blog of the post capitalist transition.. Read or download the novel here + latest relevant posts
Author: thefreeonline
The Free is a book and a blog. Download free E/book ...”the most detailed fictional treatment of the movement from a world recognizably like our own to an anarchist society that I have read...
Caroline Norma reviews the bestselling “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982,” a radical gift to #MeToo activists in the West, who are likely unfamiliar with the foundational Korean women’s liberation movement.January 7, 2020 by Caroline Norma … Shared with thanks from Feminist Current
Jamie Chang’s English translation of the best-selling Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982will soon be available to Western readers, and its film adaptation is already screening throughout Asia. The novel, originally published in 2016, describes the sexism faced by a young South Korean woman from childhood to early motherhood, when it eventually breaks her.
Fictional accounts of sexism’s impact on women are quickly genre-ed part of the #MeToo literary cannon these days, but Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published in Korean before the country’s feminist uprising in late 2016. In fact, the novel’s narrative is underpinned not by the #MeToo movement, but the politics of the women’s liberation movement that came before it. Its upcoming English-language release in March 2020, therefore, is an opportunity for Western #MeToo activists to learn the politics of the movement that preceded it, and catch up to Korean sisters.
#MeToo is fuelled by indignation at the misogynistic excesses and sexual abuses of overly powerful men. Extraordinary practices of woman-hating, like assaults on women in the American entertainment industry and fatal gang rapes of girls in India, drove the global feminist outrage that launched #MeToo. The movement responds to sexual excess, so is focused on rampant, long-standing perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump, who represent everything #MeToo stands against.
But the earlier women’s liberation movement was the inverse. Consciousness-raising groups stoked women’s indignation at everyday, routine practices of sexism that drove them to examine even mundane aspects of their lives, from housework, to feminine beauty practices, to penetrative, heterosexual sex. Outrage at unremarkable practices of household and labour inequality, including male segregationist pursuits of work and leisure, led to feminist actions like “pub liberations,” wherein groups of women took over men-only bars.
The MAY DAY self-run occupied social center is a huge council owned block in the old Raval area of central Barcelona. An ex adult school, it was closed for repairs, abandoned and occupied in 2016 as a Self Managed Student Hostel (the REA). Despite strong resistance it was violently evicted on the second attempt in December 2017, and abandoned again and bricked up, (see Autonomous Students Residences (REA).. Ongoing Eviction in Barcelona/) Next it was occupied during a demonstration on May 1st 2018 as a self-run Social Center.. .. and named CSO MayDay. It continues with all kinds of activities and has become a symbol of resistance to gentrification, mass evictions, vulture funds, etc..
Libertarian solidarity against the eviction of the CSO May Day! by CNT-AIT Catalunya
by CNT-AIT Catalunya .. translation TheFree
Once again we find that another space freed from the clutches of capitalist speculation, owned by those who claim to be representatives of ordinary citizens and who govern us through repression and lies, is threatened with eviction by of this City Council of the so-called “Commons” (totally fake), led by Ada Colau, the activist recycled into the system…..
Thats how things stand, to the point that Colau’s party shamefully abstained to allow the vote on the evictions of municipally owned buildings, recently raised by the PP .
In this way, they have opened the way to the offensive of the most reactionary sectors and defenders of the sacrosanct private property such as the PP or JuntsxCat itself.
The “Commons” of Ada try to destroy all initiatives that they cannot control through their clientelist political networks. Anything that questions, in one way or another, the “Barcelona Brand”, of which these hypocritical “friendly face” managers of our daily misery are defenders, they try to destroy through the violence of their police hitmen.
This unbridled repression not only acts against dissident groups, but extends to all those people and families without resources who are forced to squat to survive on the margins of the system.
All this is related to the low wages and the high cost of living that, together with real estate speculation, ends up throwing people out of their homes to turn those neighborhoods into commercial shopfronts for tourism.
El Raval, where the CSO May Day companions are located, is a clear example of this. In this Social Center, as in others in the city where self-management is practiced, different solidarity activities have been carried out with the struggle of social and anarchist prisoners, the dissemination of anti-specism, against evictions and gentrification, against police violence, anti-fascism, international solidarity, insumission …
Actions which are oriented to the self-organization of struggles and disseminating and debating ideas to build a culture at the service of social struggles.
Not so to the bourgeois and alienating crap represented by “cultural” elitism such as the MACBA (municipal art exhibition center) or other City Council subsidized civic centers, with which they seek to instill in people the “One Single Belief” in civil obedience, subjecting us to their unjust laws.
