Today's Topics:
1. verba-volant: Exarjia, Athens, February 10: Manifestation
against narcomafias (ca) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #279 - Thau Basin: Popular
Sete vs. Billionaires Yachts (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. US, black rose fed: THE EYE OF THE TROLL STORM: TARIQ KHAN
INTERVIEW WITH IT'S GOING DOWN (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. freedom news: Class War defeat Qatari Royals and protect
protest rights (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Turkey, senin medyan: Anarchist Prisoner Sevket Aslan is on
the 82nd day of Hunger Action (fr, tr) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Follow the text of the organizers of the demonstration against narcomafias. ---- In the
neighborhood of Exarjia the narcomafias, with the support of the Police, are trying to
turn this area into a place to buy and sell drugs, and to impose in the neighborhood and
on the streets the "law of the powerful" and the fear . ---- During the last time, and
while there is a fight to uproot these mafias, they have proceeded to many aggressions, in
which several people who were beaten were wounded, as well as threats with weapons to
regulars, inhabitants and fighters, in the streets around the place of sale of drugs that
have ridden in the streets Messologgiou and Manis, a few meters away from the site where
he had been killed by logs Alexandros Grigoropoulos, putting in the spotlight the
anarchists, the squatters and general to the fighters, in order to consolidate their
domination in the neighborhood.
Against drug mafias, state repression and social cannibalism, the people of the struggle
must defend the neighborhood of Exarjia from resistance, solidarity and freedom, and
emerge victorious.
Concentration and march, Saturday , February 10, 2018 , at 6:00 p.m., neighborhood of
Exarjia, corner of Messologgiou and Manis streets.
Anarchist communities, comrades and classmates, social and class project fighters
The text in Greek .
http://verba-volant.info/es/exarjia-atenas-10-de-febrero-manifestacion-contra-las-narcomafias/
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Message: 2
When the defense of employment meets the fight against gentrification: in the Hérault, the
CGT unions want to mobilize people both as workers and as inhabitants of a territory
threatened with being transformed into a tourist attraction zone. ---- The oysters of
Bouzigues, the Muscat de Frontignan, the canals of Sète, its port and its feast of the
Saint-Louis, its kilometers of beaches ... the territory of the Thau basin echoes in all
the imaginaries and returns us to the most beautiful songs of Brassens, famous anarchist
of the vintage. ---- But a territory is not just beautiful pictures. A territory is first
and foremost a space that inhabitants organize to meet their needs, first and foremost
employment and public services. For several weeks now, these two pillars, essential to
dignity and emancipation, have been hit by neoliberal waves throughout the Thau Basin
(Hérault).
At the end of September, a few days after the announcement of the elimination of thirty
positions at the Bassin-de-Thau hospital - a hundred in all since 2013 ! -, the mayor of
Sète (and also CEO of the private clinic of the city) announced his desire to " outsource
" (we do not say privatize, it's a dirty word) cleaning and pickup services garbage from
the city center. They are thus 80 agents and their families, not counting the occasional
contracts, who see the horizon darken in the short term.
In addition to this, the TER agreement, negotiated between the Region and the SNCF, plans
to close ticket offices in Sète and Frontignan. However, at the same time, projects
multimodal exchange pole (PEM) with a cost of several tens of millions of euros are
planned on these two municipalities, promising to make empty shells !
We could stop there, but no, unfortunately, the industrial sector is not left out. On the
port of Sète, one of the most important on the Mediterranean coast, it is the Saipol
plant, a producer of biodiesel, which has to drop the curtain for six months in 2018,
putting 89 employees on partial unemployment. With a very strong fear that this shutdown
will become permanent. Gold Saipol represents nearly 20 % of the activity of the port.
His disappearance would endanger the entire economic sector linked to this central
infrastructure: logistics, transport, dockers, etc.
And when the job remains on the port, the rights are no longer respected: the use of
casual under precarious contract has become the norm, undermining the permanent dockers
who try somehow to resist.
Smoke in the snow
Noting the convergence of attacks against industry and public services, with dramatic
consequences on local employment, the CGT unions of the different branches met and decided
to organize a highlight on Sète. On Saturday, December 2, a winter morning, an
interprofessional event gathered more than 500 people on the docks of the city. A great
success for a city of 40,000 inhabitants !
