Today's Topics:
1. anarkismo.net: Woman in the Robertson Winery strike by Mandy
Moussouris - ILRIG (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. UPDATED: Towards Womens Freedom -- The WSM's collectively
agreed position on women's freedom. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. anarkismo.net: Woman in the Robertson Winery strike by Mandy
Moussouris - ILRIG - Based on an interview with Shirley Davids
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. WSM National Conference, Oct 2016: Class and Exploitation
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Greece, Political Declaration of the 2nd Congress of the
Anarchist Political Organisation By A.P.O. (pt, gr) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. anarkismo.net: the Mountains of Guerrero by Ruptura
Colectiva --- They send a message to the world: "With autonomy we
fight for life and territory" (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. First of May Anarchist Alliance - The Right Wing Crap of
Milo (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. [Venezuela] Interview with Glauber González from Oriente By
Rodolfo Montes de Oca - ANA (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. anarkismo.net: Not My President! by Wayne Price
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Based on an interview with Shirley Davids ---- In what will no doubt become known as a
historic strike, women workers at Robertson Winery have played a key role, both because
they form the majority of the striking workers but also as leaders of the strike. ----
Women constitute more than 50% of workers at Robertson Winery. Traditionally, they have
been employed to do the general work at the winery. This is because of patriarchal
attitudes towards women and work that are strong in the rural areas of South Africa. Women
are not employed as operators, forklift drivers or generally in higher paying jobs.
Because women are generally employed to do non- skilled work they from the majority of
lowest paid workers at the Winery making the struggle for a living wage even more
important for them.
The strike is particularly important for women not just because they earn the lowest wages
but also because the mobilisation of workers has raised awareness not only around the
issue of a just wage and better working conditions, but also around issues of equality.
Women must be treated equally and given equal opportunities to do jobs like machine
operators and fork lift drivers. Other unfair practices like people getting positions if
their family work there are also issues that are coming to the fore as workers fight for a
more just and equitable workplace.
As leaders in the strike women have been at the forefront. Most of the committee leaders
are women. The strike has set up different committees to deal with the different aspects
that arise during strikes, these include fundraising committee, taxi/transport committee,
education committee, lobbying committee and door to door mobilisation. This is ensuring
that women's voices are heard and their role in the strike, the workplace and the union is
being valued.
A strike is a huge sacrifice that workers make for justice now and in the future, none
more so than for single mothers who have no other source of income. Their entire family
relies solely on their low wages and whilst this is a huge hardship women have been very
strong in the strike. Women more than most understand the importance of getting a living
wage for them and their children's futures. Any increase of R 6000 and above will at least
be a living wage. Women are excited about getting a living wage and are willing to fight.
The Commercial Stevedoring Agriculture and Allied Workers' Union (CSAAWU) with support
from other unions across the world and comrades in South Africa have been handing out food
parcels which are helping. Women in the community are also showing strong solidarity to
the striking workers, neighbours are helping and the community is making soup for hungry
workers. One of the main purchases of the strike fund is nappies and milk to ensure that
children do not suffer.
The lesson that is coming out of the strike for women in particular is that we need to
support each other in really hard times. Before the strike a lot of the women did not know
each other and now they have learned from each other and are getting to know each other.
Through workshops women are learning each other's weaknesses and strengths. We are
learning that it is important for women to work together and attend workshops because they
build solidarity which keeps everyone going.
Our Comrades at FOS SA interviewed Anell (29), a worker of Robertson Winery, who is
demanding a living wage of R8 500, says:
"I have been working for Robertson Winery for 8 years now. It is tough. We need to provide
for our children. I am a single mother of a seven year old boy. I live with my sister
because I cannot afford a home of my own. As a mother you sacrifice a lot. I will go
hungry to bed if that means my son can have food for dinner."
"I want to give him what I never had but it's tough. He wants to be an advocate. But I
don't even have money for a house, how am I going to afford the school fees? It hurts me
as a mother. I will have to bury his dreams."
Related Link: http://ilrig.org
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29860
------------------------------
Message: 2
1. We recognise that women are specially oppressed as a gender, that they face oppression
as women. We call this oppression sexism. As anarchists we oppose sexism wherever it
exists on principle and in practice. ---- 2.1 The nature of women's oppression has changed
as societies have developed. For example, the oppression of women that might have existed
in some pre-class societies assumed a fundamentally new character with the development of
class society. Just as the oppression of women in feudal societies changed its character
with the development of capitalism. ---- 2.2 We reject the idea that women are in any way
inferior to men or that women are biologically predisposed to assume certain roles in
society. Sexism, racism etc are not genetic traits but, rather, are formed by social
existence, upbringing and education.
Class, gender and capitalism
3.1. Sexist oppression is not based on an inherently antagonistic relationship between men
and women. We fight for a society where women and men can live freely and equally together.
3.2. The experience of sexism is differentiated by class and other factors, such as race,
sexuality, disability etc. Wealthy women have always been able to use their wealth to
mitigate their oppression; so for example, a struggle for Free Abortion on Demand will not
gain the same support from a woman who could always afford one anyway as it will from a
working class woman.
3.3. Under capitalism, the fact that women get pregnant makes them ultimately responsible
for any child they bear. In consequence, paid maternity leave, leave to care for sick
children, free crèche and childcare facilities etc, in short everything that would be
necessary to ensure the economic equality of women under capitalism, will always be
especially relevant to women. Because of this, women are generally less economical than
men to employ and more vulnerable to attacks on gains such as crèche facilities etc.
Women will not be free until they have full control of their own bodies. Yet under
capitalism, abortion rights are never guaranteed. Even if gains are made in this area they
can be attacked (as can be seen, for example, in the rise and fall of abortion rights in
the USA).
