Today's Topics:
1. black rose fed: IN SOLIDARITY WITH OPERATION PUSH, FLORIDA
INCARCERATED WORKERS STRIKE By BRRN Anti-Criminalization
Committee (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Greece, "Black & Red" [APO]: Poster on the Macedonian issue
(gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Poland, rozbrat: Colleagues, friends, family ... NK -- Words
from our friend and colleague Rodrigo. When you say, you are not
alone. [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. anarkismo.net: government of Artur Mas in Catalonia" by
Mario Hernández - Rebellion (ca, it) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. anarkismo.net: On the untimely departure of our comrade and
friend Donato Romito by Anarkismo (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Britain, solfed: The Alarming Rise of Virgin Care - and
Branson's threat to the NHS (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
On January 15, 2018 prisoners across the state of Florida will refuse to work, as part of
a protest against the inhumane environmental and labor conditions in the Florida
Department of Corrections. This protest, named Operation PUSH, will take place on Martin
Luther King day. ---- On January 16, 2018, a broad coalition of community organizations,
including the Gainesville Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Campaign to
Fight Toxic Prisons, Supporting Prisoners and Real Change (SPARC), and Florida State
University's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are staging a demonstration to bring
light to the demands of operation PUSH: ---- Payment for our labor, rather than the
current slave arrangement ---- Ending outrageous canteen prices ---- Reintroducing parole
incentives to lifers and those with Buck Rogers dates In addition to the three immediate
demands of Operation PUSH, the incarated organizers want the Florida Department of
Corrections to:
Stop the overcrowding and acts of brutality committed by officers throughout FDOC which
have resulted in the highest death rates in prison history.
Expose the environmental conditions we face, including extreme temperatures, mold,
contaminated water, and being placed next to toxic sites such as landfills, military bases
and phosphate mines (including a proposed mine which would surround the Reception and
Medical Center prison in Lake Butler).
Honor the moratorium on state executions, as a court-ordered the state to do, without the
legal loophole now being used to kill prisoners on death row.
Restore voting rights as a basic human right to all, not a privilege, regardless of
criminal convictions.
Operation PUSH
According to the full text for Operation PUSH, which can be found on the website of The
Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, the price gouging at canteens and wage theft for
prisoners' labor that has largely motivated the upcoming strike have been taking a
significant toll on prisoners and their families. Prices at the canteen can cost anywhere
from 2 to 4 times the amount of the same item outside of prison and may be a worse quality
item.
Subhuman wages for incarcerated workers have been a topic of discussion in the news
recently, especially with media coverage of the women's prison laborers who were fighting
the California wildfires for only about $2 a day. The PBS article detailing this
particular case of wage theft also connected the practice of paying prisoners negligible
wages to slave labor and the history that ties prisons and the prison industrial complex
to the racist Reconstruction-era convict leasing system. With the further privatization of
prisons, the stigmatization of incarcerated people as criminals becomes all the more
profitable. Operation PUSH's authors recognize the cycle of poverty as it is connected to
criminalization and recidivism. They are laying down and refusing to work in protest of
these conditions. Operation PUSH is asking for the support of all prisoners across
Florida's DOC in this action until the governor is forced to deal with the stoppage of
work and the cost of hiring out contracted workers to maintain prison facilities. This
could cost millions of dollars each day the strike continues, which the state of Florida
relies on incarcerated workers to do for a fraction of that cost.
Reintroducing parole incentives as Operation PUSH's last demand states, is aimed at
combating the increased criminalization and state-sanctioned gatekeeping mechanisms which
disproportionately affect people and communities of color, as well as individuals without
much financial support from family.
The opportunity to build working class and incarcerated peoples' solidarity is another
strategic goal that the authors of Operation PUSH's demands clearly intend to advance at
full force. They call for unity and solidarity in the struggle for basic human rights.
Several demonstrations will be occurring throughout the state of Florida at various DOC
facilities coinciding with the strike and MLK Day.
http://blackrosefed.org/solidarity-operation-push-fl/
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Message: 2
"Bulgarians and Arvanites, Armenians and Romans, Peaceless and white, with a common
momentum. For freedom, let us sword. " (from Thourios of Riga, 1797) ---- Fascists
everywhere in the world speak the same language ---- Beyond what can be generally believed
in reality, fascists everywhere in the world speak the same language. They get along well.
The neo-Nazi Chrysayygians in Athens, the Gray Wolves in Ankara, the Skopje nationalists,
ISIS in Syria, the Charlottesville fascists, the Central Europe far-right are the pieces
of a Union that if its symbols change color based on the country, substance remains the
same. Their language speaks in the name of hate, war, oppression, and death. In all the
countries, in all the lengths and backs of the earth everywhere and always are the best
children of governments, the paratist long hand.
