Anarchistic update news all over the world - 10 March 2016
Today's 10 Topics:
1. Germany, FAU-IAA Direct Action #233 - Vicious crackdown on
trade union powers in South Korea (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #258 (Feb) - Main
religious Lower on Israel's security (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - New UNEDIC Convention No
degression allowances (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, Libertarian shapes Athens-Piraeus schools: practical
class solidarity to refugees and migrants (gr) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. wsm.ie: Families Resisting Being Made Homeless for Profit -
DCC & Building Occupied (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. wsm.ie: LUAS workers 'spitting on the constitution says
right wing nut (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. FAU-IAA Direct Action #233 - Ethical exploitation -- FAU
Berlin in conflict with vegan restaurant (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #258 (Feb) - End of free
transport in Nimes (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group macg: 8 March,
International Women's Day - Statement from MACG (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
10. Turkey, The Ayazaga Campus of Istanbul Techical University
(ITU) jihadist fascists with supports of police by Karakök
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Recent months have seen a variety of attacks on trade union powers, and members, in South
Korea ---- South Korea does not immediately spring to mind as a hotbed of union activism,
but it is currently in the grip of a huge conflict between the president of the country
and the main trade union confederation. ---- Conservative leader Park Geun-Hye, who has
been in power since 2013, has been attempting to pass through a raft of changes to the
South Korean labour laws, a move which has caused outcry among the organised labour
movement in the East Asian nation. The strike held on the 16th of December was the 3rd
such action of the year, and brought in the region of 75,000 workers out, from 26
different unions, including those of the major car manufacturers Hyundai and Kia
Motors.The proposed changes to union law are somewhat specific to Korea, but fall in line
with the wider trend toward permanent precarity and insecure work situations within
neoliberal countries.
Traditionally, South Korean workers, particularly those at the huge, family-run
conglomerates that dominate the economy of the country – such as the car manufacturers,
and other industrial giants like Samsung –, could consider themselves as part of the
furniture once in position at a firm, allowed to learn a trade and then progress up the
ranks internally. Since the accession of Ms. Geun-Hye and her ruling New Frontier Party to
power, they have sought to undermine the rights of workers through measures that would
make it easier for companies to fire workers, and would extend the amount of time for
which temporary workers can be employed without a permanent contract from two to four
years. This would effectively allow the major companies – known colloquially as chaebol –
to hire workers as temporary staff, employ them for four years, lay them off and then
subsequently re-hire them for another four years, drastically reducing job security,
decreasing the ability of Korean workers to fight for their rights and handing ever more
power over to the bosses. The changes would also allow bosses to summarily change the
fundamental day-to-day conditions of a worker’s life: how and when they are paid, the
number of holiday days allowed per year. It would also phase in a scheme of cutting wages
once an employee reaches 55 years of age.Unions were understandably angered by these
proposed changes, and have been increasing the level of protest since they were announced.
Strikes have been a major weapon used against the government, with three general strikes
already this year, alongside major street demonstrations on a scale not seen in almost a
decade. The militancy of the strikes, however, has been undermined by the leaders of the
major trade union confederations.
WEAK LEADERSHIP WITH MAINSTREAM UNIONS
The largest confederation, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, has refused to take part
in the strikes, and although it initially also refused to enter talks with the government,
later relented and is now discussing the proposed changes. It is widely known that the
rank-and-file of the union, particularly those working in heavy industry and for the
chaebol companies, oppose the actions of their confederation. The second largest trade
union confederation, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is resolutely behind
the industrial action, and has been co-ordinating it, after their leader was elected by
the membership on a platform of calling a general strike.
