Today's Topics:
1. [India] "Anarchist thinking has begun to resurface in the
minds of young Indian activists" By ANA (pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Keep the general strike! In the union struggle for the base!
- Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB) (ca, pt, fr, it)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Poland, Blockade of access road to the mine and power plant
in Belchatów (8/12/2017)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Coordination des Groupes Anarchistes - Cga-Lyon communiqué:
On Saturday, 2 December, a demonstration in solidarity with all
and all migrant-E-s gathered around 800 people. (fr) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. [Spain] Catalunya after the storm By ANA (ca, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Greece, Anarchist Federation: For the Turkish hunger
strikers and the capture 9 Turkish activists during the visit of
Erdogan (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
" What is common to all anarchists is the desire to liberate society from all coercive
political and social institutions that hinder the development of a free humanity ."[Rudolf
Rocker - Anarcho-Syndicalism, p. 9] ---- Anarchism is a political theory that seeks to
constitute Anarchy, " the absence of masters, of imposed sovereignty ."[PJ Proudhon - What
is Property, p. 264]. In other words, anarchism is a political theory that aims to create
a society within which individuals freely cooperate together as equals. As such, anarchism
opposes all modes of hierarchical control, be it state control or private capitalism, as
harmful to people and their individuality, as well as unnecessary.[An Anarchist FAQ] ----
Anarchism in India first appeared in the years 1910-1920, when the Indian revolutionaries
organized themselves in Europe, especially in Paris, France (among other places) and had
contact with socialists of different tones. It is known that only a handful turned to what
could be described as revolutionary anarchism. MPT Acharya and Har Dayal were the first to
adopt anarcho-syndicalism as their political ideology.
But then, with the formation of communist parties in the early 1920s, more or less, the
whole socialist movement was absorbed on Leninist lines and anarchism in India disappeared
without leaving a significant mark.
After the emergence of the neoliberalism virus in India in the 1990s, and through the
Internet, anarchist thinking began to reemerge in the minds of young Indian activists.
Still disorganized, the anarchists in India are not at present a substantial force in
social movements. To change this, we ask the anarchists of all shadows (except the
"reformist" yellow) in India to join in and start organizing themselves through personal
and online contact.
The Indiana Anarchist Federation is waiting for you!
For more information on the Indiana Anarchist Federation:
thecominganarchy.wordpress.com
facebook.com/indiananarchists
Translation> Liberto
------------------------------
Message: 2
The Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB) announces its position on the cancellation of
the General Strike, convened for December 5, by CUT, Força Sindical, UGT, NCST and CSB.
Amid a government with only 5% approval, which drastically deepens the attacks on social
rights, the white-union and corporatist syndicalism of these centrals once again shows its
capacity to demobilize the working class. With the Temer government's imminent attack on
the right to retire, these centers play a depressing role and reproduce the worst of
dirigism and unionism, when deciding to cancel the act of 05/12. We will not retreat. The
problem of adjustments and cuts in rights will not be resolved by the polls in 2018, but
with demonstrations and confrontation against bosses and politicians in the streets, at
workplaces,
The conjuncture requires an effort by trade union militancy, student and popular movements
of the countryside and the city to build a political practice where the bases have the
power of decision, making unfeasible the betrayals that central trade union imposes on us
periodically, thus pointing out a way that builds the Popular Power. We understand that
the General Strike must be built with broad participation and grassroots mobilization and
we put ourselves in the task of stirring up such action tools in our local action. It is
necessary to build a practice of trade union and popular struggle that does not
subordinate direct action and popular organization to electoral agendas.
The CAB claims the tradition of revolutionary syndicalism and is committed to the
strengthening of resistance syndicalism and a union as a tool in the service of social
change and the construction of Popular Power. To fight against the apathy stimulated by
bureaucracies and to strengthen the solidarity between the categories, as well as to
approach the unions of other social movements, are ways to advance in the fight against
the cuts of rights! We are betting on the mobilization by place of work, housing and study
to build a real confrontation against the bosses and the government. Following in the
fight in the streets and in the field, aiming to defeat social attacks through direct
action and protagonism of the people. The moment is to ignite the flame of rebellion and
fight against the attack of the bosses and politicians!
Fight, create, popular power!
