Today's Topics:
1. Britain, afed: ‘A BOX OF ASHES, THE STATE AND THE NEXT
CUBAN REVOLUTION' - By Marcelo "Liberato" Salinas
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. freedom news: Protest to take on tip-stealers Harrods: Jan
7th (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Greece, ainfos.ca: Event - Debate with Tassos Theophilus
(gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Britain, liverpool Solfed: Case study: Wage theft at a
Liverpool hotel (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. fda-ifa: Swiss people preparing to protest Erdogan: "We
don't want dictators" (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. cnt.es: [F. Comarcal Sur] Tagliatella: solidarity and mutual
support for decent conditions - FC-Villaverde Alto (ca) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Britain, AFED, PICKET OF TURKISH EMBASSY LONDON FRIDAY 13TH JANUARY (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. Racism in Polish, racist state! rozbrat.org [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. Autonomen Den Haag - Anarchist Wallpaper #2 - Crisis?
Kapitalisme is crisis!, December 2016 is out (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
10. freedom news uk: A Radical 2017 - All We Need To Do Is Join
In (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
I. ---- Cuba without Fidel Castro. The thought that has been simmering alike in the minds
of his supporters and enemies for many years has become a reality. Requiring little effort
to sense it, the fact was perceived in public silence against the imposing state machinery
of national grief. Official spokespersons have been insisting that this silence is an
expression of mass dismay. The opposition have emphasised that the silence is but another
sign of fear of repression of those who would otherwise celebrate the death of Fidel
Castro during the official mourning. ---- But dismay or repressed joy were the not the
only things that have been felt in Cuba in this moment. Chatting with neighbours, friends,
family members and random people on the street we were certain that the death of Fidel
Castro could be transcendent for Cuba, for the world, and even for so-called "universal
history", but at the same time that this news would have little practical consequence on
the oppression of daily life without hope that, like everywhere, we live in dependant on
the extent of wage slavery.
Also there was not much to celebrate, considering the unstable panorama that Fidel Castro
leaves behind, with a brother whose 10 years of government is merited on relaxing the
authoritarian tensions that Fidel Castro left behind, whilst the essence of the system
stays undisturbed, creating a general condition similar to the reasoning of that other
well-known historical president-general Holguin[of Colombia]:
"[...]There are two types of socialism. One is anarchism and the other functioning under
the discipline of government. We must be realistic[...]We want to teach the people that
workers and capital are both necessary and must cooperate. We want to get rid of utopian
ideas that do not work, but that our people believe in."[1]
Implementation of this type of socialism in Cuba has had a longer story than the one the
Castro family have been telling us. The previous dictator, Fulgencio Batista, made a
fundamental contribution to the authoritarian socialism of The Island, as clearly
expressed in the paragraph above, which if we continue to ignore, we cannot have a precise
idea of the historical function of Fidel Castro in the history of Cuba.
On 20th November 2017 it will be 80 years since the date of the first political event
aimed at the people, summoned and organised by Colonel-Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, where
the Secretary of Work ordered mandatory service from all public employees from Havana and
the army was allowed to confiscate trains, lorries, trams, cars, etc. to gather 60-80,000
people in La Tropical Stadium, used as propaganda to promote the then triennial plan of
the previous dictator[2]. That was the first act in Cuba that would become a technology of
permanent mass mobilisation for the exclusive interest of the Cuban state, which would
then be managed for more than half a century with such skill by Fidel Castro. What in 1937
was a meaningless small authoritarian initiative in 1959 became an everyday tool and
presently involves all institutions and millions of people around the country. The
government procedures initiated by Batista then inherited and developed to perfection by
Fidel Castro leaves, in his death, the gates wide open for candidate successors to
rediscover, with surprise, that the most authentic political thinking of Batista and the
contribution of his commandant were shared by both governments in order to gain control of
Cuba through the machinery of the nation state.
If Fulgencio Batista did not have the courage, ambition or opportunity to break relations
with the predominant Yankee empire and to make the national state a reality, Fidel Castro
had the boldness and historical circumstances in his favour to defy the direct dominance
of the U.S. over Cuba. Under the sublime effect of that colossal purpose, added to a
Machiavellian arrogance, he managed to convert the state into a system. The simple phrase
of Batista "socialism under the discipline of a government" survived the disaster of the
last half century to be converted into a Cuban state of such imposing machinery that it
had no reservation in declaring on the 1st May 2008 that, "socialism is the national
sovereignty, meaning... national socialism".
