Today's Topics:
1. US, black rose fed: THE SEPTEMBER 9 NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE:
BRING THE CALL OF ABOLITION HOME (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - unionism, Interactive
map: all appointments September 15 (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. anarkismo.net: Habemus pacem? Challenges on the road from
Havana to Colombia (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, Workers Counter Bulletin #126 of ESE Athens (gr)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Delivered by Kristina Khan at the "Demands for a Transformed University" Rally organized
by Black Students for Revolution on September 9th, 2016 at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. ---- BRRN - Central Illinois members talking about the National Prison
Strike, at a September 9 rally organized by Black Students for Revolution. ---- Today,
September 9th, marks the 45 year anniversary of the Attica Prison uprising which happened
in 1971 at a maximum security prison in upstate New York. The rebellion at Attica wasn't
unwarranted. Incarcerated men were organizing collectively against serious inhumane
treatment including torture, starvation, lack of medical care, unsanitary conditions and
overcrowding. Demands were issued around the time Black Panther George Jackson died at the
hands of prison guards in San Quentin but an apparent death of one of their fellow inmates
a couple weeks later quickly sparked a rebellion within the walls of Attica itself. The
violent end of this rebellion several days later was carried out by the state - a haze of
tear gas followed by indiscriminate shooting into the crowd resulted in a slaughtering of
some 29 incarcerated people and 10 hostages. 89 others were seriously injured by gunfire.
The aftermath of the rebellion was heinous as incarcerated men were forced to endure some
of the most horrific forms of torture one can imagine.
In their announcement about today's strike, incarcerated activists and organizers from
Texas to Alabama, Virginia to Oregon write,
"45 years after Attica, the waves of change are returning to America's prisons. This
September we hope to coordinate and generalize these protests, to build them into a single
tidal shift that the American prison system cannot ignore or withstand. We hope to end
prison slavery by making it impossible, by refusing to be slaves any longer... Our protest
against prison slavery is a protest against the school-to-prison pipeline, a protest
against police terror, a protest against post-release controls. When we abolish slavery,
they'll lose much of their incentive to lock up our children, they'll stop building traps
to pull back those who they've released. When we remove the economic motive and grease of
our forced labor from the US prison system, the entire structure of courts and police, of
control and slave-catching must shift to accommodate us as humans, rather than slaves."
Perhaps you are asking why the organizers of this prison strike refer to themselves as
slaves? This is firstly, because the 13th amendment to the constitution outlawed slavery
EXCEPT as punishment for a crime. And secondly, because people in prison work literal
plantations of crops, build electronics and furniture, work call centers, package food,
sew clothing and even make artisanal cheese all for little or no pay. Many companies and
the state itself take advantage of this slave labor force to maximize profits. And
families with incarcerated loved ones are squeezed of every penny in order to be able to
cover the cost of simple things like phone calls and to meet the basic needs of their
family members who are behind bars. For many individuals, incarceration is a series of
financial, emotional, and physical chains from which there is no escape.
Here in Champaign County, Illinois we too have a racist criminal justice system. While
Black folks make up about 14% of the general population in the county, they represent
about 70% of the jail population. This is one of the highest racial disparities anywhere
in the country. And no, that's not because Black people commit more crimes. Take that
nonsensical notion elsewhere. Studies continue to show, and arrest data pulled from the
Bureau of Justice itself shows that not only do Black folks not commit crimes at a higher
rates but they are arrested more often, punished more harshly and serve longer sentences
for the same offenses as their white peers.
Here in Champaign County, three Black people died in the jail within a 7 month period.
Toya Fraizer, Paul Clifton, and Veronica Horstead were all in the jail for nonviolent
offenses and it is my opinion that none of them should have died in a cage.
Here in Champaign County, nobody - NOBODY - took accountability for these deaths. No
public officials, no police, no guards made even a general statement to our community
about this loss of life.
But here, in Champaign County, the sheriff's office with support from the county board
have put a ¼ cent sales tax on the referendum for the November election. They are masking
it as "public facilities tax" but what the proposal really is is an $18 + million jail
project. This is unacceptable and cannot stand. This is not the sheriff's town; this town
belongs to the people. And I for one refuse to just hand money over to a corrupt office
for an open ended slush fund for jail spending and more militarized police.
Because, not only are alternatives to incarceration less expensive than building more
cages, many alternatives are far more successful at decreasing rates of recidivism and
creating stronger, healthier, safer communities.
We must break ourselves of the false and antiquated notion that prisons make us safer.
They do not. They are and always have been a means of controlling and coercing labor out
of low income and Black, Brown and Native people.
Our town doesn't need yet more taxpayer money spent on prisons and police. Our town needs
a damn detox center, adequate and accessible mental health treatment, pre-trial services,
and funding for reentry programs that are led by formerly incarcerated individuals.
We need to build a justice-centered community that aims to rid ourselves of the things
that make violence possible in the first place. We cannot fund the violence of
incarceration any longer. There is no more space for apathy. From the prisons, to the
pipeline, to Palestine - white supremacist violence must be dug out at the root.
