Today's 5 Topics:
1. FAU-IAA Direct Action #233 - A textbook example of direct
action -- Another decisive victory for FAU Berlin in the ongoing
struggle in the exploitative gastronomy sector (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #258 (Feb) - Racism:
Explosion Islamophobic acts of terrorism to the other (fr, it,
pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - CLASH, We will not be
the flesh bosses! (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Canada, Common Cause Ontario dissolve - Struggle Changes
Everything by Timmybauld (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. wsm.ie: Book Review: Kristin Ross Communal Luxury: The
Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune by Tom Murray
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Germany’s capital city is no stranger to migrant worker exploitation, and perhaps within
no other industry this is more evident than the gastronomy sector. Every year thousands of
migrant workers arrive in the city, hoping to find secure and dignified employment and to
earn a decent wage. Many of them will find themselves waiting the tables or working within
the kitchens of the restaurants that profit so well from the city’s status as a major
tourist destination. But in these restaurants working conditions are often precarious,
with workers facing long shifts, low pay and contracts worth less than the paper they’re
written on. ---- FAU Berlin once more found itself in the midst of such a struggle, as the
popular and centrally located Cancún restaurant attempted to withhold outstanding wages
and holiday pay of a union member. What followed was a textbook example of direct action,
resulting in a conclusion that was to the affected worker’s satisfaction; another victory
for the FAU in what has been a successful few months.
This FAU member had been working in Cancún restaurant for almost nine months, between
October 2014 and July of the following year, before eventually choosing to leave his place
of employment. There was a constant stream of issues, including problems with being paid
on time (or in full), working hours that were inconsistent and irregular and employees
that were often treated with absolute contempt by the owner and his management staff. One
waitress had a mug of hot chocolate slapped from her hand due to its incorrect preparation
and was sacked on the spot. FAU claimed on behalf of its member a small four-figure amount
– peanuts to a thriving restaurant in the centre of Germany’s capital, but a significant
sum for the worker. It consisted mainly of absolutely indisputable unpaid payments for
holiday leave.The comrade had been working under the conditions of a zero-hour contract –
perhaps familiar to readers from the UK, the US or Finland – meaning he was not guaranteed
a minimum number of hours to work per month.
Written into the contract was an indemnity of 1000 Euros if a worker were to quit without
at least two weeks’ notice. The member tried to quit on multiple occasions and was
ignored. In response, and apparently as a punitive measure, he got his hours cut. The FAU
itself tried on several occasions, both in spoken and written form, to present the claims
of its member. Jeanette Shek and Badol A. Shek, managers of the restaurant, denied ever
having received a letter.In response to this, ten members of the union visited Mr Shek in
October at the restaurant with another letter, placing it directly in his hands in front
of a room full of customers and his staff. His reaction was one of incredulity, and he
even attempted to order one of his underling managers to lock the doors and seal the FAU
members into the restaurant. This tactic did not bear fruit. It was clear to the FAU
members present that there was no further option but to escalate the struggle.
AROUND 40 PEOPLE PICKET IN FRONT OF THE CANCUN RESTAURANT.
TACTICAL ESCALATION, DECISIVE VICTORY
A couple of weeks later, around 40 people – members of the FAU and others – gathered
outside Cancún restaurant to picket the customers and employees and raise a general
awareness of the working conditions within the establishment. When the FAU members arrived
they were not alone. Badol Shek had gathered together a group of counter-demonstrators and
scabs, whomever he had at his disposal (numbering around fifteen or twenty), in an attem
pt to intimidate the assembled demonstrators. Despite this attempt, the picket was a
complete success, with passers-by and customers alike drawn to the spectacle. FAU members
handed out flyers and leaflets to leave the audience with no doubt as to the meaning of
what they were seeing.
With onlookers stopping to talk and discuss the issues with the assembled FAU members and
associates, the managers of Cancún restaurant could see that their situation was only
worsening with each passing minute. After another half an hour, they sent out
representatives with over a thousand euros to pay the worker. They had been utterly
humiliated, and to be defeated so publically and on their own doorstep was truly a marvel
to behold. Although the victory was a decisive, the struggle within the gastronomy
industry is an ongoing one. Working conditions in Berlin are precarious at the best, but
restaurant owners in particular know that for every dissenting worker there are twenty
others ready to step in and replace them, desperate to earn a living. Direct action in
this instance has once more produced the goods, and it is up to us to continue to act
collectively to continue thwarting capitalistic exploitation of workers wherever it exists.
