Truly A Winter Of Discontent.

     There is no doubt that this year is different. Yes, there has always been protests in this unjust economic system, but this year there are many more and they are more intense with greater numbers on the streets, and they go on much longer, months, and still continuing. Have The people of Iran joined this world wide revolutionary movement?

This from 325:

     The Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan believes that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime will not hesitate to massacre millions of Iranians, like it has done in Syria and Iraq as well as in Iran these these last few days. Therefore, the Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan is prepared to declare that it will cooperate with all Kurdish, Arab and Baloch armed opposition forces. With respect to the widespread repression of defenseless people in Iran, we must be able to provide them with the right tools to defend themselves, before there are more dead and the people’s movement has been permanently suppressed. Therefore the need to form an armed revolutionary front to support and defend the people against the Islamic regime’s executioners is urgent and necessary. If it is possible to transport weapons to people inside Iran, you should not hesitate for a moment to prevent more people from being bled and buried. The duty of the revolutionary and radical opposition outside of Iran is to provide logistical and strategic support to the struggles and resistance of the people inside Iran

     I don't agree with everything in the following article but it is an excellent source to see the extent of these prolonged mass protests and gives hope that they will be joined by others rather than morph into some sort of formal agreement with the various states. Our support and solidarity could help immensely in preventing this morphing from happening.  From Democracy Without Borders: 

Youth celebrating the Lebanese revolution in 2019. Photo by Vicken Vincent Avakian with kind permission (source)

     This year has seen an extraordinary number of significant mass protests in over twenty countries or territories, many of which in a national context represented the biggest in recent times. They are often spontaneous, with a distinctly revolutionary nature. In many cases protesters would face a serious risk of arrest, injury or death. The ruling class, government or even the whole system of government, are the targets. Corruption, authoritarianism and/or austerity are their key motivators. ------

And:

    -------Obviously protests occur constantly, and we haven’t done a thorough data analysis comparing this year with historical averages. However, it’s generally accepted that the current protests aren’t normal. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria called them  “this autumn of protest”, and noted that “the politics of each of these movements seems quite distinct. But they are all occurring against a worrisome backdrop: a collapse of [global] economic growth”, which is now at its lowest point since the 2008 crash.

       We can take the line of thinking further and note that these various uprisings are in fact different theatres of the same conflict. 

      Protesters may be waving their national flags, and speaking of national rebirth – not global justice, but as the example of Ecuador especially shows, these national transformations can take place, but they must currently do so in spite of the prevailing global system, which is institutionally incompatible with the needs of the world’s population, captured by an undemocratic, ahistorical ideology which fetishises the balancing of national budgets with same year tax revenues which effectively prohibits effective development strategies, such as the provision of basic services or redistribution.

For the list of mass protests continue reading:

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2013/14, The Winter Of Discontent!!

       The present "austerity" measures that are being used to savagely claw resources away from the living standards of the ordinary people, are probably the most brutal for many a decade. In 1978/79 we had the "Winter of Discontent", back then by 1978, the ordinary people had suffered 4 years of voluntary and legislated wage restraint, as this economy driven system, even under Labour, tried to sort out the problems simply by milking the working class into poverty. Here we are again, the system requires "adjustments", and the powers that be, the same financial/corporate Mafia, have only one method, milk the working class into poverty.

       Where is our "Winter of Discontent", where is the solidarity between the various working groups that are seeing their conditions decimated, where is the solidarity between the communities that are seeing the very fabric of those communities being shredded? This attack on our living conditions is not directed at any one group, it is aimed at all of us, it is just that they are picking off the weakest in our society first, the unemployed, the disabled, those who receive social benefits, they will however work their way through the complete range of ordinary people as an entire class. As a class we have to build our resistance across that class, we have to organise across the workers/unemployed segment of society, in conjunction with our communities, that are being assaulted. View it as you will, it is a class war, they recognise that fact, the "austerity" never falls on their class, they always protect their own. It is time that we done likewise and as a class start to defend our own. I see nothing wrong in the present day conditions of having our own 2013/14 present day "Winter of Discontent".

      For those who are not too familiar with the 1978/79 "Winter of Discontent"

The Commune has an excellent article reviewing the event.

      The Winter of Discontent was the longest and most comprehensive strike wave since 1926, with nearly 30 million working days lost embracing more than 4,500 industrial disputes. However, as suggested above, its analysis has always been riddled by mystifications and misconceptions. One such, very common, is that the WoD was a public sector strike – an assumption bolstered by the various urban near-myths of the dead being left unburied, rubbish piling up in the streets, etc. While these are not untrue, they are exaggerated – and in any case ignore the class basis for such supposedly “selfish” acts.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk