Today's 5 Topics:
1. Czech, afed.cz: China Prague - A brief report from the
demonstration against the visit of Chinese President. [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Britain, SolFed: Jimmy's dispute spreads to Bath +
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, Dartford, Kinder Sports campaign school picket
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Czech, afed.cz: 1871 - The Paris Commune [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. New Zealand, awsm.nz: Tamaki Housing Action
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
On Tuesday, 29. 3. 2016, held a demonstration against the visit of Chinese President.
Given that the event was organized by former Minister Martin Bursik and other people
around the "Prague cafés" could be expected that in any case will not be a purely leftist,
let alone anarchist event. Yet they, as anarchists, anti-fascists and antifašistky,
attended the protest. ---- Get Kampa, where demonstrations began, was due to closures
police Lesser bit more complicated than we originally expected, yet around 14.30 we arrive
at the place. Even from a distance can be seen the huge red linens with yellow stars, here
and there, interspersed with Czech flags of the same size, in the hands of paid
"welcoming" on one side of the street. Given the size of the flags must supporters of
President Xi to struggle with wind into them from time to time resting, causing somewhat
humorous impression.
On the other hand, there is a flood of Tibetan flags and various pickets of drawing
attention to human rights violations. A few minutes later, when we were still among the
parties is only a few members of anti-conflict team, there is a verbal skirmishes with
Chinese representations (some present, however, speaks fluent Czech, insults handle
particularly well). They are chanting the slogans such as "Free Tibet" , "Free China," or
"We recognize Taiwan" (but in whom the anarchists not recognize borders and nations do not
add). After a while the crowd emerges giant paper banner with black and white Mao Zedong
described red Chinese characters and then ritually torn and discarded. The onlookers
"communists," it evokes a wave of indignation and already tense atmosphere intensifies.
That was on the sidewalk bench Group "cap-makers" and then the cordon of riot police (some
of which are fitted with plastic shields), which is accompanied by witty songs Imperial
March from Star Wars , which he pobroukávají some of the participants "our"
demonstrations. For a while riot police after entering a number of police vans, so the
theater on the other hand, we can not even see.
After several speeches, but they are not heard farther than a few meters, we set out a
march towards the Prague Castle. From beginning to live kept on shouting and waving
Tibetan, Taiwanese and Uighur flags. To our delight, however, they appear in a parade and
flag Antifascist Action. The march is accompanied by the usual row of policemen in
plainclothes and a group of nationalist-looking gentlemen in infantry boots, of which
unfortunately do not know if they are with us or against us (one of them later on the
phone indicates that the site "is that the substance of leftist " ). The Lesser Town
Square convened by someone "Dude, Kalousek" - and indeed, the former minister will also
live with the participants and offered drinking beer from a two-liter plastic bottles. Man
of the people. When the procession cordon of policemen stopped in front of Prague Castle
(apparently, despite duly reported to the Assembly needs expressed by the magistrate) puts
heroically forehead and a Tibetan flag in his hand, seeks passage. According to some
theories drunk, we proclaim "Just go through" and "We've got to do it right" . When he
gets thunderous applause, it is clear to us that this is not an event for us, and we leave
the mob toward the Clinic, where we find much friendlier environment. Later we learn that
visited the place and punk Schwarzenberg, so we fled at the right moment.
Although our overall impression of this day largely negative and as the anarchists were
among the worshipers of Vaclav Havel in a clear minority, is important to confront all
forms of oppression, whether it is "our home" xenophobes and fascists, or (foreign)
authoritarians of all kinds.
Related links:
Game of the flag of the European class
Video: Publication of Tibetan flags on European street
Chinese president welcomed the protests. Police detained a photographer DR
Another trick welcoming the Chinese president: a series of demonstrations fictitious
investments or have not arrived yet, and already in the Czech Republic begins to Chinese
restrictions on freedom of speech?
