Today's Topics:
1. Anarchist Communist Group launches first public event, Mar
3rd (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. cgt-lkn: General secretary of CGT in Catalonia detained for
convening a press conference in 2013 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #280 - Energy Choices:
Power to the people! (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. anarchist communist group ACG: Anti-Fracking Round-up
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. France, Alternative Libertaire - Tract AL, March 8 for
equality and against violence (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Indian Anarchist Federation - 4th March, Anarcho-Syndicalism
presentation (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Indian Anarchist Federation - 4th March, Anarcho-Syndicalism
presentation (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
8. brussels LAG - Café-avond: Get to know your local
anarchists 7 maart (nl) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
9. Britain, freedom news: Anarchist Bookfairs in 2018
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Following its founding last month new anarchist organisation the Anarchist Communist Group
(ACG) has announced its first major public meeting will be taking place later this month.
---- The London in Struggle discussion at Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, on March 25th
will focus on campaigns against Universal Credit, Land Justice and on initiatives to
organise workers in west London. ---- The ACG, which was formed following a split in the
Anarchist Federation (AF) late last year, has formed branches in London, Leicester and
Surrey. Organisers have stressed that it does not intend to be oppositional or sectarian
towards the AF, and there are plans to join the IAF, an anarchist-communist international
grouping which the Anarchist Federation also belongs to. ---- In the preamble to its
founding statement, ACG notes:
We are a revolutionary anarchist communist organisation made up of local groups and
individuals who seek a complete transformation of society, and the creation of anarchist
communism. This will mean the working class overthrowing capitalism, abolishing the State,
getting rid of exploitation, hierarchies and oppressions, and halting the destruction of
the environment.
To contribute to the building of a revolutionary anarchist movement we believe it is
important to be organised. We are committed to building an effective national and
international organisation that has a collective identity and works towards the common
goal of anarchist communism, whilst at the same time working together with other working
class organisations and in grass roots campaigns.
We do not see ourselves as the leaders of a revolutionary movement but part of a wider
movement for revolutionary change. In addition, we strive to base all our current actions
on the principles that will be the basis of the future society: mutual aid, solidarity,
collective responsibility, individual freedom and autonomy, free association and federalism.
The group, which also contributes to cross-group anarchist freesheet Rebel City, plans to
begin holding annual day schools, with the first to be organised for early November 2018
in London.
Enquiries can be sent to communistanarchism@gmail.com
https://freedomnews.org.uk/anarchist-communist-group-launches-first-public-event/
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Message: 2
UAB professor and trade unionist Ermengol Gassiot has been arrested on the morning of
February 27. He is accused of organizing the rector's occupation in 2013 for having
convened a press conference against cuts in the University. ---- The union CGT de
Catalunya announced after 12 noon that the Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested Ermengol
Gassiot, general secretary of the organization. Gassiot, who has been arrested along with
another militant of the union, is accused by the occupation of the rectorate of the
Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), in April 2013 and was in search and capture
since he was not presented to a judicial summons for the known as Case Som 27 i Month ----
The prosecution accuses Gassiot, professor at the UAB, of having convened a press
conference during the days when the rectorship was occupied by students. Gassiot had
warned the court that he was not going to present himself at the trial, and that he would
maintain his usual activity.
In an interview published yesterday, February 26, by El Salto , the secretary of this
anarcho-syndicalist union recalled that the course 2012/2013, when the closure took place,
there had been increases in the rates -of up to 65% in the UAB-, farewell faculty,
increased precariousness, and began the implementation of private businesses in the
University.
In these circumstances, approximately 150 people, mostly students, occupied the hall of
the rectorship. The reprisals on the part of the university management and the zeal of the
prosecution resulted in requests for sentences of between 11 and 14 years in prison for 27
accused (25 students, an employee of the UAB and Gassiot himself).
CGT Catalunya has called a solidarity rally in the police station of Les Corts, in Barcelona.
