Anarchic update news all over the world - 12 May 2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Czech, afed: The printing imp sense of police -- Report from
      the regular subsistence party, this time on the topic of
      "guardians of order" [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #271 - Read: Berrouka,
      "The Punks Club Against the Zombie Apocalypse" (fr, it, pt)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Britain, afed: SYSTEM MALFUNCTION (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  wsm.ie: Sex Work 101 Talk - Decriminalise (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



The anarchist revue, Existence is trying to be open publications, both figuratively and 
literally. Therefore, after each new issue opens a page in the information center Žižkov 
Salé and discuss the content of the texts published on them with readers and supporters 
who have the opportunity to attend. We did so well in the Wednesday, April 26 with the 
spring issue of our magazine. ---- Existence is the original printed matter, for it is 
certainly not worth arguing. When browsing, however, we confess that the doneseného 
package are very original and individual pieces, which included a printing brownie. And so 
it may happen that the copy that you just made you, you will miss one double page and 
others dwell. We're not sure whether such a rarity acquires flights collector value, but 
certainly we all "happy" holders of the "originals" excuse.

But First things first, the economic base of the cultural superstructure, ie from food to 
ideas. Existential party is also subject to collective cooking and twaddle, such as the 
preparation of the May Day rally, and especially dinner together. Shortly before seven and 
was served a rich, slightly spicy vegetable mix with red lentils with an area of several 
annexes in the form of a green lens, couscous or proper slices of bread. And all this to 
your heart's content.

The subsequent discussion was started by introducing the theme of the new numbers  - 
"guardians of order". From there, it was chosen several basic and interesting facts - the 
creation of the first police forces; on the street as the Forbidden space proletarian 
policy; Origin laws and legitimize their co-opting a number of key principles for the 
functioning of society to enforce and strengthen the interests and positions of elites; 
the police as maintainers of the status quo and tools for taking the poor so that they can 
be fed rich. At the opening speech was followed by a debate on the penetration trends such 
as the militarization of the police, repressive policy of zero tolerance, focusing on 
fining nonsense ...

Traditionally next point was to introduce the topic planned for the next number that will 
probably be "utopia we need." So talk about how neoliberal ideology kills imagination, 
utopia and alternatives to prevent people understand other ways of seeing the world, 
interpersonal relationships, forms of association and organization ... It also reflected 
the fact that the local anti-authoritarian movement lacks discussion of utopias. But on 
the other hand, we can say that the autonomous movement rather than a debate on the 
possible and impossible utopia lived focuses on the here and now. That is an example of 
Prague's Clinic, which is beyond the understanding of many people whose imagination was 
anesthetized rigid ruling ideology. Who would have dreamed of ten years ago on a project 
in which the Department changed. Most of us could do alone might not believe it. And we 
asked why the Czech cultural environment, including subculture, do not utopian debate. 
Perhaps because it is such attempts could meet with derision, and overwhelming fear of him.

Finally we talk about the upcoming klimakempu. Now it has the potential to become a 
temporary utopian space. And not least because it needs their participation and encourage 
participation.

https://www.afed.cz/text/6660/s-tiskarskym-sotkem-o-smyslu-policie

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Message: 2



"  Between musical references and anarchist policies, frank determination against a 
Christine Boutin (it was worth it) zombie and the brothers Bogdanof, Karim Berrouka gives 
us a rock and roll adventure, playing codes of the genre to make fun of their conformism." 
---- When we ask Karim Berrouka why the how of the writing of this book, he tells us his 
exciting days spent translating science fiction and fantasy vulgos and repetitive because 
... must eat well. ---- In the middle of the catalog, numerous zombie works, with heroes 
(male, white, cis), who manage to survive or not, by force and arms. With glorious 
projects of reconstruction of society around a patriarch incarnating force and honor, all 
that, all that ... What to depress the most hardened of the punks, even graying. Club 
punks against the zombie Apocalypse narrates the exploits of a cons-punk band living in a 
squat XX th arrondissement of Paris in full zombie Apocalypse.

Between musical references and anarchistic politics, free fury against a Christine Boutin 
(it was worth it) zombie and the brothers Bogdanof, Berrouka gives us a rock and roll 
adventure, playing codes of the genre to make fun of their conformism. Capitalist society 
reduced to nothing, our protagonists have no desire to raise it, and they would have 
flowed it smoothly if the Medef were not determined to rebuild a society of alienation 
made of unpaid workers. .

The Punk Club ... is a play that can be described as jouissif, which comes to flatter our 
potache humor with blows of big springs on the bosses, of pogos of zombies on 
approximative music, and which gives furiously want to Plunge into our cd collection to 
listen to CRASS, Chaos UK, Stiff Little Fingers and company.

