Anarchic update news all over the world - 18.10.2017 ~ CookingFood.Org

Today's Topics:


1. Southern Africa, zabalaza: Fueling the Fire by Shawn
      Hattingh (ZACF) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Octobre - Deliveroo: We
      will not pedal the empty belly (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

3. Pyotr Ryabov, anarchist philosopher imprisoned for 6 days in
      Belarus, declared a hungerstrike (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

4. Pyotr Ryabov, anarchist philosopher imprisoned for 6 days in
      Belarus, declared a hungerstrike (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

5. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - 10 October: public,
      private, all on strike ! (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

6. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Septembre - Venezuela:
      Libertarian intervention remains to be invented (fr, it, pt)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

7. wsm.ie: US ambush video crew at March for Choice turn out to
      be extremists who want death penalty for women who have abortions
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

8. freedom news: Italy: Base unions set for general strike
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

9. Czech, afed: Belarus: The condemned anarchist Petr Rjabov
      holds a hunger strike (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

10. Britain, freedom news: Manchester anarchists announce
      December bookfair (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

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Message: 1

Protest in Freedom Park, south of Johannesburg on 8 May. Photo by: Jonathan Payn (ZACF)
Wave after wave of community protests have been taking place in South Africa. People are
angry that after twenty years of so-called freedom they are still confined to living in
shacks, having to defecate in communal toilets, and having essential services terminated
when they can't afford to pay. ---- Wave after wave of community protests have been taking
place in South Africa. People are angry that after twenty years of so-called freedom they
are still confined to living in shacks, having to defecate in communal toilets, and having
essential services terminated when they can't afford to pay. ---- What fuels this anger
further is that on the other side of the cities and towns, in the old white-only suburbs,
the elite and middle classes flaunt their wealth.

Yet the ruling class - white and now black capitalists, top state officials, and
politicians - have waged non-stop war against the working class to deepen this inequality.
The reason they have done this is to increase their wealth - this class war lies at the
root of the protests we have seen.

Many of the people that have been involved in the recent protests - or their parents - had
hoped for a better life with the fall of apartheid. Under that horrific system, the black
working class (workers and the unemployed) were subjected to racial oppression and
exploitation. It was cheap labour, in the form of the black working class, which generated
huge profits for corporations. To ensure the lowest costs of the reproduction of this
exploited class, the apartheid state forced people to live in homelands and townships in
which the most threadbare services were provided. The consequences were that the black
working class were deliberately kept in poverty and when they rose up they faced the
apartheid state's gun barrels.

Fast forward to today. One can scarcely believe the reality in which the black working
class finds itself, which materially is often as bad as under apartheid.

Since 1994, the portion of Gross Domestic Product which goes towards wages has declined.
The implications of this are that in real terms the wages of the black working class have
been in decline since the fall of apartheid. Unemployment too has exploded as capitalists
have reduced their labour force, mechanised, and implemented flexible labour to boost
profit rates.

The post-apartheid state has been central to the war on the working class. It has
redirected wealth upwards towards the ruling class. It has done this through various
means, which have included spending on infrastructure for corporations and tax breaks for
corporations.

Since 1994 the tax rate for corporations has been driven down from 49% to 28%. This is
money that could have been used to improve the lives of the poor through providing,
amongst other things, decent services and housing. At the same time, however, Value Added
Tax, a tax that targets the working class, has contributed a larger and larger part of the
state's revenue. Far from being an under resourced state, the South African state has been
shifting wealth from the working class to the ruling class.

At the same time, the state has been active in attacking the poor. In real terms
(inflation adjusted) spending on services for the working class has remained largely
stagnant since 1994. On average the state under the ANC has allocated less than 2% of the
budget to housing for the working class. As such, services like water, electricity,
housing, sanitation, healthcare and education for black working class areas are a shambles.

