For three months the Quebec Province in Canada has seen massive demonstrations, organizing, and the emergence of a fight back movement aimed at stopping austerity and the economic assault on students and broadly speaking, the entire of the working classes. The student strikes have polarized Quebec. As students and their allies organize members of the government have attempted to fine, jail, and suppress the struggle. One government bureaucrat had even called on the creation of a 1930′s style “fascist” force to attack the student strike.
The situation has intensified and we have now seen pitched street battles between students and the working classes on one side against the police on the other. After battles in Montreal on Mayday the governing Parti Libéral du Québec attempted to hold its convention away from the main Quebec urban areas. The Liberal Party convention, held in the small town of Victoriaville just two days ago on May 6th, bore witness to some of the most dramatic actions. It also saw some of the most repressive attacks by police.
We are posting articles and analyses from our friends and comrades in Quebec and Ontario, Canada. We include statements from the anarchist groups, Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL), and, Common Cause.
Solidarity/Solidarité!
Grève sociale, solidarité et lutte de classe (UCL).
Statement in French: “S’il y a un enseignement fondamental à tirer de la lutte étudiante qui perdure depuis bientôt trois mois, c’est que le mouvement ne s’est pas laissé abattre par les tribunaux et les injonctions qui visaient à casser la grève. Tout au contraire, les étudiant-e-s ont répondu aux tentatives d’encadrement par le pouvoir juridique en y opposant la force du nombre, de la solidarité et de l’action directe. À travers un système de soutien permanent des associations étudiantes entre elles qui mobilisèrent plusieurs centaines de personnes pouvant se déplacer d’un campus à l’autre, les administrations universitaires ont dû céder devant la pression. Malgré l’intimidation des tribunaux qui promettaient des amendes salées envers quiconque s’opposerait aux injonctions, les étudiants et étudiantes n’ont pas reculé. Ils et elles ont remporté leur pari de confronter le pouvoir juridique en agissant sur le terrain politique. “
Statement in English: “If there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from the student struggle that has lasted nearly three months, is that the movement does not let down by the courts and injunctions which aimed to break the strike. On the contrary, the students responded to attempts by framing the legal authority by opposing the force of numbers, solidarity and direct action. Through a system of ongoing support of student organizations that mobilized them several hundred people can move from one campus to another, university administrations have had to yield to pressure. Despite the intimidation of the courts which promised stiff fines against anyone who would oppose the injunctions, the students did not decline. They and they won their bet to confront the legal authority by acting in the political field.”
L’UCL dénonce la répression et appelle à défier les injonctions (UCL).
Statement in French: “Depuis le début de la grève étudiante, la stratégie du gouvernement est d’envoyer sa police sur les manifestations et lignes de piquetage. Le matraquage, les arrestations et la judiciarisation des grévistes n’ont cependant pas réussi à ébranler le mouvement étudiant. L’État a donc décidé de s’en remettre au système judiciaire et de laisser des individus attaquer devant les tribunaux des décisions prises collectivement et démocratiquement (certainement beaucoup plus que les élections qui ont permis à Jean Charest de prendre le pouvoir) par un mouvement de lutte… Par conséquent, l’UCL appelle les étudiantes et les étudiants à défier ces injonctions et à continuer la grève.”
Statement in English: “Since the beginning of the student strike, the government’s strategy is to send its police on demonstrations and picket lines. The hype, arrests and prosecution of strikers, however, have failed to shake the student movement. The State has therefore decided to rely on the judicial system and let individuals go to court decisions taken collectively and democratically (certainly much more than elections that allowed Charest to take power) by a movement the fight… Therefore, the UCL called Students to defy such orders and to continue the strike.”
Le printemps étudiant (UCL).
Statement in French: “Le printemps étudiant souffle fort au Québec pour faire reculer un gouvernement hautain qui cherche à transformer encore davantage l’éducation en une marchandise et les universités en des entreprises. Les anarchistes de l’Union communiste libertaire tiennent à appuyer et saluer les efforts de lutte menés par les militants et militantes de différents horizons pour mettre de l’avant une éducation qui soit libre, gratuite et populaire.
Notre rôle dans la lutte n’est pas de dédoubler l’information ni d’espérer récupérer un mouvement social des plus stimulants, mais de respecter et favoriser l’autonomie de ce mouvement tout en diffusant des idées et des pratiques libertaires.”
Statement in English: “The spring student blows hard in Quebec to roll back a government that seeks to transform haughty further education into a commodity and universities in business. The anarchists of the libertarian communist Union would like to acknowledge the support and control efforts led by activists from different backgrounds to put forward an education that is free, free and popular.
Our role in the fight is not to duplicate information or to hope to recover one of the most challenging social movement, but to respect and promote the autonomy of the movement while disseminating libertarian ideas and practices.”
“The student movement has focused on the issue of tuition fees and the commodification of the universities. However, it is not unaware that this measure is integrally linked to a larger project affecting elementary and secondary education, the healthcare sector and the unfettered development of natural resources. Our resistance to the Quebec government’s neoliberal measures has to take into account all of these sectors, establishing a social link that enables us to speak of a community… We must build this social strike from the bottom up, by initiating a discussion in the workplaces on how to desert our day-to-day occupations. Let us call for general meetings in our local unions to discuss the possibility of instituting such a strike.
Let us contact the community groups in our neighborhoods, to hold citizens’ assemblies on the social strike. These assemblies are the expression of our capacity to deliberate together and to build a movement that goes beyond the limits established by the elite.
May the streets, occupied for two months now, become the expression of our collective refusal.”
An interview with CLASSE spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (Common Cause website).
Tuition fee increases: the struggle continues!. “Above all, to understand the scope and the strength of the current movement, it is required to go back in time to see the work devoted to the preparation. In fact, in the fall of 2010, the ASSE began to organize information campaigns on the campuses of its member associations about a possible tuition fees increase. When that increase became reality, during winter 2011, ASSÉ began a long series of petitions, visibility actions, distribution of information and events, until the creation of the CLASSE and the beginning of the strike itself. In this sense, the strike in progress and the direct actions and protests related to it are parts of an escalation of pressure tactics over time. So the student struggle has taken on the traditional means used by other social movements who do not have enought economic power or resources to ensure that the government listens to us. However, what is fascinating about the strike today and which consitutes a new phenomenon, is the quantity of actions, creative events and protests that continue to multiply and emerge directly from local associations. Each day, student associations organize their own mobilization and show that the refusal of the government discourages nobody, but on the contrary, it renews and increases the ranks of those who take street on a daily basis.”
Since May 1, 2006 we have seen a slow opening up of mass struggles on a scale not seen in recent memory, amplified by the silent economic crash in 2008. From the massive day without an immigrant to the historic Arab Spring; the Wisconsin workers uprising to the prisoners strikes in Georgia and California; Occupy Wall Street to the rallies for Justice for Trayvon Martin; General strikes of students in Chile and Quebec and of workers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. People committed to real change cannot help but feel the wind in our sails. People are rising and refusing, struggles are igniting, common ground is revealing itself, we are beginning to feel and take back our power, everywhere.
Despite the rise of new fighting forces, pain is growing not decreasing. Symbolic changes at the peak of empire—codename Obama—have only served to further entrench the direction of decline, with Democrats bringing the stick when the Republicans aren’t there to make their bad cop look good. Deportations have increased, prisons are overflowing, the local face of a global war given new legitimacy, while organized racist violence dares to seize an ever greater public stage. Cutbacks and the destruction of public safety nets pay for corporate welfare and bankers’ bailouts. Ecological destruction continues apace: tar sands mining, fracking, nuclear power, and the daily grind of a system that cannot long coexist with dignified human life on earth.
We move forward inspired with new energy and deadly seriousness. We find ourselves in a global war on a thousand fronts . . . and yet the smell of a new Spring remains in the breeze.
Never before has common sense been clearer on the connection between struggles, that freedom is only possible if no one is in chains. Embodying this truth is a core task for all revolutionaries, which requires building independent power as part of the working class. Otherwise, we as working class people are going to get pushed around, sold out by people happy to direct our struggles. Conversely, if those at the bottom aren’t connecting their struggles for survival with the ideas and methods of freedom and revolution then those facing the most brutal assaults will be without what they need to end this entire system of exploitation, oppression, hierarchy and war.
