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» Anarchic update news all over the world - 9.08.2017
Anarchic update news all over the world - 9.08.2017
Today's Topics:
1. US, St. Paul, MN, Unicorn RiotLike Page: justice for
Philando Castile (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Surrey and Hampshire Anarchist Federation: Daddy, why do you
hate me? (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. awsm.nz: IMMIGRATION: FACTS & MYTHS By Pink Panther
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Last week an anarchist marching band and fifty plus community members demanded county
attorney's Drop the Charges. This week, felony riot charges against Louis Hunter, Philando
Castile's cousin, were dropped. He was the only one facing felonies out of more than a
hundred arrested during last summer's protests seeking justice for Philando Castile.[CC]
---- St. Paul, MN - Louis Hunter, Philando Castile's cousin, had two second-degree felony
riot charges dismissed on August 2nd, 2017, less than two months before his trial was to
begin. Hunter was alleged to have thrown rocks and construction debris at police during a
protest that shut down Interstate 94 in St. Paul on July 9, 2016. The protest was three
days after Philando Castile was killed by police officer Jeronimo Yanez.
For more info: www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=17746
Watch video in HD: https://vimeo.com/228135665
To help support our work: www.unicornriot.ninja/?page_id=211
Last week, an action organized by the all-volunteer Support Louis Hunter group (which has
done months of organizing and held fundraising events for Louis), called on the Ramsey
County Attorney's Office to drop the charges against Louis Hunter. An anarchist marching
band provided many different songs for beats and several dozen community members
participated. They turned in over 1100 signed postcards from citizens throughout Minnesota
and even internationally, to the county attorney's office, demanding the charges be
dropped against Hunter.
The Carver County Attorney's Office said that there was insufficient evidence to continue
with the their second-degree charges against Hunter. Carver County Attorney's Office had
taken over the prosecution of Louis Hunter after Ramsey County labeled their own
involvement as a conflict of interest while they were also handling the Yanez case.
During the action last week, we spoke to Jesse Mortensen, who is one of dozens of
community members facing misdemeanor charges from their involvement in last summer's
protests seeking justice for Philando Castile. He spoke about how dozens have banded
together and have refused to take plea deals until Louis Hunter's charges are dropped.
Many people still face charges from a summer full of protests following Castile's killing
that rocked St. Paul and led to an occupation of the space outside the gates of the
Minnesota Governor's Mansion in St. Paul for over three weeks. This dismissal will
potentially lead to more dropped protest-related cases; as Unicorn Riot has consistently
observed, serious charges are often leveled for a while but dropped after defendants
refuse plea deals.
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Message: 2
The Article below is taken from the website Commonware. ---- A Sarah Jones contribution on
the UK general election and the situation in the country ---- "Oh simple thing, where have
you gone? ---- I'm tired and I need someone to rely on" ---- Lily Allen, �Somewhere Only
We Know' from Labour Party Campaign Video, 2017 ---- The fire at Grenfell Tower in London
is a reminder of the current state of the UK, in which the ruling class rides roughshod
over a greatly weakened working class. Despite repeated warnings by the residents about
the safety of the building, they didn't have the strength to make themselves heard. In
November they wrote: ---- "Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the
conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMO residents
will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that
characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation."
This serious loss of life has happened, and has indeed exposed malign governance. A
privately financed refurbishment of the building to make it more appealing to the wealthy
neighbours had spread the fire from the fourth floor to the top floor in a matter of
minutes, the fire alarms didn't work, and the official advice for people to remain inside
their flats was wrong. The Conservative council had ignored fire regulations and
residents' complaints. The Conservative government had made huge cuts to the fire service
and had not followed the recommendations of a report commissioned after six people died in
a tower block fire in South London in 2009, which included warnings about flammable
cladding, used in over sixty tower blocks in the UK. Given the clear role of her party in
the disaster, it is unsurprising that Theresa May was scared to meet the survivors.
