Anarchic update news all over the world - 13 April 2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  US, ideas and action: Statement on the military intervention
      in Syria by the Workers Solidarity Alliance (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Greece, verba-volant: Information on the 1st April
      demonstration against new measures in mass transit (ca, pt)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  wsm.ie: March on April 8th to Abolish water charges - WSM
      newsletter for the day - Many Battles Won, With the War Yet to
      Win (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #271 - Noisy-le-Sec:
      Municipalities do not let themselves be (fr, it, pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Turkey: DAF Statement "On Referandum" (February 17, 2017)
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



Against War and Dictators! ---- WSA stands firmly against U.S. military intervention in 
Syria. We are also against the despotic Assad regime, which has been waging a brutal civil 
war against much of Syria's population for many years now. We stand in support of the 
international working class and in particular Syrian refugees who continue to seek safety 
elsewhere. We accept refugees with open arms and stand against all borders between 
workers, as workers have no country. ---- For no war between nations, and no peace between 
classes! ---- Workers Solidarity Alliance ---- wsa.corresponding.secretary@gmail.com ---- 
https://workersolidarity.org
https://www.facebook.com/workersolidarityalliance/ ---- http://ideasandaction.info
http://ideasandaction.info/2017/04/statement-military-intervention-syria/

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Message: 2



On Saturday, 1 April , a demonstration against the new measures was carried out in the 
center of Athens in the mass media (very strict forms of control and surveillance, buses 
and subways, surveillance cameras inside wagons, special vigilantes Mass media, in 
collaboration with the police, and above all the electronic ticket measure, recording the 
personal data of the passenger and excluding persons from the use of means of mass 
transport). This mobilization comes in addition to a series of demonstrations, actions and 
sabotage, in response to the approval of the measures previously mentioned. ---- Some 500 
people participated in the demonstration, in a city of 4.5 million inhabitants, most of 
whom use the means of transportation daily or several times a week. We noticed that the 
protesters met with a number of lobotomized consumerists, who advocated the 
commodification of social goods and their "democratic right to pay for mass transit".

Most of the demonstrators were anarchists, anti-authoritarians, libertarians, and Persons 
belonging to organizations and initiatives against electronic tickets and advocate the 
free use of mass means of transport. We also note that no party (parliamentary or 
extra-parliamentary) has called any kind of demonstration against the commercialization of 
means of transport and (new) forms of control and surveillance.

The concentration took place in the square of Monastiraki and was succeeded by a march to 
the Greater Place (Sintagma) along the pedestrian street Ermú, more commercial of 
Antennas. Some of the shouted slogans were as follows: "Neither control bars nor 
reviewers: We deny paying for our basic needs", "For transportation the solution is easy: 
Free use of mass media, and kick at the reviewers" and "Nem Bars or validation machines, 
the crisis has to be paid by the bosses "( video ). Once the march was over, several of 
the new ticket validation machines, installed at the Omonia subway station ( video ) , 
were broken .

Translation: Anarchist News Agency.
The text in Castilian .

http://verba-volant.info/pt/informacao-sobre-a-manifestacao-de-1o-de-abril-contra-as-novas-medidas-nos-transportes-massivos/

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Message: 3




The Workers Solidarity Movement have called an anarchist/anti-authoritarian bloc to join 
the Water Charges march Saturday 8th April in Dublin. This bloc will meet at Connolly 
Station at 2pm . Look out for the red and black flags.   We will be handing out several 
hundred copies of this 4-page leaflet produced by the WSM, which includes content on the 
water charges, housing, and the pro-choice struggle, and are looking for folks to help us 
distribute these on the day. ---- Many Battles Won, With the War Yet to Win ---- We've 
come a long way. Against the forces of the State and global finance the anti-water charges 
movement has held the line, and through years of direct action, community organising and 
mass mobilisations we've pushed the government to the point of defeat on water charges.

In November 2016 the ‘expert commission' basically recommended that water charges as we 
know them be scrapped and the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil dominated Oireachtas committee - 
charged with reviewing this by April 14th - has been squabbling over which crippled 
version of the water charges they can get away with. However, we can't become complacent. 
For one, the Oireachtas committee seems bent on leaving Irish Water with a foot in the 
door rather than abolishing water charges entirely, penalising ‘excessive water usage' and 
stealthily continuing metering.

