Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL n° special - Spring 2016:
Alternative Libertaire in the fight (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL n° special - Theory:
Murray Bookchin today (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. wsm.ie: Barricade Bulletin 1 - news sheet of the Derry
Anarchists (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL n° special - Dating:
Social ecology debates (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Southern Africa, Zabalaza: Inside the Zimbabwean Uprising MC
Biko, ZACF (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. France, Alternative Libertaire - policy, Grenoble: How the
town Green / PG confirms the reformist impasse by AL Grenoble
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Argentina, federacionanarquistaderosario FACA: ORGANIZATION
AND STRENGTHEN FIGHT WITH RESISTANCE - Conjuncture June / July
2016 (ca) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The libertarian communists strive to be both motor in strikes, with colleagues, via the
union tool and produce a readable revolutionary expression, towards the general public.
---- Daily, AL is implementing a strategy on two levels: first animation against powers in
businesses, neighborhoods and places of study; secondly, the spread of communist ideas and
libertarian self-management practices. ---- And this year, the organization has been busy!
Since February, dozens of packets of posters and stickers against the Labour Law have been
shipped across the country to the AL groups (and any person upon request); viral campaigns
were conducted on the Web, including "make up" the crucial March 9; press releases and
analyzes have regularly been broadcast; ten leaflets were produced and distributed in mass
demonstrations; Monthly Alternative Libertaire devoted four each movement. It defended
that there "all through the fight" and preached the paralysis of the economy - strategy
outlined in the call "It blocks all" largely involving anarchist unionists. All this by
organizing solidarity with fellow victims of repression (see cons).
During the first weeks, it is the "young" AL who had much to do to bring the unrest in the
universities and colleges. In universities where the struggle unionism is well
established, the task was less difficult, but all it took lead hotly debate to convince
students and students to mobilize - challenge in an area where the memory of the struggles
is volatile.
Visibility of red and black
When it came time strikes and blockages, are the wage earners who have taken over trying
to train their colleagues in the fight. And when they were not busy with the construction
of the strike in their businesses and their services, they were found on the economic
blockades, before oil depots or industrial areas.
In event, when some were at the heart of their union processions, others ensured the
visibility of the red and black colors. June 14, including dozens of come-es comrades of
the four corners of France could converge metro Duroc, where the appointment AL was,
despite the tear gas and police charges for massively distribute a leaflet-BD Colloghan
realized by the designer.
The challenge now is to continue to work for the development of a struggle unionism, while
not neglecting the specific AL surgery. Acting in the class struggle, while defending
another project company, communist and libertarian.
Benjamin (AL Paris Northeast)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Printemps-2016-Alternative
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Message: 2
The theoretical corpus and the current social ecology, proposed by Murray Bookchin in the
second half of the twentieth century, remains relatively unknown in France, and scrambled
by controversies often linked to this ignorance. Yet recent political movements (Spanish
integral cooperative Kurdish Rojava experience ...) are directly inspired today giving a
concrete dimension to the social ecology. ---- The term and the current social ecology
were developed in the 1970s by Murray Bookchin (1921 to 2006) and a handful of
collaborators, especially around the Institute for Social Ecology founded in 1974 in
Vermont (northeast of the state of the United States). Marxist and trade unionist in the
1930s, Bookchin then turned to anarchism and ecology before formulating his own ideas. Its
policy is libertarian in its positions and anti-authoritarian sources. Social ecology is,
in denouncing capitalism and the state system in general hierarchy responsible for the
ecological disaster that it identifies in the 1950s.
A revolutionary citizenism
Anthropological and historical analysis of Bookchin led him to consider only the class
struggle and a good part of the traditional Marxist analyzes and proposals, as a body of
ideas applicable in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but not in the history or
the second half of the twentieth century, he said. He also broke violently with the
Orthodox currents in the late 1960s, accusing them of not understanding the ecological
issues or the development of productive forces under capitalism, which led to the
technical progress of the twentieth century an era abundance (admittedly poorly controlled
and redistributed), away from the era of "scarcity" in which Marx wrote.
Given the evolution of the working class in the twentieth century (class consciousness of
loss, capitalist development of claims rather than radical change, reproductive
hierarchical forms in political and trade union movements), Bookchin even comes to do see
more in the working proletariat main revolutionary subject. He then places his hopes in
other dominated classes, the unemployed and precarious workers, youth, students,
intellectual-le-s, women, Black-es (he participated in the movement for civil rights), and
overall in the figure of the citizen, who becomes the center of his communalist project -
or municipalist libertarian, political part of social ecology. Far from the current
Republican vision of citizenship, which is confined to citizenship, respect for the law
and the act of voting, Bookchin the citizens of are revolutionary, free to arm themselves
against an oppressive system ruled, actors and actresses in all aspects of life [ 1 ].
Bookchin proposes a federation of free communes, building on the legacy of the freedom of
the earliest human communities he calls organic. These communities did not exist in
relations of domination based on three principles, which ensured equal unequal:
irreducible minimum (no one is left out), usufruct (can not own land nor the means
production) and assistance.
System of free common federated
But gradually, different forms of domination emerged, first gerontocracy and religious,
patriarchal, economic, which have increasingly structured companies, and paved the way for
the domination of nature. However, there are traces of communist principles from organic
companies in many historical experiences: Athenian democracy, medieval cities, town
councils of New England, the Paris Commune, Spanish Revolution, etc. From these
considerations, Bookchin proposes a system of federated free communes, operating according
to principles of direct democracy (sovereign communal assembly, delegates with imperative
mandates, not professionalization of politics, etc.), collectively controlling the means
production with municipal cooperatives, reducing the tedious work thanks to technical
progress and seeking maximum food self-sufficiency, energy, and resources in general.
A production based on need alone would spend less time on actual production activities,
and to focus on social, cultural and political development necessary for the good of
individuals and communities. This social change must be concomitant according him a
cultural change by getting rid of any form and the idea of domination. This would also
involve a change in relationship to nature, considering the human species as fully
integrated to the entire living world.
To trace the concrete ways to change this society, Bookchin called for the formation of
local assemblies, which at first would achieve a popular education work, reflection on
needs and local issues (economic, ecological, political), and would formulate proposals
still articulating a communist libertarian long-term vision to shares in the short term
pragmatic and transient.
These assemblies would be expected to grow and gradually develop against powers, to direct
confrontation with capitalism and the state system. Bookchin believed that the assemblies
could run in municipal elections, and thus replace traditional councils by assemblies
municipalists libertarians. This position was widely alleged to yet Bookchin did not want
to direct the towns under the current system, but take Public and bring them into
dissidence against the rest of the administrative system.
At a time of massive mobilizations against the labor law and its world, and the search for
new modes of organization with standing Nights, proposals Bookchin found new resonance,
and could be used to feed the thinking and practices struggle to develop an alternative to
capitalism and the state system.
ecology Commission
[ 1 ] It is to promote this political citizenship against utopian drifts New Age and the
environmental movement of the 1980s Bookchin published A company again - to an Ecology of
Freedom, translated in 1993 by Écososociété editions.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Theorie-Murray-Bookchin-aujourd
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Message: 3
This is the first of issue of Barricade Bulletin, news sheet of the Derry Anarchists. It
is our intension to issue this free news sheet every two months locally to help generate
anarchist info and knowledge of class struggle anarchism to a wider audience beyond the
boundaries and limitations of the internet. ---- If you would like to get involved with
anarchists locally, to take part in anarchist activity, discussions and conversations,
prisoner support or contribute to Barricade Bulletin, then drop us a line to our email:
derryanarchists@gmail.com ---- UNTIL ALL ARE FREE! ---- WE ARE ALL IMPRISONED! ---- If
there's one thing people in the north know only too well after four decades of war, is
that the State thrives on intimidation, terror and division in order to control the
population.
For centuries the British state in its many guises have used such tactics to direct its
imperialist programme here in Ireland and across the world. In doing so, it’s now common
knowledge that it trains and advises other states on doing just that, the lessons learnt
right here in the six counties.
What's clear is that in spite of our ongoing "peace process" issues of human rights abuses
within the prison and justice system are far from over, having leant nothing from the
traumatic events that littered the seventies and eighties the practice of indefinite
detention remains a weapon issued by the State.
This can be seen with the continuing policy of criminalisation of republican prisoners,
the internment and detention of many others such as the Craigavon Two.
Two young men buried within the system on false charges viewed by most as an obvious
miscarriage of justice not witnessed since the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four. Their
continued imprisonment shows without doubt that society here still has a long way to go to
achieve any sense of 'normalisation' our politicians repeatedly speak of.
Anarchists in Derry took part in a recent rally in the city to stand with others to demand
the immediate release of local republican activist Tony Taylor imprisoned on the orders of
a British Secretary of State. The rally in support of Tony Taylor and his family was a
success due to the broad spectrum of political views of those in attendance. Unified
pressure must be voiced on the streets if the concerns of the Taylor family are to be
addressed once and for all. Openly and through the continuation of mass protest on the
streets, not just in the chamber's of local council or up in Stromont.
The political establishment on all levels of power have done little to move the cases of
Tony Taylor or that of the Craigavon Two forward as they remain incarcerated.
We demand the immediate release of Tony Taylor and the Craigavon Two whilst calling for
the support of other prisoners demands with an end to prison censorship and repression.
Lessons from our history shows us that those on the inside need a unified campaign on the
outside similar to that of the 'Relatives Action Committees' and free from the control of
any one party or organisation. For anarchists, solidarity and direct action on the
streets rather than lobbying politicians is our greatest weapon.
ABC Ireland News
Merseyside Anti-Fascist Jailed
Michelle Smith, a much loved Merseyside Anti-Fascist Network comrade, pleaded guilty to
the state charges against her for her participation in organised direct action against
fascists in Dover on January 2016. On Tuesday July 12, Michelle was sentenced to 12 months
in prison. Michelle is passionate in her beliefs and in standing up for the rights of
people to live without fear of racist attacks. A single mum of two children, Michelle’s
actions were taken to resist racism and fascism. If you want to write to Michelle, message
Merseyside Anti-Fascist Network and they will send you her details.
For more info on ABC visit:
Derry ABC: abcireland.wordpress.com
Dublin ABC: dublinabc.ana.rchi.st
Interview with an Anarchist
(For the first issue of Barricade Bulletin we decided to have an interview with a Derry
Anarchist)
When did you first become active or interested in politics?
Politics is something that it’s hard not to have, especially living in Derry. Politics
would always come up in conversation no matter where I went or what I was doing. I always
voiced my opinions and had most people agree with what I had to say. When it came to doing
something about it like becoming involved and actually joining an organisation that was
different.
Have you been involved in other political groups?
I could never find where I’d confidently be able to plant my feet and get directly
involved. I had taken part in local campaigns or actions on the edges to highlight certain
issues around the town for a few years such as Palestine, Anti-Fascist work, Anti-War and
never missed a march if I could help it, along with anything else that was going on at
that time.
If not, why not?
No. I always had my mates in my ear telling me I was this or that, trying to convince me
to join whatever groups they were involved with, but after a while it always came back to
the same old thing. It was the way other groups organised. Whether they were socialist,
trotskyist or republican minded they all worked the same, from the top down. Even if they
said they did, they actually didn’t. Using terms like “grassroots” or “democratic” was
limited as horizontal thinking just isn’t practiced. The cult of personality is something
I don’t want to be engaged in at all, as I have seen how anarchists organise using direct
democracy and how working collectively is far more healthier than being led by the nose
all the time.
How did you find out about anarchism?
It was when I was reading about the Spanish Revolution and the international brigades
which included people from my own city who went and fought fascism along side other
revolutionaries at that time I found an interest and connection with Anarchism.
What about anarchist history locally?
The more I read, the more I could relate to it so I started looking into Anarchism in
Irelands recent history, to see where it all tied in. I found books written by Jack White
and Belfast born John McGuffin. White being one of the founding members of the Irish
Citizens Army and of course McGuffin who was one of the founding activists of the civil
rights campaign. McGuffin’s work in highlighting torture and imprisonment by the state
over the years is something I admire. The more that I read and heard about him and others,
the different anarchist groups at that time was equally inspiring. Particularly their
role in the civil rights movement, highlighting injustices and the growth of anarchist
politics at that time, I wanted to find out about how they organised. Anarchism in Ireland
has only really taken root from the late 60’s onwards but there have been times in the
past when people have been inspired by anarchism.
When did you decide to take the next step and become active in anarchist politics?
Hearing about the WSM (Workers Solidarity Movement) and their direct approach to issues
throughout the 90’s to present day pushed me to get involved if I was to start anywhere
there was no better place for me. I’ve been a full member now for well over a year and
have taken part in demos and activism across Ireland. It’s helped develop my outlook and
opinions for the better along with the friends and comrades I’ve made throughout it all
its been a great experience.
What would you say to others interested in finding out more about anarchism and who are
interested in getting involved?
To anyone who’s thinking of getting involved but doesn’t know how to or where to begin or
they are hesitant about contacting us, I would say just do it, you might actually find
what you where looking for all a long.
What is Anarchism?
Anarchism is a revolutionary anti-state socialism. In practical terms, anarchists aim for
the destruction of the ruling class and of all relationships based on domination and
submission. This means taking over the industries and communities and changing them to
meet the need of all, as well as the ecological needs of the environment. Without this
takeover we can struggle within capitalism but never replace it.
Anarchism will be created by millions of people, not the doctoral elite (we are not
Marxist-Leninists), and all will have their part to play in shaping it.
Power will lie with the organisations thrown up by and for the revolution, not with the
political parties who will try and dominate and destroy them.
The new society will not be born through abstract ideas, but will come out of the
realities of struggle and the need for working class people to unite. Such struggle
doesn’t just involve resistance to ruling class power (strikes, mass protests and other
forms of direct action), but also construction - the building of new, locally based
federal organisations (examples of which from the original Soviets of the Russian
Revolution to the Collectives during the Spanish Civil War, to the community resistance
and collective organisation during Free Derry to the Miner’s Support Groups of 1984/85
strike), plus the forging of solidarity and the willingness to go further.
There is no truce in the class war. The answer to the ruling class power is continual and
widening struggle - for social revolution and anarchism.
Getting involved
Derry Anarchists Contact
facebook.com/derry.anarchists
derryanarchists.blogspot.com
Workers Solidarity Movement
www.wsm.ie
Support & Solidarity
Alliance for Choice Derry
email: equalchoice@aol.com
Alliance For Choice Belfast
facebook.com/Alliance4Choice
alliance4choice.com
Women on Web
www.womenonweb.org
Women Help Women
www.womenhelp.org
PDF of Barricade No1 http://www.wsm.ie/sites/default/files/BarricadeNo1.pdf
http://www.wsm.ie/c/barricade-bulletin1-derry-anarchists
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Message: 4
International meetings of social ecology, held in Lyon on 27, 28 and 29, were an
opportunity to share ideas on Bookchin, but also on current social movements and
strategies for change system. ---- Organized by growth objectors Aderoc of the association
in the MJC Jean-Mace and the cultural and political space Grrrnd Zero, these meetings
brought together a hundred activists, seasoned es mostly come-es of Spain, Switzerland,
Belgium, Italy, the US, Germany, France. They discussed the main concepts of social
ecology in terms of organization and political practices, economy (public, property,
democracy, capitalism, currency, etc.) and breaking with capitalism strategies. Note that
the political cultures involved were diverse.
Feminism and ecology
Feminists have driven the debate and asked that balance human / nature does not happen
without equality of gender and race. Remarkable also, the presence of citizenists
sensitivities es or individual to be looking toward the movement Hummingbirds (that of
Pierre Rabhi), but the radical questioning them back to libertarian arguments. From this
variety, here are some other elements that made consensus.
The definition of social ecology, which means the current created by Bookchin may
nevertheless be extended to many other or vice versa considered part of a larger current,
environmentalist and anti-authoritarian (with Reclus, Kropotkin, Illich, Gorz, and a
portion of the descending movement). The broadcast work done among others by Janet Biehl
(USA), Vincent Gerber (Switzerland) or Floreal Romero (Spain), all three present at the
meetings, will extend the reflections, separating the sometimes controversial person
Bookchin . As for political experiments relatives theories Bookchin, the Kurdish
experience of Rojava and the draft Democratic confederalism PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)
adopted in 2005, have been important: screening of Kurdistan - Wars daughters Mylène
Sauloy, participation of several Kurdish activists. Chiapas, the other great current
alternative system, has also been a focus of discussion, and the complete cooperatives of
Spain, who claim libertarian municipalism.
The issue of the economy has made debate, after a consensus on the necessary subordination
of the economy to the political and social. Should we better control the money and
currency, or attempt to do without completely through barter systems, exchange services
and free access? That reopens the discussion about the value: should quantify the work? In
silver ? In time ? Quantification is it not resulting toward seeking more productivity to
the detriment of the quality of work and products?
The notion of collective ownership was then debated in the many areas that need to be
considered common (natural resources in general, food, care, education, housing), which
implies democratic management to break with private property. Communal property, closer to
places of production and consumption, is suitable, but only if it is connected to a common
federation, able to understand global issues and ensure solidarity and equality between
territories .
There are many forms of resistance to capitalism. Some are legal as recovery plants in
worker cooperatives, defense of public utilities (water, for example), local currencies,
AMAP, etc. Without directly threaten the system, these experiences create or preserve
other forms of organization, they educate by example some people still reluctant to
radical actions. Nevertheless, these experiences are likely to be recovered or drowned by
the market system, such as AMAP competition from La Ruche who said yes, capitalist form of
the concept.
Occupy, expropriate
Another strategy is illegal, it is to look after the land, housing, factories, that is to
say, to expropriate the capitalists, and therefore directly threatens the system in place,
resulting in strong repression as Notre Dame-des-Landes. The challenge is to connect these
two strategies to the maximum, to structure networks for this, and also to feed the
concrete alternatives of a theoretical reflection, showing that capitalism will never
accept to go gently, and he there will necessarily be a confrontation more or less violent
phase. From this, it was proposed to organize a day of social ecology at
Notre-Dame-des-Landes 8 July at the annual gathering, and next spring new international
meetings, most likely in Barcelona.
ecology Commission
Extend theoretical reflection
Social ecology is packed with analysis and suggestions to feed our struggles and our
social project, and it deserves to be updated and enriched under the two decades since the
last major writings Bookchin. On the one hand, capitalism itself has evolved, with a
disproportionate financial sector development and recovery of ecological issues in the
smoky "green growth". Moreover, the current movement against the labor law said that to
build a social movement mass able to confront capitalism, it is necessary that workers are
mobilizing and block the economy by the strike. Certainly the proletariat has changed
since Marx, but it remains central in any revolutionary possibility contrary to what
Bookchin concluded after disappointment at the workers' movement. Finally, the worsening
environmental disaster challenges the emancipation through technical - relatively high -
envisaged by Bookchin, because such a society would induce needs that ecosystems may not
be support. It is therefore material to hold further meetings!
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Rencontres-L-ecologie-social-en
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Message: 5
A year and half ahead of the 2018 general elections, the poor and working people of
Zimbabwe are up in arms against President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his ZANU-PF regime
which has been in power for 36 years. In the last 3 months Zimbabwe has been shaken by
protest actions of workers, informal traders, commuter omnibus operators, and unemployed
youths. These actions have occurred at a time when the country is experiencing a liquidity
crisis and the ruling party structures are crumbling from within as liberation war
veterans, once Mugabe's staunch loyalists, break ranks from the regime. Meanwhile, the
opposition political parties (a myriad of MDC splinter groups and two ZANU-PF splinter
groups) are in talks to form a coalition party. The regime has since stepped up its
repressive measures in a bid to squash dissent.
Since the 2013 elections, in the wake of which the regime consolidated its control of the
state after defeating the MDC-T (the main MDC faction) at the polls, the Zimbabwean
working-class has been reluctant to engage in direct action against the regime because of
disillusionment with the corrupt and neoliberal character of the MDC-T which was fully
exposed during the Government of National Unity's tenure, when this party was in bed with
the regime. Moreover, 13 years of the regime's physical brutality, detentions and
assassinations had completely decimated the militant cadreship of the pro-democracy
movement. To make matters worse, the working-class organizations that had galvanized the
poor people's struggles of the late 90s and spearheaded the formation of the MDC as a
workers' party were all under the party's armpits and had surrendered their organizational
capacity to it. These organizations include the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the
Zimbabwe National Students Union, the Combined Harare Residents Association and its
counterparts in other cities. In the face of an overwhelming electoral defeat of the MDC-T
they are still trying to recover and reconcile with reality. As a result these traditional
organizations have had little, if anything at all, to do with the recent uprising.
Interestingly, outside of the objective material conditions themselves, the recent actions
have been catalyzed by informal traders, unemployed youths and social media activists.
Zimbabwe in Africa
In 2014, in the absence of leadership in struggle by the traditional organizations, Itai
Dzamara, a journalist-turned-activist, demanding the immediate resignation of President
Robert Gabriel Mugabe, initiated the Occupy Africa Unity Square campaign attracting only a
handful of supporters with whom he braved police-baton sticks and endured a couple of
nights in detention for a few months before his abduction in March 2015. He is still
missing and the state denies involvement in his abduction to this day. The Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition initiated a social media campaign on tweeter which is dubbed #Bring
Back Itai Dzamara. They were soon followed by members of the journalist fraternity who
took the campaign into mainstream media. Itai's brother Patson and a few of Itai's
followers have since then tried to keep the Occupy Africa Unity Square campaign alive but
have been unable to mobilize a critical mass.
In May of 2016, a little-known pastor, Evans Mawarire, took to tweeter to vent his
frustration against the status quo under the tweeter handler #This Flag. Over a couple of
weeks the campaign had gathered significant support online. In this period the cash crisis
manifested and overnight long bank queues appeared. The regime could not pay salaries to
civil servants (the largest work force in the country which includes the police and the
army). As a result they hiked traffic fines to be paid on the spot at roadblocks. They
also hiked import duties on all commodities cross-border traders were bringing into the
country from South Africa. These circumstances were the spark to the uprising. The first
to light up the keg were cross border traders who burnt down the warehouse where the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority kept goods confiscated from traders unable to pay the high
import duties at the Beitbridge border post in June this year. This action, even though it
was met with a brutal clampdown on suspected arsonists, was followed up
domino-effect-style by commuter omnibus operators in Harare who, in protest against the
numerous police roadblocks and the high spot fines for traffic offenses, prevented a
section of the workers in Harare from getting into the city for a full day. These commuter
omnibus operators set up road blockades and were engaged in continuous running battles
with the anti-riot police, resulting in the police imposing an unofficial curfew which is
still in operation to date in the townships of Harare. The regime also announced plans to
introduce Bond Notes (a local currency pegged at par with the US dollar) in order to
resolve the cash crisis. Pastor Evans Mawarire, via #This Flag, decided to call for a
nationwide stay-away in solidarity with the civil servants, and against Bond Notes. Bond
Notes plans are to the working-class reminiscent of Bearer Cheques that the regime
introduced and printed en masse to sustain itself between 2004 and 2008. The printing of
these Bearer Cheques led to hyperinflation, de-industrialization, and the loss of jobs,
earnings and savings by the working-class. The working-class, scared of the specter of
hyper-inflation and jolted by the long bank queues responded massively to Mawarire's call
for a stay-away shocking not only the regime, opposition political parties, traditional
working class organizations but Mawarire himself. A major contributing factor to the
success of the nationwide stay-away was the participation of the civil servants, commuter
omnibus operators and the reluctance of the police (civil servants themselves) to repress
the action.
In the aftermath of the first action Evan Mawarire made another call for a stay-away in
the following week but was arrested a day before the appointed day, with his arrest
accompanied by threats and rants from the President, the Minister of Home Affairs and the
Commissioner-General of Police. Anti-riot police were deployed en masse into the
working-class townships. The following day the response to the stay-away was still there
but a lot weaker. Evans Mawarire was charged with treason and attempts to overthrow the
government illegally but set free by the magistrate court. He fled to seek refuge in South
Africa a couple days later.
Since then, the civil servants have been paid and are back at work. However a number of
civic groups have been re-invigorated and continue to have weekly demonstrations in the
city against the anticipated introduction of Bond Notes. They are being met with brutal
force by the police in blatant violation of the Constitution. The numbers are in the
hundreds and for the moment appear not to swell. It is anticipated however that the
actions will grow in scale after the actual introduction of the Bond Notes.
Meanwhile, several opposition political parties including the MDC-T(led by Morgan
Tsvangirayi), Zimbabwe People First (led by Joice Mujuru, the ousted former deputy to
Mugabe), Mavambo/Kusile (led by Simba Makoni, the ousted former Finance Minister under
Mugabe) and the various splinter groups of the MDC, are in talks to form a coalition party
posed to challenge ZANU-PF at the 2018 polls.
On the other hand, after Robert Gabriel Mugabe purged his deputy, Joice Mujuru, and half
of his party out last year, at the instigation of his wife (who has presidential
ambitions), he continues to face internal strife in his party. Disaffected by Mugabe's
factionalism and the free reign of his wife within the party, liberation war veterans have
broken ranks. Mugabe has responded by arresting perceived ring-leaders and detaining them
at his army barracks under the brutality of his Military Intelligence. The liberation war
veterans have in the past been the staunchest loyalists of Mugabe. This break is now
widely seen as the final crack ahead of the ruling party's demise. These "dissident"
liberation war veterans are expected to join the ranks of Joice Mujuru's Zimbabwe People
First whose leadership has liberation war credentials (a central concern of war veterans).
This development has given Joice Mujuru better leverage over Tsvangirayi in bargaining
for leadership of the "Coalition Party".
Robert Mugabe and his wife are not done yet with purging perceived dissidents out of the
party and in a new twist to the circus, appear to have turned on his new deputy, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, a longtime aide of Mugabe from the days of the liberation war, who is widely
believed to have been his chief assassin. This continuing factional fight appears to be a
manifestation of the fights instigated by Mugabe's wife who is paranoid about a
post-Mugabe scenario where her family loot might be jeopardized. As part of her
mobilization strategy for 2018, she has since appropriated 7000 housing stands in each of
the country's 10 provinces, and allocated them to youth officials in the ruling party's
district structures with no regard for local government regulations and processes.
Will the working people sustain an uprising that will finally bring the ZANU-PF hegemony
to its knees? Will the working people forge an alliance of movements to wage class
struggle not only against the dictatorship but against capitalism? Will the "Coalition of
Parties" hijack this uprising and demobilize the working class? Will the ruling party
crumble before the 2018 elections? The Struggle Continues.....
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Message: 6
While government parties are in crisis, an overhaul of social democracy operates between
the reformist left and anti-liberal environmentalists formations. Grenoble municipal
majority now the test of power, has become the showcase. So it imposes austerity in turn,
it is necessary - from local to global - to overcome the reformist impasse. ---- In May
2014 the town of Grenoble passed into the hands of a "red-green" coalition. Led by Mayor
Eric Piolle Europe ecology, the Left Party and several networks "citizens". The new
municipal majority meant "rebuild local democracy" resist austerity policies and lay the
foundations for a social and environmental alternative to neoliberalism. Alternative
Libertaire Grenoble was back in May on the Grenoble municipal reality far from the media
myth through a series of articles .
In 2016, and two months after our articles, that is yet another total denial campaign
commitments that grenoblois.es attend. In the wake of austerity policies imposed by the
State and the European Union, the town of Grenoble sees its appropriations fall by 20
million euros. Asphyxiated, Eric Piolle announcement press conference - without
consultation or prior discussion with anyone - an unprecedented bloodletting in the local
socio-cultural budget restructuring to lower school health service, closure of two "houses
people "as well as three municipal libraries besides the suppression of 150 positions by 2018.
He who pledged to "enhance the public service," says today that he was "too sacred" and
does not hesitate to minimize the closure of municipal equipment by offering "bike book
distributions" by volunteers .
These measures will be "sold" to habitant.es the city by sending a letter to
grenoblois.es, where Mayor defends his choice by rejecting the responsibility for action
on municipal management of previous mandates and by disguising pirouettes and words
effects of their own lack of political courage. Political capitulation of the majority is
all the more stinging that this plan will not be enough to restore the balance of the
budget ... Grenoble should expect more clean cuts.
While several thousand workers / its strike march in Grenoble against a labor law imposed
by the PS-MEDEF , Eric Piolle appointed as chief of a former expert in restructuring
(redundancy plan) from a US multi-national to execute his plan. Grenoble will be managed
as a financial capital to business: the stupor is complete.
Right, left or green, austerity is the fight
The reaction of the unions and associations do not have to wait. Far from falling into the
trap of some "sacred union" or "critical support" behind the municipal team, the united
mobilization of the Inter habitant.es of the collective side will hold rallies in
particular to the services concerned or the élu.es will be taken to task , to sign a
petition to thousands of users, and take three times to city council called for adopting
the various components of the plan, delaying their vote.
Total refusal - always - consultation and dialogue . Most of the municipal mayor in mind
this is behind a cordon of riot police as paragons of "renewal of local democracy" confirm
their alignment on national austéritaire doctrine when PS and LR pavoisent and play the
opposition as you play a bad play.
News Solidaires Isère:
City Council Grenoble under police guard, elected entrenched to impose austerity
Red card to austerity made in Piolle: the council of 11 July put offside! rematch on July 18!
If the resistance of the social movement demonstrates refusal to resign themselves to
austerity to be "left, right, or green," the moral blow of this betrayal, announced that
more is during the movement against the labor law, is hard to take. Certainly the surprise
is not total, a similar situation is especially being in Montreuil. Europe ecology is far
from a party at odds with the dominant neoliberal order , and in many ways the municipal
majority has already shown political ambiguities on many subject.
The fact remains that this new type of left training called "reformist" placing in
electoral competition with traditional social democratic parties appears as the only
visible and concrete alternative to millions of men and women fighting in France and
Europe. Or whether Syriza in Greece , of Podemos in Spain and now the Grenoble management
experience brought by example in the media by Mélenchon and executives of EELV, these
political experiences crashing miserably from the first confrontations with the State and
Capital.
The ecperience Grenoble was built as a symbol for parties who want electoral alternative
"red-green" the PS. a whole program ...
The social and economic crisis deepens, popular protest rises across Europe. To survive,
the capitalist class is determined to impose austerity to all peoples through their own
representative government alleged. This is the formula of socialization of costs and
privatization of profits that is dictated at all levels. It becomes necessary to provide a
political alternative adapted to the period. More than a foil, political capitulations
such as Grenoble should be a lesson for the social movement.
The institutional padlock
It is not enough to win a majority in a vote to dispose at will of all public action
levers. Most of the real estate and land assets owned by the private, management of key
public services depends either on partnerships with the private or arrow ever-present
public funding set by a higher institutional level. Wanting to provide the means of an
ambitious policy means either increase local taxes significantly - but this option is
firstly regulated by law, on the other hand questionable - or expropriate real estate
companies and assets ... which is unconstitutional today!
The margin of action of locally élu.es which would bear an alternative political project
theoretically increases snatching most seats in institutions. However the administrative,
regulatory and legal lock out at each level: the community of communes, mixed economy
companies, regions, etc. Illiberal political logic or anticapitalist would inevitably be
diluted or locked by logic manager different levels. Wanting to influence the political
direction within the regulatory framework is doomed to failure.
This is not to question the good faith of a contender for an election but élu.e access the
station is now a job in itself. The professionalization of this type of position requires
a good level of administrative and legal control that creates a social selection made in
access to the function. Today the overwhelming majority of élu.es comes either from the
middle class or upper middle class. Same for rare élu.es issu.es other popular social
categories or a militant past, the clothes of the function gradually lead to the
abandonment of the political logic in favor of logic manager . (in this regard, also read
the text "environmentalist Mayor of Grenoble: a city" managérée " published by a trade
unionist Grenoble in August).
The élu.es represent only / themselves.
All social achievements and actual policies were obtained by the strike and the street,
that is to say precisely when travailleur.se.s are no longer content to occasionally give
up decision-making power but to élu.es bear confrontation on their land and not on that of
the opponent: 1936 (paid), 1945 (social security), 1968 (increased wages and union
rights). Ie fiscal and legal blockages tend to miraculously jump when the bourgeoisie gets
scared and that travailleur.se.s tap the portfolio.
Throughout Europe the masses more and more important struggle to impose their own
democratic organs and thus regain some vis-à-vis state sovereignty and bosses. The Occupy
movement squares in Spain and Greece without forgetting the Guadeloupe and Mayotte where
travailleur.se.s assemblies running on the imperative mandate and direct democracy have
gone to formulate a list of demands embracing all social and economic issues are examples.
In the Spanish state, the slogans of "real democracy now" and "them to go all" in speaking
of politicians that is punctuated popular assemblies
DC Aurora Petra
Locally these struggles sometimes lead to progress in terms of democratic decision-making
collective and autonomous institutions such as the experience of participatory budgeting
in Porto Alegre . In some cases, they can go to the takeover of the town on new economic
and social foundations as in Marinaleda in Andalusia . These islands are very few and face
end to the repression of strength, recovery and reintegration of the system. When the
revolutionaries view these experiences as levels tending towards a profound and
irreversible change, the reformists are seeing a total outcome or even curiosity.
It is our role as anti-capitalist forces to bring a revolutionary voice against the
discrediting of the reformist organizations tell. These are really only the managers of
general austerity imposed by the capitalist class. It should not be that their failure is
that of all the progressive forces and it benefits the usual political caste.
For this it is useful to strengthen the struggle, trade union or not to forward them to
the revolutionary perspective that they often lack until we seize our work tools and even
our lives we manage places on the principle " to each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs. "
Thus give body and flesh to the libertarian communist project, which clearly includes the
need for a radical break with the current system of governance. Working the tracks to make
it readable with other anti-capitalist forces a strategy of emancipation outside of marked
trails and government parties.
Alternative Libertaire Grenoble
And to go further, we offer some ideas:
brochure : Manifesto for a Libertarian Alternative
brochure : anticapitalist Front
Book : A draft libertarian communist society
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Grenoble-Comment-la-mairie-Les
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Message: 7
After seven months the change of government in the country, the situation of adjustment
and repression, deliberate and planned to attack the interests of / the bottom continues
and shows signs of intensifying. Even aims to deal more forcefully to the different levels
of resistance that is building the village. Are great ambitions, projections and disputes
imperialism for what can be configured as a new period in the region, and the government
of "Change" must be to "rise to the occasion", disciplining the down and making possible
the different interests of the above, if you want to generate the results you demand your
class. The institutional political dominance of the government is a large, larger land
area than were their electoral expectations and this is added the complex web of power
relations that make the political structure of the country and include actors ranging from
the Pope to judges and prosecutors, to mayors of Conurbano, the union bureaucracy and the
governors, coming together many of these in the broad and complex political field is Peronism.
So for the moment Macri makes the "necessary" dirty work, while the other agents of the
ruling class needed to ensure good governance discontent that generate adjustment measures
are contained within the institutions of domination. In this respect the role played by
the mass media to amalgamate social unrest is being paramount. The strategy is to
criticize and demand enough to take shape electorally by 2017. In this context for /
acquire the strong force below the historical practices of our class as direct action, are
only possible means to whet those demands and desires that otherwise are left to the
bourgeois mechanisms of representation, which in times like these show their ability to
abroquelarse according to their strategic interests. And so are demonstrating the
different episodes of resistance have slowed layoffs, employers dissections, and rate
hikes. In the orientation of that process also it comes into play again what practices and
principles will prevail, because here plays an important role the perspective of class
independence. we could see as late last year different variants of the pro-statist left
(call Trotskyism, Maoism or even the hardliners kirchnerismo) tried unsuccessfully to
channel initiatives popular participation in different institutional bodies of the system
itself, the same instances that allowed "democratically" the rise of the most reactionary
sectors of the country right. Thus the accumulation of resistance process must be in the
village and their bodies class and not in political representations that opportunistically
want to get "front" of the claims.
Towards the Pacific Alliance
The scheme extractive held in the region, including by the governments of the "Socialism
of the XXI Century", he is shedding his clothes "neodevelopmentalist" to veer towards more
oriented to greater interference of US imperialism alliance. Expression of this is that
the government of Macri has formally asked to be an observer of a meeting of the Pacific
Alliance. The new geo-political regional is also expressed in the institutional coup that
took place in Brazil, and is shaping a map in Latin America where political sectors begin
to have framed preponderance old neoliberal programs. The strategic commitment of these
sectors is to deepen the extractive scheme and link public works and external borrowing to
this model, similar to IIRSA plan of the previous stage. It is in this context that
strategies appear as the Belgrano Plan, a public works NEA and NOA facing the country,
which aims to expand the soybean border and facilitate the transfer of primary products
for export. All this added to the obscene removed from taxes on mining companies and
sowing pools. It is also important to add to the above is implemented in law: on the one
hand the new law on foreign ownership of land is enacted and on the other, at the request
of the transnational Monsanto, modification of the seed law is announced.
Limit rights to enable adjustment
It is such that the ruling class is even unfeasible within the current legal structure is
proposed adjustment. So initiatives in the field of the law to limit the right to strike
and give greater centralism trade unions, giving more power to bureaucracies and limiting
further the limited room for maneuver for classist union sectors, as seen in the ruling
"Orellano" of the Supreme Court of the Nation. This is an indicator to enable the above
adjustment must be preventing possible pockets of resistance and go creating a framework
within its legality to suffocate power. Also in this sense it was oriented "anti-protest
Protocol", which for the moment but still not fully dormant in your toolbox, waiting for
the opportune moment to be used have been applied. However, repressive episodes multiply
in different parts of the country, such as seen in the camp in Tierra del Fuego, the gang
who broke into the newspaper Tiempo Argentino in Buenos Aires and the repression of / the
workers / as Ingenio Ledesma in Jujuy. Parallel to this still appear samples of highly
reactionary character of the new government, as the parade of "Veterans operational
independence" in the act of 9 July along with former -carapintada Aldo Rico and reception
at government house "neighborhood party "neo-Nazi Biodini.
The above process continues reacomodamiento
After a great mobilization in defense of the figure of Cristina in Comodoro Py it appeared
to be the founding event of the new stage of Kirchnerismo, where it was announced with
great fanfare the creation of a "Front citizen" the "corruption scandal" appears former
Secretary of Public Works of the Nation Jose Lopez and externalizing the dispersion within
the Kirchnerismo. Thus a new rupture that is expressed in the way of institutional
lawmakers Movement Evita, FPV block and its overtures to Massa comes to delineate what
could be the future scheme PJ. A roughly be divided into three, the post-Kirchnerista, the
typical Peronist right Kirchnerismo sector and minority expression. This new structure PJ
together with the union bureaucracy aims to operate as a cushion to absorb and contain the
claims, ensuring governance with an eye on the elections of 2017. However, in both
institutional attempt channeling discontent reappear phenomena challenge similar to the
2001 rate hikes, layoffs and corruption in the previous government and the current
political, condense a distaste that impacts the recent social memory and the reference to
"throw them all" is required.
However we not see in this challenge for a content that necessarily leads to a popular
empowerment, that will depend on many factors among which are the various control
strategies and daily construction of organization that occur in social areas. In the same
measure must be given the ideological dispute, to go outlining the horizons of rupture
with capitalism, which in our case are oriented towards building a libertarian society.
Resistance episodes are multiple, and compositions have been different. On the one hand
there have been specific to layoffs in workplaces resistance, joint that have been
positively closed result of negotiations with participation of / the workers / as in
direct action, mobilization of national character against insecurity that exists in the
neighborhoods driven by social organizations, very important struggles in the student
area, which have been expressed in huge demonstrations as of May 13 and pot-banging
against rate hikes involving political and social organizations.
A second half of struggle and solidarity
In the circumstantial a scheme of domination established by the new government is not
perceived, but if you can think more clearly on strategic objectives, as stated above,
aims to consolidate the extractive matrix, deepen the alliance with imperialism Yankee,
and disciplining resistance either repression or ideological influence. There are several
fronts open to the bottom, which may be obstacles to the development of its strategy if
the / deploy below the organization and strength class around them. One is raised on the
issue of the high cost of living and wages, as the government "could not" curb inflation,
among other factors. While the government tried to raise a joint ceiling of 25% annually,
most guilds closed their joint agreements above that percentage. Here it is important to
emphasize that any joint close above the 30% was sprayed following the escalation that was
implemented, significantly reducing real wage recovery capacity. Today we have calculated
an annual inflation of 45.7%, contributed largely by the rates of utilities and food
prices, which is inevitably leading to a loss of purchasing power of wages. In this sense,
the axis of the reopening of the joint will be important to the current situation. On the
other hand, it remains open conflict in relation to Tarifazo in public services. Here is a
structural problem that we were checking in previous analyzes as the "energy crisis" is
played.
no scenario of energy sovereignty in the country, and this government intends to reduce
the fiscal deficit and fix public finances can not as it did the previous appeal to
dollars to import energy reserves is in sight. In addition after the "pot-banging," he
Macri is imposed on a test of governance, which needs to show authority, yet "sensitivity
and listening" against the claims. The different adjustment policies, along with the rise
in inflation is generating greater instability, which further aggravates the conditions of
structurally excluded. Neither the mainstream media have managed to ignore the increasing
poverty and food claims for these sectors, raising the same claims articulated coming from
the territories, and have been able to generate survival strategies over the years. So far
in 2016 they have staged great days of struggle where you have installed complaints
regarding living conditions in neighborhoods and maintain certain vindictive conquests.
Besides the fight becomes more important in the field of Human Rights in relation to
increased repression and the reactionary character of the new government. Likewise also is
the defense of public education in the student area and environmental issues at the
increasing extractivismo. On the issue of gender we see, on the one hand, there is an
ongoing process of greater visibility of the problem due to the struggle and organization
of women, which has been expressed in demonstrations as of June 3. On the other hand,
since in the last NME and in these months, we see that there are intentions to curb
feminist mobilization and demand.
Thus, the president has been commissioned to make clear its stance against the
legalization of abortion in the National Eucharistic Congress (Tucuman), also dissolved by
decree the National Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation (involving the
non-distribution of certain contraceptives in public effectors); in a country where the
United Nations warns of growth of adolescent pregnancy; along with more subtle measures of
symbolic violence as the inclusion of a "club-style" oriented and adolescents in the new
Technopolis. In the city of Rosario this year will be held the XXXI National Meeting of
Women, an organizational body of women, unique in the world for its massiveness and is
organizer of critical immunization campaigns to fight against patriarchy, as the national
campaign for legalization of abortion. From the FAR, we propose as part of our strategy of
revolutionary transformation of society to participate in the various instances of
resistance and try to bring to the popular organization in the space base, betting
multisectorality and confluence of different sectors of the oppressed class. Thus always
proposing the perspective of class independence, direct action and solidarity in the
context of building a strong nation for a social-policy that allows us to break with the
capitalist system as horizon accumulation in the future and as a daily practice in the
present.
http://federacionanarquistaderosario.blogspot.co.il/
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