Not only was Fidel Castro the great architect of "the revolution", but, and this is
something that his millions of acolytes cannot define with precision yet, his is most
obviously the Stalinist version of welfare state in Cuba, a model of governmental works
that emerged from the particular setting of the Island in the Cold war scene, as a
privileged ally of the Soviet Union in Latin America, which allowed the Cuban state to use
exceptional resources to launch emblematic programs of integrated education from
pre-school up to higher education level, free universal healthcare system, employment,
great urbanisation and fundamental civil improvement for the millions of people excluded
by the neo-colonial capitalism that has distinguished Cuba with the rest of the countries
of the region.
As in all places where this type of policy was implemented, it allowed a substantial
improvement of the level of the population's quality of life, but with it and at the same
time a strategic intention, a strengthening of state institutions, that have conducted a
true grand finale of the welfare of the Cuban state. But Fidel Castro did more than the
use of quantitative resources that were acquired from the privileged relation with the
Soviet Union. He converted the Cuban state into an influential actor on international
politics - including the decolonization of Africa and Asia and the expansion of the
anti-imperialist movements in Latin America - making Cuba an activist epicentre for those
with socialist tendencies who were not alienated to Soviet predominance. After the fall of
the Soviet empire, Fidel Castro and his immense international prestige resurrected a new
anti-neoliberal movement in Latin America, some of which became governments in important
countries of the region, and along with this the realisation of a Cuban State health
services programme for the excluded of the world which took a lot of Cuban medics to
remote places such as the Pakistani Himalayas or places nearer to Cuba like Haiti.
Nevertheless, we have to consider that all these anti-colonial and anti-neoliberal
movements that Fidel Castro sponsored from Cuba have found themselves, in the past 15
years, to be in a deep political, moral and epistemological crisis: from South Africa,
Angola, Algeria to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and on the road to that crisis Nicaragua,
Ecuador, Bolivia, El Salvador and Vietnam. And today, for third world countries, that
unprecedented and admirable program of Cuban medical services is a major source of income
of the Fidelist bourgeoisie that controls the Cuban state.
II
The death of the Maximum Leader occurs at a time when the Cuban state machinery that was
resurrected in 1959-60 is entering in another crisis of material reproduction, sunken in
investment expenses and social control that makes it unsustainable, but with a popular
legitimacy that maintains popularity in spite of all the desertions. The political elites
are taking advantage of this peculiar and beneficial situation to dismantle the Cuban
welfare state that has existed during the time of Fidel Castro and through the Cold war;
"No rush, but without pause", as General-president Raul Castro said. For this, it seems
that they are going to sell the country in pieces in order to sustain the state,
preferring to become allies with the big financial groups of the world so they can
refinance the debts, moving towards a socialisation of decision-making and control of
individual and groups over their lives, that embodies concrete reality rather than an
abstraction of propaganda, modest but concrete steps towards collectivisation of daily
life and the extinction of the bureaucratic and parasitic state.
In the interest of perfection and rationalisation of the capitalist state in Cuba, the
heirs of Fidel Castro have two fundamental tools which are also a legacy of Fulgencio
Batista. La Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (Workers' Central Union of Cuba) is a trade
union organisation that was born on January of 1939 as a product of the alliance of
Batista's political-military apparatus and the Cuban Stalinists, that today guarantees
total control of the workers' movement by the state. In 1939 a member of the communist
party Lazaro Peña, later known as "The captain of the working class", was selected by
Batista to lead the organising of the alliance. This was the very same person,
commissioned by Fidel Castro in 1960, who used his time in office to create a school of
opportunists and parasites that yielded a bunch of characters similar to Lazaro Peña such
as Pedro Rosas Leal and Salvador Valdez Mesa, who have dedicated their lives to maintain
and continue the legacy of Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro to make a socialism under
the discipline of government.
The Codigo de Defensa Social (Social Defense Code) of April 1939, the key element that
portrays the fascist spirit of Batista supporters, is yet another instrument inherited
from the Colonel-Sergeant Batista that has been ratified with different names and upheld
until the end of Fidel Castro's rule. Having been put into effect to regulate the death
penalty for political crimes and repressive injustice in general, it is a legal element
that is interestingly forgotten by all political tendencies whether pro-democratic or
pro-dictatorial. The Social Defense Code was not formally annulled by the constitution of
1940, neither in 1976 nor in 1992, and has been maintained because of its usefulness in
dealing with social conflicts that will be generated by the dismantling of the Stalinist
Cuban welfare state in the coming years.
After so many lives were destroyed, in the middle of this alleged antagonism, after so
many diabolic tortures that caused dementia and demoralisation, after so many mass
executions, bitter exiles, long sentences in horrendous prisons, after so many fiery and
sublime speeches, after so much arrogance and intolerance, that it will become more
visible with a cynical silence that a refined and unfinished ‘batistano' spirit will now
contribute to what statemen are calling an update of the economic model of Cuban socialism.
