no gods no masters
The squatted site, which was founded to oppose the nearby airport’s destructive expansion project, is facing a bailiff assault either tomorrow or on Wednesday.
In the shout out for “urgent support against a land squat eviction” earlier today organisers at the four-acre camp [map] noted that the threat comes shortly before their ninth anniversary, which is due to be celebrated with a weekend gathering on March 8th-10th.
Continue reading “Urgent support call-out as Grow Heathrow eviction looms”
by ‘power to restorative justice!’ …. …. translation updated 18:53 10/02/19
Leer en español aquí abajo. / Original en Catalá AQUÍ
We write this communication in order to share our concern and irritation due to many situations that we have known or experienced directly in recent times in relation to the definition of gender violence and its management in social and libertarian movements.
We start from the idea that gender violence is the product of a heteronormative model that imposes a unique form of existence in terms of what our body, our identity, our gender expression, our sexuality and our relationships are. All those people who do not comply with this norm can be exposed to violence, as punishment for transgressions and non-compliance with the hetero-norm.
And those agressions that happen in the spaces that should be of support and solidarity make the lives and militancy of those who fight untenable, and for that we strongly oppose them. All of us who signed this communique have spent years fighting against the heteropatriarchy, as well as for the liberation of all.
Now that our position is clarified, it is essential to share a reflection on how the hegemonic feminist discourse is defining violence and, by default, how the so-called aggressions are being managed.
The first issue that is problematic is the way in which gender violence is being framed, conceptualized and considered. From certain feminisms it is named with this term structural or symbolic gender inequalities, causing the concept of violence to take on too great a spectrum of meanings. Continue reading “You will not find us there: on Gender Violence and Collective Management”
Ocalan above all is responsible for rejecting terrorism, stalinism and the fight for a new state in favour of ‘municipal anarchist’ communal ideas and feminist emancipation which have swept through the 15 million Kurdish population.in English / Français / Castellano
Call legalized by CGT France.. link HERE . Source – François Boulo, of the Yellow Vests, calls for a general strike 28.1.2019
We translate into Spanish the call for an unlimited general strike, convened by François Boulo from Rouen for the Yellow Vests, the grassroots movement that has defied the brutal repression of the Emmanuel Macron regime and continues to mobilize around demands on health, employment, education and housing.
We appeal to all French citizens: salaried workers, seasonal workers, civil servants, craftsmen, merchants, businessmen, farmers, the unemployed, pensioners, professionals, students, schoolchildren, artists, intellectuals to be mobilized to build as of February 5, 2019, the unlimited general strike.
At this moment, we regret to see that the executive power persists in not listening to any of the demands presented by the Yellow Vests and in implementing an unjust policy rejected by 75% of the population of France.
It is quite clear that the Great National Debate is nothing more than a communication strategy, which aims to anesthetize public opinion without any concrete action being taken for change. The president of the republic has categorically refused to reevaluate the fiscal measures that were imposed at the beginning of his term that benefit the 1% of the richest ….
It has also confirmed its reduction of essential public expenditures: health, education, police and justice.
Instead of listening and trying to calm the people, what the president of the republic and his government have done is put gasoline on the fire with his irresponsible statements: “crowd with hate”, “agitators”, people who “lack a sense of effort”.
This chaotic strategy has resulted in 1000 injuries among our police and gendarmes; 12 dead and 1800 injured among the demonstrators, of which a hundred have been mutilated, disfigured or blinded.
Not a word of empathy with the victims has been uttered by the institutional spokespersons.
The violence that shakes our nation must stop and our demands must be met. As a result, we appeal to the whole of French citizenship: salaried employees, seasonal workers, civil servants, craftsmen, merchants, businessmen, farmers, the unemployed, pensioners, professionals, students, schoolchildren, artists, intellectuals to be mobilized to build as of February 5. of 2019, the unlimited general strike.
We call on the Yellow Vests as a whole and all those who want to join us to spread this call through all social networks and in the field, factories, universities, high schools, public establishments.
