Today's Topics:
1. Germany, Brunch: Developing Perspectives of Solidarity -
beyond polls and populism" (de) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Errekaleor Bizirik threat of eviction, largest squat on the
Iberian Peninsula (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - policy, The 13 th
Alternative Libertaire congress held in Nantes from June 3 to 5
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #273 - Edito: A king of
glass (fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Bring-Along Brunch and Workshop about the Campaign of the Federation of german-speaking
anarchists. More on: https://fda-ifa.org/perspektiven (only German).
About the event: The Brunch wil be made by everyone, so please bring some food with you.
Everything should be vegan, so without animal products.
The Space is smoke-free and there will be childcare.
The Brunch will start at 12 and the Workshop at 2.
https://lila.noblogs.org/post/2017/06/01/branch-solidarische-perspektiven-entwickeln-jenseits-von-wahlen-und-populismus/
------------------------------
Message: 2
Hello, ---- Attached is an article written by the Errekaleor Bizirik collective in
Gasteiz, Basque Territory. I do not have MS Word, so I could not figure out how to format
this into 60-80 word lines, so i just put it in a basic text file and hope you can read it
well. If you believe this article is worth posting, we would also be interested in posting
a similar article in other languages. ---- Thanks, ---- Errekaleor Bizirik ---- post.txt
---- Errekaleor Bizirik ---- Errekaleor is an occupied neighborhood at the edge of
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Araba, in Euskal Herria (Basque Country). We are a project based on the
principles of autogestion (self-management or autonomy), consensus based decision making,
feminism, anti-capitalism, and Basque cultural reinvigoration. We are the biggest occupied
space on the Iberian Peninsula, with over 25 acres of land and 150 inhabitants. Among us
are children, elderly residents, blue-collar workers, the unemployed, students, teachers,
and a variety of local wildlife. Our project includes a 5-acre organic farm, a bakery, a
bar, a social center, an old church turned music venue, a library, a theater, a free shop,
a recording studio, a publishing house, and a school with language classes. All of our
activities are meant to provide for our basic needs, but also to continually re-enforce
our own commitment and understanding of autogestion, consensus, feminism, anti-capitalism,
and Basque cultural reinvigoration.
We see our project as including two axis. We have an internal need to take care of
ourselves and actively create our own community, making an environment for ourselves that
allows us the security and care that we need, free from the pressures and coercive forces
of normal life. On the other hand, we do this in a manner that can serve as an alternative
to the political, social, and interpersonal currents that exist outside. We hope that by
constantly integrating our activities with external events and organizations we can offer
new models of organization and interpersonal relations that can be taken up throughout the
city and the region. All of our projects are made to build and reinforce both of these
axis, looking both outward and in.
We have been living in this space for close to four years now, quickly growing from a
dozen students to a diverse and active neighborhood that is constantly active within the
activist movements in Gasteiz and Euskal Herria.
History
In the 1950's the neighborhood was built in order to provide housing for the workers that
were entering the city due to an industrialization program forced on the region by the
dictator Franco. Due to the working-class character of the neighborhood, many of its
residents were involved in ongoing labor struggles after the change to democracy in Spain.
In a famous city-wide labor strike, Romualdo Barroso Chaparro, one of residents of
Errekaleor, was killed in a police massacre, giving the neighborhood a distinctly militant
reputation. As time went by and the city limit expanded to the edge of Errekaleor, this
land increasingly became seen as a valuable resource to be exploited by the rich and
powerful in the city and beyond. In the 1990's and early 2000's the overwhelming wave of
housing speculation, much like that seen in the United States and elsewhere, arrived in
Errekaleor. In a larger process of turning the outskirts of Gasteiz into inhuman concrete
jungles of speculated apartment complexes, the city decided to evict the residents of
Errekaleor and destroy the historic neighborhood.
By 2010 the city had created yet another proposed development plan for the neighborhood
and had forcibly evicted almost all of the old residents of the neighborhood. However,
since the economic crisis had proved more than any other temporary bust cycle, and the
Spanish housing bubble had burst beyond repair, these plans ground to a halt. After
coercing almost 200 families out of their life-long homes and into concrete developments
with no community or human interaction, Errekaleor became a ghost town. As buildings fe ll
into disrepair and copper was stripped from every wall, the few remaining residents had to
protect themselves from robbers and intruders.