III
Earlier, in 10th January 1959, El Libertario newspaper had emerged out of the rigid
censorship that was imposed by the Batista political police. Soon after, it published a
text by the now forgotten anarchist militant Antonio Landrian who originally joined the
dots with his insights:
"The Fidelist revolution of July 26th has triumphed. Will their ideology succeed? What is
their ideology? Mainly freedom, or as they stress: liberation. From what? From Batista's
yoke? Bastita's yoke was violence, imposition, embezzlement, despotism, torture,
blindness, authoritarianism and subjugation. It was centralism, bribery, unconditional
servility.... As long as any pillar of the overthrown regime of Batista remains standing,
the revolution led by Fidel Castro will not have secured its victory."
With the exception of violence and police brutality, that in recent years ago has
temporarily become less public and visible in Cuba, all the other factors identified by
Landrian from the prior dictatorship remained intact after 1959, reinforced and developed
from then until the present day. And Landrian and his comrades who wrote for El Libertario
were not able to enjoy the freedom of the Fidelist revolution much after May 1960 because
they were censored, imprisoned, exiled or forbidden by the new "revolutionary" political
police.
Repression, embezzlement, tyranny, submission to slavery, centralism, bribery and
unconditional servility to the state machinery continued to exist in Cuba after the
defeated tyranny of Fulgencio Batista. The personal insights of our comrade Antonio
Landrian, that were lost in the tornado of history, became the structural basis of Cuba's
daily functioning right up to the funeral of Fidel Castro.
Some of my friends that were in the central park in the city of Artemisa[Havana
Province]were kicked out by the police and the agents of State Security after Fidel
Castro's death because "it was not the appropriate time to be in the park chatting".
Students at Havana university, had their rooms closed in the afternoon of 28th of November
after undercover police swarmed in, because "you have to go to Plaza de la
Revolución[Revolution Square]or stay on the street until the ceremony finishes", State
public transport in the capital was paralysed on 29th of November from midday to ensure
that the public were on the street to be pushed into the mass event at 7.00 p.m. Sports
activities in green areas close to any main avenue were forbidden and fines up to 1500
pesos (3 months of salary) were given to anyone caught consuming alcoholic beverages in
public on the days of mournin. These are just a tiny sample of the daily procedures of our
state defenders of supposed socialism in Cuba.
Fidel Castro left a country with one of the highest levels of education, health and
quality of life in America, but everything is pierced by the strategic interest of the
stable functioning of their state machinery, in the name of the fight against Yankee
imperialism and his local their local lackeys. Accomplishing this purpose has given rise
to a society that is on the verge of permanent migratory crisis and demographic collapse
on the horizon. In this the imperial Yankee politics have have a decisive role, but not
least determining that the dictatorship over the Cuban proletariat run by Fidel Castro has
converted Cuba into a territory populated with "... an enormous flock of wage slaves
(....) asking to be slaves so they can improve their life conditions..." In any part of
the world, this makes a reality of most painful nightmares of the Cuban ex-anarchist
Carlos Baliño in 1897 in his text False Prophecy (Profecia Falsa). This enormous flock of
wage slaves, erstwhile revolutionaries, were already living under greater moral and
material depravation when Fidel Castro delivered his speech of 1st May 2000 on his latest
concept of revolution, saved from oblivion during the time of his funeral, where he
assured that, "Revolution means changing everything that must be changed". Looking back 50
years ago it is pragmatically clear that the omitted subject of that sentence is without
any doubt the revolutionary population that once existed; in the year 2000 the omitted
subject of that sentence is none other than Fidel Castro himself, with his capacity to
manoeuvre and with his imposing ideological-police apparatus. In that year he had shown no
shame whatsoever in omitting revolutionary people from the concept of revolution, aware
that they had already been castrated of their capacity for reflection and
self-determination and, therefore, no longer able to be the subject of a speech, much less
to be the subject of their own history.
During the long days of official mourning that we are living in, in Cuba, it was becoming
increasingly obvious that new expressions were emerging, "I am Fidel!", expressing very
well the condition of collective amputation. And in between that enormous sea of flags,
pictures and posters that appeared on T.V., from Santiago de Cuba[Eastern City]there was
one poster carried by a woman saying, "I am Fidel!! To Order!!". Such grammatical and
existential imbalances will be increasingly frequent in the public's shock realisation
that the arrogant incarnation of power in the history of Cuba has been converted into a
single box of ashes, a country that will have to learn to live without the orders of its
Commander in Chief. And perhaps to learn along the way that they need neither more
commanders nor further orders, but rather more fraternity, more self-organisation, less
vile and moral misery between those at the bottom, more responsibility for our own lives,
more social imagination to defeat the spirit and the representatives of the new Fidelist
parasitical and bureaucratic bourgeoisie, who today are restoring capitalism and its old
horrors in Cuba right in front of our noses and pretend to be crying when really they are
partying.
