Alt. Media, A Chat with Anarchists Gays Cuba by Gabriel Uchida - Column 'Even Cubans'

(en) Alt. Media, A Chat with Anarchists Gays Cuba by Gabriel
Uchida - Column 'Even Cubans' (pt) [machine translation]

Saturday early in Havana. Close to Revolution Square, the biologist Isbel Torres comes 
bike bringing a vegetable basket. He will prepare a vegetarian lunch for everyone. 
Optometrist Jimmy Roque, companion Isbel, awaits us in the house where they live together. 
A gay and anarchist couple who live in a busy place, maybe nothing more could displease 
the Cuban government. Then comes the historian Mario Castillo. All are members of the 
anarchist collective Taller Libertarian Alfredo López, named after a Cuban 
anarcho-syndicalist. Since 2010 the group held debates, protests and direct actions on the 
island. The content of the conversation, the interview has to be done in a tone of voice a 
little low, as other families also occupy parts of what was once a cultural center abandoned.

VICE: When did the Taller Libertarian Alfredo López and what you do? Mario: Our first 
activity was on April 25, 2010 to organize participation in the march of May 1st. We made 
an appointment to speak of anarchist origins date and then prepare posters for the march. 
We had a group with affinity libertarian issues and begin from this day.

Isbel: We have done several meetings to try to impact in some way the community and take 
part of the history of the anarchist movement and anarcho-syndicalist in Cuba. Rescued, 
for example, the story and where Alfredo López disappeared. Hardly at school will tell you 
it was an anarcho-syndicalist leader, they said it was a leader of the workers or until it 
was communist.

How to be an anarchist in Cuba?

Isbel: I think the most interesting thing is having to invent. Many countries have 
tradition in anarchism, but in Cuba it was totally cut off from political imagery, 
references are slim to none. Here, when it turned anarchist, he does not even know that name.

Jimmy: It is difficult, has cost me a job, was fired just for being an anarchist.

And how did you know?

Jimmy: I myself said.

Besides the traditional "A", they paint arrows on the left. Photo: Collective Taller 
Libertarian Alfredo López

How were the anarchists in the revolution? Alongside Fidel Castro?
Mario: The Cuban anarchists early already knew the true face of Fidel. Much politicking 
knew the intentions of Castro and his whole nationalist and megalomaniac mentality, 
someone was willing to do any kind of alliance to get in power.

And after the revolution, what happened with the Cuban anarchists?
Mario: they just prodded. Anarchists were a favorite front lines of the revolutionary 
government. There were shootings, arrests and some were exiled.

In the 80's there are reports of a libertarian group called Zapata, that some would have 
stayed in prison until he died. What happened to them? Mario: I've looked for families, 
surnames and I know some were from San Cristobal and Los Palacios, but found nothing. It
seems that for fear effect and for a moment I even think it was just an invention of 
people seeking anarchism history in Cuba. In over ten years of research, still in the same 
place without information. After the revolution, the Communists have control of the 
apparatus of culture and education, and created a new historical memory Cuba where they
are the protagonists. This caused havoc because emptied all memory of social struggle in 
the country.

Since the government can tell the story of their way, you are not afraid of that in 20 or 
30 years to happen the same and no one knows anything Taller Libertarian Alfredo López?
Isbel: We're talking about different circumstances. Now we have the possibility of having 
our everyday history and part of our job is to document everything, making visible to 
other countries like Brazil, France, Germany also know of our existence.

And as a young Cuban anarchism know if there's books and the official story does not say that?

Mario: Or do not know or by pure chance. It is possible that new technologies help us in 
the internet people can also find some our work.

Poetry readings in the park organized by the Taller Libertarian Alfredo López. Photo: 
Collective Taller Libertarian Alfredo López

The Cuban press is tightly controlled, as is to have one voice in the country?
Mario: It's just a state tool to the process of nationalization of the social imaginary. 
Watching TV is becoming a political attitude in Cuba. Among young people means that you 
are part of the system and allowed to indoctrinate. People wonder, "Why do you watch that 
shit?".

I see that the Cuban youth today have more proximity with Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar 
than with Fidel. Why?
Mario: I personally think that control the country know wear that are having their myths, 
references and symbols. And are channeling this crisis to other myths that are less 
harmful to them, I think we are well aware of this symbolic passing crisis.

Isbel: The system is emptied towards a youth perspective. Where are the codes of beauty 
and success? In capitalism. Created such a boring society that all successful and beauty 
images are fetched out there, that is, this society has no ability to create such references.

Mario: If references that young people seek are harmless to the status quo, no problem for
the government. They think in the short term, do not care about what will happen in Cuba 
in 20 years.

And what will happen in 20 years?

Mario: It will be a "normal" country, capitalist, with ultra rich, gentrified 
neighborhoods, racism, environmentally destroyed.

What is your opinion on the changes of a possible end to the US economic embargo?
Isbel: The US government will change the strategies to achieve the same. This relationship 
will convert Cuba into what was before the revolution - a place for leisure and tourists. 
That means a huge impact on the environment, for example. The entire coast is now being 
prepared to be explored further and get more cruises. This tour will victimize Cuba.

After the revolution, all have home, health, study. To what extent is this true?
Isbel: The problem of housing is one of the most serious. There are people who lost their 
homes because of a cyclone in 2005 and has not yet homeless, are in hostels. Additionally, 
the normal is three generations living in the same house, which generates large family 
conflicts. Imagine for the LGBT community, as it is difficult to live in places so if the 
others did not accept him.

Mario: And there are already slums in provincial capitals. When you pass by train Camagüey 
, they tell the passengers to agree and close the windows because they can be attacked 
during the night. And education has been universalized, everyone has access but was also 
fully nationalized and subordinated to the interests of a ministerial elite. It is an 
authoritative and much propaganda education.

Jimmy: In health there is much bureaucracy, it is very difficult to arrive at a 
specialized consultation because it has to get many roles.

Mario: The most important capitalization source of the state today are the Cuban doctors 
to other countries like Brazil and Venezuela. This creates a national health system 
compression process.

Isbel: The priority is to export doctors, so many offices here are not professionals. It's 
not that Cuba is driven by a humanitarian sense, it is only sending doctors to places 
where they have more money.

Central Cuban Workers traitors! Photo: Collective Taller Libertarian Alfredo López

At times you do not feel very close to the right in its claims?
Isbel: I think so, but it's a matter of perspective. The Cuban national dissent, the right 
is an opposition that does not have many proposals. They respond to a common sense very 
simple demands of human rights and democratic freedoms, basically trying to normalize tub 
as the rest of the world. There are many elements which also claim such as freedom of 
expression, human rights, but the problem is the country you envision for the future. To 
the right it comes to creating a country "standard", but for us it means a radical change 
in development paradigm and fuller emancipation. Dissent only criticizes the pace of 
change, they want to be faster. For us the problem is not the speed but the direction of 
change, where does all this - and here there is a radical difference between us.

What is worse for Castro, a Yankee capitalist or a Cuban anarchist? Jimmy: A Cuban 
anarchist, obviously. Because the other has the same thought Castro.

And what is worse for a Cuban anarchist, a Yankee capitalist or a communist like Castro?
Mario: Neither are useful to the society in which we dream.

Isbel: How you question presupposes a dichotomy, but there is that. Within the anarchist 
perspective, both options are equal. Even the Cuban State is already creating spaces where
he is retreating and giving any chance to the large foreign capital. An example is the 
port of Mariel, made with Brazil's investments and that is precisely a future space 
directly worker exploitation.

Mario: There is no conflict, is the same. They are perfectly allies. To open a small 
capitalist enterprise here, you go on the municipal body and give you permission. But to 
create a cooperative has to get permission from the State Council, the highest authority 
of government, which may not give you anything. That is, the Cuban government relies more 
capitalist than in the self-management of workers.

