Today's Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #270 - Platforms: Uber &
Cie: uncle Scrooge in the net country (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #270 - Local democracy in
Saillans: an experience that becomes an example (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - international, Volunteer
fighter in Rojava # 09: On the front, 30 km from Raqqa by Redac
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Libertarian Thessaloniki Initiative (APO): Antifascist
concentration (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. fau: Call for international Action Day on the 1st of May
(de, it, ca) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Greece, anarkismo.net: Oppose - defend by
anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rosinante (gr) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. anarkismo.net: Organizing against the Irish housing
emergency by Tomás Lynch (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. Turkey, DAF: Newroz Piroz Be! (tr) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Being your own boss, organizing your work freely and paying thousands of euros of salary
every month: the hi-tech sequins of the economy of platforms hide the reality of a far
more trivial exploitation and do not have Quite prevented the networking of anger. ----
Uber (and its emanations like UberEats), Deliveroo, AirBnb ... the names of these symbols
of "platform economy", sometimes called "collaborative" are now presented as models of the
success of a start capitalism -up, sometimes as examples of the deregulation of
capitalism. ---- In 2016, the French government spent its time dancing tango on the
subject. In January, under the pressure of conventional landlords, it restricted the
possibilities of hiring on AirBnb to an agreement of the owner. In July, he launched 25
"French Tech Networks", designed to support French start-ups. Two types of actors are
actually taken into account in the public debate today. Start-up creators on the one hand,
young people with long teeth sponsored by Xavier Niel or others; A more "classical"
employers on the other hand, determined not to let themselves go on the feet by the
youngsters.
Behind the scenes
Those who are less talked about are the workers of this pretty "collaborative economy."
Deliverers, preparers, but also computer scientists, lawyers ... and workers.
For some time, platform capitalism is no longer limited to a few sectors like delivery.
More and more platforms, such as MeilleurArtisan.com or Doyouno, are tackling historic
sectors like building. The idea is almost always the same: a website and / or an "app",
launched by a band of young people just out of business school, investors who feel the
good deal ... and workers Precarious.
Because behind the pretty model of the free and innovative enterprise, generally
lamentable working conditions, and ultra-priced statutes. The models are multiple, but one
element is always present: the constitution, sometimes little by little, sometimes from
the start, a link of subordination evident but never accepted.
Released?
In theory, Uber's drivers, Stuart's bicycle couriers or Doyouno's locksmiths have no
account to render to these companies. And for good reason: they are not salaried. On
paper, they are - in the case of Uber or Stuart - self-entrepreneurs, or artisans. In
reality, things are a little different. Bicycle couriers, for example, are regularly
called by platforms to take a race that no one wants. Uber drivers, for their part, must
have a vehicle that meets specific standards that meet the platform's requirements. For
this one, however virtual it may be, has very real incomes, and can not tolerate that its
capital suffers from the so-called freedom it grants its workers.
Platforms regularly praise this freedom, highlighting statutes that would allow workers to
organize their work as they wish. For example, delivery platforms explain why students can
take advantage of work schedules adapted to their studies. Beautiful formula indeed. This,
however, forgets the serious consequences of such a system. As workers are not employees,
they are deprived of all social protection associated with labor law. Unemployment
benefits? Not for them, they do not contribute. Coverage in the event of an accident at
work? Certainly not provided by the company, since you are told that it is not their
employer! The wages themselves,
Take the example of bike riders. Most platforms operate on the basis of a shift system.
The couriers take part in these hours of hours, during which they will have the right to
refuse only a limited number of races. In return, they receive a minimum allowance for
each hour of this beach. This allowance may well be lower than the minimum wage.
At Stuart for example, for an hour of shift, one gets 9 euros gross (to which it is still
necessary to subtract the charges of the self-contractor). But of course, Stuart points
out that it is only a "guaranteed minimum": for each race, the drivers are also paid an
allowance, and the total can exceed this minimum.
Earn 4,000 euros ... or not
The idea is always more or less the same, and would have liked Sarkozy, the cantor of
"work more to win more". And the platforms do not hesitate to communicate on the subject,
making wonders pay at 4,000 euros a month when it is not more, provided you work a lot.