The national state under the stewardship of the ANC has also dramatically reduced the
amount of money that it transfers to local governments to deliver services such as
sanitation and refuse removal. This has been done to please international capitalists in
the form of speculators. Speculators tend to target buying the bonds of states with low
debt levels. To keep debt levels low at a national level, the South African state slashed
transfers to local governments.

This means local municipalities have less for service delivery. To try and generate
income, local governments have adopted cost recovery for services to the working class,
such as electricity, water, sanitation and refuse removal. The consequences are, if you
can't afford to pay you don't get the services. Making matters worse is that at the level
of local government, municipalities have outsourced basic services. For a connected local
elite, usually linked to the African National Congress or in some areas the Democratic
Alliance, this has been a godsend. This has seen contracts for housing and service
delivery being handed out to those who have connections to politicians. The consequences
of these neoliberal policies is that service delivery is abysmal.

The reality is that the state does this, at a local and national level, because it is an
instrument of the ruling class. States exist to enforce the rule of a minority elite over
a majority. Even in a parliamentary democracy, it is the elite that indirectly and
directly control the state and they use it to increase their wealth.

Of course states do provide some services to the poor. These are and were concessions that
have been forced on the ruling class by the working class through the history of struggle.
Indeed, the black working class only receives some support from the state - although
meagre - because of the history of struggle. Under neoliberalism though, these concessions
are being rolled back, and it is this that is once again fuelling protests.

The role that the state plays in protecting the ruling class can be seen in how the police
have reacted to the protests. Most people involved in protests try to follow the state's
prescribed procedures to air their grievances, for example engaging in Integrated
Development Plans - and only embark on protest once these proved to be dead-ends. But once
people protest, the police react violently.

The working class, however, has proved that it won't lie down under the fire from the
ruling class. This is where hope lies. What is needed now is for these struggles that we
have been seeing across the country to link, based on self-organisation and direct
democracy. There are many challenges to this, including toxic party politics, but if
society is too change it will have to be done. The fire of resistance needs to burn; and
to do so struggles need to link and become a force capable of blunting the attacks of the
ruling class in South Africa.

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Message: 2

To fatten the shareholders, you have to sweat the cyclists ... until it derailed. Workers
on digital platforms no longer make ends meet. After Uber, it was Deliveroo's turn to
undergo an early rebellion. ---- Deliveroo: « Your favorite restaurants delivered in less
than thirty minutes. " A tablet application, thousands of cyclists or motorcyclists in
light blue uniforms, but a status of self-entrepreneur, a booming brand that weighed more
than $ 1 billion in 2016. After Britain and Belgium, it is the turn of France to see this
new proletariat organize and claim. ---- Over the past year, labor compensation has
continued to decline. Before the summer of 2016, Deliveroo offered to the cyclists mixed
contracts, combining remuneration per hour (7.5 euros per hour) and racing (2, 3 or 4
euros per race depending on seniority). Since September 2016, it has already signed only
contracts for racing (5.75 euros in Paris and 5 euros in other cities) for new couriers,
no longer paying the penalty. The turnover of the delivery staff is such that a year
later, couriers with mixed pay already constituted a minority (600 of the 7,500 employees
of Deliveroo). But 600 was still too much !

From a simple SMS, the rules change

On July 27, Deliveroo therefore sent a simple SMS to his livreuses and delivery for
informing standardization of contracts from 1 st September, those benefiting from the old
contracts were served with what they agreed remuneration to the race, or their contract
was broken. Result: a loss of 30% to 40 % of their income: " For someone who works 35
hours, explains Alex, courser in Nantes, this makes a drop of 450 euros per month ! "

The couriers of Deliveroo in battle from Alternative libertarian on Vimeo .

