PERSONAL:
DRIVING AROUND WINNIPEG:
      It's a quick trip from the Slav Rebchuk bridge and the missing "People Before Profit" sign to Selkirk Avenue, the main drag of Canada's second poorest neighbourhood. That's Winnipeg for you. This burg can't even be the winner in a competition for bad.
     Anyways  it's an east turn down Selkirk to Main Street, and the first block shows where the 'People Before Profit' sign may have gone. Yup it's up in BIG LETTERS on the local headquarters of the goddamn Communist Party. Now the commies have been many things in their regretable history, and "thief" is one of the minor insults that could be thrown their way. But there it is in big red letters for all to see.This slogan has also been present for years (decades ?), but it only becomes apparent when the entering North End sign disappears.
     I don't know whether to congratulate or laugh at the commies plunking their head office down in thne middle of a decidedly non-proletarian neighbourhood. To say that it has been useless in signing up the lumpen proletariat would be understating the case.Most cemetaries do a far more lively business than these souls nostalgic for the days of Moscow gold. I do a lot of driving back and forth in this city, and the only sign of life that I have ever seen at Commie HQ is that once they cut the grass/weeds in their yard.Never in hundreds of passes have I seen a person enter, leave or merely hang around this particular mausoleum to an idea past its best before date.
      Not that I am at all displeased by this. As the subtitle of this series of vignettes says, "may they never rise from the dead". A resurgence of sympathy for organizations involved in the cover-up of the greatest atrocities in history would be the death certificate of any radical opposition.
     But then we sail past this monument to an unlamented past, and head out to "Pharmacy Row" on Main Street. Makes you wonder why a neighbourhood with the highest concentration of addicts in the city also has the highest concentration of drug stores.Heading north now, and we leave the dreaded North End behind.

CANADIAN LABOUR-ONTARIO:

TORONTO RALLY IN SUPPORT OF STRIKING STEELWORKERS:

The strike in Ontario and Newfoundland against the international mining giant Vale Inco has been ongoing since last August (over 7 months now), and there is no end in sight. This struggle will probably go down in Canadian history as one of the most hard fought labour disputes ever. Molly has mentioned this strike multiple times at this blog.

As negotiations seem to go nowhere and the company seems intend on reopening their facilities using scab labour the United Steel Workers and their supporters rallied last weekend in Toronto to keep the fight in the public eye. Here's a report from the Toronto Examiner.

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U.S.W. rally in Toronto to support 3,500 workers on strike
Andrew Moran

As mediators for the United Steelworkers and multinational giant Valeco Inc. negotiate in Toronto over the weekend, USW members rallied in the downtown core to show support for the workers in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey's Bay who are on strike.




Toronto, Canada - On Saturday, hundreds of members and supporters of the United Steelworkers rallied together in Toronto at the Metro Convention Center to show support of those 3,500 workers in Sudbury, Port Colborne in Ontario who have been on strike since May of last year and also for those in Voisey’s Bay in northern Labrador who launched a strike on Aug. 1.




Vale Inco, which is a Brazil-based mining corporation, sponsored a conference at the MTC to negotiate with USW representatives over the company’s rollback in pension plans, seniority rights and nickel bonuses. However, more than 3,500 miners and smelter workers are not satisfied with the company's latest cutback measures.




OFL President Sid Ryan said this battle does not only belong to the strikers in the three towns but to Canadians across the country, as Ryan called upon trade unionists and members of the public to stand up against the multinational giant Vale Inco, according to a Marketwire press release.




“We need to raise a loud and united voice to tell Vale Inco to bargain a fair contract for these workers. This strike has exacted an enormous price on these workers, their families, and their communities, and they need and deserve to see it end with a fair contract.”




There have been no formal talks between the two sides until it was announced last week that they were going to negotiate over the Mar. 6 and Mar. 7 weekend, notes the Hamilton Spectator.




CBC News reports that those at the Voisey’s Bay nickel mine have protested the company’s demands in freezing wages and rolling back on many bonuses. The two sides will meet with a conciliator between Mar. 15 and Mar. 16. Vale Inco workers, catering staff and security personnel have been on strike since the summer.