Stuart thus puts forward his "podium of the month", couriers who have won the most. By
working ten hours a day, seven days a week, they manage to earn several thousand euros.
But, beyond the fact that the legal duration of work is in these conditions more than a
distant memory, these cases are in fact rather rare. The platform imposes a limited number
of couriers on the same sector and time slot, putting them in competition with each other.
Only the fastest to connect to the app will have the chance to get the most profitable
shifts. The others will have to be satisfied with what remains, without Stuart having to
give any account.
Take eat ... and leave it
Beyond the case of couriers, the platforms have for a number of years largely exploited a
system in which workers take all the risks (physical or economic), and money flows. By
taking advantage of the inaction of states paralyzed by the crisis and anxious to put
forward their young talents producing growth, they were able to drink quietly on the backs
of employees.
The case of Take Eat Easy is the perfect example: a start-up mounted by young wolves,
which will end three years later in legal redress, leaving some couriers with several
thousand euros of unpaid. The statement of the founder of the group finds nothing better
to do than to declare that the company has "experienced a monthly growth of more than
30%"[1]. The couriers and couriers left on the tile will appreciate: growth was there,
unlike wages. The newspaper L'Écho was not mistaken, and pushed vice to declare the
founders of Take Eat Easy "personality of the year" 2017, welcoming "the inspiration that
this entrepreneurial adventure generates"[2]... Today, one year after the bankruptcy of
the start-up,
Would the platforms have completed the demise of capitalism, undermining the rights of
workers to their legal base, attacking their status? Would their ability to extract
significant funds be the unstoppable obstacle that could prevent any reaction from
society? Not sure. The demonstrations by Uber drivers, or couriers from Take Eat Easy,
show that the capitalists have not finished with the anger of those they exploit.
It was in the United States that the first victorious struggles were waged by the workers
of platform capitalism. In 2013, in California, Uber drivers filed a class action lawsuit,
in order to get recognition that they were actually employees of the platform.
After several hearings, and the California labor commissioner 's recognition of the
wage-earning nature of the activity, the drivers forced Uber to pay $ 100,000 to settle
the case ... 'See you next time.
Since then, more strikes, legal actions, demonstrations and other forms of struggle have
taken place everywhere. England, for its part, has been the scene of large strikes by
couriers, particularly those of Deliveroo. The latter have the peculiarity of meeting
between the races, and therefore of having common spaces, conducive to collective
organization. In the summer of 2016, they decided to go on strike, in particular to
protest against the terms of remuneration. The company wanted to move from an hourly wage
of 7 pounds to ... 3.5 pounds; 50% of wage cut at once, even Bernard Arnaud would not have
dared! Since then, Deliveroo's workers have continued to organize, including those of Uber
and UberEats. They have notably mounted Rebel Roo,
In France, it is a collective of couriers and couriers, founded as a result of the take
eat easy, which concentrates the mobilizations. Cultivating a certain proximity with the
networks of the PS and the PG, it remains for the moment relatively inactive in real
struggles, but has the merit of existing.
The return of stick
Since the class struggle has existed, the capitalists have always been able to play anger
against another to better serve their interests. But this anger is always double-edged,
and Marx already explained in Capital that it would eventually turn against them.
This is what we are witnessing in the case of Uber in France. The first time we heard
about these drivers, it was during the demonstrations of taxis in the summer of 2015[3].
While Uber and G7, the main groups of VTCs and taxis filled their pockets, there was the
desolate show of drivers having the same job, sometimes physically confronting the
airports. The government went from its mediator, to settle the matter. But today, it is
the Uber drivers who are launching into the battle, this time against the platform itself.
Since December, demonstrations and lawsuits have been organized to obtain from Uber a
revision of tariffs, and from the State of requalifications of the statutes into a
standard employment contract. While trade unionism in the sector is not the most
revolutionary (Unsa and the CFDT are the main organizations present in the negotiations),
nothing says that it could not become one. Because by destroying the Labor Code and
cutting wages, workers could end up taking the start-up at the word, and begin to rise up.
François Dalemer (AL Paris South)
[1]https://medium.com .
[2]www.lecho.be .
[3]https://quartierslibres.wordpress.com .