But even if the committee were to recommend total abolition, we all know how politics 
works. Talk is cheap, the only way that water charges will be eliminated is by popular 
power, not out of politicians seeing the light.

We Are All Leaders
Indeed Martin Luther King said ‘freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it 
must be demanded by the oppressed' and we have proven this to be true. If there were one 
lesson to learn from this struggle, or one way to summarise it, it would be in the phrase 
‘direct action'. Direct action is simply doing something yourself rather than asking or 
waiting for someone else to do it. In a society based on being passive, this seemingly 
simple act is very powerful.

The reason this movement has been so successful is because people decided ‘I don't want 
water meters, so I'm going to stop them being installed', ‘I don't want to pay water 
charges, I don't think anyone should pay them, so I'm not going to pay them'. That's 
direct action. If we had been ‘well behaved' and lobbied politicians as expected, we would 
have failed. Even big demonstrations likely wouldn't have worked if they hadn't stood upon 
this bedrock of direct action.

You can't argue with direct action. No matter what anyone says, if I stop a meter going in 
the ground, it can't be installed. Whatever a politician promises, if you don't pay your 
water bill, Irish Water can't collect that money.

If the charges are abolished, there will be a scramble among political parties and groups 
to claim credit. But although parties and unions have made their contributions, (the 
unions in particular paid huge sums of money to support the movement) they didn't start 
this movement nor do they own it. The so-called ‘ordinary people' rebelled with no clear 
victory in sight, and we organised ourselves without needing to be directed from above. It 
is that wildfire of popular, de-centralised, rebellion which has carried this movement and 
inspired thousands to politically re-awaken. We are all leaders, we are all architects of 
history.

Why the Charges Were Imposed
The water charges were imposed for two basic and related reasons. Firstly, as bank bailout 
tax. Secondly, as part of the neoliberal plan to put all natural resources on the planet 
into private hands. The water charges are one of many ways to take wealth from the working 
class and give it to the rich. As part of a worldwide trend, the wealth of the richest 300 
people in Ireland has doubled from €50 to €100 billion in the last 7 years. Water is the 
‘petroleum of the next century' said Goldman Sachs back in 2008. Big multinational 
corporations have been scooping up what water resources they can in the Blue Gold Rush.

The charges were not imposed for conservation or environmental reasons. Climate change is 
a real and growing threat to humanity and all life, but the same suits sit on their hands 
waiting for us to march off an environmental cliff. Letting 40-50% of our water leak into 
the ground is just one part of their negligence.

What Next?
While it's important to keep our eyes on the prize, it's worth thinking about what comes 
after we eliminate the water charges. Something many of us are keen to see is securing 
public ownership of our water, and all natural resources. The fact is that the fundamental 
way this economic and political system works has not changed, and neither have the 
motivations of the powerful few who really run the show.

A referendum on public ownership is a good first step. But Irish Water is a symptom of the 
greater disease. We have seen how the Gardaí, courts, prisons, and politicians of the 
state collude with the capitalists and their media. The assault on our livelihoods and 
freedoms won't end until this whole social system is replaced by one based on common 
ownership, co-operative work, and personal liberty.

We cannot go home. We have felt our power and we like it. We have experienced real 
democracy and we like it. What will be our next victory together?

Previous WSM writing on the Water Charges struggle
http://www.wsm.ie/water-charge

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Message: 4




Since the end of February, the agents of the city of Noisy-le-Sec (93) are fighting 
against the austerity put in place by the mayor on their backs. ---- On Tuesday, February 
28, 2017, more than 150 strikers gathered at the CGT's call before the Noisy-le-Sec town 
hall to denounce the abolition of social gains by the Mayor of the city Laurent Rivoire . 
The latter regularly congratulates himself in the local newspaper not to increase the 
taxes of the Noises and Noisés, without informing them that the savings are made on the 
backs of the employees of the municipality. ---- Zhus, he wishes to suppress the extra day 
of leave granted to women since 1968 on the city on the delusional grounds that it is not 
egalitarian with regard to men. It is true that women already have so many advantages at 
work that this specificity should seem to him aberrant. The second deletion concerns 
"retirement  leave  ", which allows territorial employees to benefit from extra days of 
leave throughout their careers and to accumulate them to retire a few weeks earlier. On 
this point the mayor was clear, he does not want to pay people to stay at home. No, but 
it's true, a little effort, when we worked a little more than forty years in the public 
service, we will not quibble for two or three months. Ah these officials,

And finally, to stop the payment of the installation fee for agents who become civil 
servants at the end of their year of internship. Again, the argument put forward to 
justify this measure appears disconnected from the reality of the employees.

