Anarchic update news all over the world - 5.11.2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Greece, APO - Against the installation of nuclear weapons at
      the Araxos air base (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL Octobre - South Africa:
      Why Michael Schmidt was banned (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL Octobre - Bibliography: To
      discover the Russian Revolution (fr, it, pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Britain, afed.org: ORGANISE! MAGAZINE ISSUE 89 WINTER 2017
      by W (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Greece, Libertarian Initiative of Thessaloniki - Conclusion
      against the abolition of the Sunday holiday Sunday 5/11 (gr)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  vrije bond: docu: �Counterinsurgency and Social War' (nl)
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1






The generalized crisis of the state of the world and the bosses leads with mathematical 
precision in a way unless a broad and international front of struggle and resistance is 
established. In warring societies, the widespread and aggravation of geopolitical 
antagonisms and war operations to the limitations of a great war, and the establishment of 
the emergency regime as an iron grid to control and suppress all aspects of social 
activity. ---- Internationalist struggle against war, impoverishment, modern 
totalitarianism ---- CONCENTRATIONS - PROCESSES ---- MONDAY 6/11 - 18.30 - PL GEORGIOU 
---- SUNDAY 12/11 - 11:00 - IN ARAXO ---- anarchist group "dignified horse" - a member of 
the Anarchist Political Organization ---- Communication: ---- - ipposd.wordpress.com | 
d_ippos@hotmail.com ---- - every Tuesday 19.00 - 22.00 in the self-managed area On the 
Front (Patreos 87)

https://ipposd.wordpress.com/2017/11/02

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Message: 2






The surprise was great when readers of Michael Schmidt, author of books and articles on 
the history of anarchism, learned that he was actively participating in far-right groups. 
Back on the treatment of the case by the international libertarian communist network 
Anarkismo. ---- Michael Schmidt, historian and journalist based in South Africa, who 
claims to be anarchist and has published a lot on this subject, notably at AK Press and on 
Anarkismo.net, has been identified as a participant in extreme right web groups under 
different pseudo , few years ago. He tried to create a synthesis of anarchism and white 
supremacism. He first claimed that it was for the purpose of conducting research, although 
it lacked credibility. Then in 2017, he wrote a partial confession, and admitted to being 
influenced by these far-right groups and ideas during his investigative work, but also 
actively diverted investigations of his activities by the Front Anarcho-Communist Zabalaza 
(ZACF, South Africa) and have lied to comrades as well as the Anarkismo network. ; it is 
also a website ( www.anarkismo.net ) where the expression of the network, member 
organizations and individual contributors and contributors is relayed.

This case had a relatively important echo in the anarchist Anglo-Saxon environment. Since 
Michael Schmidt published articles on the Anarkismo website, the network broke the links 
with him. Similarly, in 2017, following his letter of partial confession, the Institute of 
Anarchist Theory and History, of which he was a member, decided to exclude him. 
Previously, Anarkismo wanted to set up an ethics commission open to other organizations of 
the anarchist movement, in order to judge it.

A case that cost time and energy

This commission was drafted for a few years, but finally no structure outside the network 
responded to the call to participate. At the time of writing these lines, Anarkismo gave 
up setting up an internal commission and stuck to the consensual decision to ban Michael 
Schmidt from the movement. To the latest news, this one must not continue the series of 
works entitled Counter-Power, inaugurated with the book Black Flame: the revolutionary 
class politics of anarchism and syndicalism.

This case cost energy to the comrades who invested time to treat it ; nevertheless, 
lessons can be learned to manage similar cases. The assessment that can be drawn from this 
case has lasted for several years has highlighted limitations of the operation of 
Anarkismo, in terms of responsiveness for example. Beyond this problem in particular, 
Alternative Libertaire should invest more than it has done in the network, which is being 
done gradually.

