Mayday. Remembering the past, fighting for tomorrow

The following is a joint statement regarding May Day achieved through a North American collaboration of the following class struggle anarchist groups and organizations: Prairie Struggle Organization, Wild Rose Collective, Four Star Anarchist Organization, Common Struggle/Lucha Común, Workers Solidarity Alliance, Free Association of Anarchists, Miami Autonomy & Solidarity.
A short history of May Day
The first of May is a moment for us to remember the Chicago Haymarket Martyrs of 127 years ago. These Chicago anarchists helped to lead the major battle of the day, not only for the 8 Hour Day, but also for social liberation.
The origins of May Day go back to May 4, 1886, marking the Haymarket Massacre. This memorable day began as a rally of striking workers who were demanding an eight-hour work day, climaxing with a bomb produced by an unknown individual while the police dispersed the peaceful rally. The blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded.
Eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy during the legal proceedings that followed. Although the evidence was scarce, and it could not be proven that any of the eight defendants had thrown the explosive projectile, seven were sentenced to death and one to 15 years in prison. The death sentences of two of the defendants were commuted to life in prison, and another committed suicide before his hanging. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887. In 1893, Illinois' new governor pardoned the remaining defendants and criticized the evidence that was used during trial.
Since this day, we honor those who have fought, sacrificed and died for the defense and advancement of the working class.
Present conditions
Since the events of Haymarket, we have wrestled much from the capitalist class and the state through struggle. During the past 30 years, these forces have attacked our small, yet hard-fought-for gains. Continued attacks on working conditions, increasingly precarious and low wage work, deindustrialization, and marginalization have become the new normal. Governments have imposed round after round of social austerity measures, where workers and families have been expected to swallow cuts to public funding of services so that the richest can continue to profit from the fruits of our labor.
Today's struggles/Tomorrow's struggles
Despite this grim situation, today we have much to celebrate and look forward to. Over the last year, we have seen in Québec the biggest social movements in Canadian history spearheaded by combative unions to fight against neoliberal cuts to education and for quality free education. The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike and joined with parents and community members to protect their bargaining rights and working conditions and fight school closures. Workers from various fast food chains, warehouses, car washes and superstores, which have historically been near impossible to organize into business unions, have been participating in strike actions and various direct action in the demand for better working conditions. Unionized longshore workers have been fighting to hold the line on additional concessions to the bosses in one of the last bastions of union density and shopfloor power. While we celebrate these efforts and whatever small victories gained thus far, working class victory can only come from struggles owned and controlled by the workers themselves, not from above but from below and built with their own self-activities.
These developments within the broader labor movement are a welcome sight in comparison to what is seen by some as a decade of relative inactivity. We see it as important that the workers and community partners involved in these campaigns recognize that they are confronting head-on the relationship between the ruling and working classes, and that successfully challenging this relationship will require more than one-day strikes and solidarity rallies. It will require nothing less than workers forcefully overcoming barriers of race, migration status, gender, sexuality, and gender identity to unite as one class, bound by continuous solidarity, and always pushing forward through escalations of action.
The need for a new workers' movement
We hope this new, combative spirit by some workers invigorates a new and militant workers’ movement in North America—a workers’ movement that will no longer wait for politicians and bureaucrats to resolve the growing inequalities and oppressions. This spirit might bring a new wave of workers to replace the stale unionism with more democratic, combative and autonomous labor organizations which realize that laws and political institutions are put in place for the defense of the ruling class, and that only our own labor organizations, autonomous from the political institutions, can bring about the effective fighting force needed to replace the current, and build a new world.
This new workers’ movement should be allied with supportive movements, such as those against cuts to social services and education, and those movements against all forms of oppression and inequality. We see the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression as we wage these struggles, along with the fights against the expansion of and brutality of police forces and prisons, the criminalization of the poor and undocumented, and the continued attacks on reproductive freedoms. As these and many other forms of oppression work in conjunction with class exploitation, we must build movements which see common interest in these struggles and which actively and mutually oppose the assaults on one another.
A new world to build
By engaging in these struggles, we gain necessary experience, initiate needed debates, and confront the current austerity agenda of the elite outside of current labor laws. Through struggle, we lay the possible foundations of a future world. Through struggle, we can as a class start to imagine and organize for a classless society and one completely emancipated from all forms of oppression. This May Day, just like every other, is a call for workers to organize against the everyday exploitation of capitalism. In the spirit of those who fought for the eight hour day, let us continue the fight for the advancement of our class.
We need to look toward building a society without power, profit, and privilege, in which working people in workplaces and communities make the decisions about how our work is done and what we want from it. We need a movement that fights for real gains within the context of this society while using its own organizations as the basis for a new one.
In Struggle & Solidarity,
Prairie Struggle Organization
Wild Rose Collective
Four Star Anarchist Organization
Common Struggle/Lucha Común
Workers Solidarity Alliance
Free Association of Anarchists
Miami Autonomy & Solidarity

This time it’s personal. Mortgage fraud, faux-democracy and escrache in Spain

The escrache protests in Spain organised by the Platform of Mortgage Victims are quickly getting to the rotten core of a technical government in all but name. Despite the Popular Party's attempts to demonise them in the press they continue to gather support, pointing the way for the rest of Europe.