Thus, the oppression of women under capitalism has an economic and sexual basis, which are
inter-related.
3.4. Women's oppression is in the direct interests of capitalism and the State.
When women work outside the home they are paid less and receive less benefits than men,
thus providing a cheap pool of labour. When women work at home (in either a full-time or
part-time capacity) they are not paid at all and in fact the work they do is rarely
considered work. This leads to a devaluation of the work women do in society.
The family is the most economic unit of reproduction and maintenance of the workforce. (It
must be emphasised that "family values" have more to do with profit than with morality.)
Women's unpaid work in the household supplies the bosses with the next generation of
workers at no extra cost, as women are doing the cooking, cleaning and child rearing for
free. They also take care of the sick and the elderly in the same way. Most working-class
women in Ireland today do the housework as well as join the workforce. In this way, they
work a "double shift" at great personal cost.
Capitalism thrives off hierarchies and divisions within the working class. Women's
oppression and the sexist ideas that try to "justify" it divide the working class. By
promoting divisions between men and women, the bosses and rulers weaken workers
organisation and resistance. This increases the power of the ruling class.
Women's Liberation through working class revolution
4. We recognise that the oppression of women is felt only by women therefore we support
the right of women to organise autonomously around specific issues, within any movement
(anarchist, trade union, community groups). Within the revolutionary anarchist
organisation women should have the right to organise as a faction. However policy
decisions or stands on women's issues should be taken by the movement as a whole. Likewise
struggles should be undertaken by the movement as a whole. This is because only through
the destruction of class society which can only be achieved by men and women will women's
oppression be defeated. Also only by exposure to the arguments will male attitudes change.
Aspects of women's oppression
Domestic Violence
5.1 Women are much more likely than men to be victims of domestic violence. Although
domestic violence where the male is the victim does occur, because a much higher
proportion of domestic violence is against women, domestic violence is an aspect of
women's oppression.
5.2. The high level of domestic violence against women is caused by the hierarchical
structure of a society which worships power and by the uneven power balance that exists
between men and women. Men who use violence against women do so because they are in a
position of power viz a viz women in this society and believe they have the right to
enforce their power over women. They want to retain this position and to control the women
with whom they are involved. Men such as these use physical violence or the threat of
physical violence to establish and then safeguard their control over their partner and
force, bully and frighten them into submission.
5.3 In the vast majority of domestic violence cases violent men do not change so efforts
should be made to enable women to leave violent relationships by fighting for: Increased
funding for shelters and halfway houses for victims of domestic violence, increased lone
parents allowance, free crèches for kids, increased salaries for women, conscious raising
to encourage women to be more independent to enable them to leave violent relationships
and to refuse to accept any form of control from their partners.
6. Criminalising of soliciting inhibits women from reporting attacks. It makes them more
vulnerable. It leads to further harassment by the cops.
It creates a stigma of sleaziness and makes criminals of already marginalised people.
We support the right of women to choose this profession and their right to work in comfort
and safety.
We reject any judgments of these women made by the church, the state or other 'moralists'.
We call for
(a) the decriminalisation of soliciting
(b) 'tolerance' zones where prostitutes can work protected and without police harassment
(c) brothels (ideally self-managed but this is improbable) not to be harassed by cops or
any legislation.
7. We reject the idea that specific forms of women's oppression (e.g. female genital
mutilation) are acceptable as they are part of a given group's culture. Although we
support the right of different ethnic groups and cultures to preserve their traditions and
customs, we are against any oppressive practices. It should be noted that traditions
change over time and are therefore not fixed. Women in different cultures have the right
to strive for liberation within their own cultures and contribute towards the creation of
new egalitarian traditions.
General Perspectives
8. We believe the fight against women's oppression is vital part of the class struggle and
a necessary condition for a successful revolution. Our priorities on this issue are those
matters that immediately affect millions of working class women.
Guidelines for day-to-day activities
9.1 We fight for equal pay for equal work, for increased pay for part-time work, for
women's access to jobs that are traditionally denied to them, for flexitime, for job
security for women, for free 24 childcare funded by the bosses and the State, for paid
maternity, paternity and parental leave and guaranteed re-employment.
9.2.We are opposed to all violence against women and defend women's right to physically
defend themselves against abusive men.
9.3.We are for men doing a fair share of the housework and childcare
9.4 We believe in the right of women to control their own fertility. Women must be free to
decide to have children or not, how many and when. Thus we believe in the right to free
contraception and we support free safe abortion on demand.
9.5.Women should be free to leave relationships that they no longer find satisfying.
9.6.Sexist attitudes and opinions in comrades will be challenged since they are oppressive
and incompatible with the principles of an anarchism
Last Ratified Oct 2016
http://www.wsm.ie/c/womens-freedom-feminism-anarchism-wsm
------------------------------
Message: 3
In what will no doubt become known as a historic strike, women workers at Robertson Winery
have played a key role, both because they form the majority of the striking workers but
also as leaders of the strike. ---- Women constitute more than 50% of workers at Robertson
Winery. Traditionally, they have been employed to do the general work at the winery. This
is because of patriarchal attitudes towards women and work that are strong in the rural
areas of South Africa. Women are not employed as operators, forklift drivers or generally
in higher paying jobs. Because women are generally employed to do non- skilled work they
from the majority of lowest paid workers at the Winery making the struggle for a living
wage even more important for them. ---- The strike is particularly important for women not
just because they earn the lowest wages but also because the mobilisation of workers has
raised awareness not only around the issue of a just wage and better working conditions,
but also around issues of equality. Women must be treated equally and given equal
opportunities to do jobs like machine operators and fork lift drivers. Other unfair
practices like people getting positions if their family work there are also issues that
are coming to the fore as workers fight for a more just and equitable workplace.