In Syria, ISIS with its criminal action is a marionette of international interests in the
region as a horde of turmoil and destabilization; in Turkey the Erdogan fascism controls
Turkey's state of emergency, while in Greece the fascists are always the mercenary body of
all governments when they want to disorient by talking about "national issues" or when
they want to find good-natured dirty work, system bearers and bosses who will hit workers,
a tifasistes agonists.
Nationalism is unified and indivisible everywhere. It is not an ideology, it exists in all
countries because it is indispensable for the protection of the bosses. That is why it is
being fed. The one fascist shows the other - the same - on the opposite side so that
fascism continues to slaughter the poor and the bosses continue to sleep quietly. One of
the oldest tricks of the powerful to continue: divide and reign. Create a fantastic
picture of false unity between the demons and the victims. And when the workers are left
over from the capitalist machine, because the latter is in crisis then nationalism is
being de-energized and actively activated by the state and capital: it is the time of the
war, the time when infrastructure will be destroyed and unnecessary people will be killed
to restart the powerful from the very beginning the history of exploitation of the
remaining ones. You are gentlemen, fellow citizens and fellow citizens who wish to
participate in the protest of nationalist-fascists for the name of Macedonia because you
will really "fight". For war, poverty, misery, and death. Why this means nationalism. That
always meant.
A little geopolitical stirring
However, it is worthwhile observing that 25 years of deliberations on this "insoluble
national issue" were concentrated in two weeks, and they all seem very mature to seriously
discuss the issue. It is obvious to anyone who likes to deal with the internal antagonisms
of the great powers that the new paradoxical but real alliance of Russia with Turkey and
Iran has aggravated enough the equilibria of the period of US domination. Competitions are
sharpening and forces that until now could only have a regional role now seem to be
upgrading similarly to their other criminal activities by engaging in more heated fronts
of warfare. Americans can not stay with their hands crossed. The loss of their prospect
for a Syria without Assad, severely injuring relations with Turkey because of conflicting
interests in northern Syria, finding allies from Iran that break the isolation regime that
the US attempted to impose, and Russia's first relatively successful involvement in a
warfare outside the its satellite countries are taking immediate measures from the US
side. In this context, we must understand the moves of the US State to actively support
their support in the wider region. This importance was given to the recognition of
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel that triggers a new blood circle in Palestine. This is
also supported by the "Macedonian" negotiations with a view to finding a solution for the
(FYR) finding allies from Iran that breaks the isolation regime that the United States was
trying to impose, and Russia's first relatively successful involvement in a warfare
outside its satellite countries is pushing for immediate measures on the part of the
United States. In this context, we must understand the moves of the US State to actively
support their support in the wider region. This importance was given to the recognition of
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel that triggers a new blood circle in Palestine. This is
also supported by the "Macedonian" negotiations with a view to finding a solution for the
(FYR) finding allies from Iran that breaks the isolation regime that the United States was
trying to impose, and Russia's first relatively successful involvement in a warfare
outside its satellite countries is pushing for immediate measures on the part of the
United States. In this context, we must understand the moves of the US State to actively
support their support in the wider region. This importance was given to the recognition of
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel that triggers a new blood circle in Palestine. This is
also supported by the "Macedonian" negotiations with a view to finding a solution for the
(FYR) In this context, we must understand the moves of the US State to actively support
their support in the wider region. This importance was given to the recognition of
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel that triggers a new blood circle in Palestine. This is
also supported by the "Macedonian" negotiations with a view to finding a solution for the
(FYR) In this context, we must understand the moves of the US State to actively support
their support in the wider region. This importance was given to the recognition of
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel that triggers a new blood circle in Palestine. This is
also supported by the "Macedonian" negotiations with a view to finding a solution for the
(FYR)
Macedonia to join NATO and set up a front of stable alliances in the Balkans with Western
"allies". It is well known that in Western democracies the "sovereign" people are dominant
inasmuch as their choices, dictated by the above, are in line with the orders of the
capitalist world. But if there are sometimes inconsistencies, the worse for the peoples.
The new juncture, which is trying to exploit US / Greece, has to do with the rise of power
to the neighboring country (after 11 years) of a formation not politically derived from
the Gruevski VMRO nationalists. Zaf's social democrats want to exchange nationalism of the
previous period with promises of a better standard of living in the country through its
association with the EU. and NATO. A prerequisite for this prospect is the agreement with
Greece. And that's what they are chasing today.