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Plateformes-Uber-Cie-oncle-Picsou
------------------------------
Message: 2
In February 2015, Alternative libertarian chronicled the experiment of "alternative
democracy" conducted in the village of Saillans (Drôme). Since the municipalities of March
2014, this village tries to operate on a daily basis according to self-management
principles. ---- Everything started with a bluff. In 2013, after a victorious struggle of
residents and residents of Saillans (Drôme)[1 ]against a project to open a supermarket
carried by the mayor, the people invested in this fight say: "It is not possible, we Can
not let this mayor win the elections again. " Indeed, there is no other candidate. ----
The collective of struggle organizes a public meeting to discuss it, equipped with methods
coming from popular education (because Tristan Rechid, one of its initiators, was director
of social center and used them fluently). At this meeting, a diagnosis of the village
starts. The second public meeting resulted in the definition of 66 projects, which, like
the democratic method used, became the civic list program for municipalities in March 2014.
In the quest for direct democracy, the Saillansonnes et Saillansons approach rejects the
"participative democracy" proposed by the public authorities (eg, citizen referenda, which
are only advisory). If they had to comply with certain rules of the representative system
in place to be elected, they tried to subvert them by different methods: the unavoidable
head of the list was designated to the "non-candidate vote" from the sociocracy .
The executive, that is to say, the municipal council, renamed the "steering committee",
takes decisions well and applies them, but the proposals come from seven thematic
commissions and project groups, open to "users and users" Village (not just those who live
there). A binomial of elected representatives (to avoid the personalization of mandates)
sits in each commission, striving to be in a position to animate debates and guarantee the
democratic process.
Two and a half years after the first public meetings, one third of the 1,200 inhabitants
regularly participate in the management of the city. The pace of the meetings is
sustained. To avoid the usury and the pitfall of the professionalisation of politics (the
mayor has spent part time in his work to be able to hold), Saillans has just hired an
agent to animate democratic life. Initially, many projects emerged, as this was the basis
of the participatory approach. Today, the dynamics of the emergence of projects are slowed
down, to prioritize implementation.
The issue is spin-off
Training needs arise, on the methods of animation, which guarantee the processes for
example. But it is on issues requiring skills that it is most difficult to share the work
and thus the decision. Concerning the municipal budget, training will be put in place in
this direction. For the revision of the local urban plan (PLU), the city has asked for a
training grant from the Fondation de France, which would make it possible to co-build a
participatory PLU by locals drawn by lot. But the rise in competence takes a long time,
which the current system does not authorize.
Approximately one third of the population remains opposed to the current collegial
dynamics. The intercommunality presided over by Hervé Mariton (The Republicans) is not
tender either. The elected officials, more favorable to the dialogue than to the frontal
opposition, give way before a possible majority in the community of communes. But if the
right falls, the PS wants to recover its place, and will therefore very probably barrage.
For Tristan Rechid, one of the initiators of the process, and now part of the Conseil des
Sages (body responsible for ensuring compliance with collaborative protocols and
co-construction), the challenge today is that of The swarming. In the municipal elections
of 2014, when things changed in Saillans, a multitude of "citizen" lists were candidates
everywhere in France.
Saillans receives every day one or two requests for interview, practice sharing, training.
Tristan Rechid has chosen to respond to these requests. He recently left his position as
social center director to spread his desire for concrete and truly alternative
achievements. It intervenes where it is asked, and thus joins the world of citizen
movements that try to subvert the electoral game.
Adeline DL and Mouchette (AL Paris Nord-Est)
[1]Charlotte Dugrand, "Alternative Democracy: The Saillans Effect , " Alternative
Libertarian, January 2015.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Democratie-locale-a-Saillans-une
------------------------------
Message: 3
"After a fierce fight not against Daech but against Facebook to recover my account, here I
am again. "Appointment for an interactive Periscope on Friday, March 17, 2017 at 8pm
French time. ---- We report below the journal, published on Facebook , of a Francophone
revolutionary militant within the YPG. He shares his analyzes, his criticisms, and
recounts the highlights of his career. An indispensable human and political testimony.