As leaders in the strike women have been at the forefront. Most of the committee leaders
are women. The strike has set up different committees to deal with the different aspects
that arise during strikes, these include fundraising committee, taxi/transport committee,
education committee, lobbying committee and door to door mobilisation. This is ensuring
that women's voices are heard and their role in the strike, the workplace and the union is
being valued.
A strike is a huge sacrifice that workers make for justice now and in the future, none
more so than for single mothers who have no other source of income. Their entire family
relies solely on their low wages and whilst this is a huge hardship women have been very
strong in the strike. Women more than most understand the importance of getting a living
wage for them and their children's futures. Any increase of R 6000 and above will at least
be a living wage. Women are excited about getting a living wage and are willing to fight.
The Commercial Stevedoring Agriculture and Allied Workers' Union (CSAAWU) with support
from other unions across the world and comrades in South Africa have been handing out food
parcels which are helping. Women in the community are also showing strong solidarity to
the striking workers, neighbours are helping and the community is making soup for hungry
workers. One of the main purchases of the strike fund is nappies and milk to ensure that
children do not suffer.
The lesson that is coming out of the strike for women in particular is that we need to
support each other in really hard times. Before the strike a lot of the women did not know
each other and now they have learned from each other and are getting to know each other.
Through workshops women are learning each other's weaknesses and strengths. We are
learning that it is important for women to work together and attend workshops because they
build solidarity which keeps everyone going.
Our Comrades at FOS SA interviewed Anell (29), a worker of Robertson Winery, who is
demanding a living wage of R8 500, says:
"I have been working for Robertson Winery for 8 years now. It is tough. We need to provide
for our children. I am a single mother of a seven year old boy. I live with my sister
because I cannot afford a home of my own. As a mother you sacrifice a lot. I will go
hungry to bed if that means my son can have food for dinner."
"I want to give him what I never had but it's tough. He wants to be an advocate. But I
don't even have money for a house, how am I going to afford the school fees? It hurts me
as a mother. I will have to bury his dreams."
Related Link: http://ilrig.org
http://anarkismo.net/article/29860
------------------------------
Message: 4
What this paper does... ---- The left talks about class in ways that are often
contradictory and confusing. This paper represented our collective use of class and how
we understand exploitation. The scope of what we cover means that it necessarily makes
sweeping generalisations but the goal is to sketch what our collective perspective is
around these, not to be an educational resource in itself. ---- How We Talk About Class
---- The most common way that class is talked about in the global north is an ideological
‘common sense' definition of class which focuses on poverty & wealth in themselves, formal
education received and often most importantly whether those who work primary use their
physical strength or their brains. This is reflected in the deeply ideological expression
of politicians and media that ‘we are all middle class now'. That is that almost no-one in
the global north is working class outside of small population highly marginalised by
poverty and snobbery.
A more radical variant of the same often espoused on the left insists there is still a
significant working class because as well as manual workers that class also includes the
unemployed, and most of those in service industries including the public sector. This
variant puts emphasis on the capitalist class and tends to minimise the existence of the
middle class, outside of using it to describe their political opponents on the left.
The section of the left influenced by intersectional feminism is a sub set of this where
class is an added oppression rather than also being the core of exploitation. Here it is
‘classism' that must be opposed, although we prefer the directional term snobbery. That
is the criminalisation of the lower classes - often very much linked to racism - and the
fact that people with certain accents or who live in certain districts are discriminated
against. All this is to be opposed but it's not a compete picture of the way living in a
class society deeply shapes every aspect of our lives and that society. This can only be
fully understood through the lens of exploitation.
Leaving opposition to snobbery aside we prefer to talk about class with the following
broad divisions
A. A working class or proletariat that includes the vast majority of society. Basically
all of us who lack capital and therefore need to work for others plus those that have only
enough capital to survive - substance farmers remain a large minority of the worlds
population, street traders are another example.
B. A capitalist class that comprises people who would have no need to work to remain
wealthy and who continue to generate wealth by having others work for them, either
directly or through rent. This class is less than 1% of the population.
C. A middle class of small landlords, shopkeepers and very well paid functionaries which
includes top lawyers, civil servants, academics, media personalities and managers. That
class unlike the rest of us can accumulate substantial capital across their lifetimes. In
most societies it's probably 5-10% of the population.
This division we choose is functional. We choose it because anarchists we see the route
to freedom lying in a large part though the class conflict between the working class and
the capitalist class. If we increase our proportion of wealth generated through wage
demands their share of the wealth decreases. The working class is often so divided we
fail to articulate that common interest but the capitalist class remains fully aware of
and pursues its class interests. The position of the middle class is more complex, its
often well rewarded by the capitalist class but still subservient to it.
A successful revolution requires the working class to overcome its internal divisions and
so reach an awareness of itself as a class including an awareness of its own power to
transform society. This is why the struggle against oppressions is essential, it's the
existence of racist, sexist and colonialist ideology within the working class and the
privileges given to the white male sector in particular that produce and reproduce
divisions in the working class. Although we focus on exploitation in this paper it is not
somehow sealed off from oppressions, rather the creation and reproduction of class rule in
general and of capitalist rule in particular require the division and redivision of the
working class across multiple intersections.
Origins and Development of Class and Exploitation
1. For most of humanity's existence we lived in groups that had no class structure. There
was some labour specialisation but there doesn't appear to have been divisions in power
and wealth that were passed from one generation to the next. There is nothing natural
about class, its entirely something we have constructed.