Foreigners’ Section Berlin
https://www.direkteaktion.org/233/a-textbook-example-of-direct-action
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Message: 2
After November 13, as against January 2015 racist loosen. Mosques burned searches, that
toast? First, Muslim and Muslims, and those who are assimilated es are, by their skin
color, their last name or where they live. ---- If the ransacking of the prayer hall of
Ajaccio on December 25 shocked and was widely publicized, it is indeed a tree that hides
the forest. Perhaps because it implied an impressive crowd, perhaps because of the
attraction for a "Corsican question" that sells the media there are much more interested
than dozens of other Islamophobic attacks identified since November 13. These Islamophobic
acts, there are all kinds: lynching of a young man in the streets of Lyon by a group of
fascists, tags and damage to places of worship, direct threats to individuals or groups ...
The opportunity to confirm that Islamophobia is a form of racism . Those who attacked the
Shrine of Ajaccio explained when speaking of their victims that it was necessary to make
them understand that "they are not at home." Madmen extreme right have the same night of
November 13, attacked and burned the Calais jungle directly to the refugees living there.
And on the mosques and places of worship, which is tagged evidence of racist, anti-Semitic
and fascist (swastikas ...) or simply xenophobic ( "outside"). If Muslims and Muslim are
the first target, it is the entire immigrant population or identified as such that is,
through them and they referred by the actions and speech of a disconcerting confusion.
It is also an opportunity to see the sad treatment of these acts: the media and political
power tend to portray them as isolated events, and refuse to seek their causes in the
policies for years. Faced with the vile acts of Daech, we speak of terrorism; but when the
violence just as blind, striking at random without identified victims are from fascist
splinter groups, and are called by the far-right press in the name of "self-defense", the
term is not mobilized. This is yet much the same logic: to sow fear among the population
identified for the force to invisibility, while spreading an ideology of hatred that
obscures any possibility of dialogue or analysis.
Racism from above
These acts are encouraged and legitimized by the violence with which the state itself
treats those identified as Muslim, let alone under the state of emergency: when you see
the police destroy the apartments, stop arbitrarily and insult humble, nothing surprising
that you feel free to give vent to the hatred of the other. And the deprivation of
nationality project for those who enjoy dual nationality only reinforces an amalgam
between terrorism, Islam and foreigners too far, while the perpetrators of the November
killings were all well and truly French.
The state is mistaken target and, pretending combat terrorism, fueling the fear and hatred
while trying to justify his own survival. More than ever, against the government, its
armed wing and complicit media, it is our duty to show our solidarity with all those who
find themselves stigmatized and threatened, and build self-help and self-management. Know,
think together, generate meeting and fellowship space (real, not that of a dying
republic), are the best ways to defend themselves.
Clem (AL Paris-Nord-Est)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Racisme-Explosion-des-actes
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Message: 3
On March 24, the bill attacking the Labour Code will be presented to Cabinet. This
scandalous project has already caused a strong mobilization on social networks and strike
calls are multiplying. Against this law that condemns us to a precarious life, youth must
be at the rendezvous! ---- the Labour Code already enjoy a plethora bosses to exploit the
growing wage earners... but it also offers some protections that were won by the
struggles. Now the government wants to break this code work for the bosses we can exploit
more. ---- The precarious for us, profits for them! ---- their reform is first make
redundancies cheaper and easier for the bosses! companies can lay off even if they make
profit and compensation for dismissed employee-es-es-es will be dropped.
it is also their reform work days which can climb to twelve hours and weeks of work sixty
hours. the minimum daily rest time may be re- duced. Overtime will be paid much less.
CLASH - we will not be the flesh bosses!
their reform is also sauté limitations to working time apprentices. It's allow the
questioning of days leave in case of death of a loved one... the list is long!
When the government says that this reform will create jobs, he lies. Rather than hiring,
employers will work more those who have a job thanks to these measures... and those who
refuse will be transferred! During that time, the French capitalists are doing very well:
in 2015, French companies have distributed 47 billion euros to shareholders!
Our future is at stake, go on the offensive!
At a time when more than one e-four young people is unemployed, and when we begin to work
with rotten galleys and contracts, we can not accept to be precarious for life! We are the
future workers and it is our future that is at stake today!
