St. IMIER INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.

Report back from the St. Imier Congress, Switzerland, August 2012

by Miss Noire (no relation to Espace Noir)

        From August 8 to 12, 2012, thousands of anarchists from all over the world gathered at St. Imier, Switzerland, to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the St. Imier Congress at which the Anti-Authoritarian International was founded, which many believe to be the historical beginning of the anarchist movement. Among the fifteen delegates who attended the original meeting was Mikhail Bakunin, who also stayed in St. Imier for a little while. St. Imier is a small town of less than 5000 inhabitants. The anarchist space Espace Noir, which has been going since the 1980s, can be found on the main road in the middle of town. It hosts a restaurant, bar, infoshop, cinema and concert venue, as well as a gallery. Walking around town, one can see several plaques discussing the anarchist history of St. Imier, some complete with pictures of Bakunin and Kropotkin. It certainly is a very special place and it was already so 140 years ago when the Jura Foundation, made up of watchmakers (highly skilled artisans), had its stronghold there.

        The gathering of 2012 is said to have been the biggest anarchist gathering in 20 years. Anarchists from all over the world attended, including some from as far away as Japan, South Africa, South and North America and, of course, from all over Europe. 

Read the full article HERE:

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MODERN SLAVERY.

        Where have the slaves gone? We used to speak of wage slaves but that seems to be out of fashion, but we are still in that position, modern slavery exits as a way of life across the planet, but we slaves are brainwashed into believing that slavery has been abolished, it is an illusion.. A quote from an interesting article on Modern Slavery:

Read the full article HERE:

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PAN-EUROPEAN COMMUNITY!

        Is that sleeping giant, the European working class, stirring? Is a united Pan-European struggle taking shape? Are the people of Europe finally agreeing, "We're all in this together"? 

The banner reads,

 "In Spain, Greece and Portugal, Death to the State and Capital."

        Let's add the rest of the capitalist states of Europe to the list and aim for that Federation of European People's Communities. Like they say, "Another world is possible".

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THE STEADY MARCH OF FASCISM.

        As reported earlier the Greek government is showing its fascist credentials, but they are not alone. France's new smiling "socialist" leader is forging ahead to prove to the financial Mafia that he too has the right fascist credentials to do business with them. French riot police are smashing Gypsy camps and rounding up the inhabitants to be deported.

Photo from Lansbury's Lido.

      Meanwhile in Italy the Italian fascist government is about to evict a 14 year squat that has been a social/venue/advice/drop-in centre for thousands over the years. The media has always claimed that the millions of ordinary people who shed their blood in WW2 did so to rid Europe of fascism and here we are in 2012 and the ugly beast of fascism is very much alive and growing, right here on the killing fields of WW2.

This from actforfree.nostate:

 

Eviction threat for the Villa Vegan Squat, Milano

In mid-July, 2012, patrols of the carabinieri appeared at the residences of two inhabitants of the Villa Vegan Squat in Milano, to deliver “closure of the investigation” papers related to the occupation of the Squat. The Villa Vegan is an anarchist vegan space that has existed for the past 14 years, serving as a venue for countless events, benefit concerts, mobilizations and ongoing debates and dialogues over many aspects of antiauthoritarian struggle and resistance. The space and its inhabitants have supported feminist and anticapitalist struggles, animal and earth liberation, prison abolition, opposition to the CIE (detention centers for immigrants), anti-civilization movements, and resistance to all forms of repression. The Villa has also operated as an DIY community resource with a bicycle workshop, rehearsal space and recording room, and served as a locus for other forms of underground and non-market cultural production.

For 14 years this place has been the crossroads for many comrades from all over the world, and its walls have reverberated with the energy of all those who have passed through or stayed a while, exchanging political experiences, sharing affection, and building affinity on an international level. In short, the making of politics.

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DHL, ANTI-UNION.

An Appeal from Labour Start:

        DHL is the world's largest courier company and one of the largest employers, with well over 470,000 workers. It's owned by Deutsche Post, the privatized former German postal service. As you can imagine, the company in Germany recognizes trade unions and bargains with them. Many would consider them to be a good employer and DHL is very proud of its "corporate responsibility" record. On their website, they say "we promote a corporate culture based on dialogue."