Take the easiest step towards ending racialized mass incarceration in our own backyards
and vote no on this "public facilities sales tax" that's really just a jail tax. If you
want to work in solidarity with incarcerated workers across the country you can go beyond
this vote and organize to end prison slavery, police terror, and state sanctioned
capitalist violence.
The power of the people is and always has been the means by which social change takes
place. It takes real and concentrated work but it can and has been done. If we want real
justice we have no other option but to organize in solidarity with one another.
Until all are free, none of us are free. Abolition now!
Kristina Khan is a member of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation, the Industrial
Workers of the World, and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. She works against
jail construction in Central Illinois with the group, Build Programs, Not Jails.
http://www.blackrosefed.org/september-9-national-prison-strike-bring-call-abolition-home/
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Message: 2
The law was passed on August 8, must be repealed. Mobilization in forty cities, the call
of 7 unions. AL will be there! ---- After the strong spring movement for the defense of
the Labour Code, the summer was not really a holiday taste. From the beginning of July, a
return date was indeed raised in the agenda to resume the struggle against the government
and its anti-social project: it will be on 15 September. ---- In addition to the September
15, several sectoral initiatives were announced September 8, in education and on the same
day for workers in social and medico-social. ---- All appointments of 15 September for the
repeal of the Labour Law Interactive map: add your local appointment
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Carte-interactive-tous-les-rendez
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Message: 3
After three years of negotiations, a peace accord was signed in Havana, Cuba, between the
government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC-EP, while the process with ELN is bogged
down and that with the EPL is not even on the political agenda. The forecasts that had
feared the possibility of a breakdown in the negotiations have been proved groundless, and
it completes the cycle of a struggle that should necessarily open new scenarios and
possibilities. The decision of this insurgent movement to abandon arms seems irreversible
and, whatever happens, it will keep on the path of what has been called its
"reincorporation into civilian life". Even while this accord does not generate structural
changes, it undoubtedly represents a significant advance for the rural population which,
though invisibilised, is a not-insignificant 34% of the country's population and provides
an opportunity for the popular movement to potentially articulate the big tasks that
remain ahead. None of this is set in stone. It will all depend on the clarity and the
organisational and mobilising capacity of the popular movement.
It (the agreement) is yet to be ratified by the Congress as also the final signing in
Colombia, which will be towards the end of September. No great surprises are expected at
the tenth conference of the FARC-EP, which should ratify the accord on September 19. The
referendum, through which the agreements will be submitted for endorsement by the people,
has been agreed upon for October 2. In the referendum, these will have to obtain 4.5
million votes for a "yes" so that the agreements are ratified and it is for this that it
is so important to motivate the people and close the doors to a return to total war
between the state and the FARC-EP[1]. Despite the discursive poverty of the retrogrades
who are campaigning for a "no", it would be foolish to scoff at its appeal among many
urban sectors still under the authoritarian spell of Uribism[2]. Even so, the biggest
challenge is to reach the required target for the approval of this referendum.
Historic, but...
Even though the agreement is an historic occurrence, the little enthusiasm that it
generated with the announcement of the final signing, as well as during the entire
process, does not cease to surprise. Though there is no lack of reasons to celebrate,
there is hardly any celebratory mood. There hasn't been a general party atmosphere that
accompanied other peace processes as in Northern Ireland or in El Salvador, to name a few,
and it hasn't even come close to approaching the democratising effervescence that was felt
in 1990 for the peace process with M-19, the EPL, the MAQL and the PRT. It is painful to
admit that, at least in the urban centre, there has been more enthusiasm in the marches
against the FARC-EP than now that peace has been signed with it, which shows that the
establishment's media war against the rebels has had a toxic effect in great measure and
has isolated it considerably from a large segment of the population which still thinks
that the insurgents are responsible for all that is bad in Colombia.
The predominant attitude of those calling to vote "yes" in the lead-up to the referendum
seems to be a lukewarm "war is worse" or a sour "we'll have to swallow some bitter pills".
Other voices calling to vote "yes" are not doing it so much in support of the contents of
the agreements but to explicitly vote for the disappearance and disarming of the
FARC-EP[3], as a final coup de grace, a corollary to the mobilisations of February 2008
against the FARC-EP stimulated by the government of Alvaro Uribe. Very few sectors - the
Left predictably - are calling for a vote in clear support for the contents of the
agreement, though many sense that a triumph of "no" would be truly catastrophic. It is a
disagreeable reality but one that we will have to understand to change it.
The difficult connection
Various factors would seem to explain this phenomenon. First, before everything else, it
is a peace process that the majority of the Colombian population perceives as something
that is happening in a distant country to resolve an equally distant conflict that is
being played out in the pathways of a rural world unknown to this urban majority. To this
has to be added the fact that during the process, the media did it no favour with its
permanent attack on the insurgents. Neither has the tardy work of the so-called pedagogy
of peace helped. The government's efforts to popularise the contents of the agreements in
Havana, or to stimulate debate around it, have been exceedingly poor when non-existent. In
turn, the insurgency's efforts to "involve the people" in the peace process have been
unable to, or not known how to, extend beyond its traditional areas of influence or those
political sectors who have always asked for a political solution to the conflict.