Faced with this process, couriers and couriers from Lyons and Paris (led by the Paris
Autonomous Delivery Group, the Clap) organized a first mobilization on August 11,
prompting couriers and restaurateurs to disconnect of the application of the platform. On
27 and 28 August, similar mobilizations took place in Paris, Lyon, Nantes, Marseille and
Bordeaux. The management of the company then sought to minimize the dispute: the drivers
and deliverers mobilized.es would constitute according to it a " minority " since 450 of
the 600 concerned " accepted " the remuneration to the race. According to the company,
the delivery would be only a " sideline " Offering " interesting incomes for odd jobs ".
Pocket money, in other words, 25 % of which must be deducted from social security
contributions and the maintenance of the bicycle. In fact, for a number, like Alex,
deliveries are the main or even the only source of revenue.

The mobilization, fortunately, exceeds those who are affected by the fall in their
remuneration. In Nantes, the collective of the Nantes Bikers has revived thanks to the
investment of " new couriers ", paid to the race, alongside the " old " who have seen
their contract modified. Deliveroo's have also been joined by couriers from other
platforms (Foodora, UberEats), such as Yoann and Maxime, who are well aware that, with
fierce competition in the sector, their salaries are also likely to fall. " In Nantes we
are still paid 7.5 euros per hour, plus 2 euros the order, explains Yoann. But I am
convinced that Foodora will also come to pricing at the race because it has always been
the game of venerated competition between these three services. " The economic model of
the platforms: according to Maxime, Deliveroo, UberEats and Foodora are not beneficiaries
and live only by accumulating fundraisers. But to raise funds, you have to be attractive
to investors. By lowering the remuneration, they are given a greater margin. This system
explains the bankruptcy of Take Eat Easy, competitor of Deliveroo, in the summer 2016: the
investors withdrew overnight, leaving on the tile thousands of unpaid couriers and
restorers [1].

CGT and SUD unions support

Faced with this solidarity, the platforms rely on isolation. UberEats encourages its
drivers and deliverers to be always on the move, from one delivery to the next, to prevent
encounter times. Same for Foodora, which just removed from its application the messenger
service between couriers ...

However, mobilization seems to pay off. On 1 st September, a delegation, supported by the
CGT trade and SOUTH Shops, met the leadership of Deliveroo. It claimed the right to
collective bargaining - the platform did not reject it a priori - and an increase in
remuneration: payment of 7.5 euros per race and guaranteed hourly minimums of 15 to 20
euros depending on the hours. Small improvement: Deliveroo has introduced a free civil
insurance for its drivers, covering them under conditions (wearing the helmet and bike
standards) in the event of an accident. However, it is difficult to talk about victory,
since this new insurance is financed by the company thanks to the savings realized on the
back of the couriers.

Meanwhile, the mobilization continues. To maintain the pressure, it is to be hoped that
the contacts between the collectives of couriers and trade unions are consolidated. To
overcome distrust, this can be done through the disinterested support of local unions to
existing collectives, or by helping couriers to train their own unions, as the CGT in
Bordeaux did.

Nathan (AL Nantes)

A desire for a cooperative

Do without Deliveroo, UberEats or Foodora ? Couriers and couriers consider it, creating
their own digital delivery application. Thus, the Collectif des livreurs autonomes de
Paris (Clap) is considering the creation of a cooperative society of general interest
(Scic), Coopcycle, on the model of the co-operative of taxi drivers Gescop. Without
shareholders to remunerate, this cooperative platform would provide the drivers with
social protection (which they currently lack) and remuneration between 15 and 20 euros per
hour. The discussions, aimed at obtaining the support of the Paris City Hall, have
nevertheless failed, as the municipality does not take couriers and couriers seriously,
according to Clap spokesman Jérôme Pimot.

[1] " Platforms: Uber & C ie : Uncle Scrooge in the Net, " Alternative Libertarian,
March 2017.