Quentin (AL Rennes)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Afrique-du-Sud-Pourquoi-Michael-Schmidt-a-ete-banni

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Message: 3





The subject is immense, labyrinthine issues, events alternately grandiose and desolate. A 
selection of books to learn. ---- Orlando Figes, The Russian Revolution (1996). This epic 
fresco, beginning with the catastrophic famine of 1891 and ending with the death of Lenin 
in 1924, sweeps the political, military, economic and cultural aspects of the revolution. 
The author interweaves his narrative with eloquent points of view, such as those of the 
socialist intellectual Gorky, the Bolshevik worker Kanachikov or the progressive peasant 
Semenov. Despite a sarcastic and sometimes unpleasant tone, this historian who seems to 
have sympathy for Lev Kamenev's moderate Bolshevism paints a vivid picture of what was 
then Russian society, so difficult to imagine a century later.

2 volumes, 1600 pages, Gallimard, 2009.

Marc Ferro, The Revolution of 1917 (1975). The French historiography on the Russian 
Revolution is far below its Anglo-Saxon counterpart, but Marc Ferro has raised the level 
considerably with this study unequaled for more than forty years. Less good storyteller, 
but better analyst than Figs, Ferro enriches his book of thematic studies on the democracy 
of the soviets, workers' control and self-management, bureaucratisation, the role of women 
and national minorities. His small collection of commented texts, From soviets to 
bureaucratic communism (Gallimard, 1980), is less successful.

1,102 pages, Albin Michel, 1997.

Alexander Rabinovich, Prelude to Revolution (1968). Never translated into French, this 
founding study, focused on the July Days, broke the myth of a monolithic and disciplined 
Bolshevik Party in 1917. It shows the divergences and hesitations - logical in a context 
of revolution - but also the porosity to external influences - especially that of 
anarchists on its working base. Despite this, his effort to maintain organizational 
cohesion will have made the difference with his competitors. Rabinovich extended his study 
to October in The Bolsheviks take power (La Fabrique, 2016), where we take the measure of 
the role played by Lenin. There is little case in history where the will of a man will 
have weighed so much on the course of events.

304 pages, First Midland Book Edition, 1991.

Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists (1967). In a rather scholastic style, it is in spite 
of everything the most complete book on the subject, centered on the two phases of the 
libertarian activity in Russia: 1905-1908, then 1917-1921. Avrich details the singularity 
of Russian anarchism in its first wave, fascinated by bezmotiv violence ("  without motive 
  ") - for no other purpose than to kill rich to awaken the people. In parallel was 
invented in Ukraine "  anarcho-syndicalism  " twenty-five or thirty years before the 
formula is formalized in Spain and France. The study of the second wave is more 
disappointing. The debates and action of anarchists at the key moments of 1917-1918 are 
only flown over; the characters barely sketched. The book by Alexander Skirda, The Russian 
Anarchists, the Soviets and the 1917 Revolution (Editions de Paris, 2000) takes up more or 
less the same information as Avrich, adding testimonies and documents in the appendix.

400 pages, Nada, 2017.

Voline, The Unknown Revolution (1947). This is the reference libertarian testimony, 
bringing a lot of information first hand. Nevertheless, he remains very evasive about 
anarchist organizations, their debates, their differences and their actors, as if Voline 
had not wanted to get angry with anyone. Even the splitting of his own newspaper, Golos 
Truda, in 1918, is modestly ignored. On the other hand, the Memoirs and writings of Makhno 
(Ivrea, 2010) tell the revolutionary action of the years 1906-1918 - before the 
Makhnovshchina, therefore - with a luxury of details, but remain confined to Ukraine. We 
will complete with the excellent biography Nestor Makhno, the libertarian Cossack, by 
Alexandre Skirda (Editions de Paris, 2005).

720 pages, Worldworld, 2010.

Stephen A. Smith, Red Petrograd. The revolution in factories (1983). With its strong 
sociological component, it holds a leading book to understand the working class in the 
capital of the tsars. The typical proletarian was young, concentrated in a giant 
metallurgical factory, single without children, relatively educated and hungry: in short, 
dynamite. Smith explores the labor institutions spontaneously created in 1917 - popular 
militia, Red Guard, factory committees - and discusses their role ... before the working 
class evaporates in 1918-1919. The collapse of the industry will then force her to return 
to the fields or enlist in the Red Army ... except for the fraction that will, in the 
meantime, become an official in the soviets.

450 pages, The Red Nights, 2017.