2. Class appears to have developed around the same time and in the same locations as
agriculture. Agriculture and animal husbandry along with grain storage meant that
surpluses could be accumulated over time. Individuals and groups could lay claim to these
surpluses and the land on which they were produced. Warfare for the purpose of claiming
additional land, seizing food stores and animals and enslaving additional workers became
possible. A specialist class who ruled by the sword rather than working in the fields
came into being. The imposition of patriarchy allowed the members of this class to pass
on their power and wealth, primarily to male sons. From within this military group
emerged individual ruling families who often concentrated power absolutely in their hands,
sometimes founding dynasties that continued for many generations.
3. Most of the remaining 10,000 years of recorded history can be broadly described in the
above terms. That is broadly there was a specialist military command class that used
direct violence to rule over the classes. Exploitation was immediately obvious as the
soldiers physically sized the output of those who worked, torturing, killing and
imprisoning those who refused. New patriarchal religions came into being that emphasised
the divine nature of rulers, sometimes they were literally presented as gods.
4. A common re-occurring feature of such societies was the emergence of classes of
merchants who accumulated considerable wealth through trade. Quite often such groups were
suppressed and their wealth seized by the ruling class when their wealth became too
powerful or because the ruling class want to wipe out debts they had accumulated.
5. Most societies also contained a layer of skilled workers whose work meant they were not
so easily subject to the usual mechanism of exploitation through violence. Their skills
were rare and not easy replaced which gave them a limited form of power that could be
expressed through flight or even organised work stoppages. Even 3000 years ago we have
records of tomb builders at the Valley of the Kings in Egypt going on strike in the reigns
of Ramesses III, IX and X.
6. The emergence of capitalism in is the story of the successful effort of an emerging
European merchant class to demand universal democratic and legal rights that would serve
to protect its wealth from arbitrary seizures. Ironically a major component of their
wealth was the product of slavery and colonialism, i.e. accumulation built on seizing the
wealth and even bodies of people who were conquered by military force. This required the
creation of the racist and colonialist ideologies recognisable today to justify the
process of conquest and enslavement.
7. That accumulation of wealth allowed the emerging merchant class to use its monopoly of
capital rather than simple violence to accumulate further wealth. Rather than using slave
labour to crew ships or work in mines they paid mariners or miners a wage in return for
their labour on the voyage or in the mine. The factory system grew out of this where
machinery was used to allow a single worker to do the work that once many workers would
have done. Instead of the workers selling what they produced the output went to the
factory owner who sold it for profit and used part of that profit to pay the wages of the
worker. Machinery was expensive, far beyond what any worker could afford. The cost of
machinery and the space to install it along with the inputs needed to keep it running came
to be called ‘capital' and hence those with enough wealth were called capitalists.
8. The development of capitalism did require considerable violence, factories were
dangerous unpleasant places, early industrial cities were overcrowded, filthy and had high
mortality rates. Force had to be used to turn people into workers but once they were
workers it was the wage system itself that enforced capitalist discipline. Stripped of
land and any other means of subsistence workers either worked or they starved. This
working class was still a small minority but increasingly laws in general were framed
around the needs of the capitalist class to obtain and discipline workers.
9. The capitalist class were not a military class as previous rulers had been and their
birth of capitalism saw the emerging capitalist class of merchants and bankers come into
conflict with the old military feudal class. Parliamentary democracy and the ‘rule of
law' was born out of that conflict and the need of the capitalist class for a system that
would simultaneously protect them from the military class seizing their wealth but also
prevent the far more numerous classes of workers doing the same. Creation of that system
required mass revolutions that threw down the old feudal order and erected the new
capitalist order in its place.
10. Exploitation can be understood as the working of this system where the wealth
generated does not flow to those doing the work but rather those owning the capital. The
owners don't directly threaten the workers with violence, instead the workers depend on
the owners for work and indeed learn to be grateful for it. Today that capitalist class
are often talked of by media and politicians as ‘job creators' and ‘entrepreneurs' to whom
us workers should be grateful. In Ireland we are told we need to be grateful to super
profitable tax avoiding corporations like Apple and Google because they ‘create jobs'.
This underlines just how invisible exploitation has become. The focus is not on the huge
profits that are made on the brain of each worker but on the job being ‘given'.
Collectively agreed by WSM National Conference, Oct 2016
http://www.wsm.ie/c/class-and-exploitation
------------------------------
Message: 5
The two-day 26 and November 27 was held in Patras in the 2nd Congress of Anarchist
Political Organisation, which started with the process of open political account on the
1st day of the presence and action of A.P.O. the anarchist movement, the operating
experience of the organizational structure and continued to update its strategy and
positions in relation to the political situation and the evaluation of institutions and
initiatives. ---- The conclusions and observations of collectives-states after the first
year of operation, resulting from the common basis of our constitution. The notion that
A.P.O. as an organic part of the broader movement against state and capitalist barbarity,
refers to it and is trying to become a ground for overcoming the partial reflective and
protest, in order to create an overall anarchist revolutionary proposal, drawing
inspiration from the struggles of today. Games which in the overall decline of social and
class reflexes, creating mounds in the imposition of modern totalitarianism keeping open
the way for social and class counter attack.
This way he wants to close the bankrupt political, economic and value-system, so shielded
against the prospect of the dynamic expression of general social discontent, both locally
and internationally. The general crisis of the world of the state and the bosses leads
mathematically in a way, if not established a wide and international front struggle and
resistance. In conflict societies, the generalization and intensification of geopolitical
rivalries and warfare to the limits of a great war and the establishment of emergency
regime as iron control and suppression grid every aspect of social activity.
