INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER OF THE FRENCH CNT:
The French CNT (the CNT-Vignoles, the breakaway from the AIT) has initiated a project in the wake of their very successful i07 conference in Paris of publishing an international newsletter about their activities. The first issue of this can be seen in English at http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos04351.html . The newsletter discusses French affairs that might be of interest to foreign anarchists. Readers of the newsletter will very obviously see that comrades who have left the purism of the AIT have not abandoned the struggle for self management and liberty. They have merely chosen different and more realistic methods. Molly can't find mention of this newsletter in the CNT's website, but I'm sure it will show up there eventually. In the meantime you can sign up for the CNT's information bulletin- en francais.
1 comment:
To be treated of "purist" by someone that is thousand miles away from the situation here and that doesn't know what is the social situation is quite strange ... I don't know you, i don't know in what kind of collective you are engaged and so i woudl be very prudent before to give a definitely definition of what you are ... or not...
But you said that the Vignoles newsletter about "french affairs" may be interesting. You are right. Any kind of information is interesting after all. The only question is : is this information reliable ?
Just to give an exemple : in their texts, Vignoles talk about their involvement into the ANTI CPE demonstration... They even dare to say they almost initiate it ... I don't know if you speak french, but if you do so, i invite you just to surf on some leftist websites and to find any evidence about it ... It is surprising i have to come on yoru website to discover this Vignoles texts ... Why didn't they dare to spread it here in France ? Because it is for international distribution ? Yes, it should be that ...
About their claims during the movement, you are right, they weren't "purist" : while a lot of young students and workers where struggling in a very offensive battle against capitalism, theirmajor claim was to ask for casual workers a special extra of 10% at the end of the contract instead of 6% (10% extra that most of the principal casual work agencies (as manpower, Addecco, ...) yet applied ...).
Every body laught about that because it was absolutely out of range of what happened ...
By the CNT AIT side, we promote a radical way of acting by organizing in self assemblies with high demands (neither CPE neither other contract) and call for radical actions of economical blockades.
You may believe it or not but (except Rennes), the cities where the struggle was the harder and staid the longest time, with real action to block economy (like the road blockade of the Airbus airplane pieces transport) and also the large riots (i don't talk about minority violences) are cities where we have our main groups (Toulouse, Caen, Rouen).
(cf http://cnt-ait.info/article.php3?id_article=1243) We participated to a collective of all-radical people and group (Tendance Ni CPE Ni CDI), the first since a long time in France.
We support all the effort of young protestors to self-organize. This autonomous movement wasn't appreciated by institutionnal unions (and mainly CGT), that didn't wanted the movement to be autonomous and prefered to control it. In the town where we were very active, the Vignoles - in the name of the "syndicalist unity" prefered to give hand to the institutionnalunions than to us in order to help the autonomous and selg organized groups of youngs. In Toulouse, they even call to attend the CGT 1st of May rally, instead of joining the all-radicals march on the jail to claim the freedom for Anti CPE movement prisonners and others. Question of aims ...
Also, after the last presidential elections, the only cities (except Nantes) where general popular assemblies of hundred of people gathered to elaborate a collective resistance against Sarkozy are the same cities where we are active. I wonder why ...
I invite you also to talk with french activists about the riots in popular suburb in 2005, and to comapre what all the leftists groups have done and what we did. The only left organization involved in those struggles, and that began to extend the social question outside of the ghetto to the center of the city was our group in Toulouse (cf our leaflet in arabic, kurdish, chinese, en=glish, russian, french, sapnish, ... spreaded in popular quarters at that time http://cnt-ait.info/article.php3?id_article=1138)
I may also talk about the struggles in enterprises for the self organization of workers, in an autonomous way, like in Airbus industry or pensionner's houses.
OK, our fault is that we do not communicate properly nor we do not translate so much our texts.
It is your right not to agree with what we do or what we think. But before to have a judgement, it is better to really investigate the case ...
And may be are we purist (1) but i think it is better than to be bad-informed (to be gentle)or dishonnest (no be not ...) ...
(1) after all, where is the problem to search to act as "pure anarchists" and to not want to mix it with reformism, social democracy or marxism ?)
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