---- The headings and footnotes are from the AL web team. ---- Read the other episodes
here . ---- Tabur[1]of the International Battalion of Liberation, front of Qaltah[2], on
March 16, 2017. ---- After a fierce fight not against Daech but against Facebook to
recover my account, here I am again. ---- I will be brief: I joined Birlesik Özgürlük
Güçleri (BÖG), one of the three Turkish revolutionary organizations that created the
International Battalion. After an extra week of intensive training in the BÖG, I was sent
to the IFB, on the front line, where I have been for a month.
Finally able to connect, but with a Turkish computer, you will forgive the absence of
accents on several letters[3]. I should be able to write more in a week's time, but in the
meantime, I announce that tomorrow we will be doing a Periscope from the IFB, at 9 pm
local time, so 20 hours in France, it seems.
We need you, please, join us on the page IFB (the one that posts regularly) tomorrow, to
ask questions live if you wish, and run this announcement.
It will be the first Periscope we do, we need your support.
Thank you in advance on Monday Morning, Nantes Revolté and Alternative libertarian, of
which I do not doubt the unwavering solidarity.
View full size
[1]Combatant Unit
[2]Al Qaltah is 30 kilometers north of Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the caliphate.
[3]Correction made by AL web team.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Combattant-volontaire-au-Rojava-09
------------------------------
Message: 4
After numerous failed attempts various Nazi groups, with imaginative equally ridiculous
names, call concentration both Thssaloniki and the rest of Northern Greece, one of them
calls again gathering Sunday 19/3. ---- And this time -Second time in a few months; just
call fascists have one peculiarity: the part of the concentration has not been announced!
Having tried again and again to xemytisei always -Natural a yperpollaplasio army riot
police to guard the tomaria- them falling again and again over fascist gatherings, the
fascists in a paromoiodos funny move, announced that they will inform the rest
"synellines" for the place of concentration only a few hours before that - admitting that
this city can not ever occur anywhere safely. ---- The same had been done by "machimoi"
fascists of the city and 8/1, so announced only two hours before their concentration that
it would become ... Oreokastro, proving that even with hidden call have well understood
that the streets of Thessaloniki They will not march. Hidden behind the cops, the most
distant suburb of Thessaloniki, however, had to keep them hidden call up to two hours
before the concentration to be able to appear. The "completely successful" as the featured
themselves, their concentration in Oreokastro beyond the familiar wandering troupe
surrounding all such "successful" concentrations in Northern Greece, few residents of the
city or even Oreokastro had.
This very "successful" and no ridiculous regular follow now.
The descendants of tagmatasfaliton that burned Hortiatis, the Oil Merchant and other black
marketers who have become rich on the back of the multinational proletariat and the Jewish
community of the city, those who have always been the loyal dog of the bosses, they once
fortified the building of YMCA fearing the punisher hand rebel, they are not currently
able neither the weight of their choices to take.
Under other circumstances we would say "FASCISTS BACK TO YOUR HOLES"
But, you, YOU HAVE NEVER BY THESE xemytisei
Today, more strongly than ever, anti-fascism is act on the road.
The oppressed of this world and we will always be at the forefront of the fight against
racism and fascism, against the hatred for life.
So this is the anti-fascists and antifascist, employees / s, unemployed / s, immigrants /
behavior shows, lgbtqi + people that we will stand against them Sunday.
LONG LIFE - DEATH fascism
NOR inch EARTH IN FASCISTS
FASCISTS AND BOSSES STOU wells Pato
LONG LIVE THE WORLD proletariat
Antifascist CONCENTRATION
SUNDAY 19/3, at 11:30, in Venizelos Statue
Libertarian Thessaloniki Initiative - a member of the Anarchist Federation
lib_thess @ hotmail.com
libertasalonica.wordpress.com
https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2017/03/17
------------------------------
Message: 5
The Class Struggle Knows No Borders! ---- If we see the signs right, we're about to live
through a stage of populism unparalleled in recent decades. The result is a world where
the workers are divided and oppressed through nationalist and racist rhetoric. Against the
project of a world full of new walls running along borders and through our minds, we need
a project to tear down all walls and instead connect workers to organize solidarity and
mutual aid. We have no more time to cultivate differences - let's instead search for what
connects our struggles for better living conditions and for a world without exploitation
and oppression. ---- The FAU calls on all individuals, initiatives, collectives,
grassroots trade unions, etc. to participate in an international action day on "Work and
Migration". On the 1st of May we would like to express class solidarity with migrants by
mobilizing across borders against the dominant xenophobia, racism and
nationalism, which are weapons of the state and capital. Our struggle against racism is
logically directed against the capitalist system, which is based on extreme inequalities
and is dependent on social divisions to ensure its continuity.
