Blog
On Saturday 26th March the Trades Union Congress has called for a march against the cuts, and there is going to be a South London feeder march starting at Kennington Park which we will be joining. South London is one of the areas to be hardest hit by the cuts and has seen some of the most inspiring resistance to their implementation with the storming and occupying of town halls, the occupying of libraries and university buildings along with large demonstrations and regular small actions. Anarchists have played a key role in these struggles arguing that we fight the cuts based on the principles of solidarity, direct action, and self-organisation. We are calling on anarchists, libertarian communists and militant workers from across the country who agree with these principles to join us on the demonstration to provide a visible presence and a revolutionary alternative to the reformism of the TUC.
See also, leaflet: Everything we've won: they want it back (March 2011)
Read more: Radical Workers Bloc On The March For The Alternative
17th December, a young unemployed who occasionally sells fruits, Mohamed Bouaziz, goes up in flames against the harassments that he suffers everyday from Tunisian police.
In few days the protest of the Tunisian working class spread like wildfire. Tunisia, a Maghrebi country considered “westernized” because of its economical relationship with UE, lays in the most deepest crisis of the last fifteen years, that is since the Islamic wind blew up from the near Algeria risked of developing a civil war also in Tunisia. Very high rate of young people unemployment (a quarter of the young people is unemployed although the high level of education), inflation of the food good over the roof.
Furthermore, the Mafia management and favoritism of the Tunisian economy, controlled by the clan of president Ben Ali. For many observers, the Tunisian riot is a kind of desperation’s son of a generation whose access to job has been denied and their only perspective is to emigrate in Europe and be exploited. The price rise and the death of Buaziz have been the spark of a perspective which has been explosive since many years. The price rise has the roots in the speculations brought forward from the finance system that in the name of miracle of the multiplication of the money subtracts the bread to the people. In the last years, we have seen several speculations on commodities, the raw material, which made an increase of the petrol, copper and steel costs and afterwards the food goods (also thanks to the clever politics of investment in “green petrol” derived from farming which subtracts space to the food farming). A similar situation happened two years ago in Egypt and in central African countries and led to protests with several hundreds of deaths. In front of the Tunisian working class rage wave the state did not hesitate to respond with violence: about 150 deaths in two weeks (officially 21) and 5 people committed suicide for protest, universities and schools closed for government decree. From the videos is possible to see that many were hit from the back. They shoot to kill! From official sources it is possible to know that two cops died too.
Read more: Italian FAI on North Africa uprisings (translation)
STATEMENT ON CALL OUTS FOR A RADICAL WORKERS’ BLOCK ON 26 March 2011.
As part the working class fight back against the ConDem government and local authority cuts, the Anarchist Federation supports all anarchist and libertarian communist call-outs for a radical workers’ block on the TUC demo in London on March 26th. We should all be visible as a distinctive and critical part of a labour movement, as a counter movement to the tried, tested and discredited strategy of the trades unions to bargain with the state in our interests. This bankrupt approach is exemplified by the TUC’s summoning of a ‘March for the Alternative: Jobs, Growth, Justice’, misses the points about what is wrong with capitalism. It cannot be fixed by the state; it is caused by the collaboration of the state and capitalism that the trades unions do nothing to undermine.
This will be the largest workers’ demonstration in years. As well as opposing the present government it is vital that we show other workers that there is a coherent movement opposed to trade union leaders that sold us out to the Labour government. Calls for workers’ unity with the Labour Party are a slap in the face for those people. We need to define ourselves against such political opportunism and be able to draw towards us workers interested in social anarchism/libertarian communism. Disillusionment and discontent with the system has never had so much potential, so being visible is vital.
We need to expect attacks by police and to be targeted by demonstration stewards. Private security hired by the TUC will be collaborating with the police in containing anger in the crowd.
But many anarchists are finding our ideas having more and more resonance in our communities and workplaces/places of study and many are involved in a process of organising with non-anarchists locally. Because our colleagues, friends and families, our class-mates, our fellow-claimants and also our local anti-cuts groups are attending and also want to be visible and coherent. So some class-struggle anarchists will want to march with the people we work, live and organise locally with, to build solidarity with the people we are experiencing the cuts alongside.
So this makes it all the more important that we have excellent propaganda that goes beyond rhetoric and relates the experiences we are sharing with people around us to a clear analysis of why this is happening and what has to be done in our home towns.
