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» Anarchistic update news all over the world - 10 October 2016
Anarchistic update news all over the world - 10 October 2016
Today's Topics:
1. Ireland, All the speeches on video from March for Choice
2016 at http://www.wsm.ie/c/speeches-march-choice-2016-video
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. anarkismo.net: Building peace in Colombia beyond "yes" or
"no" by José Antonio Gutiérrez D. - ROAR (ca) (a-infos- en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Octobtre - policy, What
anti-racist struggles in France? (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - international,
Collective Koltchenko: "Putin is not welcome in France! " (fr,
it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, class war Death of a community: The cafes are
cleared out of Brixton Station Road BY MIKE URBAN
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
The speeches given before and after March for Choice 2016 provided a broad introduction,
through the personal stories of the speakers, to the complex intersecting oppressions
imposed by the 8th Amendment on women along with some trans-men and non binary people in
Ireland. An oppression that doubles up on those who are also in the Asylum system,
disabled, or Travellers. If you are used to protests where the speeches are mostly from
politicans telling you what you already know this wasn't one of them. ---- It's well worth
taking the time to listen to each of the speakers in turn before reaching the rousing
conclusion of Mary Coughlan leading the singing of a modified version of Trasna na
dTonnta. ---- Louise Bruton of Legless in Dublin speaks at March for Choice 2016 ----
"Today I am marching because I want to know I am in safe hands if I ever get pregnant .. I
am afraid of getting pregnant because I am afraid of what my body can and can't handle."
The first speaker at the 2016 March for Choice was freelance journalist Louise Bruton of
the Legless in Dublin blog who writes about disability rights (and pop music).
Sam Blanckensee of Transgender Equality Network Ireland at March for Choice 2016
Non-binary trans activist Sam Blanckensee of the Transgender Equality Network Ireland
talked at the March for Choice about how pro-choice issues and trans issues are connected
in the fight for bodily autonomy and having the right to make decisions about your own body.
Linda Kavanagh speaks on the Rise & Repeal theme of the 2016 March for Choice
Linda Kavanagh of the Abortion Rights Campaign speaking from the stage at the end of the
2016 March for Choice on the Rise & Repeal 1916 theme of the march.
Philomena Canning Midwives for Choice at March for Choice 2016
"It is no coincidence that Irelands abortion laws are the most strict in Ireland while our
maternity services are among the most medicalised, linking the two as a scaffolidng is the
8th amendment"
Ellie Kisyombe Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland at March for Choice
Ellie Kisyombe, from the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, spoke at the March for
Choice of the particular difficulties people in the asylum system face. Ellie has been in
the Asylum process herself for 6 years and spoke out against the Direct Provision system
that traps Asylum Seekers in an extreme poverty (they receive 19.10 a week) that would
make travel to the UK to access abortion almost impossible even if they could obtain
travel documents.
Rosaleen McDonagh Traveller and Disability Rights Activist at March for Choice
Rosaleen McDonagh Traveller and Disability Rights Activist spoke at the 2016 March for
Choice. Rosaleen is regarded as a leading feminist within the Traveller community
Goretti Hogan on northern abortion prosecutions at March for Choice
Goretti Hogan speaking at March for Choice 2016 about the prosecutions of women in the
north who have taken or provided abortion pills and the organising around that
Mary Coughlan sings Trasna na dTonnta at March for Choice
Mary Coughlan led the singing of a new version of Trasna na dTonnta at the March for
Choice 2016 this time about women crossing the waves to the east because they can't access
abortion at home.
http://www.wsm.ie/c/speeches-march-choice-2016-video
------------------------------
Message: 2
The news that the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP
guerrillas was rejected by voters in a national referendum last Sunday, October 2, sent
shockwaves around the world. It was close, but a victory for the "no" campaign
nonetheless: 50 percent against 49 percent. ---- As a matter of fact, the "no" campaign
did not actually have to win more votes than the "yes" campaign in order to claim a
victory. For them it would have sufficed to collect enough votes to put the legitimacy of
the agreement into question. Nonetheless, they managed to win in spite of the fact that
all of the media, the international community and the vast majority of political and
public figures in the country were decidedly in the "yes" camp.