As David Cameron prepares to promote yet another housing boom in Britain, we would do well to pay some notice to our neighbours in Spain, who are currently suffering the dire consequences of a bursting bubble releasing its slime all over their lives. When all else fails (and it’s hard to think of much that’s not failing under Osborne) a housing bubble can do wonders for a dismal government. From the mid-1990s until the late 2000s, the fantasy of permanent expansion served subsequent Spanish governments well, with GDP growth remaining around 4% and an unemployment rate that was slashed by half in less than a decade. Asides from a generalised concern with the environmental devastation caused by this hyper-accelerated development (especially around the coastline, where even the Brits’ appetite for “villas” was quickly over-satiated), no dissenting voices made it onto the mainstream. “Spain is going well” became the catchphrase of the noughties, needless to say such triumphalism was short-lived.
Housing became the canary in the mine. In this land of fictitious plenty, “renting was for losers”, but as prices escalated and social provision shrank, those who were either reluctant or unable to mortgage their lives in order to access a basic right began to organise.1 By the time the bubble burst the support networks were already in place. The PAH––the Platform of Mortgage Victims––was set up in Barcelona in 2008 bringing together pre-existing groups in order to respond to a new landscape of economic devastation: a combined steep rise of interest rates and unemployment that had left thousands of families unable to face their mortgage repayments and facing destitution.2 Draconian repossession laws in Spain so disproportionally protected the mortgage lenders that those unfortunate enough to lose their homes were also burdened with a debt for life.3 Until 2011 they allowed banks to take a mere 50% of the value of the property into account when offsetting the debt; this was then reluctantly raised to 60%.4 By the time interests, penalties and legal costs had been taken into account, a great deal of borrowers found themselves both homeless and owing the full cost of their mortgage. Lest we forget, these are the same banks that had accepted hundreds of millions in state subsidies. Between 2002 and 2008 a staggering average of 754,000 new homes were built in Spain every year. It is currently estimated that up to 6 million homes remain vacant. And yet, the state has simply given up on those who find themselves without a roof. Faced with the prospect of imminent eviction, an alarming number of people are committing suicide, providing a stream of wretched headlines that has lent a dramatic urgency to this problem. “There are lives at stake” the PAH reminded us. It soon became obvious that for the government, protecting the banks’ cooked books had taken precedence over the lives of its citizens. There is a grim cautionary tale here, do not believe for a moment that there is a correlation between promoting homeownership and safeguarding access to housing; there ain’t.
In 2010 the PAH was among a group of organisations that launched a popular legislative initiative, or ILP, to demand to parliament the regulation of the datio in solutum (in which the house is used as collateral to cancel any outstanding debt), an urgent stop to residential evictions and adequate provision of social housing and affordable rents. These measures have gained the support of over 80% of the population, cutting across all party lines (mortgages are clearly not the preserve of the left). Last February, the PP government announced they would refuse to allow the motion into parliament, performing a spectacular U-turn after just two hours and a huge media backlash. Barely a month later, a landmark victory at the European Court of Justice ruled against Spain’s mortgage lenders, deeming that they offered insufficient protection to holders and granting courts the right to stop repossessions while abusive clauses are being scrutinised. And yet, evictions are continuing under a cloak of dubious legality, and the ILP has suffered so many amendments on its way to being voted in parliament at the hands of the ruling Popular Party (PP) that it hardly resembles the original.
So what now? This is a government that has broken all its electoral promises, a Troika-led technical government in all but name, facing extremely serious corruption charges (even among the generalised landscape of political corruption in Spain) and stubbornly refusing to listen to its citizens. A government, in short, that has unveiled the radical inadequacy and underlying tyranny of so-called liberal democracies. “Real Democracy Now”, the chant of the 15-M has turned into a clamour. With an electoral system that allows little room for real alternatives, the main opposition party, (called The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party––make of that what you will) was fully complicit in creating the context that has led to the current crisis.5 “We want all of them to go” became another slogan. The problem is not this government; it is the form of government itself. After a civil war and 35 years of dictatorship it was hammered into us that we should thank our lucky stars for our “smooth transition to democracy”. For the first time ever, Spaniards are raising their voices against this all-too-smooth transition and demanding the democracy they never had.
Enter the escraches. PAH activists have developed a nation-wide network of assemblies and online tools to protect those at risk of homelessness; their rapid response to eviction notices has stopped hundreds of repossessions by gathering citizens who physically stop them taking place. These scenes are truly moving, showing communities in the process of reinforcing their links and discovering their power. The disdain of a Mickey-Mouse government was never going to stop them. Escrache was the name given to the protests staged in Argentina during the nineties against the impunity granted by Menem to Junta collaborators. Faced with a law that protected assassins, activists took to congregating around their homes, chanting and publicly shaming them. The idea was simple: you might no longer be legally responsible for your crimes, but we are still holding you ethically accountable. In its Spanish iteration, escraches have a different inflection. Given the extent of “marching-fatigue” in the country, the fact that all legal steps have already been exhausted and the refusal of MPs to meet with the PAH, the PAH has decided to go to them. Again, the idea is simple, activist approach MPs that are planning to block the ILP wherever they are (at the airport, in their neighbourhood, in their houses) and deliver first-hand accounts of what it’s like to become a victim of mortgage fraud and how the ILP would help them.6 Some were concerned about their similarity to say, the pickets at abortion clinics. Isn’t it simply wrong to make these things “personal”? It is worth remembering that Spanish MPs do not hold constituency meetings. Once the campaign trail is over, there are virtually no opportunities for citizens to meet their putative representatives. There are, nevertheless, strict guidelines regarding how escraches are to be conducted.7 It is personal, but non-coercive––all things considered, very civilised.
Well, no, not quite. The police have acted with characteristic lack of finesse during the escraches, injuring several activists and arbitrarily detaining many more. All police stations received a government memo advising them to register the ID of all who took part in escraches, only for the judicial power to remind them that such policy would be illegal. Nevertheless, as I write further measures of dubious legality (an expression I use most euphemistically) have been announced on the press, such as preventing protests from taking place less than 300 metres away from politicians’ houses (!) and abusive fines for 30 activists who took part in a escrache at the vice-president’s house, the most high-ranking politician to date to have received a visit from the PAH (hierarchies, it seems, are an all-too-present consideration when assessing the criminality or otherwise of these acts). The PP has started an outrageous campaign against the PAH. Enraged by the popularity of the movement and the nation’s love affair with Ada Colau, its spokesperson, they have resorted to calling her a “terrorist” (ETA being the nation’s favourite all-purpose bogeyman), and a “nazi” (yes, you can get away with that in Spain). While such attacks are abominable, what is truly striking is the sheer formalism of the arguments for the defence. Reluctant to get into too much detail about the rights and wrongs of their behaviour, MPs have gone straight for the last resort, entrenching themselves behind a bulwark of parliamentary “legitimacy” in order to admonish the PAH: “we are the rightful representatives of the people” and “you have transgressed a limit”. Truth be told, the PAH has not transgressed a limit, but they have certainly pointed to it. This “we” is adamantly impersonal, the abstract remainder of a long-broken pact, this “you” stands in front of the overwhelming majority of the population. When a government can offer no other proof of its legitimacy than the fact that they have been voted in, they unwittingly point the finger to the very mechanisms that allow for such an aberration. The PAH––this unlikely alliance of activists and mortgage-holders––has managed to get to the root of the problem in record time. Playing by the current rules, “whoever wins, we lose”, nothing short of a radical reconfiguration of the current system will ever suffice. While the enormity of the task is daunting, the PAH has offered an object lesson on hope: “no, they don’t want it to happen”, but “yes, we can”.
Image by Maka Suárez
Big thank you to Ernest Marco for his help with this article and to the PAH for their amazing work