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Message: 3

11th of October city court of Baranovichi, Belarus sentenced Russian anarchist Pyotr
Ryabov. Anarchist philosopher, lecturer of department of Philosophy in Moscow State
Pedagogical University was sentenced to 6 days of prison for "small hooliganism" and
"distribution of extremist materials (statute 17.1 and 17.11 of codex of misdemeanors of
Belarus). Court considered Belarusian anarchist journal "Svoboda ili Smert No6", published
in 2007, as extremist material. However these were trumped up charges, real reason of the
arrest was lecture on anarchist movement, for which Ryabov came to Baranovichi. Ryabov was
arrested on his way back to Moscow in Baranovichi train station, he was supposed to talk
in another event in Moscow. ---- After sentence, Ryabor declared a hungerstrike. ----
Information provided by anarchist group Pramen

Moscow anarchist philosopher to spend 6 days in Belarus jail for ‘swearing'
Posted on: 12 October 2017 By: thecollective

From Belsat

On October 10, Pyotr Ryabov was taken off the train after he had delivered a lecture in
the Belarusian city of Baranavichy.

A day later, a Baranovichi court found Ryabov guilty of hooliganism and sentenced him to 6
days in prison.

Ryabov and one of his associates were charged with hooliganism. "He was accused of
swearing and refusal to obey to the police requirements," his friend says.

https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favtonom.org%2Fen%2Fnews%2Fpyotr-ryabov-anarchist-philosopher-imprisoned-6-days-belarus-declared-hungerstrike&data=02%7C01%7Ccreuzadema%40hotmail.com%7C64c6c89b29c84312c72f08d5161080b7%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636439182498215241&sdata=kQz5HpivPnZ2F2Xzj1cJGUh5iIiMa9cD47t%2B48zOzwA%3D&reserved=0

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Message: 4

11th of October city court of Baranovichi, Belarus sentenced Russian anarchist Pyotr
Ryabov. Anarchist philosopher, lecturer of department of Philosophy in Moscow State
Pedagogical University was sentenced to 6 days of prison for "small hooliganism" and
"distribution of extremist materials (statute 17.1 and 17.11 of codex of misdemeanors of
Belarus). Court considered Belarusian anarchist journal "Svoboda ili Smert No6", published
in 2007, as extremist material. However these were trumped up charges, real reason of the
arrest was lecture on anarchist movement, for which Ryabov came to Baranovichi. Ryabov was
arrested on his way back to Moscow in Baranovichi train station, he was supposed to talk
in another event in Moscow. ---- After sentence, Ryabor declared a hungerstrike. ----
Information provided by anarchist group Pramen

Moscow anarchist philosopher to spend 6 days in Belarus jail for ‘swearing'
Posted on: 12 October 2017 By: thecollective

From Belsat

On October 10, Pyotr Ryabov was taken off the train after he had delivered a lecture in
the Belarusian city of Baranavichy.

A day later, a Baranovichi court found Ryabov guilty of hooliganism and sentenced him to 6
days in prison.

Ryabov and one of his associates were charged with hooliganism. "He was accused of
swearing and refusal to obey to the police requirements," his friend says.

https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favtonom.org%2Fen%2Fnews%2Fpyotr-ryabov-anarchist-philosopher-imprisoned-6-days-belarus-declared-hungerstrike&data=02%7C01%7Ccreuzadema%40hotmail.com%7C64c6c89b29c84312c72f08d5161080b7%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636439182498215241&sdata=kQz5HpivPnZ2F2Xzj1cJGUh5iIiMa9cD47t%2B48zOzwA%3D&reserved=0

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Message: 5

October 10: Public / private, all together we can win ! ---- ? Who wants the civil service
? Blocked wages, job cuts, destructuring of many services, delegation to the private
sector of public transport and water services among others, increasingly aggressive and
guilty management, individualisation of posts and career of agents, users who become
clients, budget asphyxiation, etc. ---- The list is long and some sectors are more
affected than others. The policy is the same: apply a good deal of liberalism to pervert
what distinguishes the public service from a private enterprise: the general interest
through the socialization of services rendered to the population ---- So all the employees
of the State, the Territorial and the hospitals can rejoice in the union's unity for this
mobilization of October 10 on the increase of purchasing power and the defense of the
public service.

? Public services are not for sale !

