Anarchic update news all over the world - 17.06.2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  [Mexico] Electronic Archive Ricardo Flores Magón By ANA
      (ca, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #273 - Water management:
      Municipalities, soluble in intermunicipal co-operation (fr, it,
      pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1




The Electronic Archive Ricardo Flores Magón (currently under construction) aims to provide 
the user with a complete compilation of the writings of Mexican revolutionary. ---- Over 
time you can see the section of  newspapers , where there is a complete collection of the 
newspaper  Regeneration (1900-1918) , including its section on i taliano (1911) , and 
another, part of the weekly  Revolution (1907-1908) . ---- It is also possible to consult 
in the  Complete Works , the sections of  Correspondence (1899-1922), literary work 
(1910-1917), Political Articles (1900-1918) and Discourses (1910-1918) . ---- The 
interested party will find in the interactive  Route Magón  a walk through the 
biographical trajectory of Ricardo Flores Magón in sites and addresses related to his life 
that were documented.

The  Digital Library  has three sections:  Digital Library Ricardo Flores Magón , with 
texts and historiographical writings between 1923 and 1970 (around the figure of Ricardo 
Flores Magón and activities of the Mexican Liberal Party) difficult to locate, the 
Sociological Library Regeneration  in which Brochures and books announced in this section 
of the newspaper are reproduced, and the section  Mexico in the international libertarian 
press  whose content is self-explanatory.

A brief biography of Ricardo Flores Magón can be found here: 
http://archivomagon.net/inicio/biografia/

Source:  http://archivomagon.net

Translation> Liberto

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Message: 2




The territorial hierarchy has undergone a great change called the NOTRe law. This law 
imposes a strengthening of the regions and communities of communes, which will increase 
their fields of competence by 2020. The power of the communes is greatly diminished, which 
gives perhaps the opportunity to conquer other Management, at the grass-roots level, by 
users and users, for example. ---- The new territorial organization of the Republic (NOTRe 
law) voted in 2015 was highly publicized, but not for good reasons. The reduction of the 
number of regions from 23 to 12 has rather unleashed the passions of identity than a 
criticism of the centralized power. By increasing the size of the regions and their area 
of competence, such as the management of public transport or the economic decision on the 
territory, the State wanted a real concentration of power. Another symbol of 
concentration: the eight metropolises created so that it weighs more heavily on the 
territory. They access a regime of autonomy with respect to the hierarchy [1]which will 
favor their spreading, as if one did not have enough problems with that.

But the question that will interest us here is rather that of intermunicipalities. Given 
the difficulties of municipalities in financing the development of "  progress  ", the 
State believes in common funding and accelerates the establishment of communities of 
communes. What is called a transfer of competence from the municipalities will enable them 
to manage the water distribution and sanitation, waste, tourism, sports equipment, 
reception areas, Urban planning (PLU) or the cultural policy of the village. Of course the 
municipalities will be part of the intermunicipality, but in proportion to their 
importance and the smaller ones will have almost no decision-making power. They will 
become local managers of the intentions of the community of municipalities.

The link between these two levels of restructuring ? The hierarchy. Fewer prime 
contractors, larger spaces that allow for more "  efficient " decisions  . The risk is 
that the top of the hierarchy begins to demand anything and that the municipalities 
completely withdraw from the train in motion.

The example of water

The NOTRe law being a long text, we will concentrate on the new scheme of water. To begin, 
it is new establishments with own taxation but forming part of intercommunality (public 
institutions of inter-municipal cooperation or EPCI) that will manage water and its 
sanitation. No municipality will have direct management of this subject, a threshold per 
number of inhabitants forcing the communes to create common establishments. According to 
Marc Laimé [2], we should move from 15,000 current establishments to 1,500 in three years, 
an unprecedented change.

It might be welcomed that common means are being put in place for more coherent water 
management, but in fact many municipalities will lose the management of their resources 
and ultimately the resource itself. Indeed, large management institutions do not mean that 
technical competence will be retained. On the contrary, the greater the responsibility, 
the more institutions will want to subcontract private and / or wastewater management to 
the private sector, as well as distribution networks. And on the other hand, the larger 
the markets, the more private they will try to get them.