• 1. See Ada Colau and Adrià Alemany book Vidas Hipotecadas (mortgaged lives), available in Spanish here.
• 2. To give a sense of the scale of the problem, in 2012 there were 517 repossessions per day in Spain that is more than five times the figure in the UK.
• 3. This has had the inevitable side-effect of forcing thousands to rely on hand-outs, NGOs and state support. Unsurprisingly, local authorities have been quick to lend their support to the PAH, raising their voice against current laws and in some cases, using their legal powers to stop evictions.
• 4. In a stagnant housing market, with houses which had been exorbitantly overpriced by the banks themselves, lenders are frequently using a loophole to avoid going that far, using proxy companies to bid for the homes they are repossessing at below 60% of their value.
• 5. The latest polls have demonstrated a complete lack of enthusiasm for any of these parties, with their combined supporters amounting to less than 50% of the voting public.
• 6. See, for example, this video
• 7. They include absolutely no violence, no insults, and utmost respect and concern for the welfare of any children that might be present.

http://www.libcom.org/news/time-it%E2%80%99s-personal-mortgage-fraud-ifauxi-democracy-iescrachei-spain-11042013

Solidarnostna izjava v podporo ljudskim vstajam v Sloveniji

[ Slovensko ] • [ English ] • [ Deutch ] • [ Française ] • [ Español ] • [ Português ]

• Solidarity statement for the popular uprisings in Slovenia •
• Solidaritätserklärung der IFA mit den Aufständen in Slovenien •
• Solidarité avec les soulèvements populaires •
• Declaración de solidaridad sobre los levantamientos populares en Eslovenia •
• Solidariedade com as revoltas populares •

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Solidarnostna izjava v podporo ljudskim vstajam v Sloveniji

Organizacije, ki se združujemo preko Internacionale anarhističnih federacij (IFA-IAF) prepoznavamo pomembnost aktualnih bojev v Sloveniji in izražamo polno solidarnost z ljudmi, ki so se uprli in so del decentralizirane splošne vstaje proti političnim elitam in neoliberalizmu.
Ta vstaja se je začela novembra 2012 v Mariboru in se hitro razširila po celotni državi. Najbolj inspirativen del vstaje nam predstavlja odpiranje političnega prostora za nehierarhično samoorganiziranje. Ta se najbolj jasno izraža v ljudskih skupščinah in v akcijah, ki iz le-teh izhajajo.
Slovenska država je z začetkom vstaj začela tudi široko kampanjo represije proti aktivistom, ki vključuje aretacije, sodne procese in finančno izčrpavanje (izdajanje položnic za sodelovanje na protestih in drugo). Kot IFA-IAF glasno obsojamo represijo države in zahtevamo takojšnjo prekinitev vseh postopkov proti protestnikom. Policijsko nasilje in sodno preganjanje se mora končati takoj!
Zelo podobne vzorce tako vstaj kot represije vidimo tudi v nedavnem dogajanju na Hrvaškem in v Bolgariji. Tudi s tamkajšnjimi vstajami se polno solidariziramo, saj jih, tako kot vstajo v Sloveniji, vidimo kot del globalnega boja v Evropi in svetu proti kapitalističnemu opustošenju in vladajočemu razredu.

CRIFA

(Relations committee / Delegatski sestanek Internacionale anarhističnih federacij)
24. marec 2013, Trst (Italija)

Internacionala anarhističnih federacij (IFA-IAF) je mednarodna mreža, ki združuje anarhistične federacije iz Argentine, Bolgarije, Belorusije, Češke in Slovaške, Francije in Belgije, Italije, Nemčije in Švice, Slovenije, Španije in Portugalske ter Britanije. Hkrati ima vzpostavljene kontakte s sestrskimi skupinami in organizacijami iz vsega sveta. Deluje od leta 1968, ko je bila ustanovljena v italijanski Carrari. Zavzema se za vzpostavitev svobodne brezrazredne družbe brez držav in meja, temelječe na anarhističnem federalizmu in vzajemni pomoči.
Federacija za anarhistično organiziranje (FAO) je formalno postala del Internacionale na njenem Kongresu, v St. Immieru v Švici, ki je potekal avgusta 2012.
Več informacij o Internacionali anarhističnih federacij na uradni spletni strani:

• i-f-a.org

Preberite tudi:

• Solidarnostno pismo iz Srbije (februar 2013)

Anti-capitalist bloc at the demonstration in front of Slovenian Parliament (December 2012).

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Solidarity statement for the popular uprisings in Slovenia

The member federations of IFA-IAF (International of Anarchist Federations) recognise the current struggles in Slovenia and express their full solidarity with the people who have risen up in a decentralised and widespread revolt against political elites and neo-liberalism.
This uprising started in Maribor in December 2012 and has quickly spread across the whole country. For us, the most inspiring part of this uprising is the opening up of a political space for non-hierarchical self-organisation. This is most visible in the popular assemblies and in the actions that have emerged from it.
The Slovenian state has now begun a large repression of activists including judicial trials with legal bills to pay. As IFA-IAF, we strongly condemn this repression by the State and we demand the immediate halt of all legal procedures against protestors. Police violence and legal persecution should stop immediately!
We are witnessing very similar patterns of uprisings and oppression in Croatia and Bulgaria, and we express full solidarity to these as well. The uprisings in Slovenia are one part of the widespread and global struggle in Europe against capitalist devastation and ruling class repression.

CRIFA

(Relations committee/Delegate meeting of the International of Anarchist Federations),
24th March 2013, Trieste (Italy)

Read also:

• Anti-Capitalist Bloc: Join the common process! (March 2013)
• Solidarity letter from Serbia (February 2013)
• Mass revolts in Slovenia (December 2012)

“We don’t need new government but revolutionary changes!” Demonstration in Ljubljana (March 2013).

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Solidaritätserklärung der IFA mit den Aufständen in Slovenien

Die Mitgliedsföderationen der IFA (Internationale der anarchistischen Föderationen) unterstützen die derzeitigen Kämpfe in Slovenien und drücken ihre volle Solidarität mit den Menschen aus, die in einer dezentralisierten und umfassenden Revolte gegen die politischen Eliten und den Neoliberalismus aufbegehren.
Der Aufstand begann in Maribor im Dezember 2012 und erstreckte sich schnell über das ganze Land. Für uns ist der am meisten inspirierende Teil dieses Aufstandes die Öffnung eines politischen Feldes für nicht-hierarchische Selbstorganisation. Am deutlichsten ist dies erkennbar in den öffentlichen Versammlungen und den Aktionen, die von dort ausgehen.
Der slovenische Staat antwortet nun mit einer groß angelegten Repression gegen Aktivist*innen mit Gerichtsverfahren und Geldstrafen. Die IFA verurteilt aufs schärfste diese staatliche Repression und verlangt ein sofortiges Ende jeglicher Verfolgung von Protestierenden. Polizeiliche Gewalt und gerichtliche Verfolgung hat sofort zu unterbleiben! Wir erkennen gleichartige Muster von Aufständen und Unterdrückung in Kroatien und Bulgarien und wir erklären unsere volle Solidarität auch mit diesen. Die Aufstände in Slovenien sind ein Teil des weitreichenden und globalen Kampfes in Europa gegen kapitalistische Verwüstung und die Unterdrückung durch die herrschende Klasse.