Never has this system of exploitation been closer to falling apart, yet the revolution necessary to make this possible won’t happen on its own. Even as we fight around specific demands we must continually promote a maximal program, demanding freedom beyond what this system can provide—survival, prosperity, and power for all people. This includes confronting the would be bosses among us, whether they’re liberal types trying to herd our movements into Democratic Party graveyards or authoritarian leftists whose heroes left real live mass graves all on their own.
This May Day, let us raise our fists in memory of our ancestors, the earth we all belong to, and the lessons from struggles everywhere, traces of which burn through the haze of the present to the black soil beneath, the grounded hope of social revolution and dignity for all people.
Our small, but growing, Alliance raises four motions to those already at the barricades:
1. Raise and promote the concept of Revolution. Defensive struggles can only go so far. This system cannot provide what is needed. It will need to be overturned all together. Our freedom, our lives and our planet depend on it.
2. Orient to the working-classes. Revolutionaries must be of and among the people, not staffing for a new elite. Rooting ourselves in working-class conditions and life will mean that our politics are shaped by, and will help shape the rank & file movements from below.
3. Develop non-doctrinaire anarchist politics. Anarchism has been the most consistent set of anti-authoritarian ideas, hostile to all exploitation, oppression and hierarchy – but it must be further deepened and developed to help chart our course for freedom today.
4. Organize broadly and on many levels. From unions to radical media collectives, from anti-fascist self-defense units to building community power around urban agriculture. Participate as anarchists and aim to federate the many fronts of resistance.
First of May Anarchist Alliance is an organization of anarchist revolutionaries working in the Occupy movement and housing defense, the IWW and broader labor movement, Anti-Racist Action and the anti-fascist movement. We welcome inquiries, discussion, and critique.
Día de Mayo. El primero de Mayo. La llegada de la primavera. El día de los obreros.
Desde Mayo 1, 2006 hemos visto un inicio lento de luchas masivas a una escala que no se había visto anteriormente en la historia reciente, y que ha sido amplificada por el silencioso colapso de la economía en el 2008. Desde el día masivo llamado un día sin inmigrantes a la histórica primavera Arabe; los obreros de Wisconsin levantándose por las demonstraciones de los prisioneros en Georgia y California; la Ocupación de Wall Street, las marchas buscando Justicia por Trayvon Martin; manifestaciones de estudiantes en Chile y Quebec y manifestaciones de los obreros en Europa, el Oriente Medio, y en África. La gente comprometida al verdadero cambio no puede evitar sentir el viento de nuestro barco velador. La gente se está levantando y esta resistiendo, las luchas se están encendiendo, lasos comunes se están revelando por sí mismos, estamos empezando a sentir y a recuperar nuestro poder, en todos lados.
A pesar de las nuevas fuerzas contra-atacantes, el dolor está creciendo no disminuyendo. Cambios simbólicos a la cima del imperio-cual nombre código es Obama-solo han servido para llevar aún más lejos le dirección del deterioro del sistema, con los Democratas haciendo el trabajo de castigar cuando los Republicanos no están para hacer ver bien a sus malos. Las deportaciones han incrementado, las prisiones están desbordándose, la representación local está dando nueva legitimidad a la guerra global, mientras violencia organizada y racista se atreve a apoderarse del escenario público. Reducción y destrucción de las redes por la seguridad publica pagan por el bienestar corporativo y las fianzas de los banqueros. Destrucción ecológico continua a paso acelerado: minería del chapopote, fracturación hidráulica, poder nuclear y la diaria deterioración de un sistema que no puede coexistir por mucho mas con una vida digna de seres humanos en la tierra.
Nos movemos hacia adelante inspirados con nueva energía y con seriedad. Nos encontramos en una guerra global en miles de frentes diferentes…y aun el aroma de una nueva primavera permanece en el aire.
Nunca antes el sentido común ha sido tan claro en cuanto la conexión entre las luchas, que hace la libertad solo posible sin que nadie este encadenado. La personificación de esta verdad es la tarea principal de todo los revolucionarios, que requiere de construir poder independiente, como parte de la clase obrera. Si no, nosotros como gente de la clase obrera vamos hacer manipulados, vendidos por la gente que sería feliz dirigiendo nuestras luchas. Igual, si aquellos que están al fondo de los movimientos no están conectando sus luchas con la sobrevivencia y con ideas y métodos de libertad y revolución ellos serán los que enfrentarán los asaltos más brutales y estarán sin lo que necesitan para acabar con este sistema de explotación, opresión, jerarquia y guerra.
Este sistema de explotación nunca ha estado tan cerca de desmoronarse, sin embargo la revolución necesaria para hacer esto posible, no se va hacer por si misma. Aunque luchemos alrededor de demandas específicas debemos promover continuamente un programa al máximo, demandando por la libertad más allá de lo que este sistema puede proveer—sobrevivencia, prosperidad, y poder para todos. Esto incluye enfrentar los que serían jefes entre nosotros, ya sean del tipo liberal que intentan mandar nuestros movimientos a panteones del partido Demócrata o sean izquierdistas autoritarios quienes héroes han dejado masas de vidas en panteones completamente solas.
Este Dia de Mayo, levantaremos nuestros puños al aire en memoria de nuestros ancestros, de la tierra de la cual todos pertenecemos, y por las lecciones de luchas de todas partes, rastros de las cual se aparecen por medio de la neblina del presente, al suelo negro debajo nosotros, llevando la arraigada esperanza de revolución social y dignidad por todo ser humano.
The following reports are from organizers in First of May Anarchist Alliance. The Minneapolis report has contributions from IWW Fellow Worker, B.
Baltimore Report
Report by M.B.
A member of M1 attended a Trayvon Martin Rally and March in Baltimore Maryland. The route was a half mile, originating at the Baltimore Harbor/Former Occupy Baltimore Encampment and ended at 7pm at city hall. The estimated attendance was 1,200 – 1,500. The city and most of the activist community anticipated a few hundred people at most. The event was publicized by the local All People’s Congress/Workers World Party and progressive African American Religious Leaders rather than the traditional leftist milieu, the crowd was made up almost entirely of first time activists, families and youth.
Justice for Trayvon Martin Baltimore Demo
Baltimore is approximately 78% African American and has a history of influential civil rights actions coupled with a history of race violence and oppression and profiling. Currently, they have coupled with raising awareness and the march for Trayvon Martin with the saving of Reed’s Drug Store. Reed’s was to location of an important civil rights era lunch counter occupation by Morgan State University Students; the location is slated for demolition for creation of a “superblock” gentrified development. Their strategy and organizing efforts exceeded my expectations as getting more than a few hundred to turn out to anything in Baltimore is virtually unheard of.
The outpouring of nontraditional activists and the growing awareness of such inexcusable crime and victimization creates a defined radical shift in an ever-shrinking, economically strangled city. Coupled with the staggering foreclosure rates, decline to employment and rising uncertainty; the spontaneous outpouring of unrest in response to Trayvon Martin’s murder creates a momentum that will not be ignored. It is essential that the anger and outcry of racist murder not turn back to complacency. Anarchists should work in support of their community’s momentum and encourage dialogue rather than splintering off to themselves. Trayvon’s cries for help shook the world and we as Anarchists should be making sure no one forgets it.
Detroit Report
Report by C.R.
I went to the Trayvon Martin Rally on Monday. When I got there, around 6:20pm, there were already about 80% of the estimated 1000-1500 present. The majority were black with some speckles of white supporters. From what I could tell, there wasn’t an organized Occupy presence. I was somewhat disappointed there weren’t more people there, but large nonetheless.
Speakers talked about voting, god, police protecting citizens, and that we should all join together to fight injustice regardless of color. The only thing that struck me was that a Latina woman, Jane Garcia spoke at the rally. Couldn’t hear what she said exactly but I think I heard: voting and god. It was a diverse crowd in terms of age, women, men, and children. The crowd in general were in support of the speakers (who were politicos, police, and from the religious community). I saw MECAWI (Michigan Emergency Coalition Against War and Injustice) and BAMN with their flags.
