mato
Grosso), the approved amount is R $ 150 reais (for 3 months) to serve around 100
thousand families that are registered in the social program of the State
Secretariat of Social Assistance (Setasc), "Being a family".
We are quite clear that such values for those who live in extreme poverty,
generated by the greed of the shift politicians (the professional politicians),
are of great importance, but we cannot fail to bring the reflection to the basic
costs of life: cooking gas above of R $ 100; the basic basket over R $ 250; the
cost of energy and water (private companies) up there... if you get sick and need
medications unavailable in SUS (due to the lack of transfers and priority
investments)... SAVE YOURSELF!
The inefficiency of the curfew for "bobó tcheira-tcheira"
What we will be facing is a measure, not that it is not necessary, but totally
intended to deceive the population. The flow of male and female workers will
follow normally, the profit of the bosses will follow from wind to pulp, because
the economy cannot stop (it has not stopped, especially when it comes to the
biggest debtors to the public coffers of Mato Grosso - Agribusiness). The economy
cannot stop, even if we continue to lose a few more lives, even if we exceed the
record of 6,000 thousand deaths in our state, it cannot stop even if we have
already experienced the overcrowding of the ICUs and are within an explicit
collapse (we have already reached the mark) 99% of the ICUs occupied and a
significant number of people waiting for vacancies).
We will continue to face a normal routine for those who need to work in order to
survive, with some workers affected (those who work at night) and at the risk of
losing their jobs and without any help to pay the high cost of our lives.
Anarchist Opinion | March 9, 2021 | Libertarian Swoop | link:
http://cabanarquista.org/2021/03/09/rusga-libertaria-mt-pandemia-negacionismo-e-minilockdown/
On March 9, we released an Anarchist Opinion where we pointed out the
inefficiency of the lockdown"Hybrid" - mini lockdown, according to the ordinance
of the government of Mato Grosso. The 15 days stipulated by the government are
gone, as well as several and several lives - workers and workers from the most
varied segments of our society; people who, due to the material necessity of our
life and the lack of serious social policies in order not to let our people die
of hunger, had to continue making the displacements to their workplaces. People
who, for the most part, depend on public transport; people who, for the most
part, do not have the financial means to pay for private health plans, let alone
take a private plane and travel to the same hospitals that many parliamentarians
went to to intern and treat the covid.
A more serious lockdown is necessary to contain the virus, but without an
emergency aid that is at least close to the current minimum wage, but without a
policy against cutting and reducing wages, but without reducing the high costs of
life... all of this becomes illusory for the working population. Furthermore, the
strong speech of the "gripezinha" - which Mauro Mendes himself helped to spread
throughout the state - made a good part of our population incredulous, it only
becomes real when death knocks on our door.
Empty Pot: popular revolt in the peripheries The way out of this situation of
death and precariousness of life
Just as we have defended before, we continue in this line of defense for the
lives of and for those below...
We are clear that our lives are not easy and that things will not improve
overnight, but we must recover the strength of resistance and rebellion for the
organization and struggle of the workers against all this policy of death a that
governments and employers have pushed us to experience. Since we are forced to
work and take life risks in the midst of an accelerated pandemic, with no
possibility of dignified survival, it is urgent that we also take direct action
as a primary tool to combat all this injustice and death policy. If we are
required to work normally in the midst of collapse, may we have the strength to
take to the streets and claim Decent Life:for the breach of the patent on
vaccines, quarantine for life, general strike for life, emergency aid for
everyone and everyone who suffers from job insecurity and unemployment and with
dignified value, reduction of high prices in food / medication / electricity /
water / gas / etc., mass testing for the entire population, end of evictions in
the occupation of abandoned houses and unproductive land or with no real social
function, taxation of agribusiness and large fortunes, closure of classroom work
in schools and other public offices (essential work not can be relativized to
meet bosses' desire), MASS VACCINATION!
It is by popular force, organized direct action against class enemies that we can
move forward in the reconstruction of a strong social vector for the social
revolution.
UNEMPLOYMENT AND EMPTY POT, IT IS REVOLUTION IN THE PERIPHERY!
ORGANIZED ANARCHISM, FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF LIBERTARY SOCIALISM!
FIGHT, CREATE ... POPULAR POWER!
Libertária Rusga - 15 years in the construction of Organized Anarchism in Mato Grosso
http://cabanarquista.org/2021/03/24/rusga-libertaria-mt-7-mil-mortos-segue-o-lucro-para-poucos-prevalece-a-morte-para-geral/
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Message: 5
Aid, vaccine and dignified life for all! ---- Brazil has reached the tragic
number of 300,000 lives lost, at the worst moment of the covid-19 pandemic in a
year. From the beginning, Bolsonaro did his best to sabotage the control of the
disease and the vaccination of Brazilians, encouraging agglomerations,
criticizing the use of masks and disrespecting the mourning of those and those
who left, with the support of all his government, military to neoliberals, and
the connivance of other powers. ---- At that moment, we are the country with the
highest volume of deaths in the world, with more than two thousand daily victims,
amid variants of the virus that spread through the regions, reaching a people who
are hungry, are unemployed, without help and without vaccine. There are those who
say that the daily numbers of victims will be even greater with the national
collapse, since in all states there are records of people dying without getting a
place in a hospital, in a scenario with no prospect of improvement.
This very serious situation gives no alternative but a strong revolt at the base,
spread throughout the country, demanding dignified aid for the people and mass
vaccination. A clear message to the ruling classes that this genocide cannot
continue!
The capitalist class and the rulers cannot continue to kill our people without a
response to the measure! That is why we defend in the militancy spaces that
popular movements use all their repertoire of struggles, with direct action and
class independence, to show that we want to remain alive, in a dignified way!
UNEMPLOYMENT AND EMPTY POT IS REVOLTED IN THE OUTSIDE!
OUTSIDE BOLSONARO, MILITARY AND PAULO GUEDES! FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY!
FOR MASS VACCINATION AND AID TO ALL!
Brazilian Anarchist Coordination,
March 2021
https://www.facebook.com/anarquismorj/posts/1588606024661923
------------------------------
Message: 6
So, last night, it all kicked off in Bristol, and the media, politicians, the
great and the good all line up to say just how terrible it was that people didn't
passively take their beating from the cops, and isn't it a disgrace that those
Bristolians responded to such attacks from the police with violence, etc. ----
The BBC (aka "His Master's Voice") and all the other big media outlets will now
be going into a frenzy, trying to build a media narrative that speaks of good
protesters versus the bad ones. Meanwhile, the pathetic Labour Party will parrot
this same narrative, as will some more liberal elements who don't like the
policing bill... but don't like to see people making the wrong kind of fuss about
it. To see how this is done, check out the Anarchist Federation's article, what
actually happened in Bristol - and how a narrative is built.
Well, just in case anyone's in any doubt, take note of what the comrades of
Bristol Solidarity Federation have to say:
"Some things for Bristolians to remember tonight:
There was a vigil for a victim of police violence in London last week. It was
peaceful. The police attacked it anyway.
Tonight we saw police with batons attacking a peaceful crowd. The only reason
this turned into a riot is because people fought back.
If you're worried about violent protesters but not police violence then you're
doing the cop's work for them.
If you blame protesters for the violence that the police inflict on the public,
then you're blaming the victims.
It's not a fair fight when one side uses stones and fireworks and the other uses
batons and tear gas. "demonstrators clashed with police" is media speak for
"armed people attacked an unarmed crowd".
If you only support a cause on the condition that activists are well-behaved then
you don't really support that cause.
Politics is about power, not popularity. Winning public support is meaningless
when our enemies don't even listen to the public.
They can ignore a protest. They can't ignore this.
We chose to be combatants, not victims. Fuck the police."
After the debacle (and subsequent police/government embarrassment) last weekend,
of the Metropolitan Police violently suppressing the peaceful Clapham Common
vigil against violence against women and femicide, the government announced that
it was putting the bill on hold. But putting something on hold is not the same as
scrapping it completely, and the government will wait for the optimum time, when
opposition or resistance is low, or when there's something else big in the news
headlines, so they can quietly make this bill law."
Make no mistake, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a draconian
attack on basic rights to protest in the UK. It will mean a massive police
clampdown on any one who dares to protest, and if you do protest, there'll be
mega fines and ten-year prison stretches. And whether that protest is peaceful or
whether people resist violently, it'll be all the same to this government.
This is a bill straight out of the authoritarian, totalitarian and fascist
playbook - the only difference being, it has that lovely liberal ‘protect our
nice democracy' slant to dress it up. So, in this way, the Johnson regime, with
Priti Patel leading the charge, is acting in the same mould as China with regards
to Hong Kong, Putin with opponents in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, Bolsonaro in
Brazil, Orbán in Hungary, and every other type of ruthless, dictatorial and
controlling little shit from the year dot.
This weekend, in a number of towns and cities (including Bristol, Brighton,
Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle) there were demonstrations against
the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Some of these demos passed off
peacefully, and that's fine; Bristol didn't, and that's fine too. What's
important is we resist.