Territorial and hospital officers and employees, employees of the port, railwaymen,
dockers, teachers, all together and joined by the population, marched in a compact and
dynamic procession to the station, under the flamboyant redness of smoke. distress
provided by local fishermen.
A delegation of dockers from the port of Fos-Marseille even made the trip in solidarity
with their colleagues from Sète and contributed to the atmosphere. Not to mention a finish
under the snow, memorable in these latitudes not used to flakes. With this success, the
mobilization must continue in time and duration because it is only the first step of the
balance of power to be built.
The " right to the city "
To resist the offensive, the experience of the struggles tends to show us that the key to
success lies in an alliance and unfailing solidarity between the workers concerned, the
population and the users and users of public services.
In the present case, a unifying and effective motto could be that of the " right to the
city and territory for all " [1]. Indeed, behind the attacks against employment hides a
real political project. This enterprise of social regression, of utility breaks and
industrial jobs, appears more and more for what it is: the face of the iceberg, vast and
icy, of capitalist urban restructuring.
A telling example: the same day the privatization of several public services was
announced, the local newspaper headlined the creation of a luxury marina in Sète, to
accommodate 100-meter yachts (excuse the little ) ! Not sure that a boat parking
megalomaniac richissimes concerns the entire population ...
The inhabitants and the inhabitants are not deceived, since very quickly rose a collective
against this project of marina for mega-yachts. The link remains to be made with the
employees in struggle, but the cause is the same. This restructuring of the territory
responds to the capitalist imperatives, and not to the needs of the population and the
workers. It will only lead to accelerate the gentrification of the city, the development
of luxury tourism. Excluded from the city center and the coast, the popular classes will
be pushed back to the periphery.
Workers see their jobs degraded and threatened ; residents and inhabitants are robbed of
their living environment. These two populations are in part the same. Unity and solidarity
are a prerequisite for upholding the right to work and the right to the city and territory
for all.
Julien (AL Hérault)
[1] On this subject, read the special file " The city is ours ! ", Libertarian
Alternative, January 2015.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Bassin-de-Thau-Sete-populaire-contre-yachts-de-milliardaires
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Message: 3
In November, PhD student of history in Illinois, father, and Air Force veteran Tariq Khan,
found himself in the center of a whirlwind of controversy, and a punching bag for a
variety of Alt-Right and Alt-Lite blowhards - from InfoWars, to Gavin McInnes, to Anthony
Scaramucci. Tariq stood accused of getting into a verbal argument with other students
following a Trump protest, and the video of the argument, which shows people yelling at
each other and ends in a phone being dropped on the ground, surfaced on the website,
Campus Reform, the media wing of Turning Point USA. TPUSA is a growing collection of
paleoconservative and Alt-Lite Libertarian students on campuses across the US, is
financially backed by massive foundations and billionaires like the Koch Brothers, and is
most known for harassing professors and students, often leading to individuals receiving
massive amounts of death threats.
Campus Reform has spearheaded both a professor ‘watch-list,' while also attempting to add
credence to the idea that ‘conservative' and far-Right students on campus face
discrimination. Towards this end, Tariq Khan was presented to far-Right viewers by
everyone from Alex Jones to Gavin McInness as both an ‘antifa' and as a professor on the
campus, regardless of the fact that he was only a student. As Kristina Khan and Shane
Burley wrote in TruthOut:
McInnes asked them about an alleged "wild attack by an antifa professor" who supposedly
confronted Nelson and Valdez "for being conservatives." The instructor they were referring
to was Tariq Khan, a US Air Force veteran and graduate student at the university. Khan
challenged this characterization, saying he confronted the two after they made what he
felt was a veiled threat against his children. Khan, his wife Kristina-one of the
coauthors of this piece-and one of his children had been filmed by right-wing, anti-Muslim
student activists in the same spot on campus two years earlier, and UIUC's chapter of
TPUSA had already attempted to push two campaigns against two different women of color
associated with UIUC this past fall: an undergraduate student and a staff member. After
the confrontation between Valdez and Khan, TPUSA members and allies created a campaign of
threats and intimidation across media platforms.
Soon, the death threats came flooding into Khan's school, and based on his name, many on
the far-Right assumed Khan's race and religion. As the death threats piled up, pressure
also grew from the administration on Khan's campus to strip him of his status as a PhD
candidate.