Leonard Schapiro, The Bolsheviks and the Opposition (1955). A precise and richly 
documented book that illuminates the trajectory of the "  losers  " of the revolution: 
Mensheviks and socialist-revolutionaries mainly - the anarchists are only flown over, the 
Bund is ignored. Hence it appears that several key moments - the II th Congress of 
Soviets, the negotiations for a pluralist socialist government, the dissolution of the 
Constituent Assembly, the beginnings of the civil war ... - these parties have squandered 
their chance to weigh on the course of events.

560 pages, The Red Nights, 2007.

Oskar Anweiler, The Soviets in Russia (1972). The soviets were above all organs of 
administration, but also - palliating the absence of unions - workers' representation and 
coordination of struggles. And, potentially only, of popular power. The author details the 
architecture they adopted to structure themselves at the national level, and depicts their 
existence and their faults in a more concrete way than most of the history books of the 
Russian Revolution.

384 pages, Gallimard, 1972.

Jacques Baynac, The Social Revolutionaries (1979). This was the main socialist current in 
Russia from 1880 to 1917, before being locked in the caricature of Soviet historians, and 
erased memories. Baynac brought down many prejudices on this heterodox Marxist party, a 
member of the II th International, well established in the working class, without serious 
competitor within the peasant left rather unparliamentary and leading the armed struggle 
against tsarism. Only Volume 1, devoted to the pre-1917, has been published.

394 pages, Robert Laffont, 1979.

Ren� Berthier, October 1917: the Thermidor of the Russian Revolution (1999). Besides the 
action of the anarchists, Ren� Berthier gives a lengthy examination of the 
responsibilities of Bolshevism in the bureaucratisation of the revolution, establishing 
comparisons with Spanish anarcho-syndicalism in 1936. The many edifying quotations of 
Lenin and Trotsky ( fascinated by Taylorism, resolved to use terror against the workers to 
straighten out production) form an implacable plea against any dictatorship, whether " 
enlightened  " or "  revolutionary  ".

288 pages, CNT-RP Publishing, 2003.
On the side of testimonials

We will read the Memoirs of a Revolutionary Victor (Lux, 2010), whose humanistic breath 
compensates for the shadows; The Bolshevik myth of Alexander Berkman, and his relevant 
observations on the degeneration of the revolution in 1920-1921 (Klincksieck, 2017); the 
memoirs of a Jewish anarchist Samuel Schwartzbard (Syllepse, 2010), which gets tangled a 
bit in the timeline, but the memories of resistance to pogroms in Ukraine, about the 
trials of the first Red Guards or the profiteers disorder will usefully reflect the adepts 
of spontaneity and non-organization.

William Davranche (AL Montreuil)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Bibliographie-Pour-decouvrir-la-Revolution-russe

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Message: 4





Organise! magazine issue 89 Winter 2017 "WE WANT A REVOLUTION ... NOW!" was out in print 
at the London Anarchist Bookfair in October. ---- The theme of this month's issue is on 
revolutions, examining the anarchist communist approach to achieving one, the role of 
anarchists in historical revolutions that are having their anniversaries this year 
(Russian 1917, Spanish May Days and the Friends of Durruti 1937), and contemporary 
activities of anarchists that prefigures a post-revolutionary society. Later articles 
discuss aspects of modern society under capitalism that we would wish to improve 
drastically with a revolution (mental illness and loneliness) and examine the dire results 
of Chavismo in Venezuela whilst presenting positive reports  of organising by anarchists 
in the Americas. As usual we provide book reviews of some essential new editions. 
Organise! will soon be available from AK Press and Active Distribution but if you cannot 
wait, visit your local radical bookstore or get in touch!  Check out the Organise! page on 
this site for all back issues free to download e.g. print copies of the last issue #88 
from Active Distribution or AK Press.