March of May 1st. Photo: Collective Taller Libertarian Alfredo López

And how is the repression of the Cuban government?
Isbel: We have strong repression experiences, what we have is constant vigilance houses, 
phones, e-mails. This is not because we suspect we have evidence. In 2009 there was a 
march against violence in Havana and the following year, using just our phones, we call 
another march on the same date. But it was all fake, it was just to make fun of the state 
security. We spent at the venue and was all the safety device occupying the place.

Mario: After 50 years of institutionalization of fear, no longer is very much needed the 
explicit repression. Fear is already installed in society, this is enough. As well as the 
police in Brazil have batons and pepper gas, they also have the same here, but know they 
have no great need to use.

Photo: Collective Taller Libertarian Alfredo López

What happens if the police find us here, three anarchists and an international journalist?

Isbel: Nothing happens.

Mario: It can happen anything.

Jimmy: One day locked up in jail, maybe.

Isbel: Precisely because we do not know what can happen already gives the idea of the kind 
of country we live in. The power structure does not work in exactly the legality, you have 
a course of them, act as they wish.

http://www.vice.com/pt_br/read/um-papo-com-gays-anarquistas-de-cuba

Finland, Alt. media, Anarchist demonstration in Turku peaceful – one arrest

(en) Finland, Alt. media, Anarchist demonstration in Turku
peaceful – one arrest

An anarchist demonstration to oppose racism and fascism in the southwest city of Turku 
resulted in one arrest on Saturday. Police estimate that some one hundred people took part 
in the protest, which was otherwise peaceful. ---- The anarchists’ protest march circled 
the shores of the Aura River in the city centre. ---- Police remanded one person in 
connection with an anarchist demonstration in Turku Saturday evening. The drunken man 
pestered restaurant customers along the protest march’s route and was therefore taken into 
custody. ---- Otherwise, the one hundred-person-strong demonstration proceeded without 
incident, moving along the streets of Turku peacefully. Director Timo Malinen of the 
South-western Finland Police Department says local police had no prior information that 
the anarchists were planning a demonstration, but met with the group at the market square 
to agree on the route the group would take. The protest was arranged to express the 
group’s opposition to racism and fascism.

Malinen said the demonstration went surprisingly smoothly, seeing as how the police had 
reserved several patrols at the ready. The mood in Turku Saturday was tense, as the 
anti-immigrant Finns Party was holding its party congress in the city.

Director Malinen says the police were on hand to make sure the meeting could be carried 
out without incident, and several police were spotted near the Turku Logomo facilities 
that acted as the venue for the Finns Party meeting.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/anarchist_demonstration_in_turku_peaceful__one_arrest/8213342

Alt. Media, Cuban anarchists will soon be holding the second Havana Libertarian Spring

The gathering, sponsored by the Alfredo Lopez Libertarian Workshop, El Guardabosques 
association and the Cristo Salvador gallery, has just been publicly announced for May 29 
through June 7, 2015. ---- The Libertarian Spring is a “space open to anti-authoritarian 
and anti-capitalist processes and experiences that can contribute to forms of sociability 
and awareness based on horizontality, mutual learning and responsibility.” ---- The 
specific areas of work this year have not yet been fully defined, as the project seeks to 
include the proposals of everyone who is interested in participating. Those who wish to do 
so may sign up by writing to primaveralibre@riseup.net. ---- The gathering aims to “evoke 
the spring shoots of libertarian ideals, whose roots, despite historical adversity, are 
always looking for the soil of a new beginning, new explorations and possibilities for 
struggle and transformation.”

The first Libertarian Spring was held from May 11 to June 7 last year. According to 
historian and social activist Mario Castillo, the first gathering succeeded in:


A perma-cultural meal.

– Establishing links with valuable members of other networks, links that could prove 
highly beneficial in terms of social work and the broadening of libertarian spaces and 
perspectives in Cuba.

– Consolidating a firmer and closer relationship between the Alfredo Lopez Libertarian 
Workshop and the Cristo Salvador gallery collective.

– Providing a space for doing things differently and allowing us to focus our energies and 
make our work more visible.

– Generating critical referents to encourage anti-authoritarian practices within Havana’s 
anemic counterculture movement.

– Proving that libertarians in Havana can organize a serious event without business or 
State sponsors.

On the basis of these achievements, this second Libertarian Spring offers a warm welcome 
to all inspiration and ideas that stem “from the love awakened by all honest actions 
against oppression.”

Alt. Media, Security is Not a Crime - Unless You're an Anarchist

Riseup, a tech collective that provides security-minded communications to activists 
worldwide, sounded the alarm last month when a judge in Spain stated that the use of their 
email service is a practice, he believes, associated with terrorism. ---- Javier G?mez 
Berm?dez is a judge of Audiencia Nacional, a special high court in Spain that deals with 
serious crimes such as terrorism and genocide. According to press reports, he ordered 
arrest warrants that were carried out on December 16th against alleged members of an 
anarchist group. The arrests were part of Operation Pandora, a coordinated campaign 
against ?anarchist activity? that has been called an attempt ?to criminalize anarchist 
social movements.? The police seized books, cell phones, and computers, and arrested 11 
activists. Few details are known about the situation, since the judge has declared the 
case secret.

At least one lawmaker, David Companyon, has speculated that the raids are a ?stunt to 
garner support for Spain?s recently approved ?gag law.?? The new law severely restricts 
demonstrations, setting huge fines for activities such as insulting police officers 
(?600), burning a national flag (up to ?30,000), or demonstrating outside parliament 
buildings or key installations (up to ?600,000). Considering the provisions of the law, 
it?s no surprise that many see the raid, conducted against a group with political ideas 
that the government appears to find threatening, as connected.

In a statement, Riseup noted:

Four of the detainees have been released, but seven have been jailed pending trial. The 
reasons given by the judge for their continued detention include the possession of certain 
books, "the production of publications and forms of communication?, and the fact that the 
defendants ?used emails with extreme security measures, such as the RISE UP server.

It?s unclear exactly what the judge means by ?extreme security measures.? As Riseup points 
out, ?many of the ?extreme security measures? used by Riseup are common best practices for 
online security.? It seems the inherent assumption behind the judge?s decision is that 
using services that follow best practices for online security should be considered 
suspicious. This clearly runs contrary to the presumption of innocence, a core requirement 
of international human rights law. But what?s more, using services with strong security is 
how individuals can exercise their right to privacy and expression in the digital age 
while staying safe. Every new data breach and security disaster reminds us of this.

Calling the desire to be safe online ?extreme? is incredibly disturbing. But it?s hardly 
surprising. During the ?Crypto wars? of the 1990s, the US government propagated the idea 
that strong encryption should be treated like a weapon. That may be because strong 
security makes it harder for agencies like the NSA to brazenly surveil everyone?and makes 
it harder to repress groups with political ideas that threaten the status quo. There?s no 
question that anarchists fall into that category, and it?s perhaps that issue that has the 
Spanish government concerned.

In its statement, Riseup explains that it ?has an obligation to protect the privacy of its 
users,? and ?is not willing to allow illegal backdoors or sell our users? data to third 
parties.?

There?s strong evidence that the NSA has ensured that backdoors are built into many 
products and services. Companies and groups such as Riseup want to provide users with 
reliable, secure network services even when?in fact especially when?dealing with requests 
from law enforcement and lawyers to hand over private user information and logs. They have 
developed strong policies to protect themselves from legal liability, but more importantly 
to protect the safety and privacy of their users.

The need for that privacy and security cannot be overstated. In his landmark report to the 
23rd session of the Human Rights Council, the U.N.'s free speech watchdog, Frank La Rue 
made clear that secure communication are critical for an open society. La Rue stated:

Individuals should be free to use whatever technology they choose to secure their 
communications, and that states should not interfere with the use of encryption technologies.

Without adequate protection to privacy, security and anonymity of communications, no one 
can be sure that his or her private communications are not under states? scrutiny.

