Today's Topics:
1. wsm.ie: UPDATED: Anarchism, Oppression & Exploitation - WSM
position paper (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. wsm.ie: Radical bookfair to be held in Derry 28th January
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - unionism, La Poste, as
an employer other (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. FAU-IAA anarcho-syndicalist union Direct Action DA: On our
own behalf (de) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. karakok: ‘I helped create ISIS': Iraq War veteran says US
policy caused ‘blowback' in Middle East (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
This paper outlines how we the intersections of exploitation and oppressions and what
approach the WSM takes in relation to this. Our collective theoretical understanding is
framed in the WSM Constitution's core point of unity number 7: "We actively oppose all
manifestations of prejudice within the workers' movement and society in general and we
work alongside those struggling against racism, sexism,[religious]sectarianism and
homophobia as a priority. We see the success of a revolution and the successful
elimination of these oppressions after the revolution being determined by the building of
such struggles in the pre-revolutionary period. The methods of struggle that we promote
are a preparation for the running of society along anarchist and communist lines after the
revolution."
That theory is informed by the individual and collective experiences of WSM members over
30 years and our adaption of anarchism to our local contexts which includes specific
experiences of oppression and personal & historical experiences of the anti-colonial
struggle in Ireland and elsewhere. The development of this paper involved our own
experiences being placed alongside our discussions of the broad set of writings and
observations emerging from the anarchist and feminist study of the relationship between
gender, class and race and in particular what is often referred to today as
‘Intersectionality'.
1. In what follows we distinguish between exploitation and oppression/domination.
Exploitation being the process by which workers receive less than the value of what they
produce, the difference being taken by the capitalist. Oppression/domination being the
mechanisms of violence used to marginalise groups of people based on real and imagined
characteristics. So while workers are exploited many are also dominated through white
supremacy, patriarchy, snobbery and a wide range of other methods of domination. These
are not stand alone experiences separated off from each other, rather exploitation and
oppressions interact in a way that reenforces class rule and often serves to conscript the
more privileged sections of the class against the most oppressed, sometime literally as
police and soldiers.
2. The historical workers movement, of which anarchism is a part, has traditionally seen
its task as the self-emancipation of the working class from economic bondage and
exploitation. Therefore it is necessary to understand how that relates to the struggles
for liberation from domination and oppression.
3. All unfree societies throughout history have been based on relations of domination and
oppression as well as exploitation. Relations that are social rather than just personal.
In pre-capitalist societies the relations of production were such that exploitation was
imposed from the outside through the structures of domination. In such societies the
relations of domination and exploitation are effectively one and the same. In capitalist
society exploitation becomes integrated into the relation of production. Coercion appears
as an anonymous force (poverty) and social relations are increasingly separated into
political and economic spheres.
4. This relative separation means that liberal society becomes possible. Liberal society
is the specifically capitalist unfree society where the exploited are politically free
from bondage to any particular master, but remain economically unfree. This opens the
possibility for liberation from oppression of categories of identity whose domination is a
legacy of the social system recently replaced by capitalism. But it allows also for the
proliferation of new categories of identity, as identity is decoupled from the specific
capitalist relations of production and exploitation. This can allow the positive freedom
of exploring new ways of being and personal relations. But it can also provide a means of
creating new oppressions specific to the current phase of a particular capitalist
society's need to stratify, hierarchise and divide the working class. Class consciousness
must thus transcend, without suppressing, any particular identity. But that cannot happen
in the absence of solidarity in the struggle to overcome the oppressions that divide the
class.
5. Historically there has been a tension in the left (including much of our own previous
work) between recognising what is outlined above and still strategically going on to see
unity as being a question of identifying the main contradiction in society and lining up
behind a single unifying identity, most often that of a white, male industrial worker. A
‘Unity is Strength' approach has then all too often meant the silencing or minimising of
voices that do not easily fit into this identity.
6. In contrast to this approach we argue that there is a need to give voice to all
oppressions, even those that may not affect large groups rather than to silence such
voices behind a single representative figure. We recognise that, depending on their life
circumstances, people experience oppressions in different ways.
7. Neither is the route to solidarity found by competing to identify who are the ‘most
oppressed' so as to make them the alternative ‘representative figure' whose voice can then
override those of the ‘less oppressed'. The idea of trying to create a hierarchy of
oppressions, ranked in order of severity, is futile and counter-productive. Solidarity
requires accepting that difference cannot be subsumed under any single representative
figure whether of the most supposedly common or the most oppressed.