The ones particularly affected by exploitation and deprivation of rights in our society
are migrant workers, who - as a consequence of the racist immigration policy - have to
stomach illegal employment, work prohibition or forced labor. Employed primarily in the
gastronomy, cleaning and construction sector, with a low union membership level (or none
at all), they hardly have any possibility to fight against the increasing precariousness
of their working conditions. The established unions, based on social partnership, show
limited interest in organizing (illegal) migrants, or to support them in their fight for
the right to stay and against legal obstacles. On the contrary, their focus on the regular
staff and the logic of the national economy deepens social divisions.
It is necessary to counteract this deplorable state of affairs with solidarity and
self-organization - as in the case of our colleagues from Romania, who were exploited on
the construction site of the shopping center Mall of Berlin. Forced to work and live under
horrible conditions they were cheated of their wages and threatened. Their membership in
the FAU and the labor struggle that followed led to the shopping mall being renamed Mall
of Shame, which from that day on became a symbol of migrant exploitation in Germany. By
way of this successful resistance against exploitation, we were able to respond to the
social climate of hate, especially against migrant workers from South-Eastern Europe. We
also see current attempts in Germany to force refugees to perform underpaid work both as
an attempt to segregate refugees and to lower labor standards, which of course negatively
affects all the workers. As the working class we should show our resistance and
solidarity, and fight not only for the freedom of movement for everybody, but also against
exploitation legitimated by racism. Class struggle knows no borders!
In the tradition of the 1st of May we call for solidarity with migrant workers in order to
protest against precarious working conditions, against capitalist exploitation and for no
borders. No matter what form these protests take - strike, rally, information campaign,
event, performance; whether local or supraregional; regardless of whether you are a
worker, unemployed, students, pensioners, migrants or refugees: it is important that
everyone organize against exploitation. Only with international solidarity and
cross-border trade unionism can we resist capitalism. Join us in carrying out this day of
action on the 1st May under the slogan "Class struggle knows no borders!". Together we
will build bridges where others want to build walls.
The International Committee of FAU P.S. If you have any questions, please contact us. We
are open to all ideas, suggestions and comments or alternatives. We will be pleased to
receive any feedback on the participation in the action day:
mai2017@fau.org
http://www.fau.org/soli/mai2017/mai2017en.pdf
------------------------------
Message: 6
The SYRIZA-ANEL government today served in the morning in a crescendo of state
authoritarianism, realizing barrage attacks on occupied self-organized spaces in
neighborhoods of Athens, assisted by the police and the prosecuting authorities. More
specifically, from 6:30 in the morning squatting refugees roof Drakopouleio in Alkiviadou
Street, the occupation of the Villa Zografos and Gare (Kallidromiou) under state
ownership, after invasion of the occupying forces. ---- We resist the vampire government,
defending the social spaces of solidarity - All / as of 6 pm, in pl. Gardenia (Painter)
---- The SYRIZA-ANEL government today served in the morning in a crescendo of state
authoritarianism, realizing barrage attacks on occupied self-organized spaces in
neighborhoods of Athens, assisted by the police and the prosecuting authorities. More
specifically, from 6:30 in the morning squatting refugees roof Drakopouleio in Alkiviadou
Street, the occupation of the Villa Zografos and Gare (Kallidromiou) under state
ownership, after invasion of the occupying forces.
We will not pretend that fall from clouds. This government is the same which signed and
implemented the agreement of shame EU - Turkey for refugees, she Stacking refugees in
camps and snowy scenes, the one that is responsible for the crime of Moria and upgrades
Amygdaleza, the same that invaded the social spaces and squats refugees in Thessaloniki in
2016, the same also continues the party impoverishing locals and refugees, applying the
harsh policies of the Fund towards society and employees.
The period where thousands of refugees are housed in miserable camps where living
conditions are frighteningly dangerous, the Greek state evacuates refugees housing spaces
offered life with dignity. Alongside unleashes attack on self-organization and solidarity
spaces stochopoiontas squatting movement and the political and social processes produce.
The SYRIZA-ANEL government worthily continues the tradition of Greek governments in the
state authoritarianism and racist policy that has a bright history in recent years.
The social suffocation that wants to impose the Greek state is far unexplained. The
anti-labor extermination policies conducted nonstop could not not have to spearhead the
repression, racism and camps. The barbarism of detention centers and camps where many
refugees have lost their lives because of their treatment and non-existent health and
safety conditions are inextricably linked with the policy memorandums, the new anti-labor
bills, destruction of social security and of course the police state and discharges.
The social and labor movement must erect barricades in the state authoritarianism, to
break the macho that government and bosses show in any social field. The requirement for
decent living conditions for refugees to every document legitimizing the struggle to
defend the anti-capitalist and libertarian movement structures and ultimately the
organization of our class for juxtaposing the capitalist onslaught must be uniform and
simultaneous.
For the freedom of everyone and equality for all.
The anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rosinante participate in the call for concentration and
course gardenia plaza Zografou today 13/3 at 6 pm against discharges of katileimmenon
spaces and the state authoritarianism imposed by SYRIZA-ANEL government.
* Solidarity with refugees, full residence rights, health care, education
* Hands off squats and self-organized spaces.
* No prosecution in / on agonists / mation took the political defense of the premises.
Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rosinante
Link Related:
http://rocinante.gr/antistekomaste-stous-vrikolakes-tis-kivernisis-iperaspizomaste-tous-kinonikous-chorous-tis-allilengiis-olesi-stis-6-mm-stin-pl-gardenias-zografou/
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30081
------------------------------
Message: 7
The occupation of Apollo House in Dublin was the largest direct action in Ireland in
recent years, but it did not materialize out of nowhere. ---- On December 16, 2016 media
reporters and cameramen jostled each outside the carpark of Apollo House, a nine-storey
city center office building in Dublin that had been lying vacant for over a year. The
journalists were there to report on a "public intervention" into the ongoing homelessness
emergency in the city, in which a campaign group called Home Sweet Home, led by well-known
celebrities and musicians Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey, occupied the empty building and
opened it as a hostel for the city's homeless. ---- In the face of a housing crisis that
has been intensifying ever since the economic crash in 2008, visible rough sleeping on the
city's streets, rising homelessness statistics, soaring rent, and the large-scale purchase
of property and mortgage loan-books by predatory foreign vulture funds, this collection of
activists occupied the building, which is controlled by NAMA, the government-owned asset
management agency set up at the height of the crisis to swallow the toxic loans incurred
by the nation's property developers and speculators.
Over three-and-a-half weeks during the coldest time of the year, Apollo House provided
beds for over 90 homeless people, in a welcoming and safe environment that was open 24
hours a day and where they could come and go as they pleased. In contrast to the previous
month, no homeless people lost their lives in Ireland while the occupation was going on.
The campaign received 4,000 applications from people who wanted to help, and collected
over €160,000 on the campaign crowdfunding page, as well as receiving countless personal
testimonies from people whose own lives had been affected by the ongoing crisis - young
families forced to move back into their parents' homes with their children, or sleeping in
their cars.
Above all, the Apollo House occupation generated an unprecedented amount of media
attention on the homelessness and housing emergency in the face of government inaction,
and forced Simon Coveney, the Minister of Housing, to the negotiating table to try to get
the activists to leave peacefully.
ORGANIZING A NETWORK
But though it might have appeared spontaneous, this was a well-planned and well-organized
campaign. The various actors were able to move fast when the opportunity presented itself
only because the networks were already in place. "Organizing" is a word thrown about a lot
by the left, as the essential step in the creation of powerful movements that can effect
change, but often what "organizing" actually involves can be harder to pinpoint.
Examining how the Home Sweet Home campaign was built can help us get a clearer
understanding of how strong social movements are built, and how the successes of the
campaign can be emulated in other cities and towns in Ireland, or indeed around the world.