What does this peace process signify for a transvestite in the marginal slums of Bogota?
What does peace signify for an indigenous woman migrant in a provincial capital? What does
it signify for the sub-contracted and precarious workers? What does it signify for the
multitude that survives on under-employment? For those who sniff glue because they can't
afford bread? To have to remind the people that "the peace is with you", as the Left's
referendum campaign states, simply makes it evident that the links of peace with the
common citizen are not evident, that the peace process is seen as something unconnected to
them.
Neither fatalism nor triumphalism: An accord is possible with the current correlation of
forces
It was known that Socialism would not be achieved through negotiations. Some basic reforms
have been sought that help overcome the structural causes that gave rise to the conflict,
but the agreement is not peace with social justice that the popular sectors engaged with
the negotiations to the conflict sought. There is no peace either because the conflict
with the ELN and the EPL continues, as also with possible dissidents, because
paramilitarism goes on throughout the country, because the repressive structure that
criminalises political dissent and social protest still exists, because the structural
violence that kills with hunger and preventable illnesses persists - there is no social
justice. But this does not mean either that the agreement isn't a significant step or that
there is no room for "moderate optimism" to use the jargon during the process. There
should not be room here from the Left to shout "treachery", but neither should there be
hallucinatory triumphalism. The agreement is what it is: all that the FARC-EP could sign
up to with the existing correlation of forces, clearly favourable to existing bloc in power.
The verdict of history could be very harsh on the constituent parts[4]. A glance at what
has been agreed to automatically leads us to question if, in reality, so much blood should
have been spilled to achieve agreements that, in the bulk, mean that the government must
comply with constitutional mandates that it already has beforehand, combined with the
expansion of the existing political system, not to its transformation[5]. There have been
some important achievements awhile, above all relating to the modernising of the
countryside, but the agrarian programme of the guerrillas of Marquetalia, together with
the minimum programme that inspired the FARC uprising for decades, remain an aspiration:
the problem of the concentration of land is very much alive. Now it has been complicated
even more with the boost that agro-industries will receive through the Zones of Interest
for Rural, Economic and Social Development (Zidres). Perhaps this process could have had
an agreement with greater transformative potential and could have generated greater
popular enthusiasm. Perhaps.
The peace of... Santos?
The government promised not to touch the model and kept its word with the oligarchy. The
ELN's opinion of the Havana agreement, according to a communiqué dated August 5, is
compelling: it does not change the reality of the country and keeps "intact the
ignominious regime of violence, exclusion, inequality, injustice and pillage"[6]. A
communiqué of a dissident sector of Front 1 of the FARC-EP that opened up with the process
refers to the agreement in similar terms[7]. But what has been agreed upon should not be
judged excessively hard: achieving a different scenario or an agreement that would really
exemplify this desire for peace with social justice was not something that would depend,
naturally, only on the FARC-EP. It would necessarily have had to be supported by a broad
popular mobilisation in support of these transformations and to develop the transformative
potential of some points on the agenda as also the political proposals presented by the
insurgents in each of these. But the possibility of generating a big alignment between
this peace process with the wave of growing popular protest of 2008-2013 did not
materialise. The government, through co-option, division and segmentation, halted this
wave at the same time that it successfully isolated the peace process from the daily life
of the population. The agrarian strike of 2013 was the key moment in unshackling this
discussion and generating a massive public sympathy between the themes discussed in Havana
and the daily reality of the country, a moment that generated a bridge between the
countryside and the city where the interests of the popular sectors were sketched out in
contradiction to the bloc in power.
After the strike, and faced with the breach of contract by the government, the popular
mobilisation in the street was disincentivised, which some sectors considered
"inopportune", with the surprising excuse that "destabilising" Santos was to weaken the
peace process (and strengthen Uribism), aimed at an electoral strategy that was disastrous
for the Left. In this context, the peace process ended up fettering itself to the figure
of Santos, one of the most unpopular Presidents in history, who used it to be re-elected
at the same time that he redefined the terms of peace and could pass on to the offensive.
After insisting so much that the keys to peace belonged to the people, it was handed over
to Santos on a silver platter. Such "recognition of the will for peace" of Santos, a
President who started governing with the mandate to perpetuate "democratic security",
disfigured the reality that the peace process was achieved in a large part owing to the
popular mobilisation, which had its climax in 2012-2013[8]. The peace process in the
collective imagination was not only indissolubly linked to the figure of Santos but also
moreover with the launching of the referendum by personalities of the old politics was
associated with national politicking. Is there anything surprising then about the lack of
enthusiasm?
New resistance post-conflict and the development of a social and political opposition
The chief government negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, claimed that this agreement was the
"best possible"[9], an ambiguous affirmation which shows that though they might have been
able to impose many of the terms of the pact, neither were they able to impose everything.
The agreements are like an open door, which the oligarchy as well as the popular sector
can take advantage of. The oligarchy will look at accelerating the penetration of
inversion capital in agro-industry and mineral extraction. It will depend on the popular
sectors, on their struggles and their organisation, whether this scenario materialises or
not. It will also depend on the popular sectors if the government complies with the
agreement since - as the communities of Putumayo of Catatumbo and the country itself can
vouch for - it specialises in laying snares and defaulting on those below, and those who
think that international oversight of the U.N. or the guarantees is a guarantee that the
government will comply are guilty of excessive naivety.
Unfortunately, there is still too much disorganisation and segmentation of the struggles.
A new Left will have to be reconfigured and so too the creation of new collective
leadership and a broad process of organisation and popular mobilisation. Despite the great
insistence on Left unity, what is certain is that a great constructive effort is necessary
before everything else to reach all the oppressed sectors, the excluded, and the hungry
who need a new model. It needs audacity, vision, decisiveness, plenty of dialogue,
listening to others and much organisation. Only basing on a broad organisation and the
active search to create spaces in which the discontent can be expressed constructively, it
will be possible to speak of a unity that is much more than the mere sum total of the same
old leaders. A unity has to form organically around the minimum axes of common action and
from the proposals of the thousand and one struggles that the people develop daily. It
also requires a new form of understanding and doing politics, truly from below, from the
popular world, escaping the old vices of traditional politics like from pests, in place of
accepting them little by little as if these were signs of maturity. For all this, it is
necessary to dissociate from the figure of Santos and reclaim the vocation of the Left
(grabbing this political space of Uribism which it occupies fraudulently) is a fundamental
step that could lead to seducing the people once again with the idea of constructing peace
with social justice, linked to a process of mobilisation and social transformation.
An uphill struggle, a people with experience and perseverance
For now, the dice is loaded in favour of the dominant bloc. The triumphalism of these
sectors is evident in the declarations of the Colombian army commander, General Alberto
Mejia, who said the army was ready to guarantee the safety of the ex-guerrillas: "For us
it is not a humiliation, for us it an honour because those who safeguard them are those
that won the war, because those who safeguard them are those who remained with the arms,
those who safeguard them are those dressed in the uniforms of the Republic"[10]. Clearly,
there could be a debate if FARC-EP is defeated or not, something that is open for
discussion, or the pyrrhic nature (in the best of cases) of this supposed victory of the
army, but it is necessary to recognise that, whatever this insurgent group thinks, the
dominant bloc has the hegemony today, not the popular sectors. The "monopoly of force"
that the oligarchic state claims has to be opposed with an even bigger force than its army
and its arms: that of an organised people. Though much is said that politics will not be
done without arms, as the African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral used to say, in capitalism
all struggles are armed: the state always has the arms and uses it against the people when
its interests and domination are threatened[11]. When the people exercise their right to
do politics on the streets, ESMAD, the police or the army will repress them politically,
with force and with arms, supported in the restructuration that the USA (who else?) is
implementing for the public security forces post-conflict and with the new police code and
the law of citizens' security.
The support for "yes" in the referendum should not obviate that this in neither the end of
the process nor the start of the construction of a new society but another step in a long
history of resistance, in the long road towards the conformation of a new popular bloc
capable of imposing on the oligarchic sectors an alternative mode, radically democratic,
egalitarian and libertarian. It is also necessary to recognise that beyond the debate
about the nature of the peace or the intrinsic structural violence of the system, without
the ELN or the EPL it is not possible to speak of the construction of peace, for which
enclosing the political solution around these other insurgent expressions becomes a
political, ethical and moral imperative. It is important to think critically today in the
social forces and the political currents, the complicated territorial, national, regional
and international context in which they have to operate[12]and to apply self-criticism to
correct the mistakes and this way reverse this unfavourable correlation of forces for the
popular sectors. Today, rather than being immersed in easy formulae, replacing the slogans
for or against, it is more suitable to apply Gramsci's maxim of pessimism of the intellect
- the objective difficulties are so immense - but optimism of the will; we are conscious
of the enormous potential of the struggles of the Colombian people as also the valuable
experience accumulated in almost a century of resistance. Only this way can a project that
actually enthuses the ensemble of the Colombian people and gain their confidence be
developed. And with an enthused people, the transformative forces will be unstoppable.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
31st August, 2016
Notes
[1]Sadly in the preceding months, sectors of the Left wasted too much ink and saliva
attacking the idea of a referendum, which they saw as an option excluding their call for a
constituent assembly, a constituent assembly which, in the current situation, would
probably be unfavourable to the popular sectors and could even signify a step back from
the 1991 Constitution. Good ideas aren't enough, the context and circumstances in which
they have to be carried out need to be understood.
[2]The media, once again, in its task of fabricating perceptions, bandy polls that at
times give "yes" the victory and, at times to "no", depending on the political agenda of
the moment.
[3]Viewed in this sense, the editorial in the Espectador of August 25, "peace understood
as disarmament and the end of conflict with the different guerrillas has been the agenda
of all the Presidents (...)[but]we have never before had a proposal so close to disarming
the FARC. Whatever it is, the country for the first time has the opportunity of thinking
without the existence of this guerrilla group".
[4]For a war to be considered "just", according to Jus and Bellum, one of the parts should
demonstrate that it could not obtain what it obtained without recourse to arms. This will
be the raging dispute for decades to come in Colombia, just as it continues to be in
Ireland two decades after the peace process in the country.