For the Mayor and his team, most of the employees who could benefit from this bonus are 
already established in Noisy-le-Sec or in the Paris region so they no longer need this 
money. It does not matter that the wage index point of civil servants has been frozen 
since 2010 when the cost of living it, does not stop increasing.

Attempted bullying

After a first joint technical committee (CTP) in which trade union representatives voted 
against these direct attacks against agents, a new CTP was held on Thursday 9 March, 
accompanied by a new strike action. Aggravated by the contempt shown by the municipal team 
towards them, the strikers who waited in front of the town hall decided to invite 
themselves to the CTP to ask for explanations. After an attempt to intimidate a few 
elected officials, who raised their eyes and raised the tone and tried to keep the door 
closed, the agents and territorial agents entered the room to express their anger.

After a vote by the mayor, the latter fled from the room with his head in the shoulders 
under the booing of the strikers. In the aftermath, the CGT drafted and distributed a 
leaflet calling for a common gathering between the territories and the population of Noisy 
at the next municipal council, scheduled on Thursday, March 23, to protest together 
against this management at the discretion of the public service.

Greg (AL 93 center)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Noisy-le-Sec-Les-municipaux-ne-se-laissent-pas-faire

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Message: 5



Anarchists, in principle, do not vote and do not participate in elections. ---- It is our 
responsibility not to vote. ---- On the voter: ---- To politicize by one vote; or as part 
of a one vote election campaigns for a party or a president. In the last elections made in 
Turkey, 87% of voters participated in the elections. The number of participants in the 
elections was 49 million, while the number of those not participating is about 9 million. 
Participation in the referendum to be held in front of us for a change in the system will 
be at a similar number. ---- What does it mean for voters to participate in elections? 
---- In all selective systems, the ones who is majority takes the power. In democracy, the 
power of majority is democratic. Whoever is majority takes the power, whoever is minority 
does not have power. The relationship between the majority and minority during the 
election continues as a debate between two separate methods. The only thing that they 
don't discuss is elections.

Election is a bet which begins when a group says "I-we want to administrate society" and 
they are replied by another group saying "no I-we want to administrate". Election is a 
process of counting voters, initiated by agreement of the parties of the bet and can not 
occur without the voters. The government of society is owned by the side which has more 
voters than the other side. The voter is only a numeric value in the bet. This numeric 
value is not a value to care about for a citizen trying to solve the many problems of 
everyday life. To increase participation to elections, the parties of the bet, want to 
promote the citizens from the voter title into the bettor title. This should increase the 
participation of the bet. The increase in attendance will cause the voter, being a number, 
to internalize the bet and then the domination formed as a result the result of the 
elections. The voter will accept the result of elections and the power of the selected 
side, regardless of who won or lost. This acceptance of the citizens is a win for each 
group who bets on elections. As long as the winner of the elections continues its 
government, the loser will continue its opposition and both sides will wait for the next 
elections.

What does the responsibility of voter mean?

It means the participation of citizens, in the government of society. The voter who 
actually believes that by placing a single vote, he or she is  participating the social, 
economic and political management of society, will agree with this manufactured system 
because of responsibility nonsense. The deal is simple; whether your vote won or lost, you 
must submit your right to be administered to the winner, that is the rightful power. It is 
the responsibility of the deal which you approve with the vote you place in the ballot box.

What does, the equalization of the voters with one vote, mean?

Elections create a fallacy in the conflict between classes. Elections creates the fallacy 
of equalization of a worker who receives a salary of 1,400 and the engineer who receives a 
salary of 14,000 and even the boss who profits 140,000 by "one" produce of these workers 
and engineers, with one vote. This fallacy lasts for months, but ends in a day, reducing 
the oppressed to nullity in social management. The oppressed live the exploitation of all 
the governments that are elected.

It is obvious that the subcontracting system operated by new laws for many years during 
the period of the AKP government, also works for the local governments of CHP. These two 
parties taking the highest votes in all the elections for almost 20 years, hold similar 
positions in the class conflict. One of them being the government and the other being the 
opposition will not affect the class conflict positively or negatively. The boss who 
profits 140,000 will always have more impact on the social government, and as the owner of 
capital, will continue relationships with the owners of the government. The worker who is 
given 1400 in exchange of his or her labor will have no effect in government. The 
momentary happiness of "I also exist in this society" created by the fallacy will end with 
the social and economic realities of everyday life.