But we must resist this bill together, as a class, and we need to be building
that resistance now. That means setting up local campaigns in every town and city
in the country. That means talking about it to people at work, in your
neighbourhood, and working with people we might not necessarily agree with on
some things. It'll mean calling for and organising local meetings and
demonstrations in your area. Let's get to it!
Kill the bill!
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2021/03/22/bristol-riot-what-do-they-expect/
------------------------------
Message: 7
On Saturday, March 13, activists from Samba Halastra took part in the Manifa
Torunska 2021 demonstration under the slogan "Abortion is ours". The
demonstration was organized by anarchist, feminist and LGBT groups in Torun.
Protests against the tightening of the anti-abortion law are still ongoing in
Poland. Constitutional Tribunal judgments, parliamentary acts - legal forms vary,
but have one purpose. It is depriving women of subjectivity, the possibility to
decide about their lives and forcing them to function in society on unacceptable
conditions. In addition to the wave of protests that has been going on since
October, manifes are held annually in many Polish cities on dates close to March
8 - demonstrations where we talk about the broadly understood rights of women and
their struggle for a dignified existence.
The demonstration started at 3 p.m. at the monument of Nicolaus Copernicus. On
the spot, we met the organizers, participants gathered and people who came from
other cities to support the action. They were, among others, members of the
Polish Grandmothers group, whom we know from consistent participation in all
women's protests in Warsaw and resistance to repression despite their advanced age.
The demonstration started with reading letters from women with an abortion
experience. The stories of women who terminated pregnancies differed from one
another in terms of the reasons for this decision and the difficulties in
implementing it. Among personal experiences, threads of low earnings, lack of
access to care institutions or problems with continuing education were repeated.
The value of grassroots abortion support groups was emphasized. Women who
received information about their actions managed to avoid significant
difficulties and risks.
After reading the letters and introductory speeches, the demonstration started to
the sound of our rhythms along the streets of the Gothic old town and roads
surrounding the center. Simultaneously with our game the slogans "Abortion
everywhere - was, is and will be", "Freedom, equality, abortion on demand",
"Abortion is ours" were chanted. On our route, curious residents watched a
demonstration from trams, and the stumbling blocks with the number for Abortion
Without Borders contrasted with the double billboards of anti-choice propaganda.
The demonstration ended with the return to the Old Town Square and the joint
dance of the organizers and participants of the event.
An additional value of the Torun manifa was the distribution of information
materials on sexual education, contraception and safe abortion. Mutual care,
empathy, and knowledge sharing were present among the demonstrators. At the
event, brochures "March 8 - women are still fighting", which are a special
edition of the Employee Initiative bulletin, were also distributed.
The Torun manifesto was attended by a delegation from Samba Halastra, a group of
Rytmów Oporu from Torun and Bydgoszcz. We are especially pleased with the
presence of participants from the city on the Brda River. This means that our
movement is expanding with new sections and new people.
Samba Halastra
https://www.rozbrat.org/informacje/krajowe/4759-aborcja-jest-nasza-relacja-z-torunskiej-manify-z-udzialem-samby-halastry
------------------------------
Today's Topics:
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Message: 1
Today also in Livorno we remembered Lorenzo Orsetti in front of the tombstone of
the partisan. Two years ago, a few days after his death in Baghouz, when we found
ourselves in this same place, the war seemed to be nearing its end. But the
alternative experience of Rojava continues to have to defend itself from the war
of the states. About sixty people participated in this initiative of memory and
struggle, organized by the Anarchist Libertarian Collective and the Anarchist
Federation of Livorno, which also took part in the former Occupied Barracks,
Power to the People and some companions of the Jin Network. The speeches recalled
Lorenzo's commitment as an anarchist alongside the revolutionary experience of
Rojava, the value of social liberation and peace of the alternative experience
taking place in those regions, crushed by the wars of the states. Solidarity was
expressed with Eddi Marcucci and all the comrades who in Italy as in other
countries have been and still are persecuted for their internationalist
commitment. Also recalled was the dramatic situation of all * those who are
imprisoned * in prisons, everywhere in the world, in particular political
prisoners in Turkey. In particular, the appeals circulated in recent days for
solidarity initiatives with Öcalan and the other political prisoners buried alive
on the prison island of Imrali who have not had contact with their lawyers since
27 April last year were recalled.
March 18 is also a symbolic date for international revolutionary movements, today
it is 150 years since the insurrection of the Paris Commune and 100 years since
the fall of the Kronstadt Commune. The social revolution is today the only
possible prospect in the face of the failure of the state, capital and patriarchy
that on a global level tighten the authoritarian grip on billions of people in
order to maintain power, privileges and profits.
Below is the text of the convocation of the presidium:
For Lorenzo, for Rojava, for freedom
Thursday 18 March 2021
18 hours
In front of the Tombstone of the partisan
Via Ernesto Rossi, Livorno
Two years ago Lorenzo Orsetti was killed in Baghouz, in northeastern Syria, while
he was fighting for freedom and internationalism. Following the ideals of
justice, freedom and equality he had chosen to join the struggle of the
populations of Rojava and the YPG / YPJ in 2017, fighting against the Islamic
State alongside the Tikko and in recent months in the Tekosina anarsist
(anarchist struggle) formation with the name of Tekoser Piling.
In these two years the Turkish state has continued with bombings and land attacks
to bring the war against the Kurdish population and the Kurdish liberation
movement in Rojava and northern Iraq. This war aims to erase that prospect of
peace and radical change in society for which even Lorenzo fought by sacrificing
his own life.
This war against freedom is waged not only by Turkey but by all states. Because
an alternative experience like that of Rojava is in itself a threat to the
hegemonic and war dimension produced by the states. But also because such an
example risks rekindling the hope of social revolution in other parts of the
world as well. For this reason, also in Italy, as in Germany, France and other
countries, comrades who directly supported the struggle of the people of Rojava
have been or are still subject to state persecution.
We invite all * those who want to remember Lorenzo, show support for Rojava and
express solidarity with all the comrades who are persecuted for their
internationalist commitment in Italy too.
Libertarian Anarchist Collective
Leghorn Anarchist Federation
https://collettivoanarchico.noblogs.org/post/2021/03/19/18-marzo-per-lorenzo-per-il-rojava-per-la-liberta/
------------------------------
Message: 2
On March 18, 150 years ago, the Paris Commune was born. Fifty years later, on
March 18, 1921, the Kronstadt Commune was bloodily repressed. ---- The Paris
revolt gave rise to the first important experience of popular self-government.
Parisian workers rose and abolished the standing army and the repressive organs
of the authoritarian and hierarchical order. The factories abandoned by the
owners who had taken refuge in Versailles were self-managed by workers. The
center of political decision-making was the popular assemblies, any term of
office becoming revocable. Women were protagonists on an equal footing with men
in decision-making and armed defense. The repression, led by Versailles head of
government Adoplhe Thiers, was appalling, at least 30,000 comuneros were shot,
thousands were deported. The mayors telegraphed: "The ground is full of their
corpses. This terrible spectacle will serve as a lesson.
In March 1921, a massive strike paralyzed Petrograd. The workers fought against
the militarization of factories, the bureaucratization, the centralization of
political power implemented by the leadership of the Bolshevik party, against the
emptying of the Soviets as an instrument of self-government, reduced to a chain
of transmission by the Communist Party. The Kronstadt sailors, who were among the
main protagonists of the October Revolution, stood up and declared: "All power to
the soviets and not to the party". Once again, the repression hit the
revolutionaries hard, the troops of the Red Army led by Lev Trotsky smothered
with blood the hopes of a world of free and equal people.
The memory of the Paris and Kronstadt communes is still alive in the struggle!
Let us drink to the insurgents of Paris and Kronstadt, and to all the
revolutionary experiences of self-government and self-management, from Spain in
1936 to the workers' councils of Turin in the 1920s, from the peasants of Ukraine
during the Russian revolution to German workers in the 1920s, from the Budapest
insurgents in 1956 to the experiments in Chiapas and Kurdistan. Wherever the
exploited have fought for freedom and equality, they have given themselves their
own forms of self-management, outside and against the state and employers.
Long live the Social Revolution!
Long live Anarchy!
Anarchist Federation of Turin - FAI
Translation> Liberto
anarchist news agency-ana
------------------------------
Message: 3
How does the working class liberate itself from being a subordinate and exploited
class? This is where we need thinking about the overall strategy and our vision
about new structures to replace the capitalist regime. ---- The working class has
to build its capacity to actually do this. This capacity is built through the
more or less protracted process of class formation. This is the process through
which the working class overcomes fatalism and internal divisions (as on lines of
race or gender), and builds the confidence, organizational capacity and the
aspiration for social change. This is the process through which the working class
"forms" itself into a force that can effectively challenge the dominating classes
for control of society. This is likely to require a kind of social movement
alliance that brings together the grassroots worker organizations (such as
unions) and social movement organizations that have emerged around the various
other areas of struggle in a particular period - tenant unions, environmental
justice organizations, and groups that emerge around racial and gender fault
lines. And thus the agenda for change is going to reflect the various priorities
of these movements.
But what steps should this movement aim at in the transition to socialism? In
fact it's going to be essential for a consensus to emerge already within such a
mass movement about the basic structural changes that we need to initiate.