The strikes have also been accompanied by protests. Police attacked a demonstration of an
estimated 100,000 workers in Seoul in November, injuring many, including a 69 year old
farmer who was critically injured after being shot at close range by a water cannon. Union
activists have faced persecution and arrest since the demonstration, which was declared
illegal by the government. Han Sang-Goon, the leader of the KCTU, had an outstanding
warrant for his arrest after demonstrations in May were also declared illegal, and later
gave himself in after the Buddhist temple in which he was holed up for almost a month was
surrounded by armed police. He faces up to ten years in prison. Union offices have also
been raided.As the crackdown on trade union activity in South Korea continues, there is
also a growing movement against proposed changes to the country’s history textbooks, which
many union activists are linking in to the current strikes. President Geun-Hye is the
daughter of the former dictator Park Chung-Hee (who was assassinated in 1979) and has been
attempting to replace the history textbooks used in schools with one, government-authored
book, a move which has obvious parallels to the regime of her father. She has also been
behind the jailing of opposition parliamentarians and the banning of an opposition party.
The Teacher’s Union in South Korea, as has been reported on previously in DA, was outlawed
in 2014, as was the union representing civil servants. The trade union confederations, on
the back on the December 16th strikes and demonstrations, are now attempting to broaden
the movement against the president, and continue to call for her to step down.
Meehall Maguire
https://www.direkteaktion.org/233/vicious-crackdown-on-trade-union-powers-in-south
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 2
The new head of Mossad (Israeli secret service) is now known.
This is Yossi Cohen, man who spent thirty years in the Secret Service. This appointment is
the latest as part of a larger movement relayed by the far-right Jewish Home current that
has control of the security and armed forces by the religious one of its pillars. The
presence increasingly important messianic elements to important security functions
beginning to worry observers, especially when we know that most are in favor of Greater
Israel and the active pursuit of colonization.
Chained Duck
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Main-Basse-religieuse-sur-la
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 3
Here is the statement from the commission insecurity and direct solidarity AL on reform
projects Unédic Convention. ---- The government of "left" and "socialist" directed by
Manuel Valls, Hollande has launched an accelerated offensive against the rights of the
working class as a whole. So, having established a draconian state of emergency, and
muzzled the challenge to the COP-21 by measures of exceptions, the government went into
high gear: on one side the outrageous bill attacking Labour code will further increase the
exploitation and insecurity (especially pushing towards the unemployed wage earners who
refuse to work more to please their boss), on the other, the new convention UNEDIC gripe
further rights of the unemployed."
The new convention UNEDIC would indeed simply reintroduce degression of unemployment
benefits, that is to say, roughly, lowering quickly. Without any care for the unemployed
and compensated es unemployed, this measure will obviously have as effect to worsen the
living conditions of asylum seekers and job-es compensated without help them find a job .
Everything went through precarious job center knows that these supposed benefits are meant
in no way to find a job, only to impose most of the time ineffective controls, but mostly
painful and Kafkaesque.
These are also the intermittent-es-es already passed through the mill in 2014 are once
again in the sights of the government, Medef and some collaborators unions.
Fallacious arguments
To change, the government claims that it is because of the historical deficit of the
UNEDIC that this reform is necessary. Again, they are sewn white son of lies that even
very moderate "boxes" of the Monde.fr website easily update:
"The latest figures, dating from 2014, show that contributions from affiliated UNEDIC
(over 16 million in assets) reached 33.94 billion euros, when the compensation cost that
year, 31.26 billion euros. Leaving a balance between premiums collected and benefits paid
positive stoppages 2.68 billion. [1] "
This means that far from being in deficit, UNEDIC is instead one of the few cases of
compensation which is in surplus. The deficit is due to a 10% puncture made by the State
in this budget to finance the "public employment service", including job center, and help
with business creation, and which can rightly challenge the character of "public service".
In short, there still is a deficit created from scratch, which is a pretext for stifling
reform our rights and benefits the employers ... When in reality, it is the insecurity
under the guise of flexibility, that costs us the most expensive. Thanks WHO ? Thank you
"socialists" ...
A comprehensive response
This measure is somehow the twin sister of the law of breakage of the Labour Code. In
addition to attacking the workers at their place of work, it also attacks on their places
of compensation. In response, We need our opposition to these measures join, to deny that
business and their political staff quietly organize asphyxiation of our lives.
This includes mobilizing unemployed workers and more generally all precarious. This of
course goes through all the precarious organizations and applicants / job-seekers who
claim the battle, not the only accompaniment. But this also involves a convergence with
the workers of the public employment services, including job center or CAF whose
conditions also continue to deteriorate. This requires in addition a necessary convergence
with intermittent es among the precarious that mobilize the most.