https://www.elsaltodiario.com/cgt/detenido-secretario-general-cgt-catalunya-ermengol-gassiot
https://www.cgt-lkn.org/blog/archivos/5174
------------------------------
Message: 3
Most often, an environmental problem is also a social problem. We can go further: to
discuss energy is to ask the question of the modes of political organization that we want
to defend. ---- Without much surprise, the Minister of Ecology Nicolas Hulot, liberal star
of the ecology in cardboard (recycled, certainly), announced in November 2017, want to
postpone for a decade the decrease below 50% of the share nuclear power in the French
energy mix. This decision is political, but not only because it is the prerogative of the
ruling class, or because environmental issues concern us all. It is also tantamount to
deciding the very form of power that will be exercised during these ten years of
postponement - and well beyond. ---- Energy choices and forms of power ---- When
discussing energy choices, it is often in terms of ecology that one argues for or against
a certain form of production or a particular technology, from the point of view of the
damage done to the environment and their social consequences. But one can engage the
reflection in another direction, and measure the energy choices with the yardstick of the
political form that they presuppose, in parallel of the strictly ecological aspect of the
discussion [1]. By following this path, the environmentalist Denis Hayes predicted in the
1970s [2]that " the proliferation of nuclear power plants can only lead society towards
authoritarianism. Indeed, nuclear power can not be safely relied on as the main source of
energy except under the yoke of a totalitarian state . " That same year, the German
Robert Jungk tried to think under the name of " nuclear state " [3].
The maintenance of 58 reactors operating in France requires a certain number of social
conditions. Given the difficulty and danger of uranium mining, the formation of a
technocratic elite at the top of an unshakeable bureaucracy appears necessary to
concentrate the knowledge, the material means, and the impersonal inertia required by such
exploitation. Moreover, this political form is required in the long term: the dismantling
of a power plant can take up to 30 years, and the first five years are critical: this is
where the most dangerous radioactive material is removed. We do not come out of the
nuclear power without risking a catastrophe, so we risk not being able to get rid of the
form of power that accompanies it immediately. But indestructible technocracy is only one
aspect of the affair. Think about the risks of sabotage of nuclear power plants. Or all
the plutonium, reusable waste from the power stations, which is reprocessed in the factory
of La Hague and is shipped throughout the country in leaded cars: just divert a little to
start manufacturing an incredibly dangerous bomb. The protection of power stations,
radioactive material trains, landfills must be absolutely foolproof, or millions of lives
will be endangered, which only a fully centralized military control seems able to
implement. It is easy to imagine that if plutonium were to be stolen, for whatever reason,
To extend France's commitment to nuclear power by ten years is, in a way, to install for
ten more years an ultra-centralized technocratic and military power. For much more than
ten years, in fact, if we add the fact that the nuclear output is made in the long term -
without the waste issue is ever fully resolved - and that such a state must be stable by
definition.
Solar energy, more naturally decentralized
The political question also arises for other sources of energy. Regardless of their
disastrous environmental record, can coal, oil and other fossil fuels be used massively by
the multinational predators of capitalism that we know ? It may be less easy to answer
than for nuclear power, but extracting, processing and transporting large volumes of
fossil fuels will require a certain concentration of material resources and a fairly
vertical hierarchy.
On the other hand, can we think of forms of energy production that would be strongly
compatible with emancipatory political forms?? The same Denis Hayes vigorously defended
solar energy, more naturally decentralized, both technically and politically, since - as
for wind power or hydro, could we add - it is quite possible to build a multitude of
panels and turbines of various sizes, and to manage them locally. On the one hand such a
network would be much less likely to catastrophic global failure and therefore would not
require the security of a centralized management, and secondly it would not require a
large concentration of technical resources and knowledge. More local, accessible,
comprehensible and controllable, regardless of their strictly ecological virtues, these
energies would accommodate more democratic political forms.
When statist communists today promote nuclear power, this is tantamount to sending the
state's decline back to a distant future. Conversely, it is also naïve to ignore that the
time of the dismantling of power stations, the nuclear power will carry forms of
centralization. More positively, to impose solar, wind or hydro where possible is also
anchor forms of energy production that will in the future more easily reappropriate.
Energy is a question of power.
Marco (AL92)
[1] The content of this article is largely inspired by Langdon Winner, The Whale and the
Reactor: In Search of Limits in the High-Tech Times, Paris, Descartes & Cie ., 2002, and
Murray Bookchin, For a social and radical ecology, Neuvy-en-Champagne, The Underground
Traveler, 2014.
[2] Denis Hayes, Rays of Hope: The Transition to a Post-Petroleum World, New York, WW
Norton, 1977.
[3] Robert Jungk, Der Atom-Staat: Vom Fortschritt in die Unmenschlichkeit, Munich,
Kindler, 1977.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Choix-energetiques-Power-to-the-people
------------------------------
Message: 4
During 2017 the fracking industry's activity continued but strong, well organised and
imaginative community opposition resulted in delays and heavy costs for the corporations
involved. This year promises to be another grinding, slow slog for the fracking industry
with money being lost hand over fist due to community opposition around the UK. ----The
fracking industry has to artificially crank up the possibility of profit to draw in
investment capital that is its life blood. But there are over 300 local groups in the
anti-fracking movement which has successfully increased in numbers, strength and
motivation. It is this direct action movement which threatens to bleed the fracking
industry of its profit and stop it dead in its tracks. ---- Last year saw a broad range of
creative resistance to the fracking industry. That resistance focused on the fracking
sites with protest camps, marches and blockades. But the challenge to fracking also
involved organising disruption of the network of supply routes and support sites. Lorries
have been held-up for days with different tactics including lorry surfing.