Syndicalists have always argued that a crucial initial task in the transition to
a self-managed socialism is direct worker takeover of the workplaces - creating
new democratic organizations through which workers can exercise direct power over
the labor process. An impressive feature of the Spanish worker revolution in
1936-37 was the widespread expropriation of industries and collectivization of
land in rural areas. Although the political events of that moment were not
entirely predictable, the movement for worker control was not simply
"spontaneous." The militants of the unions in Spain had discussed for decades the
need for workers to take over the industries and re-organize them under worker
self-management. This was part of their revolutionary preparation.
Our program for building socialism needs to address the major structural features
of the capitalist regime that we want to replace - structural features that are
at the root of the oppressive work regime, vast inequality, and ecological
destruction inherent to capitalism. The system of class oppression is rooted in
two institutional structures of class power which the movement must break. First,
we need to get rid of the private ownership of the non-human means of production,
which allows for vast extraction of profit to build the wealth of a tiny,
super-rich elite who dominate society.
But private ownership is not the only basis of oppressor class power. And here we
need to learn from mistakes of the 20th century socialist movement. The 20th
century saw major growth for a newly emergent dominating class - the bureaucratic
control class, as I call it. The power of this class is based on their
monopolization over the decision-making authority (and some related areas of
expertise) in the corporations and state, via top-down bureaucratic hierarchies.
The bureaucratic control class includes the managers who control workers
day-to-day but also high-end professionals who work with the managerial regime
such as corporate lawyers, and the people who run the state, such as professional
politicians, prosecutors, judges, military brass. A worker's liberation movement
must have a program for eliminating the power of this class over the working class.
There are several reasons why widespread expropriation and direct worker
self-management of industry needs to be an immediate task in a period of
fundamental conflict over the society's future:
To break the power of the bureaucratic control class
To ensure that the needs and desires of the population are met in a period that
may witness widespread disruption
To begin the process of re-organizing industries to diminish their ecologically
destructive effects and to make for a work environment that protects worker
health and wellbeing.
Workers will also need to bring the different facilities together into an
industrial federation to do planning and coordination for an entire industry.
Without a means to coordinated control and policy for an industry, worker groups
controlling particular facilities might be pitted against each other in
competition. Workers would be atomized and their social power diminished. In the
situation where the capitalist facilities are taken over, different companies may
have stronger or weaker competitive positions, and some workers may receive lower
pay or experience worse conditions. A basic principle of industrial unionism is
to fight to "take wages and conditions out of competition." An advantage of
coordination of the whole industry through an industrial federation is that it
enables workers to achieve better conditions for the worse off. Moreover,
splitting workers up into competing firms would atomize the working class,
putting them in a weaker position in society.
Worker Congresses and Political Power
Another major task that the working class must take on in a period of social
transformation is gaining political power - the power to decide the basic rules
and structure of the society as a whole. This is necessary to make sure that no
new class rides in to set itself up as a new oppressor class. To do this, the
working class organizations that have taken over the various workplaces can
organize election of revocable delegates from the workplace assemblies to worker
congresses for the nearby region and also for the wider region where the
revolutionary process is unfolding. This is building worker political from below.
Here we may encounter a possible objection. We are used to thinking of a
geographic basis for "democratic government" where people elect politicians to
represent the people in a district, based on universal right to vote. Thus it
might be thought that neighborhood assemblies and congresses of delegates from
neighborhoods might be sufficient for a new government system.
A revolutionary process that works to liberate the working class from
subordination to the capitalist and bureaucratic control classes needs to break
the power that the bureaucratic control class has wields over both production and
the state. This process is likely to lead to major opposition from the people in
these classes who lose power. The managers and top professionals whose power is
threatened or removed are likely to oppose their loss of power. Moreover, they
have the speaking and writing and organizing skills to build organizations and
organize in neighborhood assemblies and congresses of neighborhood delegates to
advance their class interests, and try to maintain a powerful role for their
class. They can build "political parties" that push a program that would shift
power to the high-end professionals and managers. Thus I think a purely
geographic conception of socialist governance is likely to lead to managerialist
bureaucracies set up to control workers in workplaces.
To prevent this, there needs to be political power based on workers and their
assemblies and organizations that control production. These are the organizations
that set up and control the worker congresses.
Social Self-defense and the Worker's Militia
A central part of the state used to defend the interests of dominating classes
are the police and military - the iron fist of the state. These institutions are
set up to defend the capitalist regime and keep the masses in check. This means
that the working class will need to replace them if they are gain control of the
society. In both the Spanish and Russian revolutions this happened partly through
a process where a large parts of the rank and file went over to side of the
working class movement.
A part of the governance system is the way that social self-defense is organized.
There is the potential of foreign invasion - such as a force trying to restore
capitalism. People are also going to want protection from individuals or gangs
who act in predatory, anti-social or violent ways - commit assaults, or try to
privatize public assets through theft. At the same time, there needs to be a fair
process of finding out if a person accused of such crimes is actually guilty -
based on evidence and activities of workers such as those in forensic labs.
People want to be free of the insecurity from the threat of violence. Of course,
in a society where a movement of the oppressed majority has gained power, the
self-defense roles - such as policing - would need to be done differently than
the kind of massively violent police and prison regime that exists in the USA at
present. Since their origin in the early 19th century, police in the USA have
been a central part of a racialized regime of class oppression. Thus policing
needs to be completely rebuilt on a different basis.
In the Spanish revolution, the struggle over political power played out as a
fight over control of the social self-defense function. The civil war in Spain
began when the union militias defeated the army in a large part of Spain with the
backing of some sections of the military rank and file. The syndicalist CNT then
built its own "proletarian army." The officers ("chief delegate") were elected in
each militia column. The various smaller groups in the column elected delegates
to a "war committee" - administrative committee for the column. The union
organizations of the CNT set up a national defense committee to provide overall
control of its army. This was a step in the direction of working class political
power.
A sizeable radical tendency in the CNT held that the unions need to "take power."
To do this in Catalonia would have meant overthrowing the regional state and
electing a worker congress from the union and workplace assemblies - to chart a
new course for the region and establish a system of democratic economic planning.
They also supported direct election of proposed regional and national defense
councils from the assemblies. These would provide overall direction for a unified
worker militia - controlled by all the worker assemblies and mass organizations,
not just the CNT.
We can regard the worker congresses (and elected self-defense council) as forming
the aspect of governance created by the mass worker organizations for working
class political power and to protect against the potential for renewed
subordination of workers in production. If the working class is to prevent some
dominating class from emerging at the top when the smoke clears, the working
class mass organizations must have direct control over the dominant armed power
in society. If the bureaucratic control class were to gain control of the police
and military functions, they would use this power to attack worker control of
production.
The idea that the worker mass democratic organizations need to gain control of
the dominant armed power in society in a revolution is a long-standing
syndicalist principle. Thus the 1922 principles of the syndicalist International
Workers Association said:
"Syndicalists do not forget that the decisive struggle between the Capitalism of
to-day and the Free Communism of to-morrow, will not take place without serious
collisions. They recognize violence, therefore, as a means of defense against the
methods of violence of the ruling classes, in the struggle of the revolutionary
people for the expropriation of the means of production and of the land. Just as
this expropriation cannot be commenced and carried to a successful issue except
by the revolutionary economic organization of the workers, so also the defense of
the revolution should be in the hands of these economic organizations..."
Neighborhood Assemblies and Social Accountability
Of course it is true that many decisions about social production also affect
other people apart from the workers in a particular industry. However, if workers
do not control their own work activity and the workplaces, then some other class
will - and thus the regime of class oppression will continue.
Nonetheless, we recognize that various decisions about a workplace will impact
people other than the workers in that workplace - consumers of goods or services,
people in the region affected by the air or water emissions from that facility.
This means that the worker organizations that self-manage the various industries
will have to be socially accountable to the masses who they are producing the
goods and services for, and accountable to the entire populace who share the
ecological commons.
A socialized economy requires that the worker-managed industries produce the
goods and services that the masses of people want. How do we ensure effective
accountability? A way to do this is to establish a significant scope in social
planning for neighborhood assemblies and regional delegates from these community
assemblies. This is what I call the dual governance model for a socialized
economy. This means that we take seriously the idea of self-management for
decision-making about the concerns that people have as consumers, users of public
services, or as residents affected by environmental issues like pollution. With
the dual governance model, we keep worker self-management of the industries but
we add self-management rooted in assemblies of the residents in neighborhoods.
This can be a basis for community self-management of planning for public goods
and services, protection against pollution and other issues that affect people as
consumers or residents in a region. This tells us that self-managed socialism
would have a "division of powers" between worker-based organizations like the
worker congresses and communal organizations such as neighborhood assemblies.
What Marxists Get Wrong
How does this conception of worker political power differ from what Marxists
often say? To see the difference it's useful to look at John Molyneux's pamphlet
The Future Socialist Society. Molyneux presents a democratic conception of
socialism that seems to be similar to a syndicalist view. He also proposes that
the old top-down police and military forces be replaced by a democratic worker's
militia:
"The old capitalist armed forces and police will be disbanded - in essence they
will already have been in a state of collapse for the revolution to have
succeeded. They will be replaced with organizations of armed workers - workers'
militias. ...Unless the revolution has to fight an all out civil war or invasion,
service in the militia will be on a rota basis so as to train and involve the
maximum number of workers in the armed defense of their power, and to ensure that
the militia do not separate themselves off from the working class as a whole.