That said, we must not forget that this can be done only if we mobilize all compensated es
precarious by Pôle Emploi and whose living conditions will directly be impacted.
Finally, this struggle, if it exists, should not and must not only defend the status but
rather status and well raise the question of insecurity in general, its place in the wage
system, and also the legitimacy of capitalism as a system economic…
Insecurity and direct solidarity Commission
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Nouvelle-Convention-Unedic-Non-a
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 4
For over a year the refugee and migration flows are in a constant state of movement in
appalling conditions. In an effort to find life and avoidance of war and economic misery
standing opposite the Greek State and Government of the Left. The anti-immigrant policy,
which applies, accepts and uses the towering fences keep the border presence army and
frontex, creates detention centers as "hosting" sites, maintains reasonable inclusion of
the masses and refoulement of migrants, indifferent to the material living conditions of
people and finally builds to Greece as a stronghold of Fortress Europe against the will of
the displaced people. ---- The last days are a focal point of the refugee issue, since the
closure of the Macedonian border around 35,000 refugees have been blocked in Greece. But
unlike the aspirations of Greek State and the European Union is a social movement that
shows solidarity features to refugees and / on immigrants / behavior shows.
Libertarian schools shapes Athens - Piraeus as part of the student movement protovouliaka
we were in Victoria Square Friday 04/03, shortly after the racist Kaminis statement
calling for evacuation of the square. We aim to distribute food and relief items hygiene
we had gathered the previous days and to help in the organization of world solidarity for
hours bring food, water, clothes and blankets for the refugees. To complement this
mobilization, we posted a banner just above the entrance of electricity on the square and
stuck posters at key passages in the neighborhood giving a stigma practical class
solidarity against right-wing mayors and shopkeepers of the neighborhood.
The student movement must not remain stagnant and inert with respect to the refugee issue.
The world of work within schools should be highlighted as a political demand for renting
space of universities for free housing and feeding refugees under the responsibility of
the universities themselves. We want within schools refugees and immigrants with full
rights, in the same auditoriums where we are and we, although they wish. The student
movement must be put on the main priority practical solidarity to refugees agent policy
and antiracism internationalism through action.
As libertarian Athens schools shapes - Piraeus invite their solidarity and women students
support with their physical presence and their contribution to the action of social
solidarity network tomorrow in the Constitution from 10.00 until 18.00.
• To defend the will of refugees and migrants / three
• Full rights for all / s refugees, immigrants / behavior shows
• Free movement for all and for all. Fall fences Ebro Idomeni
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 5
The families who were being housed in an emergency accommodation facility on 54-55
Mountjoy street and were to be evicted today have been fighting back. Yesterday afternoon
they occupied the DCC offices, demanding that officals talk to them collectively. And this
morning they occupied the buidling they are being evicted from, hanging banners from the
upper floor as a solidarity protest took place below. ---- Yesterday they occupied the
offices of DCC demanding stable accommodation and that DCC negotiate with them
collectively rather than individually. Council officals talked to families but they said
they would only talk if families came in seperately to talk. So families are talking with
officials seperatly but bringing a witness in with them. Then after all have talked all
the families collectively discussed what they will do.
They collectively decided to not accept any of the offers from the council just yet. They
decided to leave DCC to go and talk about it all back in the place they are staying to
talk privately about away from the council. Each family was offered different things, and
all were fairly vague offers.
This morning a protest had been called outside the buildings they were being evicted from.
Shortly after the protest began they occupied the building and hung a banner from the top
floor.
[Background details] http://www.wsm.ie/c/election-2016-beyond-five-year-scratch-ration
http://www.wsm.ie/c/familites-resisting-homeless-building-occupied
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 6
George Hook doesn't take kindly to workers standing up to a multi-billion euro company for
a bigger slice of the astronomical profits that those workers themselves generate. ----
LUAS workers are currently demanding better pay and conditions in the form of increased
leave, overtime pay, increased lump sum payments to family members in case of death at
work, pensions and bonuses. The cost of these is estimated to be around €3.5 million over
a 5 year contract, which is dwarfed by Transdev's 2014 revenues, coming in at €6.6 billion
globally. ---- That doesn't sound unreasonable considering that these same workers, and
the 83,000 other Transdev employees like them around the world are the ones who generate
this revenue. ---- Workers say they plan to strike on a number of days including St.