SYRIZA: the young Palestinian of the imperialists in the Eastern Mediterranean
The continuation of the Greek state and the Greek bourgeoisie is the continuation of their
strategic choices. Participation in NATO and the EU the competition with the other
regional powers in the region (with Turkey being the most important) its upgrading to a
strategic and primary partner of the Western Bloc and the economic dominance of Greek
capital in the Balkan hinterland. Only the investment of EL.PE. in the neighboring country
amounts to 200,000,000 euros, and only on 13/1/18 was announced the acquisition of EDS, an
electricity company with a large share in FYROM and other Balkan countries by PPC (to name
just some of the biggest financial penetration movements) . These strategic goals of the
Greek state / capital can not be overridden by any "competing" political force like
SYRIZA. On the contrary, the aim of these forces is to prove better than the other
traditional forces that managed the tactics of the Greek state to make it a dominant pole
in the Eastern Mediterranean. And that's what it is. Palazzis Tsipras' meeting with Tramp
in Washington was more than revealing his intentions. The generosity of the whole presence
was the message that Greece is being offered with a new momentum to become the Americans'
territory in the unconditional region. Criminal Netanyahu's honorary reception in Athens
simply completed the image of the strategic alliance with US-Israel. "Strict tones" were
reserved only to the fascist Erdogan, not because it oppresses the peoples in Turkey, or
because the country is essentially in a permanent state of emergency, but so-called
national issues.
In a nutshell, the Nato phones were lifted and commanded on both sides of the border to
solve this insignificant affair with the guarantor, of course, of the great bosses. So
SYRIZA grabbed the opportunity. Tomorrow he will be able to cheat that he has solved the
Macedonian, at the same time he will put a political issue in the Southwest if it diffuses
or not spreads to the far right, while at the same time fulfilling its role in meeting the
strategic interests of the bourgeoisie for economic penetration in the Balkans. In
addition, it assists in the formation and development of fascist power to the right of ND
with the aim of cutting votes from its main rival in the next elections. SYRIZA's vulgar
attitude to maintain power effectively supports the fascists, who are gaining out through
a rhetoric that, within the nationalist field of the name, essentially blames the (left)
government for "betrayal" and the right-wing opposition for inertia. Finally, naturally,
with the nomenclature debate, the days of voting on the polygon scale to prevent strikes
disorient the lower strata of the new wave of measures it wants to pass. The polynomials
to be voted on January 14, the continued imposition of increasingly tough economic
measures, vengeance redundancies and ever-increasing labor killings, house auctions, hits
in self-organized places, changes in the prisons code, reinforce the attack that have
unleashed state and capital in the stratums.
The whole situation is fully revealed by the fact that the traditional bourgeois
organizations in Greece are basically co-operating with the government. The Alliance of
Great Capital-ND-Church is waiting for the whole story to come to an end in the hope of
closing down the whole issue by denying the process by arguing that it was not a
government and only dealing with better exploitation of local and Balkan workers. Business
as usual.
The (nationalist / fascist) rally on 21 th January
We will arrive at a "zero time" when we no longer realize that our "national interests"
are not our own interests, they do not stem and are not destined for them from the bottom
of this world, Greece and Macedonia. National interests gain in fascism and dress with the
flesh of the proletarians, under its sovereignty, always, victor, state-capital.
Regardless of what some of themselves think of themselves from the committee that
organizes the rally for Macedonia (officially these are "non-believers" who want to keep
distances from the open Nazis) this move will be the hare for the fascist rotor. The "pure
patriotism" claimed by some of the organizer's showcase is nothing more than the grand
yard of nationalism and fascism. At a gathering where the state bodies will not go forward
knowing they know that the "national interest" (ie their own interest) is served much
better than the agreement with the Skopje. In fact, he is the main organizer of the 21st
CenturyJanuary is nothing other than fascism in all its versions. Neo-Nazi groups such as
AME and APELLA are already calling in the White Tower, Golden Dawn prepares for its
presence, the Holy Lodge a gathering of local, fascist and racist practitioners appears to
be a co-organizer, trying to charter buses to move people from the province. The various
cultural clubs will simply play the role of the "social mask" of the fascists who will
rush to catch the first row into a hateful hatred. No conversation has to be done there.
What emerges is the rinsing of the Golden Dawn Nazis / Apela / AME members who were
arrested just yesterday for the installation of an explosive device in a social area in
Piraeus. The xenophobic wounds of the Holy Lodge, which shattered children in Oreokastro
and elsewhere, would turn into "pure patriots" inside the white tower of the White Tower.
Eventually this gathering will act as the kernel of fascism in the city. Naturally, they
will not miss those who have been openly granted by the state apparatus to the fascists of
Northern Greece and are eager for their votes. Some regional mayors, something in the
regions of the Macedonian province, no half-fascist MPs and others. will be presented to
reap their participation in the fascist rally. In fact, the line of fascists and
nationalists was adopted and played open by the Greek state in 1991-1995. Even the embargo
was made by the Greek governments. However, nationalist state policy was defeated.