Welcoming Xi Jinping
Famous Chinese investment is not worth Vlasak with a roll
Czech-Chinese affair
http://www.afed.cz/text/6403/cina-v-praze
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Message: 2
Jimmy's pickets Brighton Hospitality Workers hospitality Bath ---- Three Bristol
Solidarity Federation members travelled to Bath today (26th March 2016) on an Easter Bank
Holiday weekend to picket the ‘Jimmy's' restaurant there after a request from the Brighton
Hospitality Workers for collective national direct action against their bosses after they
refused to pay them about £1,500 in owed wages and have yet to supply them with a P45.
---- On arrival the managers in Brighton were telephoned by them to explain their
grievance and they were summarily dismissed by having the telephone hung up on them in mid
conversation. Undeterred the brave pickets marched into the branch at Bath and politely
requested an audience with the manager. The manager was informed of their current and
future intentions and was also asked to contact the Brighton manager for a justification
of the illegal employment practices that had prompted this disruption of his normal daily
business.
Shortly after the commencement of the picket the SF members were joined by Bath anti-cuts
activists.
When it became unavoidably obvious that the SF presence was having an adverse effect on
the flow of custom this day the manager joined them on the picket but only to challenge
them on how their behaviour was impacting his potential profits and personal, selfish
career prospects! He caused such a scene that they were certain was not reassuring any
random passing trade. Of course SF raised their concerns for his personal wellbeing
regarding these transgressions of social etiquette. As you can imagine our sympathy was
brushed aside.
After an episode of aggressive negotiations and gross motor activity combined with a
quantifiable amount of agitation on the part of the management the picket made a
collective decision to cease the action and convene to a local café for beverages, review
the mornings work and organise their next steps. It was agreed that they had successfully
made their point and that the managers of ‘Jimmy's’ in Bath were adequately distressed to
the point of prompting some action on their part in this ongoing and as yet unresolved case.
Pawan, manager from the Bath branch of ‘Jimmy's’, kindly informed the SF picket that if he
was phoned on Tuesday he would inform them of his progress in investigating his
colleagues’ misdemeanours in Brighton. Pawan now believes that if SF do not receive a
satisfactory outcome to this dispute then they will be back next weekend and the one after
that and the one after that… and not only in Brighton or London but at any of their
outlets anywhere in the country.
http://www.solfed.org.uk/bristol/jimmys-dispute-spreads-to-bath
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Jimmy's Still Does Not Pay, Action Spreads
Mon, 28/03/2016 - 23:08
Brighton Hospitality Workers wage theft migrants' struggles Jimmy's hospitality
After three weeks of action, Jimmy's Restaurant (on the Brighton Marina) is still avoiding
their responsibilities. Three former workers are still campaigning to get their holiday
pay and their P45 documents and we keep receiving contacts of workers facing the same
situation.
From the beginning, the management of the restaurant has been denying any responsibility
and addressing us to the “Head Office” who, curiously enough, never answer the phone or
emails.
Moreover, last week we found out that the workers, having received their payslips with
their tax deductions, are not in the records of the HMRC as having worked for Jimmy's. No
explanation has been given by Jimmy's but we do hope that this is a misunderstanding.
Due to the attitude of the company, SolFed has had no choice but to open a public dispute.
The workers, accompanied by members of SolFed, have paid several visits to their former
employer asking for what is theirs and informing the customers and other workers about the
dispute. The picketers received a lot of support from their former collegues and from
several customers, some of whom decided to turn back and not collaborate with this dodgy
bussiness.
However, Jimmy's management seems to think that we are going to disappear if they ignore
us and persist in their attitude. Therefore, last Saturday SolFed decided to take the next
step and comrades from Bristol-SolFed picketed the Jimmy's branch in Bath, and we are
determined to keep spreading the dispute to other cities.
SolFed and the Jimmy's workers want a solution but are determined to keep fighting if this
company keeps ignoring its responsibilities.
We want to make a call out for people to join the boycott of this company until they pay.
As we always say, this is not an individual problem but a collective one. We are all
suffering from bad conditions at work and only through worker's solidarity are we going to
improve our situation.
Boycott Jimmy's Restaurant! Stop wage theft!