Privacy is an essential feature of any free society. Alongside the ?gag law,? repressing 
private, secure communications sends a distressing signal about the Spanish government?s 
intentions. But there is still time for the court to correct this decision. If the reason 
these activists are being held truly is their perfectly reasonable and common decision to 
secure their own communications, they should be released now.

Kurdistan, Kobane, Alt. Media, ?No. This is a Genuine Revolution?

(Submitter note: "Even 21 years after the Chiapas (Mexico) uprising, lot of good people do 
not understand the development of anti-authoritarian anti capitalist mood in the less 
developed countries". I.S.) ---- Professor of Anthropology at the London School of 
Economics, activist, anarchist David Graeber had written an article for the Guardian in 
October, in the first weeks of the ISIS attacks to Kobane (North Syria), and asked why the 
world was ignoring the revolutionary Syrian Kurds. ---- Mentioning his father who 
volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic in 
1937, he asked: ?If there is a parallel today to Franco's superficially devout, murderous 
Falangists, who would it be but ISIS? If there is a parallel to the Mujeres Libres of 
Spain, who could it be but the courageous women defending the barricades in Kobane? Is the 
world -and this time most scandalously of all, the international left- really going to be 
complicit in letting history repeat it self??

According to Graeber, the autonomous region of Rojava declared with a ?social contract? in 
2011 as three anti-state, anti-capitalist cantons, was also a remarkable democratic 
experiment of this era.

In early December, with a group of eight people, students, activists, academics from 
different parts of Europe and the US, he spent ten days in Cizire -one of the three 
cantons of Rojava. He had the chance to observe the practice of ?democratic autonomy? on 
the spot, and to ask dozens of questions.

Now he tells his impressions of this trip with bigger questions and answers why this 
?experiment? of the Syrian Kurds is ignored by the whole world.

In your article for the Guardian you had asked why the whole world was ignoring the 
?democratic experiment? of the Syrian Kurds. After experiencing it for ten days, do you 
have a new question or maybe an answer to this?

Well, if anyone had any doubt in their minds about whether this was really a revolution, 
or just some kind of window-dressing, I?d say the visit put that permanently to rest. 
There are still people talking like that: This is just a PKK (The Kurdistan Workers? 
Party) front, they?re really a Stalinist authoritarian organization that?s just pretending 
to have adopted radical democracy. No. They?re totally for real. This is a genuine 
revolution. But in a way that?s exactly the problem. The major powers have commitmented 
themselves to an ideology that say real revolutions can no longer happen. Meanwhile, many 
on the left, even the radical left, seem to have tacitly adopted a politics which assumes 
the same, even though they still make superficially revolutionary noises. They take a kind 
of puritanical ?anti-imperialist? framework that assumes the significant players are 
governments and capitalists and that?s the only game worth talking about. The game where 
you wage war, create mythical villains, seize oil and other resources, set up patronage 
networks; that?s the only game in town. The people in Rojava are saying: We don?t want to 
play that game. We want to create a new game. A lot of people find that confusing and 
disturbing so they choose to believe it isn?t really happening, or such people are deluded 
or dishonest or naive.

Since October we see a rising solidarity from different political movements from all over 
the world. There has been a huge and some quite enthusiastic coverage of Kobane resistance 
by the mainstream medias of the world. Political stance regarding Rojava has changed in 
the West to some degree. These are all significant signs but still do you think democratic 
autonomy and what?s been experimented in the cantons of Rojava are discussed enough? How 
much does the general perception of ?Some brave people fighting against the evil of this 
era, ISIS? dominate this approval and the fascination?
I find it remarkable how so many people in West see these armed feminist cadres, for 
example, and don?t even think on the ideas that must lie behind them. They just figured it 
happened somehow. ?I guess it?s a Kurdish tradition.? To some degree it?s orientalism of 
course, or to put simple racism. It never occurs to them that people in Kurdistan might be 
reading Judith Butler too. At best they think ?Oh, they?re trying to come up to Western 
standards of democracy and women?s rights. I wonder if it?s for real or just for foreign 
consumption.? It just doesn?t seem to occur to them they might be taking these things way 
further than ?Western standards? ever have; that they might genuinely believe in the 
principles that Western states only profess.

You mentioned the approach of the left towards Rojava. How is it received in the 
international anarchist communities?

The reaction in the international anarchist communities has been decidedly mixed. I find 
it somewhat difficult to understand. There?s a very substantial group of anarchists 
-usually the more sectarian elements- who insist that the PKK is still a ?Stalinist? 
authoritarian nationalist group which has adopted Bookchin and other left libertarian 
ideas to court the anti-authoritarian left in Europe and America. It?s always struck me 
that this is one of the silliest and most narcissistic ideas I?ve ever heard. Even if the 
premise were correct, and a Marxist-Leninist group decided to fake an ideology to win 
foreign support, why on earth would they choose anarchist ideas developed by Murray 
Bookchin? That would be the stupidest gambit ever. Obviously they?d pretend to be 
Islamists or Liberals, those are the guys who get the guns and material support. Anyway I 
think a lot of people on the international left, and the anarchist left included, 
basically don?t really want to win. They can?t imagine a revolution would really happen 
and secretly they don?t even want it, since it would mean sharing their cool club with 
ordinary people; they wouldn?t be special any more. So in that way it?s rather useful in 
culling the real revolutionaries from the poseurs. But the real revolutionaries have been 
solid.

What was the most impressing thing you witnessed in Rojava in terms of this democratic 
autonomy practice?

There were so many impresive things. I don?t think I?ve ever heard of anywhere else in the 
world where there?s been a dual power situation where the same political forces created 
both sides. There?s the ?democratic self-administration,? which has all the form and 
trappings of a state -Parliament, Ministries, and so on- but it was created to be 
carefully separated from the means of coercive power. Then you have the TEV-DEM (The 
Democratic Society Movement), driven bottom up directly democratic institutions. 
Ultimately -and this is key- the security forces are answerable to the bottom-up 
structures and not to the top-down ones. One of the first places we visited was a police 
academy (Asayi?). Everyone had to take courses in non-violent conflict resolution and 
feminist theory before they were allowed to touch a gun. The co-directors explained to us 
their ultimate aim was to give everyone in the country six weeks of police training, so 
that ultimately, they could eliminate police.

What would you say to various criticisms regarding Rojava? For example: ?They wouldn?t 
have done this in peace. It is because of the state of war??

Well, I think most movements, faced with dire war conditions, would not nonetheless 
immediately abolish capital punishment, dissolve the secret police and democratize the 
army. Military units for instance elect their officers.

And there is another criticism, which is quite popular in pro-government circles here in 
Turkey: ?The model the Kurds -in the line of PKK and PYD (The Kurdish Democratic Union 
Party)- are trying to promote is not actually embraced by all the peoples living there. 
That multi-? structure is only on the surface as symbols??

Well, the President of Cizire canton is an Arab, head of a major local tribe in fact. I 
suppose you could argue he was just a figurehead. In a sense the entire government is. But 
even if you look at the bottom-up structures, it?s certainly not just the Kurds who are 
participating. I was told the only real problem is with some of the ?Arab belt? 
settlements, people who were brought in by the Baathists in the ?50s and ?60s from other 
parts of Syria as part of an intentional policy of marginalizing and assimilating Kurds. 
Some of those communities they said are pretty unfriendly to the revolution. But Arabs 
whose families had been there for generations, or the Assyrians, Khirgizians, Armenians, 
Chechens, and so on, are quite enthusiastic. The Assyrians we talked to said, after a long 
difficult relation with the regime, they felt they finally were being allowed free 
religious and cultural autonomy. Probably the most intractible problem might be women?s 
liberation. The PYD and TEV-DEM see it as absolutely central to their idea of revolution, 
but they also have the problem of dealing larger alliances with Arab communities who feel 
this violates basic religious principles. For instance, while the Syriac-speakers have 
their own women?s union, the Arabs don?t, and Arab girls interested in organizing around 
gender issues or even taking feminist seminars have to hitch on with the Assyrians or even 
the Kurds.