In this context, in 2013 a group of ten students from the local university occupied one
of the 32 buildings that hold six apartments each, after getting permission from the
remaining handful of families. From this point on, the neighborhood became known as
Errekaleor Bizirik (Errekaleor lives!) and a self-managed project of self-sufficiency and
autonomous communal living began.
Here in Errekaleor Bizirik we reject the modern form of life that requires the alienation
and separation of individuals in order to create false needs that require the all-to-real
exploitative working conditions. In every other neighborhood individuals are made
accustomed to being a passive subject of society. In Errekaleor Bizirik we are made a
protagonist and active agent in the narrative of our own lives, from the food we grow to
the art we create to the homes we build for ourselves and to the community that we create
every day. We do not ask for rights that the government wants to provide for us, rather we
actively create our own culture, community, and basic needs.
We see our project as connected to all liberatory struggles worldwide, while clearly set
in the context of a longstanding regional struggle for autonomy and cultural recognition.
For this reason we are also active outside of our neighborhood, working in militant
circles throughout the city, region, and in many distant countries.
What is happening now?
On May 18th, 2017, workers from the ex-public electrical company now called Iberdrola and
seven vans of riot police entered Errekaleor to cut the electrical supply to the
neighborhood. Due to a determined group of 10 residents chained themselves together in
front of the general transformer, and the active resistance of close to a thousand friends
and family, the company was not able to enter the electrical room. However, they were able
to access the main electrical cable. Cutting this line they not only took away the lights
and stoves of student occupiers, but of families, children, a recently born baby, elderly
and homebound residents, and of multiple nearby houses with ongoing contracts for their
electricity.
Throughout the day there was a spirited resistance that resulted in the constant
harassment of workers and police in their work and significantly delayed and interrupted
their progress. At the end of the day we have three of our family facing charges and
dozens of injured, with many having to seek medical treatment from our own medical
services and the hospital. Even now, close to a week later, many people have their arms
and legs in casts and slings as a result of police aggression during a passive resistance.
While the local government claims that this was done for our own safety, we know this to
be a transparent excuse to begin their long-awaited effort to evict us from our homes. Not
only do we have the certification of various professional electricians that our
infrastructure exceeds that of the legal requirements and many other neighborhoods, but
the mayor of Gasteiz himself stated that this was part of an eviction process and had
nothing to do with security. With the threat of eviction imminent, we are now working long
days and nights installing an environmentally sustainable and independent electrical
system, and preparing for the coming confrontation.
On June 3rd, we held a march that brought together 10,000 individuals and dozens of
organizations from across Europe. With tractors and Joaldunak dancers leading the way, our
15 columns marched throughout the city, and entered our neighborhood where residents had
taken position on the roofs with firecrackers and flags. Thousands of people stayed for
hours, some getting to know the space for the first time and many enjoying one of their
favorite places in the city. Watching families, students, the elderly, all from a hugely
diverse set of backgrounds, only reaffirmed to us the value of our project. But while this
was an amazing day, it was only the beginning. Now comes the long road of defense,
building a sustainable and independent energy grid for our neighborhood, and barricades
for those who would take it from us.
What can you do?
If you are anywhere near Euskal Herria, you are invited to come visit our project and
participate in our many cultural, political, and musical events. For those of you that are
too far away to personally attend, feel free to make a quick call to the mayor of
Vitoria-Gasteiz Gorka Urtaran at +34 945 16 13 82 or +34 945 16 13 83 or send us a message
at errekaleorbizirik@gmail.com! Any type of international solidarity means the world to us
and can make a real difference in the attitudes of the local government here. As well, we
have just launched a coopfunding campaign in order to pay for the installation of solar
panels and other sustainable energy options now that we are off the grid, to supplement
our own bicycle electricity generators that we are currently building. Once this
infrastructure is in place, we will be the largest zero-carbon neighborhood in all of
Europe, to our knowledge.