Patrick's Day and during the 1916 Centenary state celebrations which has got George in a
huff. He went so far as to say the workers were 'spitting on the constitution' and that
they (somehow) 'owed their jobs' to the 1916 rebels.
George recommends a solution. Fire everyone, just like the great right wing icon Ronald
Reagan did in 1981 with the PATCO air traffic control workers. That incident was a
watershed moment in the class war in the US. According to Alan Greenspan, (Federal Reserve
chairman in 2003) employers took it as a signal that they could engage in these aggressive
anti-working class tactics too.
Any attempts by the working class to claw back some of the wealth stolen from us by
capitalists must be supported. Some anti-striker propaganda seen recently attempts to
drive a wedge between these strikers and less well paid workers in a 'you should be happy
with what you get', kind of argument but we should reject and counter that propaganda.
During this time of increasing working class militancy, we must ensure that any effort by
our class to secure better pay and conditions, emergency housing, better healthcare, etc.
must be defended and supported. If we are going to build a better world, we had better
remember who our real enemies are, and they aren't the striking LUAS workers.
http://www.wsm.ie/c/luas-workers-spitting-constitution-says-right-wing-nut
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 7
Another month, another case of exploitation and abuse in the gastronomy sector. This time
the story takes place in the vegan pizzeria Sfizy Veg, located in Berlin’s fashionable
Neukölln district, an establishment where left-wing symbolism and syndicalist literature
hangs on the wall without a hint of irony or shame. The restaurant’s Facebook page proudly
displays its vegan credentials and the occasional call-to-arms over some climate change
issue or other. The website proclaims their principles of “political engagement, animal
rights and environmental awareness”. There is, of course, a flippant throwaway comment
about not serving Nazis; antifascist action now apparently consisting of refusing to serve
boneheads a thin crust, meatless pizza. Right on, comrades.
Behind the facade of comradeship and solidarity, however, there exists a climate of
exploitation and intimidation. The boss, happy to enjoy the profits generated by an
establishment which presents itself as alternative, left wing and ‘different’, is equally
happy to abuse and publicly humiliate his staff when he feels his authority has in some
way been undermined. This attitude, inevitably perhaps, led to a confrontation with a FAU
member who worked in the kitchen, a situation which resulted in the worker and a
colleague’s dismissal.FAU’s struggle with Sfizy Veg is ongoing, with allegations made of
not only verbal harassment and humiliation but also of physical altercations and
intimidation. The boss, of his own admission, would spy on workers during their shift from
afar and without their knowledge, desperate as he is to control every aspect of the lives
of those positioned below him within the hierarchy and structure of his restaurant. Two
workers, one of them a FAU member, are now without the means to provide for themselves due
to minor infractions.
During a particularly busy shift, one worker was observed not immediately answering the
phone by her boss, who was skulking in the shadows outside the restaurant in order to
observe his employees. The worker was the only member of the waiting staff working during
this busy period, as the boss typically liked to reduce the numbers of employees working
each shift in order to save money. After humiliating her in front of the kitchen staff,
she was sacked. After a member of the kitchen staff pointed out that it would be
impossible to continue operating the restaurant with literally no waiting staff to take
the food to the customers, he too was sacked following another boisterous
confrontation.This isn’t the first time in recent months FAU Berlin has found itself in a
conflict with an establishment that is supposedly sympathetic to the principles of
anarchism or working class solidarity. Time after time, restaurants and bars which purport
to be left-wing, vegan or in some other way anti-establishment prove themselves to be
anything but exclusively concerned with maintaining and increasing their profit margins.