Report by M.P.
Justice For Trayvon martin Detroit Demo
My neighbor who is a nurse at the city jail called and asked if I wanted to go with her. Yes, and so we rode down together. She brought 2 posterboards and a green marker. She asked me to buy some Skittles and Arizona iced tea. We got there about 5:15, as people were beginning to arrive and setting up. We made our posters — hers said “I Am Trayvon Martin” and mine said “Justice for Trayvon, Fight Racism Now”.
The leadership of the rally was extremely conservative — pledge of allegiance, the Lords Prayer, Police Chief Ralph Godby (who said, “it could have been my son”), NAACP chair Wendell Anthony, Detroit 300, City Councilwoman Joann Watson, Rev. Ed Rowe, UAW, Jane Garcia as a speaker from the Latino community.
Jessica Care Moore performed an excellent poem that tied this murder to all the Black murders through time, lynching, etc. A student from Cass Tech high school read a poem he wrote (“It could have been me”) that moved us all.
The crowd — about 1000 — filled Hart Plaza. Families and children, junior high and high school students, groups of teenagers. I saw people from all races — mostly Black, some white, Latino, Arabic (women wearing habibs). Moratorium Now had an organized presence, as did BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) and UAW Local 600, also the Melanics (“If you don’t hate us, why are you killing us?”) and members of Occupy but with no banner or any other indicator of who they are. Occupy had called and held a meeting the previous Thursday with the Coalition Against Police Brutality, Moratorium and LRNA (League for a Revolutionary New America) people with the outcome to have a rally that broadened the issue, but there was no indication at this rally of that meeting. I saw 2 people from my union (UAW local 909), one of whom had a pack of condoms along with his pack of Skittles (referencing the death of Michael Haynes, killed over an argument about the price of a pack of condoms at a local BP gas station).
Justice For Trayvon Martin Detroit Demo
Many people had pictures of murdered children, tying this violence to Trayvon’s case. Some had signs referencing Michael Haynes. There were mostly hand made signs. The crowd was pretty calm — cheering the speakers, going with the flow, leaving quietly at the end of 2 hours. That said, the mood was upbeat, as if something is stirring. People were proud they came out and proud Detroit made this showing of respect. They were responding to the increasing scapegoating of Black youth and the devaluation of Black life. I believe Occupy has opened a public discussion that includes the ideas of rallying and marching to get justice and the Black community is utilizing this space. The angriest people in the crowd were mothers — women with children who appeared ready to take this whole thing further.
Minneapolis Report
Report by K.
Thursday, March March 29th 5,500 people (police estimates) gathered on a plaza at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to stand in solidarity with Trayvon Martin and against profiling, police brutality and racism in general – as part of the national call for “Million hoodie marches”.
The crowd was more than half Black, with lots of whites, Asians, Latinos, and other nationalities as well. This was the largest mainly Black protest in the Twin Cities since the Rodney King verdict and Rebellion in 1992. There were lots of Black students, but also many youth and families that were clearly not students. Most attending wore hooded sweatshirts. Some brought their own signs. The energy was amazing as people felt their power.
Many different people spoke and it wasn’t always easy to hear who each person was. An African-American woman wearing an “Occupy the Hood” sweatshirt was the main MC. There were speeches by Black faculty, Black fraternities, an Asian poet who mentioned the case of Fong Lee a Hmong teen killed by the police, Occupy our Homes campaign, and many others. The main message was “No More!” “We must stand up against these injustices”.
No politicians spoke that I saw (I could be wrong). Brother Ali, a popular local rapper who is Muslim and white (albino in fact) spoke. It was one of those speeches that was a pretty eloquent call for white folks in the audience to acknowledge racism and take action against it.
SEIU staff and their “Workers Center” spin-offs (who were mostly white) provided the identifiable security, which was kind of weird. The Nation of Islam was thanked from the stage for providing Medics. Socialist Alternative and the SWP each had literature tables. The IWW had one of our big banners and about a dozen-person contingent. I saw several other friends, anarchists, Wobblies and members of FRSO(Freedom Road Socialist Organization).
I attended with J—, a co-worker and Wobbly. We saw but could not get to the IWW contingent flying red & black flags on the other side of the plaza. It was too packed. One of J—’s close co-workers was planning to attend with her family.
At one point I thought I heard folks from the front (The IWW, I think but not just) chanting “We wanna march!”. The organizers let the huge crowd march, and many groups of marches including folks around the IWW were chanting militantly, but the mach was circled harmlessly back to the rally plaza without getting out on to the streets and off of campus. J— and I left after that to catch the bus.
I had got a feeling that this rally was going to be huge, when some of my non-activist friends started buzzing about it on Facebook. From what I can tell Facebook was the main organizing tool of the rally, although there may have been some leaflets on campus or some promotion on Black radio that I missed.
Earlier in the day I had asked my union Local (I am in an oppositional relationship with much of the union executive) to endorse the rally and allow the Local’s Solidarity Committee to bring the Union’s banner to the event. The Local President tried to rule my motion dead. As a result the motion lost with a close vote but it was good that it happened and got on the record.
I was very encouraged by this rally. It was a great show of force for Black solidarity and an expression of the growing desire for the Black community to put its stamp on the emerging movements.
After I left a break-away march was initiated that got out into the streets. Here is a report (with permission) by Fellow Worker B. of the Twin Cities IWW:
A group of about twenty IWWs, Occupiers and assorted radicals who all gathered around the IWW banner found ourselves towards the back of the march around the plaza that K. mentioned. As we got towards the far end of the plaza away from the speakers stand, some folks decided we were going to break off and continue into the streets. We walked passed a marshal and stopped to make our next move, encouraging folks to come with us. The break-off group was initially about 20 folks, mostly white youth. Very quickly though, a couple of black folks responded to the calls to march elsewhere and joined us, and encouraged other folks to come with them.
Before long, we had about 300 people and marched through the University for a few blocks. We then swung back towards the rally, which was just about ending, and headed northeast passed very edge of the rally and onto University Ave. We picked up more people at this point, despite marshals from the rally screaming at people not to join us.
By the time we hit the streets for real, I would estimate we had at least 500 people, about 75% black youth, 15% families with kids and the rest mostly-white radicals. We took all three lanes of 4th St SE and then after doubling back, all three lanes of University. It was a ton of fun, shouting militant chants about Trayvon Martin and racism as well as explicitly revolutionary slogans which were quickly taken up by much of the crowd.
Initially, the radicals who proposed the breakaway march had talked about marching downtown, but before long the IWW banner and most of the radical contingent were scattered throughout the march and decisions were being made by the younger black folks who were running the march. Instead we went up the length of Dinkytown, raising hell on Frat Row and generally having a blast.
There were a few minor incidents during the march. A few of the marshals from the main rally, mostly Occupiers, took off their vests and joined us.
One, a person who I don’t know, got into an altercation with an Occupier and UAW grad student organizer that ended up with the grad student getting attacked and put into a headlock by the marshal’s friend. They were quickly separated (I didn’t see this, just heard about it afterwards) by others and things continued on. A few drivers were not interested in letting us take all three lanes of a one way street and tried to push through the crowd but were stopped by persistent marchers and in at least one instance, had ice tea cans tossed at them (appropriately enough).
The march was a really great experience and for me was an awesome way of taking issues like racism and responses to racist violence away from the “professional organizers” and towards average working people of color.
While initiated by mostly (but not exclusively) white radicals, the march quickly took a turn towards being organized and run by black youth, many of whom it was clear had never participated in a march or rally before. I personally have gotten a bit of flack from folks I know who were either marshals or speakers, and am continuing to hear from them. . . . Some apparently want to have a meeting with me and other folks who were involved in the march to get a sense of why we did the breakaway. To be blunt, whatever. The meeting will probably happen but we made the right call and I would do it again in a heartbeat, it’s the most fun I’ve had since marching in Madison last spring. I think the professionals on the left are mostly pissed because a group of radicals worked with a large mass of politicized people of color in ways that outflanked their preplanned (and frankly rather long) rally. I guarantee you that if you polled the people who attended the rally last Thursday, everyone who went on that march would tell you it was the highlight of the event.