Everything that facilitates this learning will be a direct contribution to the next
revolution in Cuba. Anything that hinders its discovery by the people will be the most
precise and updated expression of anti-revolution. The proportion by which Fidelism
succeeds as a ideological current in the future, inside and outside of Cuba, will be an
exact expression of how much the moral bankruptcy of authoritarian, statist and
progressive leftism in the world has advanced, and to what extent they will continue to
put on the table the need to keep it going, "how to lay the foundations of the social
order of Today, and make others safer, without the house coming down?" as Jose Marti wrote
in 1890, reflecting about "...... that tender and radiant Bakunin".[3]
Notes
[1]Thanks to a researcher from the U.S., Robert Whitney, we have access to this document
that is to be found in the book "Estado y revolución en Cuba" published by the Editorial
Ciencias Sociales (Social Sciences Editorial), Havana in 2010, p.230.
[2]All the press of the time covered this news and the researcher Robert Whitney, in the
same book mentioned above, page 283, talks about this event using U.S. governmental
sources. See: U.S. congress archive Mr to Mr Eden, Havana, 2 December 1937
PRO/FO/A/9019/65/14, no.171.
[3]José Martí complete works, Volume 12, En los estados Unidos. page. 378, Chapter 34
Desde el Hudson, in Editorial Ciencias Sociales, Havana, 1982.[Citing letter from José
Martí published in La Nación, Buenos Aires, 20 February 1890, written from New York U.S.A.
(Nueva York), 9th January 1890].
See also: https://afed.org.uk/?s=cuba
https://afed.org.uk/a-box-of-ashes-the-state-and-the-next-cuban-revolution/
------------------------------
Message: 2
Union activists and supporters of restaurant staff at Knightbridge department store
Harrods will be demanding that its grasping owners show some respect by giving 100% of
tips back to chefs, waiters and porters, rather than stealing away up to three quarters
for Qatari royals. ---- The firm, which was bought by Qatar Investment Authority in 2010,
is currently grabbing up to £5,000 per employee every year by pocketing service charges
rather than sharing it out to staff - contributing to a 40% increase in operating profit
and record sales for the seventh year in a row. ---- Harrods said it was "reviewing the
way it shares out service charges" last month after balking at threats of a Christmas time
strike, but is still refusing to offer any concrete numbers and staff are determined to
make sure store bosses don't play them for fools. Organisers with the United Voices of
the World union (UVW) said:
Whilst a pay rise for nearly 500 workers is always welcome, especially at Christmas time,
UVW is not satisfied and will not rest until 100% of the service charge goes into the
pockets of the workers and not the Qatari royal family.
There are also other problems that plague the workers at Harrods' esteemed culinary
department. For example, the waiters are on minimum, poverty wage or a few pennies more,
plus they are understaffed and overworked.
Taking any percentage of the service charge, which customers think is going to the
waiters, is unacceptable. Taking up to 75% is an utter disgrace.
The protest outside Harrods (87-135 Brompton Road, SW1X 7XL) will run from 2pm-6pm on
Saturday. Facebook event page here https://www.facebook.com/events/1133047913458998/
https://freedomnews.org.uk/protest-to-take-on-tip-stealers-harrods-jan-7th/
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 16:43:01 +0200
Event - Debate with Tassos Theophilus and member Assembly of solidarity in the struggles
of punishing prisoners.
- The case of Tassos Theophilus
- the race communities of prisoners
- the hellish prison of Korydallos
Friday 13/1/20017 18:00 (strictly)
In libertarian sabot area (Gkarmpola 4)
Libertarian Initiative Thessaloniki
lib_thess@hotmail.com
http://ainfos.ca/gr/ainfos02794.html
------------------------------
Message: 4
At the end of last month anarcho-syndicalist group Liverpool SolFed helped a worker on a
precarious contract to force a prestigious Liverpool hotel to pay her wages they'd stolen.
Her testimony below talks about the problems being faced by migrants in Britain today
facing, alongside unscrupulous employers, a system of checks on everything from references
to getting a bank account that work to undermine people's will and ability to stand up for
themselves. And of the importance of organisations which help us to support one another in
the face of such tactics. ---- Looking for a job was not as easy as I thought. In order to
start working, I needed a bank account, but to open a bank account can be hard, since
banks are not allowed to open an account without a work contract.
When looking for a house, we faced similar problems. Agencies asked us for a minimum stay
of six months. References from previous jobs in the UK and UK guarantors were also
required. Dealing with private landlords can be easier, but you are going to face problems
if looking for a short stay as I was.
Sometimes these people - agents, bankers and officials - seemed like computers more than
humans. Therefore, their ways to fix problems is far from reality and thus extremely
inefficient - one of the thousands of bureaucratic contradictions.
However, after proper preparation of my CV and cover letter and an application for a
National Insurance Number, I found a job in three weeks for a major hotel services
company. This company hired workers and distributed them to different hotels throughout
the country.
My duty was to clean rooms in one of the best located and prestigious hotels in the city
of Liverpool. In the first meeting with my manager, I found out that the minimum wage for
me would be even lower because I was under 25 years old, that my contract was just verbal
and I would not have a written contract until after two months working there, and that
some workers were working there under "zero hours contracts." This means that you do not
have any guaranteed working hours. I say "I was able to find out," because nobody
explained my working conditions to me, either at the beginning or end of my work
experience there.
The fact that we had come from abroad also gave us problems, a reality that I could share
with my colleagues, as most of them had come from Eastern Europe. I have a precious memory
of them, for their enormous working capacity and fellowship. Those with the longest
experience were forced into higher productivity to keep their jobs. This means more rooms
and less time per room, even when we were paid per hour.
I also had problems as the work had to be fast and impeccable. I could endure - some days
better than others - working with pressure and alone, but the worst was to come. After two
weeks of work, pay day had arrived, but not the money. I waited two weeks more, and
another two. Then I received my first payment. It didn't correspond to all of the hours I
had worked, not even to half of them.
At the hotel they hardly gave me any explanation when I asked. They did not consider the
problem as their own, even though I was working in their hotel. As I mentioned earlier, a
large part of the staff are outsourced by a larger company that was in charge of the
payments. There were some other colleagues in my situation. The pace of work left us no
time to spend exposing our complaints, and none of our managers cared to explain anything
to us.
I was feeling desperate. I was afraid to leave my job without receiving my salary and I
needed that money to cover all the expenses of leaving my country and living in the UK.
Through my partner I knew of Solidarity Federation (SolFed), an anarcho-syndicalist union
in Liverpool that was being re-organised by, among others, some compatriots with a bit of
experience in industrial action in the UK.
As soon as we contacted them, they offered us support. If someone had told me before that
it would be necessary for me to be reminded of my rights and my legitimacy to fight for
them, I would not have believed them.
In situations of vulnerability, when your life is just your job, when everywhere you are
continuously reminded that you are an immigrant, you end up believing that you are
entitled to less rights. When you are afraid of not receiving your salary, and furthermore
when you depend on it, you end up believing that to demand the wages owed to you is
something that you should not do. It is in these moments when other people's support is
really needed so you can make your demands happen without feeling bad.
So, with SolFed comrades' support, I started to act. I contacted the company again, but
this time in conjunction with SolFed, and after a week I had the whole amount owed. My
gratitude to these comrades is infinite, not only for helping me recover my money, but for
reminding me that when we organise we are stronger and for demonstrating that these kinds
of organisations and actions are effective. In short, there is still hope.
Against power, counter-power.
This article first appeared at the liverpoolsf blog
https://freedomnews.org.uk/case-study-wage-theft-at-a-liverpool-hotel/
------------------------------
Message: 5
The Cyprus talks led by the United Nations (UN) will recommence in Geneva, Switzerland on
January 9 after the break. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to attend
the conference on January 12, the last day of the talks between January 9-12. ---- Turkish
Deputy Secretary General and Spokesperson of the Presidency Ibrahim Kalin announced that
President Erdogan was to attend the last day of the talks in Geneva in a comment he made
recently. ---- "WE DON'T WANT DICTATORS IN GENEVA" ---- Swiss leftist and socialist
circles and people from Kurdistan and Turkey sprang into action after the news spread that
Erdogan was going to visit Geneva. ---- People say "We don't want dictators in our country
and our canton" on social media and point out that Erdogan shouldn't be coming to
Switzerland. ---- HDK Switzerland constituents and Swiss leftist and socialist circles are
preparing for a protest in front of the United Nations on January 12.
The Swiss people are calling Erdogan's visit to Geneva "a dark day for Geneva, known as
the center for human rights" and point out the level of human rights violations in Turkey
in social media posts.
As reactions against Erdogan's plan to visit Geneva grow, eyes turn to Swiss political
parties, NGOs and many deputies who harshly criticize Erdogan's anti-democratic practices
and call Erdogan a dictator.
https://karakok.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/swiss-people-preparing-to-protest-erdogan-we-dont-want-dictators/
https://fda-ifa.org/swiss-people-preparing-to-protest-erdogan-we-dont-want-dictators/
------------------------------
Message: 6
The media and the consumer society in which we live teach us an image of tender Christmas,
full of happiness and love. Something that is far from our reality, we are waitresses,
cooks and pikas, who work these holidays so that others can enjoy, which often prevents us
to be with the faily and enjoy that warmth home Who are determined to sell us. ---- Like
most of the working class, we have precarious salaries that prevent us from spending a
bundle on gifts, decoration or food, so that our few Christmas meetings have nothing to do
with the overloaded images and full of luxury that bombard us day Yes and day too. ----
Once again the anarcho-syndical, once again the CNT, again slap capitalism and a lesson of
mutual support and worker dignity.