So, what went wrong?
RURAL "YES", URBAN "NO"
In a previous article, I explained that the main feature of this referendum was the lack
of enthusiasm among the population in general, both with the peace process as such and
with the referendum in particular. It is telling that a mere 37 percent of voters
participated in the plebiscite. The circumstances cannot be compared to what happened
before in El Salvador, Northern Ireland or South Africa, where peace agreements were met
with an explosion of hope and optimism. In this context, it was foolish to dismiss the
strength of the "no" camp's appeal.
Over the past five decades, the Colombian conflict has largely been contained to rural
areas that are off-radar to most Colombian urbanites. Peoples in the cities are not
directly affected by the violence and are only exposed to the realities of war only
through a media intoxicated with counter-insurgent propaganda. Generally, "yes" voters
tended to be concentrated in areas where the conflict had been particularly intense and
where the guerrillas had a long-time presence, while the "no" vote was largely
concentrated in areas where there is no real conflict to speak of. There were exceptions
to this rule, of course - some pacified areas of the Caribbean voted "yes" and the
birthplace of the FARC-EP in Southern Tolima voted "no." But altogether the tendency holds.
The "no" vote should not be read unequivocally as a vote to reject peace, to promote war,
and not even as a vote of support to the far-right agenda of former president Álvaro
Uribe, the main advocate of the "no" camp. Certainly, there was an element of conservatism
among the voters, but that doesn't explain the whole story. The vast majority of voters
rejected the specific peace agreement that had been negotiated in Havana and expected a
renegotiation.
It is surprising that the peace process was sold more successfully to the international
community than to the Colombian people - president Santos seemed more interested in
getting the IMF, the World Bank, an array of international advisors (Israel, Northern
Ireland, El Salvador, Israel, etc.) involved in the process than obtaining broad
participation from Colombians themselves. Whatever meager participation existed was thanks
to public forums organized on the insistence of the guerrilla organization. Santos stayed
aloof, giving talks in Europe and the US, yearning to win the Nobel Peace Prize and
expecting trade agreements and a fresh influx of loans and investment.
The Colombians themselves were taken for granted. No doubt most people saw this as a
distant agreement, negotiated in a foreign country between two very unpopular parties.
BITTER PILLS, POOR CAMPAIGNS
In fact, Santos is possibly one of the most unpopular presidents in Colombian history, and
he surrounded his "yes" campaign with a motley collection of corrupt and discredited
politicians, raising suspicions among ordinary Colombians. Throughout the entire process,
his government's PR department was more interested in discrediting the insurgents than in
developing an understanding around the issues being negotiated.
The main message of his campaign was that this was the "best possible" agreement. It
contained some bitter pills that were hard to swallow, but in a tit-for-tat fashion they
had to be swallowed in order to achieve peace. But people don't like to swallow bitter
pills, even if they often have to. Given a choice, they will reject them. The option of a
re-negotiation was always there, despite the government's insistence that they wouldn't do
it - simply because both parties had agreed that they would not resort to taking up arms
against each other, even in the case of a "no" victory.
The FARC-EP, for their part, have a significant amount of popular support in most of their
rural strongholds. But the legitimacy in these marginal territories - which are not
decisive in terms of national politics - turns into visceral hostility outside of these
areas, particularly in the country's main urban centers.
Curiously, the people most hostile to the guerrillas often have never even met a guerrilla
in their entire lives. It was key, therefore, to connect and generate support for the
peace process and the peace agenda among the urban population and among rural people
outside of the FARC's areas of influence - people who are affected by the conflict, but
only indirectly and in a differentiated fashion. The negotiating parties were unable to
generate this type of popular support, and didn't succeed in explaining the opportunities
peace provides to Colombian population in general.
The left, which supported the "yes" vote, ran a campaign as poor as that of the
government. Divided, weak and marginal as it is, disconnected from the concerns of
ordinary people, prone to alienating supporters by insulting those who think differently
and rather inept at generating inclusive grassroots processes, lacking imagination, with
vertical and anachronistic methods of organizing concealed behind vague slogans and the
lack of a program for actual change, the left was unable to muster support for the peace
process.
