Today's Topics:
1. FAU, deliver union: "Shame on you, Foodoroo!": Joint Bicycle
Demo through the Streets of Berlin on Thursday 18th May (de)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. London Anarchist Federation PUBLIC MEETINGS ON JUNE 11th
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, solfed: Voting and the General Election,
Caldelare-SolFed statement (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. 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)
5. France, Alternative Libertaire - 13 th Congress (Nantes, 3-5
June 2017): A greeting at the AL congress, from the Raqqa front
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Roughly 80-90 Foodora and Deliveroo riders with supporters took to the streets on Thursday
to highlight their common struggles with the two Berlin-based start-ups. Clad in pink and
blue, the workers chanted slogans including "Foodora, Deliveroo, shame on you! shame on
you!", and "What do we want? Better working conditions! When do we want it? NOW!" ----
Their demo was planned in conjunction with FAU Berlin, who has been assisting the riders
to organise themselves for the last few months. It forms part of a larger campaign to
improve working conditions, which riders say have been gradually deteriorating. In their
speeches, workers took issue with the kind of precarious work which seems to be central to
the gig-economy, highlighting the inherent connection of their struggle to similar
struggles elsewhere.
Riders are demanding that all their repair and running costs (such as bicycle repair
costs, and phone data) are covered by the employer. As one rider pointed out, "We are
already making a huge sacrifice by using our own phones and bicycles. So it is completely
justified that we ask for repair costs and data to be covered by our employers. Why should
we be expected to contribute to the running costs of companies if we cannot share in their
profits?"
Riders are also demanding a €1 per hour/drop increase in wages, and enough hours to make a
living (which was guaranteed in the past but which today is often unreachable). Foodora
riders are also demanding that they are paid for the time they spend on shift planning,
while Deliveroo riders want more transparency about the hours they have worked.
So far neither company has been willing to negotiate even though negotiations have been
offered by the union, and despite publicly claiming that they are willing to talk to their
employees. In a letter to the FAU, Foodora responded to our request for negotiations by
asking for us to forward them our demands. Our demands are public information and we know
that journalists have approached both companies for their comments about the demands. It
is confusing that Foodora requests them again, rather than responding to our request for
negoitiations.
Deliveroo's response was not even directly given to us and only appeared in a newsletter
directed at riders. They stressed how important their riders are to them, and how they
always "try to communicate that". However, in the same message they seemed to dismiss the
riders' modest requests for open communication, instead pointing riders to an FAQ on their
website and a "rider support hotline" where riders can complain as individuals.
Unlike Foodora, who has at least acknowledged us as the workers' representative and sent
us their statement, Deliveroo is trying to bypass the union as the forum for negotiations,
ignoring the wishes of the riders. They are trying to convince the riders that by
complaining individually their voices will be heard. It seems like they might also know as
well as we do that workers are always stronger when acting together and are isolated when
they act alone.
This demonstration was only the first of a series of planned actions intended to put
pressure on management to come to the table and negotiate. What's more, they will get
bigger and bigger... We will not stop until some justice is won!
The FAU campaign is also part of the international #deliverunion campaign, which brings
together our sister unions and their struggles in the food courier industry in several
European countries.
For more information or to get involved in the campaign, contact the FAU at:
faub-delivery@fau.org.
https://deliverunion.fau.org/2017/06/01/shame-on-you-foodoroo-joint-bicycle-demo-through-the-streets-of-berlin-on-thursday-18th-may/
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Message: 2
We are participating in the Anti University events from 10th-16th June -Teaching and
Learning As Direct Action, a direct action programme of self-organised radical learning
activities. On June 11th as part of these events we will be putting on a public meeting at
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, WC1 (nearest tube Holborn) at 4pm, An Introduction To
Anarchist Communism. ---- www.facebook.com/events/1906677119577746/ ---- Later the same
day at the same venue at 7pm, London AF will be hosting the writer-activist Pieter
Gelderloos, who will be speaking about his new book Worshipping Power: An Anarchist View
of Early State Formation'.This book provides a history of state formation in Asia, the
Americas, Africa, and Europe, from Mesopotamia to the 20th century. Identifying different
models or paths of state formation, Worshiping Power lays the groundwork for an anarchist
theory of the origin of states, and in the process disputes common misconceptions stemming
from liberal, Marxist, primitivist, and environmental determinist theories of state formation.