8. We aim to ‘join the dots' - that is to look at how oppressions and the intersections of
oppression relate to each other and impact the relationships between those in struggle. It
is through such an understanding and through ensuring that all voices are heard that a
meaningful unity in struggle will be forged and maintained.
9. However we see the need to recognise that people have multiple identities and our
challenge is to create a revolutionary movement capable of overthrowing all of the
oppressions and collectively creating a free society.
10. While we believe our movements must be based on our experiences this means movements
including WSM are shaped by who composes them. This composition will determine what
struggle they see as priorities, what they overlook and even the methodology they bring to
struggles. We aim to be conscious of and develop ways of counteracting such tendencies in
our own organisations and others we work in.
11. This theoetical recognition requires a collective effort towards minimising the
effects of marginalisation and privilege on the internal culture of the WSM by developing
both facilitation processes and anti-oppression consciousness-raising / training programs
for members & supporters.
12. Our role is to collaborate in the cultivation of spaces where those historically
marginalised by their oppression can speak and self organise. As an organisation we are
in solidarity with such organising efforts which of course will often also include some of
our own membership. We will will collectively support such work and amplify the agency of
the oppressed.
As agreed October 2016
Subject: Intersectionality, Class, Asylum
Topics: WSM, Gender, LGBT, Migration / racism, The Left
Geography: International
Source: Position paper
Type: Review
Author: WSM National Conference
http://www.wsm.ie/c/anarchism-oppression-exploitation-policy
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Message: 2
This coming January in Derry, activists will be holding its first evert Radical Bookfair.
In a statement on their web page organisers said: On Saturday 28th January 2017 the first
ever Derry Radical Bookfair will take place in Pilots Row Community Centre, Rossville
Street, Derry, BT48 6LP. ---- The event takes place on one of the busiest days of the
political calendar in the city which is during the Bloody Sunday week of events. Each year
the same venue itself hosts the annual Bloody Sunday events such as talks, films and
discussions around contemporary social justice issues. ---- At the moment the Derry
Radical Bookfair organising collective are finalising details. Click on link below for
more information: ---- www.derryradicalbookfair.wordpress.com ---- If you are an
independent bookseller, distributor or publisher and would like to sell and distribute
books, pamphlets, publications and other merchandise then please get in touch. Likewise If
you would like to have your social justice group or campaign to have a stall at this event
to highlight an issue or campaign then please make contact.
The Derry Radical Bookfair will help promote and display books of local, national and
international interest including social and labour history as well as themes covering
radical feminism, queer liberation, anarchism, marxism, republicanism and environmentalism.
On the same day this year the venue will also play host to an International Food Fair as
well as the Derry Radical Bookfair.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Email. radicalbookfair@gmail.com
Online. www.derryradicalbookfair.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/derryradicalbookfair/
http://www.wsm.ie/c/radical-bookfair-derry-28th-january-2017
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Message: 3
In 2012, a social crisis hit La Poste. Suicides and suicide attempts, stress, discomfort
with a walk-in business back in capitalism and away from the public service. The
management called to rescue a former CFDT - the accompaniment of the champions - Kaspar
who was giving birth to a report that was to save the company. Four years later, nothing
has changed, the social situation has even deteriorated. The postman-es therefore have
every reason to be in the street. ---- A banker at the head of La Poste, it shows! Since
the arrival of Philippe Wahl, La Poste made the shift to a company under the yoke of
financialisation. The weight of the subsidiary "La Banque Postale" in the profits pushes
management to want to Financial Sector spearheading the group, but especially want to
(make) replicating the banking model in all business strata especially in the pursuit of
profit at any cost.
Consequence: reduction of opening hours and closure of post offices, multiplication of new
services craziest mail as each other such examples succession electric meters or dog food
portage, subcontracting to excessive Package ...
Some appointments of 8 December
Paris: at 14 hours against the Senate
Nantes: up Britain at 10 am
Toulouse: on Capitol Hill Post Office at 10:30
Marseille in front of the Post Office at 10:30 Delphi (Metro Castellane)
Implications for wage earners and user-es
This strategy of a company that seeks above all the maximum profit is not without damage
to us. It is logical that the press took the tragedies we experience showing what we live
every day in the business: massive job cuts, deteriorating working conditions, contempt
for our personal lives. We should be providing La Poste such robots.
It is not without consequences for the user. The lunch break are introduced to the
factors, divisibility, restructuring PIC etc. may cause in fact the end of the six days of
distribution 7. The job cuts in the post offices, the weight of the Banque Postale induce
office closures and reductions of openness, but above all a will to transform some in
simple bank branches unmanned and only automata.
