Today's Topics:
1. Greece, LIBERTATIA WE ARE US // Neighborhood By APO (gr)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #280 - Laws Work 1 and 2:
Why the failure of the social movement (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, brightonsolfed Brand Vaughan Make a Legal Threat
Against a Student Tenant: Solidarity Federation's Campaign
Intensifies (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. anarkismo.net: Note from the CAB on federal and military
intervention in Rio de Janeiro by CAB - Brazilian Anarchist
Coordination (ca, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
A few weeks ago, we witnessed an event that shattered negatively the neighborhood of
Faliro in Thessaloniki. The arson of occupation of Libertatia, the neoclassical building
at the contribution of L. Arthur & Sarantaporos, the roof of some people and libertarian
ideas, one of the few old buildings preserved in this city. This was the day of the
Macedonian rally, where the crowd closed the streets to come out to defend the "Greekness"
of Macedonia. Once again, in society, pseudo-dilemmas are spreading that disorientate it
from reality, offering fertile ground to its creeping fascism. ---- And all this in
Thessaloniki. In the formerly multicultural capital of the Balkans, the city of refugee,
persecution and extermination of the Jews and other populations, the murdered 36-year-old
workers, the torture-winning paramedic criminals, the great poor. In all the crimes of
fascism and nationalism that happened in this city came the addition of the arson of a
historic building with more than a century of life. Unfortunately, however, anyone who
does not remember his story is doomed to relive her. (excerpt from the political
occupation of occupation libertatia on 29.01)
A Few Words on the Occupation of Libertatia.
"LIBERTATIA, means libertarian-inspired by the semi-mythical liberal community of pirates
around 1600. As before, the waves of our lives have led us to a self-managed raft for
freedom." (From the first pamphlet of occupation " The need for housing and the solution
to occupation as a means of revolutionary action "
In 2008, the mansion was occupied at the corner of the Army and Sarantaporos, re-living
life after many years of desolation. We tried to make it sustainable and we did it, which,
due to its age and its architecture, was done with great effort, with money from our lag
and help for companions. Of course we did not expect any rewards, our satisfaction was
moral and political. The assembly of occupation laid the foundations based on equality and
anti-hierarchy. This created a place open to all those struggling to overthrow a social
system based on exploitation. In the summer of '09 there was a call in the neighborhood to
meet in the neighborhood to meet. This is because the neighborhood for us is and remains
vital and space for intervention, so any event was addressed to us (with texts, posters,
interventions). Our good relationship with this is even demonstrated today, when during
the attack the crowd went out to the balconies shouting to the fascists, who of course
replied with bruises and flares. Anyway, the world of the neighborhood knows well who and
why they burned the occupation, is next to us and supports us, and this attitude gives us
the power to stay in the building and to repair the damage. Our good relationship with
this is still evident today, where during the attack the people came out to the balconies
shouting to the fascists, who of course responded with bruises and flares. Anyway, the
world of the neighborhood knows well who and why they burned the occupation, is next to us
and supports us, and this attitude gives us the power to stay in the building and to
repair the damage. Our good relationship with this is still evident today, where during
the attack the people came out to the balconies shouting to the fascists, who of course
responded with bruises and flares. Anyway, the world of the neighborhood knows well who
and why they burned the occupation, is next to us and supports us, and this attitude gives
us the power to stay in the building and to repair the damage.
Besides our ideas, Libertatia housed ourselves, housed the needs of people without the
rent of rent, people who did not have the ability to rent a home, such as immigrants and
people of the lower social class.
The occupation despite the difficulties of the building kept a steady social profile
without, of course, losing its political identity. The movie projections of the filmmaking
team were almost every week, just like the occupation bar. The concerts were also
frequent. But one of the most important activities was the structure of self-education.
Like every revolutionary movement that existed before, and set its foundations on
education, we also tried to study revolutionary theory and history. By opening it to
society, we set the terms of our revolutionary function: "action requires knowledge and
knowledge of education". All of this will of course continue to exist because Libertatia
will stay. Work has begun and we are ready.