The CNT-AIT of Catalonia sees these occupied spaces as a way of building a counterculture that can challenge the dominant discourse and weave libertarian and anti-capitalist networks, challenging private property and the speculative system that generates the misery of broad layers of the population.
That’s why we stand in solidarity and we will be on the streets, when necessary, to defend these revolutionary cracks in a world of conformity dominated by repression and fear.
We call on you to participate actively in the mobilizations that the CSO May Day organise in defense of the social center.
¡Solidaridad libertaria ante el desalojo del CSO May Day!
CNT-AIT Catalunya Correu-e: catalunya@hotmail.com(no verificat!)30 des 2019 Una vez más nos encontramos que otro espacio liberado de las garras de la especulación capitalista, para más inri en manos de aquellos que dicen ser representantes del ciudadano de a pie y que nos gobiernan mediante la represión y la mentira, está amenazado de desalojo por parte de este Ayuntamiento de los farsantes “comunes” (que de eso no tienen nada) de la activista reciclada en botones del sistema Ada Colau.
Esto es así, hasta el punto que hemos podido conocer su abstención vergonzante, pero por otra parte lógica dado su papel de traidores a sus ya remotos orígenes, ante la votación sobre los desalojos de edificios de titularidad municipal, planteada recientemente por el PP.
De esta manera, participan y le tienden la alfombra a la ofensiva de los sectores más reaccionarios y defensores de la sacrosanta propiedad privada como el mismo PP o JuntsxCat.
Los “comunes” de la Ada se ensañan e intentan destruir toda aquella iniciativa que no puedan controlar mediante sus redes políticas clientelares. Todo aquello que cuestione, de una u otra forma, la “Marca Barcelona” de la que son defensores a ultranza estos hipócritas gestores de “rostro amable” de nuestra miseria cotidiana, lo intentan destruir mediante la violencia de sus sicarios policiales.
Esta represión desenfrenada no solo actúa contra aquellos colectivos disidentes, sino que se extiende a todas aquellas personas y familias sin recursos que se ven obligadas a okupar o a sobrevivir en los márgenes del sistema.
Todo esto se relaciona con los bajos salarios y la carestía de la vida que junto a la especulación inmobiliaria acaba por echar a la gente de sus casas para convertir esos barrios en aparadores comerciales para el turismo.
El Raval, donde se encuentran lxs compañerxs del CSO May Day, es un claro ejemplo de ello. En este centro social, como en otros de la ciudad donde se práctica la autogestión, se vienen realizando diferentes actividades solidarias con la lucha de los presos sociales y anarquistas, de difusión del antiespecismo, contra los deshaucios y la gentrificación , contra la violencia policial, antifascismo, solidaridad internacional, insumisión…
Actos orientados a la autoorganización de las luchas y a difundir y debatir ideas para construir una cultura al servicio de las luchas sociales.
No así a la mierda burguesa y alienante que representan adefesios elitistas “culturales” como el MACBA u otros centros cívicos, que sí subvenciona el Ayuntamiento, para inculcar a la gente el “pensamiento único” del civismo, sometiéndonos a sus injustas leyes.
La CNT-AIT de Catalunya ve imprescindibles estos espacios como forma de ir construyendo una contracultura que pueda desafiar el discurso dominante e ir tejiendo redes libertarias y anticapitalistas desafiando, así mismo, la propiedad privada y el sistema especulativo que genera la miseria de amplias capas de la población.
Y eso es por lo que nos solidarizamos y estaremos en las calles, cuando sea necesario, para defender estas grietas revolucionarias en un mundo de conformismo dominado por la represión y el miedo.
Y eso es por lo que nos solidarizamos y estaremos en las calles, cuando sea necesario, para defender estas grietas revolucionarias en un mundo de conformismo dominado por la represión y el miedo.
Hacemos un llamamiento a participar de forma activa en las movilizaciones que el CSO May Day convoque en defensa del centro social.
El día que desalojen a las 19:30 horas en la Rambla del Raval (donde está el Gato).
¡Abajo el capitalismo y sus lacayos del Ayuntamiento!
Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the United States on Saturday took to the streets to condemn the Trump administration’s “reckless acts of war” against Iran and demand that the U.S. withdraw its troops from the Middle East.
On Twitter people demanded Trump be banned for openly threatening War Crimes and the destruction of Iran’s cultural Holy Sites.
2019: Hey @jack can you ban Trump from Twitter because he’s being super shitty and bullying people
2020: Hey @jack can you ban Trump from Twitter because he’s threatening Iran with the destruction of their holy sites and instigating World War 3 and we’re all gonna die pic.twitter.com/WUhpLDbafe
From New York City to Chicago to Arkansas and more than 70 other locations around the U.S., demonstrators rallied against the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, a move that sparked widespread fears of another catastrophic Middle East war..