Contents

Editorial (read this below, soon): We want a revolution ... Now!
Talking about a revolution
Anarchism and History
The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the role of the anarchists
The May Days in Spain and the Friends of Durruti
Free Women against Libertarian Machismo
The working class response to catastophes: Mutual aid, self-organisation and solidarity
Radical Housing Network: Putting the housing crisis on the public agenda
Psychiatry and social class
Loneliness: Much more than a drag
Venezuela: Know you enemies
Extract from: Anarchists of the Caribbean and Central America
International Anarchist Meeting in Brazil 2017
Book reviews: Rebellion in Patagonia by Osvaldo Bayer (AK Press); The Dossier of Subject 
1218: a Bulgarian anarchist's story by Alexander Nakov (Black Cat Press)

https://afed.org.uk/organise-magazine-issue-89-winter-2017/

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Message: 5





TO REMOVE THE WATER OF CAPITALISM ---- In the times of the destitution of the working 
class and the state of exclusion of the unemployed, the law that provided for the 
operation of the shops for 7 Sundays a year, supplemented by the new government, came with 
the previous memorandum , increasing on Sundays that stores will be open to 32. "We are 
defending the Sunday holiday! We do not shop we do not work "was the main slogan of SYRIZA 
until and before the elections. Nevertheless, the stores will remain open for another 
Sunday, May 8th. As with a number of issues that would change radically with the left-wing 
government, so is it on the ice. We had no doubt about this development before the 
elections, let alone now. ---- Where does the Sunday holiday abolish? ---- The abolition 
of the Sunday holiday and the full elasticities of the hours are a very important part of 
the capitalist restructuring that was intensified by the crisis.

At the core of this restructuring is labor relations as the factor that relies on 
exploitation of workers, the production of surplus value and ultimately the profits of 
capitalists. It is a measure that will directly benefit the big businessmen and the big 
shopping malls, which will favor the further accumulation of capital. But it is yet 
another attack on work achievements that paves the way for further intensification and 
autocralization of already precarious labor relations in line with the dominant spirit of 
full commercialization of our lives. In order to survive capitalism in crisis, it must be 
aggressively expanding on more and more points where it has not been sufficiently 
exploited to date. The goal is to turn workers into working machines with few rights that 
when they are not working they will be compassionate consumers. That is to say, the total 
transformation of life into a cycle of production of surplus value, consumption of goods 
and accumulation of capital. This is the notorious capitalist development. Anyone who 
thinks that this attack on workers' free time will stop trading is very much a shame. That 
is to say, the total transformation of life into a cycle of production of surplus value, 
consumption of goods and accumulation of capital. This is the notorious capitalist 
development. Anyone who thinks that this attack on workers' free time will stop trading is 
very much a shame. That is, the total transformation of life into a cycle of production of 
surplus value, commodity consumption and capital accumulation. This is the notorious 
capitalist development. Anyone who thinks that this attack on workers' free time will stop 
trading is very much a shame.

The sacred alliance of commercializing our lives

This effort brings together an expanded front of forces that each contributes to the 
common goal. Driving force is, of course, the capitalists and the main lever is the 
government that, using the state mechanism, acts as the agent of capital. This, of course, 
is one of the basic functions of the state in modern totalitarianism. The role of the 
judiciary is also clear and distinct, and a brief look at the role it has played in the 
labor rights laborer in recent years has not left the fact that the CoE's provisional 
decision has blurred the waters. Statutory SMEs have assumed the role of ideological 
vanguard in trying to present Sunday's operation as a solution to their crisis and to 
advertise it as much as possible, at the same time they show any reaction as antisocial 
and detrimental to workers. Particular reference should be made to the free-press 
libraries that, with their supposedly de-ideologized and aesthetized view, crystallize the 
content of socialism as aggressive neo-liberalism. Commercial associations mostly helped 
them in their own way. Initially with his "7 Sundays and not 52" where they showed that 
they did not understand that the hegemony was now owned by the big ones rather than the 
ones themselves, and any change in the Sunday holiday would not stay there, but would 
spare everything. Then with the introduction of institutions that contribute to the 
elastification of hours such as "white nights" where workers are forced to work until 
midnight to increase turnover. The "white nights" contributed to a number of 
municipalities that supported many such efforts, including mayors on the left, 
demonstrating its role as a left of capital and a potential management power of the system 
rather than a power of overthrow. Last but not least, disturbing consumers who are willing 
to pretend their breasts to shop on Sunday play the role of useful idiots who do not 
realize that the complete abolition of labor rights will also affect them.