It doesn?t have to be trapped in that ?puritanical ?anti-imperialist? framework? you 
mentioned before, but what would you say to the comment that the West/ imperialism will 
one day ask Syrian Kurds to pay for their support. What does the West think exactly about 
this anti-state, anti-capitalist model? Is it just an experiment that can be ignored 
during the state of war while the Kurds voluntarily accept to fight an enemy that is by 
the way actually created by the West?

Oh it is absolutely true that the US and European powers will do what they can to subvert 
the revolution. That goes without saying. The people I talked to were all well aware of 
it. But they didn?t make a strong differentiation between the leadership of regional 
powers like Turkey or Iran or Saudi Arabia, and Euro-American powers like, say, France or 
the US. They assumed they were all capitalist and statist and thus anti-revolutionary, who 
might at best be convinced to put up with them but were not ultimately on their side. Then 
there?s the even more complicated question of the structure of what?s called ?the 
international community,? the global system of institutions like the UN or IMF, 
corporations, NGOs, human rights organisations for that matter, which all presume a 
statist organisation, a government that can pass laws and has a monopoly of coercive 
enforcement over those laws. There?s only one airport in Cizire and it?s still under 
Syrian government control. They could take it over easily, any time, they say. One reason 
they don?t is because: How would a non-state run an airport anyway? Everything you do in 
an airport is subject to international regulations which presume a state.

Do you have an answer to why ISIS is so obsessed with Kobane?

Well, they can?t be seen to lose. Their entire recruiting strategy is based on the idea 
that they are an unstoppable juggernaut, and their continual victory is proof that they 
represent the will of God. To be defeated by a bunch of feminists would be the ultimate 
humiliation. As long as they?re still fighting in Kobane, they can claim that media claims 
are lies and they are really advancing. Who can prove otherwise? If they pull out they 
will have admitted defeat.

Well, do you have an answer to what Tayyip Erdogan and his party is trying to do in Syria 
and the Middle East generally?

I can only guess. It seems he has shifted from an anti-Kurdish, anti-Assad policy to an 
almost purely anti-Kurdish strategy. Again and again he has been willing to ally with 
pseudo-religious fascists to attack any PKK-inspired experiments in radical democracy. 
Clearly, like Daesh (ISIS) themselves, he sees what they are doing as an ideological 
threat, perhaps the only real viable ideological alternative to right-wing Islamism on the 
horizon, and he will do anything to stamp it out.

On the one hand there is Iraqi Kurdistan standing on quite a different ideological ground 
in terms of capitalism and the notion of independence. On the other hand, there is this 
alternative example of Rojava. And there are the Kurds of Turkey who try to sustain a 
peace process with the government? How do you personally see the future of Kurdistans in 
short and long terms?

Who can say? At the moment things look surprisingly good for he revolutionary forces. The 
KDG even gave up the giant ditch they were building across the Rojava border after the PKK 
intervened to effectively save Erbil and other cities from IS back in August. One KNK 
person told me it had a major effect on popular consciousness there; that one month had 
done 20 years worth of consciousness raising. Young people were particularly struck by the 
way their own Peshmerga fled the field but PKK women soldiers didn?t. But it?s hard to 
imagine how the KRG territory however will be revolutionized any time soon. Neither would 
the international powers allow it.

Although democratic autonomy doesn?t seem to be clearly on the table of negotiation in 
Turkey, The Kurdish Political Movement has been working on it, especially on the social 
level. They try to find solutions in legal and economic terms for possible models. When we 
compare let?s say the class structure and the level of capitalism in West Kurdistan 
(Rojava) and North Kurdistan (Turkey), what would you think about the differences of these 
two struggles for an anti-capitalist society -or for a minimised capitalism as they describe?

I think the Kurdish struggle is quite explicitly anti-capitalist in both countries. It?s 
their starting point. They?re managed to come up with a kind of formula: One can?t get rid 
of capitalism without eliminating the state, one can?t get rid of the state without 
getting rid of patriarchy. However, the Rojavans have it quite easy in class terms because 
the real bourgeoisie, such as it was in a mostly very agricultural region, took off with 
the collapse of the Baath regime. They will have a long-term problem if they don?t work on 
the educational system to ensure a developmentalist technocrat stratum doesn?t eventually 
try to take power, but in the meantime, it?s understandable they are focusing more 
immediately on gender issues. In Turkey, well, I don?t know nearly as much, but I do have 
the sense things are much more complicated.

During the days that the peoples of the world can?t breathe for obvious reasons, did your 
trip to Rojava inspired you about the future? What do you think is the ?medicine? for the 
people to breathe?

It was remarkable. I?ve spent my life thinking about how we might be able to do things 
like this in some remote time in the future and most people think I?m crazy to imagine it 
will ever be. These people are doing it now. If they prove that it can be done, that a 
genuinely egalitarian and democratic society is possible, it will completely transform 
people?s sense of human possibility. Myself, I feel ten years younger just having spent 10 
days there.

With which scene are you going to remember your trip to Cizire?

There were so many striking images, so many ideas. I really liked the disparity between 
the way people looked, often, and the things they said. You meet some guy, a doctor, he 
looks like a slightly scary Syrian military type in a leather jacket and sterm austere 
expression. Then you talk to him and he explains: ?Well, we feel the best approach to 
public health is preventative, most disease is made possible by stress. We feel if we 
reduce stress, levels of heart disease, diabetes, even cancer will decline. So our 
ultimate plan is to reorganize the cities to be 70% green space?? There are all these mad, 
brilliant schemes. But then you go to the next doctor and they explain how because of the 
Turkish embargo, they can?t even get basic medicine or equipment, all the dialysis 
patients they couldn?t smuggle out have died? That disjuncture between their ambitions and 
their incredibly straightened circumstances. And? The woman who was effectively our guide 
was a deputy foreign minister named Amina. At one point, we apologize we weren?t able to 
bring better gifts and help to the Rojavans, who were suffering so under the embargo. And 
she said: ?In the end, that isn?t very important. We have the one thing no one can ever 
give you. We have our freedom. You don?t. We only wish there was some way we could give 
that to you.?

You are sometimes criticized for being too optimistic and enthusiastic about what?s 
happening in Rojava. Are you? Or do they miss something?

I am by temperament an optimist, I seek out situations which bear some promise. I don?t 
think there?s any guarantee this one will work out in the end, that it won?t be crushed, 
but it certainly won?t if everyone decides in advance that no revolution is possible and 
refuse to give active support, or even, devote their efforts to attacking it or increasing 
its isolation, which many do. If there?s something I?m aware of, that others aren?t, 
perhaps it?s the fact that history isn?t over. Capitalists have made a mighty effort these 
past 30 or 40 years to convince people that current economic arrangements ? not even 
capitalism, but the peculiar, financialized, semi-feudal form of capitalism we happen to 
have today- is the only possible economic system. They?ve put for more effort into that 
than they have into actually creating a viable global capitalist system. As a result the 
system is breaking down all around us at just the moment everyone has lost the ability to 
imagine anything else. Well, I think it?s pretty obvious that in 50 years, capitalism in 
any form we?d recognise, and probably in any form at all, will be gone. Something else 
will have replaced it. That something might not be better. It might be even worse. It 
seems to me for that very reason it?s our responsibility, as intellectuals, or just as 
thoughtful human beings, to try to at least think about what something better might look 
like. And if there are people actually trying to create that better thing, it?s our 
responsibility to help them out.

(This interview has been published by the daily Evrensel in Turkish.)