This is a call for a raucous night of strong solidarity with those imprisoned by the state on one of the noisiest nights of the year. On New Year’s Eve gather your crew, collective, community, organization, or just yourself and come together to raise a racket and remind those on the inside that they are not alone.
Internationally, noise demonstrations outside of prisons are a way to remember those who are held captive by the state and a way to show solidarity with imprisoned comrades and loved ones. We come together to break the loneliness and isolation.
Carlos Aznarez No one had predicted before that youthful irruption in the Chilean Metro, that this year was going to present us with the conflict scenario that we are now seeing. A scenario that demonstrates that after the agreed withdrawal of the Pinochet dictatorship from the government and the emergence of a pseudo-democracy overseen by the empire (called Concertación) the system smells of rot.
That is precisely what the young people (13 to 25 years old) are shouting when they participate daily in the flaming barricades while confronting the criminal repression of the pacos, the militarized police force that acts as a machine to do as much damage as possible.
These courageous youths, whose adrenaline and political awareness are needed to go out into the streets unarmed to confront the machinery of hate promoted by President Piñera, are the ones who have set in motion the restoration of Chilean dignity, who have awakened society as a whole and who, in the process, have recalled that solidarity, comradeship and tenderness are a treasure that has not been lost.
Spending time with the union members of Chapare, who run society in a collective fashion, offers special insights into the resistance to the coup. They succeeded in expelling the police, but now fear a bloodbath in retaliation.
By Ollie Vargas
Cochabamba, Bolivia — Known as Bolivia’s Chapare region, the Tropico of Cochabamba is a sanctuary for elected President Evo Morales’ most dedicated base of support. Since the November 10 coup, it has effectively become a self-governing territory where the military junta is absent.
The police and military were sent in full retreat from this area the coup began and were told they would only be welcomed back if the they “get on their knees and apologize” to the community.
The struggle goes on here & I hope to stay for as long as possible. There is great local media that serves the community, but everyone here is keen for coverage in other languages. I encourage others to come here too, it'll become even more urgent to share these voices. pic.twitter.com/EcSTc8aUwA
In this 12,000 square kilometer swath of land, hundreds of unions have flourished over the years. I spent several days with the union rank and file, witnessing how they run society in a collective fashion, and how they have organized ferocious resistance to a right-wing coup government that threatens to destroy them.
Despite the resilience on display here, there is also a sense of dread. Union leaders told me that if the state decides to militarize the region, as it has threatened, a bloodbath is practically inevitable. If the violent crackdown arrives, it could unravel a social structure they have been steadily constructing for decades.
Kaosenlared.net translation by The Free original en español abajoby Salvador Soler shared with thanks.
There is no “Christmas truce” for the workers of the Electricity Company of France (EDF) who are on strike. Workers are reconnecting service to poor families and lowering the price of tariffs to popular sectors,
while cutting off power to police stations, management and large companies.
Since the beginning of the strike on December 5, electricians and energy workers maintain power outages against Macron’s pension reform. A fighting method that exposes the strength of the workers and the strategic place they occupy, with the possibility of paralyzing government buildings and large companies with power outages.
While the strike has had a greater impact among workers of the SNCF (railway), RATP (metropolitan transport company of Paris), National Education or even health, energy workers are not far behind.
CGT, FO , CNT et #GiletsJaunes devant la gare de Cherbourg: vente de légumes et de miel à prix libre pour aider financièrement les cheminots en grève. Productions données par un agriculteur bio solidaire de la grève https://t.co/ynGXaXE270pic.twitter.com/gFxGCYWL0i
Among them are electricians and gas workers. Of the main companies in the sector there are 41.4% of striking workers in EDF (Electricity Company of France), 39% in Engie and more than 60% in Enedis. From Tuesday, December 10, the strikers voted in assemblies to generate localized power cuts. Michaële Guégan, director of human resources at Enedis, the most important electricity distribution network, notes that there have been selective cuts “in certain public buildings, a commercial area in Bordeaux, a university in Lyon and even a hospital center.”
Workers announced that tens of thousands of poor households are being reconnected to have electricity and gas during the holidays. Thanks to the actions of the Electricity of France (EDF) workers, the poorest families will enjoy an illuminated dinner. This will reduce the power supply of the richest areas of cities, shopping centers, police stations and prefecture to leave them in total darkness.
The Free 