[5]Look up the complete agreement here
http://static.iris.net.co/semana/upload/documents/acuerdo-final-con-las-farc.pdf
[6]http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=215328&titular=p...%FAa-
[7]http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/frente-de...41831 The FARC-EP communiqué
that accuses these dissidents of having "economic" motivations (mining, narcotrafficking)
is unfortunate because it ignores the reasons - mistaken or not - which are eminently
political and these types of accusations hurled at a group that left from within it could
easily come around to hurt it and perpetuate the dominant stereotypes about the Colombian
insurgency which, like all stereotypes, tend to be mistaken.
[8]We have written extensively on these themes at its time. Some of these articles are:
"¿Tiene Santos las llaves de la paz?", "Sólo la lucha decide", "El proceso de paz
¿secuestrado por el miedo?" and Habemus presidente: mandato por la paz con injusticia social.
[9]http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/proceso-de-paz-de...91131
[10]http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/proceso-de-paz-co...91112
[11]https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/1968/ppt.htm It is important not to
fall for an idealistic, liberal and bourgeois vision of the state as an embodiment of
"social contract"or "common good". The state is an apparatus of domination, of class,
designed to serve the oligarchic sectors and exercise violence when the subaltern sectors
rebel. Any conquest favouring the interests of the popular sectors is despite the state,
not thanks to it.
[12]Before initiating the peace process, there was controversy with a letter that Medófilo
Medina had sent to then leader of FARC-EP Alfonso Cano, who was assassinated in a few
months in an absolutely defenceless condition by the express order of Santos, at a time in
which both were discussing about negotiating peace. On that occasion, it was said that one
of the reasons for which the FARC-EP would demobilise was the regional context, in which
the Left had come to power through elections. From that viewpoint, would the current
scenario, marked by the destitution of Rouseff and the deepening of the Venezuelan crisis
change the evaluation of these sectors regarding the political possibilities of the
FARC-EP? To read the controversy,http://www.anarkismo.net/article/20115
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29590
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Message: 4
Articles of ERC , Sheet Counter Workers , Working Material Since ERC Athens
We get heatstroke, advertising conditioners , said in a statement distributors from the
Libertarian Syndicalist Union (ERC) Ioannina. Following is the full text of the SSC
Ioannina: This is not irony but for everyday working conditions entypodianomis companies
in Ioannina but also throughout Greece. The bosses of these companies as in any workplace
trying to make as much profit is made from workus. This succeeded by employees as the most
inexpensive and productive as possible. ---- The wages in the jobs they moved between 2
and 3 per hour while distributors walkable from 6 to 8 hours under high temperatures
without being provided the basics like water and breaks. On external distributions, the
hours needed for traveling are not considered work, thus timetables to reach the 10-hour
and 12-hour. Mostly workers in these companies are uninsured while you are insured, the
contracts will be one day so as not entitled neither permits nor gifts.
Also very common is secured half hours of work, while the other is black. If an employee
asks his boss when it works, the answer to which will get is "I'll tell you." Thereby
succeed rotate workers in each distribution in order to have a disposable workforce that
time not to diekdikisei.I favorite phrase the bosses of small and large are "become more
productive." "Productive" means to walk endlessly below 50 degrees, loaded with a bunch of
brochures and do not complain when you're tired. The other will control each time by a
supervisor or a big brother, so you do not get from your mind to get tired and lounging on
a couple 5 minute. After all this it is no wonder if someone entypodianomeas suffered
sunstroke, heat stroke or fainting. Obviously bosses have found governments and the state
they want, which provide the appropriate loophole in the law so they seem to adhere to.
For towering wall against the brutality of the bosses and the working condition imposed on
us, the workers should create nuclei of resistance and challenge in every workplace. The
working conditions and labor laws will not be changed either by themselves or by
right-wing or left-wing governments, but only with the struggles of the oppressed. We
claim: INSURANCE FOR ALL WORKERS WITH CONTRACTS INDEFINITE TIME, THE HOURS OF MATAFORON BE
CONSIDERED WORKING, YPOCHREOTIKA break AND FREE WATER SUPPLY AND jUICE, stamps Handle AS
heavy and arduous, INTERRUPTION OF THE TIME EPOPTIAS
For Robin, self-management and solidarity in a global update on the project, the
Libertarian Syndicalist Union Imathia ref exactly part the following: We regret to throw
in a text about the evolution of the factory struggle Robin or former employees in
Papadopoulos-Bottle in Imathia Homeland factory . to say that we participate in solidarity
with workers from the first moment and who knows people and things always acted with a
view to meeting merikoteron but their overall initial objective , namely the self-works .
the this objective was clearly formulated in the formation of of initiatives of solidarity
, for which there was a clear position that whenever the workers decided to change their
orientation, the initiative will aftodialyotan . Two separate lines on which the
initiative was set up was the clear placement of the face of nationalist and fascist ideas
and the direct-democratic character .