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

(en) US, Alt. Media, Proposal for Prison Noise Demos Across North America on New Year?s Eve 2014/2015

Over the past twelve months, new waves of revolt have swept over this continent and the 
entire world. Against the terror of the Mexican state and its bloody cronies, 
demonstrations, riots, and attacks have radiated outwards from Ayotzinapa. Triggered by 
the racist violence of U.S. cops, rebels across the middle of the continent have achieved 
a new level of intensity and coordination. Blockades and occupations continue to simmer 
and spread in the Canadian state, with burning barricades built by Mi?kmaq warriors in 
2013 finally finding echoes in the Bay Area. It?s vital that we link our practice of New 
Year?s Eve noise demos to this eruption of social conflict. ---- Globally, these eruptions 
immediately find themselves in desperate conflict with the system, sometimes leading to 
the arrest and imprisonment of rebels and anarchists. For others, it has led to torture 
and death. The beginning of the year saw the arrest of Amelie, Carlos, and Fallon. As the 
year comes to a close, there are hundreds facing charges across the U.S. after months of 
wild anti-police demos. We have lost not only Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, and the 
Normalistas but also Remi Fraisse and, last year, Omar Aziz. Dozens of comrades remain in 
clandestinity, while others continue their struggles behind prison walls. These struggles 
range from the protests of rebel prisoners and immigrant detainees in California and 
Indiana, Tacoma and Houston, to the victorious hunger strike waged by Nikos Romanos and 
thousands of comrades across Europe.

Faced with this repression, our response is always revolutionary solidarity. Our support 
is not passive and charitable, but based on continually expanding the terrain of struggle 
against authority and capitalism. We not only continue the subversive projects that the 
state sought to interrupt with an indictment or subpoena, but find new ways to undermine 
the existing order. For us, prisoners are not idols and heroes, but comrades with whom we 
maintain dialogue and a critical perspective. We not only support them, but we count on 
prisoners for their support and ideas. Contact and knowledge of each other are the 
prerequisites for this relationship of solidarity.

From letters to actions, we practice solidarity with prisoners throughout the year in 
order to maintain this contact. Additionally, though, we organize noise demonstrations 
every New Year?s Eve outside the walls of prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers. 
Sometimes these are the facilities where specific comrades are held and sometimes these 
are facilities in which social prisoners and rebels unknown to us have been left to rot. 
Either way, we use our voices, banners, sound systems, instruments, and fireworks to 
remind prisoners that they are never alone. Communication and coordination of our 
rebellious intentions and actions are possible no matter how high the walls. As new 
revolts extend against police, white supremacy, the state and capitalism, it?s more 
possible than ever to spread solidarity with those confined in prison, the place where 
these forms of power meet most violently.

Organize a noise demo in your town or city this New Year?s Eve. Link it to the struggles 
of prisoners but also to your own conditions and struggles. Let?s be sure that those 
detained and charged in the recent uprisings hear our voices, without forgetting those 
who?ve struggled with dignity for long years inside the prisons.

For the spread of revolt that could put an end to domination and exploitation inside and 
out of the prisons,

Some West Coast Anarchists

Alt. Media, Want a festival? Do it yourself (On Canada, Manitoba, Winnipeg's 6th annual anarchist BookFair & DIY Fest happens November 8-10, 2013

Sixth annual Anarchist BookFair and DIY Fest shares skills, ideas, and fun ---- Image 
provided by wpgbookfairdiyfest.com 
http://i1.wp.com/www.themanitoban.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/arts_bookfair-DIY-fest_06nov2013.jpg?fit=600%2C600
---- If we didn?t have leaders, bosses, or managers, how would we ever get anything done? 
---- This weekend?s Anarchist BookFair & DIY Fest proves that you can hold a weekend-long 
festival without falling into typical organizational structures or hierarchies. ---- While 
the festival is in its sixth year, it has a very loose organizational structure. It 
doesn?t have an annual date or time, and past festivals have happened anywhere between May 
and September. ---- This year, as the organizing committee lost members and energy, it 
looked like it might not happen at all. But as new members came forward, the committee was 
invigorated.

?Our organizing team has no established structure, but rather works upon ideas being 
voiced and people volunteering to take on that role. We are not organizing this because it 
will bring in money, but because we wish to see something and act upon it by organizing it 
ourselves,? says Quincy Brandt, an organizing committee member for the BookFair & DIY Fest.

This year?s festival has many offerings, including but not limited to books.

?We have a solid mix of evening entertainment both fun and educational and daytime 
learning opportunities, so I think it?s shaping up to be a really good weekend for anyone 
willing to try it out,? says Tim Brandt, another organizing committee member.

The festival will open with a cabaret on Friday night, followed by a talk and book launch 
by Norman Nawrocki on Saturday night, as well as a later-evening dance party for those who 
choose to dance their way to revolution.

Of course, there will be a BookFair, and out of respect for the November weather, it will 
be entirely indoors this year.

?We?ve had the tables outside every year and withstood some cold days but this year we 
took so long to get going we had to plan for a time that?s just too late to be out there 
so it?ll be the first one entirely inside and we?ll make maximum use of the A-Zone,? says 
Quincy, referring to the Autonomous Zone Co-op building located at 91 Albert Street.

The book tables will wind their way up the stairs from Mondragon, all the way to the top 
level of the building. Quincy commented that they had to make the difficult choice to hold 
the BookFair in a venue that wouldn?t be accessible to all due to time constraints and a 
very ?shoestring budget,? which is mostly based on small donations.

The workshops?held on Saturday and Sunday?are also based on donations of time and 
expertise. They range from the theoretical and ideological, such as Building Class 
Struggle on the Prairies, and Privilege, to practical skills like Plumbing Basics, 
Fermentation Sensation, Screen-Printing, and Intro to Electronics and Soldering.

Other workshops explore local political contexts, from a panel discussion called ?Indians 
Wear Red: Colonialism, Resistance and Aboriginal Street Gangs,? to the politically 
personal topics of consent and Alternative Travel. For those who may crave a cold beer 
after all of this discussion, there?s even An Introduction to Home Brewing workshop ? 
though they?re not promising immediate results.

Tim hopes that besides learning concrete skills, people may be able to take something more 
from these workshops.

?I would love it if some newcomers learned about how terrible the artificial constructs we 
call nation states are to the planet,? said Tim, adding ?how much better we?d all be if we 
stopped being obsessed with monetary wealth and things, and just learned to live free and 
simply!?

While some of the evening events are on a sliding-scale or pay-what-you-can basis, most of 
the other daytime events, including the BookFair and workshops, are free, and the 
organizers invite everyone to come and see what DIY and Anarchist organizing is all about:

?[The Anarchist BookFair & DIY Fest is the only annual festival in town that offers 
everything for everyone without any corporate sponsors whatsoever!?

For the full events listing, visit http://wpgbookfairdiyfest.com. The Anarchist BookFair & 
DIY Fest will be held from Nov. 8-10 at the A-Zone, (http://a-zone.org/news/632/)

(en) Britain, Alt. Media, Anarchy in the UK: anarcho-syndicalists score victory

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the British Government was wrong to force those without 
jobs to work for nothing in order to continue receiving unemployment benefit. The ruling 
arose after two students, Cait Reilly and Jamie Wilson, who had been made to work in this 
way, challenged the legality of the schemes. The Solidarity Federation , the 
anarcho-syndicalist union, had been at the forefront of the nationwide campaign, involving 
picketing of businesses, against these workfare schemes. Other organisations, specifically 
Boycott Workfare , have also played a prominent role in the campaign. All in all, the 
ruling equates to a major victory for the unemployed and a kick in the teeth for the Tory 
Government. Moreover, legal experts believe every single person who was discriminated 
against in this way ? we are talking hundreds of thousands ? is entitled to financial 
compensation.

Sol Fed spent 18 months picketing companies ? mainly retail chains and charities ? who 
have been exploiting the unemployed by paying them little or nothing. It was a solid 
campaign encompassing the entire country, requiring dedication and hard work. In the end, 
all that hard work paid off and those involved are to be congratulated.