But it was a Labour government that rolled out private partnerships in the public sector
in the name of efficiency savings, and weakened fire safety procedures in the name of
deregulation. And many Labour run councils have used the same company to install the same
flammable cladding in their own tower blocks: indeed, it was in a Labour borough that the
2009 fire happened. And it is Labour run councils that are currently destroying some of
the largest council estates in Europe to make way for luxury housing. This fire could just
have easily happened in a Labour borough or under a Labour government - so why aren't
Labour scared?
Because, despite their own best efforts to get rid of him, it has Jeremy Corbyn. Having
always voted against the worst of Labour's excesses, he is the party's Jiminy Cricket, its
good conscience. His leadership undoes the party's past sins in the mind of the
electorate, giving them hope that there is an alternative to years of privatization and
welfare cuts. The Labour Party's final campaign video, set to Lily Allen's �Somewhere only
we know' paints a picture of a lost and tired working class, longing for a father figure
to lead them to a better place. Although this is one of the few Labour campaign videos
that Ken Loach didn't make, there is still something of Daniel Blake about it - good,
honest working people simply asking to be given back that which they have lost. They are
not a threatening, collective and fighting subject, but a series of isolated individuals
wanting nothing more than that disappeared �simple thing': the welfare state. And indeed,
Labour's message is that this would be as simple as increasing taxes on the richest 5% of
earners and returning corporation tax to 2010 levels. With this move, Jeremy Corbyn, or
JC, as he is often called, could produce loaves and fishes for all. So it is no surprise
when a resident local to Grenfell Tower says: "People need a revolution in this country,
and nothing short of that!", and then goes on to suggest that this revolution is Corbyn.
Theresa May had called the election because she was twenty points ahead in the polls -
from the Guardian to the Daily Mail, everyone agreed that Corbyn was �unelectable'. In a
weak and unstable post-Brexit Britain the people wanted a �strong and stable' Conservative
government. And so the election was to be a replay of 1983, when Margaret Thatcher
thrashed Michael Foot, wiping out the Labour Party for more than a decade. Dubbed �the
longest suicide note in history', Foot's openly socialist manifesto had called for taxes
on wealth, the renationalization of industries privatized by Thatcher, an emergency
programme of infrastructure and house building and immediate withdrawal from Europe. If no
one wanted to return to seventies style socialism in the 80s, they certainly wouldn't want
to now. May was so confident of her position that she thought she had a free hand to do
what she pleased. She proposed that elderly care should be paid for by selling peoples
houses when they died and questioned the Tories' previous generous pension commitments
(attacking her key voter base, property owning over-65s), wanted to re-legalise fox
hunting (a sport enjoyed only by aristocrats and farmers and hugely unpopular in the
country as a whole) and refused to engage in televised debates with other leaders (because
she needed to �get on with the job').
She did in fact get the highest share of the vote since Thatcher's landslide in 1983, but
unfortunately for her, Corbyn got the highest share of the vote since Blair's landslide in
1997, and the biggest vote increase since 1945. In some ways this election can be seen as
a victory for the establishment, a re-engagement with politics post-Brexit and
post-Scottish independence referendum: it saw the highest turnout in 25 years and the
return of a strong two party system. The two recent referendums seem to have had a major
effect: the Conservative and Labour gains in Scotland were considered a protest against
the SNP's call for another independence referendum, and the swings between Labour and
Conservatives were clearly influenced by voter positions on Brexit. The swing to the
Conservatives was particularly marked in traditional Labour seats which voted to leave the
European Union, and most notably amongst the skilled working class. Conservatives made
most gains in seats where in the last five years average incomes had dropped most, and
made no gains where incomes had risen most: perhaps people weren't voting according to
their pay-packets, but according to their different expectations about what a hard Brexit
might do to their pay-packets. Conversely, Labour gained most ground in Remain voting
areas, with the biggest swings from the Conservatives in areas with large numbers of
wealthy middle class professionals. It increased votes across the political spectrum,
picking up support not just from the Conservatives, but in equal numbers from people who
had last voted for the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and UKIP.