The militia will also be in charge of everyday law and order - a task which,
because of their roots in the community, they will perform far more effectively
than the capitalist police. All officers in the militia will be elected..."
Molyneux also sees the regional and national worker congresses as the basis of
worker political power, although he calls them "worker councils":
"Workers' councils are regional bodies of delegates elected from workplaces which
in turn will send delegates to a national workers' council.... The democracy of
workers' councils will be based on collective debate and discussion and on the
ability of the electors... to control their representatives. The mechanism of
this control will be very simple. If delegates do not represent the will of their
electors they will simply be recalled and replaced by mass meetings in the
workplaces...
Different political parties, providing they accept the basic framework of the
revolution, will operate freely within the councils, with the party which has the
majority support from the workers forming the government. In all likelihood this
will be the party which has led the revolution."
But what is this "government" that is separate from the worker congresses? In the
Russian revolution the Council of People's Commissars was "the government" but it
simply took over the old tsarist state bureaucracies and was in practice not
under the control of the soviet congress.
Molyneux does recognize the crucial role of worker power to collectively manage
the industries, although he calls it "worker control":
"Workers' control of industry is essential. A working class that is unable to
control its own workplaces will not be able to control its own state. If control
of the new state industries is transferred to a privileged bureaucracy, as
happened in Russia, then sooner or later this will come to exert a decisive
influence in the society and class divisions will re-establish themselves."
But things get peculiar when he starts to talk about how socialization of the
economy will occur:
"The formal mechanism through which economic power will be established
is...nationalization..... the progressive takeover of the main firms and
industries. Small businesses employing only one or two workers can mostly be left
to later. The immediate task is to gain control of the decisive levers of
economic power, of the ‘commanding heights'..."
I think we can see here that there is a central inconsistency here. The creation
of the worker congresses is not likely to happen without a widespread organized
worker movement in the various industries - with mass organizations like unions,
and elected shop steward councils and worker meetings. But if there is this mass
movement for worker power there in the workplaces, why can't this movement begin
the process of socialization of industry from below? In other words, why not have
this grassroots worker movement take over the industries, and create their own
democratic control ofproduction?
Under Molyneux's conception there is an entity separate from the worker
congresses called "the government" and this entity must seize control of the
industries from above through "nationalization." We can see the problem here
right away. What is this "nationalization"? The usual idea of nationalization is
where a state creates a corporate-style managerial command structure with workers
subordinate to this control bureaucracy. When the Bolsheviks nationalized the
Russian economy in 1918, they also set up a top-down statist form of central
planning, and appointed managers from above to control workers. Thus Molyneux's
conception of the process of takeover of industry by a "government" through
"nationalization" in practice is likely destroy any real worker control in
industry. In fact it will set the stage for the emergence of the bureaucratic
control class as the new oppressor class. This is why I say that his proposal is
inconsistent.
Tom Wetzel is the author of Overcoming Capitalism, forthcoming from AK Press.
https://ideasandaction.info/2021/03/political-economic-power-period-social-transformation/
------------------------------
Message: 4
Mato Grosso reached the record of 7 thousand deaths by COVID-19; hospitals
(public and private) continue to be overcrowded, UPAs are experiencing
difficulties in attending, there is already a lack of basic equipment for
intubation procedures, a lack of anticoagulants, and the hospitalization of
children reaching worrying numbers... but the economy, the profit of the big ones
businessmen and landowners, can't stop. ---- It follows a theater orchestrated by
professional politicians, in which it prioritizes meeting the business interests
of FIEMT (Federation of Industries of Mato Grosso), CDL (Chamber of Leading
Shopkeepers of Cuiabá) and the Agribusiness sectors. The mini lockdown made it
ineffective to contain the virus, as the agglomeration and displacement routines
remained normal - those who are hungry and payment slips end up having no choice,
leaving the sacrifice imposed by the bosses - for capitalism.
That game from the top was wide open this week when the holiday anticipation
project was put on the agenda. Although this is not ideal for preserving the
lives of workers, who would need to be at home throughout this period of great
contamination and deaths and not just 4 or 5 days, the project's non-approval
represented well what interests the State, as well as the genocidal character of
capitalism. What we saw were the ones from above fighting each other so as not to
displease the bosses and bosses as vultures over government, assembly and city
halls to bar the anticipation of holidays - the "holiday", as they were calling -
in the argument that it would be harmful to the economy place. In the end, what
we saw was the most real and concrete face of capitalism. Amidst the whole
scenario of deaths and illnesses, general collapse, vultures fell on the state so
that not even a holiday was given; even if those days were worked on later, since
it was a matter of anticipating a holiday and not leaving workers at home without
having to pay for it.
The deaths and misery that we experience in the state of Mato Grosso today are
responsible and they must be reported and must pay for them. We know that
Bolsonaro's genocidal government opens the door to death policies, but state
governments and city halls have the same role in these spheres. In Mato Grosso,
Mauro Mendes' death policies follow the federal genocidal primer and are just as
responsible as federal policies!
Planned death policy and emergency assistance
The state of Mato Grosso, in serious condition, is a sad object in the hands of
those who play with our lives. Mauro Mendes' government directly serves the
interests of entrepreneurs and agribusiness; when he rehearses any attitude to
say that he is doing something, he soon gives in to pressure from these sectors
or falls into "political tantrums" with the mayor of Cuiabá. City halls have been
silent or are consistent with the deliberate absence of actions that
characterizes Bolsonaro's genocidal government. Legislative Assembly
demonstrated, once again, that it serves Mauro Mendes, businessmen and
agribusiness. Entrepreneurs and Agribusiness continue to profit, while putting
pressure on the government, city halls and the Legislative Assembly to undermine
any rehearsal in order to preserve the lives of workers.
Everything we have endured, female and male workers (employed, formal, informal
and unemployed), is the result of the neglect that the governments (federal,
state and municipal) have been applying against the population, always favoring
the interests of the business sectors, agro-exporters and financial speculators
of all kinds - especially when their desires are: PRIVATIZATION OF EVERYTHING
THAT IS PUBLIC! Policies of precarious services that have been essential for
decades have been advancing - let us focus, at this moment, on Health - for all
those and those who do not have the financial means to pay for the high prices of
Health Plans. For years, the population has been suffering from the scrapping of
public health services: lack of equipment, reforms, adequate constructions,
contests for workers needed for the front line in care, a living wage for health
professionals, etc. - in Mato Grosso, it goes for more than 20 years without
public tender in the health area, for example.
With the pandemic of COVID-19, all this gambling has become more and more wide
open, because those who dictate the rules for the game of virus containment and
prevention of life are those who have high accumulation of money; the deniers who
claim: THE ECONOMY CANNOT STOP!
Emergency aid, national and state, will continue to keep the population in
poverty and having to sacrifice their lives to maintain a decent life. The
increase in the cost of living - food, gas, energy, fuel, water, health,
medicines - continues in the normal elevation flow. In the federal sphere, the
payment of up to R $ 375 reais is indicated and, in the state sphere (in Mato
Grosso), the approved amount is R $ 150 reais (for 3 months) to serve around 100
thousand families that are registered in the social program of the State
Secretariat of Social Assistance (Setasc), "Being a family".
We are quite clear that such values for those who live in extreme poverty,
generated by the greed of the shift politicians (the professional politicians),
are of great importance, but we cannot fail to bring the reflection to the basic
costs of life: cooking gas above of R $ 100; the basic basket over R $ 250; the
cost of energy and water (private companies) up there... if you get sick and need
medications unavailable in SUS (due to the lack of transfers and priority
investments)... SAVE YOURSELF!
The inefficiency of the curfew for "bobó tcheira-tcheira"
What we will be facing is a measure, not that it is not necessary, but totally
intended to deceive the population. The flow of male and female workers will
follow normally, the profit of the bosses will follow from wind to pulp, because
the economy cannot stop (it has not stopped, especially when it comes to the
biggest debtors to the public coffers of Mato Grosso - Agribusiness). The economy
cannot stop, even if we continue to lose a few more lives, even if we exceed the
record of 6,000 thousand deaths in our state, it cannot stop even if we have
already experienced the overcrowding of the ICUs and are within an explicit
collapse (we have already reached the mark) 99% of the ICUs occupied and a
significant number of people waiting for vacancies).
We will continue to face a normal routine for those who need to work in order to
survive, with some workers affected (those who work at night) and at the risk of
losing their jobs and without any help to pay the high cost of our lives.
Anarchist Opinion | March 9, 2021 | Libertarian Swoop | link:
http://cabanarquista.org/2021/03/09/rusga-libertaria-mt-pandemia-negacionismo-e-minilockdown/
On March 9, we released an Anarchist Opinion where we pointed out the
inefficiency of the lockdown"Hybrid" - mini lockdown, according to the ordinance
of the government of Mato Grosso. The 15 days stipulated by the government are
gone, as well as several and several lives - workers and workers from the most
varied segments of our society; people who, due to the material necessity of our
life and the lack of serious social policies in order not to let our people die
of hunger, had to continue making the displacements to their workplaces. People
who, for the most part, depend on public transport; people who, for the most
part, do not have the financial means to pay for private health plans, let alone
take a private plane and travel to the same hospitals that many parliamentarians
went to to intern and treat the covid.