Solidarity with the workers in their struggle!
http://www.solfed.org.uk/brighton/jimmys-still-does-not-pay-action-spreads
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Message: 3
On Friday 18th March, members of Solfed informed parents of Dartford Primary Academy, part
of the Leigh Academies Trust, about the ongoing campaign to get Lydia’s wages back. Lydia
worked for Kinder Sports, who are contracted by Leigh Academies Trust to provide Physical
Education lessons and after school sports coaching. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports for 30
hours between 6th and 30th of October 2015 (including at Dartford Primary Academy) however
she has not been paid for this work. We are supporting Lydia in demanding Kinder Sports
pay her the full £360 she is owed. ---- Kinder Sports has recently been dropped as sports
coaching provider for two other schools in the area and more may follow as outsourcing of
sports coaching comes under question and this campaign continues. With the government’s
plans to turn every school into an Academy drawing increasing scrutiny of the model,
opponents of Academies can look to Kinder Sports for an example of what the outsourcing
culture can lead to.
Matt Longhurst of Kinder Sports had agreed to pay Lydia her wages following communications
blockades but failed to follow through. We will continue the campaign until Lydia is paid
what she is owed.
http://www.solfed.org.uk/south-london/kinder-sports-campaign-school-picket
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Message: 4
A brief history of the world's first socialist working class uprising. The workers of
Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising
society in their own interests based on workers' councils. They could not hold out,
however, when more troops retook the city and massacred 30,000 workers in bloody revenge.
---- The Paris Commune is often said to be the first example of working people taking
power. For this reason it is a highly significant event, even though it is ignored in the
French history curriculum. On March 18 1871, after France was defeated by Prussia in the
Franco-Prussian war, the French government sent troops into Paris to try and take back the
Parisian National Guard’s cannon before the people got hold of it. Much to the dismay of
the French government, the citizens of Paris had got hold of them, and wouldn't give them
up. The soldiers refused to fire on their own people and instead turned their weapons on
their officers.
The PNG held free elections and the citizens of Paris elected a council made up mostly of
Jacobins and Republicans (though there were a few anarchists and socialists as well). The
council declared that Paris was an independent commune and that France should be a
confederation of communes. Inside the Commune, all elected council members were instantly
recallable, paid an average wage and had equal status to other commune members.
Contemporary anarchists were excited by these developments. The fact that the majority of
Paris had organised itself without support from the state and was urging the rest of the
world to do the same was pretty exciting. The Paris Commune led by example in showing that
a new society, organised from the bottom up, was possible. The reforms initiated by the
Commune, like turning workplaces into co-operatives, put anarchist theory into practice.
By the end of May, 43 workplaces had become co-operatives and the Louvre Museum was a
munitions factory run by a workers’ council.
The Mechanics Union and the Association of Metal Workers stated “our economic emancipation
. . . can only be obtained through the formation of workers' associations, which alone can
transform our position from that of wage earners to that of associates." They also advised
the Commune’s Commission on Labour Organisation to support the following objectives: “The
abolition of the exploitation of man by man... The organisation of labour in mutual
associations and inalienable capital.” Through this, it was hoped that within the Commune,
equality would not be an “empty word”. In the words of the most famous anarchist of the
time, Mikhail Bakunin, the Paris Commune was a “clearly formulated negation of the state”.
However, anarchists argue that the Commune did not go far enough. Those within the Commune
didn’t break with the ideas of representative government. As another famous anarchist,
Peter Kropotkin said:
“if no central government was needed to rule the independent Communes... then a central
municipal government becomes equally useless... the same federative principal would do
within the Commune”
As the Commune kept some of the old ideas of representative democracy, they stopped the
people within the Commune from acting for themselves, instead trusting the governors to
sort things out for them.
Anarchists argued for federations of directly democratic mass assemblies, like the people
of Paris had done just over a hundred years previously (must be something in the water!).