------------------------------
Message: 3
On Friday, December 8, a three-day campaign to block access roads to the mine and the
power plant in Belchatów, organized by the Trade Union "Unitedeni", ended. The Employee
Initiative supported the blockade - representatives of IP committees from Poznan and
Warsaw appeared on the actions on Wednesday and Friday. ZZ "Zjednoczeni" announces the
continuation of protests. ---- "Do not tighten your belt, clench your fist", "Management
to work for one thousand five hundred zlotys" - these are just some of the slogans chanted
by Elbest employees and employees during the campaign. ---- Wages in the companies of the
Elbest group amount to slightly more than one thousand zlotys. Hunger rates are given to
both people employed in the segment offering hotel services as well as security personnel
from Elbest Security. Both companies are part of Polska Grupa Energetyczna - a state giant
whose net profit in the first quarter of 2017 amounted to PLN 1.47 billion. Despite the
excellent balance sheet, the company's management has no intention of sharing the
developed value with lower-level employees.
Employees, however, do not intend to submit weapons. For several months, the union,
representing their trade union, has been conducting a collective dispute. The conflict
gradually escalates. When the PGE management refused to participate in the negotiations,
the employees reacted with the organization of street protest. From Wednesday to Friday,
access roads to key workplaces included in the group were blocked.
On Friday morning, similarly on the two previous days, a delegation of the Warsaw
Environmental Commission of the OZZ IP came to the place of the blockade. Together, we
were shouting "Presidents, bourgeois, your end is getting ready", "Enough exploitation,
fairly discri
http://ozzip.pl/teksty/informacje/lodzkie/item/2327-blokada-eletrowni-i-kopalni-w-belchatowie
------------------------------
Message: 4
This mobilisation in the month of December has been a success and has helped to bring
together many of the groups and associations in the struggle against Lyon. ---- At the end
of the mobilization, a group of fascists attacked rue Saint-Polycarpe a group of
militant-E-s from the black pen. ---- Shortly thereafter, they were other members of the
social bastion group (formerly gud) who had been placed on the ground and provoked at the
end of the rally. ---- This new name of the gud (Social Bastion) under the guise of
pseudo-Social-National actions must not mask the basis of their activism focused on racist
hatred and fascist violence. ---- Cga Lyon reaffirms that it will not retreat from such
actions by fascist groups. ---- Cga Lyon will continue its commitment to the struggles in
which it has been involved for many years (Anti-FASCIST STRUGGLE).
Cga Lyon will not give up an inch of land to the fascists and is aware of the ease with
which these groups sail on Lyon without ever being disturbed by public authorities.
Therefore, we must organize our self-Defence, in our neighbourhoods and in our demonstrations.
Don't move!
------------------------------
Message: 5
Everything built from below is good ... unless you stand on some pedestals prepared from
above ... ---- When the election campaign is about to begin, and once again we contemplate
the intolerable spectacle of competition among the parties to collect the maximum number
of votes, it may be a good moment to take stock of the intense period of confrontation
between the Government and the Spanish State, on the one hand, and the candidate to be a
Catalan State, on the other. A confrontation in which revolutionary sectors, as well as
enough anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists got involved because they considered that it
was necessary to take sides , that it was necessary to be there where the people were,
and that it was necessary to choose for fighting .
Today, the question is no longer whether it makes sense to collaborate, from libertarian
positions, with a project whose ultimate goal was the creation of a state, or whether it
would be coherent to enter into the strife led by Catalan nationalism. Now, it is more
about whether the part of the anarchist movement that was involved in that battle will
value the pros and cons of their journey, or, on the contrary, will elaborate a history
that justifies their participation in the fight, seeking confirmation of which finally
made the most appropriate in a certainly complex situation.
The truth is that the main arguments of this story are already emerging and point to a
mythification of certain events, raising them to the highest degree. If it were a simple
disparity in the subjective appreciation of these events, the question would not be
troubling, its relevance lies in the fact that when we deceive ourselves on the path we
travel, we generate a series of blind spots that cloud our perception of how, and by
where, to continue advancing.
This report reflects the fact that the Catalan challenge presented certain facets capable
of motivating the participation of people dissatisfied with the existing status quo. The
conflict in Catalonia mobilized those who wished to advance to a fairer and freer society,
with knowledge of participatory democracy, accompanied by some anticapitalist
brushstrokes, and opposed, to mention only a few problems:
- to the regime of 78, the shameful pacts of the transition, the monarchy, the bipartisan
monopolization of political power and the sacralization of the Constitution.
- to the right-wing and authoritarian government of a corrupt People's Party and striving
to reduce social rights and freedoms.
- police repression and the violence of their interventions.
- obstacles to the free self-determination of peoples.
Those who were involved in the struggle are right to point out the plurality of aspects
that justified their participation; however, they would be mistaken if they did not
recognize at the same time that the reins of the battle against the Spanish State were
totally in the hands of the Government and of its nationalist associates (ANC and Omnium
Cultural), with the sole purpose of forcing the negotiation of a new distribution of
Power and obtaining, in the long term, the recognition of the Catalan State.