The collapse of development and consumer "visions", the intensification of the
international political crisis that comes as a result, the huge gap between the
impoverished social majority and transnational political and economic elites, the
intensification of the exploitation of workers and the disintegration of social and class
conquests decades is the only way for the state and capitalist dictatorship. Where as if
still trying to mislead using rags of "left-right" of pseudo-dilemmas, unconvincing widely
walks.
This weakness of the state-capitalist system to derive consensus in the plans and
policies, will be readily visible and usable for the oppressed to the extent that they can
organize social and class in collectives and unions to take their lives in their hands .
It will be a loading point for the anarchist movement to the extent that will overcome the
playback restrictions of imposed by organizational deficiencies and distortions of
political values and contents. The organized political presence and action in the fight
fronts existent and establishing new, we want to be the bridge between the real social
needs and moods and anarchist ideology and practice, that the resistances become
springboards social and class emancipation.
In constant international instability and turmoil systemic policies stable, born the great
potential of its revolutionary emancipation. Opposite already formed the
counterrevolutionary extreme right and fascist facet of modern totalitarianism to get as
ultimate barrier to the development of social history, which goes through the ceaseless
struggle for freedom and equality. War and fascism, this is the "response" of the system
in a comprehensive and deep crisis in its own contradictions, who causes the incurable
conflict imposed by the basic principle, the exploitation and oppression of man by man.
The hierarchically structured relationships that produce this basic principle of
inequality and unfreedom separate societies based on class position, ethnicity, skin
color, gender. Patriarchy is still one of the foundations of the world power and a key
element of social reproduction in the form of social cannibalism. Modern expressions -
such as the rise of gender violence, the intensification of the exploitation of women in
the workplace, traffic in immigrants (trafficking), the specific conditions experienced by
women refugees in uprooting trip and incarcerated in concentration-camps intensified as
intensifying the attack of the dominant social body, promoting the deepening inequalities.
Within these conditions, the struggle of women for their liberation from the shackles of
patriarchy is more than ever an integral part of the broader struggle towards total
abolition of the capitalist state and enforcement, on the road to social revolution.
At the time of take-off of the state's attack and the bosses, the main pillars of the
establishment of world powers trying to convey the rotting state, the capitalist and
patriarchal way of organizing society. The spread of racism and promote social ekfasismou
comes as a continuation of the institutional consolidation of the state of exception for
the downtrodden and outcasts, their status as "unnecessary people" incarcerated in
concentration camps and creating walls to Fortress Europe.
In Greece, in recent months the isolation operation and ghettoization of tens of thousands
of refugees who originally built up a supposedly "humanitarian" pretext to justify the
social and political isolation run of refugees and immigrants, today takes the form of
overt attack by the state and para-state forces. The repressive operation against the
refugee hosting squatting was an important point where the "political management" of the
devastating effects of warfare and looting of the capitalist periphery, revealed its true
face by implementing the process of wild subjugation of refugees and migrants, who live in
squalid conditions in the concentration camps of the Republic. The ideological and
repressive attack against unmediated solidarity, paving the way for the manifestation of
social ekfasismou. The repressive operations and mintiaka racist delusions accompanied by
the increase of both fascist attacks against refugees and migrants and against race venues.
This is a coordinated attack on the part of the regime's forces in order to prevail in the
social field the racist and Cannibalism live resistance outbreaks hit. And in this attack,
as well as the overall worsening of operating conditions, the current political
administration has worked as a catalyst having the main responsibility for the spreading
of defeatism and frustration and weakening the resistance. This attack is an expression of
the consistent pursuit of state and parastatal rabble seeking to bow their heads who
refuse to accept the dissolution of their lives through the intensity of labor
exploitation, fear of unemployment, destitution personalized.
Their aim is to be accepted as inevitable a reality where the great majority will lack
obvious social rights such as housing, medical care, heating, and the streets will be
parading the militarized repression bodies. To be considered self-evident absurdity of the
depletion and destruction of the natural world. To hit the social and class movements and
especially anarchiko-
antiauthoritarian against which prepares one repressive campaign that seeks not only to
the limit and to stop, but to bring overwhelming blows as it recognizes in it a real
threat to the proper enforcement of the plans of political and economic elites who want to
impose social and labor camp conditions.
The grim prospect of the establishment of modern totalitarianism only threatened by the
flames of the games, we want to strengthen and synolikopoiithoun. From these struggles of
our time, the dynamic resistance gather inspiration to continue.
From solidarity mobilizations to refugees and immigrants nationwide against borders and war.
The fascist actions of Oreokastro and eastern Macedonia and the Aegean islands, and
"territorial battle" in urban neighborhoods towards the fascist assault battalions.
From the struggles to defend the natural world and the survival of local communities in
Slag and Achelous, who have nothing to expect from the facilitators and the hollow and
deceptive promises and that can be developed on the basis of self-organized solidarity.
From militant mobilisations of Assembly Epanaoikeiopoiisi Exarchia against narco-mafias,
the state and social cannibalism, that revitalize resistance and kinematics culture in a
historical symbolic field for the match.
From blocking movements first home auction, which is a social and class self-defense
field with their own content as confrontational to those who want to find there votes
pumping space.
Since the strikes and blockades to defend class achievements such as' Sunday on holidays
"in conditions of generalized employer terrorism and to build the self-organized trade
union base.
Since the protests against local and international masters and demonstrations on May Day,
the December uprising and the Polytechnic. On the international solidarity and all those
who stand in Mexico, France, USA, Turkey.
The games in every corner of our land suggest to the international attack the state and
capital is requested of the International from below, the World of matches and Anarchy.