Treffen der Delegierten der IFA

24. März 2013, Triest (Italien)

Read also:

• Anti-Capitalist Bloc: Join the common process! (March 2013)
• Solidarity letter from Serbia (February 2013)
• Mass revolts in Slovenia (December 2012)

Spontaneous protest in front of Police station in Ljubljana in solidarity with the arrested (March 2013).

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Solidarité avec les soulèvements populaires

Les fédérations de l’IFA (Internationale des Fédérations anarchistes) regardent avec intérêt ce qui se passe en Slovénie et expriment leur solidarité avec le peuple qui s’est soulevé dans une révolte décentralisée et massive contre les élites politiques et le néo-libéralisme. La FAO slovène (Fédération pour l’anarchisme organisé) est membre de l’IFA et a participé activement aux soulèvements. Elle poursuit aujourd’hui le travail militant au sein des assemblées populaires et autres organisations qui en ont découlé.
Ce soulèvement a commencé à Maribor en décembre 2012 et s’est rapidement étendu à tous les pays. Le plus intéressant dans cette insurrection c’est qu’elle a ouvert des espaces politiques non-hiérarchiques et d’auto-organisation. C’est notamment visible dans les assemblées populaires et les actions qui en découlent.
Aujourd’hui, l’État commence une vague de répression importante contre les militants avec des procès et des amendes à payer.
En tant qu’IFA, nous condamnons fermement la répression de l’État et exigeons l’abolition immédiate de toutes les procédures judiciaires à l’encontre des manifestants.
La violence de la police et de la persécution légale doivent cesser immédiatement !
Nous assistons à des soulèvements similaires de lutte contre l’oppression en Croatie et en Bulgarie, et, là encore, nous tenons à exprimer notre pleine solidarité. Les organisations anarchistes doivent savoir qu’elles pourront compter sur notre soutien, à la mesure de nos moyens.
Le soulèvement de la Slovénie fait partie des luttes en Europe et au niveau mondial contre le capitalisme et les dévastations causées par la classe dirigeante.

CRIFA

24 mars 2013, Trieste (Italie)

Read also:

• Anti-Capitalist Bloc: Join the common process! (March 2013)
• Solidarity letter from Serbia (February 2013)
• Mass revolts in Slovenia (December 2012)

Anarchist flags at the demonstration in front of city hall in Kranj (November 2012).

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Declaración de solidaridad sobre los levantamientos populares en Eslovenia

Las federaciones miembro de la IFA-IAF (Internacional de Federaciones Anarquistas) reconoce las actuales luchas en Eslovenia y expresa su solidaridad plena con las personas que se han levantado en una revuelta descentralizada y generalizada contra las élites políticas y el neoliberalismo.
Este levantamiento se inició en Maribor en diciembre de 2012 y rápidamente se ha extendido por todo el país. Para nosotros, la parte más inspiradora de este levantamiento es la apertura de un espacio político para la autogestión no jerárquica. Esto es más visible en las asambleas populares y en las acciones que han surgido de ellas.
El Estado esloveno ha comenzado una gran represión de activistas, incluyendo procesos judiciales con facturas legales que pagar. Como IFA-IAF, condenamos enérgicamente la represión por el Estado y demandamos el cese inmediato de todos los procedimientos legales en contra de los manifestantes. ¡Violencia policial y persecución legal deben parar de inmediato!. Somos testigo de patrones muy similares de levantamiento y opresión en Croacia y Bulgaria, y expresamos plena solidaridad con estos también. Las rebeliones en Eslovenia son una parte de la lucha generalizada y global en Europa contra la devastación capitalista y la represión de la clase dominante.

CRIFA

(Comisión de Relaciones Internacionales de las Federaciones Anarquistas),
24 de marzo de 2013, Trieste (Italia)

Read also:

• Anti-Capitalist Bloc: Join the common process! (March 2013)
• Solidarity letter from Serbia (February 2013)
• Mass revolts in Slovenia (December 2012)

“They were destroying, we’ll be building!” Demonstration in Maribor (December 2012).

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Solidariedade com as revoltas populares

As Federações da IFA (Internacional das Federações Anarquistas), observando com interesse o que está a acontecer em Eslovénia, exprimem solidariedade com o povo que se levantou em uma revolta descentralizada et massiva contra as elites políticas e o neoliberalismo. A FAO Eslovénia (Federação para o anarquismo organizado) é um membro da IFA e participou ativamente as revoltas. Continua hoje o trabalho militante nas assembléias populares e outras organizações que resultaram.
A revolta começou em dezembro de 2012, em Maribor e rapidamente espalhou-se para todo o país. O mais interessante nesta insurreição é que ela abriu espaços políticos não-hierárquicos e de auto-organização. Isto é particularmente visível nas assembléias populares e as ações resultantes.
Hoje, o Estado começou uma repressão importante contra os militantes com processos judiciais e multas a pagar. Em quanto IFA, condenamos fortemente a repressão do Estado e exigimos a abolição imediata de todos os processos judiciais contra os manifestantes.
A violência da polícia e a perseguição legal deve cessar imediatamente!
Estamos a assistir em revoltas semelhantes de luta contra a opressão em Croácia e Bulgária, e, novamente, nós expressamos a nossa total solidariedade. As organizações anarquistas devem saber que podem contar com o nosso apoio na medida da nossa capacidade.
A revolta da Eslovénia faz parte das lutas na Europa e no mundo contra o capitalismo ea devastação causada pela classe dirigente

CRIFA

24 de março de 2013, Trieste (Itália)

Read also:

• Anti-Capitalist Bloc: Join the common process! (March 2013)
• Solidarity letter from Serbia (February 2013)
• Mass revolts in Slovenia (December 2012)

“Tear down all fences!” Demonstration at the Slovenian Parliament (February 2013).

http://www.a-federacija.org/2013/03/24/solidarnostna-izjava-v-podporo-ljudskim-vstajam-v-sloveniji/

Egypt: Nothing has changed, but everything begins

*
http://autistici.org/tridnivalka/egypt-nothing-has-changed-but-everything-begins/
*
http://autistici.org/tridnivalka/wp-content/uploads/egypt-nothing-has-changed-but-everything-begins.pdf

Everyone, whatever he says, whatever he does, takes part in the class
struggle… Either in an active or a passive way… While developing and
deepening it or while denying it… As a subject of his own existence or
as an object of his survival under the dictatorship of value… In the
camp of the proletariat or that of the bourgeoisie… As a human being
or as a useful idiot of capital… “The history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggles.” (Karl Marx)