We also call all citizens to implement a boycott of large shopping centers and instead opt for local commerce, in order to support them in these times of crisis.
This is the moment in which each one must ask himself in the depth of his being, if he should continue supporting a power that has lost its legitimacy and that, abandoning the sense of the general good, has lost the essence of his mandate. Or if, on the contrary, it is time to finally recover our common destiny. This is the sacrifice that the time demands of us to ensure the future of our children and grandchildren.
It is a moment that is and must be historical.
It is time to enforce Article 2 of our constitution: the principle of a Republic and a Government of the People, for the People and for the People
Despite a brief lull over the holidays, the anti-neoliberal and anti-tax yellow vest protests continued in France for a 12th consecutive Saturday. see also ...France’s ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests Emerged Spontaneously, without Leadership
One of the main French trade union confederations – the CGT – has called on members to demonstrate and strike on Tuesday 5 February to place their demands in solidarity with and alongside those of the yellow vest movement:
Leaflet issued by Public service sector, Confédération Generale du Travail, CGT, French trades union confederation, Wednesday 19 January 2019.
To win on our demands – All together into action 5 February
Faced with long months of mobilisation and the unprecedented yellow vests movement, Emmanuel Macron has been forced to make concessions, although obviously not enough. Him – the man who said he would never back down.
For all that, the essence of his policies – gifts to the bosses and the wealthiest, and smash up public services – continues to be put into effect.
Make no mistake about it, the Great National Debate is above all a smokescreen operation, since the existing political authorities have already said that, on the majority of important points, they are not going to re-examine their approach.
Public service and its workers at the heart of the danger
The perfect example of this refusal to put any of their liberal aims up for discussion is given by the government’s treatment of public services.
Indeed, while state reform is explicitly on the menu for the “Great Debate”, ministers in charge of public services have just confirmed, in particular, that the devastating parliamentary bill, more or less already worded, retained all its current force and that its adoption by Parliament is expected in June.
Remember that this text provides for increased and massive recourse to non-tenured workers, the dismantling of consultative bodies, the individualisation of pay, and for arrangements to accompany and facilitate the abandonment of public remits and the closure of services.
It certainly represents an unprecedented attack on the whole legal edifice of public service.
These serious threats are added to the freezing of the value of the index point (and there is every sign that the government wants to keep this until 2022!), the re-establishment of the jour de carence[i], more job losses, etc.
That is to say: the situation is beyond worrying.
Shift the balance of forces and make it last
But those who rule us are far from winning.
Citizens are very attached to their public services, discontent is everywhere growing louder and there are more and more mobilisations.
What the yellow vest movement shows us
The first responsibility of trade union organisations is to show alternative ways, make them popular and organise the response at the workplace.
This is what CGT will do across all sectors on Monday 5 February.
On that day it will call on all wage earners in both the public and the private sector to mobilise, demonstrate and stop work.
Absolutely everything makes it essential that public service workers, whether local, Health Service of State employees, join up in the greatest possible numbers in these times of powerful struggle and convergence.
For:
ü Immediate recalculation of the index point[ii]
ü Restoration of losses in purchasing power over recent years
ü Creation of jobs with proper tenure wherever they are needed.
ü Job security for workers on short-term contracts. Down with casualisation!
ü Repeal of the jour de carence.
ü Defence of the general legal Status of government employment and particular Statuses
ü The maintenance and improvement of the special pension schemes, against the point system proposed by the government
ü A considerable improvement in the benefits of schemes already paid in.
CGT Public Services calls on public service workers to demonstrate and strike on 5 February.
Photo: Abdulmonam Eassa
The Gilets Jaunes of Commercy recently organized an “Assembly of Assemblies” to coordinate the radical democratization of the popular resistance in France.
We, Gilets Jaunes of the roundabouts, parking lots, squares, assemblies and demonstrations, gathered on January 26 and 27 for an “Assembly of Assemblies”, which united members of over a hundred Gilets Jaunes delegations from across France, all answering the call of the Gilets Jaunes of Commercy.
