Palestinian Anarchists.

        If you look you can find information about anarchists from anywhere in the world, well almost. One place that doesn't spring to mind when thinking of anarchism is Palestine. Their battle has been against 60 odd years of occupation, land stealing and genocide, there battle has been one of survival against a brutal expanding occupying power. This tends to, though not necessarily so, lead to nationalism, a coming together under a different banner. I have no doubt that their battle will employ principles of anarchism, but that type of battle tends to emphasis a people against another people. However nationalism is not a healthy state of mind, it tends to have an "us" mindset and usually leads to differences, rather than similarities, divisions rather than co-operation.

This from The Hampton Institute:

       Importantly, Hassan extends her own understanding of anarchism beyond positions merely against state or colonial authoritarianism. She refers to Palestinian novelist and Arab nationalist Ghassan Kanafani, noting that although he challenged the occupation, "…he also challenged patriarchal relations and the bourgeois classes… This is why I think we Arabs - anarchists from Palestine, from Egypt, from Syria, from Bahrain - need to begin reformulating anarchism in a way that reflects our experiences of colonialism, our experiences as women in a patriarchal society, and so on."

      "Just being part of political opposition won't save you," warns Ramadan, who adds that for many women, "When you stand against the occupation, you also have to stand against the family." In fact, the over-emphasized portrayal of women at protests, she maintains, masks the fact that in reality many women have to fight just to be there. Even attending evening meetings requires young women to overcome social boundaries not faced by their male counterparts.

Well worth reading the full article HERE:

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We Have Found Our Vioce, We Have Power.

       The last few years has seen the financial Mafia squeeze the world's poor with their master plan of “austerity”, in an attempt to recoup their massive gambling loses. However, it has not all gone quietly for them, the people have been getting wise to this large con-system known as capitalism. Across the globe in cities, towns and villages, anger has been growing, and awareness that this is not the only way to shape society. What is more it is no longer isolated protests in particular places with the rest of the world being unaware of that struggle. Protests against the system are country wide and even world wide, and with support and solidarity coming from around the world. 

   

    Recent years has seen the world shaken to its core by mass protests. The Arab Spring swept across North Africa, The Occupy Movement sprang up in cities across the world, we had the Indignados and food riots. No matter what that babbling brook of bullshit, the main stream media would have you believe, there is a rising tide of anger, outrage and disillusionment with the present system. The last few years have seen some of the largest protests the world has ever experienced. 

    Here are some of the figures regarding world protests taken from a recent report by Initiative for Policy Dialogue:

        Our analysis of 843 protest events reflects a steady increase in the overall number of protests every year, from 2006 (59 protests) to mid-2013 (112 protests events in only half a year). Following the onset of the global financial and economic crisis began to unfold, there is a major increase in protests beginning 2010 with the adoption of austerity measures in all world regions. Protests are more prevalent in higher income countries (304 protests), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (141 protests), East Asia and the Pacific (83 protests) and Sub-Saharan Africa (78 protests). An analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region (77 protests) shows that protests were also prevalent prior to the Arab Spring. The majority of violent riots counted in the study occurred in low-income countries (48% of all riots), mostly caused by food-price and energy-price spikes in those countries. Interestingly, the period 2006-2013 reflects an increasing number of global protests (70 events), organised across regions.

        The people's anger is driven by similar factors across the planet, anti-austerity, a call for justice, poverty, poor living standards, lack of democracy and transparency, privatisation, accountability of the political class and a complete disillusionment in the political system. There is a common thread running through all the protests, a better world for all, an end to the inequality built into the present system and a true representation of all the people. 

        People are now aware that the political decisions are not made in their interests, whether it be an authoritarian regime or the so called representative democracies, the criticisms are the same, the system is not working for the benefit of the people, they now recognise that they are not represented at the decision making table. And that applies equally to governments of the right and left. It is becoming ever more obvious that the corporate and the political are a team working in their own interests. 

      The old mix of protesters drawn mainly from trade unionists and single issue activists has been transformed into a very wide spectrum of society. We now have pensioners and youth marching with middle class, unemployed, employed and disabled. All manner of social groups are linking up as they all share the same view, that they are not being represented, the political system has failed them. 

      Where do we go from here? It is difficult to see how the powers that be, can put the genie back in the bottle, people want change, they have found their voice, and they now know that they have power. How far they will take that desire for real change, will they take control of their own lives, will they boldly use their imagination and shape that better world to their true desires, will they create a world they can proudly hand to the next generation? 

 

Images from Google:

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The Egyptian State's Battle For Survival.

      Whatever it was that the people of Egypt took to the streets for, is certainly not what they have now. What is happening now is the stifling of any idea that the people should control the country. For a while it look like the people might control the country, and that will not be tolerated by the states and other powers around the world. Pressure would be put on the Egyptian establishment to step in and take control. That is what we are witnessing at the moment.

From "The Vast Minority".

    "Down with the military and Al-Sissi!  Down with the remnants of the Mubarak regime and business elite! Down with the State and all power to autonomous communities!  Long live the Egyptian revolution!"

     This is the powerful and defiant message put out by Egyptian anarchists in the face of the horrific repression being inflicted on the people by the new military regime - the latest local incarnation of the same inhuman power-hungry entity.

Here is the full statement from Tahrir-ICN:

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Profit Before People.