The negotiated agreement, as such, was bound to generate indifference. The everyday social
and economic struggles of ordinary Colombians were not addressed. As such, it was
unavoidable that the public debate on the peace process would be dominated by the supposed
"impunity" of the FARC-EP commanders. Naturally, the mainstream media did not make a fuss
about the massive impunity the state would enjoy for the numerous crimes against humanity
perpetrated by its own troops and its paramilitary allies.
In the post-conflict narrative manufactured by official propaganda, the state appears as a
benevolent father willing to receive back in his home the mischievous son who had gone
astray. The key debate between the Uribe and Santos factions centered purely on how
lenient the father should be.
WHAT'S NEXT?
In the short term, there are two options left. On the one hand, there is the alternative
of calling an assembly to re-draft the constitution to create a space for the peace agenda
rejected by voters in the referendum. This would be a folly. It is unlikely that in the
polarized environment of today's Colombia a new constitution would be more progressive
than the current one. It would also be disrespectful towards the people who already
expressed their views.
The other alternative would be to re-negotiate the Havana agreement. This would require a
more inclusive process that includes a broader selection of social groups - not only the
far-right represented by Uribe and his minions, whose proposals will likely be limited to
demands for more draconian conditions. It would also require closer popular proximity to
the overall process, with the debate and renegotiations taking place in Colombia, in view
of the public eye.
As such, the idea to call for a broad "national dialogue" proposed by the second-biggest
Colombian guerrilla group, the ELN, as part of their own peace process with the government
(an idea rejected out of hand by Santos) should not be dismissed after all. Indeed, it has
actually become a necessity.
In the long term, however, those who strive for an egalitarian and emancipatory agenda
should pay heed to the concerns expressed by the Colombian people. Instead of adding
insult to injury, dismissing the voters as "ignorant neanderthals" who don't care about
"peace" or their "country," the result should be accepted humbly; arrogance should be
abandoned and self-criticism should be quite high on the political agenda of a new left.
The most important lesson is that a political project that appeals to the majority of the
people cannot be built without the participation of the people themselves. Likewise, the
people need to be an active agent in the creation of a peace agreement if it is to mean
something to the vast majority of those who sorely need concrete answers to the deep
problems affecting them in their everyday lives. There is a need to be bold in proposing a
transformative project of peace that can actually capture the popular imagination, even if
the so-called international community - whose interest in peace in Colombia derives
largely from their interest in investment and the mining-extractive industry - frowns upon it.
People are not a herd to be led by those in the know. People need to be the principal
actors in their own process of emancipation; the main protagonist in the construction of a
better and more peaceful society. As far as the left fails to understand this, it doesn't
stand a chance to become a relevant actor in a country that badly needs a libertarian and
truly egalitarian alternative.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
4th October, 2016
[Version published originally by ROAR magazine]
Related Link: https://roarmag.org/essays/colombia-peace-process-referendum/
------------------------------
Message: 3
Anti-racism is more relevant than ever. To move in this crucial moment, back on three
anti-racist struggles of the past year, and appointment on 8 October in Saint-Denis (93).
---- This summer, France was the scene of an unbridled racism and anti-racist response
certainly audible, but too isolated. The ban Burkini on the beaches and the terrible
scenes of police forcing Muslim women to undress, death Adama Traore in Beaumont-Sur-Oise
and that, in a very different context, Zhang Shaolin in Aubervilliers are examples of
violence that make the situation untenable racisé.es and even their lives uncertain. Faced
with this, voices were raised to express the anger of the victims of racism, but little
space was given in the media veiled women and families of the victims of racism and police
violence.
Yet for many years, we see the emergence or development of a common anti-racist organizing
that. Back on three examples of these self-organized struggles:
Walk dignity and against racism in October 2015,
Summer Camp decolonial last August,
Chinese demonstrations and Chinese and their descendants made following the death of Zhang
Shaolin on 12 August.