A more serious lockdown is necessary to contain the virus, but without an
emergency aid that is at least close to the current minimum wage, but without a
policy against cutting and reducing wages, but without reducing the high costs of
life... all of this becomes illusory for the working population. Furthermore, the
strong speech of the "gripezinha" - which Mauro Mendes himself helped to spread
throughout the state - made a good part of our population incredulous, it only
becomes real when death knocks on our door.
Empty Pot: popular revolt in the peripheries The way out of this situation of
death and precariousness of life
Just as we have defended before, we continue in this line of defense for the
lives of and for those below...
We are clear that our lives are not easy and that things will not improve
overnight, but we must recover the strength of resistance and rebellion for the
organization and struggle of the workers against all this policy of death a that
governments and employers have pushed us to experience. Since we are forced to
work and take life risks in the midst of an accelerated pandemic, with no
possibility of dignified survival, it is urgent that we also take direct action
as a primary tool to combat all this injustice and death policy. If we are
required to work normally in the midst of collapse, may we have the strength to
take to the streets and claim Decent Life:for the breach of the patent on
vaccines, quarantine for life, general strike for life, emergency aid for
everyone and everyone who suffers from job insecurity and unemployment and with
dignified value, reduction of high prices in food / medication / electricity /
water / gas / etc., mass testing for the entire population, end of evictions in
the occupation of abandoned houses and unproductive land or with no real social
function, taxation of agribusiness and large fortunes, closure of classroom work
in schools and other public offices (essential work not can be relativized to
meet bosses' desire), MASS VACCINATION!
It is by popular force, organized direct action against class enemies that we can
move forward in the reconstruction of a strong social vector for the social
revolution.
UNEMPLOYMENT AND EMPTY POT, IT IS REVOLUTION IN THE PERIPHERY!
ORGANIZED ANARCHISM, FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF LIBERTARY SOCIALISM!
FIGHT, CREATE ... POPULAR POWER!
Libertária Rusga - 15 years in the construction of Organized Anarchism in Mato Grosso
http://cabanarquista.org/2021/03/24/rusga-libertaria-mt-7-mil-mortos-segue-o-lucro-para-poucos-prevalece-a-morte-para-geral/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Aid, vaccine and dignified life for all! ---- Brazil has reached the tragic
number of 300,000 lives lost, at the worst moment of the covid-19 pandemic in a
year. From the beginning, Bolsonaro did his best to sabotage the control of the
disease and the vaccination of Brazilians, encouraging agglomerations,
criticizing the use of masks and disrespecting the mourning of those and those
who left, with the support of all his government, military to neoliberals, and
the connivance of other powers. ---- At that moment, we are the country with the
highest volume of deaths in the world, with more than two thousand daily victims,
amid variants of the virus that spread through the regions, reaching a people who
are hungry, are unemployed, without help and without vaccine. There are those who
say that the daily numbers of victims will be even greater with the national
collapse, since in all states there are records of people dying without getting a
place in a hospital, in a scenario with no prospect of improvement.
This very serious situation gives no alternative but a strong revolt at the base,
spread throughout the country, demanding dignified aid for the people and mass
vaccination. A clear message to the ruling classes that this genocide cannot
continue!
The capitalist class and the rulers cannot continue to kill our people without a
response to the measure! That is why we defend in the militancy spaces that
popular movements use all their repertoire of struggles, with direct action and
class independence, to show that we want to remain alive, in a dignified way!
UNEMPLOYMENT AND EMPTY POT IS REVOLTED IN THE OUTSIDE!
OUTSIDE BOLSONARO, MILITARY AND PAULO GUEDES! FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY!
FOR MASS VACCINATION AND AID TO ALL!
Brazilian Anarchist Coordination,
March 2021
https://www.facebook.com/anarquismorj/posts/1588606024661923
------------------------------
Message: 6
So, last night, it all kicked off in Bristol, and the media, politicians, the
great and the good all line up to say just how terrible it was that people didn't
passively take their beating from the cops, and isn't it a disgrace that those
Bristolians responded to such attacks from the police with violence, etc. ----
The BBC (aka "His Master's Voice") and all the other big media outlets will now
be going into a frenzy, trying to build a media narrative that speaks of good
protesters versus the bad ones. Meanwhile, the pathetic Labour Party will parrot
this same narrative, as will some more liberal elements who don't like the
policing bill... but don't like to see people making the wrong kind of fuss about
it. To see how this is done, check out the Anarchist Federation's article, what
actually happened in Bristol - and how a narrative is built.
Well, just in case anyone's in any doubt, take note of what the comrades of
Bristol Solidarity Federation have to say:
"Some things for Bristolians to remember tonight:
There was a vigil for a victim of police violence in London last week. It was
peaceful. The police attacked it anyway.
Tonight we saw police with batons attacking a peaceful crowd. The only reason
this turned into a riot is because people fought back.
If you're worried about violent protesters but not police violence then you're
doing the cop's work for them.
If you blame protesters for the violence that the police inflict on the public,
then you're blaming the victims.
It's not a fair fight when one side uses stones and fireworks and the other uses
batons and tear gas. "demonstrators clashed with police" is media speak for
"armed people attacked an unarmed crowd".
If you only support a cause on the condition that activists are well-behaved then
you don't really support that cause.
Politics is about power, not popularity. Winning public support is meaningless
when our enemies don't even listen to the public.
They can ignore a protest. They can't ignore this.
We chose to be combatants, not victims. Fuck the police."
After the debacle (and subsequent police/government embarrassment) last weekend,
of the Metropolitan Police violently suppressing the peaceful Clapham Common
vigil against violence against women and femicide, the government announced that
it was putting the bill on hold. But putting something on hold is not the same as
scrapping it completely, and the government will wait for the optimum time, when
opposition or resistance is low, or when there's something else big in the news
headlines, so they can quietly make this bill law."
Make no mistake, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a draconian
attack on basic rights to protest in the UK. It will mean a massive police
clampdown on any one who dares to protest, and if you do protest, there'll be
mega fines and ten-year prison stretches. And whether that protest is peaceful or
whether people resist violently, it'll be all the same to this government.
This is a bill straight out of the authoritarian, totalitarian and fascist
playbook - the only difference being, it has that lovely liberal ‘protect our
nice democracy' slant to dress it up. So, in this way, the Johnson regime, with
Priti Patel leading the charge, is acting in the same mould as China with regards
to Hong Kong, Putin with opponents in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, Bolsonaro in
Brazil, Orbán in Hungary, and every other type of ruthless, dictatorial and
controlling little shit from the year dot.
This weekend, in a number of towns and cities (including Bristol, Brighton,
Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle) there were demonstrations against
the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Some of these demos passed off
peacefully, and that's fine; Bristol didn't, and that's fine too. What's
important is we resist.
But we must resist this bill together, as a class, and we need to be building
that resistance now. That means setting up local campaigns in every town and city
in the country. That means talking about it to people at work, in your
neighbourhood, and working with people we might not necessarily agree with on
some things. It'll mean calling for and organising local meetings and
demonstrations in your area. Let's get to it!
Kill the bill!
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2021/03/22/bristol-riot-what-do-they-expect/
------------------------------
Message: 7
On Saturday, March 13, activists from Samba Halastra took part in the Manifa
Torunska 2021 demonstration under the slogan "Abortion is ours". The
demonstration was organized by anarchist, feminist and LGBT groups in Torun.
Protests against the tightening of the anti-abortion law are still ongoing in
Poland. Constitutional Tribunal judgments, parliamentary acts - legal forms vary,
but have one purpose. It is depriving women of subjectivity, the possibility to
decide about their lives and forcing them to function in society on unacceptable
conditions. In addition to the wave of protests that has been going on since
October, manifes are held annually in many Polish cities on dates close to March
8 - demonstrations where we talk about the broadly understood rights of women and
their struggle for a dignified existence.
The demonstration started at 3 p.m. at the monument of Nicolaus Copernicus. On
the spot, we met the organizers, participants gathered and people who came from
other cities to support the action. They were, among others, members of the
Polish Grandmothers group, whom we know from consistent participation in all
women's protests in Warsaw and resistance to repression despite their advanced age.
The demonstration started with reading letters from women with an abortion
experience. The stories of women who terminated pregnancies differed from one
another in terms of the reasons for this decision and the difficulties in
implementing it. Among personal experiences, threads of low earnings, lack of
access to care institutions or problems with continuing education were repeated.
The value of grassroots abortion support groups was emphasized. Women who
received information about their actions managed to avoid significant
difficulties and risks.
After reading the letters and introductory speeches, the demonstration started to
the sound of our rhythms along the streets of the Gothic old town and roads
surrounding the center. Simultaneously with our game the slogans "Abortion
everywhere - was, is and will be", "Freedom, equality, abortion on demand",
"Abortion is ours" were chanted. On our route, curious residents watched a
demonstration from trams, and the stumbling blocks with the number for Abortion
Without Borders contrasted with the double billboards of anti-choice propaganda.