The tactic of communications blockades such as coordinated mass phone-ins has also been
used to effect business and cut the profit of those companies engaged in fracking. In the
face of these organised protests some suppliers have stopped working with the fracking
industry. Some fracking operations have been slashed. Cuadrilla planned two large shale
gas sites in Lancashire but the these were scaled down to only one at Preston New Road.
That site was going to have four wells but those were then reduced to just two. The
construction work took over six months - double the planned time.
While Lancashire is a major front in the battle against fracking, North Yorkshire, the
East Midlands, South East and other areas are important and anti-fracking actions are
ongoing in these places. A winning strategy of causing construction costs to skyrocket by
creating painful delays through organised disruption using a whole array of tactics could
mean that the fracking industry grinds to a halt. Organised direct action against fracking
can win, both in the UK and internationally.
For extensive info about the anti-fracking movement, including updates, local groups, maps
and other resources check: frack-off.org.uk
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2018/03/05/ant-fracking-round-up/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Women are called to strike and demonstrate on Thursday, March 8, on the occasion of
Women's Rights Day. Let's all be on the street to build our feminist solidarities ! ----
Violence in the heart of a system ---- A few months ago was born the #MeToo #Balance
TonPorc movement on social networks following an umpteenth scandal of sexual violence. A
huge boost of speaking but also listening to women has irrigated our entire society. This
unprecedented movement touches the heart of the male domination system: sexist and sexual
violence against women. ---- Indeed, it is this violence that keeps us in fear and
isolates us. And therefore that prevent us from fighting against inequalities, the
discriminations of which we are victims. Economic domination first, at work and at home:
wages are always lower than those of men, precarious jobs, the lack of advancement ...
which combine, once back at home, with the double day of work ! We have to do housework
and child care. Dominance over our bodies is also always present. Free and free abortion
for all, for example, is insufficiently guaranteed in France because of the breakdown of
social security and the reduction of subsidies to associations.
The fight for women's rights is international !
Right next to us in Ireland, a referendum on abortion will be organized. While supporting
the struggle of Irish women for the right to abortion, we can only regret that the right
of women to dispose of their bodies is debated as if everyone had a say in our choice to
whether or not to continue a pregnancy ...
Download the pdf
Rebuilding solidarities
Now that violence against women has made its way into the media space, it is in all places
of women's domination that we must build our feminist solidarities. The women's strike is
a tool that belongs to us to fight against sexual harassment and other forms of violence,
against wage inequalities or other numerous discriminations (stigmatization of pregnant
women, invisibilisation of work, injunctions to physical appearance ...). The fight will
be at workplaces, in the street and at home ! Let us invest these places in our collective
word, so that fear may change sides, so that it goes to the side of the aggressors and
those who support them, on the side of the bosses and exploiting husbands !
On March 8th, let's create, recreate, build, show our feminist solidarities !
France, Alternative Libertaire
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Un-8-mars-pour-l-egalite-et-contre-les-violences
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Message: 6
Yesterday, 4th March, we held a presentation with ASF-IWA's Dave Kelly on "What is
Anarcho-Syndicalism?" and a lively discussion with the attendees followed.
Our next presentation will in Delhi on 8th of March at 7PM.
Location: 7PM - Studio Safdar, Shadi Khampur, New Ranjeet Nagar, Shadipur, New Delhi
Studio Safdar
Advisory: Avoid driving. Finding parking is tough. If car unavoidable, park at Shadipur
Metro Station's parking.
Metro: Shadipur on BLUE line
Directions: Shadipur metro - Exit Gate No. 5 - Satyam Cinema - cycle ricksha - ‘Biyaasi
number' - May Day next to Rahmat Medical Store.
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Message: 7
Yesterday, 4th March, we held a presentation with ASF-IWA's Dave Kelly on "What is
Anarcho-Syndicalism?" and a lively discussion with the attendees followed.
Our next presentation will in Delhi on 8th of March at 7PM.
Location: 7PM - Studio Safdar, Shadi Khampur, New Ranjeet Nagar, Shadipur, New Delhi
Studio Safdar
Advisory: Avoid driving. Finding parking is tough. If car unavoidable, park at Shadipur
Metro Station's parking.