March for Dignity, Paris, 31 October 2015
DC The Horde
March of dignity and against racism
The march for dignity and against racism was held October 31, 2015 at the initiative of
the MAFED, collective of the Women's March for Dignity, not mixed group of racialized
women. It was organized in collaboration with many "personalities and immigration
organizations and neighborhoods and / or experiencing racism", sponsored by the American
activist Angela Davis civil rights and supported by political organizations (NPA Together
EELV, CGA, AL ...) and various associations.
The call for the march, written by Amal Bentounsi, Amine sister, killed by the police, the
focus is particularly on police violence. Those that dot the lives of racialized persons,
including those which were originally large movements: the 1983 violence, which was
following the march for equality and against racism, and the deaths of Bouna Traore and
Zyed Benna in Clichy-sous-Bois who enclencha urban revolts that experienced some poor
neighborhoods in 2005.
Interview: Alain Bertho "The 2005 riot has never stopped" in Alternative Libertaire
November 2010
This emphasis on police violence marks a vis-à-vis distrust of the state whose policy is
the armed wing. Thus, this sentence of the call: "In this devastated landscape, the
policeman crime is never accidental. It is the culmination of all the logic of a state
that has for us that indifference and contempt. " And the conclusion of the text recalls
if necessary that the event will be resolutely collective: " Our powerful reaction,
organized, confident is the only way to curb our collective crush announced. "
The march itself, taking place at Bastille de Barbès, finally met a few thousand people.
Online head women's MAFED holding the banner, followed by those individuals and
associations signatories, and finally not affected political or associative organizations
primarily by racism. The absence of two powerful and consensual associations of
anti-racism, SOS Racisme and LICRA, was noticed.
The Summer Camp decolonial
Almost a year later, in late August 2016 the first Summer Camp decolonial occurred. Fania
Christmas and Sihame Assbague, two anti-racist activists, are at the origin. It was
intended to bring together victims of state racism in single-sex so that they meet,
exchange, form and organize their struggles. The audience was not only militant. Younger,
less often formé.es were incité.es to participate.
Numerous round tables, trainings and workshops thus permitted to acquire activism tools,
both theoretical, but also extremely practical. Thus, "Violence and police harassment,"
"Building a fight antinégrophobie in French context" and "The fights against Islamophobia"
rubbed "Civil Disobedience", "use of networks for militant purposes" or "How to Build a
campaign mobilization ".
Via the topics addressed, it may also be aware that anti-racism or anti-racism, addressed
at this camp could be heard at the crossroads of various struggles, not isolated from
them. Feminist struggles ( "Building a decolonial anti-patriarchal struggle"),
anti-capitalist ( "Enter the fight against racism in anti-capitalism") and ecological (
"The Challenges of Climate Justice") have been considered and discussed.
But that's the theme of state racism that the program was built. And this is where a high
specificity of this camp, which wants to flush out racism in every aspect of our lives,
and therefore well decolonize society. Have been addressed the medical community (
"Identify and combat medical racism"), justice ( "Advocate for the abolition of prison
introduction to transformative justice"), family ( "The challenges of parenting
racialized" ), culture ( "Decolonizing culture: not to diversity") and even the
imagination ( "Decolonizing imagination").
According to his presentation site, "the camp is in the tradition of struggles for
emancipation decolonial anticapitalist and popular education." One could even say, from
the testimony of participants, this collective emancipation by meeting and training was a
true place of empowerment, of conscience and release making the desire to act via the
pooling of experiences.
Protest against anti-Asian racism, September 4 in Paris
(C) Chisai hana
Asian mobilization of Aubervilliers
Zhang Shaolin died in Aubervilliers August 12 following an attack a few days earlier that
had plunged him into a coma. The purpose of the attack appears to have been to rob him.
The city of Aubervilliers is the place of life of a large community made up of persons of
Chinese nationality or Chinese. On August 14, a first rally was held outside the town hall
of Aubervilliers. It is organized by the committee to support the family of Zhang Shaolin.