But not in Turkey.
        There, members of the transport workers union Tumtis tried to organize DHL workers -- but the company has sacked 24 of them. Those workers are now standing outside the company warehouses, resisting the unfair dismissals, demanding their right to join and form trade unions. Local DHL managers have told other employees that unless they quit the union, they will lose their jobs.
      The International Transport Workers Federation, representing over 4.5 million members in 153 countries has called for world-wide solidarity with the DHL workers in Turkey. They've launched an online campaign on LabourStart to call on DHL to engage in exactly the kind of dialogue they claim is part of their corporate culture. It's important to tell companies like DHL that it's not enough to treat workers with respect in countries that already have powerful unions.
      The right to join and form unions is universal -- and DHL must respect it even in Turkey.Those workers standing outside the warehouses of DHL need our support today.

It will take you only a minute to send off your message - please do so now.

And please help us mobilize thousands of others - forward on this message to your friends, family, co-workers and your fellow union members.

Thanks very much.

Eric Lee

 

ann arky's home.

 

BARE-KNUCKLE FASCISM,

        After years of struggle to wrestle slight improvements in our standard of living, we are know having to struggle to stop those improvements being stripped away. The financial Mafia has dictated to the national governments of Europe its plans to recoup its wealth by plundering the public purse, and the so called elected representative governments have obeyed. Naturally the attack on our standard of living will create anger and unrest and as that grows those elected representative governments show their true colours by openly executing fascist policies. It is obvious that since Greece is at the forefront of the financial Mafia's onslaught it would be the first to see that fascist element emerge with a vengeance. What is happening in Greece is just a curtain raiser for the rest of Europe. All those representative governments who through smoke and mirrors, have created the illusion of democracy will have no illusions about dropping the façade and ruling with bare-knuckle fascism, to ensure that the financial Mafia's plans are implemented in full. For years now we have been ruled by corporate fascism under the guise of elected governments, but control is the main object and as unrest grows the gloves will come off, in country after country. 

See a previous post, Corporate Fascism at Work.

This from Bureau for Defence of Refugees:

Communique No 1

10 August 2012

       Greek government has begun to implement its fascist policy of attacking, arresting and deporting refugees and immigrants in Greece. It has deployed 4500 police around Athens and detained more than 7000 immigrants in less than 72 hours. The government instigated the attacks, fanning the right wing fervour in the country following the prosecution of a Pakistani who appeared in court accused of assaulting a Greek girl in Paros.

       Irrespective of the alleged crime, such brutal and fascist crack down on the immigrant and refugee population is condemned and must be stopped.

      The atmosphere in the cities and towns of Greece is intensely unsafe and fragile. The military police enters shops, houses, and patrols the streets and stops and arrests anybody who does not look Greek. Even the mass media is following the fascist policy of the government and specially those of the far right parliamentary party “Golden Dawn” and broadcast the most anti immigration sentiments. Athens’ public-order minister has said: “We will not allow our towns, or our country, to be occupied and become a migrant ghetto”. There is no difference between this statement and that of Nazi movement. The government has started to build more detention centers to hold up to 10,000 immigrants.

       A human tragedy is happening in Greece. It is an attack on humanity and the working class by the far right forces and government of Greece bowing to the pressures of IMF and the European Union. We have to defeat it. Fascism and blaming immigrants for problems “at home” are inherent to all governments internationally. However, at times of economic and political crisis, the ruling class and its governments seek to find ways out of crisis, and attack the most vulnerable in the society.

       Bureau in Defense of Refugee Right of Worker-communism Unity Party strongly condemns the “fascist cleansing plan of immigrants in Greece” and has started a campaign to combat it. We urge all to join our campaign to push this plan back and defend the universal right of immigrants and refugees.

     We urge all immigrants and refugees in Greece to build their own groups and organisations to oppose these plans and actions, and defend refugee rights. 