But the problem is not just the destruction of an occupation. The problem is the fascism
and the society that nourishes it. Fascism is not only the golden dawn and the various
far-right groups, nor all those "bad" things we know from history that it did, but
passivity and apathy, is the society that follows history but not the changes, does not
speak, and does not take position. It is clear to everyone that what happened could not be
done without the cover-up of the rally. Let everybody therefore consider his attitude to
fascism.
In closing, we would like to say that the decision to rebuild the building stems from our
will to respond to the disastrous tendency of fascism. For us, occupations are not their
dwarves, but people - are the relationships that are built within them. It's struggle
struggles that take us to the road. The occupations are us. And we will prove that the
anti-fascist movement has the will, the forces and the determination to rebuild what has
been destroyed. The Libertatiawill be left and the building will be rebuilt on our own,
with our own people. This will be the best response to the state and its fascist gangs. It
is a great bet for the world of struggle all this process and its ultimate success will
show that we can live and create without the state, capital and power. It is a battle that
has to be won and won.
Libertatia, a collective for libertarian communism
27/2 // MICROPHONES IN 16.30 & STREAM ON 18.00 // OUT OF STORAGE
------------------------------
Message: 2
Crying about the " union leadership " that did poorly or not enough, maybe it relieves,
but it is very insufficient to explain the impossibility of expanding the movements of
2016 and 2017 beyond the " hard cores " Employee is aware. The January 2018 LA Federal
Co-ordination discussed these limitations, and the work to be done to overcome them in the
future. ---- The years 2016 and 2017 will have seen, in quick succession, two major
defeats for the whole of the wage-earning of this country. Several months of struggle have
failed to stop the El Khomri law (known as the " Labor Law ") in 2016 ; in 2017, for lack
of substantial mobilization, the defeat was faster against Macron orders (known as the "
XXL Labor Law "). How to explain these defeats ? And what lessons to draw for all those
who are not ready to give up before social regression ?
Let us say quite clearly that it will not be enough to point out the failures of the
confederal " directions " to understand, not only defeat, but the impossibility of
bringing up a powerful and ingrained mobilization in the companies. The discomfort is deeper.
The extent of union deserts posed a problem
Focusing on complex legal reforms that led to a sharp decline in social and trade union
rights, the counter-reform El Khomri and the Macron ordinances offered no easy catch. The
mobilization needed to explain and raise issues that are less obvious to be grasped than a
reform that retreats the retirement age, for example.
From this point of view, the extent of trade union deserts posed a first problem. A
majority of employees have never experienced either the existence of social rights (Labor
Code and collective agreements), or that of trade union rights which allow, at least, to
require employers to comply with social rights. And when a union presence exists, it is
often folded in on itself in a duel delegates-bosses whose employees remain passive
spectators and spectators, failing to succeed [1]to associate them with the elaboration of
the demands and the means of struggle.
In many small and medium-sized enterprises, the fragile trade union presence often rests
on two or three elected officials without real support from their colleagues. In the
largest, elected officials take advantage of their functions to climb the hierarchy of the
company, or use their hours of delegation to go to the restaurant (with the works council
card ...) and / or 'lock up in the union premises. Inter-union wars sometimes take on a
sordid way of settling scores, and the elections of delegates are not always the occasion
for substantive debates on the demands and democracy of the workers. In short, the
practical experience of employees does not always push them to mobilize to defend the
right to organize.
Finally, under the weight of mass unemployment and precarious employment, many employees
no longer dare to go on strike to defend their immediate demands. Overall, as shown by the
statistics published by DARES over forty or ten years (and what we know of the field), the
number of strike days at the national level continues to decline, even if strikes continue
to hatch, some of a very long duration. The ideological victory over " the crisis And the
need to make sacrifices to keep one's job weighs too. The great majority of hard conflicts
take place at the time of massive layoffs and closures of companies, restructuring of
services. The consciences sharpened during these conflicts are then lost with the
dispersion of the collective in the isolation of each and everyone faced with unemployment.