Corbyn's popularity increased considerably after the publication of his manifesto. Much
as some on the left hailed it as Labour's return to socialism, the only proposal it had in
common with Foot's was withdrawal from Europe. In fact, it was more like Labour's 2015
manifesto: where Ed Miliband had wanted state run companies on the railways, Corbyn wanted
to nationalize them; where Miliband wanted to cut tuition fees, Corbyn would abolish them;
where Miliband wanted to increase taxes on incomes over �150,000, Corbyn would increase
them on incomes over �80,000 and so on. And although Corbyn proposed renationalization of
the railways, water industry and the country's postal service as well as the setting up of
a state energy company, he did not touch on the programme of full privatization in other
sectors. His corporation tax rise would still leave the country with some of the lowest
corporation tax in the OECD. In theory this is only the first step towards a system of
workers cooperatives, locally led ownership, and re-nationalisation of �natural
monopolies' set out in the party's research document �Alternative Models of Ownership'.
One need only see that Legacoop in Italy1 is cited as an exemplary workers' cooperative to
understand the limits of this vision. His manifesto did little more than undo some of the
most brutal benefit and tax-cuts of the last ten years, and nationalize industries where
privatization has been widely perceived as damaging to the consumer. Of course
implementing even this programme would be difficult in the absence of struggle, but it was
hardly a socialist suicide note.
Not only was Corbyn's manifesto comfortingly moderate, but as the campaign wore on he
proved he could be tough when he needed to be. Against expectations, Corbyn's support rose
as he responded to the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, arguing that cuts in
policing and British foreign policy had made the country less safe. He also explicitly
changed his position on a number of security issues, agreeing to work with NATO and
supporting the police's right to shoot to kill (both of which he had previously openly
criticized), accepting the renewal of Britain's nuclear arms system, and pledging to
increase the number of border guards.
But this didn't stop first time voters, and those who had abandoned Labour under Blair,
seeing him as a fresh, anti-establishment alternative, an image that was only reinforced
by his vilification in the mainstream media. Manifesto pledges aimed at the young, such as
scrapping tuition fees and reintroducing education maintenance allowance were of course
fundamental to the youth vote, and helped to engage young people from the early stages.
The campaign group Momentum, set up during Corbyn's leadership bid, brought in activists
from the Bernie Sanders campaign to teach its army of young people how to produce and
disseminate viral videos aimed at �mobilising' more youth. Against electoral wisdom,
Corbyn held his first rallies in areas with a strong Labour tradition, to ensure they
would be packed out. These were then broadcast across social media2 and self-designated a
social movement. Much was done to make 68 year old Corbyn - historical fighter against
apartheid and unjust wars -seem youthful, fresh and forward looking. He hung out with
grime artists, talked about football and spoke at rock concerts. The incongruence of this
is beautifully demonstrated in a video in which Corbyn's head is superimposed onto grime
artist Stormzy. In contrast, the Conservatives were portrayed as kid hating bastards:
"Daddy, why do you hate me?". If Corbyn wasn't convincingly young, then at least he looked
like a daddy that loved us. And the kids loved him back. Labour led 35 points over the
Conservatives amongst 18-24 year olds, with all of the swing towards them being among
under 44s, and the biggest swing coming from 25-34 year olds. Young people not only put
their crosses in the Labour box, but knocked on doors in their tens of thousands. Despite
Conservative attacks on the old, this election saw age replacing class as the key
determinant of party support.
Although Blairites' repeatedly insist that only they are youthful and electable, any hopes
Blairism seemed to provide have burnt up in a post-crisis Britain - we can no more go
back to the 1990s than we can go back to the 1970s. Meanwhile, Corbyn is offering a third
way between Blair and Foot. If you are a young radical he is an anti-establishment
firebrand, who challenges everything you know and hate. If you are an affluent Remain
voter he is a buffer against a hard Brexit - a process which threatens everything you know
and love. He has something for everyone; in this sense he really is �for the many, not the
few'. Of course young people and affluent people are not mutually exclusive, in fact the
main swing to Labour was amongst young affluent voters, well off but afraid for their
future. Corbyn's contradictions can reflect our own, and so are rather comforting: the
same voter can simultaneously have a clear conscience voting for a man who was against
nuclear arms, while sleeping safe in the knowledge that he would never actually get rid of
them. And 95% of the electorate can vote for his kinder politics knowing that he would not
raise their taxes. He was a win-win candidate.