So if we do not want to joke, if the cultural clubs want to showcase Macedonia's "cultural
heritage", let us organize an international festival with the Macedonian music and dance
clubs to exchange cultural narratives and stimuli and leave the gatherings with the Nazis.
If the various "fighters" want to cheat "for the Macedonian land against the foreign
conqueror" they could fight against El Dorado Gold that destroys land and nature in
Halkidiki and leave the gatherings with neo-Nazis. If the advocates of history want and
other "good-natured" progressive people to say something about the Macedonian, let us find
anti-nationalist progressive people on the Slavonic side of Macedonia and speak together.
But they will not do it because they are hypocritical and nationalist, and so they will
simply lay back on fascism by fooling with him. Fascism is the only one who knows what he
wants from this gathering. To organize new people in the lines of hatred to reproach them
with their intolerant racist stupidity and to slander them against the poor, the weak, the
refugees, the immigrants, the aliens, the anti-fascists and the anarchists. That should
not be allowed. immigrants, aliens, fighters, anti-fascists, and anarchists. That should
not be allowed. immigrants, aliens, fighters, anti-fascists, and anarchists. That should
not be allowed.
We - Letter to old comrades
For us, internationalism is not something abstract, a maneuver to get away from the
difficult position of the existing situation where oppression and intolerance prevail.
Internationalism means struggle against nationalism as a single and fed-up concept. It
means contacting, discussing and partnering with comrades in other countries to co-oppose
the conflicts that countries are going to involve in order to serve the interests of the
top classes in each country, to fight the plans of the planetary NATO bosses and the EU.
but not by trying to "divert" nationalism against transnational associations, as it is
claimed to be a part of the left, but with real social and class struggles on each side of
the border. With our practical solidarity with fighters in every country that are being
persecuted and imprisoned by their police and states. We know very well that the name
issue is a mockery. First of all, because it has nothing to do with managing history,
culture and such, because if it had to do with these human beings, the solution would have
been easy and would have been a long time in social terms. Thousands of people, Greeks and
Macedonians, are changing their borders without any problems. The problem is the very
existence of the border. Of all borders. The "question" is political. A national question
is baptized so that there is no doubt that the Greek bourgeoisie wants to dominate the
economic exploitation of the region without any reaction. In this process, each side uses
the nationalists as a "pressure group" in Skopje that they were descendants of Alexander
the Great and something similar in Athens that constructed the national identity with
Ancient Greece, Byzantium and other fantastic insights. While they choose to be called
Macedonians to emphasize their supposed ancient origins and they do not call a country as
a former province of another country that no longer exists. Annoyance gives and gets. But
from the ridiculous we can easily find ourselves in the dangerous. On the one hand, the
upgrading of nationalist passions at a time when global capitalism is in crisis and
competition easily breaks out in regional conflicts, the prospect of transferring these
conflicts to war fronts and to the West is growing.
Today, however, it is of utmost importance that the wider anti-fascist, revolutionary and
anarchist movement will respond to this new fascist and nationalist invitation. We already
know that the thing is particularly serious to let it evolve. The fascists are already
trying to take advantage of the excitement they create with the Macedonian to strike
occupations, immigrants, etc. We are addressing a constant call to the world of struggle,
to old comrades who have once again faced nationalistic outbursts to declare the present,
to raise vigilance and to prepare anti-fascist internationalist intervention and presence
on the streets of Thessaloniki. The movement and the anarchists will have to respond to
fascism and the nationalist threat more before it finds wider audiences and fans.