Metro: Shadipur on BLUE line
Directions: Shadipur metro - Exit Gate No. 5 - Satyam Cinema - cycle ricksha - ‘Biyaasi
number' - May Day next to Rahmat Medical Store.
------------------------------
Message: 8
Always wanted to know what anarchism means to us in our day to day lives? Do you want to
meet like-minded people? Or do you just think we are fun people and want to get to know us
better?
This is THE event for you!
On the 7th of March we are getting together for some discussion or just have a drink.
Don't hesitate to stop by! We are meeting at Café De Reynaert from 19h30!
(Frederik Lintstraat 162, Leuven)
https://leuvenag.noblogs.org/post/2018/03/05/cafe-avond-get-to-know-your-local-anarchists-7-maart/
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Message: 9
We're a little late coming out with our list of the year's anarchist bookfairs, having
missed what was by all accounts a very successful showing in Derry on January 27th with a
bigger turnout than in 2017 with a huge variety of publications on show. ---- There's also
a big gap in this year's list at the moment, with the glaring absence of the London
Anarchist Bookfair in the October schedule - though all credit to the fine progressives of
Swansea for bringing an all-new bookfair to the tables that same month instead. ---- At
present some of the detail is patchy on venues, particularly later in the year, but we'll
be aiming to fill out as we go - for now, the dates below should help fill out the radical
diary nicely over spring and summer. ---- April 7th: Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair ----
11am-6pm at The Black-E, 1 Great George Street
Bookings for stalls are now available at £15 per table, along with spaces for workshops
and campaign presentations.
Contact liverpool.anarchistbookfair at gmail.com
Event page
May 6th: Norwich Anarchist Bookfair
2pm-11pm, venue tbc
Despite a change of venue announcement, the bookfair is well in hand with stalls confirmed
from the Anarchist Federation, Solidarity Federation, hunt sabs, PM Press, Eleusinian
Press, the Cunningham Amendment and many more, plus headline talks on the Norwich Soup
Movement, Freedom Fibres and Faslane Peace Camp. Hosted by No Comply Promotions.
Event page
May 12th: Bristol Anarchist Bookfair
Details tbc
Organisers are promising their Biggest Ever Venue in the east of the city and have already
set the pace for entertaining promo posters (see above).
Website | Twitter
June 2nd: London Radical Bookfair
Goldsmiths University, New Cross
Organised by the Alliance for Radical Booksellers and featuring the annual Bread and Roses
award for radical literature, this is the London Radical Bookfair's third outing. More
info to follow.
Website | Facebook
August 4th: Dorset Radical Bookfair
11am-6pm at Beufort Community Centre, Beaufort Rd
Including such wonders as vooks, stalls, food, meetings, a kids' area, zines, films, talks
and a safe space policy. "We welcome rational debate, we don't welcome attention-seekers,
bigots, fascists, grasses and scabs."
Plus an afterparty at the Riviera Bar with live music and reggae DJ 'til 2am, £5 suggested
donation.
Website
October 13th: Rhyddical Swansea Bookfair
Central Swansea, details tbc
Only recently announced and not many details yet
Event page.
November 17th: Nottingham Radical Bookfair
11am-4.30pm at Nottingham Mechanics Institute, 3 North Sherwood St
Nottingham's second radical bookfair, organised by Five Leaves Bookshop, featuring stalls
by national and local publishers, second-hand booksellers and a full supporting programme
throughout the day.
December? Manchester & Salford Anarchist Bookfair
Last update was that they were hoping to announce a date "early in 2018." For enquiries,
email manchester@bookfair.org.uk.
Facebook page.
Will they/won't they
Some of the bookfairs which have taken place in recent years are yet to declare on whether
they are doing one in 2018, but if you want to keep a general eye out, details are below:
Bradford: The 1in12 Club doesn't always do bookfairs, but when it does they're
interesting. Last time was September 2014
Belfast: Usually held around mid-October but nothing announced yet, updates here.
Cambridge: Last year this was held at the end of April by Anti-Capitalist Cambridge, no
word yet of a repeat.
Cardiff: The local anarchist network is concentrating on anti-arms activism over the next
month and aren't repeating last year's February event, but we'll keep an eye out in case
something materialises later in 2018/
London: The biggest event of the anarchist calendar in Britain is not being put together
by the longstanding bookfair collective this October, but there have been talks about
running a smaller one with a new collective. Watch this space.
Sheffield: Last year saw the Showroom and Workstation host in late May, the collective
website is here.
Have we missed you out? Get in touch with us via editor at freedompress.org.uk or
@freedom_paper. For a listing of bookfairs worldwide, check out the anarchist bookfairs
https://freedomnews.org.uk/anarchist-bookfairs-in-2018/
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