Since November 17, 2018, from the smallest villages deep in the country side to the biggest cities of France, we rose up against this deeply violent, unjust and unbearable society. We shall no longer be treated that way! We revolt against the cost of life, poverty, instability and misery. We wish for our relatives, friends, families and children, that they all will be able to live in dignity. Currently, 26 billionaires possess as much as half of the world population — this is totally unacceptable.
Let’s share wealth and not misery! Down with the social inequalities! We demand the immediate increase of wages, of the social allowances, of the subsidies and pensions; we demand the unconditional right for lodging, health, education and free public services for all! It is for all these rights that we occupy the roundabouts across the country on a daily basis, that we organize direct actions, demonstrations and arrange public debates. With our yellow vests, we are reclaiming the power to speak, we who never had it before.
And then, what is the response from the government? Repression, hubris, denial. Deaths, thousands of wounded, the massive use of weapons designed to maim, blind, injure and traumatize. Over 1.000 persons have been arbitrarily arrested, sentenced and jailed. Now a new, so-called “anti-arson law”, is designed to deny us the right of demonstration. We condemn all violence against the demonstrators, be it from the police forces or from violent groups. None of this will stop us! To manifest one’s discontent is a fundamental right. Down with the impunity of the police forces! Amnesty for all the victims of the repression!
And what a sham is this idea of “Grand National Debate”. It is just a one big publicity stunt and PR campaign by the government, using and hijacking our will to debate and decide for ourselves! The true democracy is practiced within our popular and public assemblies and on the roundabouts. It is not on the stage of television sets nor is it in the so-called political round-table organized by Macron.
After insulting us and treating us like we are nothing more than scum, they are now presenting us as a heinous, racist and fascist crowd. But we are the total opposite: neither racist nor sexist nor homophobic, we are simply proud to be together with all our differences to build a society in solidarity.
We are as strong as the diversity of our debates. At this very moment, hundreds of assemblies are elaborating and proposing their own demands. These assemblies talk about real democracy, social justice, tax issues, working conditions, ecological justice and the end of discrimination. Among the most debated claims and strategical proposals we find: the end of misery in all its forms, the transformation of the institutions (with projects like the Citizen Initiated Referendum, constituent assembly, the end of the privileges of the elected representatives), the ecological transition (energetic scarcity, industrial pollution), equality and the recognition of anyone no matter what nationality (handicapped people, gender issues, an end to the isolation of the populous suburbs, neighborhoods, rural areas and overseas territories).
We, Yellow Vests, are inviting anyone to join us with their own abilities and capacities. We call to pursue the actions with Act 12 against police violence in front of the police stations and the Acts 13, 14 etc… We call for the continuation of the occupation of the roundabouts and the blocking of the economy, to engage in a massive and unlimited strike starting on February 5, 2019.
We call for the creation of popular committees in the workplaces, in study places and everywhere else in order that this strike could led from the grassroots by the strikers themselves, and not by the unions. Let’s take the matter in our own hands! Don’t stay alone, join us!
Let’s organize ourselves democratically, independently and autonomously! This assembly of assemblies is a very important milestone which allows us to discuss about our demands and our means of action. Let’s federate to transform the society!
We propose that all the Yellow Vests circulate this call. And if, as a Gilets Jaunes group, it resonates with you, send your signature to Commercy at (assembleedesassemblees@gmail.com). Don’t hesitate to discuss and formulate some proposals for the next “Assembly of Assemblies” which we already are preparing.
Macron Resign! Long live the power of the people, for the people and by the people.
This call is proposed by the Assembly of Assemblies in Commercy. This call will then be proposed for approval in all local assemblies.