Since the beginning of the effort of the workers of the former factory Papadopoulos -
Bottle appeared inside the lines the two tendencies . The one was the sense of self as the
sets the indu and the other in the sense of co-management of the factory with a from the
two former bosses, the Papadopoulos . from both understand and are two reasonably
supported by each one of two employees . the remaining employees seemed that waver between
the two logical , depending on the developments , the internal conflicts and potential
with the pressures that accepted in everyday their life . We found also that the employees
with the shape of co-management with the boss talked together of the developments in the
plant . in fact this is not the imagined or cameos but us in they informed the other
employees of the factory . in the shape of co-management was also an employee who on
suspension of the personal of the page and a blog have expressed clear nationalist fascist
positions and sympathy to the National Socialists of the Golden Dawn . As solidarity and
solidarity in that the first substantial crisis of the project we asked and we think that
we took clear positions on the part of workers that do not want the co-management with the
former boss and that remains vertically against the fascism . it is reasonable that
workers and the solidarity marched from public the road , which had decided the first with
several contradictions but and friction in a range issues , which created other times from
their first and other times by their solidarity . throughout the duration of the effort
the employees were part of a sub- groupings and allilokatigorountan in corridors for pimp
, thefts , acts of selfishness , etc . the position we face in them the phenomena was
clear that everything should be discussed at meeting them and if she decided to informing
their solidarity to any matter coming into confrontation with the main axes of solidarity:
the goal of self-management , the antifascist placing them , the direct democracy .
Do not requested - by the side of us at least - to go along at any reasonable fit the
beliefs us for the struggles that we gave . Instead insisted from the beginning that the
workers had the same to plan , to decide and to control the decisions of a mind to own
their beliefs but and the steps that they will be planned in order to enter in production
. for this and also we not insisted on foolish and barren controversies about the if and
until you will discuss with operators of everyday domination - municipal factions , mayors
, political parties , parliamentarians , the church or whatever , what else decide . the
only you ever we asked was the respect of the axis of solidarity and of course the public
placement and the updating of initiative of solidarity and of society for all what they
decided and planned . One of the primary weaknesses of the project that should be solved
in a short period of time was exactly the empowerment of operation the assembly of workers
, which will them allow to overcome and the issues improvisation , gossip , blame , etc. ,
and to gather in common the goal . repeatedly some workers pointed to the fact of failure
their to make assembly , even and the daily debate which we have become accustomed the
nearest example of BICM for the design and the implementation of decisions them . in fact
it seemed , and in several of the common assemblies of workers - solidarity which come
with different placements in seriously for these issues. It is obvious to all and all
those participating in the horizontal movements us that the weakening and the indifference
of the assembly leads to strengthening internal hegemony , fatriakon confrontations ,
disorientation , misery and finally the swamp .
A further weakness of former employees Papadopoulos - Bottle was and the incomplete if not
complete absence of them from workers' and social struggles that took place in the region
, although many of the institutions of " from below" ( voluntary basis , joints , refugees
etc ) were from the beginning to flank them . you can say that quite well they built a
relationship of direct trust with the indu but and with moments of movement of Skouries .
Positive was and the attitude of the strike concentration of May . However from the own
our experience , the repeated call to be placed next to the struggles of workers and
refugees, he found the door of closed . and certainly this the first time it could be
justified by the lack of organization , orientation , targeting , etc. , but there can be
justified by a point and then when little by little the project shows to prioritize the
priorities of . and here we come to the close past and the today . Authorities May the
employee who talked with the boss withdraws from the project without never to explain
their reasons , something that made two months after with the recent intervention of the
list of e- mail of the initiative , using no decision of the Assembly of the meil of Robin
. a little time after , and one employee even expelled from the assembly of with the
category of collusion of by the former boss . following from this the case of an even
employee retires on unclear to us reasons. From the beginning some of June and after, in
front and in the design of the caravan of solidarity in Athens with indu - Robin , the
workers of the former factory Papadopoulos - Bottle gradually cease the meetings their
with the solidarity . So for a so important event that you pressed the government to take
place towards the demands of the recovered companies are former employees of Papadopoulos
- Bottle indifferent . not know by how much this the time that they were doing assembly .
If you believe the words themselves, rather there were doing. And there that the few
remaining workers seem to still determined to proceed the project, we learn that there is
one underground discussion with consultants business , parliamentarians , local factors
that triumphalism with the example of IWT . Clone for: the financing of the project , from
unspecified sources , the change of the relationship with the community and the solidarity
and the effort of Robin to reach bishops , MPs , MEPs , etc. for the enhancement of the
public image of , the change of the production of processed wood to manufacture wooden
small items . the discussion is confirmed also by a from the employees of the plant which
is now accused of financial irregularities. In repeated attempts us to get back on to
discuss with their employees , but and to answer the questions us , the answers to them
are contradictory and ambiguous and show clearly, in the opinion of us, the change of
attitude their against us . As solidarity - s and insisting on original our attitude ,
there are those who will indicate to their former employees Papadopoulos Bottle-how to
formulate their struggle. But we understood that was the solidarity and the society in the
whole of be aware of their own to Robin for all the discussion of , the change of
targeting them , the individual decisions them .
The sincerity them to us was enough for to redefine the attitude our opposite them .
