Today's Topics:
1. Poland, Workers' Initiative: Speech at the 2017 Equality
Parade in Warsaw [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. black rose fed: WHO ARE THE ANARCHISTS AND WHAT IS
ANARCHISM? By Thomas Giovanni (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - 13 th Congress (Nantes,
3-5 June 2017) -- General Orientation Motion (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
June 3rd was held in Warsaw Equality Parade - demonstration for the rights of LGBTQ +
(orientation other than heterosexual). Warsaw Commission and the Environmental Working
Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations CMO IP took part in it due to manifest support
for the idea of equality, opposition to homophobia and discrimination and commitment to
fight for workers' rights outside the gates of factories. Below we publish the contents of
the speech delivered by Martyne Lysakiewicz of the Working Committee on Non-Governmental
Organizations. ---- On behalf of the Workers' Initiative I greet all the heat accumulated
in the equality parade in 2017. ---- Today is the feast of equality. All of Poland listens
and watches the fight for equal rights. For whom? ---- Not only for same-sex couples who
can afford to go abroad, there to get married and start a family, but also for those who
are here and their precarious salaries are trying to survive another month, waiting for a
positive change.
Not only for trans people who can spend thousands of dollars on doctors, surgery, hormones
and legal support, but also for those who dream, so they need health care was available on
the National Health Fund, they simply can not afford it.
Because doctors specializing in transgender few in Poland, and the procedure is difficult
and confusing, full of successive kroczków. Often the prescription hormone of 300 PLN 100%
payment obtained after visiting the private for 150 PLN, the way having to pay for further
studies (for example, complete blood count and levels of hormones and additives approx.
700 PLN, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain approx. 1000 PLN and many others,
including absurd as fundus examination). From his own pocket, not once have to pay further
visits to specialists (psychologist, psychiatrist) to obtain the necessary review process.
Then pay the costs, where valuations of its services experts, doctors, often for high
amounts. In proceedings to sue their parents.
Not only fighting for the rights of trans people, which thanks to the support of family or
better the launching undergone a correction at a young age, but also for those often
unemployed that their image is different from the gender specific documents or that they
have a work certificate issued the old data.
Because the employer is not obliged to issue a new certificate of employment if the former
employee will make adjustments. Thus often start working in a new place forces coming out,
at least before the HR department. For the majority of trans people that I know, this is a
huge source of stress. Many of them have a big break in employment.
We are fighting for the rights not just for able-bodied LGBT +, but for those that jerking
apart from Bi homo- or transphobic daily struggle with ableizmem, being even more
vulnerable to violence, exploitation, unemployment, low wages. Because only 8% of people
with disabilities work, and as I work, it is often a national minimum, the lowest
positions, because they are a source of savings for employers. When marginalization
against disability intersects with marginalization based on sexual orientation or gender
identity (because there is no shortage of people, both disabled and LGBT), the survival of
capitalism becomes a real challenge.
Not only for LGBT + with large cities that have access to the services offered by focusing
on the metropolis NGOs, but also for those that meetings of support groups would have to
go a few hours by train, and who live in fear that their small local community become
aware of their differences. They are afraid that they not only lose their jobs, but they
will not find another already is, not only by rumor, but huge unemployment in his district.
Not only we are fighting for the rights of LGBT + condominium in Warsaw, but also for
those who are struggling with homelessness, because they have been thrown out of the
house, who had previously shared with homophobic family members. Before whom do not have
time to hide your hormones, hide compounds to endure verbal abuse and physical violence,
often dependent on them financially because of unemployment or extremely low wages.
We are interested in the fate of not only menagerek, activists of programmers,
entrepreneurs, doctors, celebrities, but also magazynierek, the unemployed, the shopkeepers.
Opposing inequalities today, also we oppose klasizmowi, marginalization, exclusion. We
need a labor market not only regarding training. Equality in the more progressive
companies, but also good, respected labor law, decent wages. Insurance coverage for
therapy associated with the correction of sex. Labor agreements to be able to cover the
insurance partner of the same sex. Not only the opportunity to take a loan by two men, but
also the lack of need for borrowing, to have a roof over his head.
We will not accept a situation in which experienced transphobia homo- Bi is the more
severe the less affluent have a wallet. This is not true equality.
http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/spoleczenstwo/item/2276-przemowienie-na-paradzie-rownosci-2017-warszawa
------------------------------
Message: 2
In the wake of the use of militant street tactics at the Trump inauguration protests, the
controversial shut down of two prominent right-wing speakers the University in California,
Berkeley, and a variety of high profile actions against the far right, anarchists have
received increased media attention and sparked widespread debate, particularly around
anti-fascist struggles. But many people are still confused about anarchism, associating it
with indiscriminate violence, chaos, and disorder. This distorted image runs counter to
more than a century of anarchist activity in and outside the United States. So if not
chaos or disorder, what does anarchism stand for? What do anarchists believe in? ---- Core
Anarchist Values ---- At the most basic level, anarchists believe in the equal value of
all human beings. Anarchists also believe that hierarchical power relations are not only
unjust, but corrupt those who have power and dehumanize those who don't. Instead
anarchists believe in direct democracy, cooperation, and solidarity. Anarchists oppose the
state, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, imperialism and other forms of oppression,
not because they believe in disorder; but rather because they believe in equal freedom for
all and oppose all forms of exploitation, domination and hierarchy.