Getting out of the private gear is then very hard, due to the loss of competent staff, or 
the opacity of the management of subcontractors. With a little bad luck a municipality 
which had its own sources will see them condemned and replaced by the normed water coming 
from the network of the subcontractor, pumped sometimes very far. A box like Véolia Eau, 
which distributes water to 23 million people in France, must probably lick its chops to 
see all these EPCI agglomerate small municipalities that never wanted to privatize !

Another innovation of the law: the competence of management of the aquatic environment and 
prevention of the floods (GEMAPI). This competence voted in 2014 forces membership to 
groups (EPCI) that will manage the pollution and the complete cycle of water on their 
territory. Related to the restructuring of the NOTRe law it aims for more consistency, for 
better management.

The organization of work and expertise will be done on a larger scale, by watershed, in 
commissions led by economic actors and politicians. It should be noted that the watershed 
is a specificity of water, technically well-founded because it relies on the water course 
due to gravity (the flow of streams from its source to the sea ) And not by technocratic 
unity (the 12 regions for example).

The problem is that there are six watersheds. It is therefore at the level of vast 
territories that decisions will be taken. Large-scale solutions will, in most cases, 
encourage high-investment technical responses, where small-scale solutions lead to more 
practical, less costly or more intelligent solutions.

Hyper-hierarchized structuring

The "  higher  " levels are the department and the region or even the metropolis for the 
other areas of competence. Beyond the hierarchy, there are the master plans, which 
analyzed until 2016 the water capacities and are now implementing the state policy. Then 
the Water Agency, and finally the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which is the European 
directive.

Taking the objectives of the WFD into account, in terms of public policy, all European 
countries need to improve the quality of drinking water, but also watercourses, and limit 
The damage caused by the floods.

And for the capitalist side of things, it is above all to increase the quantity of water 
available and to quantify its exploitation. All these evaluations are already carried out 
on the territory (or in progress) and the law NOTRe by its obligation of EPCI will enforce 
the directive by 2025. This forced march will oblige the municipalities to many 
investments without any power of decision.

If the law has not gone as far as the government had foreseen, conceding, for example, the 
possibility of blocking the municipalities, it has nevertheless caused a significant 
grumbling.

The first ones to be mounted to the niche are the mayors who have even split themselves 
from the creation of blogs and have multiplied the reviews to express their discontent. 
Obviously, they see their own obsolescence programmed if not by this law, perhaps by the 
following.

It took one hair for a new election to be created in order to elect the intermunicipality 
and thus replace them with the communes. This is the will of the State. The mayors think 
that it is necessary to refocus on their power, that they are the only ones able to create 
a cohesion in the village or the city. There is some public support for this anger since 
voters are also dispossessed of their means of action (if not veto power). It will no 
longer be possible to refer directly to an elected official for any planning matter, such 
as water abstraction or any other local issue.

An opportunity for local action ?

Far from being limited to a water issue, all the powers of the communes are affected. It 
is a real emptiness that is created and it is necessary to grasp it. Some mayors do not 
hesitate to say that this divide favors the FN by separating institutions from 
administrations, favoring the impression of isolation. They are probably right and want to 
pull the cover on them and they, but if the discontent is heard, it may also be to 
criticize it and get people to ask questions other than those news. What is a local 
elected official when the decision is made elsewhere ? So what is it to be an elector ? 
What are the means of maintaining local power ? These questions arise for people who are 
involved in the affairs of their locality.  And so it's a matter of taking advantage of 
it! In these moments of uncertainty, other issues can be better understood, such as those 
of the nature of power, the harmfulness of centralism, the uselessness of electoral polls, 
or how to make a decision outside the system. Experiences such as the democratic 
confederacy of Murray Bookchin or what happens in the commune of Saillans are based on the 
struggle against aggression by the planning of the territory and give ideas to many 
people. It is important that the transition to the NOTRe law be seen as aggression, and 
that this creates openings. The uselessness of electoral events, or how to make a decision 
outside the system. Experiences such as the democratic confederacy of Murray Bookchin or 
what happens in the commune of Saillans are based on the struggle against aggression by 
the development of the territory and give ideas to many people. It is important that the 
transition to the NOTRe law be seen as aggression, and that this creates openings. The 
uselessness of electoral events, or how to make a decision outside the system. Experiences 
such as the democratic confederacy of Murray Bookchin or what happens in the commune of 
Saillans are based on the struggle against aggression by the planning of the territory and 
give ideas to many people. It is important that the transition to the NOTRe law be seen as 
aggression, and that this creates openings.