       For more than two years the people of Bahrain have been taking to the streets and dying in their attempt to end a brutal dictatorship. Meanwhile the West spouts about supporting the "Arab Spring" while selling arms to that brutal dictatorship. While the people die on the streets of Bahrain, a British arms sales team from United Kingdom Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation, (UKTIDSO) has been promoting weapons sales to that brutal Baharian dictatorship.  Between 2008 and 2012 the UK has sold almost £13 million worth of weapons to Bahrain and despite the country's brutal record suppressing protest, has sold them £4 million worth of small arms.

      According to ekklesia On 25 April, Prince and Royal Guard Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, visited Counter Terror Expo 2013 in London. In an official statement he stressed the importance of “new technologies to contain the detrimental repercussions of terrorism.”

     In 2012 a human rights group alleged that the prince was "personally engaged" in beating, flogging and kicking pro-democracy protestors in April 2011. Documentation describes how Sheikh Nasser, who is the president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, launched "a punitive campaign to repress Bahraini athletes who had demonstrated their support for the peaceful pro-democracy movement." The prince denied the allegations. The UN Rapporteur on Torture has had a planned visit to Bahrain indefinitely postponed by the Bahrain government.

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A Smothered Arab Spring.

      In that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, there is lots of coverage of the bloodshed in Syria and lots of talk about helping the elements that are attempting to bring down the Assad regime. They spout support for democracy as why they are supporting the "Free Syrian Army", yet hardly a CS gas canister's throw away, there is another uprising which gets little or no coverage from that same babbling brook of bullshit, the uprising by the people of Bahrain. The people of Bahrain have been involved in mass protests to demand a new constitution and removal of the autocratic family that rules their country. These protests started around 2011 and are still continuing, and to date it is estimated that 114 people have been killed and approximately 2700 injured, there have been 43 deaths from excessive use of CS gas. This is an uprising by the majority of the people of Bahrain who are attempting to create a more democratic society, it has been going on as long as the Syrian bloodshed, why the difference in coverage by the babbling brook of bullshit? The main difference is that in Syria, the Assad regime doesn't let the Western corporate world get its hands on the countries resources, that really pisses off our corporate greed merchants, So he has to go, just as Saddam had to go for the same reason and why Iran is being measured up for destruction. On the other hand, the Bahrain autocratic despot family that rules that country with an iron fist, is friendly to the West and allows the Americans a free hand in keeping their massive Middle East naval killing machine based there, so that it can keep an eye on those nasty regimes that want to keep hold of their own natural resources.

       That is why our babbling brook of bullshit will always support any ragbag of armed groups as long as they get rid of any regime that doesn't play ball with the Western corporate greed machine, but will support any brutal despot dictator, family, monarch etc. as long as the allow our corporate lords and masters to profit from their existence. The people of these countries, or their conditions, are of no interest what so ever to our Western imperialists.

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ANARCHISTS IN THE "ARAB SPRING".

     There seems to be a refreshing change taking place across the Middle East. More and more we are seeing larger organised anarchist groups coming to the fore in demonstrations. It makes a pleasant move away from the predominantly religious factions that seem to have dominated the Western media's much loved "Arab Spring". Who knows the spark that starts the fire, once the genie of protest is out, it is almost impossible to get it back into the bottle.

       This from Vast Minority:

       AN EGYPTIAN anarchist movement has emerged on the streets with a wave of firebombings and street fights. The new wave of revolt is also sweeping through other Arab countries, with anarchist groups in Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and elsewhere.
       Anarchists have been present in Egypt before, during, and after the revolution, but until today, they have yet to organize a mass grouping under the banner of anarchism, explains blogger Ryan Harvey.

      The Ultras of Egypt’s football clubs have for years been associated with anarchist ideas and actions, and they are widely credited with having initiated the level militancy that brought down the Mubarak government in February of 2011.

Read the full article HERE:

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SPRING HAS NOT YET SPRUNG!!

     Uprisings across the Middle East, sometimes popular uprisings of the ordinary people, but in most cases hi-jacked by Western interference with ulterior motives, or taken over by fundamentalists. At the end of the day they have usually ended up with another authoritarian power structure in place that sets about solidifying its position of power and doing its utmost to stifle any popular democratic challenge to its position.

This from LabourStart:

 

      Remember the "Arab Spring"?  It was supposed to mean a new era of freedom for workers.  But in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, union leaders and activists are being jailed and sacked in brutal attempts to crush independent trade unions.

      Global unions have launched online campaigns to protest and we need your support and the support of your fellow union members to put pressure on governments and companies in North Africa to begin to respect workers' rights.

       In Morocco, Said Elhairech, the general secretary of the Moroccan dockers union was arrested in Casablanca on false charges, including one relating to national security.  Nearly three months later, he's still being held, denied bail.  The International Transport Workers Federation has launched a global campaign to demand his release.  Send your message to the Moroccan government today by clicking here.

       In Egypt, transnational food giant Kraft has sacked five members of the board of the newly-created independent union at the former Cadbury chocolate factory in Alexandria following a protest over the non-payment of a government-decreed social allowance.  The IUF, the global union representing food workers, has an online protest here. 

      And finally in Tunisia, Zed Naloufi, the general secretary of the union at Kraft SAIDA, was disciplined and summarily dismissed following a membership meeting. His crime? Representing and meeting the members who elected him.  Support the IUF campaign demanding that Kraft reinstate him here.

     It will take you only a few minutes to support all three campaigns, but it's hugely important that you do so.

      And even more important that you recruit others to do so.  Let's flood the Moroccan government and Kraft with thousands of email messages in the next few days.

      And in doing so, let's help turn the promise of the "Arab Spring" into a reality for North African workers.

 

Thanks very much.

 

Eric Lee

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