First of May Anarchist Alliance received the following communique.
Fédération anarchiste, secrétariat aux Relations extérieures
Communiqué
Sunday March 11 relations-exterieures@federation-anarchiste.org
On the evening of March 8, 2012, four activists of the Anarchist Federation, along with seven other comrades of Anti-Fascist Action, NPA [Nouveau parti anticapitaliste] and Alternative libertaire were arrested in Paris and placed in custody. They are accused of gang degradation. In fact, their action was a collage of posters to refuse the trivialization of the extreme right and to inform about the holding of “National Conference on Nationality, Citizenship and Identity”, scheduled for Saturday, March 10 in the 12th district or Paris. This supposedly “citizen” event, the second of the kind, openly conveys on behalf of the “Identity Bloc” the most abject xenophobic and racist statements.
In this case, the forces of State repression have made clear what their natural side was; custody has been extended until Saturday, March 10 to 22 hours, imprisonment lasted until Sunday 11 in the afternoon, without any legal basis under bourgeois law.
Rallies organized in support were neutralized by the police with the efficiency we know when it comes to crushing social struggles. Clearly, the State authority has decided to strike hard and send a message of encouragement to fascists of all kinds.
Linked with recent statements made by Minister of the Interior [Police] and the general tone of the electoral campaign, this series of police custodies proves, if proof were needed, that right-wing extremism is an essential cog in the stability of capitalism and the State, and that we will get permanently rid of them only by destroying the economic and political system that grants them its protection.
The Anarchist Federation
• supports the activists who were arrested;
• demands the cessation of proceedings against them;
• denounces an attack against freedom of expression
• denounces the unprecedented measures of custody followed by detention for simply putting up posters.
The Anarchist Federation wishes to thank all those who have expressed immediate support without yielding to police intimidation. Already, solidarity is organized: a subscription has been opened, support can be sent by check to the following address:
PUBLICO,
145 rue Amelot,
75011 PARIS,
payable to “Publications libertaires”, with the mention “Solidarité 8 mars” on the back. Information on various support initiatives to come will be provided as they come.
The following statement has been endorsed by First of May Anarchist Alliance. Updated versions can be found at, Three Way Fight.
[The following statement has been published on several websites. The version published here contains the most up-to-date list of signers.]
Attempting to latch onto the just, vital, and growing movement in support of the Palestinian national liberation struggle, Gilad Atzmon is one of a very small and unrepresentative group of writers who have argued (in agreement with many Zionists) that there is no meaningful distinction to be made between Jews in general and Israeli atrocities. According to Atzmon, the latter are simply a manifestation of Jews’ historic relationship to gentiles, an authentic expression of an essentially racist, immoral, and anti-human “Jewish ideology.”
Atzmon’s statements, besides distorting the history of Jews and constituting a brazen justification for centuries of anti-Jewish behavior and beliefs, also downgrade anti-Zionism to a mere front in the broader (anti-Jewish) struggle. Atzmon has specifically described Zionism not as a form of colonialism or settlerism, but as a uniquely evil ideology unlike anything else in human history. In addition to any ethical problems, this line of argumentation actually strengthens Zionism’s grip and claim to be the authentic representative of Jews. It obscures the reality that Zionism is an imperialist and colonialist enemy of Jewish people and Palestinians, as well as the Arab people generally and all those oppressed and exploited by imperialism.
In his online attack on Moshe Machover, an Israeli socialist and founder of the anti-Zionist group Matzpen, Atzmon states:
Machover’s reading of Zionism is pretty trivial. “Israel,” he says, is a “settler state.” For Machover this is a necessary point of departure because it sets Zionism as a colonialist expansionist project. The reasoning behind such a lame intellectual spin is obvious. As long as Zionism is conveyed as a colonial project, Jews, as a people, should be seen as ordinary people. They are no different from the French and the English, they just happen to run their deadly colonial project in a different time.[1]
For Atzmon, such views are “pretty trivial” and “lame” because he holds that Jews are in fact radically different from the French and the English. Of the many quotes we could provide in this regard, here is a small sampling:[2]
In order to understand Israel’s unique condition we must ask, “who are the Jews? What is Judaism and what is Jewishness?”[3]
Zionism is a continuation of Jewish ideology.[4]
The never-ending robbery of Palestine by Israel in the name of the Jewish people establishes a devastating spiritual, ideological, cultural and, obviously, practical continuum between the Judaic Bible and the Zionist project. The crux of the matter is simple yet disturbing: Israel and Zionism are both successful political systems that put into devastating practice the plunder promised by the Judaic God in the Judaic holy scriptures.[5]
Sadly, we have to admit that hate-ridden plunder of other people’s possessions made it into the Jewish political discourse both on the left and right. The Jewish nationalist would rob Palestine in the name of the right of self-determination, the Jewish progressive is there to rob the ruling class and even international capital in the name of world working class revolution.[6]
Were Jewish Marxists and cosmopolitans open to the notion of brotherhood, they would have given up on their unique, exclusive banners and become ordinary human beings like the rest of us.[7]
I do not consider the Jews to be a race, and yet it is obvious that “Jewishness” clearly involves an ethno centric and racially supremacist, exclusivist point of view that is based on a sense of Jewish “chosen-ness.”[8]
At the most, Israel has managed to mimic some of the appearances of a Western civilisation, but it has clearly failed to internalise the meaning of tolerance and freedom. This should not take us by surprise: Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, and Jewishness is, sadly enough, inherently intolerant; indeed, it may be argued that Jewish intolerance is as old as the Jews themselves.[9]
Israel and Zionism then, has proved to be a short lived dream. It was initiated to civilise Jewish life, and to dismantle the Jewish self-destructive mode. It was there to move the Jew into the post-herem[10] phase. It vowed to make the Jew into a productive being. But as things turned out, neither the Zionists nor the “anti Zionists” managed to drift away from the disastrous herem culture. It seems that the entire world of Jewish identity politics is a matrix of herems and exclusion strategies. In order to be “a proper Jew,” all you have to do is to point out whom you oppose, hate, exclude or boycott.[11]
The conclusion to such views is not difficult to draw:
The endless trail of Jewish collective tragedies is there to teach us that Jews always pay eventually (and heavily) for Jewish power exercises. Yet, surprisingly (and tragically) enough, Jews somehow consistently fail to internalise and learn from that very lesson.[12]
More precisely, commenting on the climax of State violence directed at Jews in the 1930s, most famously by Germany, but also in most other European nations, Atzmon is clear:
The remarkable fact is they don’t understand why the world is beginning to stand against them in the same way they didn’t understand why the Europeans stood against them in the 1930s. Instead of asking why we are hated they continue to toss accusations on others.[13]
Within the discourse of Jewish politics and history there is no room for causality. There is no such a thing as a former and a latter. Within the Jewish tribal discourse every narrative starts to evolve when Jewish pain establishes itself. This obviously explains why Israelis and some Jews around the world can only think as far as “two state solution” within the framework of 1967 borders. It also explains why for most Jews the history of the holocaust starts in the gas chambers or with the rise of the Nazis. I have hardly seen any Israelis or Jews attempt to understand the circumstances that led to the clear resentment of Europeans towards their Jewish neighbors in the 1920’s-40’s.[14]
It is, as such, not surprising that Atzmon’s work has received enthusiastic reviews by such prominent members of the racist right as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Kevin MacDonald of the Occidental Observer, David Icke, and Arthur Topham’s the Radical Press. It should not be surprising that Atzmon has distributed articles defending Holocaust deniers and those who write of “the Hitler we loved and why.”[15] These connections ultimately serve the interests of Zionism, which seeks to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Jewishness. Zionist agents have repeatedly attempted to ensnare and link Palestinian, Arab, and/or Muslim rights advocates to Neo-Nazism, through dirty tricks and outright lies.