Rather than treating state formation as a singular event, a Pandora's Box, Worshiping
Power analyzes state formation as a constant process, with religious, militaristic,
economic, and kinship-based motors. It is also a work in grassroots scholarship, taking
the study of the State out of academic institutions and into the streets, showing how a
historically grounded understanding of the nature of the State is relevant to today's
struggles against patriarchy, environmental devastation, racism, war, and capitalism.
There will be a talk by the author and Q&A session. Peter Gelderloos is also the author of
‘Anarchy works' and ‘The failure of non-violence'. At White Building, Queen's Yard, White
Post Lan,e Hackney Wick, London E9 5EN
www.facebook.com/events/278299519263426/
https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/london-anarchist-federation-public-meetings-on-june-11th/
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Message: 3
elections anarchism anarcho-syndicalism statements alienation direct action direct
democracy voter abstention ---- We all know the old saying ‘if you don't vote, you can't
complain'. A better one would be ‘ if all you do is vote, you can't complain'. ---- Dig a
little deeper into the history books and what you find at the heart of change is direct
action and organisation at a grassroots level. Everything from workers rights, women's
rights, decent wages and even the right to vote itself have been gained this way, rulers
typically resist change until they know they have no choice but to throw a few more crumbs
to the people below. ---- The 1945-1951 Labour Party is a good modern example of this, we
hear the heroic tales of them giving us the NHS, the welfare state etc but again it was
the threat from below that drove the establishment to do it, as the Tory MP Lord Hailsham
said in 1943 ‘If we don't give the people reform they will bring us the social revolution.'
As the general election draws near people's hopes are being pinned on Jeremy Corbyn to
rescue us from the cruel corporate rule we live under now but even if he wins, the party
he leads is divided and his manifesto will be hard to stick too.
Again, we will have to organise ourselves and fight back. Rather than fight to force our
rulers to deliver their promises we should put that energy into not needing them in the
first place. Instead of nicer bosses paying better wages, run the businesses ourselves,
the people who do the work should make the decisions together. Instead of waiting for
government to direct our society and infrastructure, do it ourselves.
People throughout history have done this, in the worst of circumstances people in Spain
during the civil war managed it, they built hospitals, roads, reorganised major
infrastructure all while fighting against fascism.
SolFed has been involved in successful struggles including getting dodgy bosses to pay
wages they owed but thought they could get away denying.
The only thing stopping us being more than we are now is ourselves.
http://www.solfed.org.uk/calderdale/voting-and-the-general-election-caldelare-solfed-statement
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Message: 4
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 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
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Message: 5
Our comrade Arthur Aberlin addressed his greetings to the Alternative Libertarian Congress
from the Raqqa front in Syria, where he fought in the YPG. Several other organizations
sent greeting, greeting and friendship messages to AL delegates. ---- Alternative
libertarian reproduces the blog posts Kurdistan-Autogestion-Revolution , travel diary of a
fellow committed to the YPG. ---- Over the course of the weeks, he will testify to the
life of the fighting militias, the debates that take place there and the experience of
democratic confederalism in the liberated zones. ---- Raqqa Region, 3 June 2017 ----
comrades ---- I send you my most sincere greetings since the revolution in progress in
Rojava ! First of all, I would like to set aside any doubt on this subject: it is indeed
an anti-nationalist revolution and a libertarian inspiration . I say inspiration because
there are quite a few contradictions as in any human process. This is something you know
yourself well because our organization has always chosen to carry a revolutionary message
in society and not to indulge in a chic minority radicalism.
This form of pragmatism I find every day here and, given the success of this method for
Rojava, I think I made the right choice when I joined Alternative libertarian.
I would also like to acknowledge the unwavering support you give to our struggle here and
the attempts to build concrete solidarities with this revolution. If this support were to
fail, it could mean the end of the process, because we are surrounded by enemies from all
sides.
This solidarity will be all the more necessary once Daech is defeated, because we will
lose the meager support we receive from the imperialists . As the comrades here say, the
real social and political struggle will begin at that moment !
With this support, we are worthy of the long internationalist tradition of the libertarian
communists. As modest as our organizations are, we have always supported revolutionaries
around the world, as the FCL did during the Algerian Revolution ; As the UTCL did in
support of the Kanak people ; As we have been doing for decades in support of Palestine.
I will stop there. I wish you a good Congress, and wish you to start very quickly the
fight against our Uber-President !
Biji Rojava !
Biji sores ! [1]
Biji Alternative libertarian !
[1] Long live the revolution !
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Une-salutation-au-congres-d-AL-depuis-le-front-de-Raqqa
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