According to the group, Public Interest Lawyers, which represented Reilly and Wilson??The 
effect of the judgment is that all those people who have been sanctioned by having their 
jobseeker?s allowance withdrawn for non-compliance with the Back to Work Schemes will be 
entitled to reclaim their benefits. And until new regulations are enacted with proper 
Parliamentary approval nobody can be compelled to participate on the schemes.?

Cait Reilly was made to stack shelves in Poundland for two weeks, and Jamie Wilson was 
stripped of his Jobseeker?s allowance for 6 months after refusing to participate in a 
scheme which required him to work 30 hours a week for six months for free.

Government fights back

But it hasn?t taken long for the humiliated government to get forced unpaid work back on 
the road again, promising a ?short sharp shock?. The Government is currently rushing 
through regulations which mean that these schemes may become mandatory. Meanwhile, since 
the ruling the Work Programme, Work Experience, Sector Based Work Academies, Community 
Action Programme and Trailblazer schemes are all now illegal. However, it is assumed the 
companies and charities involved in the workfare schemes will continue with them until 
instructed not to, and for this reason picketing continues. Source: Boycott Workfare & 
Solidarity Federation.

Firms pulling out of the schemes

The Children?s Society announced this week they would no longer take part in the Mandatory 
Work Activity scheme. This follows the decision of SENSE to pull out, whilst the YMCA are 
believed to be considering their position. They join Scope, British Heart Foundation, 
Cancer Research UK, Shelter, Oxfam, Age UK and Marie Curie, who have all made announcement 
rejecting forced unpaid work. Sadly some charities are not so ethical. Whilst Marie Curie 
were one of the first charities to abandon workfare, the similar charity, Sue Ryder are 
unrepentant. This is despite the announcement that sick and disabled claimants can now be 
sent on workfare. The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) have amended their statement to claim 
they will not force people on sickness or disability benefits to work unpaid. However the 
shocking truth is that many sick and disabled claimants are now on mainstream unemployment 
benefits due to the ruthless re-assessments. With no health checks or medical advice prior 
to starting workfare, it will possibly take a tragedy before TCV wake up to what they are 
involved in. Other charities still using workfare include The Salvation Army, despite a 
string of misleading and contradictory statements intended to hide their use of forced 
work. The RSPCA, who are opposed to animals being forced to work in the Circus, have no 
such scruples when it comes to human beings and also happily take unpaid staff on workfare 
schemes. Source: Johnny Void .

http://darkernet.in/more-good-news-work-for-dole-schemes-ruled-illegal-after-anarcho-syndicalist-led-campaign/

Southern-Africa, alt. media, ?It?s better to die than to work for that shit?: interview on the Marikana strike and massacre

Mutiny Zine recently interviewed Jonathan, international secretary of the Zabalaza
Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF), about the police massacre of workers who were on strike
at the Lonmin company?s mines in Marikana in South Africa. For information about ZACF, see
http://zabalaza.net/ ---- Mutiny: Can you give us some background to the strike at
Marikana ? how long has it been going on for, what are the strikers? demands, what are the
conditions like in the mines? Is this all related to the state of the mining industry in
South Africa as a whole? ---- Jonathan: The Marikana strike began on 10 August 2012 when 3
000 rock drillers initiated a wildcat strike to demand a pay increase from in the region
of R4 000 to R12 500 a month (the top three managers at Lonmin earned R44.6 million in one
year). This, however, should not be seen as an isolated incident ? strikes, often wildcat
ones, in pursuit of higher salaries and better conditions have been ongoing across South
Africa?s platinum belt.

Conditions on the mines are so bad that even the Minister of Trade and Industry has
described them as ?appalling?. Not only are workers subjected to extreme exploitation, but
they often also suffer oppression and domination at the hands of mine management, foremen,
supervisors and security. This is particularly true for black mine workers. High levels of
security at the mines mean that workers are constantly under surveillance by security
guards and CCTV cameras, are subjected to iris scans on entering the premises and
humiliating body searches on leaving.

In addition to the oppression and domination that mineworkers routinely face, working
conditions on the mines are very dangerous and unhealthy. The heavy equipment operated by
mineworkers hundreds of metres underground, in hot and cramped conditions, results in many
workers? hearing being permanently damaged. Workers also often suffer from skin problems
caused by the industrial water, sometimes from reduction works, used for cooling and many
mineworkers develop silicosis from inhaling rock dust caused by drilling. In order to
supplement their basic incomes, many mineworkers are compelled to take risks, which often
lead to accidents, such as working unsafely and extremely long hours in order to try and
get production bonuses ? which make up an important part of many mineworkers? incomes.

So, as these conditions of exploitation, oppression and domination, coupled with the
extremely hazardous working conditions miners face are typical across the sector, I think
it would be safe to say that the Marikana Lonmin strike is ?related to the state of the
mining industry in South Africa as a whole?, although we must remember that the strike
itself arose around specific demands by the rock drillers for pay increases, and was not
linked to struggles at other mines ? although miners from Marikana did later seek to
establish links of solidarity with workers at neighbouring mines.

In addition to their basic salaries of about R4 000 a month, some miners also receive a
housing allowance. These allowances are part of an attempt by management to push workers
out of the hostels, thus into the nearby townships and shanty towns and this could
probably be seen as an attempt to reduce costs in order to recoup profits. One of the main
ways in which bosses attempt to recoup or increase profits, however, is by reducing wage
bills through considerable use of labour brokering and outsourcing (30% of workers
employed at Lonmin?s Marikana mine are outsourced), as workers employed in this way often
earn far lower salaries than their permanently employed colleagues and do not have access
to benefits such as housing allowances and healthcare.

Mutiny: From reading reports of what happened, there seems to be evidence that the
massacre was actually premeditated to some degree by people a fair way up the police chain
of command; as the cops weren?t just armed with live ammunition but had also erected a
razor-wire fence in such a way that it forced strikers to move towards police lines when
they had to retreat from water cannons and tear gas. Is it likely that at least some level
of violence was planned in advance? Beyond the police, what was the role of the African
National Congress (ANC), the ruling party, in the bloodshed? The statement on the massacre
at the Zabalaza website also condemns the ANC youth league and figures like Julius Malema
(the former ANC youth league president, now expelled from the ANC) who have publically
criticised the police ? can you elaborate on this?

Jonathan: The South African Police Service (SAPS) is generally regarded as being
ill-trained when it comes to crowd control, but this cannot account for the August 16th
massacre of 34 striking mineworkers ? some of whom, it later transpired, were shot in the
back while trying to flee, others hunted down and executed as they took refuge in a nearby
boulder field.

Given that the police had stated on the day of the massacre that it was ?D-day? for the
strike, and that the SAPS? elite Special Task Force was deployed, I think it seems fairly
clear that a decision had been taken to break the strike and to protect the bosses?
economic interests and private property using any means necessary. On the 13th of August a
delegation of workers from Marikana were sent to Lonmin?s neighbouring operation at Karee
mine to try and convince workers there to come out on strike as well. On their return the
delegation was shot at by the police, leaving two workers dead. The workers attempted to
defend themselves, resulting in the death of two policemen. Whether or not the level of
violence was planned in advance, or was simply a reaction by the police to the killing of
their colleagues days earlier, police certainly did not dither in using excessive force,
and showed no remorse afterwards.

A number of high-ranking ANC officials and ANC linked families, such as the Mandelas,
Thambos, Zumas etc., also have extensive economic interests in platinum mining companies.
Cyril Ramaphosa (a former NUM leader), for example, not only sits on the board and owns
shares in Lonmin, but has interests in a number of other companies to which various
functions at Marikana are outsourced. Given this, and the climate of ongoing wildcat
strikes and sit-ins across the sector over recent years, it doesn?t seem implausible that
a decision may have been taken to make an example of the striking Marikana mineworkers in
order to intimidate workers and deter them from taking future actions in order to protect
the economic interests of an ANC elite.