The council became increasingly isolated from those who’d elected it. The more isolated it
got, the more authoritarian it got. The council set up a “Committee of Public Safety” to
“defend [by terror]” the “revolution”. This Committee was opposed by the anarchist
minority on the council and was ignored by the people who, unsurprisingly, were more
concerned with defending Paris from invasion by the French army. In doing so, they proved
right the old revolutionary cliché of ‘no government is revolutionary’!
On May 21st, the government troops entered the city and were met with seven days of solid
street fighting. The last stand of the Communards took place at the cemetary of
Montmartre, and after the defeat troops and armed members of the capitalist class roamed
the city, killing and maiming at will. 30,000 Communards were killed in the battles, many
after they had surrendered, and their bodies dumped in mass graves.
The legacy of the Commune lived on, however, and "Vive la commune!" ("Long live the
Commune!" was painted over on the walls of Paris during the 1968 uprising, and not for the
last time we can be sure...
http://www.afed.cz/text/6402/1871-parizska-komuna
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Message: 5
On the 31st March 2,800 state houses in Glen Innes, Panmure and Point England are going to
be transferred to the Tamaki Housing Association (the social landlord component of the
Tamaki Redevelopment Company). ---- The Tamaki Housing Group are holding a rolling picket
beginning Tuesday 29 March and ending with a protest on the day of the transfers at 3pm
outside the Tamaki Regeneration offices. ---- The Tamaki Redevelopment Company (also known
as Tamaki Regeneration) is a company that is owned by the New Zealand Government (29.5%
Bill English, 29.5% Nick Smith) and Auckland Council (41%). ---- The TRC has sold
regeneration and transfers to the community as something that will benefit them. The
friendly language used by the TRC does not, however, cover up the pain that the process of
state-led gentrification has already caused this community.
Children have disappeared from the school roll, and families that have called Tamaki home
for 50 years have been evicted, their houses demolished. This is the reality that cannot
be erased through the friendly brochures of smiling faces delivered by the TRC.
These transfers are a part of the Social Housing Reforms, where the government want to
limit their role in housing. Their plan is to move the state housing stock into the
private market where charities and private organisations will take over the tenure and
management of these properties.
In the United Kingdom, a similar process of transferring council housing to private
organisations called Housing Associations, led to privatisation. While these associations
were limited in floating shares on the market, there were no barriers placed on increasing
market rent and this led to eviction and displacement.
Tamaki Housing Group fear that these transfers will led to further displacement of state
housing tenants and that transfers is a cover for the privatisation of state housing in an
area where developers are speculating off land-value increases.
Private organisations and companies should not have control over an essential human right.
History has shown that the private market has never been able to provide adequate and
affordable housing for low income people.
The Government promised that the redevelopment of Tamaki would create affordable housing,
however since 2011 median house values have increased from $400,000 to nearly $900,000.
Tamaki is located close to the city, water and surrounding wealthy neighbourhoods such as
St. Heliers and Kohimarama, there is no wonder this area is desirable for redevelopment.
Developers, facilitated by the state, are profiting from the displacement and destruction
of a community.
The Tamaki Housing Group have been resisting these redevelopments for 5 years and need the
support of the rest of the country to fight this mass privatisation which is being
experimented in Tamaki but will be implemented all over Aotearoa.
The rolling protest:
Tuesday 29th March
7am-8:30am outside the TRC
4pm-6pm outside the TRC
Wednesday 30th March
7am-8:30am outside the TRC
4pm-6pm outside the TRC
Thursday 31st March (DAY OF THE TRANSFERS)
Meet at 3pm outside the TRC for a massive protest against these transfers.
Contact:
Sue – 09 575 6344
Vanessa – 0221307523
Yvonne – 0212687027
Kirsty – 0221907136
Related
Anarchism & Social Change talk minutes
“Anarchism and Social Change” was held on Sunday 15 March 2015. AWSM National Secretary
Matt Jones took minutes. Barry Pateman “I don’t like talking to anarchists, it’s like
talking to a bag of ferrets”, it’s wasted effort. We need to reach out, “explain our ideas
to those that aren’t…
In "Minutes"
http://www.awsm.nz/2016/03/30/tamaki-housing-action/
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