However, we do not see the face, half of the unions that call there are for a salary
increase but under the PPCR. The other half opposed, for a uniform increase, disconnected
from the evaluation of our work based on efficiency criteria (objectives, performance,
results ... with what we know as human consequences in terms of stress, harassment, burn
out, etc.).

These divergences are not those of a trade union war, but of accepting or not the status
of civil servant with the liberal reforms in progress. Of what the personnel would have to
scratch within the framework of these reforms to better accept a transformation of our
trades, the purposes of the public service.

The degradation of public services is a deliberate policy for the acceptance of a new
report by agents and the public on services rendered to the public, such as goods.

These attacks on the employment and working conditions of civil servants are not isolated
from the rest of the country's employees: precariousness and breaks in work have been
developing for years. The purpose of Labor 2 is to strengthen the power of employers over
our work and our lives.

Resistance will play out in our ability to organize ourselves at work, by organizing
ourselves, by debating in general assemblies, by making our departments retreat on working
conditions, by making the link with the private sector.

? An indispensable convergence to win ! The convergence of struggles between civil
servants, public employees (1 million non-incumbents) and private, unemployed and
precarious employees is a condition for us to consider

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Message: 6

Anarchists denounce the reactionary right and the chavo-madurism, but struggle to build a
lasting collective force. ---- Participate in anti-government mobilization without playing
the game of the MUD ; to oppose the threat of military intervention evoked in August by
Donal Trump without playing the PSUV ... The path of a libertarian and revolutionary
action is narrow. And, not surprisingly, appreciations vary within the revolutionary left
and libertarian South American. ---- Some organizations of the Anarchist communist network
such as the FAU (Uruguay) and the Federación anarquista de Rosario (Argentina), while
underlining the flaws of the Chavo-madurist regime, consider that the main danger remains
a return of the reactionary right supported by Washington. Indeed, although under state
control, the " Bolivarian Revolution " has led to a flourishing of committees of
neighborhoods, communes in the countryside and cities, cooperatives ... a form of
imperfect popular self-organization, defend.

For fifteen years, several - ephemeral - libertarian groups have tried to act within this
process. In 2006-2007, there was thus the libertarian action Front, which wanted to
develop the popular autonomy avoiding attacking the figure of Hugo Chavez [1]. In
2012-2013, there was the Federación anarquista revolucionaria de Venezuela (FARV), which
went so far as to declare that Chavez was " a companion, a brother " [2]...

Conversely, the most stable anti-authoritarian group, the Anarchist Relations Committee
(CRA), publisher of the periodical El Libertario since 1995, considers that the struggle
against " chavo-madurism " [3]is necessary and even central. For the ARC, anarchists
must participate in the current popular demonstrations, regardless of whether the MUD
calls them or not, while denouncing his reactionary project. His critics reply that in so
doing, the CRA still compromises with the right. The CRA is mainly accused, halfway
through, to restrict itself to the animation of a media, El Libertario, without connection
with a militant intervention on the ground nor construction of an active organization.

What way, tomorrow, for a libertarian communist action in Venezuela ? The answer will come
from the activists who are active in the social field, whether in neighborhood committees
or in critical trade union sectors, such as the " classist " C-CURA movement (see
opposite) . As the Zapatistas say, priority must go to the struggles of those who are "
down, left "

Abobora (AL 31)

[1] " Venezuela: The two faces of Chavism ", Alternative libertarian, January 2007.

[2] FARV, press release of 6 March 2013.

[3] " Venezuela: Bienvenidos to the Piedrita, land of popular power ", Alternative
libertarian, January 2015.