Contact us for more information and plans of action: sirvan_qaderi@yahoo.com telephone: +447446135857

--
دفتر دفاع از حقوق پناهندگان
Bureau for Defence of Refugees(BDR)
Sirvan Ghaderi (Secretary of BDR)
 TEL and FAX : 00442077306167
  Emergency:    00447765431276
Netherlands Office:0031228799819
Sweden Office: 0046737262622
Germany Office: 00491704652215

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SEEING THROUGH THE SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

        This video should be compulsory viewing for every kid leaving school, for every youngster who thinks, for what ever misguided reason, of joining the military. Sometimes it is a war poet that shows the true picture of war in all its horror, sometimes it's just an ordinary guy who has seen it, and seen through the smoke and mirrors and just tells it like it is. War is always for profit, war is ordinary working folk killing ordinary working folk. The ordinary people never gain from war, they do the dirty work and the millionaire class reap the benefits.

ann arky's home.

MASTERS OF HYPOCRISY.

       Came across this on Lansbury's Lido and thought it was a nice way to say what we all know but the media fail to mention. A little display of the millionaire cabal's inbred hypocrisy.

ann arky's home.

UK's ARSEHOLE PRODUCTION FACTORY.

      It is sad that the people of this country allow themselves to be ruled over by products of that factory of pomp and privilege known as Oxbridge. Get mummy or daddy to shove you through the Oxbridge pudding factory and you are assured a job with power, wealth and privilege. At the moment we have that trio of privileged arseholes, Cameron, Osborne and Johnston making mince of our society, and doing it with a smile and arrogance. I know I am not alone in thinking these thoughts.

       This from Organised Rage:

Britain’s top universities are still capable of churning out top-rank arseholes, despite recent attempts to force the odd prole through their doors.

That’s the claim made by bursars at Oxford and Cambridge universities, home to colleges with a proud history of arsehole production. In fact, many of the arseholes who have graduated from the region widely regard themselves to be ‘the envy of the world’.

‘It’s not all inspirational Olympians and dedicated research scientists,’ insisted Dr Jeremy Hogg, chair of Oxford’s St. Windolene’s college. ‘We’re still knocking out the sort of bore that orders breakfast in Latin. For every scientist researching cancer there’s a misunderstood director making wilfully difficult ballet about the fagging system. They’re both arseholes, but only one of them makes a song and dance about it.’

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I WISH----.

A pleasant and moving thought, just enjoy and perhaps instead of wishing we should act.

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CONFERENCE TOWARDS DIRECT DEMOCRACY.

       It seems only natural that since Greece, (for the moment, others are to follow.)  is at the sharp end of the financial Mafia's onslaught on the social fabric of that part of society where we the ordinary people live, that they should be calling for a conference/discussion on where to go from here. It is important that we realise that this is not a Greek problem, it is the same ongoing struggle of people verses capital that has been waged since the advent of capitalism. Capital has devastated lives across the globe for centuries, but never on such a wide scale and never with such savage brutality. Today it is determined to install wide spread poverty and deprivation across the continent, in an endeavour to recoup the billions that it gambled and lost. As the  dissatisfaction grows among the ordinary people, so the opportunities arise to change the entire economic system under which we have suffered for centuries.

A call from comrades in Thessaloniki for a festival of direct democracy:

We are standing on a crossroad, where we were led by an on going long procedure during the last three years. The riot of 2008 was followed by an open public discussion in the squares of greek cities, where a huge part of greek society showed an active participation. Before the riot of December 2008 the state devaluated life by murdering a 15 year old boy (Alexandros Grigoropoulos), while during the summer of 2011 life devaluated the state by breathing free and fresh air in the squares, without and against the state’s authority.
The idea of direct democracy came in public discussion and managed to crack once and for all the “wall” of representation. The path is now open, but the question still remains, who is going to walk this path?
The topics of this festival deal with
the update of the meaning of direct democracy he presentation and networking of the new projects of a social and solidarious economy that [...]

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ann arky's home.

MORE POWER TO THE PUSSY.

        In Russia we are seeing the usual parallel, as the power of institutionalised religion grows, women's rights diminish. This has been highlighted by the recent "pussy Riots" trial where the state and the established religion does its damnedest to cement the patriarchal society in Russia.