What does it mean to be qualified voters?

It means to belong to the majority in society. For all groups entering the elections, the 
segment which makes up the majority of the population is the mass that will determine the 
outcome of the election. Properties of this mass also determines the axis of propaganda 
for the election. Both AKP and CHP aims to win the segments that constitutes the majority 
in society, the segments with mainstream values like the Turkish, the Sunni sect, the 
nationalist-nationalitarian. Voters other than qualified voters, mean less votes compared 
to the number of the mass. This means, unqualified voters are secondary in the election 
propaganda. Therefore, social and economic identity of the citizen, determines his or her 
voter quality.

On the opposition

What does it mean to be the opposition to power in elections?

To be the opposition to power in the elections means that, you were not selected in past 
elections, and you're hopeful for the future elections.

All of the electoral systems require the participation of at least two groups to the 
elections. The two groups are in opposition to each other until the election day in which 
the winner and the losers will be determined. The winner will be in power, in parallel 
with the loser being in opposition.

In the parliamentary system, CHP who opposes all decisions of AKP in the parliament, 
brings into question the administration practices of AKP and their negative effects on 
social life and functioning of the state. This mission of opposition in parliament helps 
CHP to make propaganda opposed to the political power. From then on, this is the only 
relationship that the opposition establishes with voters; since the agreement that it made 
with voters for a single vote, has ended with the defeat in the elections.

The opposition outside the parliament however does not base its existence on opposition 
against the political power who had won the elections; the rest of the non-parliamentary 
opposition is based on anti-capitalism and/or anti-imperialism. Such opposition is a side 
of the class struggle in the Marxist-Leninist class framework. They fight for the 
revolution that will end class struggle with the political power of the worker class 
against the bourgeoisie. Among their strategies of struggle, they are for practical 
associations with the parliamentary opposition in the elections. Revolutionary opposition 
who advocates the elections as a strategy, highlights the opportunity of organizing 
society during the elections. They argue that politicization of the citizen with one vote 
during the election period could be beneficial. Marxist, Leninist and scientific socialist 
organizations in general, interpretation differences aside, advocate using the elections 
strategically.

The HDP is now beyond being the representation of the Kurdish people in the parliament and 
has become an institution that the revolutionary opposition came together. HDP has 
continuously increased its voters in the elections it participated until the general 
elections on November 1. Now that its number of voters has reached 10%, which is the 
minimum required percentage required for participating the parliament as a party, it could 
act as a party in the parliament. The votes it has been receiving from the people of the 
region, their own, primary voters, has stabilized. Along with the votes it receives from 
metropolises, its votes fluctuate between 10-11%. However, the process which began rising 
in November 1, during which the state of Turkey confronted Kurdish movement in internal 
and external politics, has resulted in the removal of HDP by legal-illegal methods from 
the parliament that it entered after being elected. The fact that the elected are being 
judged and arrested one by one despite their legal immunity, indicates the 
unconstrained-ness of rule maker, i.e. the state, to change its rules. Yet another 
indicator is elected mayors being replaced by trustees in municipalities won by HDP in 
local elections. The state proves the fact that representative democracy is an illusion of 
administration by reducing the elections and the elected to nullity in line with its 
internal and external strategies.

In June 7th elections, we saw the process of total revolt, street actions, slowly being 
compressed into the ballot box. This process of compression would be considered 
existential for the opposition from CHP to the Patriotic Party, but it had an 
incomprehensible and complex aspect: HDP's suggestion to society for the ballot box, and 
not streets. While the street actions continued socially, they were dissolved in election 
campaign. Even the liberation of Kobanê was compressed by the campaign. The ones who went 
out to the street, not as part of a campaign, but to realize themselves, first went inside 
the buildings of the ballot box, then into the apartment buildings of their homes. HDP 
said "Come and end the AKP dictatorship" and asked them to vote, the ones who were 
politicized not a day by a vote, but every day by resistance. Election campaigns, cast 
votes and system not changing, has transformed into a constant state of despair under the 
unchanging dictatorship of the state. The discourse of "that's life, it's inevitable" 
spread mouth to mouth, didn't it? Those who compressed hope in the streets inside the 
ballot box, and think hope means voting, now want to repeat that fallacy in another 
election. Voting is not a hope, but a politicization fallacy for the voter; and elections 
are not a hope for justice and freedom, but a fallacy of social management.