In the end, it is hard to imagine that employees who do not strike when mandatory annual
negotiations (NAO) fail, will go on strike to refuse the decline in the number of elected.
es and the inversion of the hierarchy of standards !
In fact, beyond the reproaches that must be addressed to the confederations as well as to
the basic unions on the way in which the stakes were explained and whose mobilizations
were pro¬posed [2], all and all the revolutionaries found themselves faced with the
difficulty of extending the mobilization beyond a core of employees, certainly not
negligible and rather stable, but very insufficient to win.
For the camp of the bourgeoisie, the stake was considerable. It was, more or less, to
inflict a historical retreat into the proletariat's capacity to preserve its rights and
the very means of defending them. Faced with such an issue, only a generalization of the
strike in important sectors of the economy could drive back the PS / Macron governments.
It was also the awareness of the level at which the confrontation had to be constructed
that discouraged activists, and even more generally combative sectors who thought that,
since the general strike would not be successful, it was not used to nothing to follow the
twenty-four hour strike days.
Federal Coordination of LA, January 2018
To do despite the decline of class consciousness
Since the election of Mitterrand at the Elysee Palace in 1981, disappointments have
accumulated for the camp of the workers, largely structured at the time by the political
and trade union organizations - the CGT, but also sectors of the CFDT and of the FEN -
which carried the Joint Program of Government PS-PCF-Left Radicals as Hope for Change.
Not only has the hoped-for change not come, but the destruction of entire sectors of the
industry has dealt a violent blow to many union strongholds. The collapse of so-called
communist regimes not only confounded those who still believed in " real socialism " but
removed the idea that an alternative to capitalism was possible, even desirable. The
decline in the involvement of activists in interprofessional structures testifies to a
decline in class consciousness and signs a decline in unionism in the company, which
strikes even the professional structures, and shows the lack of interest union unions and
federations.
The accumulation of defeats weighs heavily on the militant generation of the 1960-1970s.
Massive early retirement plans have shaken up the construction of relief teams in the
unions. The definitive retirement of this generation, which was particularly politicized,
leaves a gap that must be filled.
The decline in the involvement of activists in interprofessional structures shows a
decline in class consciousness and signs a decline in unionism in the company, which
strikes even the professional structures (disinterest vis-à-vis unions and federations).
Mélenchon's self-proclaiming intervention in the calendar of mobilizations with its
September 23 rally added to the confusion and dispersion. While he himself, as a former
socialist leader, co-responsible for the political turmoil in the world of work, his
posture challenging unions and the Charter of Amiens to claim the right of political
parties to lead social mobilizations is worrying for the future.
Federal Coordination of LA, January 2018
[1] Sometimes, it's for lack of trying to associate them ...
[2] The revolutionaries can not be exonerated from all these " reproaches ", which emerge
from a collective report
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Lois-Travail-1-et-2-Pourquoi-l-echec-du-mouvement-social
------------------------------
Message: 3
Brighton lettings agency Brand Vaughan is facing a growing campaign by Solidarity
Federation, after the agency deducted £390 from the deposit of a student tenant for
cleaning and redecoration. The tenant left her room clean, and the deductions made by the
agency contain a number of problems, including not evidencing an attempt to procure the
most reasonable deal, as they should, and not all of the deductions being sufficiently
costed. Moreover, the tenant reported serious concerns regarding the behaviour of her
housemates to the agency during her tenancy, which was pertinent to the issues that the
agency claim require deposit deductions, and which was the source of a great deal of
distress for the tenant, who had to move out because of them. Not only has Brand Vaughan
not taken the tenant's reporting of these issues into consideration - incredibly, they
have also included a call-out fee for their subsequent inspection of the property. For
lettings agencies, safety comes at a price.
Brighton SolFed has supported the tenant to try and find an amicable resolution to the
dispute, with a demand letter delivered to the agency in December 2017, which gave Brand
Vaughan an opportunity to resolve the dispute before the commencement of the public
campaign, which they did not do. Consequently, our public campaign commenced on 17th
January, with an informational picket outside the Hove branch, and has been ongoing since
then. So far, both the landlord, who is the Chief Executive of Brand Vaughan, and Brand
Vaughan themselves, have refused to refund the £390 deposit, or to pay £541 compensation
(10% of the rent paid by the tenant) for the distress this situation has caused to the tenant.
Brand Vaughan have now demanded that Brighton SolFed's public campaign cease, and that a
written retraction is posted on the Brighton SolFed website regarding the claims that the
campaign has made. If this does not happen, they say, it is their ‘intention to issue
proceedings' against both ourselves and the tenant.
This email from one of the directors of Brand Vaughan is a clear attempt to intimidate a
young woman and student tenant out of taking action for the return of her deposit, made by
an agency that stresses its apparently (three year-old) award-winning service. Brighton
SolFed responded to this legal threat with a well-received picket of the Hove and Kemptown
branches of the agency on Saturday 24th February. In Kemptown, Brand Vaughan attempted to
hand-out ‘counter-propaganda' to passersby, though they received short shrift from most
and gave up after around five minutes. Manchester Solidarity Federation also staged a
picket of Brand Vaughan's sister agency in Manchester, Thornley Groves, which saw the
branch close after around thirty minutes.
Deposit theft is a billion pound a year industry in the UK, so it's unsurprising when
agencies make deductions to further bloat their profits and line their pockets. They
couldn't survive without it. The problem for Brand Vaughan is that tenants are fighting
back, and we will not allow our rightful protest to be dampened by the threat of judicial
procedures. Our intention is to bring every dispute onto the streets - not just because it
is faster, cheaper and more effective, but also because it is the only way we can
understand that each of us has the same problems. Tenants in Brighton and beyond are sick
of being mistreated, but we know that our collective action and solidarity is stronger
than their threats and intimidation!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk/brighton/brand-vaughan-make-a-legal-threat-against-a-student-tenant-solidarity-federations-campaign
------------------------------
Message: 4
Last Friday, the government of Michel Temer (MDB) launched a decree that placed the area
of public security of the State of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) under the command of the Brazilian
army in the figure of its general Walter Braga Neto. A federal intervention presented as a
solution to what the ruling elites call "crisis" in public security and that should be
understood as a split of the shock government already applied to the state. ---- It is not
the first time that the army acts in the RJ. Military interventions in communities and
favelas in Rio de Janeiro are a reality. However, the novelty lies in the centralization
of command of all public security in the hands of a military command. If the military
record in social control and in the repression of the oppressed was used even in the PT
(workers' party) governments, a new step was taken.
With that, the State diverts the population's attention from the discussion of retirement
reform to the question of public security, and with the creation of the Ministry of Public
Security, it may obtain greater support from reactionary sectors of society that urgently
need the military intervention. It will not be with military tanks and soldiers acting as
police that a structural problem of the capitalist system will be solved, on the contrary,
it only tends to aggravate the situation of public (in) security in the RJ and keep the
Carioca communities, where the black and poor people are, militarized and controlled by
the State more than ever.
But that step will deepen the social chaos that comes along with the social inequalities
created by the system of capitalist domination. System that in the current stage requires
the withdrawal of rights, the collapse of public services and their privatization and
offering as a counterpart boots, rifles and helmets. In the short term, this system wants
to pass at all costs the retirement reform that in practice ends with the retirement of
the workers.
In short, next to the policies of fiscal adjustment and withdrawal of rights, from the
petistas governments with the Anti-Drug Law, the Law of Criminal Organizations and finally
the Anti-Terrorism Law, we see the escalation of a Police State that intensifies the
repressive facet of the system against the black population, against poverty and against
social struggles under the excuse of a war on drugs and crime.
We of the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination repudiate the federal intervention in the RJ
and we say:
No Army, No Reform!!
Related Link: https://anarquismo.noblogs.org/?p=905
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30857
------------------------------
Home »
» Anarchic update news all over the world - 3.03.2018