Anarchoblogs

It always does my heart good to see anarchists doing something practical. In Poland the anarchosyndicalist (take a deep breath) Zwiazek Syndykalistow Polski (call them ZSP for short) are picketing the Azteca bar in Warsaw because of the illegal and dishonest practices of the owner. Here's the story from their website.

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First Picket at Azteca Bar
On Aug. 20, ZSP held an action at Azteca Bar in Warsaw. We are demanding an end to the deliberate cheating of vulnerable workers in this cafe.

The problems which led to the conflict are the following:

1. The owner of the bar (Jakub Mazur) uses unpaid trial periods for workers. On top of that, he claims that he provides "training" to the workers and estimates the value of this training at 1300 zloties (326 euro). He gives the workers contracts which state that this money will be deducted from their salaries if they do not work a certain period of time. It is approximately one month's salary - for full-time workers, So if somebody works only one month, s/he will receive nothing.

Most of the workers are students, working part time. Our comrade, a high-school student, was earning about 500 zloties a month (125 euros), so this fake "training" would cost people like that almost three months' salary!

2. Besides this, our comrade was fired and the boss illegally withheld over half of the pay for "damages".

3. The boss tries to get students to agree to work illegally, without any contracts at all.

Azteca Bar is located near a student dormitory. These students, many who are poor kids from other cities struggling to study in Warsaw, are often desperate to find any work in a city with high youth unemployment. Work in Azteca Bar may end up for them as a few weeks or months of unpaid or underpaid labour. We therefore warn them against working in these conditions.

We demand that the bar pay our comrade his due salary, stop the practices mentioned above and raise the wages.

During the action, activists from ZSP blocked the cafe, spoke about the work conditions there and handed out leaflets to passersby. The owner of the cafe called the city guards and police who came but nothing happened. We spoke with the owner, who would not answer questions about his illegal practices and just kept repeating that we should send letters in writing to his bookkeeper and take him to court. We explained that we would come even every day to his cafe if we had to. And we will do exactly that today.

ZSP will also prepare some workshops for the students living in the dormitory on their rights as workers and is preparing a new booklet explaining about deductions and fines at the workplace. It is a common problem and, especially in restaurants and cafes we hear a lot about illegal deductions. We would like people to know what is legal and what is not and give them ideas for action to fight against such practices.

There's an interesting project brewing down under and a bit to the west. Anarchists in South Africa are planning to film a documentary on anarchism. Not specific incidents or individuals but the whole movement and its history. No doubt their task will be made easier because South African anarchists hardly recognize some of the gross deviations that that word has entertained as "anarchism", and they will concentrate on the 'class struggle' heritage of anarchism. Still... this is quite the ambitious project. I wish them well. Here's their announcement from the website for the project. There is also a pretty much mirror group for the project at Facebook.

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Anarchism: A Documentary
A wide-ranging introduction to anarchist history and ideas, a message of hope and a call to action!
ABOUT
To the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive documentary about anarchism has ever been made.

Of the often very dated films on anarchist themes that are available, most either misrepresent anarchism (1981’s pro anarcho-capitalist ‘Anarchism in America’), are focused on specific moments in anarchist history (‘Living Utopia’, ‘The Angry Brigade’, ‘Lucio the Anarchist’, etc), or discuss the wider social justice / alter-globalisation movements (‘Fourth World War’).

Such an absence is unfortunate, for we think that now, more than ever, a broad, accessible documentary introduction to anarchism would be of tremendous value to those of us who wish to share the history, ideas and promise of our diverse, protean movement with a general audience.

Instead of complaining though, we’re just going to knuckle down and make it ourselves…with your help!

We envisage creating, over the next year or so, an engaging, entertaining, relatively mainstream film that will cover – via interviews with prominent anarchists mixed with archival footage, narration, person-on-the-street discussions and explanatory animations – a historical overview of anarchism, an explanation of the core principles (anti-authoritarianism, anti-capitalism, mutual aid…you know the stuff!) and an exploration of all the contrasting but ultimately complementary views held by contemporary anarchists from around the world.