It is more surprising and disappointing, then, that a small section of the left has opted to promote Atzmon and his works. In the UK, the Socialist Workers Party promoted Atzmon for several years before finally breaking with him; his latest book The Wandering Who? has been published by the left-wing Zero Books (a decision that elicited a letter of protest from several Zero authors).[16] In the United States, the widely-read Counterpunch website has repeatedly chosen to run articles by Atzmon. Currently, in February and March 2012, Atzmon is on tour in North America, where several of his speaking engagements are being organized by progressive anti-imperialists who we would normally like to consider our allies.
While perhaps well-meaning, operating under the assumption that any opposition to Zionism is to be welcomed, progressives who promote the work of Atzmon are in fact surrendering the moral high ground by encouraging a belief-system that simply mirrors that of the most racist section of Israeli society. Anti-racism is not a liability; on the contrary, it is a principle that makes our movements stronger in the long fight for a better tomorrow.
As political activists committed to resisting colonialism and imperialism—in North America and around the world—we recognize that there can be different interpretations of history, and we welcome exploring these. Without wishing to debate the question of whether far-right and racist ideologues should be censored, or how, we see no reason for progressive people to organize events to promote their works.
In our struggle against Zionism, racism, and all forms of colonialism and imperialism, there is no place for antisemitism or the vilification of Jews, Palestinians or any people based on their religions, cultures, nationalities, ethnicity or history. At this historic junction—when the need to struggle for the liberation of Palestine is more vital than ever and the fault lines of capitalist empire are becoming more widely exposed—no anti-oppressive revolution can be built with ultra-right allies or upon foundations friendly to creeping fascism.
As’ad AbuKhalil, The Angry Arab News Service, Turlock, CA
This text is not intended as a comprehensive critique of Gilad Atzmon’s politics. It was written quickly by some North American anti-imperialists who learned of Atzmon’s 2012 speaking tour just days before it was to begin in late February 2012. At first it was thought it would be signed by just a few people, but the initiative quickly took on a life of its own, being posted to the web and to multiple listservs, discussed via email and on Facebook, and elsewhere, even before the wording had been finalized or a decision had been made as to how to use it (the initial assumption had been that it would be passed on to organizers with far less fanfare). Instead of a few signatures, within a week there were dozens, and emails continue to arrive from people wishing to sign on. We believe that this speaks to the deep frustration that many of us feel when confronted with Atzmon’s anti-Jewish beliefs, which constitute an affront to our anti-racist principles, as well as a distraction from the essential tasks of opposing colonialist genocide and Israeli apartheid. What this response makes clear is that for many anti-imperialists, opposing such racism remains essential to building a movement against imperialism and the myriad forms of oppression that both feed on and are fed by it.
Any subsequent news or information about this initiative will appear here on the Three Way Fight website (threewayfight.blogspot.com). Those wishing to endorse or discuss this initiative, or for more information, should email antiracistantizionist@yahoo.com. We wish to reiterate that we consider many of those promoting Atzmon’s work to be allies, but would ask that they reconsider their decision to do so. This is not a call for censorship, but for consistency and accountability.
[1] Gilad Atzmon, “Tribal Marxism for Dummies,” originally published in June 2009, republished on his Web site on April 24, 2011.
[2] Many more quotes like these could be provided, but we assume this is enough to show that these are not out-of-context or out-of-character remarks. If not, readers may wish to peruse the section of Atzmon’s website on “Jewishness” at www.gilad.co.uk/writings/category/jewishness
[3] Gilad Atzmon, “Tribal Marxism for Dummies,”Atlantic Free Press, July 2, 2009.
[4] Anayat Durrani, “Exposing Dangerous Myths,” Interview with Gilad Atzmon, originally published in Al-Ahram Weekly (May 19-25, 2011), republished on Atzmon’s Web site on May 19, 2011.
[5] Gilad Atzmon, “Swindler’s List: Zionist Plunder and the Judaic Bible,” Redress Information & Analysis, April 5, 2008.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Gilad Atzmon, “An Interesting Exchange With A Jewish Anti Zionist,” Atzmon’s Web site, August 17, 2011.
[9] Gilad Atzmon, “The Herem Law in the context of Jewish Past and Present,” Atzmon’s Web site, July 16, 2011.
[10] “Herem” is a Hebrew word that refers to banning or excluding someone; it is also the name of the repressive legislation Israel recently passed to enable punitive lawsuits against those calling for a boycott of the apartheid state. For Atzmon, this law is just one more example of Zionism’s Jewish uniqueness (guess he never heard of SLAPPs), as he concludes that “this is what Jews do best: destroying, excluding, excommunicating, silencing, boycotting, sanctioning. After all, Jews have been doing this for centuries.”
[11] Ibid.
[12] Gilad Atzmon, “A Warning From The Past,” Atzmon’s Web site, May 26, 2011.
[13] Quoted in Shabana Syed, “Time for World to Confront Israel: Gilad Atzmon,”Arab News, June 14, 2010.
[14] Gilad Atzmon, “Jewish Ideology and World Peace,” Atzmon’s Web site, June 7, 2010.
[15] Tony Greenstein, “Bookmarks & Invitation to Gilad Atzmon & Holocaust Denial,” JustPeaceUK, Yahoo! Groups, June 9, 2005.
[16] “Zero Authors’ Statement on Gilad Atzmon,”Lenin’s Tomb, September 26, 2011.
The following is an article from M1 to the February edition of the newspaper of the French organization, Alternative Libertaire (AL). AL contacted us asking for a review of who we are, our activity, and further thoughts on anarchist strategies. AL also asked for some outlines of the participation of anarchist revolutionaries in the U.S. Occupy movement.
We appreciate AL for giving us the opportunity to communicate to the broader anarchist and libertarian movements globally. The AL article was translated from English to French and suffers from some small mistakes. First, M1 is not a member of the international Anarkismo network. We encourage greater collaboration with Anarkismo, contribute documents to their website, and when and where possible demonstrate solidarity with their project and member groups. But we have not endorsed the Anarkismo statement.
Second, in outlining the type of activity that M1 see’s as important, we mentioned a few different formations including the Ontario based Steel City Solidarity project. We support Steel City’s work, their victories, and would like to promote their activity as models for “class intervention” by the broad anti-authoritarian and anarchist movements. However, M1 does not have any members in Steel City Solidarity. Our mention was a nod of support to our friends in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
We have provided the link to the Alternative Libertaire article and included the full English version below.
États-Unis M1 au pays des capitaux, des libertaires chez l’oncle SamFirst of May Anarchist Alliance – ou plus vite dit M1 – a été créé à l’occasion du 1er mai 2010 aux États-Unis. Formée à l’origine de groupes affinitaires réunis autour de projets militants, M1 est aussi membre d’Anarkismo. Sur fond d’analyse du mouvement Occupy, elle présente ses positions.
« Lève-toi/ Ce système il faut le renverser/ Tu devrais en avoir marre/ Renverse le système/ Lève-toi ! », chantait le MC Boots Riley, du groupe militant The Coup appellant à la grève générale et à la fermeture des ports le 12 décembre 2011. Le mouvement Occupy a engendré une escalade des formes de résistance au système : grèves, blocages de port et actions directes. Si les manifestations de masse dans les villes étasuniennes ne reflètent pas toutes la pratique et les idées du mouvement, elles expriment bien un réel potentiel d’élargissement et d’évolution de la critique de classe et de l’État. Anticapitalisme, anti autoritarisme, actions collectives innovantes et expérimentales font partie de ces nouveaux mouvements. Depuis leur tout début, anarchistes révolutionnaires, radicaux d’extrême gauche, anticapitalistes et syndicalistes libertaires – tels les IWW – se sont impliqués dans les AG, les comités et la résistance active. Read more.
“You got to get up right now/ You got to turn this system upside down/ Your supposed to be fed up right now/ Turn the system upside down/ Get Up!”. – Get Up by the Coup
Radical Hip Hop MC Boots Riley of The Coup lends his support and music to recent organizing video# for a December 12th, 2011 General Strike and shipping port shutdown in the United States. The attempts at strikes and disruptions are the latest in an escalation of resistance to the functioning of the system and is directly emboldened by the emergence of the Occupy movements. While the mass social protests in some U.S. cities don’t necessarily reflect the politics and practice of the Occupy movements as a whole these movements do contain and express real potentials for the development of a broad and evolving critique of class society and the State. Anti-capitalism, anti-authoritarianism, creative and experimental forms of collective action are all a part of these new movements. From the beginning radical anti-authoritarians, anarchist revolutionaries and anti-capitalist and left libertarian union militants such as those within the Industrial Workers of the World[1] have been involved in the organizing and activity of the general assemblies, working groups and subcommittees, and active resistance.
In a joint communiqué First of May Anarchist Alliance (M1) and the anarchist and libertarian socialist journal, The Utopian[2], commented,
“…we believe it is crucial for all anarchists to participate in this movement and work to build it. We also think it is essential that we explicitly propagandize and organize for both anarchist methods of struggle and for an anti-authoritarian social vision/program. We urge all of our groupings, formal and informal, while remaining free to experiment in these matters, to recognize the need for some degree of ongoing coordination and, at critical moments, the effective concentration of our forces. Weakness and disorganization in this respect will allow important events and possibilities to pass us by as well as allow attacks on the autonomy of the movement to go unanswered”.
While this excerpt is particular to the Occupy movement it nonetheless indicates the general orientation of M1 to activity within the working class and social struggles. M1 is a specific anarchist organization launched Mayday 2010. Previously we had existed as an informal anarchist affinity group. M1 members had collaborated over many years through an array of radical projects including antifascist, immigrant solidarity, labor, and anti-war/anti-militarist.
We founded M1 on four principles: 1) a commitment to revolution; 2) a working class orientation; 3) a non-doctrinaire anarchism; 4) a non-sectarian and multi-layered approach to organization. These principles are elaborated in our initial political document, Our Anarchism[3]. It is with this document that we highlight the commonalities we have with other social revolutionary trends within the anarchist tradition as well as our differences and points or departure.
Through M1 we attempt to develop collective estimates and analysis of 1) our immediate activity and organizing, and 2) the broader social-political terrain. This analysis helps in the determination of strategic considerations and approaches for intervention. M1 is based on a solid activist and interventionist model. It is the emphasis on strategy and action that differentiates M1 from many other North American anarchist groupings.
We consider that strides towards more theoretical and tactical unity would tend to flow from practice and analysis rather than proceed from a necessarily more abstract and less tested programmatic/theoretical unity that could conceal actual differences.
This said we are not content with creating loose networks. We are for the creation of an organized and effective anarchist/anti-authoritarian Federation. Revolutionary organization and strengthening anarchism presently would best be served in our view by collaborating through joint-work in ways that both expand already existing initiatives and struggles or through creating new formations that could heighten the profile of radical and revolutionary anti-authoritarian approaches to social questions.
We consider this process a type of tendency building rather than the creation of a unitary organization. Within this revolutionary anarchist tendency our respective organizations would continue to test their own approaches and ideas while contributing to these collaborative projects.
It is this approach that we define as “non sectarian and multi-layered”. In some respects this mirrors the dual organizationalism of many Platformist and Especifist groupings.
However, we are not convinced that the binary concept of dual organizationalism is adequately representative of our activity. While we have created M1 as a specific organization we emphasize the need for a multiplicity of formations collaborating in constructive and creative processes; a diversity of revolutionary organizations collaborating on determined initiatives as well as undertaking autonomous projects. Between these organizations is ongoing dialogue and debate on strategy and method.
Some of these initiatives are of a popular, semi-mass character and are autonomous from the long-term and specific anarchist and anti-authoritarian organizations. The role of revolutionary anarchists is to assist in the building and organization of these popular movements, helping to maintain the participatory and directly democratic nature, while simultaneously identifying, drawing out and promoting the radical anti-system currents and potentialities of these movements. The revolutionary union movements (Industrial Workers of the World); radical anti-racist/anti-fa (Anti-Racist Action and Antifascist Action); and independent class struggle direct action networks (SeaSol and Steel City Solidarity ) are examples that represent the movements revolutionary anarchists must continue to participate in and build.
It is our experience that individuals, unconnected or not necessarily partisans of any one political sect, find it compelling to join broader initiatives which thereby they would be affiliating with our movements while gaining access to varied anarchist takes and viewpoints. This aids in enhancing their personal education in both radical politics and anarchism. The revolutionary anarchist movement gains in its methods being studied, tested, supported and advanced through practice.
The wave of global protest is opening up real space for class struggle and social revolutionary anarchists. M.A.S., W.S.A., Common Struggle / Common Struggle / Lucha Común, Common Cause, and Union Communiste Libertaire[4] are all directly involved with Occupy and anti-austerity resistance. M1 has attempted to coordinate with these organizations as well as with revolutionary anti-capitalist forces of the broader libertarian left[5]. Returning to the issue of the general strikes and port shutdowns there is a growing sense of political and social possibility outside of and independent of the domination of the system. While we would not consider that these protest movements exist as either a counter-hegemonic bloc or a dual power against the system, they do contain elements that may prefigure a developing radical alternative.
However there are risks and challenges ahead. The anarchist and radical left are a minority and still evolving. We lack resources, infrastructure and numbers. While our movements are expanding and developing a wider base of support, the emerging fight will demand much more from us.
It is clear that the initial stages of the popular Occupy experiments were a mixed bag. Numerous tensions, political factions, and some anti-social elements contributed to a lack of political and organizational cohesion, if not for outright disarray, in varying degrees from locality to locality. Yet the protest movements have remained a popular and generally dynamic concept. It is clear that the Occupy movements can sustain themselves in some form or the other. This makes Occupy attractive to factions of the ruling class (notably the Democratic Party) and their quasi-independent proxies (the union bureaucracies).
We saw on the Nov 17th National Day of Action Against Austerity and in Solidarity with Occupy concerted coordination and action by the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) in many cities. In NYC SEIU President Mary Kay Henderson was arrested. The SEIU is one of the largest U.S. business unions mixing a top-down staff-driven, corporatist organizing approach with an aggressive rightwing social-democratic lobbying/electoral strategy. While the SEIU is but one of the many business unions in the United States (and U.S. colonized territories such as Puerto Rico) this has made the SEIU a formidable force in the realm of U.S. labor relations.
In Detroit the SEIU working through their campaign, Good Jobs Now, lead an attempted occupation and shut down of a main road leading to the International Detroit-Windsor Bridge crossing. This was promoted as an “Occupy Detroit” event, even though there was no coordination between the various local occupy groups and it has come to light that SEIU organizers told Occupy organizers to stay away. In Chicago, SEIU attempted a shut down of a major downtown bridge. And so on and so forth across the country. None of this is coincidence. We should be assuming that the SEIU and other union bureaucracies are attempting to define an alternate strategy for the “99%”.
Seemingly to appear from below, this strategy will materialize as a militant form of social democracy. The road and bridge blockades and occupations; anti-eviction campaigns and the re-housing people in foreclosed homes; civil disobedience with actual arrests; etc., all of this is intended to present what would appear to be a radical activist agenda capable of attracting in a popular way any and all peoples who have become politicized in the current climate and want to act. To many people, on a tactical level, these actions may very well be indiscernible from the revolutionary anarchists and radical left. What is different is that the union beauracracies are for system reform via a quasi-direct action, where we are for an anti-capitalist, anti-system revolutionary politic expressed through mass direct action. The business unions want to capture, contain, and ultimately channel this movement into some form of electoral strategy for the re-election of President Barak Obama and his Democratic Party. We are for organizing in ways that aid in the development of an independent, creative and confrontational set of politics that undermines the legitimacy of the system.
For more information on our activities including current campaigns we would direct readers to our website: m1aa.org
[2] FROM OCCUPATION TO EXPROPRIATION! Build on the Anarchist and Revolutionary Potentialities of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, http://m1aa.org/?p=345
An important case demands our support. Crishaun “CeCe” McDonald, a young Black transgender woman faces two counts of second degree murder for defending her friends and herself from physical attacks by a group shouting ugly racist and homophobic insults.