According to the Campus Antifascist Network:
Far from a "grassroots activist" movement, TPUSA is bankrolled by politically vindictive
billionaires and think tanks who target higher education in order to promote regressive
and racist political agendas. Charlie Kirk, the CEO of TPUSA who regularly curries favor
with alt-right groups and outlets, has no formal experience in higher education as a
student, staff, or faculty member, and wants to target public universities in particular
for political purposes. Faculty members such as Amanda Gailey from the University of
Nebraska, Sarah Bond at the University of Iowa, Johnny Eric Williams of Trinity College,
and George Ciccariello-Maher, formerly of Drexel University have been smeared in articles
in Campus Reform. Perhaps most disturbingly, TPUSA founded and maintains the McCarthyist,
online "Professor Watchlist," which criticizes faculty who promote racial diversity and
multiculturalism in the classroom and has led to numerous instances of cyber-harassment,
death threats, and involuntary administrative leaves.
In this episode of the IGDcast, Khan sets the record straight on what happened, and talks
about why he joined the military in the 1990s, seeking direction in life and money for
school. While in the military, Khan began reading books about political theory and
listening to punk rock bands with radical lyrics, while around him the anarchist and
anti-globalization movement grew. Upon leaving the military, Khan became involved in
veteran's groups campaigning against the Iraq War, and currently he is member of the Black
Rose Anarchist Federation. Moreover, Khan also opens up about both his process of becoming
an anarchist as well as his working-class background and compares it to a life of complete
wealth and privilege lived by TPUSA leader, Charlie Kirk.
Discussing both far-Right outrage engines and TPUSA at length, Khan also talked about what
it is like living through an Alt-Right media attack campaign. From death threats, to
harassment at events, to people showing up at his home, what Tariq Khan has dealt with
shows the need for a robust antifascist resistance and strong movement self-defense, both
on campus and on the streets.
This text originally appeared on It's Going Down.
http://blackrosefed.org/troll-storm-tariq-khan-interview/
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Message: 4
There's something delicious about seeing very rich and powerful people take on a fight and
then realise they've bitten off more than they can chew. They're not used to it and
sometimes seemingly small victories are the best we can hope for. ---- Last week Class War
founder, Ian Bone, promoted globally on facebook the idea of redressing the balance on
housing in London by occupying the Shard. There are multi million quid apartments in the
building laying empty year and after year, meanwhile homelessness is on the rise and the
vast majority of Grenfell survivors have still not been re-housed. ---- Before I go
further I should say I'm part of Class War. My PhD research from the inside of the group
has unearthed many examples of both the authorities and the media imagining that Class War
just has to press a button somewhere and the unruly mob of thousands rises from the
streets to literally devastate the avenues where the wealthy live. Class War are
organising protests all the time and the size of a protest doesn't really have an exact
science behind it; some things take off and most things don't. The vast majority of Class
War events pass without any media interest. This means that when they do take off and
large numbers attend a demo and boisterous things occur the police and others can look
terribly inadequate so there has become a standard theme to policing Class War events:
they send at least a van of cops along, hours in advance just in case, presumably with
others on standby if they feel it necessary.
With Class War then, come security issues for the people the protests are directed
towards. So no surprise when someone at the Metropolitan Police saw Ian's post and tipped
off the Shard. You can imagine the panic as they scroll through online pictures of front
pages from the Class War tabloid, and news articles about the poll tax riots, the cereal
killer café, Fuck Parades and the Ripper Museum
Within 48 hours of the initial post Ian received court papers regarding an injunction to
prevent the protest from taking place and claiming over £500 for the fun of it all.
Included was some research into the group, an exclusion zone around the building demanding
Ian and ‘persons unknown' not cross a red felt tip squiggle and details of why they needed
the injunction.
The research was laughable in places. They were concerned that Ian's address was hard to
detect, whilst they operate out of tax havens to avoid being cornered by UK Revenue and
Customs. They described the group almost perfectly with words that have already been
adopted with pride:
"Class War is a far-left, pro-anarchy, UK-based pseudo-political party, originally borne
out of a newspaper established in 1982. The group opposes the ‘ruling elite' for their
exploitation of the poor and the disadvantaged and have recently been involved with
campaigns against the demolition of social housing in London to make way for the
construction of luxury housing, as well as campaigns against inequality and austerity.
Class War vocally supports, and engages in, civil disobedience, violence and anarchy as
acceptable methods of pursuing their objectives."
Yep, pretty much.