A quick glance at the organizing work that went into Home Sweet Home shows us that it was
following a long tradition of organizing grassroots movements of civil disobedience and
direct action, such as that of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Although Home Sweet Home was a new campaign, the organizations that made it up were not.
It was an alliance of the artists and celebrities, who gave the occupation a massive
public profile; the militant Unite trade union; and the Irish Housing Network, a
decentralized and grassroots network of housing action groups located throughout the
island of Ireland that has been agitating on behalf of people affected by the housing
crisis for several years.
The occupation of Apollo House was not the first use of direct action by the Irish Housing
Network: in 2015 they squatted another vacant building (this one owned by Dublin City
Council) and opened it as a hostel for the homeless - the Bolt Hostel. They have been
involved in organizing resistance to evictions, such as the eviction of homeless families
from emergency accommodation on Mountjoy Square in February 2016. So the occupation of
Apollo House did not come out the blue, but grew out of years of experience of similar
occupations and resistance.
The main difference this time around was the huge amount of publicity generated as a
result of the public support of a few well-known figures.
A BROAD COALITION
The very structure of the Irish Housing Network also reminds us of older social movements.
Like the SCLC and the SNCC in the American South in the 1950s and 1960s, it is not a
single, centralized organization, but rather, as its name suggests, a network of
affiliated housing action groups from throughout Ireland, grassroots groups that defend
the rights of tenants and homeowners in the areas they operate in. The unification of
diverse actors in a broad campaign was another tactic reminiscent of previous successful
movements.
The filmmakers, musicians and other celebrities played a vital role in the campaign,
bringing it very quickly to the public eye, and adding by way of their profile to the
popularity and perceived legitimacy of the occupation. Among the Irish household names
associated with the campaign were musicians Glen Hansard (who starred in the film Once),
folk-singer Christy Moore, dubliner Damien Dempsey, and filmmakers Terence McKenna and Jim
Sheridan.
Another group whose involvement was crucial were the up to 200 volunteers who came in to
Apollo House to help with the running of the hostel, many of them ordinary citizens who
were motivated by the social media campaign to try to help in whatever way they could.
Finally, Home Sweet Home had from the beginning strong involvement and input from people
directly experiencing homelessness.
The demands and concerns of the residents of Apollo House were the primary focus of the
campaign during the running of the hostel and in the negotiations with the government. The
decision to leave Apollo House at the end of the occupation was a decision reached by the
residents and supported by all the staff, whose concern was primarily for their safety,
and not for their utility as pawns in a confrontation with forces of the state.
An effective and well-organized division of labor among the volunteer staff was central to
the functioning of Apollo House as a homeless shelter. There was a sixty-strong security
team, a social care team working directly with the residents, as well as kitchen, cleaning
and maintenance teams. On the seventh floor, the administration, finance, legal, outreach
and media teams had their offices, including professional lawyers, journalists and social
media strategists who gave their time to the project. Though residents were kept at the
centre of decision-making, staff were clearly differentiated from service users by hi-viz
vests. The media team played a key role in coordinating the message that went out to the
press and on social media as the glare of public interest fixed itself on the campaign.
The campaign focused on both short and long-term demands, from demanding that the
immediate needs of residents of Apollo House for secure, safe, long-term accommodation be
met, to calling for the basic Human Right to Housing be enshrined in the constitution
(Ireland opted out of Article 31, which acknowledges the Human Right to Housing, when it
ratified the European Social Charter). Representatives of the trade union Unite,
experienced at negotiation, played an important part in talks with the government where
these demands were articulated.
REPUBLICAN TRADITION
Home Sweet Home was, however, also strongly rooted in the tradition of Irish
left-activism. Many of the activists come from the Irish republican tradition, a tradition
that has been central to almost all left-wing activism from the creation of the state. The
Irish Housing Network is a 32-county network. Its spiritual precursor, the Dublin Housing
Action Committee, which agitated in the 1960s for an end to the housing crisis that was
plaguing the city then too, was formed by left-republican elements such as Mairín de
Burca, a Sinn Féin activist linked to the socialist wing of the republican movement, which
would later split to become Official Sinn Féin.