This support committee was created by Wang Rui, president of the Association of Chinese
youth of France. Not surprisingly, therefore, that the signs address the slogan "Safety
for All". Indeed, collective security for all, which is a member of the Association of
Chinese youth of France, had organized protests against the anti-Asian racism and for
strengthening security in 2010 and 2011, in Belleville, in the north -is of Paris.
Soon the successive rallies are growing and the slogan "Safety for all" remains. On
September 4, a demonstration in Paris brings together several thousand people. The
protestors denounce the racist prejudices that lead to believe people of Asian origin rich
and vulnerable, while the majority of people of Asian immigration in France today is poor.
What is striking here is both highly organized nature of the mobilization that responds
perhaps to the great organization that knows the Chinese community in Île-de-France, but
his call for more security through more police. Politicians do not make a mistake. They
support mass, regardless of their "political sensitivity".
In the procession of 4 September, a majority of people from the Chinese community in
Paris, but also politicians. While the PCF mayor of Aubervilliers had sustained
mobilization at its beginning, including asking for police reinforcements, coming this
time to invite other regional stage: Bruno Julliard (PS), First Deputy to the Mayor paris,
or Valérie Pécresse (LR), the regional council president of Île-de-France.
March for Dignity, Paris, 31 October 2015
DC The Horde
Self-organized mobilizations
The common point between these three "events" is the first self-organization of opprimé.es
in their struggles. In all cases, the first concerné.es support political and logistical
issues, accepting or not participating and not participating concerné.es. They and so they
set the agenda (as in the case of the March for dignity and against racism), the political
content (as in the choice of workshops decolonial Camp) and mobilize without external
intervention (events "Safety for All ").
This self-organizing slice with the methods of the government anti-racism, carried for
example by SOS Racisme, accused of being a pharmacy PS. The call of the March of dignity
is in this historical background: in 1983, the Equality March frightened at the state and
"then he did everything possible to sabotage this self-organization by publicizing
excessive some pseudo-anti-racist pharmacies. They busied themselves of all their
financial means to stifle Equality March under thousands of decibels free concerts and
their racism junk. " The slogan of SOS Racisme," Do not touch my pal "is a sign that this
is a movement of whites.
appears almost by transparency, a difference may be fundamental: whereas the March of
dignity and Camp decolonial are part of an approach resolutely against the state racism,
and therefore denounce this neo-colonial state, mobilization following the death of Zhang
Shaolin made for its appeal to the state for more security for the Asian community.
The very different reception of these movements is also proof. SOS Racisme and LICRA were
clearly present, although discreet, the manifestation "Safety for All" September 4, unlike
the March of dignity. Similarly for politicians mentioned above, who marched alongside
Chinese men and women of France while Prime Minister Manuel Valls occupied his late summer
to castigate the decolonial camp.
However, the political recovery of the death of Zhang Shaolin and words of safe systems of
events should not obscure a diversity that exists in the positioning of Chinese France,
due to their shelved in French society common to all racialized persons. Thus, the LICRA
criticized the fact that there have been speeches in Chinese at the event late rally on
September 4, accusing the event of "communitarianism". Thus, when racisé.es take in hand
the struggles that affect them, they are always rappelé.es and their mix duty with whites.
This description of the current anti-racist struggles is of course far from exhaustive.
The mobilizations against police violence, demonstrations and actions supporting the
Palestinian people, the collective solidarity with migrants and migrant movements are
breadth and anchored in time that are an important part of this anti-racism. Many
organizations have been created in the last ten years, which reflect the dynamism of the
movement: Mwasi (African-feminist collective) Stop ethnic profiling, Black Lives Matter
France, the Voice of the Roma, etc.
With the terrible events of this summer, the fight against racism held the pavement and
was hyped. However, in the long mobilization last spring, it was barely audible. However,
an anti-racism procession was mounted during the demonstration of 31 March. The appeal,
signed by several associations fighting against racism, says, under the slogan "Premier.es
impacté.es, Premier.es mobilisé.es! "That racialized people must not only face state
racism but also discrimination in the workplace. Citing situations racisé.es workers,
immigré.es without papers, Dom-Tom, the call also based on a "blind spots of French trade
unionism": racism, the need to conclude the self-organization of struggles.