One day before the twelve bells, while those released from CCOO of the company committee,
those same people who signed our distressed agreement, are in their house preparing the
seafood to welcome the new year, the comrades and companions of CNT were planted In front
of different restaurants of La Tagliatella to inform clients and workers of our working
conditions, and show them that CNT supports them and encourages them to organize against
the injustices we suffer.
The delegates of the Trade Union Section of CNT went to the Alcalá street restaurant,
demonstrating once again that their little men are of no use to us and until there is a
firm commitment to improvement by the company the conflict is still open.
From the union of CNT Gráficas, simultaneously they went to the doors of the Tagliatella
of Jacinto Benavente where they distributed envelopes with the claims and included
Christmas greeting, being able to speak with the staff which told them their experience in
that franchise and others that They had worked.
Working in Salamanca also breathed dignity: the same day, same time, comrades were CNT
Salamanca we showed "the strength of the working, solidarity"
http://salamanca.cnt.es/2017/01/01 / A-the-doors-of-the-restaurant-la-tagl ...
From the SOV of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias they also make it clear that "if we touch a"
touch us all "is not only a shout of the pickets, it is a reality. This time they had
Nudge including the head, and that being a franchise trying to disassociate themselves
from the mark at all costs, but will not wash, if the door of your restaurant La
Tagliatella you put these in the bag http: //cntlaspalmas.blogspot .com.es / 2016/12 /
solidarity-with-the-companer ...
This is only a sample of the support we have received in this Christmas campaign, but we
must thank the entire Confederation for their effort and commitment to our conflict.
Supporting us through RRSS, with banners throughout the territory, emails to the company, etc.
We continue in the fight, we continue in the street until the company enters the head that
they are more interested in having the template happy, than an open conflict with the CNT.
CNT Trade Union Section La Tagliatella Southern Regional Federation
http://cnt.es/noticias/f-comarcal-sur-tagliatella-solidaridad-y-apoyo-mutuo-por-unas-condiciones-dignas
------------------------------
Message: 7
12-2.00pm 43 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NT: Organised by London Anarchist Federation.
---- Feel free to add your group to sponsor: ---- Solidarity with DAF member Hüseyin
Civan. ---- The wave of repression unleashed by the Erdogan regime in Turkey has resulted
in thousands losing their jobs and thousands imprisoned. Recently Hüseyin Civan, managing
editor of Meydan, a paper that represented the views of the DAF (Devrimci Anarsist
Faaliyet / Anarchist Revolutionary Action), received a prison sentence of one year and
three months. ---- This was the result of the action of the chief public prosecutor who
pursued Meydan over articles published in issue 30, December 2015. The charge against our
comrade was “making propaganda for the methods of a terrorist organization constituting
coercion, violence or threats through legitimizing or praising or encouraging the use of
these methods”.
Meydan was closed down after Erdogan began a campaign of repression after the recent
failed coup. The imprisonment of Civan is another heavy blow against the anarchist
movement operating within Turkey.
Advocating a system based on mutual aid and equality, defending workers’ struggles,
arguing for gender equality and the freedom of the individual , against nationalism and
fascism are seen as terrorist crimes by the Erdogan regime.
The Anarchist Federation sends a message of solidarity to
Hüseyin Civan, Meydan and the DAF.
Follow Meydan at :
http://meydangazetesi.org
@MeydanGazetesi
Messages of solidarity can be sent to:
https://www.facebook.com/meydangazetesi/
------------------------------
Message: 8
The mouth of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, Mariusz Blaszczak could
hear that the events in Elk - the riots and destruction of a catering facility, after the
death of a young man - an isolated incident. When the minister spoke those words we had to
deal with the destruction of a catering facility in Lublin, the appearance of abusive
inscriptions on the wall of a mosque in Gdansk, and at least one confirmed case of assault
on a foreigner. For the accompanying events, media atmosphere, or heating racism and
Islamophobia by right-wing and nationalist portals, and comments openly to encourage
lynchings. ---- Power, however, still pretending that nothing happened, that in Poland
there is no racism. This too is found in Western Europe and is the result of the failure
of the policy of multiculturalism. For just such a reckless and ideological statements
again he won the Law and Justice deputy. He is echoed by the Minister of Justice -
Zbigniew Ziobro - which downplays the importance of racist symbols, and can have the same
phenomenon of racism, in the end, in the opinion of the Minister, it becomes the only
opposition to "the mixing of races." The authority, which has effectively orientated
countrymen against accepting refugees, today seems to be doing a step further deepening
atmosphere of intolerance and legitimizing the problem of racist violence. Clearly cited
by the Ombudsman, police statistics confirming the increase in crime and violence of the
racist base, in the language of power, quickly become mere "lewackim" gibberish, aimed to
harm the image of the country.