In this short text on the present struggles in Egypt, we want to
emphasize the important affirmations of the age-old struggle of our
class against the tyranny of value, against exploitation. Our goal is
obviously not to analyze these events in order to merely understand
them, but rather to transform them, to disrupt the historical everyday
nature of our proletarians’ life of misery gripping us, so that we
should definitely eradicate the capitalist social relation from the
surface of our planet. We don’t want to spend our time describing all
pages long the horrors of this society of death and suffering. We
obviously don’t want to lock ourselves into a passive and academic
role. We are not interested in the biology of capital either, and we
don’t have any intention to describe it in an objective way. On the
contrary our purpose is to directly take part in its final destruction
and to act in the movement of its necrology… And this means to stand
firmly in the heart of the events that have been taking place in front
of our eyes, to be a determined part of them as an active and decisive
force…

Since more than two years, an important wave of struggles has been
flowing across Maghreb and Mashrek. One after another, Tunisia, Egypt,
Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria… burst into flames of revolt… Some
“dictators” fell, others hang on to the remnants of their power, the
repression is fierce everywhere, because the proletarian are
determined not to croak on the altar of value without at least selling
their life dearly. Struggles against hunger, against misery, against
the increase of prices of “basic” foodstuffs, against unemployment,
against the impunity of torturers, against the arrogance of masters
entrenched in their less and less inaccessible fortresses…

And when “dictators” are ousted under the pressure of “the street”
(soft journalistic euphemism for not referring to the genuine subject
of these movements: i.e. the proletariat in struggle!), or better
said, when the world bourgeoisie and its central apparatuses remove
such or such administrator who is not able to control the situation
anymore, then “new” faces appear, more credible political
“alternatives” appear in order to restore social peace and business
law and order. But very quickly, the struggle recovers its dynamics as
we can see since two years…

In Tunisia, not a day passes without demonstrations, sit-in,
occupations, wildcat strikes in Tunis, Sfax, Siliana, Kasserine, El
Kef, Gafsa, Redeyef, etc., without police stations being burned down
by angry proletarians, who obviously don’t believe to any promises
made by the administrators of their survival anymore, and who are
spreading thus the seeds of an always more global call into question
of this world of misery. The “new” leaders (a mixture of “progressive”
and Islamist factions) are usually booed off their public appearances
as for example on “the revolution’s” anniversary, offices of
governmental Islamist party “Ennahda” are set on fire by proletarians
who are more than fed up to be always fooled and fucked by the
bourgeoisie.

In early February, the murder of a “left opponent” in the middle of
the street sparked things off and thousands of proletarians blew up
with anger. Chokri Belaid was the leader of the “Unified Party of
Democratic Patriots” (what a… bourgeois program!), one of the most
important member organizations of the “Popular Front” that must
somewhat radicalize its speech under the pressure of the proletariat
in order to look like a convincing alternative facing the Islamists
and the “vacuum of power” that could be the consequence of the social
unrest development. The question here is not whether some proletarians
identify themselves with an “opponent” of “Ennahda” government or
not. They only expressed a kind of empathy with somebody they consider
to be a victim of the same state enemy, while Islamist militias, death
squads and other cops hunt and shoot radical proletarians night and
day. From then on, it is not surprising that on this occasion our
class has increased its offensive and targeted the most obvious and
hated representations of this state…

In Syria there is no doubt that the bombing of cities and the
massacres, the terrible state repression and its militarization,
represent a nagging strength that tries to recruit proletarians in
struggle (whether they are armed or not) for one or the other
bourgeois factions opposing each other in the attempt to conquer the
power and the management of social antagonism. All the international
and regional state powers (Russia, Iran and China on one hand, and
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, USA, etc. on the other hand) push
the class confrontation to militarization, in order to make it losing
its dynamics of subversion of this world of misery, in brief to
deprive the proletariat of its class autonomy… The third camp in Syria
(that is to say the proletariat opposed to both poles of the
counterrevolution) is on the road to ruin and to be recruited if
isolation which it is plunged in is not broken, if the universal
content of its struggle (which appears in all the struggles of our
class) is not put forward, if it doesn’t quickly find an echo to its
struggles, if new insurrectional hotbeds don’t develop elsewhere in
order to not give a single moment of rest to the voracious bourgeois
anymore…

And it is precisely from Egypt, where drums rolls of our social war
resound always stronger, that we can hear the voices heralding
determined deepening of social antagonism in the region before it will
spread throughout the world.

“Don’t vote for anybody…”

When the “dictator” Mubarak had been ousted, the whole bourgeoisie
trumpeted that “democracy” will be established, that the “sovereign
people” will participate in the working-out of its future and that its
voice will finally be heard. But very quickly the bourgeoisie grew
disillusioned because the election of the constituent assembly in
November 2011, as well as the presidential election in June 2012 (with
more than 58% of abstention) and the referendum on the new
constitution last December (when an abstention record rate of more
than 68% was reached), i.e. each round of the electoral circus was
rejected by important sectors of the proletariat in a real active
boycott. Near Tahrir square, somebody tagged on a wall: “Don’t vote
for anybody. Nobody will keep his promises. Nobody listens to the
poor. Nobody gives a damn about.” Nevertheless the state succeeded to
mobilize some millions of useful idiots who make themselves
accomplices to the election orgies. And it is thanks to “the people”
that the “Muslim Brotherhood” and other Islamists are (temporarily!)
the “new masters” of the country. We can therefore see very well how,
through this democratic myth of the “sovereign people”, two
contradictory poles oppose each other within the same population: on
one hand “the Egyptian people” that took part in the elections and
therefore in the consolidating of the democratic dictatorship, and on
the other hand of the social barricade the proletariat in struggle
that refused these elections and through direct action continues to
express its contempt (certainly still confused and limited) of
democracy.

We also have here to emphasize the very strong answer that militants
who call themselves “Comrades from Cairo” addressed to “Occupy Wall
Street” (OWS) in November 2011. OWS, by way of “solidarity”, wanted to
send some “election monitors” in Egypt in order to make sure the
election farce “goes smoothly”… Here is what “Comrades from Cairo”
declared: “Truth be told, the news rather shocked us; we spent the
better part of the day simply trying to figure out who could have
asked for such assistance on our behalf. We have some concerns with
the idea, and we wanted to join your conversation. It seems to us that
you have taken to the streets and occupied your parks and cities out
of dissatisfaction with the false promises of the game of electoral
politics. […] Why then, should our elections be any cause for
celebration, when even in the best of all possible worlds they will be
just another supposedly ‘representative’ body ruling in the interest
of the 1% over the remaining 99% of us? […] Is this something you wish
to monitor?”