The ANCYL and Julius Malema, for their part, have opportunistically used the incident to
publicly criticise the police and current ANC leadership in order to garner support among
workers, try to oust Jacob Zuma from the presidency and have Malema reinstated, as well as
to build support for their demand to have the mines nationalised; supposedly so that
mineworkers and communities surrounding the mines can have a fairer share in the wealth
produced by the mines, but more honestly as a way to amass their own wealth and power
through the positions they desire for themselves in the state.

Mutiny: A few of the mainstream media reports I?ve read have emphasised the clash between
two unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union (AMCU), as a cause of violence. Has this been an important factor or is
it mostly a media beat-up to deflect attention from the violence of the South African
state? Have the unions, especially the NUM, been guilty of collaboration with the bosses ?
if so can you explain how this has been happening? Are the AMCU much better?

Jonathan: Across the sector in general, many of the workers that have undertaken wildcat
strikes and sit-ins have been contract workers, or those hired through labour brokers ?
who sometimes fall outside NUM, which focuses on permanently employed and generally
skilled workers ? who have felt that their interests have not been properly represented by
the deals struck by NUM officials. As such, NUM has been losing membership to AMCU and so
it is possible that at least some of the initial violence was fuelled by recruitment
related rivalry; in the events leading up to the massacre it was reported that three
workers were shot dead by men wearing NUM t-shirts, although it is not clear whether the
gunmen were actually NUM members or just hired to do the job in order to incite union
rivalry and divide workers. It should be noted, however, that the strike at Marikana was
largely self-organised and involved non-unionised workers as well as both NUM and AMCU
members.

The focus on union rivalry and clashes between workers has largely been used to deflect
attention both from the very real and legitimate demands of the workers and the fact that
the strike was largely self-managed, falling outside of the control of officials from both
unions, as well perhaps as to reinforce the image of the police as ?upholders of the
peace? instead of violent defenders of property and profit.

Given the corporatist nature of the NUM ? and Cosatu (the Congress of South African Trade
Unions ? eds) generally ? since 1994, the very existence and maintenance of a bureaucratic
layer of officials lies in collaborating with the bosses. The long-term agreements NUM
officials typically negotiate tie workers to fixed wages for long periods, leaving
dissatisfied workers little recourse but to illegal wildcat strikes and sit-ins. NUM
officials have also criticised workers involved in wildcat strikes, which fall outside of
the legal framework and formalised collective bargaining ? where the officials? interests
lie ? and have gone as far as calling for striking workers to return to work, be fired or
arrested.

I would like to stress though that we do not see the NUM itself as the problem and stand
with it against the bosses. The NUM has won massive victories for workers over the years,
playing a decisive role in breaking the classical apartheid mining system. Without the NUM
conditions would be far, far worse. Yet we also realise NUM is increasingly under the
control of highly paid officials, very few of whom still work as miners. So, we also
stress the need for NUM members to enforce workers? control over the union, and to pull
the union back in line with the interests of the workers ? which necessarily includes
questioning the Alliance with the ANC, which is openly allied to the mining bosses.

AMCU might be a bit better than NUM, given that it is independent of the ANC and SACP, but
it certainly isn?t a rank-and-file worker controlled union, and union legality and the
interests of its own bureaucracy prevent it from supporting self-managed direct action by
workers in the form of wildcat strikes and sit-ins.

Mutiny: What are the most recent developments in the strike? I?ve read that the police
have been torturing strikers they have arrested? On August 20 the Mail and Guardian
newspaper quoted a miner saying ?It?s better to die than to work for that shit ? I am not
going to stop striking. We are going to protest until we get what we want. They have said
nothing to us. Police can try and kill us but we won?t move.? Is this type of attitude
widespread or have many workers been intimidated? Has there been much solidarity from
other social movements in South Africa?

Jonathan: Striking miners at Marikana accepted a management pay rise offer of up to 22% ?
a partial victory, although this is still topped up with productivity bonuses ? and went
back to work on Thursday the 20th of August; but unrest and industrial action has spread
across the mining sector since rock drillers initiated the wildcat strike at Marikana six
weeks ago. 190 of the 260 mineworkers arrested at Marikana were reportedly tortured and it
is possible that this, coupled with the difficulty of sustaining a strike without strike
funds, while living in poverty-level conditions, contributed to the workers accepting an
offer less than their original demand.

Similar attitudes to that above are now being expressed by strikers at other mines, but it
remains to be seen as to whether or not they will be able to hold out and sustain their
struggles until victory.

Since the massacre there have been a number of pickets and solidarity demonstrations
around the country. The Marikana Solidarity Campaign was initiated and a solidarity fund
has been established. Due to limited capacity and our own strategic focus we in ZACF,
however, have not participated actively in this campaign, and I therefore cannot comment
accurately as to the composition and orientation thereof.

Mutiny: Could you tell us about other examples of state violence against labour and social
movements in South Africa? Is there a danger of treating the massacre as an extreme,
isolated incident and ignoring these other instances of state violence, as well as the
broader reality of capitalism in South Africa?

Jonathan: Police in post-apartheid South Africa routinely use rubber bullets, tear gas,
stun grenades, armoured vehicles and helicopters against striking workers and community
protestors. Before Marikana, at least 25 striking workers, protestors and children were
killed by state and private forces of repression in South Africa. One of the most
well-known cases, simply because it was dramatically caught on video and broadcast
nationwide, was that of 33-year-old Andries Tatane; beaten and then shot by police during
a service delivery protest in Ficksburg in 2011. In 2009 five striking South African
Municipal Workers Union members were shot and injured and, also in 2009, at least three
people were killed during a widespread strike in the platinum sector, with another three
more killed on the 1st of August 2012, and 20 wounded at the Aquarius Kroondal Mine.

Although Marikana has been the most lethal use of force against civilians by the force of
repression in South African since the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and the end of apartheid,
it is by no means an isolated incident and it would be very dangerous to view it as such.
Although many rightfully recognise the role the police and state play in defending the
economic interests of investors in the mining and other sectors, the position commonly
held ? including by many on the left ? that the state is a neutral entity, and that police
violence is a result of poor training and incorrect leadership is entirely ruinous to the
cause of workers? and popular emancipation. This view fails to recognise the central role
the state and its armed wings play in maintaining capitalism and defending private
property and the economic interests of the ruling elite; the alternative posed thus
usually being state-centric and centred on the notion that the capture of state power by a
workers? party or revolutionary vanguard ? or simply the replacement of a few rotten
apples at the top ? can remould the state into an institution that can be used to serve
the interests of the popular classes, and even as a tool in their struggle for
emancipation. This, of course, reinforces dependency and expectations of salvation from
above, instead of encouraging independence and working class self-confidence to achieve
its own liberation.

Mutiny: Do you have any final comments?

Jonathan: Not really ? just to thank Mutiny for the opportunity to air our views and to
direct readers interested in a more in-depth analysis of Marikana and struggles in the
platinum sector to the ZACF?s Shawn Hattingh?s article What the Marikana Massacre tells
us, from which the response to this interview has drawn heavily.
Related Link:
http://mutinyzine.blog.com/2012/10/14/its-better-to-die-than-to-work-for-that-shit-interview-on-the-marikana-strike-and-massacre/

Bron :  a-infos-en@ainfos.ca

Alt. Media, Jakub Pol?k, doyen of the Czech anarchist scene, dies aged 60

The death has been announced of the veteran anarchist Jakub Pol?k, regarded as the leading
light of the Czechoslovak and later Czech anarchist movement. The founder of numerous
anarchist initiatives and long-time editor of the anarchist paper A-kontra, Pol?k was
perhaps best known for his public ? and at times unpopular ? defence of the Roma
community. ---- At both public rallies and in courtroom debates, Jakub Pol?k was an
unmistakeable presence: his wild, unkempt hair, grey beard and crooked teeth giving him a
slightly wolfish appearance. He was certainly several dozen years older than most of the
young anarchists gathered around him, and became something of a doyen of the anarchist
movement. One of his closest acquaintances was political scientist and fellow anarchist
Ond?ej Sla??lek, who announced his death ? shortly after his 60th birthday - to the media.
He had this to say about his friend.