So if anarchists aren't for disorder and chaos, what are they for? Anarchists recognize
that the current social order promotes individualistic, competitive disorder and
ecological destruction, not freedom for all. For example, under capitalism the wealthy
elite have the freedom to dominate and exploit the rest of us, while taking away our
freedom to control our work and lives, and taking away our ability to equitably share in
the globally and historically created economic and technological advances of our world. In
contrast to this, anarchists support the principles of solidarity and equal freedom for
all, in all aspects of society.
Direct Democracy Replaces the State
The democratic state is a contradiction in terms to anarchists. The state is not truly
participatory, but rather a governance system in which some govern and others are
governed. It is made up of hierarchical institutions and relations of power in which a
few, elected or otherwise, rather than the whole society make binding, value-laden
decisions for the rest of us, and enforce those decisions with the direct - or underlying
threat - of violence. To govern ourselves without the state, anarchists propose directly
democratic assemblies with mandated (i.e. they must bring the specific views and votes of
all from the assembly) and immediately recallable delegates (not "representatives" who are
elected and then make their own decisions) to engage in dialogue, negotiation and
compromise with larger numbers of people. For example, instead of electing senators and
representatives, anarchists propose neighborhood assemblies of perhaps between 200- 400
people to discuss, debate and dialogue directly regarding the various issues that arise in
our society. Clusters of neighborhoods might send their mandated delegates with specific
votes on each issue to do the same for sub-regional assemblies, regional assemblies and a
global assembly. If each of those four levels of directly democratic assemblies were
around 300 people, you could have directly democratic self-governance of 8.1 billion
people. Of course this is only a theoretical example and this could take different forms
and numerical quantities in practice; but these directly democratic forms would eliminate
others making decisions for the global population and instead involve directly democratic
participatory decision-making of all people on the planet.
Does this mean that we'd be against administrative agencies tasked with developing
scientific research or coordinating health care or educating the population? Of course
not. However, the system of elite control dominating and manipulating such agencies would
be eliminated. Instead, these agencies would be accountable from the bottom-up through our
assemblies and councils of mandated delegates and filled with voluntary cooperation
amongst those active in their field just as many associations and agencies work today
despite attempts at top-down governmental control.
An Egalitarian and Liberatory Global Economic Order
What about economics? All anarchists are anti-capitalists and we believe that the broad
working class must end capitalism and replace it with an economic system that benefits us
all. Most anarchists believe in communism (not the state dictatorships in places like the
USSR, China, or Cuba led by "Communist" parties). As the term was originally used in the
19th century, to anarchists, communism instead means a stateless, classless society in
which the land, machines, buildings, resources and other tools/infrastructure/locations by
which and in which we engage in economic activity would be controlled from the bottom up
through directly democratic assemblies of working people and mandated delegates in
different coordinating roles similar to how our community assemblies would work.
Specialization would likely occur, but job tasks would be divided more fairly so that work
time would be reduced, work conditions would be improved and undesirable work would be
eliminated or partially shared by many. The workplace would be driven by those doing the
work with accountability to their local communities and the federations of communities
sub-regionally, regionally and globally. The communist maxim "from each according to
ability, to each according to need" means that each would be expected to contribute
according to their ability in whatever capacity. Individuals would then be able to have
all of their needs met (health, education, housing, transportation, food, clothing, etc.)
and many of their wants met (entertainment, luxury items) on an egalitarian basis.
Unlike some historically top-down models, a bottom-up participatory economy would
encourage diversity of production of goods and services for the diverse needs and wants of
individuals. But all individuals would be given the opportunity to develop their skills
and abilities according to their capacities, talents and desires so that they contribute
in the most fulfilling and productive way possible to society. However, not all would be
expected to work for the society (retirees, school-age children, parents on parental
leave, those with incapacitating health issues, etc.). Different types and levels of
societal work would be expected from single individuals vs. parents, or those
differently-abled vs. others. Fulfilling differentiated levels of expected contribution
would not mean differentiated levels of compensation. All needs and wants would be
fulfilled in an egalitarian manner that doesn't disadvantage someone because they have
greater needs (such as health needs or requirements for their children) All in all,
instead of a society basing social prestige on acquiring things, social prestige would
turn towards those who contribute to society in meaningful ways according to their
individual capacities.
Also the economy would be a global economy that seeks to develop and utilize the
capacities, talents and skills of all for the benefit of all. This would involve a
commitment to international solidarity and the sharing of technology, resources and
knowledge to undo the historically, economically, politically and socially created
inequalities of our world. Allowing for all to achieve their potential by providing the
resources, opportunities and connections to do so will generate profound advances as we
unlock the capacities of so many currently unable to contribute to their full capacities.
This means the movement which we build must be global. However, revolutionary social
change would likely be uneven due to gains in some areas and setbacks in others as we
build connections around the globe to fight alongside each other and undermine
reactionary, elite and oppressive forces led by those affected most directly by them.