The demonstration ended with the return to the Old Town Square and the joint
dance of the organizers and participants of the event.
An additional value of the Torun manifa was the distribution of information
materials on sexual education, contraception and safe abortion. Mutual care,
empathy, and knowledge sharing were present among the demonstrators. At the
event, brochures "March 8 - women are still fighting", which are a special
edition of the Employee Initiative bulletin, were also distributed.
The Torun manifesto was attended by a delegation from Samba Halastra, a group of
Rytmów Oporu from Torun and Bydgoszcz. We are especially pleased with the
presence of participants from the city on the Brda River. This means that our
movement is expanding with new sections and new people.
Samba Halastra
https://www.rozbrat.org/informacje/krajowe/4759-aborcja-jest-nasza-relacja-z-torunskiej-manify-z-udzialem-samby-halastry
------------------------------
Today's Topics:
1. anarkismo.net, Greece: The New Recession on the occasion of
the pandemic by Prot. Anarchists Agios
the pandemic by Prot. Anarchists Agios
Anargyros-Kamateros (ca,
de, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
de, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Turkey, Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet: We Are Not Afraid, We
Walk ON Courageously! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
As an Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros-Kamatero we are working on ideas
and proposals for initiatives both in the current period of the pandemic during
which the state calls for "individual responsibility" and "isolation" cultivate
the ground for social cannibalism, alienation and subjugation , as well as for
the next critical period during which a great political battle will be fought
against the effects of the New Recession which will mark the beginning of a new
cycle of state-capitalist attack that will be of a sweeping nature. ---- The
historical period we are going through is characterized by the spread of a deadly
pandemic that has taken the lives of thousands of people. Lives that would have
been largely saved if health had not been treated as a source of profit and sold
as a commodity within a predominantly structured system of exploitation.
Coronavirus infection undoubtedly has no class criteria. The virus infects both
the rich and the poor, with the difference that the latter do not have the same
access to the expensive cost diagnosis, they do not belong to the few and
"lucky". At the same time, the degraded health system by all governments does not
have the necessary hospital and laboratory infrastructure, equipment, medical and
nursing staff to meet the requirements and is unable to provide mass sampling.
The current situation reveals in the most emphatic and painful way all the
pre-existing deficiencies and shortcomings of the health system and demonstrates
its deep class character. The people who will be lost - with the exception of a
few serious incidents - will be people of our class.
The outbreak of the pandemic, in addition to the consequences on public health,
was also a catalyst for the manifestation of the new episode of the global
capitalist crisis. The effects of the New Recession will be great for the world
of wage labor, which will be called upon to recoup the cost of the loss on behalf
of capital. In the time that follows, death will become normal and will be spread
generously, by the destructive virus of domination.
The initial fall in markets was caused by the sharp drop in oil prices combined
with the climate of uncertainty and insecurity created by investors as the
epidemic spread and the forthcoming contraction in economic activity. Soon
uncertainty turned to collapse. It led to the entrapment of the world economy in
a New Recession, in a new episode of the current capitalist crisis, which was
long overdue.
It is confirmed that in most cases in the financial system, the fictitious rise
hides a latent crisis. It is characteristic that the Wall Street indices were at
record levels at the moment when the coronavirus hit China. However, the
indications for the new episode of the systemic crisis were obvious and lurked
under the artificial veil of virtual speculation. The growing and rapid
accumulation of global debt, low growth rates and trade wars paved the way. After
all, every rescue operation in the system since 2008 and every prescription used
to halt the catastrophic trajectory of the crisis has postponed its biggest
explosion in the future. The tactics followed,
The high liquidity injection of the Fed and the reduction of interest rates used
as measures to mitigate the effects of the forthcoming recession failed to regain
investor confidence. Thus, there was a prolonged crash, resulting in the
mobilization of new monetary expansion measures, which led to the reduction of
interest rates and the provision of liquidity amounts of trillions. Respectively
in the European market, the measures of the ECB were not able to withstand the
pressure on European bonds, including Greek bonds, which from a record low went
to lending rates that exceeded the cost of loan agreements.
The diffuse liquidity and spasm of the capital markets, protested the systemic
uncertainty, reflected the crisis of confidence of the capitalists in their own
system. An economic structure based on the securitization of "risk", gambling and
speculation on debt, it would be impossible to overcome a crisis with tactics
that reproduce it. No "new" tools appeared from 2007 until today to "break" the
system from its structural impasse. Keynesianism was once an antidote, but its
implementation was mediated by a world war. Its withdrawal on the occasion of a
crisis of neoliberalism will not be a medicine, but a setback. Especially in an
age of advanced interdependence of capitalist functions where the traditional
prescriptions of central banks and governments have failed, the resumption of
strong state intervention proves unsustainable for the system and exacerbates the
problem. The system has exhausted the (financial) mechanisms and tools at its
disposal. Within the capitalist mode of production, there is no other solution to
a structural crisis that is in its DNA and is constantly sharpening, deepening,
causing new impasses: the solution to overcome it presupposes the revolutionary
overthrow of capitalism and the state. The system has exhausted the (financial)
mechanisms and tools at its disposal. Within the capitalist mode of production,
there is no other solution to a structural crisis that is in its DNA and is
constantly sharpening, deepening, causing new impasses: the solution to overcome
it presupposes the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the state. The
system has exhausted the (financial) mechanisms and tools at its disposal. Within
the capitalist mode of production, there is no other solution to a structural
crisis that is in its DNA and is constantly sharpening, deepening, causing new
impasses: the solution to overcome it presupposes the revolutionary overthrow of
capitalism and the state.
It is clear, then, that the paralysis of most economic activity due to the
pandemic will cause rapid declines in international and domestic GDP, while the
effects of productive and purchasing short circuits are already reflected in the
financial system. The emergence of the coronavirus as an "unpredictable" factor
in overturning the so-called "normalization of markets" and "economic recovery"
will be the dominant communication recipe that will accompany the new policies of
social euthanasia with which the system will try to transfer the "broken "Of the
Recession to the entire working class. "Together we will succeed" will emerge as
the central tool for extracting social consensus on redundancies, padlocks and
the over-accumulation of redundant work in the coming months. The effects of the
coronavirus, in addition to public health, will be reflected across the spectrum
of social life. The full-scale attack on wage labor, labor acquis and social
freedoms will have the pandemic as an alibi, and by obscuring the system for a
long time and everyone knowing that a New Recession is not long in coming, the
pandemic will be presented as an "asymmetric threat" that is solely responsible
for the manifestation of the crisis and its painful consequences.
Each crisis period begins with a banker jumping out the window. And every crisis
proceeds with the perpetrators becoming victims, with the wealthy oligarchs
multiplying their fortunes and the class of exploiters eventually being the one
to fall. It is certain that those who will "fall out of the windows" once again
will be the workers, the next armies of the unemployed, the young men and women,
on whose backs the cost of the New Recession will be passed. It is a historic
duty to prevent this.
Social inequalities in times of crisis have surpassed all historical precedents.
The class gap is widening. In Greece, 4 billionaires (Latsis, Niarchos,
Mystakidis and Vardinogiannis) have a wealth equal to 1/20 of GDP. Worldwide,
more than 50% of the world's wealth is in the hands of a privileged caste of less
than 1% of the world's population. This is the law of the system! These are the
good things of capitalism and the state!
The triumphs of the "end of the crisis" and the post-historical myths have now
receded in the face of the new episode of the structural crisis of capitalist
over-accumulation. Going to the markets was a big fairy tale, a scam designed to
embellish the "success story" of international bankers, governments and the
bourgeoisie for "successful support programs". As a team, we have long pointed
out that the custom-made upgrade of the Greek state's creditworthiness by guided
rating agencies and the "psychological dope" of the capital markets would lead to
a fictitious attraction to Greek bonds for a short profit and a massive sell-off.
market, stressing that "investment funds are well aware that the sooner they get
rid of them, the
These days, the yields on Greek bonds after massive liquidations have risen
sharply in terms of their prices. Specifically, the 10-year bond exceeded 4%, the
5-year yield 3% and the 15-year bond 3.5%. Investors turned to safe havens such
as German and American bonds and abandoned the urge "buy Greece", "buy the
sacrifices of the Greek people". The accelerated resumption of the quantitative
easing program (qe) by the ECB. and the inclusion of Greece in it, the only thing
that will contribute, is the profitability of the funds that invested in Greek
bonds. The effect of qe on returns will be slim and short-lived, while the
failure of the previous program to achieve inflation targets, maintaining the
yield of European bonds at low levels, etc. specifies the outcome of this program
as well.