He didn't win. However, the prospect of a Corbyn government is at least no longer
impossible. If Corbyn becomes Prime Minister the immediate consequences would relieve, at
least for a time, some of the greatest burdens of those living most on the edge. But he is
likely to find that a manifesto that tries to please everyone, ultimately pleases no one.
And unlike other recent left wing victories Corbyn is not riding on the back of a
movement, and is leading what was recently a greatly hostile establishment party (and
could quite easily be so again). Such contradictions might be helpful for winning votes
from a broad electorate, but they will become real obstacles if Corbyn ever gains power.
And the block of his party will be only the first front of battle against the structural
constraints of capitalism.
The response from the left seems to be to insist that �the movement' will support him. For
instance, author and activist Alex Nunns, interviewed in Jacobin argues:
"If we got into government the movement behind the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn would
have to step up and exert itself in society. You can't just leave someone in number ten to
implement your program, that's not going to work. There has to be a broad expression of
social power behind the left government or it would get crushed."
There are a number of problems with this:
Attendance at rallies, sharing videosand knocking on doors is not a movement, indeed it is
only the fact that no-one in the UK remembers what a movement is that allows the Labour
Party to make the ludicrous claim that it has created one;
Corbyn's program is not �our' program, but the program of the LabourParty (see above);
Getting�behind the left government' sounds suspiciously like stamping out dissent.
What happens when people realize Corbyn's government doesn't make all that much difference
to their lives? What if they start demanding more? Will they be asked to get "behind the
left government", or will the government make more concessions? And what happens if
companies do start pulling out investment or attacking the currency? What happens if the
pound, which has already suffered post-Brexit, is devalued even further, hitting both the
government's tax revenue and workers' real wages? Could Corbyn end up being sandwiched
between attacks from capital and from the working class? What would he do? Would he borrow
more? Would he seize assets and nationalize industries? Would he lock down the borders and
declare social democracy in one country? Or would he capitulate to the demands of capital?
A Corbyn government would be no simple thing. Luckily for him, he managed to look like he
won without actually winning - and so for the time being these questions will not need to
be answered, and he will not be faced with his own contradictions.
But in the meantime the continuing focus amongst much of the left on getting Corbyn into
power can only channel energy and material support away from struggles that could actually
challenge the structure of the system. There are few major struggles in the UK at the
moment, and strikes are at historic lows3. But people are angry and small cracks of
resistance are emerging. Not least in the streets around Grenfell Tower. Local residents
see the fire not as an isolated disaster, but as only the last in a series of attacks -
indeed, some actually think it was done on purpose. In the immediate aftermath, the
council was absent. It was the people themselves who organized provisions and support for
the survivors, and opened up their houses for those who had been left without water and
electricity. And their anger has been bolstered into strength: they have stormed the
council offices, marched on Downing Street and told the media where to go. There is even
talk of holding rent strikes. This is presently only one small struggle amongst many micro
struggles in workplaces, neighbourhoods and institutions happening across the country. But
they all represent a widespread anger brewing against a malignant system. Although things
look bleak for the time being, or perhaps precisely because they do look bleak, we need to
put our energies into supporting, making connections between and widening these struggles.
This is not a simple thing either, but it is a lot more simple than finding a daddy who
doesn't hate us.
http://www.commonware.org/index.php/cartografia/774-uk-election-2017
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Message: 3
Immigration was a major issue in the United States in the 2016 elections. It became a
pivotal issue in the British and French elections earlier this year and now it's an
important factor here in the lead up to September's power circus. ---- Concerns about
immigrants driving up both the availability and affordability of housing, taking low
paying jobs from local people and that some immigrants pose a threat on a cultural level,
have resurfaced. ---- These claims are neither new nor valid. At best they are half-truths
but mostly they are blatantly untrue. They're just the same old xenophobic arguments that
have been updated for the second decade of the 21st Century so that the real causes of
many of these issues don't have to be addressed.