NO and NO at the rally of 21 ST Jan. resting-participant and jointly organized Cl neo AND
FASCISTS
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH POTENTIAL AND IMPROVED
IN TURKEY, SLAVO / MACEDONIA AND EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD
PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE ANY THINGS
HISTORIES ARE LOVED IN CONFIRMATION AND NOT IN MISCELLANEOUS
NO LOST CONVENTION IN PHYSISM
NO RIGHT TO NATO-EU PLANS - INCIDENTAL
BLACK & RED
collective for Social Anarchist
member of Anarchist Organization Policy
https://maurokokkino1936.wordpress.com/2018/01/11
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Message: 3
Colleagues, friends, family ... ---- Again from the dungeons of the state, the abyss of
the beast. The first and FIES branches (the heaviest regime and the isolation) write these
words, isolated, but not alone, because I know that our values are much stronger than
those bars that I have in front of me that our love of freedom is worth a thousand times
more than their hatred, and that there is no wall that can separate us from ours. ---- I
believe in many things, and several of them have always been: that anti-fascist
self-defense is the most justified fight, and that the state that promotes fascism,
racism, homophobia, etc. he will attack mercilessly what he defends. ---- After I was
offended in a racist manner, attacked from the back by a man with a knife in hand and
after a tragic result, the machine is launched, the state is strong and knows that the
story told a thousand times becomes true, at least for the majority they need. The
attacker becomes attacked, they invent a funny excuse to attack[braces in the colors of
the Spanish flag], which do not appear even during the police investigation, the knife is
lost somewhere and try to hide fascist and racist connections. They draw their best
weapons: patriotism. Danger on television is me and they will repeat it a thousand times
because they can do it and they need it. I feel terrible disability knowing that I am a
pawn in their game, but I do not despair, I know from experience that the truth comes out,
I know that we will make more noise than they do that our bonds and solidarity are worth
much more than their mass media and walls. I believe now more than ever in justified
self-defense, in anti-fascism, in my brothers on the street, in our fight, in my family,
in my principles. For all this and more, even here, after all that I experience, I still
feel happy because I know that I am counting on you and you on me. From the dungeons,
lonely, but not alone
http://www.rozbrat.org/informacje/miedzynarodowe/4591-koledzy-przyjaciele-rodzino-
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Message: 4
Interview with Oscar Murciano, Secretary of Social Action of the CGT of Catalonia for
Rebelion.org ---- MH: We are in contact with Oscar Murciano, from the Catalan CGT. What is
the political situation in Catalonia? ---- OM: After a rather intense, violent, repressive
and quite attack on the civil rights and freedoms of the Spanish State, the institutional
government despite having good popular support, as it could not be otherwise, has been
defeated for the strongest part, that of the Spanish State that has imposed the
intervention of the Generalitat, the imprisonment of personalities, as indicated in
Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution and that has subsequently been defined in the
realization of elections that are They have taken it forward a few days ago.
For the independence part is a fixed picture in which there is a state of mobilization
quite strong and important for a long time and that remains unchanged to everything that
can happen against. There will not be a drop, but there is not enough rise to be able to
get out of this perpetual draw.
On the other hand, there has been a collapse of what would be the Popular Party, which is
the one in charge of the Spanish state and a regroupment around a liberal right wing party
called Ciudadanos, which has captured the useful vote of all those who were a little tired
of this situation and people who may have some kind of class feeling but at a certain
moment if you give them to choose in an election, independent or not, and say they are not
independent.
So, Citizens has channeled that useful vote. The situation now is a tie at the
institutional level, but there will be many movements. Will Puigdemont come or will he not
come? We will see the response from the Spanish State that will not allow a reissue of
what has happened so far, although many movements indicate that the institutional
political party is going to enter a phase of relaxation.
MH: I am particularly interested in this contact with you, with the Catalan CGT, because
in the midst of everything you are describing, it is important for me to know the position
of the workers who live in Catalonia in relation to this political situation.
OM: We as a union, in different meetings that took place when all this changed gear, we
said quite clearly to pro-independence leftist parties that now remembered the workers.
That is to say, when a repression effect was seen to come, the intervention of the workers
was requested. This is more or less the summary of what the independence process has done
up to today. An agenda of good intentions, of ideas, of hope, but all built in the air,
without materializing in claims that could be interesting in a concrete social agenda
facing the workers. Because the independence process itself included parts of the Catalan
bourgeoisie, right-wing elements of order and law and that made it quite complicated to
produce this.
The truth is that the unions have seen this process very far, because in what kind of
world, what kind of political project they are putting forward, there is nothing that we
find interesting.
Then, at the union level until the moment when the State threatened the repression and
they began to see acts of violation of civil rights, a very offensive action through all
its channels and with the revision that on October 1 I was going to produce what finally
happened, we said that one thing is that this program does not say anything to us and
another is that we allow and we remain watching from the balcony as an attack is taking
place to all this.
Then, we call for a general strike. Statistics have come out of that strike recently and
it has been the one with the longest follow-up of the last 25 years. Which implies that
what we call the working class, the working class went on strike, because otherwise it is
impossible to stop hundreds of thousands of people during that strike day.
We interpreted that more than a strike in support of the process, it was a massive
rejection of the repression of the National Police and the Civil Guard that had happened
48 hours before and that produced more than a thousand wounded in the voting tails. It was
an action of total rejection of all that.
"Spanishism is producing a division in the working class that is the most worrying"
But we saw that even in this context of harshness that made so much outrage come, really
in centers and sectors with greater proletarianization as the metal sector, there was not
a very strong response. That told us that even with that there was no capacity for
mobilization, because the little message of class and of a project that does not speak to
the workers came into question, because the workers perfectly remember the cuts made by
the government of Artur Mas, A part of the pack that is now in the independence process
then was seen quite a distance.