They would also be self-deceived if they did not realize that the political and not only
the social and transverse nature of the Catalan conflict responded in large measure to the
absolutely imperative need for the architects and leaders of the attack against the
Spanish State to build the only weapon capable of give them some resilience against their
powerful adversary, namely: the magnitude of popular support on the street , where it was
vital to gather as many sectors as possible and therefore many different sensibilities.
The justification report that is appearing depends heavily on the mythology of the days
of October 1 and 3 , and it goes by the overvaluation of the capacity for popular
self-organization that has manifested itself around the defense of the polls.
There is no doubt that October 1 was a considerable success, not only because of the
huge influx of voters, in an amount impossible to verify, but because they scoffed at all
the obstacles raised by the Government. However, we were wrong when we neglected that, if
so many people went to the polls, it was also because the highest political authorities
in the country asked for it from the Catalan Government to the mayor of Barcelona, passing
through more than 80% of the mayors of Catalonia.
It is quite true that the prohibitions of the Spanish Government were disobeyed , but it
should not be ignored that the slogans of another Government and many institutional
positions were obeyed.
The October 1 mythification is also based on increasing the self-organization of people
in defense of the ballot box , forgetting that, in parallel with the praiseworthy signs of
self-organization, the Catalan territory was also counted on the disciplined intervention
of thousands of militants from parties and organizations committed to independence (from
the ERC to the CUP, and from the ANC to the Omnium Cultural). Placing an accent on the
unquestionable examples of self-organization should not completely obscure the
verticality of an organization that has trained people for years to scrupulously and
disciplinarily follow the instructions of the governing bodies of the independence
organizations in the September 11 rallies.
We already know, even if only from our own experience, that disobedience to authority,
confrontation with the police and the collective struggle against repression, offer
intense and indelible sensations that weave strong solidarity and affective ties between
strangers who merge suddenly into a "we" charged with political significance and
combative energy. This is part of the most precious legacy of the struggles, and largely
justifies that we value them with enthusiasm, however, should not serve as an excuse to
deceive ourselves. Although it was a resounding failure for the Spanish state, October 1
does not mark one before and after, and does not find the conditions to go down in history
as one of the most emblematic acts of spontaneous popular resistance, and we self-deceive
if we so believe.
The October 3rd was also a memorable day the country was paralyzed and full of hundreds
of thousands of protesters. However, if we do not want to deceive ourselves and
mythologize this event, we must admit that the general strike, however much the
alternative unions have promoted it effectively and enthusiastically, would never have
achieved such success had it not been for the " (consisting of major unions, employers
and large independence organizations) called for what was called a "strike in the
country" and because the government supported the country's closure by closing its
premises and ensuring that it would not apply wage retention to strikers
The constant and multitudinous capacity for mobilization demonstrated by large sectors of
the Catalan population in the months of September and October brought the thesis that the
government feared losing control of the situation . It is true that fear played an
important part in the erratic performance of the Government during these months, but it
was not the fear of an eventual overflow promoted by the more radical sectors of the
mobilizations that explains the multiple resignations of the Catalan authorities, but the
progressive realization that they would not be able to finally beat their opponent and
that he had enough resources to penalize them severely.
A third element that some libertarian sectors, some of them involved in the Defense
Committees of the Republic, are mythifying has to do with the prospect of building a
Republic from below .
Perhaps because I lived for decades in a (French) Republic, perhaps because my parents
never fought for a republic, but to build libertarian communism, and have to face
republican institutions, I do not see the need to be under the republican umbrella the
effort to build a society that tends to fight for domination, oppression and exploitation
to disappear.
I can not understand why we should go to conventional schemes, which only seem to
distinguish between the Monarchy on the one hand and the Republic on the other. It is
worth reiterating that the struggle against the Monarchy does not have to involve the
struggle for the Republic and that we should not refer to our struggle in the
juridical-political form of the society we want to build, but in the social model we
defend (anticapitalist and belligerent against any form of domination). The goal should
not be expressed in terms of "building a low republic," but in terms of "building a
radically free and autonomous society . "
For this reason, I think it is interesting to return to the expression used by Santiago
López Petit in a recent text: (
elcritic.cat/blogs/sentitcritic/2017/11/27/catalunya-com-a-aboratori-politic/ ) when he
says: "From a logic of state (and a desire for state) society can never be changed," but
insisting for myself that society will not change from any "desire of the Republic . "
Of course, after the storm that rocked Catalonia in recent months, we should not let it
happen to you. It is necessary to work so that accumulated energies are not wasted, so
that established complicities are not lost, and shared illusions do not evaporate. It is a
matter of not starting from scratch again, but of using the done to continue in another
"doing" that avoids the militant diaspora. The recovery of force is not an easy task, but
to achieve this, it is essential to reconsider the mistakes and, above all, do not
cheat by broadening the most spectacular moments of the struggles and overestimate some
of its positive aspects.