Here is an overview of the AF's main actvities in 2010.
Activities
Anti-cuts + education protests & occupations
No to Welfare Abolition
Anti-EDL
Pride
Anarchist movement
Anarcafeminist conference
Local bookfairs
Network X
Publications
Introduction to anarchist communism pamphlet
Resistance move to 8 pages.
Anarchist Student paper
Organisational
Day schools
More blogs by groups
Small growth in membership
International
IFA meetings. New website & logo too: http://i-f-a.org
Visit by Slovenian comrades to London bookfair
Solidarity with Serbia & Belarus comrades
At the Sofia meeting of the International of Anarchist Federations a statement was written in solidarity with the Belarus activists. French and Russian translations can be found here on the Autonomous Action website: http://avtonom.org/node/14318
Solidarity with Belarus activists
The International of Anarchist Federations (IAF-IFA) was gathered in a meeting in Sofia, 30-31 October 2010, while the ongoing repressive, dictatorial government of Belarus remains opposed to all social and political activity that is organised without institutional and hierarchical control.
The International of Anarchist Federations (IAF-IFA):
· Condemns all forms of repression against activists and the grassroots movement regardless of whether they are anarchists or not.
· Expresses its solidarity with persecuted anarchist comrades and all victims of the regime.
· Calls for the mobilisation and commitment of all to raise awareness about the complete negation of freedom in Belarus, for the liberation of all political prisoners and for an end to the dictatorship in Minsk.
Prison letters - Appeal for you to support the arrested with New Year postcards
After the attack on the Russian embassy on 30th August 2010 Belarusian
anarchists, social activists and ecologists were repressed. During this
autumn there was a chain of searches and interrogations in Minsk, Gomel,
Grodno, Soligorsk, Brest, Bobrujsk and Novopolotsk. All in all about 50
people were interrogated. At the moment our friends Nikolaj Dedok,
Aleksandr Frantskevich, Maxim Vetkin and Igor Olinevich are under
arrest. They can face up to 6 years of imprisonment.
We call all people concerned to support the arrestees and send them
postcards.
You can write letters and cards to:
Dedok Nikolaj Aleksandovich
Prison-8
22a Sovetskaja str.
222160 Zhodino
Minsk region
BELARUS
Frantskevich Aleksandr
СИЗО-1
2-46 Volodarskogo str.
220050 Minsk
BELARUS
Vetkin Maxim Ivanivich
СИЗО-1
2 Volodarskogo str.
220050 Minsk
BELARUS
Olinevich Igor Vladimirovich
p/o box 8
Central Post Office
220050 Minsk
BELARUS
Additional information:
http://belarus.indymedia.org/blog/minsksolidarity
minsksolidarity[at]riseup.net
Background information
Since the beginning of September 2010 social activists in Belarus have been faced with unprecedented pressure. After the arson attempt on the Russian Embassy on the night of August 31, 2010 and with the start of the presidential campaign, around hundred of social activists from different cities (Grodno, Brest, Gomiel, Minsk and Soligorsk) have experienced 'talks', interrogations by the KGB, house-raids and arrest. Some of them are still detained. Taking advantage of the possibility to arrest for three days without filling accusation, the authorities re-arrest activists every three days as suspects on other cases. All together 13 people have spent already 153 days under unlawful arrest. During the interrogations the activists are beaten, threatened to be expeled from the places of study, being subjected to psychological pressure and are not allowed meeting with relatives.
Only a month after the arrest, on October 1, the accusation against Mikalaj Dziadok was made up: the participation in the action near the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense (Article 339 Part 2 — hooliganism, up to 6 years of imprisonment). September 20 Aliaksandar Frantskievich was charged with the perpetration of the attack on the police station in Soligorsk.
All those repressed are activists and participants of the social, ecological, anti-authoritarian, antifascist and humanitarian initiatives. We call to everybody who cares about the fate of the arrested anarchists, anti-authoritarians and social activists to organize on October 14-20 solidarity actions near Belarusian Embassies and representative offices around the world. Only by means of global solidarity we can get our comrades out of prison.
Please help us to spread this call-out as widely as possible. You can send information about solidarity actions to minsksolidarity[at]riseup.net
The chronicle of the events - http://belarus.indymedia.org/blog/minsksolidarity
Photo of ABC solidarity demo in Berlin
More Articles...
Page 9 of 17