This call was translated from French by Resistance 71. The original version in French can be found here.
en castellano
Fuente – François Boulo, líder de los Chalecos Amarillos, convoca a huelga general 28.1.2019
Traducimos al español el llamado a una huelga general ilimitada, convocada por François Boulo desde Rouen por los Chalecos Amarillos, el movimiento de base que ha desafiado la brutal represión del régimen de Emmanuel Macron y sigue movilizando en torno a reinvindicaciones sobre salud, empleo, educación y vivienda.
Hacemos un llamado al conjunto de la ciudadanía francesa: Asalariados, temporeros, funcionarios, artesanos, comerciantes, empresarios, agricultores, parados, jubilados, profesionales, estudiantes, escolares, artistas, intelectuales a movilizarse para construir a partir del 5 de febrero de 2019, la huelga general ilimitada.
En estos momentos, lamentamos ver que el poder ejecutivo se obstina en no escuchar ninguna de las reivindicaciones presentadas por los Chalecos Amarillos y a implementar una política injusta rechazada por el 75% de la población de Francia.
Igualmente ha confirmado su reducción de los sgasto públicos esenciales: La salud, la educación, la policía y la justicia.
En vez de escuchar e intentar calmar al pueblo, lo que han hecho el presidente de la república y su gobierno es echarle gasolina al fuego con sus declaraciones irresponsables: “multitud con odio”, “agitadores”, gente que “carece de un sentido del esfuerzo”.
Esta estrategia caótica ha resultado en 1000 heridos entre nuestros policías y gendarmes; 12 muertos y 1800 heridos entre los manifestantes, de los cuales una centena han sido mutilados, desfigurados o cegados.
Ni una palabra de empatía con las víctimas ha sido pronunciada por los portavoces institucionales.
La violencia que sacude nuestra nación debe parar y nuestras reivindicaciones deben cumplirse. Como consecuencia, hacemos un llamado al conjunto de la ciudadanía francesa: Asalariados, temporeros, funcionarios, artesanos, comerciantes, empresarios, agricultores, parados, jubilados, profesionales, estudiantes, escolares, artistas, intelectuales a movilizarse para construir a partir del 5 de febrero de 2019, la huelga general ilimitada.
Hacemos un llamado a los Chalecos Amarillos en su conjunto y a todos y todas quienes se quieran unir a nosotros a difundir este llamado por todas las redes sociales y en el terreno, las fábricas, universidades, liceos, los establecimientos públicos.
Llamamos igualmente a todos los ciudadanos a que implementen un boicot de los grandes centros comerciales y en vez opten por el comercio de proximidad, con el fin de apoyarlos en estos momentos de crisis.
Este es el momento en que cada uno debe preguntarse en la profundidad de su ser, si debe seguir apoyando un poder que ha perdido su legitimidad y que, abandonando el sentido del bien general, ha perdido la esencia de su mandato. O si, por el contrario es momento de finalmente recuperar nuestro destino común. Este es el sacrificio que nos exige la época para asegurar el futuro de nuestros hijos y nietos.
Es un momento que es y debe ser histórico.
Es la hora que hacer respetar el Artículo 2 de nuestra constitución: el principio de una República y un Gobierno del Pueblo, por el Pueblo y para el Pueblo.
____________
Comunicado original de CGT
Les revendications sont nombreuses, en particulier une hausse des salaires et des minimas sociaux, et une réforme de la fiscalité.
Plusieurs leaders des gilets jaunes, ainsi que certains partis politiques, ont appelé à se joindre aux manifestations.
Les perturbations :
Nous listerons sur cette page les entreprises et services publics dont les agents ou salariés auront indiqué leur volonté de participer à la mobilisation.
Etiquetas: convocatoria, Francia, huelga general Convocatoria legalizada por CGT Francia AQUI enlace.
When we first began organising we met with apathy and indifference from couriers when we tried to get them to join a union. Understandably, they didn’t want to pay membership dues for something that they didn’t understand and for something that hadn’t necessarily been very successful in the past.
Many people had no idea what a union was, and the lack of any major success stories just served to reinforce a feedback loop of apathy.