10 years ago, a bill that précarisait youth (the CPe) was left facing the youth
mobilization, blocking facs and high schools, along with wage earners on strike. This is
the time of show the government that the youth was not asleep.
Let's talk about around us organize general meetings and any and all be in the streets on
March 9!
Photo: cc stone chatel
Image format for social networks:
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Nous-ne-serons-pas-de-la-chair-a
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Message: 4
The key to finding the proper organizational structure is to avoid “organization for the
sake of organization.” Specific anarchist organizations must always be linked to the
concrete struggles and needs of our class, and should never outlive their usefulness. They
must be flexible, and adaptive to the ebbs and flows of material conditions. ---- […]
Organization is simply a vehicle, or structure for sharpening our praxis collectively. As
the Batko Group succinctly put it […] “form is always dependent on the capacity of
initiative.” ---- Charted and Uncharted Territories: Common Cause and the Role of the
Anarchist Organization - Mortar Volume 2. ---- On Sunday March 6th 2016, members of Common
Cause Ontario unanimously voted to dissolve as an organization. As revolutionaries and
anarchist communists, we remain united in our belief that political organizations are
necessary vehicles for collectively sharpening political analysis and practice.
Common Cause has been invaluable to our membership in this regard. We are proud of the
work we have accomplished in the past nine years, but this time has not been without
challenges. Both the accomplishments and hardships that emerged from our organization have
shone light on what it is that our members wish to pursue, as well as leave behind, in
future political organizations dedicated to the self-emancipation of the working class. It
is because of the invaluable lessons that we have learned through Common Cause that we
know that it is time to move on, and we all have a better idea of in what direction that
should be.
We sincerely thank our comrades and wish each other all the best.
Written by every member of every branch of Common Cause Ontario
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Message: 5
Kristin Ross has written a beautiful, inspirational account of the life and afterlife of
the Paris Commune and of the everyday communards who brought it to fruition. ----
“Communal Luxury” takes as its subject matter the Paris Commune of 1871, one of the single
greatest advances toward a free society ever attempted in human history. The Commune arose
in the course of a devastating war between France and Prussia (Germany), with the French
army’s defeat prompting the collapse of the imperialist, authoritarian French regime. The
people of Paris organised their own defence, bought their own cannons, and refused to hand
said cannons over to the new French Republic. Instead, staging a worker-led insurrection,
they declared Paris to be liberated from both the French and Prussian forces and set about
constructing a free society, one in which all comers participated in decision-making and
all wealth was shared in common. The Commune lasted some 72 days in the spring of 1871
before being brutally crushed by the reactionary forces of Nation, Church, State and
Capital. Some 25,000 men, women, and children were executed.
Traditionally, most writers on the Left who describe the Commune do so in order to show
how it conformed to Marxist or Anarchist accounts of how a social revolution might be put
into effect. Marx’s ‘Civil War in France’ is the perfect example of this. Here, Marx is
arguably at his most anarchist, insisting that the working class cannot simply lay hold of
the state machinery as is, but must set about destroying the state and replacing it with
small-scale, communal units of decision-making. In place of electing representatives, the
Communards used a system of delegates. That is, the people of Paris decided what policy to
adopt in a neighbourhood assembly and then entrusted a delegate to convey their collective
decision to the regional or city council. If a delegate failed to convey or implement
their decision, the people of the neighbourhood assembly could revoke his or her mandate
and appoint another. The actual existence of such a system of direct democracy, and its
successful operation in meeting day-to-day needs, provided a shining example to workers of
what was possible through collective self-organisation and cooperation. Communism lay just
beyond the barricade…or did it?
Much subsequent writing, Ross argues, framed the Commune in terms of anarchism versus
Marxism, peasant versus worker, Jacobin revolutionary terror versus anarcho-syndicalism,
and so on. The problem is that these accounts tend to overlook actual day-to-day life in
the Paris Commune during its short lifespan, particularly the lived experience and ideas
of those ordinary/extraordinary men and women who brought it into being. Communard
thought, Ross claims, has historically received little attention. So…have you heard of
Elisée Reclus, André Léo, Paul Lafargue, or Gustave Lefrancais? Or Marie Verdure and Elie
Decoudray who organised a new model of popular creches and schools throughout Paris’s
working-class districts? (In order to keep children’s minds active, everything to do with
religion was removed and replaced with pictures and sculptures of real objects, including
trees, animals and bird aviaries). Or the shoemaker Napoléon Gaillard who turned
barricade-making into an art form, posing for photographs in front of his latest creations?