In one leaflet handed out at the rally, the Communist Party of Canada listed several demands for the workers at Vale Inco. The CPC called for the federal and provincial governments to intervene in the situation, while also calling for federal and provincial bans on “scab labor”. The Communists also want a nation-wide labor campaign to transfer natural resources and important manufacturing sectors to the public sector.




"We salute the Vale Inco workers for their courage in walking away from the bargaining table and resisting huge concessions," said the CPC in a brochure and added, "We call on all Canadian unions and working class organizations to rally around the struggle of the Vale Inco workers."
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Molly Note:
The last part of the above article caught my eye. It wasn't too long ago that the communists actually held positions of power within the unions, and the "beloved" CPC would move heaven and earth to prevent their minor Trotskyist and Maoist competitors from doing what they are reduced to doing themselves in the 21st century. How the mighty have fallen. The CPC, of course, is in precisely the same position today as supporters of the Bourbons were at the turn of the 20th century. Massive nationalization today is a non-starter because it has been proven over and over to not only be inefficient but also to lead to yet another form of class domination. This sort of thing is not what libertarian socialists would advocate.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-GREECE:

GREEK UNIONS DIVIDED OVER GENERAL STRIKE:

In contradiction to what was previously reported on this blog via the LibCom site the threatened general strike in Greece is set for tomorrow rather than yesterday, though there is great disagreement about both the timing and the desirability of the strike amongst Greek unionists. What is happening at present is that the communist led PAME has called their strike for tomorrow even though other unions have already gone on strike and still others have expressed their disagreement with the whole idea. If the socialist government has to negotiate a 'tightrope' in terms of satisfying both international finance and the Greek people the communists also have to walk the same tightrope between their own desires for an accommodation with the socialists 9and preservation of their present institutional power) and their critics on the left. Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about tomorrow's strike.

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Greece Braces For 24-Hour Strike By Communists, Other Unions:
ATHENS (Dow Jones)--Greece is bracing for a 24-hour strike Thursday by the Communist-backed PAME union even as the newly-elected Socialist government struggles to tackle the country's ballooning budget deficit.

The strike is expected to include local government workers, hospital doctors and port workers, while journalists and teachers are also staging separate strikes Thursday.

"Together we will answer with one voice and with one fist, the industrialists and the government that we have the strength to defend our rights and we will not pay for the consequences of the capitalist crisis," PAME said in a statement.

The union, among the most militant in Greece's labor movement, has called for a rally in central Athens at 0900 GMT.

However, Greece's two major umbrella unions, private sector GSEE and its public sector counterpart, ADEDY, have not joined the strike and have been critical of the PAME stance.

Political analysts say the two umbrella unions have so far taken a wait-and-see approach to the government's austerity measures, aimed at bringing Greece's budget deficit down from a forecast 12.7% of gross domestic product this year, to 9.1% in 2010.

"The two big unions have an understanding about the state of the economy and government finances and they are waiting to see specific measures before they react," said Theodoros Livanios, a political commentator at Opinion Market Research, a polling company.

"PAME is the most active part of the labor movement, but its just a small portion of it," he added. "Tomorrow's strike shouldn't be blown out of proportion."

The protest is another blow to the Socialist government which was elected in a landslide victory Oct. 4, but has been seen a sharp loss in confidence from financial markets, credit rating agencies and fellow eurozone member governments after revealing the extent of Greece's fiscal problems last month.

Since mid-October, the Athens stock exchange has lost about one quarter of its value with the general index trading around 2200 points. In that same time, the interest rate spread between Greece's benchmark 10-year government bond and its German counterpart--a measure of credit risk--has also widened by more than a percentage points and now trades around 230 basis points.
Union Web site: http://www.pamehellas.gr/

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Some aren't willing to wait for the orders of their Communist party bosses. As the following from the Earth Times says the teachers have already launched their own general strike.

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Strikes in Greece after austerity programme is announced:
Athens - Teachers in Greece embarked on a 24-hour strike Wednesday following the government's announcement of a harsh austerity programme aimed at pulling the country out of economic crisis. Journalists also plan to strike on Thursday. State radio said there would be no newscasts from Thursday to Friday morning. Ferry services were also set to stop Thursday, which would leave many islands without airports cut off from the mainland.