But most importantly, we hope you will do anything you can both today and in the future
to create new liberatory moments and spaces. By building a freer world wherever you are,
you are supporting our work here as well.
Gero Arte!
Errekaleor Bizirik
http://halabedi.eus/2017/06/04/miles-de-personas-toman-las-calles-de-gasteiz-para-defender-errekaleor/
https://coopfunding.net/en/campaigns/errekaleor-bizirik-argi-izpiak-iluntasunean-a-little-light-in-the-darkness/
------------------------------
Message: 3
Today, and for three days, a hundred or so LA congressmen are gathered to take stock of
the political and social situation one year after the movement against the Labor Act, and
while the Uber President promises us A neoliberal shock. ---- Much of the discussion of 13
th AL Congress will be devoted to the assessment of the movement against the Labor Law and
political period that opens with the election of Emmanuel Macron. ---- This government
promises a series of social regressions, the first of which will be the assault on the
Hussar's Labor Code by ordinances ... If this shock strategy works, then it will be the
promotion of self-entrepreneurship, Unemployment insurance, the breakdown of public
services, etc. ---- The stakes are enormous for the whole of the wage-earners, whether
stable, precarious or deprived of employment.
AL is betting that this government is in fact fragile. Its electoral base is volatile ;
Its social base is narrow ; It does not benefit from the label of the left which, too
often, intimidates the social and trade union movements. We therefore believe that this
fragility must be exploited.
Faced with this, the social and syndical movement of struggle, weakened by ten years of
defeats, is itself fragile. Yet, his responsibility is committed. And this responsibility,
as revolutionaries, we share.
On the conference menu:
General orientation: a review of the last two years of LA ; The new political and social
situation ; How to apprehend the rise of semi-reactionary half-social revolts (Brexit,
election of Donald Trump ...) ; The security hardening of the regime and the attitude of
the revolutionaries ; the teachings of the movement tale Labor Law (union action interpro
convergence practice blockages, " ruckus " ...) ; The work to be carried out towards the
places of production ;
Environmental orientation ;
Economic analysis ;
Reflection on new technologies and commitment to open source software ;
Reflection on public expression of AL.
Thematic workshops are also organized around the monthly Alternative libertarian, AL web,
business and youth activity, the idea of " changing scale " in terms of functioning,
militant security, Feminist activity.
Alternative libertarian, May 31, 2017
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Le-13e-congres-d-Alternative-libertaire-se-tient-a-Nantes-du-3-au-5-juin
------------------------------
Message: 4
The bosses and the editorialists swoon before the presidential carriage: here is their new
king. Did not Pierre Gattaz claim to be "on a cloud" since the election of the monarch ?
---- The court of the latter is not slow to expand from the procession of all and all the
opportunists who would sell father and mother for a little distinction. But a homophobic
fighter as a director, a rogue politician, satisfied and self-satisfied, as a second or a
television producer as Minister of Ecology, are only a pitiable fragile and shaky team.
---- The young monarch is the winner only of a contest of circumstance. Its electoral
opposition is fragmented: the extreme right is the good news, the risk of tearing and the
war of leaders ; On the left, electoral tambouilles have, as usual, fueled the divisions.
But it will not be enough to build popularity. For no one is fooled, and Macron is an
ill-elected President. His project is that of the bourgeoisie, in the continuity of what
it has already done.
And majority are these adversaries.
This time, the wait will not be of the party because many and many are those who want to
fight and the popular anger expressed in all its forms during this election can not
reflow. In the continuity of what it has already done. And majority are these adversaries.
This time, the wait will not be of the party because many and many are those who want to
fight and the popular anger expressed in all its forms during this election can not
reflow. In the continuity of what it has already done. And majority are these adversaries.
This time, the wait will not be of the party because many and many are those who want to
fight and the popular anger expressed in all its forms during this election can not reflow.
Alternative libertarian, June 1 , 2017
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Edito-Un-roi-de-verre
------------------------------
Home »
» Anarchic update news all over the world - 6 Juni 2017