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Message: 7

The March for Choice saw another another sinister anti-choice video crew in operation. The
last time on investigation they turned out to be an far-right crew who subsequently worked
with Tommy Robinson, ex leader of the EDL. This time the accents were American rather
than British and on investigation we discovered they are an extremist anti-choice church,
one of this crew has even told media they want women who have had abortions to be
executed.[Video report]https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3xi0uqswYxw&data=02%7C01%7Ccreuzadema%40hotmail.com%7C64c6c89b29c84312c72f08d5161080b7%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636439182498215241&sdata=4kfj1P1MZeiwlsRJZtRx1gwN8siR8weA41RyL08JUn0%3D&reserved=0 ---- As with the
previous crew their method is to try and get participants to agree to be interviewed
without revealing their extreme anti-choice views. As you will see in the video when
challenged as to who they are they tried to vaguely pass themselves off as a TV studio and
then Facebook stream. When people agreed to be interviewed after a few sympathetic
appearing questions they were suddenly ambushed with very hostile language in the hope
that their targets either don't notice or get flustered. The goal is to then broadcast
edited footage of flustered or hostile pro-choice people to try and dehumanise us and urge
their own followers to fanaticism.

After this tactic was used at Strike for Repeal we were on the lookout for more of the
same. As it turned out were others, before we found this crew others had spotted them and
confronted them near O'Connell bridge. If you had a run in with them let us know so we
can collate these reports.

Their video has yet to appear but the far-right crew published theirs several days after
Strike for Repeal and then 10,000 or more was spent on Facebook advertising to push into
the feed of people following the National Ploughing Championship page among others. Durbin
has boasted that "Apologia Studios ... through a fundraising campaign, the group has
raised over $200,000 in donations, which will be used for a proposed "media flood
campaign" for their anti-choice project.   So they should have plenty of change from their
flights and hotels to pay for similar advertising.

We spotted them in the aftermath of the rally, becoming suspicious of a strange looking
and sounding crew of 3 bearded Americans who we spotted already interviewing the two women
you hear in our video. You can see and hear their technique play out in practise,
sympathetic grunts suddenly switching to ‘murdering children' and ‘thank you for
supporting child abuse'. We don't know the two women but they did a good job of
disengaging once they copped on what was up. If you see this drop us a line and tell us
what happened before our video started, in particular how did they represent themselves
when they stopped you.

They were with a group of 6-8 people so we only started to confront them once a couple of
us were in the scene, basically warning people they were trying to interview as to who
they were. And putting ourselves in front of their cameras. This was quite a short
interaction that ended with the Garda trying to order one of us out of the area under
Section 8 - a very misused part of the Public Order Act often used in this manner. However
as you'll see from their social media this was enough to unbalance them and resulted in
them packing up and leaving soon after.

Jeff Durbin posted that he had "Narrowly avoided getting arrested (by an obviously biased
police officer) for merely talking to Pro-choice advocates. Marcus Pittman almost got
hit". On his preacher biography page Jeff boasts of being a. "a World Champion martial
artist with 5 Black-Belts" so we are somewhat amused that so little led to such an
overblown description. Presumably all part of an attempt to convince funders to dip into
their purses to support his ‘heroism' in being willing to ‘go head on with a predicted
30,000 women'.

At the time of shooting our video we didn't know who these guys were beyond the American
accents. We've been investigating them further in the aftermath of March for Choice and
what we've found is disturbing to put it mildly. They are a gang of extremist preachers
who consider the mainstream anti-choice movement as not extreme enough. They have spent
three years picketing Tempe's Planned Parenthood in Florida where Vice recorded Durbin
being regretful that he didn't yet have the resources to also picket IVF clinics. Yes you
read that right.

Marcus has written "if you have spent any time outside of an abortion clinic pleading with
the women going in to save the life of their baby, you know that these women are not
victims. They may be very emotional but they are not deceived by their emotions. They are
murderers and in most cases, they act like it."

Continuing this hostile anti-women theme, Durbin told Metro UK in February that he wanted
women who had abortions executed saying "Whether it's a mother who kills her child in the
womb or a mother who kills her five-year-old twins by drowning them in the bathtub, we
would want it to be treated as a murder charge, and for that to be applied consistently
under the law. I believe that a just answer to murder is the death penalty."