They also erroneously described the Class War Women's Death Brigade as a
"sub-organisation" of Class War which naturally didn't go down too well. Class War doesn't
have any sub-organisations. Or as one Death Brigader put it: "Sub-organisation? Fuck off
you cunts."
The reasons they had for the injunction included a bizarre focus on terrorism. They were
concerned that anyone getting into the building to occupy it could highlight security
lapses which might encourage terrorists to take advantage. You'd think someone
highlighting these things would actually be a help to them in order to avoid such
incidents. But anyway, isn't that why they pay a massive amount in security contracts in
the first place? On top of which they might have learnt from the incident two years ago
when a man climbed the building and parachuted down.
The court case occurred yesterday (8th February) and in an unexpected twist, respected
barrister, Ian Bronwhill contacted Ian and offered to represent him for free. Almost from
the first correspondence with the Shard legal team they were backtracking. Eventually they
said they would drop the request for costs providing Ian didn't personally try to enter
the Shard or encourage any others to do so. The protest could go ahead as planned,
provided it didn't get too close to the building.
In the meantime the news reports about this kept flooding in. Freedom covered it a couple
of days ago but there have also been reports in the Guardian, RT, Inside Croydon, and the
news has traveled to outlets in France, Spain and Egypt. There was also a very sympathetic
piece by Suzanne Moore and Ian got a spot on the Vanessa Feltz programme on BBC London
radio. All of these pieces focused on Ian as a pensioner needing a walking stick. He seems
to have moved on in the public consciousness from the ‘most dangerous man in Britain'
characterised in the 1980s.
The Class war protest went ahead regardless last night and the Qatari Royal Family, who
ultimately own the Shard have come out of the episode with a bloodied nose. A sweet and
fitting end to an intense week of shenanigans. They couldn't have possibly realised what a
public relations disaster they were inflicting on themselves.
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Class War protest at Shard
8th February 2018. Class War protest outside The Shard this evening after defeating the
attempt by lawyers representing the Qatari Royal Family who own the building to take out
an injunction to prevent their protest. The protest was at the Shard as there are said to
be ten £50 million pound apartments there which have remained empty since the building was
completed at a time when London has a huge housing crisis with so many homeless and
sleeping on the street. Class War aim to highlight the huge number of empty properties in
London where there are so many large development of high priced flats many of which either
remain unsold or are bought as investments and not to live in. The court had received an
undertaking from Ian Bone that he would not personally enter the building, but he was in
any case unable to attend this protest because of health problems. There were large
numbers of police and security men in the area but the protest as planned remained
peaceful, though at times defying police attempts to move them further away on spurious
grounds despite being outside the boundary of The Shard's property. Peter Marshall
https://freedomnews.org.uk/class-war-defeat-qatari-royals-and-protect-protest-rights/
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Message: 5
The anarchist prisoner, Sevket Aslan, has been hungry since 21 November against the
oppression and injustice in prison. ---- The anarchist prisoner Sevket Aslan who is being
held in Izmir T Type Prison in Aliaga Sakran, is on the 82nd day of what he describes as
an ‘endless and irreversible' hunger strike until his demands are met. Sevket went on a
hunger strike with the same demands on July 19th and ended it on the 53rd day. Since these
demands were not met he has begun a new hunger strike. Sevket's main demand is to be
recognized by prison authorities as an anarchist prisoner and to be transferred to another
unit or prison that house anarchist prisoners. If this is not possible he wants to be
moved to a single cell. ---- Sevket is currently housed with another prisoner in what
prisoners describe as a ‘coffin' - a cell designed for one prisoner that contains a bunk
bed. There is barely any room for them to move inside the cell.
SEVKET ASLAN'S FULL LIST OF DEMANDS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
1- To be recognized as an anarchist prisoner by the prison authorities and transferred to
a unit or another prison where other anarchist prisoners are housed, failing this, to be
transferred to a single cell
2- To be able to receive books that are not banned
3- That the prison stops "losing" his written complaints, appeals and requests that he
sends to official institutions and that he is given the exit numbers (tracking numbers)
for them
4- Termination of shoe removal rule except for open visits and health reasons
5- An end to prisoners having to stand for excessively long periods of time while waiting
to see prison administration
6- That the prison allows him to paint and allows him to receive oil painting materials
and have access to the painting workshop
https://seninmedyan.org/2018/02/10/anarsist-tutsak-sevket-aslan-aclik-eyleminin-82-gununde/
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