At a time when pop culture is taking an increasingly important place, the authors of our 
side of the barricade are unfortunately still too rare. The book of Berrouka offers us the 
gonzo and bis penchant of the work of a Damasio. And that's fun !

Mehdi Kabar (AL Montreuil)

Karim Berouka, The Club of punks against the apocalypse zombie, ActuSF, 416 pages, 18 euros.

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Roman-Le-Club-des-punks-contre-l-apocalypse-zombie

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Message: 3



The Tories have found their election slogan. The words ‘strong and stable leadership' will 
be stuck on repeat for the next month, but so far there has been something off in the 
Tories' delivery of their core message. Theresa May seemingly can't end a sentence without 
some form of the words ‘strong and stable leadership'. The compulsion to keep repeating 
the mantra betrays an obsession with the words that go beyond the usual parroting of 
meaningless sound-bites. The Tories addiction to the slogan feels like an unconscious 
over-compensating. They have to say the words constantly because they know that actually 
these times are not stable, and they simply can not offer anything, let alone strong 
leadership. ---- There was a time when the British political elite were looked upon as a 
wise and capable governing class. They have always been arrogant and uncaring of course, 
but they seemed to be able to govern in a way which guaranteed remarkable stability and 
predictability.

Tradition ruled. Parties alternated in power with barely a day's disruption. Instability 
was something that happened in other, foreign, places. Contrast this with the recent past, 
where we have seen two referendums on vital strategic state interests, and are now heading 
into a second general election in as many years. Instability in the British state seems to 
be stemming not so much from the actions of the population below but from the growing 
incompetence of the elite itself. One aspect of our times is that the political elite of 
the British state are losing their touch. A once poised and self-assured group has become 
a series of bumbling caricatures with little sense of direction.

It all started almost a decade ago with the crisis of 2007-8. When the financial industry 
crashed the economy it spelled the end of, an admittedly tired, government that had held 
power comfortably for ten years. What replaced it was something virtually unknown for the 
British state, coalition government. Different factions of parliament had to collaborate 
to govern and their first act was to bring down the axe of austerity. Making the poor pay 
for the crisis of the financial system naturally drew a response, there was the student 
movement, strikes, riots and protests. Even though such events are not uncommon in 
Britain, they broke the belief ,held widely both inside and outside the country, that 
street politics simply doesn't happen here.

Toward the end of its reign the coalition government almost scored what would have been 
one of political history's most spectacular own goals. Massively misjudging a growing 
anti-elite sentiment PM Cameron very nearly oversaw the dismemberment of the British state 
with the Scottish referendum of 2014. Only some last minute scrambling and cajoling saved 
that situation. The following year a decaying Labour party helped the Tories to a surprise 
outright majority in the 2015 general election. Commentators were caught off guard by the 
swift return to single party government and normal service looked to have been resumed. 
However, an even more over confident and arrogant Cameron finally managed that spectacular 
own goal he'd narrowly missed in Scotland. There are a lot of things to say about Brexit, 
who wanted it and who will gain by it, but  a large chunk of the domestic political and 
economic elite ,and virtually all the international elites were against it. Clearly it 
wasn't actually supposed to happen. The British state wasn't meant to veer away from ever 
more integrated capitalist markets, and yet an internal party power play got out of hand 
and ended up fundamentally altering the state's strategic direction. Almost on a whim the 
British elite have disregarded a key part of the state's foreign policy that has been 
adhered to for centuries, don't allow the states of Europe to unite in opposition to it.

In the year since the referendum, the political elite have looked very confused. Lacking 
any coherent direction their behaviour is becoming more erratic. The surprise call for 
another general election is just one more instinctive reaction to a situation they've 
stumbled into. It used to be said, wrongly, that the British Empire was acquired in a fit 
of absence of mind, now it seems such an absence of mind is the political elite's approach 
to governing.

There was a method and a plan behind the actions of the political elite over the last 
years but such is their loss of political skill that it seems only to have led them to a 
dead end. Following 2007-8 it was clear to everyone who was responsible for the crisis. 
That's why when the coalition tried to use austerity to get the state out of the crisis 
capitalism had brought it to there was a response. Yet austerity and anti-austerity long 
ago stopped being the main political issue. As elsewhere the political elite protected 
their friends, and sometime co-workers, in the City by switching the blame for the crisis 
to the poor and immigrants. They were helped along in this process by the consequences of 
other errors they had made. Were it not for the disastrous western interventions in places 
such as Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan by successive British governments there would not have 
been the need for so many people to become refugees in recent years. Here the mistakes 
feed into one another with military campaigns creating refugees who then become hate 
figures of the right.