Of course, be it an anarchist or not, each person is free to enter a role in an urn if he
so desires, but the last thing we would lack at this moment would be for the anarchists
to get involved, even indirectly in the current Catalan electoral struggle thinking that
this is the way to keep alive the hope of a revolutionary change or, more prosaically,
considering that this is the way to the end of the regime of 78. López Petit laments in
his text, quoted above, that instead of agreeing to participate of an imposed election,
the political parties did not choose to "sabotage them by means of a massive and
organized abstention" . This is, in my opinion, the option that the libertarian sectors
should adopt and put into practice on December 21.
Tomás Ibáñez
Barcelona, Friday, December 1, 2017
Translation> Liberto
------------------------------
Message: 6
Nine Turkish activists were arrested after a spectacular police operation in Athens. In a
completely foreseeable way, the well-known Orlerian Orchestra, which is always set up
after the capture of any fighter, regardless of whether it is native or not, broke out in
the media. The narrative contained a supposed "hitting" during Erdogan's visit, "foreign
terrorists thrashing down", national dangers, generalized lawlessness ... ---- At a time
when Greece is involved in war zones in the eastern Mediterranean region, the US-Russia
imperialist competition and regional forces (Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) form
camps in the face of geopolitical rearrangements already counting hundreds of thousands
millions of refugees, incalculable disasters in our neighborhood, social vigilance and
international solidarity are the only answer.
The same people, the same mechanisms that, until yesterday, spoke against the Fascist
regime Erdogan, those who "gave it all" to protect the Turkish officers who fled to Greece
after the failed coup in Turkey now scream against activists every day they fight against
this regime.
It's not weird. Behind the national crowns, far more behind the crowns for democracies and
rights is the class and social position that determines who they are enemies and what
friends. A coup is an acceptable way of resisting a dictator, the mass struggle from the
base is not. We received the message ...
A few days before Erdogan's visit, the Greek government chose to make a gift to the
Turkish state, continuing the policy of the previous government when activists were banned
from the middle of the road and sent a package to Turkey and thus to death. And that was
expected. The continuity of the state is given.
For our part, we stand solidarity with the arrested. We stand in solidarity with every
struggling, internationalist force, above all in our geopolitical corner of the world.
From DHKP-C to the PKK and the Turkish and Kurdish anarchists and other activists. The
ideological and political differences, in the current circumstances and with the present
dangers that reach up to the war, are insignificant and luxurious. A net of solidarity
must be set between the competitors. A net that is the only rival awe to the enemy. To the
enemy in state elites, capitalists and power mechanisms, both in Greece and Turkey and
everywhere.
So we stand on the side of the arrested. And because this story has just begun one thing
we have to say to the Greek state and Syriza: Do not dare to issue them to Turkey, do not
dare to send them to torture and death.
We will be back.
ANARHIC FEDERATION
anarchist-federation.gr[
info@anarchist-federation.gr
twitter: witter.com/anarchistfedGr
fb: facebook.com/anarxikiomospondia2015/
Intervention of Solidarity with the Turks Hunger Strike and the 9 arrested on 28/11 at the
Commercial Department of the Turkish Consulate
SOLIDARITY
Academician Nuriye Gülmen and teacher Semih Özakça have been on a hunger strike since 9
March 2017. As early as 9 and 23 November 2016 respectively, the two teachers began
sedentary protests in front of the Human Rights Monument on Ankara's Yüksel Avenue. Their
purpose is to rescind them, to remove acts of a legislative nature which provide for the
dismissal of civil servants who are not in the Erdogan regime or are suspected of it, and
the cessation of the general emergency imposed on Turkey after the failed coup attempt in
July 2016. But in this fight they are not alone. From the very first moment and much more
after the start of the hunger strike on their part, solidarity rushed to support them and
flank their struggle through protests, gatherings, marches, signatures, concerts, and
symbolic hunger strikes. Their fair struggle gained international dimensions and,
accordingly, solidarity movements took place outside of Turkey.