The bankruptcy of the neoliberal model was signaled in 2008 by its own spokesmen,
when banks and capitalists sought refuge in the arms of the state to save
themselves. With the coronavirus crisis and the New Recession of 2020, the
ideological foundations and beliefs of neoliberalism collapsed even more, the
myths about the privatization of health collapsed, the mouths for the "saturation
of doctors in hospitals" were closed (sic). The increase in prices for
self-protection and hygiene items (antiseptics, masks, etc.) identified as
"profiteering" and "blackness" was (correctly) redefined by the Minister of
Development and a well-known telemarketer as an application of the law of supply
demand ". Later "the bud" folded, betraying the liberal principles and his faith
in the self-regulating market and spoke proudly about the "ceilings", about the
antiseptics that will be offered "by everyone according to their capabilities, to
everyone according to their needs". We live in a country where the Social
Democrats practice neoliberalism and the right-wing Keynesians! Where are the
friends of the "free market" now to talk to us about doctor dismissals? The right
became the greatest revisionists and opportunists. It has not been long since MAT
opened the heads of doctors and workers protesting against the further
privatization and commercialization of public health. to each according to his
needs ". We live in a country where the Social Democrats practice neoliberalism
and the right-wing Keynesians! Where are the friends of the "free market" now to
talk to us about doctor dismissals? The right became the greatest revisionists
and opportunists. It has not been long since MAT opened the heads of doctors and
workers protesting against the further privatization and commercialization of
public health. to each according to his needs ". We live in a country where the
Social Democrats practice neoliberalism and the right-wing Keynesians! Where are
the friends of the "free market" now to talk to us about doctor dismissals? The
right became the greatest revisionists and opportunists. It has not been long
since the MAT opened the heads of doctors and workers protesting against the
further privatization and commercialization of public health.
In conclusion, the inability of health systems to manage exponentially growing
patients from the pandemic is obvious. The self-imposed measures by which the
states try to reduce the coronavirus transmission rates reveal the shortcomings
of the poor construction of the health sector, the understaffing, the
underfunding, the overall degradation of public health for the benefit of
individuals.
In these difficult days we do not hide. We trust the doctors, not the state. We
support the vulnerable, our fellow human beings with a heavy medical history,
with chronic diseases. We offer solidarity to the people in our class who work,
endangering their health and lives. In the midst of a pandemic, an organized
anarchist movement had to be at the forefront of social resistance and mutual
aid, with consistency and responsibility:
?????? Establishing voluntary mutual aid groups (respecting all sanitary means of
self-protection) and distributing basic necessities to vulnerable high-risk
groups and those and those who do not have the financial means to purchase them
(antiseptics, masks, alcohol, etc. .a. sold on Mavragorite terms of scandal in
the "self-regulating free market").?
? Liberal social structures that would promote practical solidarity, class unity
and collective responsibility.
? With the operation of health structures that would provide information, primary
care and pharmaceutical coverage.
? Requiring immediate and free sampling to diagnose the disease without class
segregation.
? Claiming the order of all private laboratory units and hospitals.?
??u?? Occupying buildings and emptying churches for their conversion into places
of hospitalization, accommodation and care for the homeless.?
? With ideas, positions, actions and proposals for the revolutionary overthrow at
a time of intensification of the capitalist crisis that will soon bring new
policies of social plunder and class exploitation, new wars, new misery and
impoverishment to growing sections of the population.
As an Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros-Kamatero we are working on ideas
and proposals for initiatives both in the current period of the pandemic during
which the state calls for "individual responsibility" and "isolation" cultivate
the ground for phenomena of social cannibalism, alienation and subjugation , as
well as for the next critical period during which a great political battle will
be fought against the effects of the New Recession which will mark the beginning
of a new cycle of state-capitalist attack that will be of a sweeping nature.
We suggest to our comrades who share common values and political goals, in these
days of self-imprisonment and mass inclusion, to ask themselves what shortcomings
(organizational and political) and what mistakes of recent years have led us
(kinematically) to where we are today. And we urge everyone to take creative,
militant and productive action in the weeks to come, conveying social and
political messages in every way possible, offering solidarity to the most
vulnerable sections of society and taking resistance action.
Let us arm ourselves with knowledge, ideas and power and not be closed
individually to ourselves or to the few people close to us. Let us not forget
that overcrowded people in prisons and detention centers do not have the "luxury"
to protect themselves and show "individual responsibility" (sic). Employees in
supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries, telecommunications, distributors, industrial
workers, etc. they do not have the ability to enlist in state decrees "we stay
home". To stand side by side.
Social assistance will not be quarantined
Health and strength. Solidarity will win
Long live the Social Revolution
Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros-Kamatero
?.?. For ethical reasons, we point out that there have been some semantic changes
in the structure of the text since its initial publication.
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2020/03/19/paremvasi-sto-parko-tritsi-gia-tin-nea-yfesi-me-aformi-tin-pandimia-keimeno-foto/
Related Link: https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/
narkismo.net/article/32222
------------------------------
Message: 2
Police attacked those who gathered in Çaglayan Courthouse today for solidarity
with the 24 people detained at Bogaziçi University yesterday. 53 people,
including 4 of our comrades from the Anarchist Youth, were detained. 47 people
will be released after their statements are taken. Six people, including our
comrades Meltem Çuhadar and Seyma Çopur, will be detained because of the "damage
to public property" charges. You have been detained us by torture many times over
the past months, you could not intimidate us, you could not defuse the struggle
of the youth. As our comrades say: We Are Not Afraid, We Walk ON Courageously!
https://www.facebook.com/anarsistfaaliyetorg/posts/2837230469826158
------------------------------
Walk ON Courageously! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
As an Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros-Kamatero we are working on ideas
and proposals for initiatives both in the current period of the pandemic during
which the state calls for "individual responsibility" and "isolation" cultivate
the ground for social cannibalism, alienation and subjugation , as well as for
the next critical period during which a great political battle will be fought
against the effects of the New Recession which will mark the beginning of a new
cycle of state-capitalist attack that will be of a sweeping nature. ---- The
historical period we are going through is characterized by the spread of a deadly
pandemic that has taken the lives of thousands of people. Lives that would have
been largely saved if health had not been treated as a source of profit and sold
as a commodity within a predominantly structured system of exploitation.
Coronavirus infection undoubtedly has no class criteria. The virus infects both
the rich and the poor, with the difference that the latter do not have the same
access to the expensive cost diagnosis, they do not belong to the few and
"lucky". At the same time, the degraded health system by all governments does not
have the necessary hospital and laboratory infrastructure, equipment, medical and
nursing staff to meet the requirements and is unable to provide mass sampling.
The current situation reveals in the most emphatic and painful way all the
pre-existing deficiencies and shortcomings of the health system and demonstrates
its deep class character. The people who will be lost - with the exception of a
few serious incidents - will be people of our class.
The outbreak of the pandemic, in addition to the consequences on public health,
was also a catalyst for the manifestation of the new episode of the global
capitalist crisis. The effects of the New Recession will be great for the world
of wage labor, which will be called upon to recoup the cost of the loss on behalf
of capital. In the time that follows, death will become normal and will be spread
generously, by the destructive virus of domination.
The initial fall in markets was caused by the sharp drop in oil prices combined
with the climate of uncertainty and insecurity created by investors as the
epidemic spread and the forthcoming contraction in economic activity. Soon
uncertainty turned to collapse. It led to the entrapment of the world economy in
a New Recession, in a new episode of the current capitalist crisis, which was
long overdue.
It is confirmed that in most cases in the financial system, the fictitious rise
hides a latent crisis. It is characteristic that the Wall Street indices were at
record levels at the moment when the coronavirus hit China. However, the
indications for the new episode of the systemic crisis were obvious and lurked
under the artificial veil of virtual speculation. The growing and rapid
accumulation of global debt, low growth rates and trade wars paved the way. After
all, every rescue operation in the system since 2008 and every prescription used
to halt the catastrophic trajectory of the crisis has postponed its biggest
explosion in the future. The tactics followed,
The high liquidity injection of the Fed and the reduction of interest rates used
as measures to mitigate the effects of the forthcoming recession failed to regain
investor confidence. Thus, there was a prolonged crash, resulting in the
mobilization of new monetary expansion measures, which led to the reduction of
interest rates and the provision of liquidity amounts of trillions. Respectively
in the European market, the measures of the ECB were not able to withstand the
pressure on European bonds, including Greek bonds, which from a record low went
to lending rates that exceeded the cost of loan agreements.
The diffuse liquidity and spasm of the capital markets, protested the systemic
uncertainty, reflected the crisis of confidence of the capitalists in their own
system. An economic structure based on the securitization of "risk", gambling and
speculation on debt, it would be impossible to overcome a crisis with tactics
that reproduce it. No "new" tools appeared from 2007 until today to "break" the
system from its structural impasse. Keynesianism was once an antidote, but its
implementation was mediated by a world war. Its withdrawal on the occasion of a
crisis of neoliberalism will not be a medicine, but a setback. Especially in an
age of advanced interdependence of capitalist functions where the traditional
prescriptions of central banks and governments have failed, the resumption of
strong state intervention proves unsustainable for the system and exacerbates the
problem. The system has exhausted the (financial) mechanisms and tools at its
disposal. Within the capitalist mode of production, there is no other solution to
a structural crisis that is in its DNA and is constantly sharpening, deepening,
causing new impasses: the solution to overcome it presupposes the revolutionary
overthrow of capitalism and the state. The system has exhausted the (financial)
mechanisms and tools at its disposal. Within the capitalist mode of production,
there is no other solution to a structural crisis that is in its DNA and is
constantly sharpening, deepening, causing new impasses: the solution to overcome
it presupposes the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the state. The
system has exhausted the (financial) mechanisms and tools at its disposal. Within
the capitalist mode of production, there is no other solution to a structural
crisis that is in its DNA and is constantly sharpening, deepening, causing new
impasses: the solution to overcome it presupposes the revolutionary overthrow of
capitalism and the state.