Ross’s book shifts the spotlight away from critical and laudatory theorists towards the
Commune’s chief organisers and misfits themselves, and their own developing thoughts and
ideas. More than that, she shows how the Commune transformed the common sense (or ideas,
or ‘theories’) of those involved, and of subsequent generations of activists across Europe
and North America. For Ross, theory or dreams do not prompt actions; rather the actions of
the Communards themselves transformed and expanded people’s imaginations. The Commune,
above all, was a laboratory of political invention where people set about improvising the
free organisation of social life according to principles of association and cooperation.
Or as Marx put it, the Commune’s success lay in its ‘working existence’.
The idea of ‘Communal Luxury’ is taken from the Federation of Artists Manifesto (April
1871), a free association of artists - professional, amateur, industrial designers and
workers – who declared ‘We will work cooperatively toward our regeneration, the birth of
communal luxury, future splendours and the Universal Republic’. A political culture of
‘communal luxury’ rejected both the bourgeois republic’s opulent class living on the
labour of others as well as the state socialist projects’ living by the drab repression
and administration of individuality. Communal luxury, Ross claims, meant that Communard
artists such as Eugene Pottier saw the need to de-privatise art and beauty, to interweave
them into everyday life, and to make happiness available to all. As Communard Elisée
Reclus put it, the Commune proposed ‘a more superior ideal…a new society in which there
are no masters by birth, trade, title of wealth, and no slaves by origin, caste or
salary’. The Commune was not bound by time or space – to Paris or to the spring of 1871 -
but meant the unleashing of ‘a new humanity, made up of free and equal companions,
oblivious to the existence of old boundaries, helping each other in peace from one end of
the world to the other’.
Long after its bloody repression then, the Commune lived and lives on. And not simply in
memory. Ross traces how Communard exiles and refugees in England and Switzerland met up
and worked with supporters and fellow travellers such as Marx, Peter Kropotkin, and
William Morris, inspiring them and changing their lives and their thinking. The Paris
Commune helped unleash creative energies across Europe. Ross, in particular, looks at how
what Reclus called ‘solidarity’, Morris called ‘fellowship’, and Kropotkin ‘mutual aid’
was not so much a moral or ethical position as a political strategy. For these thinkers,
the political culture of the Commune suggested two far-reaching but necessary
transformations: collective ownership of land and industry as well as collective creation
of regional self-sufficiency and decentralised decision-making.
The book has a couple of weaknesses. Ross is a professor of comparative literature so the
language is bit flowery and academic at times. This is doubly problematic because the term
"political imaginary" is a bit too all-encompassing and never very precise on details.
Hence, we are never exposed to the theoretical or strategic debates among the Communards
themselves. All this tends to be overlooked in favour of emphasising Communards'
improvisation ahead of their political ideologies. (The two can never be as neatly
separated as Ross suggests). Also, the claim to recapture the Communards’ cultural history
is probably overstated. The concluding third of the book is devoted to more familiar
theorists such as Marx, Kropotkin and Morris. The discussion of their ideas is fantastic,
particularly their relevance to contemporary concerns about environmental collapse. But it
would have been equally interesting to check back in on the working class of Paris and
their collective after-thoughts. That said, history from below is demanding in terms of
finding source material so we should probably be glad of the everyday narratives from the
opening chapters rather than lament their absence in the concluding pages.
Our world is not the world of the Communards. Nor does the Commune provide us with
ready-made ‘lessons’ for us to learn. All that said, we have seen, after 2011, the return
of groups occupying city centres and squares – from Istanbul to Madrid, Cairo to Oakland
–in order to attempt decentralised and participatory ways of doing democracy and
anti-capitalism. As we live in the ruins of both capitalist and state socialist
modernisation projects, the Paris Commune – the political culture and ideas of the
ordinary men and women who created it – proposes a democratic, ecological, and communal
future instead.
Communal Luxury provides a really interesting and enjoyable discussion of the Communards'
lives and afterlives, including their ongoing relevance and inspiration. It’s well worth a
read.
by Tom Murray
http://www.wsm.ie/c/book-review-kristin-ross-communal-luxury-political-imaginary-paris-commune