The Turkish regime, on the other hand, continued its repressive work with a daily barrage
of adherents and dissolution of protests, seeking to sow a climate of intimidation. On May
21, the 76th day of the hunger strike, the anti-terrorist invaded the houses of the two
strikers, having their arrest warrant. The prosecutor's warrant stated that the resistance
of the two strikers, through the hunger strike, may lead to their own death or a rebellion
such as that of Geki Square and TEKEL's smokers in 2010, encouraging others to participate
in a terrorist organization, and in promoting propaganda for her. The two educators
continued the hunger strike through prison, prisoners under wretched and unhealthy
isolation conditions, their health being at a critical stage, facing their own motor
problems due to the exhaustion of their body. Today both fighters have been released and
continue the hunger strike, with their lives now in immediate danger.
On September 13, 24 hours before the start of the two hunger strikes, the Erdogan regime
arrested 63 lawyers defending the two teachers who are members of the People's Rights
Bureau (HBB). At the same time, 56 defendants were arrested outside the court. It is worth
mentioning that 1300 lawyers have declared available to be the advocates of the two
defendants. On September 25, Nuriye, with her consciousness, was violently transferred to
the extraordinary incidents of another hospital, away from the other hunger striker, in
order to put an end to the hunger strike that has been taking place for months and its
undermining her struggle.
The autocracy of the Turkish state did not allow Nuriye to be represented in the
courtroom, which illustrates how well this trial is proceeding. There are no pretensions.
The Erdogan regime's wrath and the arbitrariness of the judicial mechanisms against the
two hunger strikers, and especially Nuriye, which resisted first of all in the despotic
state of emergency, are quite obvious. Semih was finally released in restrictive terms.
Nuriye, although convicted, was released after the court on December 1 due to impoverished
health, meaning she would be reinstated once her health stabilized. Nuriye was sentenced
to six years and three months in jail for involvement in a terrorist organization,
Following the failed coup attempt in July 2016, Turkey's emergency measures have
intensified further, while Erdogan, following the adulterated referendum in April, has
gathered - and now - all the powers in his hands. Since July 2016, more than 500,000
people have been arrested and more than 140,000 civil servants have been dismissed or made
available through legislative acts because they are accused of being goulenians or
dissidents in general. At the same time, Communists and anarchist militants, members and
MPs of the pro-Kurdish Social Democratic Party, HDP, journalists, academics, and people in
general, who reside in what we could schematically designate as "progressive space," are
confronted with repression,
Totalitarian control and domineering internal governance are accompanied by openings of
the Turkish state, for the benefit of the corresponding bourgeoisie, abroad. Turkey is
trying to redefine its position on the world stage by stepping through its imperialist
plans. It seeks to become a self-sufficient, powerful and competitive pole that will be
able to look into the eyes of big players. This design is passed through parallel
contradictory alliances, temporary coincidences and adventures. That is why she is
reciprocating between the Euro-Atlantic bloc and the states of the Persian Gulf, trying to
rise as an autonomous imperialist force, while also having a security for its possible
accession to the EU. and its attachment to the Euro-Atlantic cluster.
At the same time, in Greece, the SYRIZA-ANEL government gives assurances to the
totalitarian government of the neighboring country, arresting nine people as suspected of
participating in the "terrorist" DHKP-C organization on 28/11, giving once again the
guarantees that the state has continued. The suspects are arrested in three districts in
New Cosmos and Kallithea, they are brutally abused, and the signs of torture are visible
on them, dragged into the courts and then transferred to 8 different prisons without being
able to communicate with their advocates! So Erdogan can visit our country with security
and peace ... For that, he also took care of and banned the course yesterday, Thursday,
7/12, in Athens, which was visited by the Turkish president.
As part of the oppressed and the exploited, we express our full solidarity with both
Nuriye, Semih and those who struggle against the totalitarian regime of Erdogan, as well
as the 9 arrested. Creating and strengthening ties of international solidarity, combined
with simultaneous social and class organization and counter-attack from the base, are the
ones that can liberate us from the tyranny of the state and capital. The proletarians of
all countries have nothing to divide between us. We are in the same class camp, in spite
of what the bourgeois narratives tell us, who want to perpetuate political freedom and
economic exploitation from the bottom, to the benefit of sovereigns.
As a sign of solidarity with the hunger strikers, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, to the
nine arrested on November 28th and to all those fighting in Turkey and Kurdistan, we made
today, Friday 8/12, the second day of Erdogan's visit to our country, solidarity within
the Commercial Center Square (Tsimiski 43), at the Commercial Department of the Consulate
of Turkey, which is housed on the 3rd floor of the building.
TO ACCEPT THE REQUESTS OF THE 2 SLAUGHTERED PEOPLE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE 9 CONSULTANTS OF 28/11
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS OUR OWNED
Eleftherial Initiative of Thessaloniki - member of the Anarchist Federation
Solidarity with the Turkish militants
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQhdg6ycdW0&feature=youtu.be
https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2017/12/07
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