Despite the obvious limits of this text, we can only express our
genuine solidarity with the reply of “Comrades from Cairo”. In fact,
what OWS proposed means that the capitalist world would be divided in
minimum two parts, with different situations and different tasks to
assume: on one hand the “Western” and rich world where elections and
parliamentarianism are not on the agenda anymore, and on the other
hand the “underdeveloped” countries or the “Third world” where the
tasks of the proletarian masses are to defend a progressive faction of
the ruling class and to use bourgeois means like elections… This is of
course completely false, paternalist and disgusting as for our fellow
brothers and sisters all over the world who confront the same enemies,
the same oppression, the same exploitation, and who use the same arms
and the same means to revolutionize this world, to abolish class
society.

But since the Islamist Morsi was elected president, it has been
obvious that this bourgeois faction will very quickly become
discredited as it is not able to deal with its essential task, that is
to say to manage the capitalist social relation in the interest of the
ruling class, and at the same time to pretend to satisfy the illusory
promises of changes and “welfare” that a few millions of useful idiots
(“the Egyptian people”, working and voting) believed to. Facing
disillusions, wage cuts, increases in prices of basic goods, facing an
always fiercer repression, the proletariat resumed its offensive and
just elected president Morsi has been contested in the streets with as
much force and determination as Mubarak was some months ago…

“Not making things profitable for the capitalists”

The operation of maintenance of social peace in Egypt (which moved
away, after only eighteen days of demonstrations and proletarian
strikes, a “dictator” too cumbersome and incapable of managing the
capitalist social relation in business’ best interests) didn’t bear
fruit at all. One of the first measures to restore capitalist law and
order taken by the military clique after the Mubarak’s fall was to ban
strikes (“which destroy the country”!). Nevertheless we must put
forward that since two years the proletariat has been refusing all
labour discipline, all sacrifice, in brief, it tried in its way to
“not make things profitable for the capitalists”, to paraphrase
comrades of the KAPD in the early twenties. Last October, that is to
say scarcely some weeks after the presidential elections, the “World
Bank” revealed its “concern” (at least) about the scale of social
discontent in Egypt where more than 300 strikes were recorded for the
first two weeks of September, most of them in the key sectors of the
economy belonging to the army. More than 2,000 strikes were registered
in September and October despite the repression and criminalization of
workers militants.

Last November and December, some people kicked up a fuss about the
fact that the new project of constitution imposed by the “Muslim
Brotherhood”, and therefore ultimately by the state of the
capitalists, which these Islamists and other militaries are only the
political representatives of, contains “liberticidal” measures (as it
was said by all the liberals and other worshippers of this hypocrisy
that is the democratic dictatorship). But these manoeuvres were only
badly hiding other measures of the same constitution that consolidates
the anti-worker repression and is just the continuation of the
numerous arrests and trials against workers’ militants involved in the
rise of wildcat strikes. And it is against this umpteenth attempt to
muzzle our class that thousands of fighting proletarians took to the
streets in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, Ismailia, etc., that
they assaulted the presidential palace, that they clashed with the
cops but also with the Islamist militias, and with the thugs of
“Muslim Brotherhood” military branch, that they burned down dozens of
their offices all over the country. Let us also emphasize that while
expressing thus all its contempt towards the Islamist “new power”
(“democratically elected”, let’s remind it), our class brothers and
sisters wanted also to commemorate the important and bloody struggles
of November 2011 (known under the name of “battle of Mohamed Mahmud
street”), boycotting the election of the constituent assembly, when
more than forty of our class fellows died.

All this rebellion, all this revolt, all this deep-rooted refusal to
get submitted to laws and labour standards of General Capital, all
this in spite of the democratic election toys that are served up to
our class, in brief all this sabotage of the national economy let the
Egyptian economy in quite a catastrophic state of crisis. The local
currency, Egyptian pound, must be devalued, the monetary reserves of
the Central Bank, that were 36 billions $ in January 2011 (that is to
say just before Mubarak’s fall), were only 13 billions $ two years
later, hardly enough to pay three months of basic goods importing. The
Egyptian government urgently needs 15 billions $ to balance its
budget; but so far only Qatar accepted to lend 5, what is far from
being sufficient. Last summer, president Morsi had negotiated a loan
of 4.8 billions $ with the IMF, but the accentuation of wildcat
strikes and social unrests postponed this agreement. The “subliminal”
message from the IMF is that Egypt has to first of all restore law and
order as well as social peace in the country, and to stop subsidies to
“vital commodities” granted by the Egyptian government, which will
inevitably cause a new wave of unrest… More and more the local as well
as world bourgeoisie is reaching a dead end in its systemic crisis…

As January 25th, 2013 approached…

On this day that officially marks the second anniversary of the
beginning of “the revolution” that had toppled Mubarak, the
proletarian forces once again massively expressed themselves in the
streets while clashing with the forces of conservation of this old
world. These events don’t represent a “second round of the
revolution”, and even less a “second revolution”, but it is the same
movement of our class, the same process of questioning what exists, it
is the same movement that continues, that develops and affirms itself
always stronger. And there is not only continuity in time, i.e. the
fact that there has been no “cessation of hostilities” between
proletariat and bourgeoisie since two last years. It concerns also the
content of the struggle, its reflexion through which the movement
clarifies not only against what it stands here and now, but also what
it fights for in the historical context. For many of those who
revolted against Mubarak it is clear today, that in reality they have
been revolting against any personification of the capitalist relation
of exploitation. It is about continuity of deepening of the rupture
sketched in January 2011 which has been gaining bright colours in an
unavoidable process of radicalisation. Our class doesn’t content
itself with some cosmetic changes (e.g. various rounds of the
electoral circus, new constitution, “freedom of the press”, etc.)
combined with various measures aiming to get the national economy on
its feet again and therefore to increase the rate of our exploitation.

Learning from the violent confrontations last November and December,
some more determined and advanced elements of our class developed the
offensive and security of proletarian rallies while organizing
autonomous fighting groups which fight back all the attempts of
Islamist thugs to quell our movement. All the medias had a field day
with the story of “a new group of Black Bloc in Egypt”…
Sensationalism, what a crap… But it is since weeks and months, in fact
already since before “the revolution” of 2011, that the proletarian
associationism (stemming from the dynamics of the movement of
struggle) develops, strengthens, and consolidates itself in Egypt as
well as all over the world where our class raises its head after
decades of suffering, submissiveness, silence… Many militant
expressions and structures re-emerge from the depths of this social
maelstrom and age-old confrontation between antagonistic forces of
both social classes, propounding the forces and weaknesses of our
class, its limits and its incomprehension: “libertarian socialists”,
“revolutionary unionists”, “revolutionary socialists”, “anarchists”,
“communist”, “Black Blocs”, “Ultras”, “Hooligans”, etc. are some of
the names these minorities label themselves with or the bourgeois
medias paste on their activities, their ruptures and their
hesitations.