We’d also like to deliver a message of realistic hope and a call for action in this time of social and ecological crisis.

Being long-time anarchists ourselves, we recognise the importance of a supportive community in ensuring our project succeeds in fairly portraying both contemporary and historical anarchism and does not fall prey to personal biases or prejudices. We will thus be communicating openly and honestly with the broad anarchist community about our progress and underlying vision.

More pressingly though, we also recognise the importance of mutual aid and so, even though we’re soliciting it through capitalist channels, we humbly request your modest donations. These will help us with our frugal travel, eating and living expenses, as well as with editing and post-production costs. Those who cannot help financially are more than welcome to offer couches for the night. Shared dinners and good company will also be essential to the completion of this ambitious task we’ve set ourselves, and if you donate some music to the soundtrack we’d be eternally grateful :-)

We eagerly await your participation, your suggestions and your constructive criticisms. We promise to weigh them up fairly as long as you promise not to pepper pie us if, in some cases, we respectfully disagree.

With love and hope,
Steffi, Aragorn ( NOT the North American "Aragorn" by a far stretch-Molly )and friends
LOCATION
Johannesburg, South Africa

Molly received the following event notice from the Movimiento Libertario Cubano a few days ago. As I write this the screening of 'Vivir la Utopia' (Living Utopia) is going on in of all places Havana Cuba. This movie which can be downloaded from either Anticopyright or Anarchopedia (both in Spanish with English subtitles) is a documentary on the Spanish Revolution filmed from an anarchist perspective. I had a look. Quite an interesting movie actually.

Too much shouldn't be made of this. On the surface it might seem that the Cuban dictatorship is losing control of its people even more than it might seem from news reports (concessions to dissidents, etc.). An anarchist film screening in the heart of Havana ! As with many such things, however, what is too good to be true is just that. The sponsoring academic groups, La Càtedra Haydée Santamaría and the Asociación Hermanos Saíz are not anarchist. Whatever they say about "self-management" they appear to be groups of academics who have been given a relatively long leash to "explore" by the Dictatorship. Looks like they are pushing the envelope a bit with this one. With that in mind here's the MLC's announcement.

This Sunday the Libertarian Workshop "Alfredo Lopez of the Chair Haydee Santamaria invites you to:
Soggy - TRIBUTE
"Living utopia: 74 years after the beginning of social revolution in Spain "
In July 1936, 74 years ago, the so called " Spanish Civil War" , started, "a term by which some have tried to erase the memory of a deep popular and proletarian social revolution carried out by urban and rural workers' collectives , women's organizations , etc. , inspired by the libertarian principles of horizontal organization and direct action , deeply rooted in the popular work of anarcho-syndicalism and the dense network of legendary " affinity groups "of anarchists , which crystallized in the alliance of the Iberian Anarchist Federation and the National Confederation of Labour Central ( FAI- CNT) in the 60 years prior to 1936.
The documentary "Living Utopia "(1997) collects through the memory of thirty protagonists the massive social reconstruction efforts meant by the organization in agricultural collectives of around 7 million peasants , about 3,000 self-managed factories and enterprises in a network and , the organization of almost 150 000 anarchist militants fighting a war against the army of Franco.
We look forward to your positive energy .
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DATE: 18/07/2010 / TIME : 2:00 PM / LOCATION: # 69 # 12 806 E/128 And MARIANAO 128B (from the corner of the Plaza de Marianao , 5 blocks inside and 2 to the right) .

Molly doesn't hold to strict ideological lines in terms of her politics, no matter what it may seem to be from the majority of the posts at this blog. Am I an individualist with collectivist sympathies ? Or am I rather a collectivist with individualist sympathies ? It depends on the day. Personally I think this is wisdom as anarchism should not restrict itself to either any particular issue, mode of action or 'end goal' in terms of economics. So...here's another publication I like, this one from the individualist side of the the anarchist community. Anarchist Voices Magazine has brought out their first online edition. Check it out. Authors include Larry Gambone, Richard Livermore, Peter Good, Richard Griffen, Colin Johnson, Chris Butler, Steve Booth and Padi Phillips. Also, as blasts from the past Michael E. Coughlin and Colin Ward. Good for opening minds. Look to the above link for what it's all about, how to subscribe and a link to the pdf of the latest issue.