The Elimination of Societal Oppression
Beyond politics and economics, there are still vast inequalities and dominating power
relations that affect our world. Systems and cultures of white supremacy, religious
prejudice, patriarchy, heterosexism, xenophobia, and many other forms of oppression still
dominate our world. The destruction of these institutions, systems and oppressive elements
of cultures is central to the anarchist vision. These systems must be destroyed and
replaced with egalitarian relations that prioritize respect, liberation, solidarity,
diversity and autonomy within various communities that allows for people to be free and
fully human in a manner in which they choose as long as it doesn't involve the domination,
oppression or exploitation of others.
What about policing, anti-social behavior and crimes? The overwhelming majority of
anti-social behaviors and crimes are due to structural inequalities under capitalism and
other systems of socio-economic oppression. Another strong contributing factor to
anti-social behavior and crimes relates to inadequate mental health services. Under an
anarchist communist society, the vast majority of the incentive for and causes for crime
would be removed. However, remnants of anti-social, violent and oppressive behavior would
persist. Anarchism doesn't support the freedom of some to exploit, oppress or harm others
- it's not a competitive bullying free-for-all like capitalism. Instead, anarchism is
fundamentally about eliminating dominating and oppressive relations of power. This
wouldn't involve a specialized institution like the police, which consolidates too much
repressive power in the hands of too few, leading to corruption, abuse and entrenched
dominating sites of hierarchical power. Instead, organized, broad-based and rotating
community patrols and rapid response networks - aided by a heightened sense of societal
solidarity, familiarity and engagement amongst neighbors under anarchist communism - would
work to defend against reactionary, anti-social or other oppressive actions of individuals
and groups. Transformative justice processes - developed significantly within a variety of
North American indigenous cultures - could serve to hold individual transgressors
accountable and attempt to prevent such actions in the future.
The Possibility of Anarchism
Is this all even possible? The farthest explicitly anarchist movements that have come to
implement such a vision occurred in Manchuria from 1929-1931, Ukraine from 1917-1921 and
Spain from 1936-1939. Anarchists have also built, held strong influence or were
significant forces in some of the first labor movements in almost every continent in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. More recently, some revolutionary libertarian* left
societies (though not anarchist communist societies, they are in the same tendency and in
line with many of the same broad libertarian left values and principles as anarchism) have
also emerged in places like Chiapas, Mexico in the 1990s until present led by the
Zapatistas and in Rojava, Kurdistan (Northern Syria and Iraq) from 2012 to present (while
also successfully and heroically fighting ISIS forces in the process).
How do we get there? Anarchists believe in direct action, popular power and prefigurative
politics. Direct action strategies mean anarchists don't try to get elected to public
office (or take control of the state by other means), prioritize legal challenges in the
courts to change laws, or gain management positions within businesses to change how things
are run. Instead, through directly democratic, collective bottom-up action at our
workplaces, schools and within our communities, we seek to force those in positions of
power to make improvements in our conditions (or change the conditions directly without
approval from authorities), while building the bottom-up popular power amongst the broad
working class necessary for bigger gains and ultimately fundamental transformation. For
example, collective direct action might involve strikes, boycotts, blockades, civil
disobedience, or directly making changes without top-down approval. In addition, broader
educational and organizing efforts help to build towards such action in ways that broaden
struggle and consciousness. The popular power that we build is autonomous from the state,
political parties or other elite or hierarchical forces, and instead represents the
collective, egalitarian, directly democratic power of the broad working class in our
communities, workplaces, and schools.
Prefigurative politics means that we seek to organize in a manner consistent with a
society we want to live in while building popular power. We organize in a directly
democratic, collective and egalitarian manner where we confront capitalism, the state and
all systems of oppression both outside of and within our movements and start to plant the
seeds and build the foundations of a new society through the ever increasing popular power
that we build in the movements and organizations of which we are a part today. The various
elite, reactionary or otherwise oppressive forces won't just allow this to happen. All of
this will be a struggle that will ultimately lead to revolution - the abolition of the
state, the expropriation of all the means of production from the few transferred to the
control and benefit of all, and the fundamental transformation of the dominating,
oppressive and exploitative systems, institutions and cultures of our world to the
liberatory, free and egalitarian systems of tomorrow.
But to create such a society, anarchists believe we must begin to now operate in a manner
consistent with such a society. We need to confront and undermine all systems of
oppression, domination and exploitation in our communities, schools and workplaces and
build alternative models and relations in the process. These seeds of the new world that
we are creating through the popular power that we are building in the struggle against the
oppression of the old world, must develop over time in struggle with the current systems
until we have the opportunity to replace them. Such a revolution must take place if we
truly believe that all human beings have equal worth, that all should have equal freedom
and that we feel such a world would be a desirable place to be. The elites won't give this
to us so we must fight for it against their actions and in the process of building ours.
So join us - and your neighbors, co-workers, fellow students, and all those of the broader
working class - as we defend ourselves in this world and build towards a better world
together.
* "Libertarian" has historically been used as a synonym for anarchism globally. The right
in the United States attempted to co-opt this term in the 1970s with the formation of the
pro-capitalist, competitive, hyper individualist "Libertarian Party". This has nothing to
do with anarchism or the libertarian left which is socialist, cooperative, and believes
that true individuality is cultivated in the context of healthy collective relations.
Thomas Giovanni is a member of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation.
Recommended Readings
"Why I Am An Anarchist" by Lorenzo Ervin Komboa. Former Black Panther and political
prisoner Komboa writes on why he became an anarchist and provides a brief introduction.
The full text can be found in the Black Anarchism Reader.