Starting on Friday January 25th, important demonstrations and riots
shook all the country, showing thus the exacerbation of the global
crisis (“socially”, “economically”, “politically”) and the
simplification of antagonism between sectors of the proletariat in
struggle and the latest political alternative (the “Muslim
Brotherhood”) pushed by the system of management of capitalism.

The day after, the announcement of the death sentence for 21 football
supporters of Port Said provoked unrest: police stations are assaulted
and set on fire as well as offices of “Muslim Brotherhood”, some armed
groups attack the central jail and try to release the convicted… In
three days over forty proletarians are killed by cops, which led the
government to impose the state of emergency and a curfew in Port Said
as well as in the industrial cities of Ismailia and Suez. But the
population overtly challenges this decision while organizing night
demonstrations and football matches in the streets, which soldiers who
are supposed to enforce this curfew take part to. After some days,
this curfew is “eased”, if not definitely abolished because a lack of
confidence in the obedience of soldiers…

In the same mood of defeatism among the “security forces”, let’s note
that at the same time cops demonstrate asking the government for more
repression, more armament for “defending themselves” and repressing
“armed thugs”, other sectors of the police take to the streets all
over the country, from February 12th, to express their refusal to be
used as instruments of repression against the population.

We also want to emphasize the contempt of our class towards the
“variable-geometry” attitude (what a surprise…) of the bourgeois
opposition (mainly represented by the coalition of “National Salvation
Front”) during these events. The NSF, always lagging behind the
movement of our class, afraid of its vigour and its radicalism, trying
in vain to channel it, finally signs an agreement with the “Muslim
Brotherhood” condemning “all forms of violence” on the eve of the
important demonstration of Friday February 1st, in order to try to
take control of the movement and to pacify our anger. But our class
replies sharply to these bourgeois “opponents” as well as to the
government and once again (and during several days) the presidential
palace is assaulted… All the subsequent calls from the FSN to the
“fall of the oppressive regime and the political domination of Muslim
Brotherhood”, trying thus to stick close to the state of mind of the
radicalized movement, are fruitless because these professionals of
politics are so much discredited among the demonstrators that there is
only a last handful of useful idiots who still believe in their lies…

This being said, we don’t want here to argue on the content of
February 2012 events, which are the cause of the death sentences in
Port Said, when more than 70 people being at a football match between
the local club and a club from Cairo were killed during
clashes. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that some sectors of the
military deliberately and knowingly tried to punish the “hooligans” of
Cairo known for their involvement and their militant activities in the
social unrests that has shaken Egypt. On the other hand, the fact that
“hooligan” proletarians of Port Said could be used as mercenaries in
this disgusting task, it is not yet proven, and even though it was the
case, this would not be the first time in the tumultuous class
struggles history that some proletarians defend (temporarily) the
interests of the bourgeoisie and its state against their own interests
and those of the whole of our class… Whatever this shady affair was
about, proletarians in struggle in Port Said clearly demonstrated
which side of the social barricade they stand these last few weeks…

Indeed, from Sunday February 17th, important proletarian sectors of
Port Said started on, outside of any union structure and any political
party, a campaign of “civil disobedience”, consisting in blocking all
economic activity in the strategic industrial zone of the Suez Canal
while imposing general strike, forcing some ships to be rerouted,
erecting roadblocks and barricades to the main approaches to the town,
blocking railway lines and roads, organizing flying pickets so that
workers of other factory come out on strike, closing schools and
public administrations, refusing to pay governmental and local taxes,
boycotting the payment of electricity bills, physically clashing with
the cops, attacking and setting on fire their dens, what made several
dead in both sides, etc. What seems to characterize this development
of the struggle is self-organization of the angry masses, who equip
themselves once again with autonomous structures (“popular
committees”, etc.) taking in charge the various essential aspects of
life, like the distribution (for free or not) of food, like the
question of the production (what is to be produced and why?), the
refusal of labour and school system, etc. Because of all these
expressions of a rupture with the established societal order, some
militants said (maybe a bit quickly) that this experience of struggle
in Port Said is “a reality without precedent” as well as “an
experiment in a new form of living, producing and existing”, and they
went as far as calling it the “Egyptian Paris Commune”…1

In the following days, this campaign of direct action very quickly
spread like wildfire to other cities of the zone of the canal,
Ismailia and Suez, as well as to those of the Nile delta: violent
confrontations between bourgeois “security forces” and proletarians
who are more and more determined to do battle broke out in Mansura
(several dead), Tanta, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, etc. which seemed to be
beyond the control of social peace partisans… and up to Alexandria and
Cairo. Moreover since March 5th, dozens of police stations in most of
the governorates in the country are affected by a strike of cops who
refuse to be sent to the front to quell strikes and
demonstrations. All this marks once again an important level of
dissolution of state repression central apparatuses… This question of
“security” becomes nodal for the state to such an extent that the
government considers the creation of “private polices” to restore law
and order or as proposed by the Islamist “ultraconservative” group
Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya the organization of “security militias” in order
to “protect private property and banks”…

At last we have to mention the explosion of violence which followed
the confirmation of the death sentences for the 21 of Port Said on
Saturday 9th March and especially the verdict of not guilty for many
police officials or their symbolic sentencing. In Port Said
demonstrators tried to block the Suez Canal, while in Cairo police
buildings were torched. The same happened to the headquarters of the
“Egyptian Football Association”, what shows the lack of interest that
important active and combative sectors of the proletariat do feel
towards football and sport generally, which doesn’t fulfil its social
purpose of distraction and fuel for nationalism anymore. Stadiums are
deserted by proletarians who have better to do while taking to the
streets, while discussing “politics” and while attacking the
deterioration of their living conditions… Groups of football
supporters, either the “Green Eagles” of Port Said or the “Ultras
Devils” and “Ultras Ahlawy” of Cairo are involved in social movements
and often constitute their “shock troops”. Even some well-known
football players turn away from this aspect of the society of
spectacle to get involved in the movement of our class…

—

We would like to finish this short text on the class struggles in
Egypt with some programmatic considerations, which don’t come out from
our brains but are the direct result of this movement that takes place
in front of our eyes. These are also “lessons” we can draw and that
other revolutionary minorities already drew from the struggles of the
past. Either at the time of the proletarian movement in France in the
years 1870-71, better known under the name of “Commune of Paris”; or
at the time of the revolutionary process that shook the world in the
years 1917-21 and especially in Russia, as well as during the
councils’ republics of Bavaria and Hungary in 1919; or even in Spain
in 1936-37, etc. In all these moments of high struggle of the
proletariat, capital was able to encourage all the possible democratic
alternations. Facing a common enemy (the proletariat) that threatens
the very foundations of the expanded reproduction of the prevailing
social relation, all the bourgeois factions that only yesterday
(formally) “hated” each other, either unite or assume one after the
other the management of the society and its social peace. And even,
capital is able if necessary to co-opt proletarian elements stemming
from the struggle, to put them in charge of certain essential
functions of the “power” and thus to turn them into administrators of
the social relation and into gravediggers of the struggle (cf. the
role of the CNT and the “comrades ministers” in Spain)…