As anarchism grows more and more popular across the world the desire to have a more coherent and effectively organized movement grows as well. Here's more evidence of the latter from the Amanecer group in California who are bring out a new journal 'Especifista'. Here's the announcement from the Anarkismo website.

A publication by Amanecer
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Amanecer: For a Popular Anarchism is proud to present the first issue of its publication - Especifista.


Especifista is a sporadic publication by Amanecer: For a Popular Anarchism. Especifista aims to start a conversation with those involved in different struggles, be in the community, in labor or any other, about the roots of society’s ills, the possibility of fundamental change and how we can achieve it.

Especifista is a publication by anarchists, that is to say, people who believe that society should be organized in a manner that provides for all based on their needs, and where the power and decisions flow from the bottom up, in a real democratic way.

We selected the name Especifista because it best describes our political perspective.

Especifismo is a practice of anarchism originated in South America, and first theorized by the Federacción Anarquista Uruguaya in the 1950’s.

With other parallels in the anarchist movement, it is based on the idea the anarchists should primarily be involved in the struggles of the people, not to control them but to preserve their democratic and radical character. This is called social insertion, and comes from the belief that popular movements are not only the hands of revolution, they are also its brain.

Anarchists should organize into their own, specifically anarchist organization to theorize and strategize about their involvement in the social movements and to learn from them.

The organization of anarchists should also be a voice for the principles of solidarity, democracy and anti-capitalism in the popular movements.

With Especifista, we aim to add to the voices that continue to promote these principles inside social movements.

For contact, please e-mail us at especifista@gmail.com

Related Link: http://especifista.wordpress.com/

There are many countries in the world where it is tough to be an anarchist, but Russia may hold some special place in this line-up. Of course it is hard to be anything that has a different opinion than the rulers in Russia. Here's a case in point from the Russian Avtonom website, a story and an appeal for solidarity with a falsely accused Siberian anarchist. the following has been slightly edited for English grammar.

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A frameup against anarchist in Tyumen, Siberia
In evening of 14th of April officers of Center of Counteraction Against Extremism (“Center E”) in Tyumen region searched a house and arrested for 48 hours a local anarchist and member of Autonomous Action Andrey Kutuzov. According to friends of Andrey, the pretext of the arrest was a leaflet, which Center E officers considered “extremist”. Friends of Andrey say that leaflet was planted during the search. Andrey Kutuzov and Rustam Fahretdninov were arrested in January of 2009 for “political vandalism”, eventually criminal case against them was closed due to “lack of proof”. This history resulted a criminal case against officers of “Center E”, who back then beat up one of the arrested.



Last year, three houses were searched and the pretext of the repression was an anti-militarist leaflet and graffiti against a local military call-up center, wheatpasting against police brutality in spring of 2008 and a memorial action for Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova 21st on January 2009, where besides flowers a leaflet was also wheatpasted to the memorial statue of revolutionaries in the city. Back then, “Center E” officers were searching homes together with SOBR commandos. Computers, samizdat press and leaflets against police brutality were confiscated.

Last year, for many hours “Center E” denied the arrest, disinforming friends and family of the arrested. Eventually criminal case against Andrey Kutuzov and Rustam Fahretdinov were dropped only in August of 2009.

And now Andrey is again targeted by “Center E”, which is going maverick. Andrey is a linguist, working in the philological faculty of the Tyumen state university.

Please call Center of Counteraction Against Extremism in Tyumen region to ask what are they up to: +7-3452-31-25-88 – Ravil Solimovich Mukhamadulin

Press-center of the local police department: +7-3452-79-30-12

translation to Esperanto: http://jan-tiana.livejournal.com/66139.html