They call their Facebook page Apologia Studios and in the context of the remarks above the
message they posted right before the march becomes sinister rather than hilariously
overblown; "Pray for Jeff, Luke and Marcus as they go head on with a predicted 30,000
women marching for abortion to be made legal in Ireland today" Women are constantly
identified as the enemy, even when, as with the March for Choice, there was also a large
minority of men marching. In the aftermath of the march Marcus tweeted "Lots of nasty
women in Ireland today."

They call themselves pastor/elders of the Apologia church a ‘Neo-calvinist' outfit. The
US has many extreme self proclaimed churches of this type. A quick investigation of
youtube even turned up a Jeff ranting against antifa before diving into a ridiculous beef
he is having with another local pastor revolving around their competing homophobic
performances in front of their ‘congregations'.

However on the 30th Marcus took to social media to boast that he had met "with some
Presbyterian pastors in Ireland yesterday about setting up media and programming to
counter the secular media in Ireland." We'd be very interested in hearing who these
pastors are and whether they were aware of the extreme views outlined above before they
met Marcus. Presbyterianism in Ireland has a complex history that extends from the
democratic republicanism of the 1790s to the extremist sectarianism of the Paislyites. Any
Presbyterians worried about the way that later legacy defined most people's picture of
their religion might like to intervene before this sort of new anti-women extremism
becomes a new defining image.

Just how extreme there views are is illustrated by this hostile piece about them from
another anti-choice source in the US after they had apparently used their ambush technique
within the anti-choice movement there. That report complained that "They lured Mr.
Lauinger in and got their sound bites, and then they proceeded to publicly denounce him
and attack his character - calling him a hypocrite and a coward because "he refuses to
call the women who had an abortion a murderer".

We don't know yet what connections this gang has to the anti-choice movement here but it
seems obvious that they were not over here on a holiday and indeed Marcus admitted on
social media on the 28th that "We went to a pro-life rally in Ireland today" before
complaining that they were not extreme enough. There are certainly questions to be asked
but given the long linkage between the anti-choice movement and the far right we'd be
foolish to expect answers.

In terms of the impact on the referendum to Repeal the 8th the major thing to watch here
is the use of Facebook advertising. Such advertising was an important part of the story
of both the Trump election and Brexit because it allows obnoxious reactionary ads to
target people without those opinions without the rest of us even knowing they existed. And
even if we were to find out via looking over the shoulder of ‘reactionary uncle' we
wouldn't know who had placed them. Which means horrifying messaging can be used without
there being the public opinion costs that the anti-choice movement has subsequently had to
pay as a result of their shaming billboards campaigns etc.

It also means the vast sums the US anti-choice movement has as its disposal can be used to
influence the referendum without that cash ever crossing our borders.   Ads to target
voters in Ireland can be ran and paid for from Utah or Arizona. This could prove to be an
extremely toxic combination with extremist US groups spending hug quantities to push nasty
lying ads into our feeds. If you are already seeing those ads or do in future take a
screenshot and message us.

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Message: 8

Anarcho-syndicalist union USI and other base unions in Italy are organising for a general
strike on October 27th over a host of issues around working rights, wages, pensions,
privatisation, racism and military spending. ---- Groups including CUB, SGB and COBAS have
joined the walkout, which has made the following demands for change across both public and
private-sector companies: ---- Abolish wage, social, economic, gender and migrant
inequalities ---- Strong wage increases, reduced working time and public investment for
the environment ---- Pensions at 60 years or with 35 years of contributions ---- Against
privatisation and market liberalisation ---- Universal rights to health, housing, school
and public mobility ---- In defence of the right to strike ---- Against the scam agreement
of January 10, 2014 on representation (see below)
Against all kinds of war and military spending

The strike is a strident snub to Italy's four major unions (Confindustria, CGIL, CISL and
UIL), which have faced rising criticism over falling short in representing working class
issues and particularly since they collectively signed an agreement in 2014 which largely
served to help stitch up negotiating power and and representative functions in their
favour. The big four, similar in scope to Britain's TUC unions, have responded in a
similar way to German ones in the face of general union decline by aiming to exclude
smaller, more radical unions from legitimacy.

Several of the unions have transport sections, meaning the strike will likely hit trains,
shipping and bus routes, though the scope of the strike looks like it will be far broader.
Many union branches are taking the occasion to hit back against localised grievances as
well, such as USI's Reggio Emilia section which is taking on changes to regional contracts
by major cooperative federations Confcooperative and Legacoop. In a statement the union
branch explained:

This will involve more than 5,000 people employed by the Social Cooperatives in the
educational, health and social fields in our province. The original contract protected
workers when management changed, from car insurance to monthly salary. Another section was
the ERT which redistributed earnings among workers.

We recall that in the last few years a violent process of precarisation has been undergone
by the entire Third Sector, by hitting workers with both a weakened salary and worse
working conditions.

The striking unions have assured that minimal essential services will be maintained during
the walkout.

This article is based on edited machine translations. If there are errors let us know!

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Message: 9

Russian philosopher and historian Petr Rjabov was arrested and sentenced during a visit to
Belarus where he had lectures on anarchism. ---- On Wednesday, Oct. 11, the city court in
the Belarusian town of Baranovich awarded a verdict over Russian anarchist Petra Rjabov.
The Moscow philosopher-anarchist, historian, associate professor at the Moscow City
Pedagogical University's philosophy department, was given six days for violating public
order, or a tiny disorder that he was about to commit to "spreading extremist materials."
The Belarusian anarchist magazine Svoboda or Death , namely issue 6 of 2007, was named for
you . The real reason for the punishment was obviously Rjabov's lecture on the anarchist
movement in Baranovichi. Rjabov was arrested on October 11 at the Baranovichi railway
station from where he wanted to go to Moscow.

Rjabov had more lectures in Belarus on the history of the anarchist movement, one on
October 9 in Grodno. Here, however, the police broke and broke down a number of listeners
and the lecturer himself. How the reason stated participation in an unauthorized mass action.

After the ruling, Petr Rjabov declared hunger strike.

Resources:

https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpramen.io%2Fen%2F2017%2F10%2Fpetra-ryabova-osudili-na-6-sutok%2F&data=02%7C01%7Ccreuzadema%40hotmail.com%7C64c6c89b29c84312c72f08d5161080b7%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636439182498215241&sdata=2YwCEZ0U1fApTpYpVKLe5nesfVfEPgB5rmiI1k3YeE8%3D&reserved=0
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Message: 10

One last anarchist bookfair has been announced for 2017 with the Manchester & Salford
Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday December 2nd. ---- The event, which is being sponsored by
well-loved absurdist libertarian publication The Cunningham Amendment, is taking advantage
of new digs available at radical social centre Partisan, located at 19 Cheetham Hill Road,
M4 4FY not far from Victoria Station and Manchester Arena. ---- It's early doors for
bookings, but 15 stalls have been announced so far and the bookfair, which will be running
11am-6pm, will be followed by an after party at the same venue. ---- The Manchester
Anarchist Bookfair is one of the longest-running in Britain, having been founded 16 years
ago at the premises of environmental charity project MERCi in Beswick, east Manchester and
supporters maintain a wonderful archive of posters related to previous bookfairs here.

Organisers are currently taking bookings for stalls (£20 per table) and talks. To apply,
contact the group at manchester@bookfair.org.uk with group name, description of
stall/talk/website links/special requirements and pay by bank transfer to:

Manchester and Salford Anarchist Bookfair
Co-operative Bank
Sort Code: 089299
Acccount number: 65677889

(Label the payment to show what's being paid for)

Partisan, which was set up recently as the first overtly radical space in Manchester for
several years, has recently successfully raised funding for access works, but as yet the
venue is only accessible via stairs.

Keeping up with events:

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