We needed to convince couriers that collectively organising was the only way forward. And for that we needed to break down barriers to participation and prove that unionising was worth the effort. And that’s why we settled on the network model.
A network branch is essentially a stripped-back mini-union, within a union. It’s completely free to join for any courier because it provides collective representation, as opposed to individual representation.
Each network branch is partnered with its local IWW branch, which provides advice, support and logistical organising help.The IWW Couriers Network is currently organising in cities and towns like Cardiff, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, Belfast and Dublin.
Our union is utterly committed to worker self-management. The IWW has no full-time, paid officials. The IWW Couriers Network is the same and is run on a tiny budget.
We are led directly by our membership, for our membership and I can’t stress that enough — no matter how cliche it sounds. Every decision comes from the grassroots of the union, from the bottom up.
Which is why our demands differ to that of other unions, particularly around limb B worker (as opposed to “self-employed”) status, and can sometimes differ from network branch to network branch. We don’t see this difference between the other courier unions in the UK as being a bad thing – in fact, we think both approaches compliment each other.
There’s strength in diversity, in our militant, direct action going hand-in-hand with the efforts of other unions to try to change the law. Our comrades in the IWGB for instance have been doing excellent work in pursuing the limb B worker issue through the courts.
But that said, we’ve listened to what our members want and the majority would rather see immediate action around their present pay and working conditions, rather than long-term legal struggles about employment status.
Those arguments still need to be won with the workers themselves. And as our members have the final say on our actions, and not union officials, that is the course of action we’re choosing to focus on.
Cardiff is the oldest network branch, forming in January 2018, and has clocked up some impressive victories in that time. Waiting times at problem restaurants are a massive problem for couriers, with each minute you’re kept waiting being a minute you’re not getting paid for.
Official representation from the union, and just the threat of industrial action, has forced these restaurants to reduce these waiting times.
Our UberEats members in the city have seen higher boost payments as a result of organising together and have won our most impressive victory so far.
Recently, the network branch organised a strike and boycott of the UberEats feedback session, in response to Uber refusing to engage constructively with couriers’ demands. The couriers demanded that Uber directly negotiate with their IWW union rep rather than individually, and said they would not leave until that demand had been granted.
The strike and demo that was held directly outside the office. It was noisy, colourful and effective. In a first (as far as we know) for courier organising in the UK, management buckled and invited the union rep in – the first recorded instance of a gig economy courier company being forced to negotiate with a union rep in recent history.
The Glasgow network, which formed in April this year, went on strike on Monday September 10th regarding the eradication of boost payments — one of the main ways that couriers make the minimum wage.
The strike was very successful, was followed by upwards of 50 couriers, the vast majority of which have now joined the union. Uber was forced to issue a grovelling apology, blaming a “technical” error for the lack of boost payment.
We know the strike’s had an impact In the weeks since, as UberEats have attempted to rebuild their brand with customers in the city by bribing them with £10-off vouchers and free doughnuts.
On Thursday October 4th the IWW Couriers Network held the UK’s first ever national courier strike, called the #FFS410 (Fast Food Shutdown), where courier networks across the country demanded a minimum rate of £5 per delivery.
On the same day, fast food workers in McDonalds, Wetherspoons and TGiF, organised by the BFAWU and Unite were striking. We decided to make our action the same day to show solidarity, and prove our struggles are connected, even though we may work in different roles. It was the first co-ordinated strike action in the UK fast food industry for decades.
The IWGB, who also organise couriers joined the strike, as did the GMB union. Strike actions happened in London, Cardiff, Glasgow, Bristol, Plymouth, Newcastle, Birmingham and Leicester, with solidarity actions in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Wrexham, Swansea.
There’s a verse in an old IWW song, written in the 1910s when the union was at the height of organising precarious workers across the world, that’s become our network’s unofficial motto.
It’s scarily relevant, 113 years on and it’s reverberating on our demos and strikes outside delivery company offices and restaurants across the country. We want you to make it your own motto too. Whatever your struggle. Because this fight is your fight, and your fight is our fight– the gig economy doesn’t discriminate.