So much for the theory of representative democracy, but it remains the technical aspect. A 
restructuring of the territorial hierarchy will serve above all the local economic leaders 
since it is a matter of putting all the means in the same basket. This organization will 
be costly and will favor the large private companies which will be able, for example, to 
implement watercourses on tens of kilometers of river in one fell swoop. They will be the 
only ones able to respond to such calls for tenders. And most important, the alternative 
by a local initiative will be even more impossible for lack of cohesion. To address the 
issue of sanitation,  Is it better to follow the proposals of the intermunicipalities and 
to install a purification plant by village which will isolate everyone or transform the 
use that is made of water and then its recycling collectively so that the resources do not 
Are more threatened, ie by becoming fully aware of production and environmental issues? 
Collectively, this means that all the inhabitants would impose themselves at the table of 
discussions, without remaining in the roles of "  actors  " by sector that the state wants 
to play them. There is a place for local activists. That is to say by taking full 
consciousness of the production and environmental issues? Collectively, this means that 
all the inhabitants would impose themselves at the table of discussions, without remaining 
in the roles of " actors " by sector that the state wants to play them. There is a place 
for local activists. That is to say by taking full consciousness of the production and 
environmental issues? Collectively, this means that all the inhabitants would impose 
themselves at the table of discussions, without remaining in the roles of " actors " by 
sector that the state wants to play them. There is a place for local activists.

Reinette drowned (AL Aveyron)

France and its private water ecosystem

At present, 80  % of the water distribution in the national territory is managed by the 
private sector and 50  % of its sanitation. This proportion operates from the local to the 
international level. Big boxes dating from the XIX th century are actresses in the 
development of a water market. Véolia started by causing the waste of the industry to be 
sorted by the victims of the first pollution, then it was oriented towards the control of 
the water for the industries, then the individuals.

If involvement at the lowest level of the territory remains a priority for such groups (eg 
in the EPCI), their goal is international. In this register Véolia and Suez founded in 
1990 one of these think tanks named French Water Circle (CFE) which boasts of having 
weighed well in all the laws issued since 1992 [3]. In that year, he interfered with the 
Earth Summit in Rio in order to infuse the vision of an environmentally responsible world 
thanks to their "  accompanying industrial expansion  ". Veolia becomes international, 
then the world leader in water. Currently, the CFE's propaganda is oriented towards the " 
circular  " economy ,

"  Small  " firms, for their part, focus their efforts on innovation, without neglecting 
the local presence by crumbling all the institutions (the base). Sogédo is a pioneer of 
electronic water meters. After the replacement of the maintenance personnel by sensors 
(fixed costs), no decrease in consumption or loss is observed on the networks. 
Additionally, adherence to the Sigfox low-frequency network contributes to saturation of 
the wireless network, which is a source of various diseases. But what benefits the profit ...
The public-private partnership in France (which is regarded as a global model) is based on 
public ownership of networks (with maintenance costs) and private exploitation of 
networks. But faced with the management, at least unequal and costly, of the private 
sector, we saw a wave of remunicipalisation in recent years as in Paris or Grenoble. The 
big groups, inspired by a decree, were afraid of losing their business, so that the 
private sector no longer had to transmit its data until six months before the decision was 
made to change, hindering its possibility. Moreover, when a service has been delegated for 
years it is the management competence that is lost. This gives rise to unbelievable 
compromises, the town councils wanting to keep the networks, and delegate the rest in 
hopes of acquiring competence.

[1] Maptam law: Modernization of territorial public action and assertion of metropolises.

[2] See the blog waterglacees.com

[3] Cerclefrancaisdeleau.fr/le-cfe

[4] See Alternativelibertaire.org, "  The circular economy washes greener  "

[5] For a documentary night, see the movie Water makes money.

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Gestion-de-l-eau-Les-communes-solubles-dans-l-intercommunalite