Adèle (AL Montreuil)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Mouvements-Quelles-luttes-anti
------------------------------
Message: 4
Freedom for Alexandr Koltchenko and Oleg Sentsov, Crimean activists, kidnapped and
imprisoned by the Russian state! Putin will be received on an official visit by the French
state, mid-October. The arrival of the Russian dictator must not be trivialized. ---- The
Russian state has condemned Alexandr Koltchenko to 10 years imprisonment and Oleg Sentsov
to 20 years in the same sentence. The charge of "terrorism" that was used to cover these
vile court decisions under the command of Russian political power has no basis. ---- For
several months, our organizations have launched a campaign to inform of the situation made
particularly A. Koltchenko activist who considers himself Ukrainian Crimea known for his
anti-fascist commitments, unions, anarchists, environmentalists who participated in the
camp clearly antifascist, events of the Maidan Square. We support of course also the
director O. Sentsov and and all those and all those who are victims of the repression of
the Putin regime.
Alexandr Koltchenko and Oleg Sentsov are sentenced to years in labor camps because they
are fighting against the oppression of the Russian state; As in Russia in Crimea, this one
is unacceptable.
Koltchenko is a student and union activist; he also worked as a postman, in parallel to
his studies. It actively defends its practice, the right to organize freely, the right to
establish and live membership organizations, trade unions, environmental or political. It
is part of the men and women who fight against the extreme right, whether Ukrainian,
Russian or otherwise. Because the fight against corruption and for equal rights for all
and all, it is the target of the oligarchic clans, Russia and Ukraine. A. Koltchenko
campaigning for the right of every people to decide their future.
A. Through Koltchenko, it is the democratic freedoms of all and all we stand for. Our
approach, like that of A. Koltchenko, is opposed to those who want to restrict these freedoms.
For the immediate release of Alexandr Koltchenko, of Oleg Sentsov,
To protest their removal and detention by Russian authorities,
To demand the immediate release of all political prisoners,
For democratic freedoms in all countries
Manifest, we collect, during the visit of Putin!
- Collective Koltchenko, September 26, 2016
Putin is not welcome in France!
view other articles on alternativelibertaire.org
Signatory organizations : League of Human Rights, International Federation for Human
Rights, repression resistance group in Russia, Ukraine Action, Russia-Libertés, CEDETIM -
Initiatives for Another World - European Citizens Assembly, antifascist Action-Paris
Suburbs, Paris Suburbs antifascist Collective, Memorial 98, Union syndicale Solidaires,
CNT-f, CNT-SO, Emancipation, FSU, FSU 03, correctors CGT, SUD education, SUD-PTT,
Alternative Libertaire, Together! (Member of the Left Front), L'Insurgente, NPA, Anarchist
Federation, Social criticism.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Collectif-Koltchenko-Poutine-n-est
------------------------------
Message: 5
Brixton, 4 October: The once bustling Brixton Station Road feels a very different place
these days, with most of its popular cafes closed down in advance of Network Rail's hugely
unpopular refurbishment plans, which will take up to a year to complete. ---- We took a
look around Cafe Rio as it was being stripped out over the weekend. ---- The owner told us
that he'd been here for ten years, when Brixton was a far harder place to do business in.
---- Like a lot of people on the sharp end of gentrification, he said that he felt he was
being kicked out to make way for new trendy businesses - the kind of businesses that had
no interest at all in Brixton until recently. He wasn't sure if his business would be able
to return. ---- Inside the Rio Cafe. ---- The affordable Station Cafe was also being
evicted. ---- Cafe Brixton clears out.
BRIXDONE. The boarded up frontage of the popular Max Snack Bar.
The night before, a closing party was held along Station Road. It went on very late!
The morning after, with the seemingly eviction-proof Ekcovision bar continuing to do
business behind velvet ropes.
Some of the traders are refusing to give up the battle, and you can read about their
crowdfunding appeal here.
Prop left over from the solidarity demonstration last month.
Views along Atlantic Road.
Boarded up businesses on Brixton Station Road.
http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/death-community-cafes-cleared-brixton-station-road/
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