Strike at Saint-Denis (Reunion) in December 2015.
Responding to these attacks
The strike of December 8 is a first response we need to do. This is not class
collaboration of FO and CFDT unions by an agreement that still sells off once our
interests that our working conditions improve. These unions do not defend us but serve
their own interests bureaucrats. We must also think beyond our company, while other
companies suffer every day that we suffer. The issue of convergence is important.
It will also turn to the population. While some mayors resist, most accompanied by close
of business. The future of La Poste has to go through a real debate with the public.
The issue of socialization of public services out of the hands of capitalism, whether
private or state, whose future would belong to user-es-es and the postman is clearly relevant.
Leaflet in PDF for download
Follow the action
of postwomen postmen and
libertarian communists on
Franchisepostale.org
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?La-Poste-un-employeur-comme-les
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Message: 4
The Direct Action has not worked for some time. Now a new editorial team is starting its
work and will continue the direct action as an online medium. ---- It has become quiet
around the Direct Action (DA), very quiet even. Both small and large, financially strong
newspapers are currently struggling. There is even a separate word including Wikipedia
article for it: newspaper dying, which appropriately sounds like forest dying. ---- We too
were not spared. Since output 233 there was virtually no periodical DA more, partly
because a printed newspaper with their subscriptions requires a heavy administrative
burden; On the other hand, because we could no longer manage the financing and the
residues are over our head. We have decided for an abrupt end with horror and from now on
must adjust immediately to the work in March.
IT GOES ON
But there is also good news: a new editorial office, which has been going on for a few
weeks, has been found. However, we are moving our focus. Way from a printed newspaper to a
pure online edition of the DA.
We see this new beginning as an opportunity not only to carry the DA forward, but also to
further develop it and make it more interesting. For this, we have all the possibilities
available, which have an online format and in which there is a lack of newspapers.
We hope to have given you a little clarity about the fate and the sudden silence of the
DA. In order to appease the friends of the paper, there will be special editions printed
on special occasions.
We are looking forward to the neoliberal situation in the future with a trade union-class
struggle and to be able to tell you about current developments and clever ideas
YOUR DA ONLINE EDITORIAL TEAM
https://www.direkteaktion.org/2016-Dezember/in-eigener-sache
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Message: 5
Saying he had "helped create ISIS," an Iraq War veteran and US Marine is speaking out
about the atrocities and criminal activities he and his fellow soldiers engaged in during
the Iraq War, claiming he knew it would lead to "blowback" in the Middle East. ---- Former
Marine Vincent Emanuele's acknowledgement of responsibility comes in an article that was
posted on TeleSUR's English website, in which he hoped to answer the often raised question
of "Where did ISIS come from?" ---- "When I was stationed in Iraq with the 1st Battalion,
7th Marines, 2003-2005, I didn't know what the repercussions of the war would be, but I
knew there would be a reckoning," he wrote at TeleSUR. "That retribution, otherwise known
as blowback, is currently being experienced around the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen,
Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, France, Tunisia, California, and so on), with no end in sight."
Speaking with RT, Emanuele said his enlightenment came on his second tour to Iraq and was
the result of a simple question.
"I saw my fellow Marines kill innocent people, torture innocent civilians, destroying
property, mutilating dead bodies, running over dead corpses, laughing and photographing
people while doing so," he said. "For me it was very simple. I sat there in Iraq and I
asked myself ‘How would I behave?' ‘What would I think if I was in the shoes of the Iraqi
people?'"
In his article, Emanuele described how he and his platoon literally trashed Mesopotamia by
throwing garbage out of their Humvee, and pelting children with Skittles, water bottles
full of urine, rocks, and debris. He remembers stories told by soldiers of torture carried
out on detainees in makeshift detention facilities.
"I vividly remember the marines telling me about punching, slapping, kicking, elbowing,
kneeing and head-butting Iraqis. I remember the tales of sexual torture; forcing Iraqi men
to perform sexual acts on each other while marines held knives against their testicles,
sometimes sodomizing them with batons," wrote Emanuele.
This would have been at the height of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2003, which came to
public attention when Amnesty International published reports of human rights abuses by
the US military and its coalition partners at detention centers and prisons in Iraq. One
former prisoner of the US who survived was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is now the leader of
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
https://www.rt.com/usa/photos-us-burning-iraqis-653/
https://www.rt.com/usa/us-afghan-urinate-military-571/
https://karakok.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/i-helped-create-isis-iraq-war-veteran-says-us-policy-caused-blowback-in-middle-east/
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