What has happened later is that Spanishism, as we understand it here, is quite linked to
the Francoist heritage, which seeks homogenization, a rejection of cultural differences;
historically, it did not have roots, due to different factors, despite the fact that a
large part of the Catalan population comes from other parts of the State. But there was
never that identitary point that could oppose one community against the other
independently of what a class division could mean.
That has changed now, or some claim it is accentuated much more because the Citizens
option is purely Spanish and under these prisms of denial of another type of culture. This
is producing a division in the working class that is the most worrisome and it is the
inheritance that this process is leaving behind.
This path was started based on vague ideas of freedom and self-determination and the
social agenda that could be interesting for the workers was ignored and this has
accentuated the whole identity part and has generated an identity response within what
would be the same class worker.
This is the situation in which we are, it seems quite clear that there are environments
that bet on the repetition of a model similar to Ulster with the Catalan side, which would
be the confrontation between two communities and we will do everything possible so that
this is not Well, because it would be a disaster for us.
When all the discussion is being done based on identity criteria, it is a defeat for us
because we understand that any project has to go under other parameters. But the scenario
we have now is one of division and hopefully it is not the scenario of confrontation that
some would like to watch from his chair with his feet raised on the table and waiting for
us to stick together.
MH: What is the position of the Catalan CGT in front of all this picture that you are
describing us?
OM: We have as CGT of Catalonia agreements of congresses in favor of the
self-determination and concretely of the right of self-determination of the Catalan
people, it is a right that is quite recognized not only from a libertarian point of view,
but from the thought of lefts, that Each people has the right to choose their future
freely according to what they consider.
We have this embodied in written agreements in Congress since 1985. Now, we understand the
right of self-determination not as the right to change from one State to another, but a
change that really goes beyond changing the flag of the masters that we they will continue
to govern.
Therefore, we go beyond self-determination, the independence process that is taking place
in Catalonia is, despite that is not what we ask, especially interesting but does not
incorporate a project for the rights of workers; but we are not against either, we are
plural people and some of the affiliates support the process, others are skeptical and
others against.
We as an organization have to take the steps according to what is being decided, we take a
general position of support, not against, but we respect the right to self-determination.
Therefore, we will never be against a situation in which the Catalan people choose their
future, that is why we have made a general strike 48 hours after a repressive act took place.
"The independence process has no social agenda"
MH: You mentioned repeatedly and I would like you to detail the terms of that social
agenda that the Catalan CGT claims.
OM: What I was saying is that the independence process has no social agenda, it lacks it.
It has no message addressed to the working class. The message that they have handled so
far has been the policy of cuts following the directives of Mrs. Merkel to the letter.
We are all very aware of the cuts that were made in Greece, but really those that made the
Mas government in percentage terms were greater than those of Greece and there was no
other region in Europe where cuts of this magnitude had been made.
This was an operation to close the Parliament to be approved and the previous president of
the Generalitat had to enter by helicopter because he could not access because of the
opposition of the population.
So, a good part of the Catalan population is very aware of this situation. The social
agenda of the CGT of Catalonia is in the terms of a short, medium and long term situation.
The long term is the one that we all know, we do not see it now accessible, but we always
have in mind the collectivization of the means of production, the workers take control of
the economy and the cooperation between them to get the society on the basis of criteria
of solidarity. We do not have this as if it were a phrase in a showcase but we are very
aware that it was achieved here and that we have enough strength, so we will do everything
possible for it.
The part in the medium term would be a general improvement of the conditions of the
workers, this can only be achieved by putting capital on the defensive, which implies a
convergence between the rich social movement that we have in Catalonia and a relationship
of union forces that currently does not occurs, in order to change the current situation
in which we are having at a general level resistance dynamics, pass them to offensive
dynamics. As long as this accumulation of sufficient forces does not take place to
initiate a phase of generalized strikes and a concrete plan of struggle, we do not have it
in our expectations.
Therefore, currently our expectations are based on a strategy where we have strength and
we overcome the trade unionism of the agreement, which is represented here by Workers'
Commissions and UGT, trade unionism that counts to the power, it is the trade unionism of
the negotiation, social peace, where we have enough strength to go for everything and
achieve a chain of victories that generates a change of dynamics that creates the
conditions to favor a change of dynamics in other sectors and companies that see where
they are fighting is the only place where you can get improvements.
In this regard, in this year we have carried out several processes of struggle, perhaps
the most concrete is that of the Metro staff with 27 days of strike that were maintained
until the objectives demanded were achieved.