Instead of this, continuing a game between the invective which culminates with the meil
that sent one of the two workers who aspire to co-manage the company with the former boss
. the meil it denounces two workers for financial irregularities and rewards indirectly
the role the second worker who called co with the Papadopoulos . in the communication that
we had with the workers realized the following: the meil not sent with a decision of the
assembly , sent by this person who continues to be at the meeting and has been accused in
the past for stealing money , that is back in shape the discussion of co-management with
the boss , that there is discussion on the implementation of a design type EN . clone .
and here all the weaknesses of the project back to a level that denies whole the initial
reciprocal commitment employees - solidarity in the way of self-management and the race.
We felt before proceed to any final assessment of the project to quote one line events
such as we the experienced all this in time . Since the events can easily be concluded
that essentially the Robin , as example the recovered business in road of struggle for the
self , not there . something else has emerged in place of . But we believe also that the
final word on this to have the same the workers of the plant who have all the right to
decide about the lives their . as people who see the self-organization of labor and social
struggles and in self the way of total release us from the shackles of exploitation ,
would like one clear positioning of the workers of the former factory of Papadopoulos -
canteen in connection with the suspicion that there are around from the attitude to them.
As employees and workers , as unemployed - ies , as a repressed and oppressed realize that
every race that comprises means of the issue of survival , starting from one position
defense . We will respect each place their suffice it to be clear towards us , towards the
movement of solidarity and throughout the society of " from below" . Let us respect ,
however , and the same that we have all the right to know the what they want to do , and
that does not have any right to play games with the solidarity , the dignity and the ideas
of a movement which comes through in the story and in the opinion of our rewrites shyly
tentative new pages in this .
Successfully held from September 1 to 4 in the first anarcho-syndicalist free camping
organized by ERC Ioannina .The four days in the Stavrolimenas beach, between Perdika and
Parga was an opportunity not only to xelampikarisma the modern intensification and to
knowledge and discussion and intriguing against a system that devours us. Look on the
website of SSC IOANNINON .
Letter at the National Theatre Administration sent the Workers Association. As denounced
in the letter: The National Theatre Management wishes and tries in every way, even unfair,
signing new fixed-term employment contracts with different durations for each of the
employees (indicatively 90 days 80 days or 50 days) Once that is known to carry out the
program of the upcoming winter season requires the signature of contracts or at least
one-year season. Despite the protests and discontent of workers, management exerts
unprecedented pressure to contract workers of the National Theatre, spreading that wages
will not be paid for work performed in August 2016, and then will be fired, if not signed
the proposed contracts fixed time. The employees ask: transparency in the financial and
administrative decisions, reliable programming work, respect and not demeaning attitudes
to workers in a precarious relationship work. Throughout the news letter here .
Gathering outside the courts of Halkida on the occasion of the auctioning of chicken
digest the Airshow held on Monday August 29, the workers affiliated poultry business
interests "Jury" .With this way employees and business association complained about the
machinations by which go to auction premises of former company "Bros. Livaditi" Tanagra,
facilities operated by "Zouras" the last four years. at the same time do not stop to
assert their fair demands, on the payment of accrued, safeguarding jobs regardless of the
employer which will operate the facilities, but also the return of the union members in
jobs close to the positions in which they worked before the bosses announced their
transfers in Crete and the Mantoudi.
He lost the battle with life after two months of hospitalization, the 45-year, working in
the municipality of Heraklion , which was swept away by garbage collection while on
workshop waste. Recall that t the accident had occurred on June 20 and since then
eventually succumbed to injuries, the 45-year -mitera four children- hospital att yotan in
the Intensive Care Unit of Hospital Venizelio.
24-hour strike Thursday 1i Septemvri and rally outside the company's shop in Charles Diehl
Road in Thessaloniki made by employees of the chain supermarkets' Karipidis' (formerly
'Arvanitidi ") who for months struggling to pay accrued and ensuring jobs. Note, the
management company s needs workers earned 7-8 months, and the Easter and summer bonuses.
Thus workers from May are in work retention, and for months, with diverse actions fighting
against employer arbitrariness.
Work stoppage held Wednesday 31/8 the hospital workers 'Annunciation'. Workers in hospital
s complaint, the unit for individual contracts and require now paid all accrued. Also
claiming, in tatheri and permanent work for all, and with massive recruitment of permanent
staff in all sectors, but also direct funding of the hospital by state budget.
Intervention by the SSC held in Ioannina waiters workers and nteliverades of Kalara and
Averof Street. Shared anarcho-syndicalism street flyer this time refers to holiday pay and
rights. The entire form shared HERE .
Interventions against "WHITE" Night in Sparta, made for second consecutive year with the
excellent cooperation of the local trade association of Mr. "left / communist 'mayor, made
by self-organized Collegiality Nisafi .
In indirect ktakti General Assembly Working Attitude calls the PA.S.E. WIND tin Thursday
15 September 2016 3: 00pm at Av. Athens restaurant. The topics to be discussed are: the
claim of the Collective Agreement, the apolyseis- entatikopoiisi- contractors and n
indirectly a measure for labor.