Although Labour's ham-fisted and disgusting attempts to blame Asian immigrants for the
housing crisis by revealing the number of "Asian sounding" names of house buyers in
Auckland blew up in its face ("Labour's �half-baked' property data turns Chinese buyers
into �scapegoats'", Stuff, July 11th, 2015) some have bought into the myth.
In reality it is difficult to prove conclusively who is responsible for driving up house
prices. That is because such information has not been made available for commercial and
privacy reasons. Depending on who you choose to believe, it would seem to be New
Zealanders, particularly those who are returning from Australia, who are the largest
buyers of housing in Auckland and elsewhere. ("Revealed: The truth about foreign buyers",
NZ Herald, May 10th, 2016.)
When the housing market has a large speculative motivation behind it, as it has in recent
times, supply and demand isn't that relevant. What matters is the ability to buy and sell
houses at a price that will deliver large profits to the speculators. Rents are going up
not because there is a shortage of housing as the result of the number of immigrants
increasing but because property speculators are leaving the houses they buy sit empty
while the value of the property increases. In real estate circles this is called "land
banking": an utterly repugnant practice at a time of record levels of homelessness.
("Martin Hawes: Why is Auckland property so hot?" Stuff, June 12th, 2016.)
Even if immigrants were not buying or renting housing it is unlikely that local people
would earn enough to be able to do so themselves. Few landlords show willingness to rent
to people who are most severely affected by the homelessness crisis: beneficiaries, Maori,
Pacific Islanders and single mothers. Thus, despite NZ First and the Labour Party
embracing anti-immigration policies to various degrees, they are fooling themselves (or
more accurately trying to fool us) if they believe that restricting immigration will
meaningfully address the housing crisis.
Another claim being made is that immigrants are �stealing' jobs from local unemployed
people: a claim made not only by NZ First and Labour but also by churches like the
Salvation Army. ("Too many jobs going to migrants - Sallies", Radio New Zealand, October
19th, 2016.) In reality, while it is true that low skilled immigrants have arrived in
larger numbers in recent years - a fact confirmed by the NZ Immigration Service - it has
not resulted in fewer jobs for people already here.
In part this is because low-skilled immigrants end up in jobs that have either been
created specifically to take advantage of low-skilled migrant workers, such as seasonal
farm jobs, or in jobs where the employers are of the same ethnicity or nationality as the
immigrants, such as in the retail sector. In the Wellington region it has long been common
practice among Chinese, Indian and Turkish people to set up small businesses then hire
family and friends of the same ethnicity or nationality to work in them. If you don't like
this, it's worth noting it is also common practice in small to medium sized businesses
owned by locally born New Zealanders.
Even if New Zealand follows the practice of the United States and starts deporting large
groups of immigrants, it is almost certain the jobs they have will go with them: a fact
New Zealand should've learned back in the late 1970s and 1980s when the government
deported thousands of Pacific Island "over stayers". Very few of the jobs those who were
deported were doing, went to New Zealanders. Instead the jobs simply ceased to exist.
If low skilled immigrants were deported the economy in many parts of the country would
face serious problems and unemployment could increase considerably. Business New Zealand,
the organisation that represents employers, and many media commentators have been amongst
the staunchest opponents to curbs on immigrants. This is because they view immigrants as
more desirable than the unemployed, whom they see as lazy drug abusers who don't want to
do the sort of work immigrants are doing. ("Our approach to immigration is a disgrace",
Stuff, April 21 2017.) This is despite the Ministry of Social Development's figures
showing that less than 0.2% of job seekers have tested positive or refused drug tests and
that most beneficiaries want to work. ("Bill English claims about Kiwi jobseekers using
drugs �not backed by data'", February 28th, 2017.) It's really about bosses being able to
exploit whoever they feel is easier to use to make profits out of and a classic �divide
and conquer' tactic.
Finally, there's the hoary old chestnut of "they want to impose their way of life upon
us". This tired argument was used to justify anti-Chinese immigration policies in the late
19th and early 20th Century and to rationalise not admitting Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi
Germany prior to World War Two. It was even used to excuse the racist Dawn Raids against
Pacific Islanders in which thousands were deported. It's also deeply ironic when you look
at the history of this country in terms of colonization and who imposed themselves on others.