For these places and the people that run them, the left-wing or vegan market is merely the
niche that they have chosen to gain money, just like a man who runs a sports bar hopes to
profit from a subscription to Sky Sports television channels and the steady stream of
weekend football fans. In a city such as Berlin, with its longstanding traditions of
political activism and general ‘otherness’, this is symptomatic of a much wider and more
pervasive problem. Proud principles of antifascism, working class solidarity and anarchism
are continually appropriated by capitalists looking to cash in on the left wing market.
Murals of Che Guevara overlook customers consuming their recently purchased ‘ethical’
meal, while the cash registers chime their bells in the background, overflowing with cash.
The commodification of dissent is alive and well in the city of Berlin.
Foreigners’ Section Berlin
https://www.direkteaktion.org/233/ethical-exploitation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 8
On 7 December 2015, the Committee of the Nîmes area responsible for transport, has
endorsed the end of free transport for those who could benefit.
Thousands of young people and retirees will be affected by the decision-es closing
parenthesis in the organization of transport in the city, which were, for once, a genuine
public service. There are still many cities which have experimented with free in transport
for the benefit of each and every one, showing that far from being a utopia this system is
quite viable.
Solidaires 30
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Fin-de-la-gratuite-dans-les
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 9
Dear Comrades, The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group has released a statement on the
occasion of International Women's Day:
https://melbacg.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/international-womens-day-2016/ ---- In
Solidarity, ---- Ablokeimet ---- for MACG. ---- It’s time for women and the working class
to organise and emancipate. ---- International Women’s Day is a day when the women’s
movement around the world celebrates social, political and other achievements of women. It
is also a good day for women to take a closer look at the oppression that flourishes
through the double bondage of capitalism and patriarchy, and which is still an unfortunate
and undeniable reality for the majority of women today. ---- Women’s oppression has lots
of forms, perhaps a sexist boss, partner or a comrade. As anarchists we have a lot of work
to do before there is equality in gender and sexual relations, both in our own lives and
in the wider community of which we are a part.
The struggle for female emancipation belongs to militant self-organising women. Women’s
struggle against the patriarchy must has to be both anti-state and anti-capitalist. State,
capital and patriarchy nourish one another by supporting bosses who exploit women and
fragment women’s resistance.
Mobilisations on 8 March, like those on other days, must challenge empty liberal notions
of gender equality within a generalised system of inequality. This is a day of resistance
against all forms of oppression.
In the regions of Turkey and Kurdistan women are participating in a long struggle against
the fascistic Turkish regime, against theocratic totalitarianism of the so-called “Islamic
State” and against patriarchy. The revolution in the autonomous regions of Kurdistan,
despite misgivings about the implications of the alliance of the YPG-YPJ with US
imperialism, is a living example of militant self-organisation of women for social autonomy.
We call on working women all over the world to join this fight, to make this day a day of
resistance. We honour the murdered women whose bodies were dragged in the streets as
trophies of the enemy.
The women in Kurdistan inspire us in our struggle here and everywhere for emancipation and
freedom.
https://melbacg.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/international-womens-day-2016/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 10
The Ayazaga Campus of Istanbul Techical University (ITU) has recently witnessed the
efforts of jihadist fascists groups with supports of police and private security forces
aiming that turn the campus into their propaganda place. Today, the private security
forces with policemen raided the classrooms under pretext of ID checking at around 12
o’clock, just before the calling of revolutionist and anarchists students for press
release at 12.30. ---- The students reacted to this police raid and Id checking and asked
for them to show their identity as a response. During the brawl between the students and
security forces, some of the students were taken into custody by policemen. ---- When the
rest of students tried to gathered to protest these custodies, the security forces
attacked to the students and they caught some of them and handed them over the policemen.
During this attacked the members of private security shouted at the students: “We cut off
your head”.
Right now, inside and outside of university is under siege by police and anarchist and
revolutionary students are still in the middle of blockade.
To scrape fascism from the minds and the schools
Long live our Anti-fa struggle!
Istanbul Anarchy Initiative
https://karakok.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/the-ayazaga-campus-of-istanbul-techical-university-itu-has-recently-witnessed-the-efforts-of-jihadist-fascists-groups-with-supports-of-police-and-private-security-forces-aiming-that-turn-the-campus/