The state is a social relation

Anyway, all this to say that, contrary to all the idealistic beliefs
conveyed by the dominant ideology, and therefore also by a large
number of proletarians in struggle and militants, contrary to how the
state is grasped generally, that is to say while being reduced to an
“apparatus”, an “institution”, or a simple “structure”, the state is
not a “neutral” tool that the proletariat could take in hand and use
as such for its own purposes or even something that could be
transformed from “vertical” decision-making into “horizontal”
decision-making (fetishism and misery of federalism!). A large number
of revolutionaries of the past, whether they were “anarchists”,
“communists”, “Marxists”, “revolutionary socialists”, etc., always
grasped the state as a “tool” or quite simply as “the government”…

The state is a social relation, composed of various apparatuses
(government, parliament, police, army, employers, unions, political
parties, school system, etc.) combined with many ideologies that make
it strong (parliamentarianism, religion, positivism, authoritarianism,
etc.). In this way we can only support what Malatesta affirmed at the
end of the 19th century, that the state is to be found even within our
associations…

The state is a social relation that reproduces even within our
struggles, and which we vehemently fight against.

The state is a social relation and as such it appears in Egypt where
all the bourgeois factions are candidates for managing it: from the
military that assumed the “democratic transition period” after having
“sacked” the incapable Mubarak, to the Islamists and their magical
potion of divine ultra-liberalism, and finally the next candidates
like ElBaradei and other charlatans who are all the same… And it is
sure that all the tendencies of leftism rainbow are waiting behind the
scenes for their turn…

The state is a social relation and at the present level of the
development of class societies (and capitalism is the ultimate outcome
of this development as a synthesis of previous modes of production),
the state can only be the state of the capitalists, and therefore it
can only be destroyed through the force of social revolution, through
the movement of subversion of this world that will terminate all
shapes of exploitation to hand over to the communist society…

What change? What revolution?

We clearly distinguish ourselves from all those (“here” as well as
“there”) who call for “more democracy”, we refuse this false dichotomy
between “dictatorship” and “democracy”, because it is everywhere the
same state, the same dictatorship of profit and money that is imposed
against our human needs, it is everywhere the irreconcilable
antagonism between the class of the wealthy and that of the
dispossessed that rules, whether this democracy is a “parliamentary”
and “multiparty” one or a “military” and “one-party” one… And this
democracy produces many ideologies, which become material forces, like
that of the myth of the “sovereign people”, that is to say this force
which negates in action class antagonism. Under the democratic
dictatorship of value, the proletariat dissolves into “the people” and
ends up side by side with its historical enemy, the bourgeoisie, in
the defence of the interests of nation and economy. Whether it is in
Tunisia or even more in Egypt, this “sovereign people” that chooses a
new master while voting is in direct opposition theoretically as well
as practically with the proletariat, of which important sectors refuse
this infernal comedy. It is not only bourgeoisie against proletariat,
but also and especially people against proletariat… And in return, the
proletariat has to organize its struggle against the people…

We entitled this text “Nothing has changed, but everything begins…”,
to make obvious that we are sick and tired of all these “changes” and
these “revolutions” the bourgeoisie talks about, and that they are
nothing but only premises in the light of the huge upheavals we are
waiting for and which all of us will be driving force of. In fact,
everything begins and it is especially necessary that everything
continues, that the movement of subversion of this world doesn’t stop,
at least not before we reach the resolution of the social
contradictions and antagonisms, not before the whole humanity is free,
and free itself from its age-old and thousand-year-old chains…

But we know that at the same time, a lot of things have already
changed, a lot of things are changing… Such events as in Egypt, in
Tunisia, in Syria (in spite of the huge repression that tries to
suppress our energy under a deluge of fire and blood, of ashes and
rubbles), in Greece, in South Africa… and wherever our class raises
its head and struggles for living, such events transform us, fill us
with energy, give us other perspectives than this ruthless and pitiful
survival which we would be condemned to on the altar of submissiveness
to God Capital. Men and women who throw themselves headfirst into the
struggle already have another conception of life, they already forge
and reach a “political” consciousness, that is to say that they
transform their relation with other men and women who are in struggle,
their relation with the world… Fear begins to go over to the other
side…

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class
struggles” as the good old Karl Marx said… But if there are always
class struggles, even when the proletariat seems to be impassive,
exhausted, invisible, absent, we must emphasize that the development
of the struggles in the world since some years shows us that we begin
to go from a period of class struggles of “low intensity” (as the
bourgeois and their stupid militaries coarsely say) to a period of
“medium intensity” before approaching struggles of “high
intensity”. This last quality of the struggles will mean the global
affirmation of real revolutionary process on a world scale and will
consider theoretically as well as practically the question of the
destruction of the capitalist social relation, of the tyranny of value
and of the world based on the production of commodities…

Proletarian comrades in struggle in Tunisia, Syria, Egypt,… in South
Africa, China, Greece… and everywhere else in the world… capitalism
doesn’t have anything else to offer us than always more austerity,
misery, exploitation, repression, war, death…

The struggle for living, for developing a classless, stateless society
without exploiters, without bosses, police, armies, jails, etc. goes
through the elimination of all the bourgeois factions that manage our
everyday life and keep us in misery: “dictators” and “democrats”, the
“right” and the “left”, militaries and civilians, ultraliberals and
Social Democrats, Islamists and secularists…

Let’s develop internationalism, let’s break the national frontiers (as
well as frontiers between different sectors) poisoning the struggles
of our class. Let’s develop revolutionary defeatism: the best
solidarity with proletarians “over there” is to struggle “here”
against the same enemy, against our own bourgeoisie, against our own
state, against the world state of capital.

Let’s not make things profitable for the capitalists!  The economy is
in crisis, may it die!  The enemy is capitalism and the dictatorship
of world market!  The objective is everywhere the same: social
revolution!  Destruction of capitalism and the state!

Class war February/March 2013

http://autistici.org/tridnivalka/
tridnivalka@yahoo.com

This text is simultaneously published in three languages: Czech,
English and French, not because we have efficient translators but for
the sake of internationalism on one hand, and because it is the result
of a common activity of comrades speaking different languages on the
other hand.

— 1. See the text published by the Italian militant blog infoaut.org
“Egypt: The self-management of Port Said and the workers’ struggles”
available in English on Anarkismo website:
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25022/.