Measure power passively look at the so-called opposition parties. Perhaps this is due to
lack of courage to challenge the policy antyemigracyjna, or to admit that racism easiest
to develop in countries affected by the economic crisis. Ultimately, this economic reasons
several million Polish citizens decided to look for work in the countries of Western
Europe, and today against the rising tide of xenophobia, they also meet with racist
attacks, even in the UK.
In the current atmosphere that evokes the pogroms, it is especially important to apply
critical of the current policy of the EU Member States systematically avoiding
responsibility for the situation of refugees in the Middle East. Of course, at the
forefront of the Poland and Hungary, which alone have not implemented the program
reception. Thus, avoiding bear political responsibility for the destabilization of the
region including military actions and political US and NATO, which gave blind support of
successive Polish governments has led, among others, the war in Iraq and the development
of ISIS. At the same time effectively utilizing the deepening since 2008 economic crisis,
to prevent the implementation of the policy proimigracyjnej and control xenophobic moods
perfectly checkers in the role of the tools of social divisions in the workplace and on
the streets. Pursue policies of fear is an effective tool for building social consensus on
the increasing attacks and a distraction from the economic and political causes of the
crisis. It builds an atmosphere to justify racism, xenophobia and attacks on immigrants.
Our overwhelming response to the increasing violence against foreigners is essential.
Islamophobia and racism are used in the control system, which aims to introduce power.
Every year, the Polish borders exceed thousands of immigrants. This group includes both
victims of political conflicts and economic immigrants. Every man and woman has the right
to move and live anywhere in the world.
The division of people because of religion, country of origin, skin color or economic
status we consider unjustified and dangerous. Then, when the extreme right-wing sentiment
fueled antyimigrancja hysteria, politicians are pleased with the growing social divisions
through which it becomes impossible solidarity struggle for a decent life regardless of
skin color, religion, social status, gender or origin. Manipulated by the right-wing and
neo-fascist environmental public opinion, the scapegoat of every crisis is taking immigrants.
It is not immigrants are the problem, but the government, which benefits from the
so-called. "Refugee crisis" and builds on it a dangerous political capital.
For us, foreign cultural nationalism, followed by up racism and xenophobia.
"Our" civilization is one in which everyone is equal. We demand that the authorities of
the city of Poznan have implemented a local policy on migration, which will provide
foreigners residing for years in Poznan, access to equal rights, regardless of their
economic status and origin. We demand the answer to the so-called "migration crisis"
through the launch of programs receiving refugees.
Solidarity our weapon,
class struggle is not national!
------------------------------
Message: 9
After the smashing success of the first Anarchist Wallpaper, here is the second edition!
This time around, the paper is about borders, militarisation, and of course the repression
surrounding the previous wallpaper. Download the wallpaper, print and circulate it! ----
Download the wallpaper: here ---- Anarchist Wallpaper #2 December 2016 ??Destroy the
borders of Fortress Europe ---- About the militarisation of borders. ---- While products
and capital can travel freely across the world, fences are being erected throughout the
European landscape. Soldiers and police are being sent to the borders and thousands of
people are being locked up in present-day concentration camps. ---- The borders of
Fortress Europe are closed, the fences erected from steel and barbed-wire, and the seas
are being blocked by the military. People who have undertaken a hellish journey looking
for a better life are being labelled as undesirable and are being locked up and
dehumanised. The witch-hunt against migrants is being carried out so that we don't have to
be confronted with the real problems that we are all facing. The fences on the border and
the militarisation of the streets are not meant to protect us from a so called tidal wave
of refugees. The borders are there to protect the elite and are nothing but the tentacles
of a controlling and oppressive state. The same state that is doing everything to keep
people tied up, tied up in work, exploitation and repression.
Western wars for resources, the arms trade, and exploitation lie at the root of the great
migration wave. These wars that are being fought under the guise of fighting terrorism are
nothing more than a violent trade mission aimed at filling the pockets of the managers and
bosses of large corporations. While they keep getting richer, we must work our asses off
every day to be able to survive, to keep filling the pockets of the rich.
That is what connects us all. We are all subject to the same social construct of
exploitation and repression. We must not go along with the scapegoating politics of
blaming refugees for every social ill, such as the lack of housing and poverty. These
problems are not the fault of migrants, but of the bosses and exploiters. It is the whole
political party spectrum from left to right that allows affordable houses to be demolished
while luxury apartments pop up in their place. They keep poverty in place because it's not
in their interest to achieve real equality. They cannot profit from actual equality, and
their cronies from large multinationals wouldn't be able to keep getting endlessly richer.