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
that the union makes us strong.
couriers.network@iww.org.uk
Facebook: IWW Couriers Network
Twitter: @IWW_Couriers
New: Magdeburg (Germany)
Protest: Monday 28. January, 6pm
Breiter Weg (on front of Karstadt) Magdeburg
Solidaritätsbündnis Kurdistan-Magdeburg
New: Heraklio (Crete / Greece)
Demonstration: Sunday 27. January, 12pm
Lion Square
Hevalên Girîtê
New: Stockholm (Sweden)
Protest: Monday 28. January, 4pm
Olof Palmes gata 17, SE-111 22 Stockholm, Sverige
SAAB’s head office in Stockholm
„No Support For Erdogan“
New: Malmö (Sweden)
Protest: Monday 28. January, 12pm
Rönnviksgatan 13, SE-213 74 Malmö, Sverige
„No Support For Erdogan“
Gaspé (Canada)
Info, Film & Discussion: Sunday 27. January, 5pm
Centre communautaire Douglas Community Center, 28 St-Patrick Avenue, Gaspé G4X 2Y2
Réseau Libertaire Brume NoireMadrid (Spain)
Demonstration: Sunday 27. January, 12pm
Tirso de Molina Square, Madrid
Azadî. Plataforma de Solidaritat amb el Poble Kurd
Barcelona (Catalonia)
Demonstration: Sunday 27. January 2pm,
Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, M/L3 Zona Universitaria, Barcelona
Azadî. Plataforma de Solidaritat amb el Poble Kurd
Continue reading “# RiseUp4Rojava – 27 /28 Jan’19 – Where actions take place”
UPDATE: The call for a feminist General Strike, at work and at home is spreading around the world and extending for more days. Reports are appearing of extensive organising, especially in Spain, Italy, Rojava and Brazil.
Again this year it will be the minority CNT and CGT anarcho-syndicalist trade unions who call the Feminist General Strike on 8th March International Women Workers Day in Spain. This strike registration gives the huge popular ‘Work and Home’ feminist strike some legal protection against continuous State attacks.
Read in …Castellano Spanish | Catalá | Galego
The National Confederation of Labor, in response to the call of the feminist movement and in accordance with the principles of the organization, will convene on March 8 a feminist general strike of 24 hours in all sectors, so that anyone from any part of the territory will have all the legal guarantees to support the strike.
Almost a year after the historic 8M strike of 2018 that mobilized millions of people in defense of women’s rights, the reasons that motivated that call remain fully valid.
Women continue to face day after day a capitalist and patriarchal society that denies them the most basic right to non-discrimination.
The violence that is exerted on women, at home, in the street or at work, must be attacked and annulled by society as a whole to aspire to live in a more just and egalitarian environment.
As a union, CNT faces every day the labor discrimination suffered by women only because they are so. Neither the current legislation nor the courts protect the right of women to work on equal terms with their male colleagues.
March 4, 2019
Abusive agreements, lack of effective tools to guarantee the same salary for performances of equal value, unrecognized illnesses characteristic of work in feminized sectors, harassment and sexual abuse, are just some examples of the conditions that women live in their work environment.
Faced with this reality, CNT will summon the entire working class to a feminist general strike on March 8 to demand the elimination of the wage gap, both direct and indirect, the elimination of obstacles in access and promotion in employment (sticky soil). and glass ceiling), measures that facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life from co-responsibility, eliminate the reform of the pension law in
which only 23% of women will retire at 65, as well as the end of all discrimination at work at the service of the family home.
Like last year, CNT is positioned behind the feminist movement and, along with other social groups and organizations, will continue working to achieve a true political and social change where care is recognized, valued and shared.
Because all oppression will find the CNT in front, the 8M will go out to join our strength and contribute to the success of the call.
Permanent Secretariat of the Confederal Committee
The Free 