On Political Power

Elections mean their power is continued or ended. Every power wants to get the approval of 
the whole of society, and this approval is given by participating in the elections.

After a period during which AKP won elections one after the other and continuously passed 
through crash scenarios, we now have an untimely referendum/elections. These untimely 
elections, that is, out-of-season elections, are AKP's favorite type. We are again in an 
election process where the power is assumed unconstrained by being the majority; the power 
makes its own rules and lifts the rules he doesn't like. This referendum, is AKP's third 
referendum and if it wins, he will have gained an important position in the shaping of 
society. The most important detail in AKP's electoral strategy is that it wants not only 
to increase the number of its voters, but also to increase the number of voters 
participating in the election. The power acts like it does not care about the thoughts and 
feelings of its opponents, but in reality it does care; because one of the things it tries 
to avoid is not being able to have social approval. The power already has the approval of 
voters who vote for him. For the power to have the approval of opposing voters, their 
participation in the elections will suffice. The fact that the opposing voter have 
participated in elections and lost, will provide the legitimacy of the election results. 
Because illegitimate power, cannot take power. The thing that it is most wary of, is low 
participation in the elections. Directly or indirect boycott, is what AKP is really afraid 
of. Consequently, in order to increase participation, AKP continues to increase tension in 
general. By using provocative words and actions while doing its propaganda, it tenses up 
the opposition and increases the confrontation between voters. More confrontation means 
more participation in the elections.

On Us Anarchists:

Does non-participation to elections mean neutrality?

Anarchists who reject the administer-administered relationships, must also reject 
elections made for the administration of society. This is not being neutral, but taking 
the side of the struggle for a world where there are no administers or administered 
people. The elections obviously create the illusion of free will. The individual who 
thinks that he or she gets closer to social management and influences it with free will, 
is going to become distant to the daily reality because of this fallacy. The individual 
who distances away from the injustice, poverty and deprivation that one lives, inevitably 
becomes more obedient. In this unjust and not-free world order created by the conception 
of society that ignores the individual, there is no society in which the administration of 
society is not determined by elections. The options presented to the voters are clear and 
regardless of the choice the voters, these major facts do not change:

1) The ones who has to earn a living by selling their labor and their time, that is the 
oppressed, have no influence on administration.

2) For the oppressed, there is no difference between the implementations of the 
post-election administrations.

3) Owners of administration and owners of capital share interests.

4) In every society, there are of families, tribes, ideological parties, sects and 
ethnicities which have chronic potential for power or opposition. In Turkey, these are 
formed like Turkish, Kurdish, Sunni, Alevi, secular, conservative.

5) Power is responsible for the regulation of state-company relations. It fulfills this 
responsibility by using its bodies such as the execution, the judiciary and the law 
enforcement. This is the responsibility of perpetuating the desired shape of the 
relationship between the oppressor and oppressed. In turkey or whichever state in the 
world, did the power which won the elections favored the oppressed class against the 
oppressor class, ever? No elected power, conservative, liberal or even socialist, has ever 
favored the best interests of the class of the oppressed.

Anarchists cannot advocate voting and thereby acknowledging the power of winner of the 
elections, whether their vote win or lose. Anarchists do not take the organizing of 
society by participating in the elections and turn it into a strategy, like Marxist 
Leninist scientific socialists. Parties participating in the elections, create the fallacy 
that all demands of the people for justice and freedom have been covered in the electoral 
discourse and these will be met after they win the elections. To be a supporter, 
individually or as an organization, of the election campaign which means, in one way, a 
comprehensive demand, is to help propagate this fallacy. The desire to turn the election 
process into an opportunity to be utilized, is the desire to make propaganda for the 
electoral system, i.e. the fallacy. Anarchists should call all individuals that make up 
the society for the responsibility  of abstention. This call, is the responsibility of the 
individual, for not leaving one's own will, and also one's desire for a just and free 
world, to the will of a party or the will of the president. Such responsibility is the 
beginning of a politicization that will span not a single day, but every day.

Revolutionary Anarchist Action

First Declaration On The Referendum.

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