"The Anarchist FAQ." A two volume published and online book of questions and detailed
answers covering a wide range of topics.
"Building a Revolutionary Anarchism" by Colin O'Malley. A practical program of how to
make anarchism a significant force and relating to larger social movements.
Spanish Civil War 1936-39 Reading Guide. A detailed collection of articles on the Spanish
Revolution - arguably the most far reaching revolution in history.
For A Working Class Feminism: Resources For International Women's Day. A collection of
pamphlets, articles and interviews presenting a new vision of feminism.
The Bread Book. An introductory blog promoting Peter Kropotkin's classic work "The
Conquest of Bread" which presents a vision of free society where everyone has access to
basic needs.
http://blackrosefed.org/who-are-the-anarchists-and-what-is-anarchism/
------------------------------
Message: 3
Summary: ---- From social regression to the "conservative revolution" ? ---- Worsening of
inequalities, rising capitalist profits and social breakdown ---- Semi-social,
half-reactionary revolts ---- Liberals' leap forward, old recipes of neoreformism ----
Towards an authoritarian regime ? ---- Fighting the next government, anticipating its
objectives and finding breaches ---- Hot spots ---- Political practices, practices in
struggles ---- Alternative libertarian in action ---- Neither angelicism nor paranoia: to
prepare materially and morally for the hardening of security ---- The intervention of AL:
a voluntarism without blindness ---- 1. From social regression to the "conservative
revolution" ? ---- Worsening of inequalities, rising capitalist profits and social
breakdown ---- In France as in the rest of the world, inequalities continue to widen.
On the one hand, the multiplication of precarious contracts, mostly occupied by young and
low-skilled people. In the second quarter of 2016, 87 % of hirings were fixed-term
contracts, 70 % of which were for less than one month. The unemployment rate is close to
10 %, or 5.8 million people [1]. One third does not receive any compensation, half less
than 500 euros ... [2].
On the other hand, the rich are always richer. In 2014, the annual income of a large boss
represents 600 to 1,120 years of Smic [3]. Wealth inequalities are even stronger than
income inequalities. The richest 50% hold 8 % of the wealth, compared to half for the
richest 10% [4]. In 2014, France reached a new record in the number of billionaires: 67.
The total amount of the first 500 French professional heritages increased by 15% in one
year, reaching 390 billion euros. More than the state budget !
The socialist government, as a good servant of the capitalist bourgeoisie, pursued all-out
social caste and gifts to employers. With the National Interprofessional Agreement
legalizing blackmail in employment, the Rebsamen law attacking union representation, the
Macron law trivializing Sunday work and diminishing the rights of dismissed workers.
Finally, the passing of the Labor Act to article 49-3, opening a considerable breach in
the protection of employees with the reversal of the hierarchy of norms in the labor law.
The tax credit for the competitiveness of employment and the " pact of responsibility "
brought billions to the bosses without any hiring at the key, while all the public
services are imposed more and more austerity measures and privatizations.
As a class conscious of its interests, the capitalist class continues to lead the class
struggle. Their class is better than ever. Certainly we will not, like the economist
Thomas Piketty, offend the danger of rising inequalities for the survival of capitalism.
But beyond the direct consequences of inequalities, which are tragic for those who suffer
from them, unemployment and casualization affect social mobilization and how we intervene.
Semi-social, half-reactionary revolts
The proletariat as well as certain sections of the petty bourgeoisie who fear the
pauperization are increasingly angry at this situation. This anger, which rises from
peri-urban and rural areas in full slump, is ambivalent. It engenders both class reactions
and reactionary reflexes.
On the one hand, social mobilisations continue against collective redundancies and the
demolition of the last protective bars for workers: public services, social security, the
Labor Code.
On the other hand, despair rises with a xenophobic, religious, conservative withdrawal,
demanding a return to a mythical past of a moral and authoritarian order.
These are two different dynamics, but sometimes they can be combined. It is from their
combination that a neo-fascism can arise. What characterizes fascism is indeed to have a
pseudo-social dimension, which can enable it to mobilize the popular classes in a revolt
deviated against scapegoats. But the program of the FN remains anti-social: questioning
the 35 hours, increasing the Smic trompe l'oeil to the detriment of social contributions,
tax advantageous for large fortunes etc.
In 2016, two major events were the result of a semi-social, half-reactionary revolt:
In Britain, the victory of the Brexit in the referendum resulted both from a xenophobic
outbreak and a class revolt, opposing the industrial regions affected to the richest and
most cosmopolitan metropolises.
In the United States, Donald Trump has freed the sexist, racist and reactionary speech,
but without widening the electoral base of the Republican Party. He was able to win only
with the collapse of the Democratic Party, whose discriminated minorities and the working
class turned away because of its betrayed promises.
Liberals' leap forward, old recipes of neoreformism
The right-wing (LR, Modem) and Left (PS, EELV) parties, endorsing the neo-liberal
ideology, sometimes organically linked to employers' circles and high finance, are unable
to understand this situation.
They will continue to flee further towards deregulation, lower collective guarantees,
breakdown of public services, disastrous ecological, social and democratic free trade
agreements.