By militarising the borders and filling the streets with officers carrying machine guns,
the state is only showing that it can force everyone to do what it wants by using
violence; that they can keep everyone in line and working in the pursuit of the state's
interests. But nothing could be further from the truth. We can and must break the chains
of oppression. If we really want to be free, then we must attack the state, hinder
militarisation and destroy their borders! Destroy the borders so that we can all live in
freedom!
https://autonomendenhaag.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/anarchist-wallpaper-2-december-2016-is-out/
------------------------------
Message: 10
Jon Bigger writes on direct and effective alternatives to the opportunism and whining of
the liberal left ---- Since the Brexit and Trump results one thing that's been glaringly
obvious about any mainstream response is that it amounts to nothing but liberal
bedwetting. ---- Article after article in the UK liberal press, day upon day has focused
on what the terrible conservative forces will be getting up to and how we're all under
threat from the menace. Actually they've focused mainly on free movement which I'll come
to shortly. I want to talk this month about how we can focus on our radical response and
how we need to have solidarity at our core. ---- The way they talk it's almost as if
liberalism is this ideal, tranquil and peaceful system without which we will have chaos,
uncertainty and nuclear war. Liberalism is in fact structural violence. It is chaos for
most people. The chaos of benefit sanctions, corrupt representatives, bailiffs, the cops,
immigration officials and the free market. It's the chaos of people doing terrible things
to others on the basis that they have a piece of paper that says they can. The fact that
with liberalism can come human rights, boundaries to official power and peaceful
transitions of power hardly takes away the chaos that the system inflicts on people
continually. We have to challenge all the forces that are ranged against us.
Picture the Labour Party Christmas do. Two Labour MPs having a chat over a glass of
bubbly. Imagine the dullest small talk ever and you've pictured the scene. One asks the
question "what do you think of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership?" and the other answers "I'd
welcome it!" It's an old joke but things must be really bad if they think the solution to
their problems is him being more prominent.
The left will do anything for power and they now seek to be more populist. Momentum, the
Corbyn support group, has gone as far as to share a video on Facebook made by the TSSA
union which uses xenophobia to make the case for nationalisation of Britain's railways.
Left populists will embrace whatever they think they can get away with. There have also
been murmurs against free movement in left circles.
Free movement can exist separately from the free market however - and we shouldn't confuse
the two. Just because the conservative ideas that dominate our time dictate that free
movement is bad doesn't mean we should pander to it. It is , after all, an obsession with
national boundaries which we don't accept should exist or be enforced.
Getting on with real work
Away from the liberal tears and the calls for more petitions and ethical consumerism we
have people actually doing stuff. It's wrong to say the fightback has begun because really
it's just continuing. In the last month we've seen strikes hit a number of sectors. The
newspapers were full of strike action in the run up to Christmas and there are reports of
further action early in 2017. The United Voices of the World union (UVW) is organising low
paid workers in cafes and restaurants in upper class department store Harrods. They plan a
demonstration today (January 7th) against the bosses keeping a large percentage of tips in
the store. Already this news has gone worldwide and Harrods has been forced to say that it
will review it's procedures. How nice it is to smell ruling class fear. When some of the
lowest paid and precarious workers in the UK are ready to fight their bosses and their
bosses are members of the Qatari royal family, you sense this is really speaking truth to
power.
Our role has to be one of solidarity. We must help workers rise up against their economic
masters. Anarchists can be rightly dismissive of the unions when seen as a whole and where
they perpetuate the myth of working class power resting in getting either better or more
representatives in parliament. But we should divorce that from the day to day fight that
workers are in. Where they rise up they may need assistance and we should seek out what
help they need. In all our actions we should aim to help those in struggle not make their
lives and livelihoods harder. Ethical consumerism for example is not generally an act of
solidarity and can be very harmful. Very often workers don't want their products to be
boycotted as selling them is what gets food on the table. It's important therefore only to
boycott something that has been called for by those affected. By putting the people
affected at the source of conflict first, we can have maximum impact and do the greatest good.
In 2017 we will see a year of protests, strikes, direct action, occupations and
demonstrations. Wherever they take place we can be right in there affecting the outcome.
We need to be on the offensive and the politics of the time will provide us with plenty of
opportunities.
Related Posts:
Anarchy in the UK: A Changed Political Landscape
The End of Dogma: #KeepCorbyn as a transitional demand.
The current crisis and the rise of the Corbyn dogma
We Demand Order
Educate! Agitate! ORGANISE!
The following two tabs change content below.
https://freedomnews.org.uk/a-radical-2017-all-we-need-to-do-is-join-in/
------------------------------
Home »
» Anarchic update news all over the world - Part 1 - 11 January 2017