This would be our social agenda, we do not trust the State, we do not trust in a political
convergence of the interests of the working class with what we would represent. We can,
for example, do not believe in Podemos or CUP, which is the party of the Catalan radical
left. We do not believe that through the institutional way the working class can achieve
qualitative improvements, but that this will be determined by the capacity of forces that
we can put on the street and that is determined by whether or not we are able to do so.
We are in three phases of our agenda and all go through the same axis that is the
struggle. We believe in the conflict, which is positive and as in any battle, the forces
are valued to see in which combat you are able to present a strong resistance and in which
you will do everything possible, but knowing that you will not be able to modify them.
Related Link: http://rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=236315
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30795
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Message: 5
It is with the deepest of regrets that we have learnt about our comrade Donato Romito's
passing away on January 13th, 2018. He was a thoughtful anarchist who set a very high
standard of militancy and commitment to all of us. ---- Donato Romito (1954-2018),
painting a banner during the St. Imier, Switzerland, anarchist conference, August 2012
https://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jan2018/donato_romito.jpg ---- It is with the
deepest of regrets that we have learnt about our comrade Donato Romito's passing away on
January 13th, 2018. He was a teacher, a union activist in UNICOBAS, as well as a militant
anarchist and founding member of the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici -Alternativa
Libertaria since 1985. In the early 1980s and the 1970s he had been a militant of the
Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica. He also was a leading member of the Centro di
Documentazione "Franco Salomone" and one of the founders of Anarkismo.net. Notwithstanding
he had been struggling with health issues for some time, the devastation left by his
untimely departure is hard to describe in words. All the organisations and individuals
around the Anarkismo.net project want to extend our sympathies and condolences to his
partner and family, the FdCA-AL and UNICOBAS, and to anyone who was lucky enough to count
him among their comrades and friends.
He was a thoughtful anarchist who set a very high standard of militancy and commitment to
all of us. Our best tribute to him is to continue the work he started in this site and
within the anarchist movement. As Bertolt Brecht said "But there are those who struggle
all their lives: These are the indispensable ones." Donato was indispensable, indeed. We
will sorely miss you.
No rest until victory, dear comrade.
Anarkismo.net
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30800
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Message: 6
Manchester SolFed analyses the career of billionaire railway subsidies junkie Richard
Branson and the ways he's expanding into the British healthcare system, with potentially
fatal results. ---- Good old Sir Richard Branson has once again managed to get himself to
the front of the queue for state handouts. Having spent years channeling public money into
massive profits at Virgin Rail, he is now turning his attention to milking the NHS.
Figures released in January 2018 show that his company, Virgin Care, won a record
£1billion worth of NHS contracts in 2017. ---- Added to already existing contracts, this
means that Virgin Care now has over 400 separate NHS contracts. Funny how these arch free
market capitalists, such as Branson, seem to be able to swallow their anti-state
principles when it comes to claiming state subsidies. Good old Sir Richard even took this
to the extent of suing the NHS in 2017 when Virgin Care lost an £82million contract. In
the process he won an undisclosed sum that otherwise would have been wasted on treating
sick people.
However, try not worry, capitalist pin up boy Branson's love of the state does not extend
to paying UK taxes. All his companies come under a single parent company, Virgin Group
Holdings, based in the Virgin Islands, which just happens to be a tax haven. He has moved
on since being prosecuted for tax evasion in 1971, learning quickly that it is OK not to
pay taxes in the UK just as long as you wealthy enough and well enough connected.
Perhaps we are being a bit too cynical here; after all, when it was first disclosed that
good old Sir Richard pays no UK taxes, he explained that he lived on his private Caribbean
island, Necker Island, for health rather than tax reasons. No doubt he will bring this
concern for health the NHS to ensure that Virgin Care runs its contracts in the same way
Virgin Rail runs trains. The difference, however, is that the "customers" will pay the
cost, not in terms of overcrowded and continually late trains, but rather in terms of
damage to their health.
Nor should we run away with the idea that Branson's failings are limited to Virgin trains.
Behind the winning smile and easy manner, the country's favourite entrepreneur has a long
history of failed businesses. Virgin Cola, hailed by Branson in 1994 as the inevitable
successor to Coca-Cola, has practically disappeared. Virgin Clothes, launched on the stock
exchange in 1996, folded with losses to shareholders. Virgin Money was launched with a
glitzy advertisement featuring Branson emerging naked from the sea, but did not deliver
the expected big financial rewards. Then came Virgin Vie, Virgin Vision, Virgin Vodka,
Virgin Wine, Virgin Jeans, Virgin Brides, Virgin Cosmetics and Virgin Cars, none of them
fulfilling their creator's inflated dreams.