?Jakub Polak was truly an unchained element. If anyone personified not only anarchism but
anarchy, unleased energy - it was to a great extent him. He was driven by a powerful
refusal to let himself be restrained by any kind of obstacle standing in his path, whether
it was a police cordon or ideas about ideological purity.?

A dissident and member of the underground in communist times, Jakub Pol?k launched
numerous anarchist initiatives after the fall of communism in 1989, quickly becoming
involved with a number of causes he felt passionate about. One was discrimination and
hostility towards the Roma community; hostility that spilled over into acts of wanton
violence in the early 1990s.

One of the most notorious race-related killings in the early years of the independent
Czech Republic was the drowning of the Roma teenager Tibor Danihel by neo-Nazi skinheads
in the town of P?sek in September 1993. Ond?ej Sla??lek says it was largely thanks to
Pol?k?s tireless campaigning that Danihel?s killers were finally put behind bars:
?Back then there was a general tendency to play down the seriousness of such crimes. You
know, that it was just a boyish prank that got out of hand, that the skinheads didn?t
really mean to hurt anybody. I think even the state prosecutor used the word ?boyish
prank?. There was also an attempt by these small town local officials to sweep the whole
thing under the carpet, and the skinheads were initially given suspended sentences. Jakub
got involved with his typical energy and dedication, broke apart the manipulated police
version of events, and after an endless round of appeals managed to get them properly
punished.?

Pol?k?s contemporaries say he was primarily motivated by a sense of justice, something he
believed that was worth fighting for. But he also felt strongly about the freedom of
speech. He defended extremism expert Zden?k Zbo?il after the political science professor
was severely reprimanded by Charles University for inviting far-right extremists to speak
at his class on political extremism. Jakub Pol?k and several left-wingers were also
invited to address the class. Pol?k and others defended Zbo?il?s decision at a time when
he was roundly condemned by academics and politicians including the prime minister of the
time, Milos Zeman.

Pol?k ? who died of cancer ? was honoured in 2001 by the Charter 77 Foundation for his
long battle against prejudice and police apathy in cases of racially-motivated murder in
the Czech Republic.

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca

(en) Swiss, Alt. media, The forgotten history of the libertarian Left (it)

The libertarian movement has been part of Swiss history for 150 years. Marianne Enckell,
archivist at the International Centre for Research on Anarchism in Lausanne, tells
swissinfo.ch about the cradle of anarchy. ---- In 1872, the Jura Federation, a workers?
organisation, provided a meeting place at St Imier for delegates of anti-authoritarian
groups opposed to the centralist policies of the International Workingmen?s Association.
-- Karl Marx had just succeeded in getting Michail Bakunin and other anarchists expelled
from the International. ---- swissinfo.ch: How important was the St Imier congress for the
history of the anarchist movement? ---- Marianne Enckell: One could say that the anarchist
movement started here, even though the 1872 congress was not a specifically anarchist
congress.

It was rather an anti-authoritarian, federalist congress
opposed to the central power of the International Workingmen?s
Association (also known as the First International).

Among the many issues decided on that occasion, the best known and the
most symbolic was the affirmation that the first duty of the proletariat
is the destruction of all political power. The congress also created a
pact of solidarity between the groups represented, based on two
principles: autonomy and federalism.

The thinking behind this was that every person is autonomous and belongs
to a group on a voluntary basis. A group unites with other groups
federally, maintaining its autonomy at all levels. The federation serves
to develop contacts, providing for solidarity in the event of a strike
or an insurrection. At that point they were not yet talking about a
final insurrection.

swissinfo.ch: What role did Michail Bakunin play in this event?

M.E.: The idea of anarchism had existed for about 50 years, for it had
been expressed by Proudhon. But there were no anarchist groups, or an
anarchist movement. The key to the birth of the anarchist movement was
the encounter between Bakunin and the workers in the clock- and
watchmaking industry of the St Imier valley.

At this point Bakunin had a long experience as a revolutionary behind
him: he had been all over Europe and a prisoner in Russia, but he
remained attached to the revolutionary model of the earlier half of the
19th century ? secret brotherhoods and small groups of conspirators.

In 1869, he came to Le Locle to give lectures, and he met the
watchmaking industry workers who were starting to create the first
autonomous resistance groups. These workers wanted to organise
themselves, educate themselves and win better working conditions.

So it was an encounter between a theoretician of revolution and people
just starting to experience the concrete task of organising. And there
was an attraction on both sides. Bit by bit, the Jurassians moved to
anarchist positions, and Bakunin got more interested in practical issues
regarding the workers? movement.

swissinfo.ch: The Jura Federation did not last long. But in Switzerland
the anarchist movement went on, didn?t it?

M.E.: In the first half of the 20th century the centre of the movement
was Geneva, where Luigi Bertoni published the magazine Il Risveglio/Le
R?veil. Before World War One, revolutionary syndicalism also took hold
in French-speaking Switzerland with the F?d?ration des Unions Ouvri?res
(federation of workingmen?s associations).

After the war, new syndicalist groups for direct action were founded. In
Geneva, there was the Ligue d?action du b?timent (construction industry
action league), led by Lucien Tronchet. But from the 1920s on, one of
the main preoccupations of anarchists became the struggle against fascism.

swissinfo.ch: How did the anarchists react to the Spanish Civil War?

M.E.: Lucien Tronchet, who had many useful contacts for getting across
the border under cover, sent trucks with humanitarian aid to Spain.
Under the humanitarian goods, arms were hidden. Tronchet?s Spanish
contacts were asking for arms, but they did not want men, especially men
not ready to fight. That is why the anarchists who went to Spain were
not too numerous. But other volunteers fought in the anarchist columns
and came back with experience not only of war, but of social change and
revolution.

swissinfo.ch: During the Second World War, anarchist activities in
Switzerland were banned. What condition was the anarchist movement in
after 1945?

M.E.: In the early postwar years, the anarchist movement was very weak.
Luigi Bertoni and Fritz Brupbacher, the Zurich doctor who was the
rallying figure of anarchism in German Switzerland, both died. Anarchist
activity was reduced to almost nothing. But the movement got new wind in
1968, as in other parts of the world; indeed perhaps even earlier, in
the Sixties, with the struggle for freedom in Franco?s Spain.

This was a different movement from what it had been before: a movement
of young people, students rather than workers, not a mass movement.
There were generational cycles ? 1968 was a turning-point, then perhaps
the Eighties, with the punk movement, and the Nineties, with the
insurrection of the Zapatistas in Mexico, the beginning of the
anti-globalisation movement and the coming of the internet.

swissinfo.ch: What was the role of women in anarchism?

M.E.: In all the history of the anarchist movement only two emblematic
female figures really stand out: Louise Michel, who fought in the Paris
Commune, and Emma Goldmann, a Russian Jewish immigrant to the US who
promoted the emancipation of women. But there were others, too, less
well known.

There was Virginie Barbet of Lyon, who wrote in newspapers and debated
with Bakunin. She advocated the abolition of the right of inheritance
and the rejection of military service. For some time she took refuge in
Switzerland. Then there was Margarethe Hardegger, a trade unionist, who
advocated birth control and free love. Or Nelly Roussel, a Frenchwoman,
who gave many lectures in Switzerland on the emancipation of women.
There were not many, but they were there.

Andrea Tognina, swiss info.ch
(Translated from Italian by Terence MacNamee)

Bron :  a-infos-en@ainfos.ca