An excellent article from, Second Council House of Virgo:

"So let us take off our crosses
And leave them in a tin
Let our weakness become virtue
Instead of sin."

Almost a hundred years ago, the Russian revolution saw a transformation in the status of women.  Yet in the country of Kollontai, who foretold a land free of both marriage and prostitution, where sexual relations were as simple as sipping a glass of water and women could not be bought, and of Armand, who oversaw the introduction of mass canteens, laundrettes, factory creches, and nursery schools to eradicate gender differences in domestic labour, the position of women has suffered a dramatic contraction.

As Russian society descended into chaos in the early 90s with soviet era industries sold off for pennies, the influx of Western currency saw young women in demand for the sexual services that they could provide.   In the 90s “The Hungry Duck”, one of Moscow’s most notorious nightclubs thrived on young Russian women hoping to pick up a rich Westerners or newly minted member of Russia’s emerging kleptocracy.  The soviet era dining halls and communal childcare facilities evaporated while municipal heating systems faltered and women were thrown back on their own resources to get by, finding that the sale of sexual services could give them cash in a country no longer paying wages.

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AN END TO POMP AND CEREMONY.

       Where else except in Greece would you see a military parade end like this, let's hope the idea catches on and we see and end to all that pomp and ceremony, and end to the display of state power.

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FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS, AND MORE OF THE SAME!!

      The media and our millionaire politicians keep going on about the "crisis", however what they fail to mention is that it is not "a" crisis, as capitalism "is" crisis. The capitalist system of economics has lurched from crisis to crisis. Most of these crises bring misery to millions of ordinary people, today's crisis is probably hitting billions of ordinary people. Today because of the nature of the capitalist beast the "crisis" is world wide. In Europe apart from the "financial" crisis, the German economy is in decline, France has returned to recession, the Italian economy is contracting, and just to screw things up a bit more, China's economy is slowing. All that translates into misery for millions of ordinary folk. World wide, this year alone a further 43 million has been added to those suffering hunger. According to Oxfam, almost one billion people are now hungry, that is a staggering one-in-seven of the Earth's population. This is not because we do not have the food and resources to solve this problem, but is because food is not grown to satisfy people's needs, it is grown to make a profit. That's capitalism, your needs can only be seen to if you have the money to create a profit for somebody else.

      As capitalism has grown to become a world wide economic system, hunger and poverty across the globe has grown, not diminished. In country after country as the capitalist system develops, so does the difference between rich and poor. There is nothing in the system that will make it other than this.  If we continue to look to capitalism to solve these problems, we will just move along to another crisis. Hundreds of years of a failed man made economic system, which produces poverty and deprivation for millions and luxuries for the few, surely merits  that we re-think the way we structure society. Let's move away from the billionaires paradise, to a place where we the ordinary people are in charge of the society that we live in, and create a system that sees to the needs of all our people. We have the resources, the ability and the need to destroy this parasite driven system of profit and greed. We can, and for our own benefit and that of future generations, we must, build a society based on mutual aid, justice, co-operation and sustainability. A society of communities in federation with other communities, controlled by all those who live in those communities.

ann arky's home.

WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM?

Money keeps growing, where does it come from, the money circulating in the world is way beyond the GDP of the world, why have we never got enough but others have billions? Do we need it? Quite a long video but worth the watching.

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ANARCHISM, A LONG PEDIGREE.

       How far back does capitalism go? It has been practised as an economic system for several hundred years, over that time it has developed and refined its procedures and institutions but has failed utterly to eliminate poverty in any one country, even the most developed, America and Britain for example. As it draws wealth to the centre, the periphery suffers, be it city, country or continent, it does not and cannot spread wealth evenly. It is a system that never has and never will see to the needs of all the people. It has been tried and it has failed miserably.

       Anarchism goes back much further, at least to the first century BC. It has only been tried in small pockets on the planet and though where tried, it did see to the needs of all its people, it was always crushed by the power hungry authoritarians. A way of organising society that has persisted for more than 2,000 years, which advocates tolerance and self-sufficiency, is surely worth a try today.

     The earliest  anarchist were probably the Cynics of ancient Greece who scorned all power structures, wealth and adherence to to convention.