The importance of the fight against the abolition of Sunday's holiday

We must not forget the immediate impact of the intensification of work on the lives of 
workers. At the same time that official unemployment is at 26%, employees' free time is 
clipped. The concept of leisure time narrows to accommodate only the consumption and the 
absolutely necessary rest. The labor movement must understand the issue of free time as 
being of equal importance to salary, as aspects of the same thing. He has to reorganize 
the concept of leisure time out and against capitalism as a time that workers use to 
organize their resistance to capitalist barbarism, to create their own culture, to live 
out of the sovereignty of commodity.

What to do

The abolition of the Sunday holiday is not only about businessmen but all workers. Strikes 
of industry unions on Sundays that are open to shops are essential and must be supported 
but not enough. Horizontal co-ordination of wider parts of our class, grassroots clubs, 
labor struggles, and societies is necessary to make these strikes generalized. In this 
effort, institutional unionism and its defeated rationale and practices are weightless, 
not ally. To win this battle, the road is one: we must destroy the functioning of the 
market on Sundays. With massive paths, dynamic interventions and blockades, sabotage, road 
closures to create a multi-faceted movement until they make a decision that our Sundays 
are not going to give them to the world of commodity. On our Sundays we will use them to 
celebrate and discuss, to fall in love and organize the social revolution that will sweep 
the world of the state and capital and build freedom.

We support the concentration called for by the Action Coordinator against the abolition of 
Sunday's holiday and "liberated" hours:

SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER

10.00 CHRISTMAS WITH ARISTOTELS

Eleftherial Initiative of Thessaloniki  lib_thess@hotmail.com 
http://www.libertasalonica.wordpress.com

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Message: 6





The sixht episode of �Trouble' is about counter-insurgency, a method to counter uprisings 
and social unrest with diverse means. From brute military force, divide-and-conquer 
tacticts, pacifying militant resistance, to isolating radical people within movements. 
Counter-insurgency has originally been developed by western powers, to be able to counter 
movements for independence in colonies. Today, it is in full use against striking workers, 
student uprisings and migrant communities rising up against their social position. ---- In 
the documentary a number of writers are featured whose books we have in our library. After 
the screening we will use these books to gain a deeper understanding of the issue. A 
comrade has prepared a 20 minute presentation, after which there is room for discussion 
and sharing personal experiences.

�Trouble' has been made to get discussions going in groups. If you want to organize your 
own screening, or want to watch at home, this episode (and all others) are of course 
freely available at 
https://sub.media/video/trouble-6-adapt-and-destroy-counterinsurgency-and-social-war/.
Space open: 19:30
Starting time �Counterinsurgency and Social War': 20:00 sharp
The documentary is in english.
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Makers summary:
ADAPT AND DESTROY: Counterinsurgency and Social War
Despite the unimaginable capacity for violence and coercion that they wield, states are 
far more vulnerable than they let on. This is not only true of the so-called "failed 
states" currently plagued by civil war and internal strife, but also the imperialist 
centers of global capitalism themselves. Their fatal weakness is built into their design; 
modern states are incredibly complicated and dynamic political constructions, yet at their 
core they remain what they have always been - vehicles of social organization aimed at 
facilitating the exploitation of the many, for the enrichment of the few. Without the 
active or passive consent of the many, the few are in serious trouble.
In order to seek out and manage threats to their legitimacy and authority, states invest a 
considerable amount of time, energy and resources towards the science of social control. 
This science, known as COIN or Counterinsurgency doctrine, is nothing less than a 
perpetual war, waged by states against their domestic populations. Their tactical 
repertoire spans the gamut from violence and covert assassination, to elections, community 
police liaisons, and the funding of pacifist non-profit groups. In addition to this, they 
pursue divide-and-rule strategies, relying on structural institutions such as nationalism, 
white supremacy, and hetero-patriarchy to fan the flames of reaction and keep us fighting 
amongst ourselves.
If revolutionaries hope to be successful in our efforts, it's vitally important to 
understand the way our enemies view us, and the tactics and strategies that they will 
deploy against us. In this month's episode of Trouble, anarchist media collective 
sub.Media interviews a number of individuals as they explain some of the main principles 
of counterinsurgency, and identify historical and contemporary examples of how they are 
put into practice.
Anarchisme, Bollox, Counterinsurgency, submedia

https://www.vrijebond.org/docu-counterinsurgency-and-social-war/

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