Presumably they thought they could stoke xenophobia and racism while keeping it under 
control. But the vote for Brexit showed that they have lost control of this beast. There 
are good grounds for wishing to leave the European Union, just look at what it has done to 
Greece, but the anti-immigration vote was decisive in 2016. Individual business interests 
and nostalgic nationalists have their own reasons for leaving the EU, but the majority of 
British capitalists want migrant labour to exploit and the City certainly needs access to 
the European market. By building up anti-immigrant sentiment to mask the financial crisis 
the British elite shot itself in the foot.

So we get to the current moment. A Prime Minister who might or might not support Brexit 
(I'd be surprised if even Theresa May herself knows what she believes) is promising to 
deliver a hard Brexit to satisfy anti-immigrant feeling, knowing this is damaging to the 
interests of the state. The political elite have trapped themselves by their own 
manoeuvres. The return to the stability the elite used to enjoy still seems some way off 
despite the likelihood of an enhanced Tory majority at the next election. This majority 
could help the Prime Minister deal with the compromises ahead but does not guarantee they 
can ride out the storm. An anti-immigrant hard Brexit could damage the economy and 
undermine the British state in Scotland and Northern Ireland. A compromise with the EU 
over freedom of movement will expose the Tories to the very hatred they have been fanning.

The incompetence of the elite is dangerous, perhaps even more dangerous than the times 
they are competent. Political elites around the world are finding it difficult to get out 
of the various crises that keep coming up. As always the manoeuvres of the elite are a 
threat to those they rule. It may well be true that the Tories have done more damage to 
the British state than any revolutionary movements have managed in recent times but this 
is of no comfort to the people endangered by austerity and racism. For the political elite 
their games have no real consequences, even the most disastrous of Prime Minsters will 
still live out a luxurious life, and will be roundly cheered by their colleagues. For 
everyone else the consequences can be very real.

The only sliver lining to the dark clouds dominating the present moment is the fact that 
for increasing numbers of people the status quo is no longer tenable. More and more people 
are looking for a way out and there is a general feeling that something has to be done or 
has to happen. So far, no one, least of all the political elites, knows what to do and 
various different options are being tried. In Greece there has been an attempt to find a 
left wing way out of the crisis. This has failed. It did so not only because Syriza had no 
plan to overcome the first obstacle, the Troika, but because they were also devoid of any 
actual ideas or strategy. Much of the left's response to the crises which gathered pace 
after 2007-8 has been limited to a reaction against austerity, and a hope for a return to 
the pre-crisis situation. Beyond going back to the pre-2007 world the left seems to have 
little new to offer, hence the reason Labour had to look so deep into its ranks and past 
to find a leader. This lack of new ideas is why Syriza has done absolutely nothing but 
implement the terms of its bailout despite holding state power for more than two years.

Greek police increasing security at the offices of Syriza, after people quickly loose 
faith in the party

In Britain and the USA we see an attempt at a right-wing exit from the crisis. The right 
too only seeks to go backwards, this time further back to the era of the independent 
nation state. Anyone who has so much as glanced at history knows what happened last time 
strong independent nation states were the foundation of the international order. We 
already see some hints of this returning world. Trump is very enthusiastic to throw around 
the full arsenal of the US military even if he sometimes appears to forget which country 
exactly he is bombing. So far on the international stage Brexit Britain has only been 
something of an embarrassment to itself, with Tory grandees and the right-wing press 
trying to stir up a fight with Spain over Gibraltar.

Crises are increasingly common in various forms throughout the western states these days. 
Here in Britain the elite are losing their ability to manage the situation. They can only 
solve one crisis by creating another. This is likely one more thing that will not change 
whatever the outcome of the election on June 8th. There will be no strong and stable 
leadership. The system is malfunctioning and so far attempts to reboot it only lead to 
further crashes. How to find a way out and escape from under a floundering elite are more 
critical questions than any an election could pose.

Tags: Crisis, Election, UK

https://afed.org.uk/system-malfunction/

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Message: 4



This is the audio of a talk - Sex Work 101 - given by a member of the Workers Solidarity 
Movement after a WSM Dublin branch meeting in April 2017. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-j1ywE5EdU -- Talk begins - 0:50 -- Q&A - 15:00 ---- A 
new Sexual Offences Bill was passed in the Republic of Ireland under the radar in spring 
2017. First published in 2015, a seemingly unlikely alliance between religious 
conservatives and liberals under the 'Turn Off the Red Light' banner pushed for the 
criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services, also known as the 'Swedish Model', 
despite being practically unanimously opposed by actual sex workers. ---- If you live on 
the island of Ireland and would like to hear about such talks and other WSM events, then 
you can register on our email contact system where you can receive updates particular to 
your area and interests.

http://www.wsm.ie/c/sex-work-101-talk-ireland-decriminalise

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