On the left, this suicidal leap forward nevertheless provokes acts of rebellion, with
attempts to invent a neo-social democracy. We saw it with Die Linke (Germany), Left Front
(France), Podemos (Spain), Syriza (Greece), Bernie Sanders breakthrough at the Democratic
Party (USA) Of Jeremy Corbyn at the head of the Labor Party (Great Britain). These
attempts to recreate a " true reformism " are however obeyed by the absence of an
alternative strategy to the reformism of yesteryear: it is always a question of proposing
a social management of capitalism, a model that historically has systematically failed.
The PS, incapable of differentiating itself from the right on the economic program,
strives to appear more progressive in terms of values, with an inclusive discourse
vis-à-vis racialized, LGBT minorities, women ... But, in Apart from a few symbolic
measures - the opening up of the right to marry for all, for example, or the prohibition
of the purchase of a sexual act - his virtuous speeches remain abstract and without any
bearing on the reality of the Discrimination on a daily basis - discrimination in housing,
work, facial control, stigmatization of the Muslim minority ...
Under the presidency of Francois Hollande, the PS will have attacked the proletariat
head-on by conducting an antisocial policy - austerity, Macron law, El Khomri law -
without at least achieving an image of commitment against discrimination.
Towards an authoritarian regime ?
The political and social landscape of recent years has been profoundly marked by the
attacks in France. An alternative libertarian, beyond the sideration provoked by these
tragedies, attempted to provide rational explanations to overcome feelings of anger and
fear. Thus, we have seen the coalition of two phenomena long denounced:
They are the result of destructive western policies at the geopolitical level, which have
favored the rise of international jihadism ;
They are also the result of socially destructive policies within the dominant states, the
crisis deepening social inequalities and a lack of perspectives that have fueled religious
extremism in a small part of the population.
These events had significant consequences by deepening the phenomenon of the rise of the
extreme right, the authoritarian practices of the State and the rejection of migrants. The
banalization of the repression and repression of social movements are the immediate
consequences. Moreover, they have been the source of vigorous debates within struggle
organizations and far-left political organizations, but also more generally in society.
Much of the politicians will continue to manipulate and thereby generate the fear of the
attacks in the years to come. This must be taken into account in our strategies.
Social decay, decommissioning, deindustrialisation, popular districts wrecked, disaster
areas ... These are the ingredients of a social revolt.
Accumulation of defeats for the social movement, racist attacks on Roma and Muslims, a
speech of sovereignist withdrawal on a " national capitalism " ... There are elements of
a deviation from this social revolt towards scapegoats and False solutions.
Empowerment and impunity of the police forces, a state of emergency ad æternam, reduction
of democratic freedoms and safeguards, strengthening of social control and state
supervision ... There is the means of a possible authoritarian regime, fascistic.
The PS accelerated the establishment of an authoritarian state, either with the
Thatcher-Catholic dress of François Fillon, or with the reactionary nationalist dress of
Marine Le Pen.
In both cases, social movements and revolutionary organizations must expect a tightening
of repression and destabilization. Italy of the years of lead, France of the Algerian war,
Russia of Putin, Turkey of Erdogan ... To varying degrees, there are not lacking in
historical situations in which discredited states use force to annihilate the protest.
It is up to us to anticipate and adapt our modes of action so as not to be surprised. For
it is out of the question to self-censor.
Whether right-wing, right-wing, social-democratic or neo-social-democrat, all parties that
aspire to the role of " good managers " of capitalism will inevitably be led to
perpetuate the policy of fiscal austerity. As crises are inherent in the capitalist
structures, they will continue to break public services and press people to settle the
abyssal debt generated by the " bank rescue " in 2008.
Social anger is not about to be extinguished. It is up to us to guide it, through debates
and practices, against the real leaders, and towards the questioning of an economic system
that leads to the ruin of society and the planet.
2. Fight the next government, anticipate its objectives and find breaches
The victory of Macron will not mark a major break with François Hollande. Its policy will
follow its line, which was already that of Nicolas Sarkozy, and which will consist of
dismantling social rights to increase the capitalist profits.
Hot spots
A number of issues may be government targets. Some open the possibility of collective
responses and the opening of political gaps in the dominant ideology.
On the social front, attacks on labor law will probably be an important battleground for
the coming years. Firstly, the application of the Labor law, which is undertaken on a
company by company basis, will give rise to sectoral struggles which will have to be dealt
with through trade union work on the ground. To this may be added the risk of a
questioning of the 35 hours, which could provoke a social movement of magnitude. There is
also the question of the federation of trade unionism, the initiative "On blocking
everything", being a milestone in this direction, whose effectiveness has remained much
less than needs.
Given the realities of power relations and the need to reinvigorate the trade union
movement through a motivating, ambitious project that goes beyond today's organizations
without denying them, questions of the unity and unification of struggle syndicalism must
be Discussed ; Modest milestones have already been laid, it is necessary to go further.
This will only be possible by taking into account the specific rhythms of each union group
and respecting the autonomy of the trade union movement ; But it also presupposes that
revolutionary trade union activists promote this implementation.