Faced with the onslaught of decadent authoritarian world we have to oppose the solidarity
of our common struggles. Against the dystopia of modern totalitarianism, where the large
majority impoverishes and subjugated, oppose libertarian society, organized through the
federal social councils "Freedom of everyone and equality for all."
AGAINST THE RULE OF DICTATORSHIP AND BOSSES,
WAR, misery AND MODERN TOTALITARIANISM
KI RACE ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION
FOR ANARCHY AND libertarian communism
POLICY anarchist organization-FEDERATION collectivity
December 2016
------------------------------
Message: 6
https://youtu.be/bBQ6wzC_Ipc ---- On December 2, 2016, in the community of Alacatlatzala,
Guerrero, an indigenous and popular armed group was founded, with its principal goal being
to manage their own security and that of their families, lands and territories, due to the
immense and increasing violence and extortion these communities exist in, far removed from
"progress" and the assistance of the Mexican government. As such, under the principles of
autonomy and popular sovereignty, dozens of indigenous Na' Savi people have taken up arms
- though they clarify that it is symbolic - in order to create a collective rupture with
organized crime, municipal police and the army, who have led the way in trampling the life
and peace of this and other communities that form the Regional Coordinator of Justice &
Security and the Citizen & Popular Police (CRSJ-PCP), also formed on a December 2, but in
2012, December 2 being the date when teacher and revolutionary Lucio Cabañas Barrientos
was murdered.
Let's help this struggle, spreading their word worldwide! Long live the autonomy of our
peoples!
Related Link:
http://rupturacolectiva.com/born-an-indigenous-armed-group-in-the-guerreros-mountain-we-fight-from-the-autonomy-for-the-life-and-the-territory/
Embedded Video Description: Embedded video Youtube Video
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29857
------------------------------
Message: 7
These are additional thoughts on the politics of Milo. ---- Milo Yiannopoulos came to
Michigan State this past week. He works at Breitbart and is touring U.S. college campuses
in an attempt to build student support for “Daddy” Trump and for a war. Milo spoke about
cultural war against Islam becoming a real war to retake “Constantinople” and to “nuke
Mecca.” His talk to right wing students focused on attempting to incite and increase
hatred of Muslims and to build support for war. ---- Milo preaches Christianity and
Capitalism and Private Property and War, same old crap, different day. In his talk, he
tried to be funny by attacking women, Muslims, and Detroit. It all seemed to fall flat.
His attacks on Hilary and communism were stuck in the past, much like his apparent
yearning for a return to the Roman Empire, the Crusades and the British Empire. It’s all
gone, Milo. He seems to pin his hopes for empire now on the U.S. and Trump and war.
He represents a serious danger to women; he says rape is a joke and thus encourages sexual
predators to attack women. This appears to be why some of the men came out of the
manosphere to see Milo. There were a number of women who came to see him as well, a
minority but a significant number, many of whom appeared to laugh at his jokes against
feminism and women’s studies, jokes about rape and putting women back in the kitchen and
not allowing women to drive as in Saudi Arabia.
Milo is doing another kind of Trump victory tour. He is trying to build youth and lame
hipster support for attacks on women, people of color, and most especially on immigrants
and Muslims. With his talk of retaking Constantinople, which is Istanbul, Turkey, Milo is
calling for a U.S. and British and European war on Turkey and the Muslim countries of the
Middle East and North Africa. He also seeks to focus anger on Muslim immigrants in Europe
and the U.S. and on anyone who is a Muslim in these countries. Milo says it’s the whole
religion of Islam and all Muslims who are the enemy and should be attacked. This is the
road which embraces racist and fascist attacks on Muslims and women and people of color
and which is designed to lead to fascist solutions and to world war.
That’ what Milo is peddling, nothing funny about it.
http://m1aa.org/?p=1334
------------------------------
Message: 8
Black Chronicles is a series of interviews with various anarchists who are in Venezuela,
overcoming the vicissitudes of living in the XXI century socialism, as an account of the
times we are going through. Men and women who from the daily life try to resist the boot
and the precariousness that we are subjected to. ---- In this edition, we have the
presence of Glauber González, fellow libertarian of the East and troubadour of the musical
project "Pense e Reaja" that will be talking about what it's like to be a dad in Venezuela
today. ---- Question> An anarchist troubadour in Venezuela ... How is it to be a
libertarian in 21st century socialism? ---- Answer < It's complicated ... ---- Question>
I know you are Dad ... How are you dealing with the shortage and the child in Venezuela?
Answer < It is very difficult, because if you have money for diapers, medicines or milk
can not buy the product, and if you get it costs 10 times more than the normal price.
Question> Do you face queuing or buying products in bulk? Which side of the force are you?
Answer < Sometimes I queue sometimes collaborate with "bachaqueo"[activity related to the
movement, sale and storage of subsidized products], and sometimes look for other
solutions. I am against the government and it is so depressing, frustrating and sickly
what they did to the Venezuelan, we are fucked psychologically and economically.
Question> Does clean water come into your house?
Answer < I lived in various places and where I currently live sometimes gets blurred,
sometimes dirty or strange smell.
Question> Do you suffer from constant blackouts? What do you do to keep food from spoiling?
Answer < Yes, "normal type", buying little food to avoid decomposition.
Question: Did not you think about emigrating?
Yes, but I did not have the opportunity.
Question: Have you ever been a victim of gangs? Where have you been lynching?
Answer < Yes, it was on the road, we stole the tires and took everything that was in the
car; As for lynching, people have the opportunity to fuck whoever steals it, I've seen two
cases.
Question> What is the attitude of the police or the National Guard in your community?
Answer < Besides disgusted with these puppets, as usual, make extortion, chips with the
weakest, the "matraqueo"[gunfire]is constant.