Please contact the Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and demand he drop the charges against CeCe:
Please bring this case before local GLBTQ groups, Black Community organizations, Unions and community groups, Occupy assemblies and anywhere people are struggling for freedom and justice. An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
“Around 12:30 am on June 5, CeCe and four of her friends (all of them black) were on their way to Cub Foods to get some food. As they walked past the Schooner Tavern in South Minneapolis, a man and two women (all of them white) began to yell epithets at them. They called CeCe and her friends ‘faggots,’ ‘niggers,’ and ‘chicks with dicks,’ and suggested that CeCe was ‘dressed as a woman’ in order to ‘rape’ Dean Schmitz, one of the attackers.”
“As they were shouting, one of the women smashed her drink into the side of CeCe’s face, slicing her cheek open, lacerating her salivary gland, and stinging her eyes with liquor. A fight ensued, with more people joining in. What happened during the fight is unclear, but within a few minutes Dean Schmitz had been fatally stabbed. CeCe was later arrested, and is now falsely accused of murder.”
The coroners report showed Schmitz had a large nazi swastika tattoo.
CeCe now faces a Justice system that is anything but. African-Americans are imprisoned in Minnesota and the U.S. at rates far disproportionate to the population. Black defendants incur greater rates of conviction and harsher sentences than whites, especially when the alleged victim is white. In fact the CeCe Support Committee has documented four separate recent instances when the local Hennepin County Attorney has declined to press charges when a white person killed an alleged attacker.
Likewise the Criminal Justice system is grossly discriminatory against transgender defendents. Trans people are routinely placed in isolation and/or subjected to increased sexual violence, harassment, and abuse at the hands of prisoners and corrections facility staff. Cece herself “was kept in solitary confinement “for her own protection”; she had no say in this matter. Finally, she was transferred to a psychiatric unit in the Public Safety Facility. It was nearly two months before she was taken back to a doctor to check up on the wound on her face, which by then had turned into a painful, golf ball-sized lump”, according to the CeCe Support Group website.
The Hennepin County Attorney, Mike Freeman, is the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party politician responsible for prosecuting CeCe. Previously Freeman unsuccessfully prosecuted an Anti-Racist Action activist for defending himself from a neo-nazi at an anti-fascist demonstration in 1993. Freeman’s office also led the racist railroading of the young African-American men known as the “Minnesosta 8″ for the shooting of a police officer in 1992.
CeCe had every right to defend herself and her friends from this assault. Black folks, queer folks, and trans people deal with enough insult and abuse from bosses, the police, school, and other official institutions without having to worry about physical attacks just for being who they are. Racist and transphobic violence cannot be tolerated. Silence and inaction will only aid the perpetuation of white supremacy, sexism, homophobia and transphobia inherent in the structure of this oppressive and exploitive system. The necessary unity to defeat this system requires the solidarity of all of us – not just lowest common-denominator unity that favors the most privileged – but defense of the most oppressed and exploited. As the social crisis sharpens, the need for self-defense from both individual bigots and from a system built on white supremacy and patriarchy will only increase.
A strong support group, based among young transgender activists and including anarchists, has come together to defend CeCe. First of May Anarchist Alliance pledges our solidarity as well. We will work to make this case well known among working class activists and organizers and help to raise the costs for the prosecutor and the system he represents for carrying out this injustice.
The following comes from the international anarchist site, Anarkismo.net. Once again Egypt is in the throes of revolt with masses of the people demanding an end to the rule of the military’s supreme army council. Dozens have been murdered by the army and police, hundreds more wounded. Yet the masses remain defiant. From within our hearts we wish love and solidarity to our sisters and brothers in Egypt.
The Egyptian masses rise up again to complete their revolution!
Testimony from an Egyptian anarchist-communist
Since the fall of Mubarak in February, Egypt has been run by a military junta – the SCAF – which has left the basic structures of the dictatorship untouched. Protests and strikes have been met with extraordinary violence, unions have faced draconian laws to make any action impossible, torture has been widely practised and there has been selective repression against revolutionary militants in the social movements. 12,000 people have faced military courts during this counter-revolutionary crackdown against the living forces and demands that mobilised the Egyptian people on the 25th January unfinished revolution. All of this is happening while they have been stimulating sectarian conflict between Christians and Muslims in order to divert attention from the real problems of the Egyptian people. On Friday, the masses took over Tahrir again, demanding that the SCAF step down, in the middle of exceptional measures being decreed to reinforce its powers. The whole political spectrum, but significantly the Muslim Brothers (who have been very quiet since they have a number of secret agreements with the SCAF) came out that day because elections are programmed for November 28th and they fear that whatever the result, the real power will be hijacked by “Field Marshal” Tantawi, head of the SCAF. The SCAF, indeed, has passed a decree giving the military a veto over the Constitution to be drafted by the new parliament due to be elected in a week.
This Friday’s protest got all the international media talking about clashes between the Muslim Brothers and the SCAF. But the actual clashes started on Saturday, when a group of 200 diehard Tahrir revolutionaries were brutally attacked by the police. That was the spark that ignited these protests that have seen hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, take over the streets again. These current clashes have nothing to do with political Islam, which again – as on 25th January – has not been a main actor in the protest. This is a protest led by the same people that led the January revolution, who now realize the real counter-revolutionary nature of the army, poorly disguised in a “nationalist” aura.
At this very minute, there is street fighting in all of the major cities of Egypt, particularly in Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria and Suez. In Southern Egypt there are numerous demonstrations, and clashes with the repressive apparatus of the SCAF have also been reported. Police stations have been attacked and barricades have been built on most important roads and streets. The repression has been fierce: at least 6 people have died so far and over 1,000 have been seriously injured by the military and the hated Central Security Forces, the backbone of Mubarak’s repressive forces. Protesters at Tahrir were evicted some hours ago with gruesome force, with the use of armoured vehicles, suffocating gas (kindly provided to the SCAF by Obama) and rounds of rubber bullets and live ammunition – in scenes reminiscent of the Maspero Street massacre in October (See http://anarkismo.net/article/20723). At this minute (11.30 pm), the protesters have managed to recover Tahrir once again for the people and for the revolution. The rallying cry of the people is “down with the SCAF, down with Tantawi”.
At 12pm we had the chance to talk with comrade Yasser Abdullah from the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement, who explained to us what is happening in Cairo. His first-hand testimony of the events in Cairo is living proof that the revolutionary spirit is alive and well and that the coming days will be crucial for the Arab revolts. All forms of solidarity are needed for our libertarian comrades moving forward with the Egyptian people towards liberation.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
20th November 2011
1. What has been happening in Tahrir Square over the last couple of days? Who is protesting and what is the cause of the struggle?
A few days before Friday (18th November), a number of relatives of victims and martyrs of the Revolution started a sit-in in Tahrir demanding their rights. For ten months now, since Mubarak stepped down, none of those accused of killing and shooting people during the uprising have been sent to jail. Also, last July the SCAF (ie., the military junta) created a fund of 200 million Egyptian Pounds (about €25 million) called “the Fund for the Revolution’s Casualties and Martyrs” in order to compensate them and their families, but this was nothing but propaganda: the SCAF and Sharaf’s Government gave some of the victims jobs as garbage collectors, literally speaking, so the victims felt humiliated, that insult had been added to injury, so they started a sit-in for a respectable solution. On Friday, a “Million People” march was also planned, calling for an end to military rule and the interim civil authority before April 2012. After the march, the sit-in continued, and another march broke, called by the Islamist parties – who are against the sit-in and are trying to do their best in order to win the next elections, scheduled for November 28th.
So the sit-in was left alone with just a few dozen people; on Saturday 19th, at 11.00 am the Central Security Forces (CS, civil police) started an attack on the sit-in. There were around 200 protesters, who fought back against the CS. After that, the CS started to use tear gas and drove their armoured car into the protestors, running some over. Then some other protesters joined them to defend Tahrir square, and that’s how it all began. The CS attacked Tahrir, we fought them back, they took Tahrir for only half an hour, then we reclaimed it back and are occupying it – now, November 20th at 12.00 pm, there are ongoing clashes between protesters against both CS forces and Military police disguised as civil police.
