The following text was received from an anarchist activist living in the Middle East. It has been edited slightly for clarity, but is largely as written by an activist on the ground in the Middle East. For obvious reasons we publish it here anonymously.
European Union officials once again proved themselves to be the standard-bearers for free-market capitalism by making a series of concessions to the continent’s heavy industries in the latest series of international climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland. These industries will now only have to pay for 70% of their climate ‘credits’ on the already-flawed EU Carbon Trading Scheme, while hospitals and universities remain paying the full charge. The talks, which are designed to iron out the differences between the various national capitalist interests ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit in late 2009, have been littered with obstructions that are exclusively based around state sovereignty (such as Brazil’s reluctance to allow isolation of the Amazon akin to that of Antarctica) or corporate interests from the oil, coal, aviation and automobile industries.
The unrest in Greece following the killing of 16 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos has held the attention of the world and electrified the anarchist movement internationally. In the UK, solidarity actions and demonstrations have taken place in London, Leeds, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Greek embassy in London was blockaded, and there were tussles with police during a demonstration in Dalston. Internationally, solidarity actions and demos took place in Mexico, the US, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, Ireland, Croatia, Finland and Canada. The ruling class is vocal about the threat of the conditions in Greece spreading throughout Europe, and unsurprisingly anarchists are being presented as “dark forces” stirring discontent behind the scenes. But the widespread sympathy for the anarchists amongst youth in Greece has thrust the ideas into the spotlight, and represents the possibility of advancing ideas about creating real freedom and community as viable, current and living ideas
Make no mistake, Barrack Obama’s victory in the United States does not mean black liberation any more than Margaret Thatcher’s government was a victory for women’s liberation. Neither does it herald a new dawn for the world.
In Leicester, tenants’ are rightly up in arms about being tied into domestic heating scheme whose prices are poised to almost double during this month, an increase that was announced last month by the city council.
August 2008 saw at least two United States Aircraft Carriers set sail to the Persian Gulf, along with an Amphibious Assault Ship, a British Royal Naval Carrier and a French Nuclear Submarine. This was the latest in what appears almost certain preparations for war against Iran; from Israeli ‘test strikes’ to Operation Brimstone (when twelve UK, US and French naval ships took to the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran) there can be little doubt that the American ruling class and their allies are determined to decimate the ‘rouge state’of Iran.
NO GODS, NO MASTERS – RELIGION SPECIAL ISSUE. Articles include: Is there anybody out there?, Mega-churches, Taliban & Falangists, Fan controlled football clubs, Credit crunch, Oaxaca struggle, The Schlurfs, IAF-IFA congress, John Dos Passos, 3 book reviews.
Over 600,000 local authority workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland struck for two days in July. Further thousands struck for a day in Scotland during August. These were against the government’s attempt to impose pay rises below the rate of inflation.
The following statement comes from the Russian section of the Anarcho-Syndicalist International of Workers’ Associations (IWA), the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (KRAS). Along with the ex-USSR anarchist federation Autonomous Action, who have also signed up to the statement, they have the best anti-nationalist analysis coming out of Russia in the current period.
Before writing this article I decided to do some research on general issues surrounding the G8 protests. Using my trusty “googling” skills I started to browse through some online journals to see if there was a particular niche I could exploit on the “summit-hoppers” (as G8 protesters tend to be labelled) that regularly attended the protests.
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