It is clear, then, that the paralysis of most economic activity due to the
pandemic will cause rapid declines in international and domestic GDP, while the
effects of productive and purchasing short circuits are already reflected in the
financial system. The emergence of the coronavirus as an "unpredictable" factor
in overturning the so-called "normalization of markets" and "economic recovery"
will be the dominant communication recipe that will accompany the new policies of
social euthanasia with which the system will try to transfer the "broken "Of the
Recession to the entire working class. "Together we will succeed" will emerge as
the central tool for extracting social consensus on redundancies, padlocks and
the over-accumulation of redundant work in the coming months. The effects of the
coronavirus, in addition to public health, will be reflected across the spectrum
of social life. The full-scale attack on wage labor, labor acquis and social
freedoms will have the pandemic as an alibi, and by obscuring the system for a
long time and everyone knowing that a New Recession is not long in coming, the
pandemic will be presented as an "asymmetric threat" that is solely responsible
for the manifestation of the crisis and its painful consequences.
Each crisis period begins with a banker jumping out the window. And every crisis
proceeds with the perpetrators becoming victims, with the wealthy oligarchs
multiplying their fortunes and the class of exploiters eventually being the one
to fall. It is certain that those who will "fall out of the windows" once again
will be the workers, the next armies of the unemployed, the young men and women,
on whose backs the cost of the New Recession will be passed. It is a historic
duty to prevent this.
Social inequalities in times of crisis have surpassed all historical precedents.
The class gap is widening. In Greece, 4 billionaires (Latsis, Niarchos,
Mystakidis and Vardinogiannis) have a wealth equal to 1/20 of GDP. Worldwide,
more than 50% of the world's wealth is in the hands of a privileged caste of less
than 1% of the world's population. This is the law of the system! These are the
good things of capitalism and the state!
The triumphs of the "end of the crisis" and the post-historical myths have now
receded in the face of the new episode of the structural crisis of capitalist
over-accumulation. Going to the markets was a big fairy tale, a scam designed to
embellish the "success story" of international bankers, governments and the
bourgeoisie for "successful support programs". As a team, we have long pointed
out that the custom-made upgrade of the Greek state's creditworthiness by guided
rating agencies and the "psychological dope" of the capital markets would lead to
a fictitious attraction to Greek bonds for a short profit and a massive sell-off.
market, stressing that "investment funds are well aware that the sooner they get
rid of them, the
These days, the yields on Greek bonds after massive liquidations have risen
sharply in terms of their prices. Specifically, the 10-year bond exceeded 4%, the
5-year yield 3% and the 15-year bond 3.5%. Investors turned to safe havens such
as German and American bonds and abandoned the urge "buy Greece", "buy the
sacrifices of the Greek people". The accelerated resumption of the quantitative
easing program (qe) by the ECB. and the inclusion of Greece in it, the only thing
that will contribute, is the profitability of the funds that invested in Greek
bonds. The effect of qe on returns will be slim and short-lived, while the
failure of the previous program to achieve inflation targets, maintaining the
yield of European bonds at low levels, etc. specifies the outcome of this program
as well.
The bankruptcy of the neoliberal model was signaled in 2008 by its own spokesmen,
when banks and capitalists sought refuge in the arms of the state to save
themselves. With the coronavirus crisis and the New Recession of 2020, the
ideological foundations and beliefs of neoliberalism collapsed even more, the
myths about the privatization of health collapsed, the mouths for the "saturation
of doctors in hospitals" were closed (sic). The increase in prices for
self-protection and hygiene items (antiseptics, masks, etc.) identified as
"profiteering" and "blackness" was (correctly) redefined by the Minister of
Development and a well-known telemarketer as an application of the law of supply
demand ". Later "the bud" folded, betraying the liberal principles and his faith
in the self-regulating market and spoke proudly about the "ceilings", about the
antiseptics that will be offered "by everyone according to their capabilities, to
everyone according to their needs". We live in a country where the Social
Democrats practice neoliberalism and the right-wing Keynesians! Where are the
friends of the "free market" now to talk to us about doctor dismissals? The right
became the greatest revisionists and opportunists. It has not been long since MAT
opened the heads of doctors and workers protesting against the further
privatization and commercialization of public health. to each according to his
needs ". We live in a country where the Social Democrats practice neoliberalism
and the right-wing Keynesians! Where are the friends of the "free market" now to
talk to us about doctor dismissals? The right became the greatest revisionists
and opportunists. It has not been long since MAT opened the heads of doctors and
workers protesting against the further privatization and commercialization of
public health. to each according to his needs ". We live in a country where the
Social Democrats practice neoliberalism and the right-wing Keynesians! Where are
the friends of the "free market" now to talk to us about doctor dismissals? The
right became the greatest revisionists and opportunists. It has not been long
since the MAT opened the heads of doctors and workers protesting against the
further privatization and commercialization of public health.
In conclusion, the inability of health systems to manage exponentially growing
patients from the pandemic is obvious. The self-imposed measures by which the
states try to reduce the coronavirus transmission rates reveal the shortcomings
of the poor construction of the health sector, the understaffing, the
underfunding, the overall degradation of public health for the benefit of
individuals.
In these difficult days we do not hide. We trust the doctors, not the state. We
support the vulnerable, our fellow human beings with a heavy medical history,
with chronic diseases. We offer solidarity to the people in our class who work,
endangering their health and lives. In the midst of a pandemic, an organized
anarchist movement had to be at the forefront of social resistance and mutual
aid, with consistency and responsibility:
?????? Establishing voluntary mutual aid groups (respecting all sanitary means of
self-protection) and distributing basic necessities to vulnerable high-risk
groups and those and those who do not have the financial means to purchase them
(antiseptics, masks, alcohol, etc. .a. sold on Mavragorite terms of scandal in
the "self-regulating free market").?
? Liberal social structures that would promote practical solidarity, class unity
and collective responsibility.
? With the operation of health structures that would provide information, primary
care and pharmaceutical coverage.
? Requiring immediate and free sampling to diagnose the disease without class
segregation.
? Claiming the order of all private laboratory units and hospitals.?
??u?? Occupying buildings and emptying churches for their conversion into places
of hospitalization, accommodation and care for the homeless.?
? With ideas, positions, actions and proposals for the revolutionary overthrow at
a time of intensification of the capitalist crisis that will soon bring new
policies of social plunder and class exploitation, new wars, new misery and
impoverishment to growing sections of the population.
As an Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros-Kamatero we are working on ideas
and proposals for initiatives both in the current period of the pandemic during
which the state calls for "individual responsibility" and "isolation" cultivate
the ground for phenomena of social cannibalism, alienation and subjugation , as
well as for the next critical period during which a great political battle will
be fought against the effects of the New Recession which will mark the beginning
of a new cycle of state-capitalist attack that will be of a sweeping nature.
We suggest to our comrades who share common values and political goals, in these
days of self-imprisonment and mass inclusion, to ask themselves what shortcomings
(organizational and political) and what mistakes of recent years have led us
(kinematically) to where we are today. And we urge everyone to take creative,
militant and productive action in the weeks to come, conveying social and
political messages in every way possible, offering solidarity to the most
vulnerable sections of society and taking resistance action.
Let us arm ourselves with knowledge, ideas and power and not be closed
individually to ourselves or to the few people close to us. Let us not forget
that overcrowded people in prisons and detention centers do not have the "luxury"
to protect themselves and show "individual responsibility" (sic). Employees in
supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries, telecommunications, distributors, industrial
workers, etc. they do not have the ability to enlist in state decrees "we stay
home". To stand side by side.
Social assistance will not be quarantined
Health and strength. Solidarity will win
Long live the Social Revolution
Initiative of Anarchist Saints Anargyros-Kamatero
?.?. For ethical reasons, we point out that there have been some semantic changes
in the structure of the text since its initial publication.
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2020/03/19/paremvasi-sto-parko-tritsi-gia-tin-nea-yfesi-me-aformi-tin-pandimia-keimeno-foto/
Related Link: https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/
narkismo.net/article/32222
------------------------------
Message: 2
Police attacked those who gathered in Çaglayan Courthouse today for solidarity
with the 24 people detained at Bogaziçi University yesterday. 53 people,
including 4 of our comrades from the Anarchist Youth, were detained. 47 people
will be released after their statements are taken. Six people, including our
comrades Meltem Çuhadar and Seyma Çopur, will be detained because of the "damage
to public property" charges. You have been detained us by torture many times over
the past months, you could not intimidate us, you could not defuse the struggle
of the youth. As our comrades say: We Are Not Afraid, We Walk ON Courageously!
https://www.facebook.com/anarsistfaaliyetorg/posts/2837230469826158
------------------------------
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