In the many discussions with recent immigrants I've had, I have discovered that most have
come here because they're looking for somewhere safe and secure for themselves and their
families. They want to earn a livelihood, take advantage of any opportunities that come
their way and generally do what most people around the world want to do. The last thing
they want is to somehow impose their own culture, faith and beliefs upon the majority.
Again, considering the colonial past of this country, that's a refreshing change.
If these immigrants are guilty of anything it is the depressing lack of any desire other
than to pursue the petit-bourgeoisie �Kiwi dream' of a nice house in the suburbs, a steady
and secure white-collar job and a pleasant retirement once they reach a certain age.
To some extent there is a certain logic behind this type of thinking. A sizeable
proportion of people who came here recently have come to escape religious fundamentalism,
political persecution and conflict. It's to be expected that people who have lost
everything and put their very lives on the line to escape from the likes of Bashir Assad,
Saddam Hussein or any number of other dictators or from groups like Islamic State,
wouldn't seek to impose despotic or religious fundamentalist rule here- or seek any
revolutionary changes. Sure, as with any group there will always be a few who really are
the sort that the far right and NZ First love to terrify old white people with. In the
real world these types of immigrants are extraordinarily rare though.
Despite the scaremongering surrounding immigrants, particularly Muslims, I would argue
that most who come here contribute out of all proportion to their numbers. In the United
States it is estimated that Hispanic migrants alone contribute an estimated $1.3 trillion
dollars a year to the economy. Indeed immigrants have made such a huge contribution to the
economies of many major American cities, they actually want more immigrants. ("Why
American Cities Are Fighting to Attract Immigrants", The Atlantic, July 21st, 2015)
The free market think tank, New Zealand Initiative has argued "Of those who do choose to
move to New Zealand permanently, analysis of the New Zealand General Social Survey show
immigrants integrate well. They are less likely to claim a benefit, more likely to be
employed, and their children have better education outcomes than native born New
Zealanders. There is relatively little ethnic or migrant clustering, and where
concentrations do occur there is no indication of high unemployment. 87% of migrants say
they feel they belong to New Zealand. Surveys show New Zealanders too have a generally
positive view of migrants, and value the contribution that make to the economy and the
cultural diversity they bring." Of course, the people behind the NZI have their own agenda
in presenting these points. They implicitly view immigrants as useful cogs for bosses to
slot into the capitalist economy. Nevertheless, it shows how more sensible they are in
understanding the nature of immigration than the supposedly �progressive' Labour Party.
Immigration is not something to be feared under the misguided notion that immigrants are
somehow a threat to those of us who already live here. Granted my Maori ancestors arrived
here sometime in the 13th Century and the first of my pakeha ancestors arrived here in
1840 but, like today's immigrants, they all arrived from elsewhere in search of something
better. It's also why many people born here move overseas. Which in passing brings up the
point that the current government can't boast that the recent increase in immigration
somehow shows how wonderful things are here. Yes, compared to war torn countries, it is
better to live in a quiet part of the southern hemisphere or just about anywhere else for
that matter. However, if you are more interested in comparing upwards rather than against
the worst case scenario, you have to factor in the �seventeenth region' a.k.a the 600,000+
people from here who prefer living elsewhere. In addition to the million people who didn't
vote at the last election, the politicians should be aware of this sizeable number who
have voted with their feet.
If it is acceptable to let the rich elites travel with few or no restrictions then surely
that should extend to ALL peoples? I would rather have an Afghani working class labourer
who understands about losing everything, making sacrifices for themselves and their
families and who knows what hard work is as a neighbour, than an American businessman who
bought his way in by waving $20 million under the noses of immigration officials.
So to conclude, immigration is not a problem. It's an issue being exploited by politicians
who know better, but are trying to play on people's fears and emotions. Being able to
decide who you live around is a natural thing. However, we really can't afford to put
those decisions in the hands of power merchants who only use its importance to suit their
own ends every three years.
http://www.awsm.nz/2017/08/06/immigration-facts-myths/
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