Hands of the unemployed and their rights, said in a statement the collectivity
Active-Unemployed and adds: A few days ago the government announced that pilot turns the
unemployment allowance to "work bonus". More specifically announced that now instead of
unemployment allowance will be given the corresponding amount as a subsidy to the company
to hire him / not every unemployed / h. In other words, not only subsidize the unemployed
but do not hesitate to give the money from contributions of employees directly to
enterprises so paving the way for the abolition of unemployment benefit! in fact, the
Deputy Minister Rania Antonopoulos said that a company will be required to keep the hired
unemployed after the end of the 12 month subsidized employment ... only 3 months! So we
now have and "subsidized unemployed" along with all other forms of flexible working and
part-time / imianergias. And all this to katapolemithei- ypotithetai- unemployment and
strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises. The statement concludes: As Active
Unemployed will contribute with all our strength in the struggle for the organization and
the resistance of the unemployed, the struggle for work and rights. We will continue to
fight together with all stakeholders, associations, unions, committees neighborhoods,
popular assemblies and all collectives unemployed workers and youth for the immediate
relief of the unemployed, to live with dignity!
Finally one news from the international space. On Monday, June 20th a strike broke out at
the "Krovarzigia" popular Warsaw restaurant serving burgers to vegan people. The strike
was the final stage of the conflict between workers and employers who took some of the
recent months. The controversy caused by the changes recently introduced by the company,
together with the development program tis.Perissoteres information in English you can find
HERE .
Tags: anarcho-syndicalism , work release , ESE Athens
https://ese.espivblogs.net/2016/09/07/7-9-16/
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HUNDREDS TAKE THE STREETS IN PORTLAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH PRISON STRIKE
Posted on September 10, 2016 - Portland Tags: anarchist black cross, demonstration, IWW,
March, prison strike, september 9th
As the largest prison strike in modern history took place, groups from around Portland
came together in the September 9th coalitions. Led by the Incarcerated Workers Organizing
Committee and Anarchist Black Cross, Black Rose Portland and a host of other organizations
joined together to take on the regional organizing work to coincide with the nationwide
strike.
On the 45th anniversary of the Attica uprising, inmates at facilities in 23 states went on
strike, refusing to go to work or engaging in slowdowns/stoppages. Locally, hundreds of
protesters came to Chapman Square in the heart of downtown Portland to string together the
issues of private prisons, commercial exploitation, white supremacy and mass
incarceration. Groups like the Marilyn Buck Abolition Collective and Black Lives Matter
PDX discussed the racial nature of the prison system, while Anarchist Black Cross honed in
on key issues like working conditions, access to healthcare, and physical abuse that
prisoners regularly face.
After several individuals and organizations spoke, protesters hit the streets with signs
that targeted the systemic violence faced at the hands of the police. Portland Police
began harassing protesters early on, trying to confiscate signs and arresting a
participant before the march even began. Once on the road, protesters moved through the
city, heading to corporate locations that use prison labor while reaping astronomical
profits. This included McDonalds, which has been a target of movements like the
Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee for its use of prisoners for producing frozen
meat patties.
Outside of the downtown McDonalds location, protesters presented a mock prison cell,
shedding light on a system that send many to package McDonald's burgers for $0.13 an hour.
Protesters entered and occupied an AT&T location, bringing attention to the use of prison
labor to run call centers on massive corporate contactors. Those inmates that do work for
AT&T make only a few cents an hours and are not able to take advantage of normal labor
laws that workers on the outside depend on.
The police eventually showed up in riot gear and took to a line formation across the
street. Announcing that protesters had blocked traffic they were ordered to disperse.
Later, protesters returned to the Justice Center to hold a noise demonstration that can be
heard by inmates on the inside, a show of solidarity across the double paned glass. They
were met with a row of riot police who violently pushed them back, forcing them into the
park. As the demonstration continued, police periodically moved in flash attacks on the
crowd, shooting pepper spray and picking off specific people that they say had stepped out
into the road.
Overall, the Portland Police only arrested two participants, though they have been
tweeting out photos of masked protesters in an attempt to get people to identify them so
charges can be leveled.
What this action shows more than anything is that a coordinated effort is taking place in
Portland just as it is happening around the country. Centering with the Incarcerated
Workers Organizing Committee, a project of the Industrial Workers of the World, groups
from around the city came together with a vision of a world without prisons. While the
action was intended to target the injustices of racial profiling, work and living
conditions for inmates, and the corporate exploitation of slave labor, it was a deeply
held abolitionist politic that united the radical groups who stood in solidarity. It was
the desire to rid society of the punitive systems of control that are necessitated by
global capitalism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and all forms of intersecting
hierarchy and domination.
Together these reforms are a step in the direction of dismantling these institutions
altogether, both in the prison yards and in our lives.
This is not the end of the strike, or the end of the movement locally. It is not one
action that can end mass incarceration or even inspire moderate reforms, but instead the
coordinated long-term organizing inmates and their supporters. We are continuing forward
to build on that abolitionist vision, to support workers organizing inside of prisons, and
to continue to drive at the root causes of systemic exploitation.
We stand in solidarity with all incarcerated workers!
http://www.blackrosefed.org/hundreds-take-streets-portland-solidarity-prison-strike/