The organization of the precarious, as difficult as it is, remains an important stake (see
text of the congress of AL 2012). In the years to come, new attacks against unemployment
insurance, the Labor Code, reductions in social benefits and the extension of
precariousness can be imagined. Finally, profound changes in wage labor, such as the
uberization or the multiplication of the use of part-time work, confront the new
generations arriving in the world of work with more difficult working conditions. The
modes of organization of these workers are often referred to as " new forms of struggle
", although it is often a return to collective practices of direct action, Where there is
often no trade union tradition or " social dialogue " capable of domesticating potential
trade unions. There is therefore a challenge for class unionism to invest these new
sectors of the proletariat. At the LA level, the Committees on Business and Precariousness
and Direct Solidarity have a vocation to analyze and intervene in this field.
Periods of economic crisis often go hand in hand with a strengthening of " moral values
", and thus patriarchy. The reactionary and patriarchal offensive of the Manif pour tous
is to be understood in this sense. Antifeminist attacks become commonplace. The next few
years are likely to be rich in new offensives: against what the reps call " gender theory
" in textbooks, against the closure of abortion centers, reduction of subsidies to
family planning, or even questioning of certain rights Such as access to various
contraceptive methods, the use of abortion, as in Poland and Spain.
France, like the rest of Europe, is experiencing a racist wave that takes several forms:
From the point of view of the attacks of the State: police violence, racist and
Islamophobic laws against the wearing of the veil and religious symbols, anti-burkini
arrested ridicules, to which must be added discrimination in social housing and migration
policies. ..
Employers are also involved in discrimination in the hiring or exploitation of
undocumented workers.
Finally, the extreme right is a very powerful vector of racist ideas and practices as we
have seen with the mobilizations against the reception of migrants. The intervention of AL
on this issue must jointly mobilize the anti-fascist and anti-racist commissions.
On the side of security policies, fronts of struggle were opened. To cite just a few
examples of anti-repression collective: Collective defense (Defcol) in Rennes and Paris,
the CAJ in Toulouse, the GA against the state of emergency and violence (Montpellier), as
well as the numerous local, trade union or political solidarity funds (including the one
created by AL) created during the fight against the Labor Act. Unfortunately, these
initiatives struggle to meet an echo beyond militant circles.
Faced with the far right, fascist or not, in power or not, the question of forming an
anti-fascist movement of mass and popular remains. A movement that does not belong to
"humanist" anti-fascism , without a political compass and complacent with the Socialist
Party, nor of an anti-fascism that revels in a sometimes folkloric and virilist
counterculture. At the national level, initiatives such as VISA or the Libertarian
Antifascist Campaign (CLAF) seek to follow this logic. But it must be noted that the
extreme right has become commonplace and that it is difficult to carry out massive
mobilization against it (evidenced by the failure of the demonstration against the FN
congress in Lyon in November 2014) . Recall that the best revenue to push back the extreme
right,
Political practices, practices in struggles
The proletariat evolves, the social movement evolves, its activity evolves. In order to
act consistently within it, it is necessary for AL to defend certain orientations and
practices.
On the unitary policy of AL
In social debates, in political and social struggles, AL sometimes associates with other
political forces in unitary frameworks.
According to the subjects, the relevance of the political perimeter may vary. This may
have been strictly libertarian (anti-fascist libertarian campaign, collective Anarchists
solidarity of Rojava), or self-management (fairs to self-management), or anti-capitalist
(Forum of radical ecology, local anticapitalist fronts) State of emergency, take the
initiative again).
Within each of these frameworks, AL defends its positions as far as maintaining the
unitary framework allows.
The usefulness of a unitary framework is, in fact, less in the perfection of the
collective positions it can produce than in the dynamic of collective action which it can
encourage. But it is important that the expression of AL does not depend on the unitary
framework, knows how to preserve its originality and its critical distance.
On the content of the claims
AL has never opposed " reformist struggles " and " revolutionary struggles, "
considering that the important thing was social conflict in itself, as a ferment of class
consciousness, and as vital to any revolutionary project.
In the struggle movements, AL must have united demands that could beat the possible idea
of compromise with the employers (for example " neither amendable nor negotiable:
withdrawal of the El Khomri law "). But we must also raise beyond this the slogans that
call into question the capitalist order and / or the dominant ideology.
For example:
The demands which make the right to housing prevail over private property ("
requisitioning empty dwellings ", " requisitioning / self-management of profitable
businesses that dismiss ") ;
Those which make workers' power prevail over employer arbitrariness (" right of veto on
collective redundancies ", " blocking of dividends of shareholders of dismissing
enterprises ") ;
Those that contradict the idea that unemployment is the fault of the unemployed and the
unemployed, that the "growth" arlésienne will create jobs, and that we must work " more
to earn more " (" reduction of working time without Wage reduction, with corresponding
hirings "," retirement at age 60, without reduction of pensions, with corresponding
hirings ") ;
Those which respond to a social emergency while rejecting the myth of the migratory
invasion (" freedom of movement and the establishment of workers ") ;
Those which raise equal treatment as a prerequisite for any debate (" equal pay and
women-men ", " marriage for all or for nobody ", " right to vote for immigrants ").
It does not matter whether certain claims are compatible or not with capitalism at the
present stage, as long as they are legitimate from a revolutionary point of view and they
meet an echo. Some are "transitive" claims in the sense that they underline the
illegitimacy of the current regime and bridges the gap to the society of tomorrow.
On the construction, enlargement and self-organization of struggles
When a large-scale social movement occurs, such as in 1995, 2003, 2006, 2010 or 2016, AL
must " walk on both legs ", synergizing its militant activists in struggles and strikes,
and spreading The broadest of its own revolutionary expression.