Virgin Express, an airline based in Brussels, was intended to rival easyJet, but the
original investors on the stock market lost their money. Similarly, the McCarthy brothers,
who invested over £30m in V2, Branson's second music company, lost all their money and
faced personal bankruptcy. Australians who invested in the 2003 flotation of Virgin Blue,
a no-frills airline, rewarded Branson with over £200m for a stake of his original
investment. Initially the airline was successful, but soon after Branson pocketed the
money, shareholders watched the share price fall. Similarly, plans in which GPs would be
paid or, more accurately bribed for referring NHS patients to private Virgin services were
abandoned in June 2008. The BMA warned that the plan would "damage clinical objectivity",
as there would be a financial incentive for GPs to push patients toward the Virgin services.
Nor is the problem limited to the fact that the only way good old Sir Richard seems able
to make companies successful is by ripping off either the taxpayer or the investors. Over
the years he has been involved some "underhanded business practices" - we can never use
the term "criminal activities" when discussing what rich people get up to. For example, in
2006 competition authorities in both the UK and US investigated price-fixing activities by
Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. British Airways was fined £271 million over the
allegations while good old Sir Richard received no fine, which the Office of Fair Trading
defended as being in the "public interest", as Virgin Atlantic had cooperated in helping
to prosecute British Airways.
Given good old Sir Richard's dodgy record, you might be wondering why the Tories are
handing over NHS contracts to Virgin. Well, there is a bit of a problem here. The Tories,
for ideological reasons, hate the NHS; in fact they hate just about any human activity not
motivated by greed and narrow self-interest. But they face a British electorate that
steadfastly refuses to accept the free market orthodoxy that the level of health care
received should be determined by the size of a person's purse. Knowing that outright
privatisation would result in electoral suicide, the Tories have embarked on a two stage
privatisation. They are running the NHS into the ground by starving it of funds while, at
the same time, slowly selling off the NHS a piece at a time.
The first part of the strategy is well underway with the NHS in a state of almost
permanent crisis. At the time of writing, we are in the middle of the annual "winter
crisis". The aim of this state of permanent crisis is to slowly erode confidence in the
NHS until a point where people feel there is little choice but wholesale privatisation. We
are now constantly being told that the nation can no longer afford the NHS. The second
part of the strategy is also beginning to pick up a pace. The figures for 2017 show that
£3.1bn of NHS contracts were won by private sector companies, which represents more than
two fifths (43%) of a total of £7.2bn in contracts tendered by the NHS, and outstrips the
£2.55bn (35%) of tenders won by NHS trusts. Meanwhile, that other privatisation Trojan
horse, the "not-for-profit" sector, won £1.53bn (21%) of contracts. Given this scale of
privatisation, it is only a question of time before the NHS becomes a minority provider of
health services.
In going about privatisation, the Tories have learnt a trick or two from that close friend
of good old Sir Richard, good old Tony Blair, by keeping services free at the point of use
while slowly privatising the service providers. The problem is that these privatised
service providers often make a complete hash of things. There are numerous examples to
choose from: Serco ended its contract to provide out of hours GPs after staff falsified
data about its performance while Coperforma's £63.5m takeover of non-urgent patient
transport to hospital ended shambolically after patients awaiting dialysis and
chemotherapy missed vital appointments. The point here is that, if the Tories'
privatisation plans are to work, you cannot have companies that take over NHS services
continually fucking things up.
Enter man of the people and all round Mr Nice Guy, good old Sir Richard. Though his
reputation may have been tarnished of late, the one thing Branson is good at, apart from
making money, is public relations. A few well placed, well publicised donations to the
right causes, along with the backing of the media, and it is not hard to see him regain
his status as a national treasure, a national treasure at the head of an increasingly
monolithic private health provider kept afloat by public subsidies and capable of
challenging the dominance of the NHS. This, in other words, is a Tory wet dream, which
might explain why Virgin Care won just under a third of the total number of NHS contracts
awarded to the private sector in 2017.
As anarcho-syndicalists, we have many criticisms of the way the NHS works, not least its
totally undemocratic structures. Though we favour a community controlled and run health
service, we find the prospect of people's health being handed over to the tender loving
care of the likes of Branson utterly appalling. So be aware, if privatisation is not
stopped and you are unfortunate enough to get ill, you may be faced with having to look at
giant pictures of the smiling face of good old Sir Richard in the ambulance, in the
hospital, in the operating theatre and, well, just about everywhere. Some might think
death would be more preferable. Let's hope for better luck next time good old Sir Richard
crashes his hot air balloon!
http://www.solfed.org.uk/manchester/the-alarming-rise-of-bransons-virgin-care-and-the-threat-to-the-nhs
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Anarchic update news all over the world - 18.01.2018
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