     The following is a short extract from Fearless Speech by Michel Foucault, page 120, published by SEMIOTEXT(E)

     There is, however, very little positive doctrine in Cynic preaching: no direct affirmation of good or bad. Instead, the Cynics refer to freedom (eleutheria) and self-sufficiency (autarkeia) as the best criteria by which to assess any kind of behaviour or mode of life. For the Cynics, the main condition for human happiness is autarkeia, self-sufficiency or independence, where what you need to have or what you decide to do is dependent on nothing other than yourself. As a consequence -- since the Cynics had the most radical of attitudes--they preferred a completely natural life-style.  A natural life was supposed to eliminate all of the dependencies introduced by culture, society, civilization, opinion and so on. Consequently, most of their preaching seems to have been directed against social institutions, the arbitrariness of rules of law, and any sort of life-style that was dependent upon such institutions or laws. In short, their preaching was against all social institutions insofar as such institutions hindered one's freedom and independence.

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YES, MORE ON THE OLYMPICS.

----and a little more on the Olympics, this time from A World to Win:

Olympic dream and reality

It’s exactly a year since inner-city riots swept London and other parts of the country. They were sparked by bottled-up anger at the arrogance of the police and rapidly spread into a brief orgy of looting and general destructiveness that took many, including the police, by surprise.
As the medals stack up, politicians backed up by the tabloids are hailing the London Olympics as a great British success story draped in endless Union Jacks. So does the hiatus as millions are drawn into the spectacle mean that the alienation which lay behind the riots has been replaced by a new sense of community, as some would have it?
It’s true that the London Olympics are a showcase for aspects of the British character and mass behaviour not normally apparent in the hardscrabble struggles of daily life. In addition to the prowess of the athletes, thousands of young people have made it as a chance to be friendly and helpful to visitors.
It may be asked where has this great surge of sporting talent and determination, which saw British athletes win six gold medals in one day, come from?

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AND YET MORE ON THE OLYMPICS.

      Below is a statement by singer Morrissey on the Olympics. I can just hear the roar of approval from our “free press”!! I also feel sick in my stomach at what seems to be mass hysteria whipped up by the media, much the same way that Hitler's Nazi regime, for its own imperial dreams, whipped up the illusion of “The Fatherland”. I have a vision of all those flag waving individuals going home and this winter trying to make the decision as to whether to eat or heat. Perhaps they can all wrap themselves in the flag to keep warm.

----And, yet! I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The "dazzling royals" have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the "dazzling royals", laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.
As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP.

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KRAFT PLAYS HARD BALL.

An appeal from IUF:

 

     Kraft Foods owns 49% of one of the largest biscuit factories in Africa, Societé Tunisienne de Biscuits (SAIDA).

    SAIDA workers are discovering what it means to be faced with Kraft's influence and a hostile management determined to limit or strip workers and their representatives of their rights.

     With negotiations over working conditions deadlocked, SAIDA management began harassing and provoking union representatives. Following an assembly held to discuss next steps with the membership, Zed Naloufi, the general secretary of the local union, was disciplined and summarily dismissed. His crime? Representing and meeting the members who elected him!

Act now! To send a message please click here.

Ron Oswald
General Secretary, IUF
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF)
8, rampe du Pont-Rouge
1213 Petit Lancy, Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 793 22 33
Fax: +41 22 793 22 38
web-site: www.iuf.org

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A MULTI COLOURED RAG.

        We are into the second week of the Olympics and nobody can deny, there has been a lot of excellent sport. Though we all know that the modern day Olympics has nothing to do with sport. It is all about corporate identity, a corporate greed feast with particular brands trying to dominate the market. It is also about giving a public subsidy of tax payers money to big business, we are talking billions here. However, its most important function is to get the public all behind the flag, all that flag waving and shouting, creating the illusion that we are all in this together, we are one big happy family. Patriotism, the foundation of wars, the keeper of the state, forget your poverty and injustice, forget the gulf between rich and poor, forget the austerity cuts, unemployment, benefit cuts, lower pensions and deteriorating education system and health service, we are all team GB.

PATRIOTISM.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ‘tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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