Today there is a real decline in combative trade union practices in companies, and this
observation applies more widely to all social movements. How many activists have direct
links with employees, whether in trade union or political form, with talks, discussions,
tours, information hours, petitions and so on. Able to contest day by day the political
orientations of the employers and the parties of government ? It is this anchoring of the
field which is sorely lacking when it comes to stimulating or widening struggles, as in
2010 against the Fillon reform or in 2016 against the Labor law, and to leave the inter-
Itself. Perhaps in the 1970s it was enough to be a sting left of reformist organizations
that built the mobilizations.
AL also wishes to encourage the emergence of convergence assemblies, insofar as they are a
lever to multiply the participation and even extend the struggle to previously hesitant
sectors. They also make it possible to organize the struggle on the scale of our cities,
which makes it possible not to be dependent on intersyndicals sometimes chilly to launch
massive actions.
However, we must be aware that the scope of this type of assembly depends closely on the
depth of the social movement in progress. At the start of a mobilization or when
mobilization is difficult to widen, these assemblies can bring together individuals, trade
unions and politicians to allow speeches and collective decisions to support strikers,
Blocking actions.
In the case of a large-scale social movement, these assemblies can take the form of
genuine inter-professional GAs with mandated representatives from each sector or large
company in conflict. It is towards this pattern that the activists of AL will push.
It is rare, however, that we get there. In 2010 and 2016, many local assemblies gathered
together organizations and individuals. The " Standing Night " assemblies of 2016, in
spite of all the limits that have been seen in some cases (a certain disconnection with
social struggle, substitution for the strike ...) have sometimes been experiences of
direct democracy. They have allowed the development of self-management ideas in people who
are usually not touched.
On economic blockages
The emblematic support action of 2010 and 2016 was the economic blockade.
It would be wrong to make it the new form of struggle adapted to the time. The blockage,
from the outside, is mainly the consequence of strikes too weak to block production
themselves, from the inside. And that is the crux of the problem.
However, if it is well conducted, in conjunction with the unions and employees of the
blocked site - and this is the way activists and activists of AL - will act, Convergence,
dynamics, and even encourage the disengagement of wage-earners.es hesitant.es.
On violence in social movements
From the intervention of the GIGN against the strikers of the sorting center of Bègles in
2005 to the death of Rémi Fraisse in 2015, police repression has, in recent years,
contributed to raise the level of violence around the social movements. The movement
against the Labor Act in 2016 has further illustrated this.
As for the violence assumed by some of the demonstrators, notably around the practice of
organized rape (broken shop window, police stalling), one can regret its often ritualized
character and sometimes unrelated to the level of radicality of the mass Of the protesters.
We refuse the injunction of the power and the media to dissociate the " peaceful
demonstrators " and the " evil breakers ". Injunction which aims only to domesticate
social movements and to aggravate repression by associating a part of the social movement
itself.
In all cases, AL supports and participates in the collective self-defense of social
movements, whether it be physical self-protection in street demonstrations or legal and
financial mutual assistance in the face of repression.
3. Libertarian alternative in action
Neither angelicism nor paranoia: to prepare materially and morally for the hardening of
security
The state of emergency decreed in France since November 13, 2015 is extended for the fifth
time and is currently running until July 15, 2017. It serves as a pretext for all security
drifts and increases repression, Including social movements. For example, it was used to
prohibit the demonstration against Cop 21 of 29 November 2015 ; It was again used to house
activists ; It allows for administrative searches without a warrant of the prosecutor,
etc. Security policies and repression thus become the only response of the State to the
revolts and anger of the proletariat. The development of extreme right-wing movements and
ideas that we have been witnessing over the last few years also goes in this direction.
The security, surveillance,
All this suggests a drift towards an increasingly authoritarian state, all the more so
when one considers access to the power of the extreme right. It is, therefore, for every
revolutionary organization to prepare and anticipate the increasingly important
restrictions of our civil liberties and our margin for maneuver. It is also a matter of
anticipating the repression that has already begun to strike us as well as others: AL
militants have had to face fines and even imprisonment for their political activities or
Trade unions during the movement against labor law.
In a safe environment cure or even authoritarian drift of the regime, with the electronic
surveillance of the XXI th century, some sections of the social or revolutionary movement
can fall prey to the temptation of hiding. It would be a lure.
We must insist on this point: clandestinity is an option only when repression prohibits
any organization and any expression. The choice of clandestinity, prematurely made by the
Libertarian Communist Federation in July 1956, in the context of the Algerian war, will
remain a historical error of our current. Once underground, a political current can no
longer be heard, it isolates itself from the population and the social movement, can no
longer be renewed, rapidly depletes its financial and human resources, and eventually
disappears into general indifference. As long as a space of expression and action remains,
it must be occupied to the maximum. However, Alternative libertarian is not angelic: aware
that activists may find themselves particularly exposed,
Remote communications (telephony, Internet) are intercepted by intelligence services or by
pirates serving capitalist companies or fascist groups. Faced with this, the best parade
remains to silence any potentially illegal information on these channels. However, this
elementary protection principle should be promoted, but systematic communication
encryption should be encouraged for several reasons:
What is legal today will not necessarily be tomorrow ;
The more democratic the encryption, the more complicated the surveillance of the masses ;
From the point of view of the defense of civil liberties, it is useless for the state to
have easy access to our communications, whether legal or not.
Extra-legal action, which is indispensable to any political or social movement based on
the direct action of workers, must take other channels than clandestinity. And the
philosophy that guides it must adapt to the repressive context of the moment. On this
point, local AL groups will therefore be keen to:
Not to isolate oneself, to remain in trade unions and other mass social movements ;
Enter into a contract of confidence with one or more left-wing lawyers who are prepared to
co-organize a " political defense " before a court if necessary ;
Reinforce the security of extra-legal actions by ensuring that they can be mediated, make
sense for a sufficiently wide audience, be assumed by significant fractions of the social
movement, thus meeting a political echo and benefiting from solidarity.
The intervention of AL: a voluntarism without blindness
The experience of the anti-capitalist fronts
The context of current security tightening must lead the revolutionaries to stick
together. However, the strategy of the anti-capitalist fronts, carried by AL since 2007,
has run out. It has been local and punctual - thanks to the involvement of local groups
such as the NPA, the FA or the OCML-VP - but has not been able to Untied individuals, nor
lead to a national framework.
This strategy must therefore evolve, while integrating the positive achievements of
experience, including increased trust between organizations. If the anticapitalist front
can not be a permanent framework, it can take more flexible forms (common expressions,
joint meetings), adapted to each situation, at local and national level.
Lessons from the Labor Movement
The movement against the Labor Act, which has set in motion millions of employees,
particularly in the private sector, revealed the lack of implantation of anti-capitalist
organizations, especially in the strategic sectors. How many revolutionaries among the
truckers, dockers, cleaners, refiners who blocked the country ? Too few.
This observation must lead us to find the appropriate forms to address us in a
differentiated way to two audiences that we encounter in local or national struggles.
On the one hand the militant public, whether or not it is acquired by revolutionary ideas.
This public seeks answers, deciphering the relations of forces, the bureaucratic stakes,
the political objectives and we must provide our analyzes. ;
On the other hand, the popular mass mobilized at a given moment, who seeks clear slogans
to pursue, expand and win the movement.
Taking into account the proletariat of today in its diversity, with its lack of
ideological landmarks, very variable levels of education ... we must find the forms that
resonate with their anger, propose concrete objectives To the struggle, democratic modes
of self-organization but also to provide a libertarian communist light as a perspective by
adapting our discourse to each population.
Search for location at production sites
It is not through workers' romanticism that anti-capitalists must seek to be heard at the
places of production and exchange. Alternative libertarian does not believe in a change of
society through citizen mobilization, progressive, through elections and / or through
local resistance. Nor do we believe in the taking of power by an enlightened minority. We
are aiming for a reversal of the capitalist order by mass mobilization, based on the
direct action of the workers, that is to say, the general expropriatory strike. From our
point of view, a revolutionary and libertarian political strategy requires an implantation
in the workplace.
On the one hand, it is because they concentrate a large share of employees. These workers
whose rising resentment can be translated into collective struggles, but also by
reactionary reflexes if only the extreme right speaks to them.
On the other hand, it is because they are the main places of class confrontation. And that
the class consciousness and the confidence acquired in the collective struggles will
depend, tomorrow, on their resumption in hand and the construction of a self-managing
socialism.
Establishment in production, transport or large enterprises is of particular importance
since these boxes are the most likely to play a major role in social conflicts. However,
the majority of employees do not work in such companies, and we do not want to stop them
from organizing them in the workplace.
To intervene in the direction of the companies, to make contacts, it is always possible to
interview strikers, to pull in front of boxes, but the CAL can also rely on the existing
tools - professional blogs Franchise postal, Rail unchained, Class Buissonnière try to
adapt the practice of the " bulletin box " in the digital age. Links, however, are
created all the more easily because they are based on concrete mutual assistance. From
this point of view, local unions and labor exchanges are often under-invested by
revolutionary militants.
Think Differently to Change Scale
But to implant itself more widely in the proletariat, it also means to reflect on the
collective functioning that one gives oneself. Twenty-five years after his birth, AL is
still based on the model of the extreme left-wing group active on all sides, with internal
debates sometimes sophisticated. This can be excluded for employees who do not have the
time, or not the right cultural capital.
It is true that there is no magic recipe for fighting these heavy trends which affect all
organizations of the left and extreme left and are primarily concerned with the
tertiarization of the proletariat for forty years. But again, we must ask ourselves rather
than give up. For several months now, some CALs (Orléans, Nantes) have been experimenting
with a way of working that is more inclusive.
The AL Federation will gladly collect the lessons. This will help to put its expression
(newspaper, web) and its internal functioning in tune with the logic required by the
reflection on the " change of scale " initiated at the AL 2015 Congress.
[1] Statistics Pôle Emploi of April 2017.
[2] " Half of the unemployed receive less than € 500 a month ", Observatoire des
inégalités, 30 January 2015.
[3] " The disproportionate revenues of the big bosses and the leading cadres ",
Observatory of inequalities, March 30, 2016.
[4] " Patrimony: inequalities multiplied ", Observatory of inequalities, 15 November 2016.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Motion-d-orientation-generale-7380
------------------------------
Home »
» Anarchic update news all over the world - 11 June 2016