Question> How do you break away from boredom? Trapped, broke and living a socialism that
does not represent you?
Answer < Short my daughter.
Question> Do you think people are stubborn about this situation? Are people getting stuffy?
Answer < No, do not. As I said before, this administration fucked up psychologically with
the Venezuelan. We are back to being conformists, only complaining in the queues, or when
we burn tires ... There is dissatisfaction, but other types of actions are necessary.
Question> What should be the attitude of the anarchists in Venezuela at this juncture?
Answer < Simple, direct and organized action.
Question> To close this brief interview, would you like to add something?
Answer < Thank you for taking me into account in the interview, although I've been in a
stand by with the "Think and React". We hope to meet again soon in another anarchist
meeting and sing new songs that make us think and react.
Source:
http://rodolfomontesdeoca.contrapoder.org.ve/2016/11/cronicas-negras-nos-hemos-vueltos.html
------------------------------
Message: 9
The rise of a U.S. movement which rejects the legitimacy of Trump's presidency. ---- In
demonstrations across the United States, protestors have raised signs saying, "Not My
President!" Obviously they are not denying that state machinery has given Donald J. Trump
the position of head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ruler of the
mightiest and wealthiest state in the world. What they are denying is Trump's legitimacy
for the position, his moral right to claim the presidency. ---- Under the capitalist
system, electoral democracy serves several purposes. One is that it permits factions of
the ruling capitalist elite to struggle over their different programs (based on differing
interests) and to make final decisions-without civil wars or establishing a dictatorship
(both of which can be costly).
Another major purpose of capitalist democracy is that it fools the people into thinking
that they run the country. It lets them think that they are free people, not subjects of a
very rich minority. It distracts them from the fact that the day after an election, most
adults go to work (those who have jobs) and take orders from unelected bosses. This goal
requires that they see the government as legitimately representing the voters.
That became an issue even before the end of the campaign. Expecting to lose, Trump
insisted that the election was "rigged." He refused to say whether he would accept the
results if he lost. Politicians and pundits, Democrats and Republicans, were aghast! They
cried that it was contrary to the whole system to not accept the election results. It was
essential to peacefully hand over power. They reminded us how George W. Bush had lost the
popular vote to Al Gore, but that the Supreme Court majority had given the election to
Bush-and that Gore, as a loyal supporter of the system, had not fought it. Even earlier,
Richard Nixon believed that he had lost to John F. Kennedy only because (Nixon told close
friends) the Daley machine in Chicago had fraudulently overcounted votes for Kennedy. But
Nixon did not make a fuss. That was supposedly the American way!
The Rigging of the 2016 U.S. Election
The most obvious aspect of the unfairness of the 2016 election results is that Hillary
Clinton won the popular vote. She won almost 3 million more votes than Trump. Due to the
distribution of the votes, however, she lost in the archaic Electoral College. In the 18th
century, this was originally created to be a buffer between the voters and the election of
the president, to be a compromise between large and small states, and to strengthen the
power of the slaveholders. The distorting influence of the Electoral College is increased
by the "winner take all" rules of almost every state, so that Democrats in Texas and
Republicans in New York might as well stay home. No other capitalist democracy has such an
indirect system; in all others, the "popular vote" is just the "vote." Despite its obvious
injustices, the establishment has never made an effort to alter or abolish the Electoral
College.
Another major distortion of the election, was the vicious efforts of the Republican party
to suppress the votes of African-Americans, Latinos, young people, and other sections
which tended to vote Democratic. This was the first election since the Supreme Court ended
federal oversight of electoral changes in formerly segregationist states. The Republicans
went all out in trying to suppress the votes, especially of Black people. They limited
early voting, made new requirements that voters have state IDs, closed voting sites in
Black neighborhoods, dropped people from voting lists, and justified all this with lying
claims that there was a problem of "voter fraud." The Democrats fought back, winning court
cases and limiting the suppression, but the suppressors did their best to work around
these rulings. This is not to mention the long-term results of the high rate of
incarceration among African-Americans and Latinos, followed by the denial of the vote to
thousands of ex-prisoners, as well as the many legal residents who cannot vote.
Then the Republican head of the FBI, James Comey, interfered in the election. Eleven days
before the final vote, he announced that the FBI was going to investigate a new set of
emails which might have been sent by Hillary Clinton, implying that they might include
illegal material. At the time of his announcement, he had no information whatever about
the emails, but many voters got the impression that the emails' case was being reopened
and that Clinton had done something wrong. A week later, he announced that nothing had
been found-but the damage had been done (considering how close the vote was and also that
early voting had already started).
Meanwhile, agencies of the Russian government had hacked the emails of the Democratic and
Republican Parties-but only published emails from the Democrats, in order to embarrass
them and to help Trump get elected. Despite the evidence, Trump denied Russian involvement
and urged the Russians to do more hacking of Clinton's records. Republican leaders refused
to issue a bipartisan statement with Democrats denouncing the intervention in U.S.
elections. (But U.S. outrage is hypocritical, since the U.S. military and CIA have often
intervened in foreign countries to overthrow governments, elected or not.)
These negative effects are in the context of the generally undemocratic and unfair
political system of U.S. "representative democracy." The flood of big money into politics
has only increased since the "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling. The gerrymandering of
districts distorts the House of Representatives as well as the state legislatures. The
Senate has two Senators from each state, no matter the size of its population, elected for
six years. Supreme Court justices are chosen for life. And so on.