The key element of the success of the movement was the willingness of all involved to
operate outside of formal legality. This was the biggest act of civil disobedience and
direct action in Ireland in recent memory, and yet it was enormously popular - the general
public realizing that if the government was not going to act, to turn the huge number of
empty buildings in its control through NAMA to use, then it was up to the ordinary people
to do something.
Nonetheless, the forces of the state and law-and-order were quick to condemn the action as
illegal. Mazars, the receivers appointed by NAMA for Apollo House, claimed that their
"immediate priority and concern has been the health and safety of the homeless people
seeking shelter there," while at the same time seeking a High Court order to have the
homeless residents thrown out on the street. The High Court ruled against the occupiers,
but with an eye to the optics of the situation put a stay on the injunction until after
Christmas, allowing the hostel to remain open until January 11.
When an extension was sought in January, however, Mr Justice Gilligan, the conservative
High Court judge in charge of the case, claimed that homelessness "was not an issue for
the courts," saying that "if this had been allowed to drag on it could be interpreted that
the attitude of the courts was to facilitate people to occupy other properties and that
the court would take a benevolent view, that would lead to an intolerable situation in a
democratic state, so I am not going to get involved in an argument as to whether or not
Dublin City Council have provided suitable accommodation." Once again, the Irish state had
privileged private property over the basic right of people to safe and secure accommodation.
This attitude is reminiscent of that of Minister for Housing Simon Coveney, who said that
"to occupy a building and try and put supports together in an ad hoc way is not the way to
deal with this," and that "there is an emergency bed for everyone who wants one." The
emergency beds he was referring to were not like the beds in Apollo House that were
accessible 24 hours a day, and were kept for each resident. Instead homeless people using
these official emergency services are forced out on the street in the morning and have to
ring a homeless helpline to look for a new bed each night.
Furthermore, many of the beds the minister was referring to were not private beds suitable
for couples, or for people who don't take drugs or are attempting to recover from drug
addiction. One resident who was offered such a bed came back to Apollo House with a story
of blood on the walls and the mattress and syringes on the floor. In contrast, Apollo
House was a dry and safe environment.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the increasingly radical turn he took towards the end
of his life, wrote a Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which he addressed liberal
moderates who disapproved of the movement's tactic of civil disobedience and nonviolent
direct action: "You deplore the demonstrations taking place... But your statement, I am
sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the
demonstrations."
He could just as easily have been speaking to people such as Irish Times columnist Kathy
Sheridan, who derided the occupation as an immature stunt, or failed Fine Gael candidate
William Whittle who demonstrated his compassion for vulnerable by calling for services to
be cut off and the occupiers "frozen out" and claimed the activists were "an absolute
disgrace trespassing on state property."
Today, direct action movements committed to using civil disobedience as a tactic in the
struggle, such as the Home Sweet Home campaign in Ireland or the resistance in Standing
Rock that forced the Obama administration to suspend the Dakota Access Pipeline (since
restarted by Trump), are timely reminders that we need not wait for elites to condescend
to make the necessary changes, and that ordinary people have the power to play a role in
the political sphere and effect change in the world.
However, as an analysis of the Home Sweet Home campaign indicates, strong social movements
such as this do not materialize out of thin air. Instead, they are the results of the
slow, painstaking work of organizing and movement-building, and the construction of
allegiances between networks of preexisting groups with similar goals and aspirations.
Related Link: https://roarmag.org/essays/ireland-housing-crisis/
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30098
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Message: 8
The fire of revolt lit centuries ago by Kawa, is continuing to be flared up. Today is the
day Kawa the Blacksmith confronted tyrant Dehaq and said "Hey the palace owner, I came
here to fight with you for justice!". Today is the day of struggle and revolt, the day of
freedom by resistance. Today is the day to grow the fire of revolt against the genocide
attempts, massacres by chemical waeponsn, forced migration and politics of assimilation in
the geography we live in, fighting the same struggle of justice in the path that Kawa
took. Today is Newroz! ---- As Revolutionary Anarchist Action (DAF), we were in the fields
for newroz flaring up the fire. The state politics of denial and destruction will neither
put off the fire of revolt, not stop the halay dance of freedom. As long as the injustice
continiues, the revolt will not end, Kawas' will not end.
Em Hemû Kawane Li Dijî Dehaqan!
We Are All Kawa Against Dehaqs!
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