2. The Muslim Brothers until recently had been allied with the transition authorities… Why are they now clashing with the police as reported by the international media?
After the referendum for the Constitutional Amendment on March 19th, the Muslim Brotherhood and all other Islamist forces, mainly the Salafis, allied themselves with the SCAF. On March 20th, a Salafi sheikh stated that the ballot box said “yes to Islam”… They did not see the referendum as being merely about amendments, but actually about Islam, whose spirit they saw reflected in people’s opinions as they voted. They claimed that most voters were for them because they represented Islam, and acted as if it were a referendum on them. From March onwards, the Islamists stood against any direct action against the SCAF, as they thought they would get into power at the next elections, so they had to compromise with the military junta… But now they feel that the SCAF has bluffed them, using their influence only to consolidate their own power. Actually, the junta and the Islamists are quarrelling brothers, they can shout in each other’s faces but they will not really fight. The ongoing clashes have nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood or any other Islamist party, or even any other party whatever its denomination. The majority of parties now are aiming at parliament not at revolution. Only one leftist coalition has announced they’re thinking of boycotting the next elections – all the other parties are putting all of their main attention on the next elections and they have not joined the Tahrir occupation. Only the main revolutionary forces and the unorganised youth who are ready to fight back for their rights are in Tahrir now, in defence of the revolution. The political parties are all looking for compromise with the junta, trying to win the next elections, to take power by an agreement with the SCAF… So to say that the ongoing clashes are by the Muslim Brotherhood or any other organised political force is nothing more than a big lie circulated by the mainstream media.
3. Is there any potential for the popular movement in these protests? Do you think the military will consolidate its power or that there will be a renewed revolutionary wave?
The potential for the popular movement now is very high… On November 19th I felt as if we had been taken back to January 25th. The main chants now are “Down with military rule” and “People demand the removal of the regime”. There have also been clashes in Alexandria and Suez. The casualties up to now (12 pm) are 1 dead in Cairo and 2 dead in Alexandria… Today there are plans for a day of action against the SCAF all over Egypt. This action is not being planned by any of the political parties, a positive thing, for after ten months of revolution the people now realize that their power lies in a leaderless, collective movement. They’re realising now that all the political parties are traitors, trying only to gain seats in parliament. I don’t think the junta can consolidate its power… They’re now in big trouble. On the one hand, their allies are demanding that they transfer their authority after the elections, and on the other hand, the protesters are in revolt on the streets, seeking to continue the revolution. I think the next few days will be a witness to all forms of action against the SCAF.
The following is a flier distributed in Detroit in coordination with the Nov. 17th national Day of Action.
Members of First of May Anarchist Alliance are participating in the Committee for a General Strike. The flier is in response to the Detroit crisis which has been highlighted by the both the Mayor and City Council’s ongoing proposals for mass layoffs, wage and city service cuts, liquidating of union contracts, and a general assault on the city’s workers and our communities.
Detroit has been ground zero for such attacks. The city government, backed by politicians both county and regional, has stated there is no other way forward. This is nothing short of class warfare on the part of the government and their backers. Taking inspiration from the Occupy movement and its increasingly radical dimensions we are arguing for a popular resistance to the crisis and the government austerity proposals. We are under no illusions and fully realize that, much like in Oakland, a general strike will be difficult to carry out. But as a concept and a real tactic to build towards, a general strike resonates within the working classes and poor as both a weapon in our defense as well as a conscious, militant, and creative expression of our attempt to determine our own course outside and against the system.
BUILD A GENERAL STRIKE OF ALL
WORKERS AND THE COMMUNITY
CANCEL THE DEBT; STOP ALL DEBT SERVICE PAYMENTS
TAX THE RICH: MAKE THE BANKS AND CORPORATIONS PAY
NO SERVICE CUTS; NO LAYOFFS; NO WAGE AND BENEFIT CUTS
Bing and the banks have decided on a new round of cuts in jobs, benefits and services to the people of Detroit. They claim the city is bankrupt so union contracts must be thrown aside and the people must endure still greater cuts in basic services. Why should the working class and poor continue to pay for a crisis made by the banks, the giant corporations and the politicians who serve them.
We have to stop transferring tax dollars and public resources to the banks which caused this economic crisis. The city budget provides for more than $433 million in payments to the banks for debt service this year. That’s where the money is going. We must demand cancellation of the debts and stop all payments of public funds for service on the debt. The banks made billions by selling impossible and predatory loans to working people in our community and throughout the country. When the bubble burst and millions faced foreclosure, the government took our tax dollars and bailed out the banks to protect their profits. Now, when housing prices have fallen off the cliff and thousands of vacant, foreclosed homes fill the city, the banks demand that still more tax dollars be paid to them. We say no more.
Bing, Ficano and company tell us that the public funds must be paid to the banks, and that the rest of us must pay for the crisis. This is a government of the banks and for the banks. What resources we have from property taxes, income taxes and other sources must be directed to meeting the needs of our people. Tax dollars from casinos and revenue sharing are to go only to education; that’s what we were promised. But 87% of those tax dollars are going instead to the banks for payment on the debt. Of the $590 million in state per pupil aid for Detroit, more than $512 million is paid directly to the banks for service on the debt. Not one more penny to the banks.
The fight against “austerity” is nationwide and international. From Egypt to Greece to Wall Street to Oakland, people are rising up against the banks and governments. We cannot succeed in this struggle if we are isolated or separated. All workers and all unions must join together and act together against these cuts. Bus drivers, bus mechanics and bus riders must stand together. The people of the community who rely on city services must join the fight. Our allies are the Wayne County workers and residents who face similar cuts. The workers and people of Hamtramck, Highland Park, Flint, Pontiac and Benton Harbor who already are suffering under the boot of emergency managers must join together. The workers and people of Taylor, Plymouth, Hazel Park and Warren face the same attacks.
Occupy Oakland organized a general strike in that city in response to police attacks on demonstrators and the life threatening attack on Iraq war veteran active in the protests. The workers of Greece have carried out several general strikes against austerity cuts in that country and caused a government to fall. We stand with them all.
Our response must be unified and direct. We must organize and mobilize for a general strike. And we must build a movement that includes workplace and neighborhood organizations for defense and to meet the basic needs of our people. No one is coming to save us. We must rely on ourselves and our allies to end the domination of the banks and corporations. Our goal must be direct control of public resources and the economy by the workers and the people. We can build the new society, together.
Contact us for information, meetings, and updates:
Committee for a General Strike - P.O. Box 15024, Detroit, MI 48215 – cmte.gs@gmail.com
Tuition fee increases: the struggle continues!. “Above all, to understand the scope and the strength of the current movement, it is required to go back in time to see the work devoted to the preparation. In fact, in the fall of 2010, the ASSE began to organize information campaigns on the campuses of its member associations about a possible tuition fees increase. When that increase became reality, during winter 2011, ASSÉ began a long series of petitions, visibility actions, distribution of information and events, until the creation of the CLASSE and the beginning of the strike itself. In this sense, the strike in progress and the direct actions and protests related to it are parts of an escalation of pressure tactics over time. So the student struggle has taken on the traditional means used by other social movements who do not have enought economic power or resources to ensure that the government listens to us. However, what is fascinating about the strike today and which consitutes a new phenomenon, is the quantity of actions, creative events and protests that continue to multiply and emerge directly from local associations. Each day, student associations organize their own mobilization and show that the refusal of the government discourages nobody, but on the contrary, it renews and increases the ranks of those who take street on a daily basis.”
États-Unis M1 au pays des capitaux, des libertaires chez l’oncle SamFirst of May Anarchist Alliance – ou plus vite dit M1 – a été créé à l’occasion du 1er mai 2010 aux États-Unis. Formée à l’origine de groupes affinitaires réunis autour de projets militants, M1 est aussi membre d’Anarkismo. Sur fond d’analyse du mouvement Occupy, elle présente ses positions.