The Character of President Trump
The distortion of the electoral process is compounded by the nature of the new president,
Donald J. Trump. Hillary Clinton is just another establishment politician, close to Wall
Street and to hawkish foreign policy advisors. She and her husband had gotten rich while
in politics. Her only positives were that she would have been the first woman president,
and that she was not Trump. But Trump is something else, something way out of the box.
Personally he is vile and disgusting, the type of man whom most decent people would not
want to meet their families. A sexual predator, pathological liar, bully, cheater of his
workers and contracters, corrupt, and racist.
Politically, his policies are reactionary and dangerous. He denies the very reality of
climate change, which threatens the survival of humanity. While not personally a fascist,
he has opened the door for fascists and works with them. Even just in terms of competence,
for a politician he is uniquely ignorant of how the U.S. government works, at home and
abroad, and is unwilling to learn from others. He could set off an international crisis
just from ignorance and arrogance.
Whatever the results of the election, millions of U.S. citizens will not accept such a
person as their national leader.
Working Class Vote?
Yet a little less than half the voters did vote for Trump. (Somewhat less than half the
eligible voters did not vote at all.) They had mixed motives. Some were out and out white
supremacists. Many feared Latino immigrants and Muslim and Arab immigrants. Many hated
Hillary for good and bad reasons, because she was an establishment politician and also
because she was a woman. But also a great many reacted against the economic stagnation of
the last decades, the end of the post-World War II prosperity, the lack of good jobs, the
off-shoring of industry to low-wage countries, the loss of the "American dream."
Trump's victory, such as it is, is sometimes blamed on the "working class." But the
working class is much broader than older white male industrial workers. It includes
African-Americans and Latinos, who are mostly working class and who hated Trump. It
included young workers, who rarely supported Trump. It included many of the
"better-educated," many of whom are white-collar workers (such as teachers). It included a
lot of working people who did not vote for either Trump or Clinton, out of disgust for
both. Overall, it was not so much that Trump brought out new white working class voters,
but that Clinton lost many voters and voting groups which had previously voted for Obama.
The Democrats really had very little to say to working people. Around 1970 the Democratic
leaders had deliberately decided to stop looking to the working class and the unions, and
to focus on the "professional" middle class. (See Price 2016.)
It is usually safe for the Republicans to whip up their traditional base of small
businesspeople, lower middle class people, better-off and prejudiced white workers, and
religious fanatics. Even at their most hysterical, such forces do not threaten the
capitalist system. This time, however, these got out of control. They nominated, and then
elected, someone who was completely unsuited for the job of president. Still, they did not
threaten capitalism.
But it has always been dangerous for the Democrats to whip up their traditional base of
the working class: workers who are white and People of Color, male and female, straight
and LGBT, U.S.-born and immigrant. The workers' interests clash with those of big
business. Their needs require lowering the profits of the capitalist class. Their numbers
make them a majority of the population (if we count everyone who works for a wage or
salary, without being a supervisor). They have an enormous potential power outside of the
voting booth. The workers run the machines and processes of production, transportation,
communication, and all services. Democratically organized, in unions or councils, they
could stop the society in its tracks and even start it up in a different way. As far as
the Democrats are concerned, this must not happen; the working class must not become aware
of its power.
It is for these reasons that the Republicans can be vigorous to the point of nihilism in
mobilizing their base to fight for their views, but the Democrats have been mild and
compromising in their efforts, capitulating to the right again and again. However, the
very results of this election shows the limitations of the Democrats' methods, especially
of channeling all opposition into elections. We cannot beat the greater evil by relying on
the lesser evil.
Not Our President!
The limited, distorted, and corrupt system of U.S. "democracy" has produced this
abomination of a Trump presidency. Now the political establishment is mostly trying to
make its peace with Trump, if he will let it. The "Never Trump" Republicans have lined up
for jobs in the new administration. President Obama has been making nice to Trump, saying
that we must all hope that he "succeeds, because if he succeeds then we all succeed." (We
hope he fails.) Others are asking the public to keep an open mind. Meanwhile Trump has
been appointing ignorant, vicious, crackpots to important posts in his government and
tweeting inane and hostile comments.
We anarchists and revolutionary anti-authoritarian socialists do not regard any president
as "legitimate," nor any government or state. Undoubtedly it is better to live under a
capitalist limited democracy then under fascist or Stalinist totalitarianism. But either
way, the people live under the rule of a tiny minority (the "one percent," more or less),
which takes the lion's share of society's wealth. The government is supposed to be
democratic, but there is no pretense that the economy is anything but a set of top-down
corporate dictatorships. A participatory, self-managed, radically democratic society would
be drastically different from any form of capitalism and any form of state.
But a movement has been growing-one which at least rejects the legitimacy of this new
president. Right after the election results were known, demonstrations broke out all over
the country. People are organizing anti-Trump groups in communities across the land.
People have declared that they will resist any efforts to round up immigrants or to put
Muslims on lists. Under pressure, city governments have announced that they will not
cooperate with such measures, even if they lose money. Working class issues continue,
particularly the unionization of fast-food workers and the fight for the $15 minimum wage.
Black Lives Matter continues. The Standing Rock anti-pipeline struggle of Native Americans
and environmentalists has won a recent victory but continues to fight. The issue of
anti-fascism has been revived in people's awareness.
Dark days are ahead. The people of the U.S., working class and oppressed, are facing
perhaps the greatest crisis of our history. The failed U.S. political and economic system
has produced this evil Trump administration. Millions will not accept it. Anarchists and
other revolutionary libertarian socialists will not accept it. We will encourage massive
popular resistance in every area and in every way possible.
References
Price, Wayne (2016). Party of Which People? Review of Thomas Frank, Listen, Liberal.
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29505?search_text=Wayne+Price
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29862
------------------------------
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