The strike action is directed mainly at the government's economic policy that includes plans to reform the state-run pension system.

Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou has called on all Greeks to participate in rebuilding the economy in order to stop the highly-indebted country from going bankrupt.

With national debt of more than 300 billion euros (440 billion dollars), Greece risks practically losing its sovereignty. The government has promised to fight corruption, nepotism and tax evasion.

Papandreou wants to develop the use of environmental technology, press ahead with the privatization of state-run businesses and reduce the number of state employees by hiring only one civil servant for every five who retire.

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While some workers are gung-ho to jump the gun before the official Communist-led symbolic strike others are holding back until well into the New Year, as reported before on this blog and also in the first article above. In the meantime, despite all its posturing, the Greek government has indeed backed down and accepted EU loans, with all the conditions that that implies. Here's the report from a few hours ago from the Southeastern European Times. So much for bravado.

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Greece accepts 2 billion-euro emergency loan:
16/12/2009
ATHENS, Greece -- The government has decided to take an emergency 2 billion-euro loan from private banks in an attempt to deal with its huge budget deficit and growing debts, local media reported on Wednesday (December 16th). The loan will have an annual interest rate of 2.5% -- significantly lower than the average interest rate of 3.3% -- will be paid off in five years. The government is expected to receive the money on January 4th.

Meanwhile, the government and opposition met to discuss the economic crisis following Prime Minister George Papandreou's announcement of stiff spending cuts. He asked all parties to support the measures to pull the country out of the crisis. Papandreou says party leaders reached an agreement on several key points despite ideological differences. One rallying point with which all party leaders agreed is to tackle significant levels of corruption. (Vima, Bloomberg, A1 - 16/12/09

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What will happen in Greece in the near future is still quite uncertain. The reportage of the international anarchist movement has, of course, moved on to the "riot of the week" ie Denmark, leaving the sad lack of any alternative besides "rebellion" to be "hopefully" forgotten. I guess that in Greece it may be said that at 21 you are an anarchist and at 25 a communist. This is infinitely sad because the main thrust of anarchism throughout its history has been not to pointless rebellion but rather to a new society based on self-management of workplaces and communities. Hopefully some will eventually learn by the failures.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INSURRECTION IN GREECE:

As Molly puts this blog to bed the developments in Greece do not look at all good, as the following stories will illustrate. First, and worst of all, the workers occupying the headquarters of the General Confederation of Greek Workers in Athens have quit their occupation. If this is a signal of anything it is a signal that their initiative wasn't taken up by a large section of the Greek working class. It was actually probably opposed by a majority, some of them quite vociferously. This is a clear sign that it is unlikely that the rebellion will spread beyond its youth base. If this doesn't happen the revolt is doomed in the end.

Meanwhile the Greek government feels either confident enough (or perhaps desperate enough ?) to have revoked the right of asylum on University premises. Whether they are willing to risk serious bloodshed and perhaps many deaths by actually carrying out their threats to invade University grounds has yet to be seen. If not, if they have played their cards correctly, the occupations will peter out as predicted over the Christmas holidays. Not that this won't leave them with considerable political discredit, but that is for the future. In the tense atmosphere surrounding the present events they managed to get their budget passed, opposed by a coalition of Socialists, Communists and the far-right Popular Orthodox party (LAOS). The leftist Syriza Party (Coalition of the Radical Left) abstained, but they had more than enough to speak about, defending themselves from the other "leftist" parties. PASOK and the KKE spend almost as much time attacking attacking Syriza for presumably "being soft on the rioters" as they did talking about the budget.

Presently, according to public opinion polls, almost 90% of Greeks "feel the country is going in the wrong direction". The main beneficiaries of this mood have been the socialists, and the main losers the conservative New Democracy government. Polls give PASOK 38.5% support, the ND 32.5%, Syriza 12%, the Communists 8% and the LAOS 4%. Molly has to admit that she especially pleased by the fact that the leftist party is more popular than the communists. Both the socialists and the communists have become less strident in their calls for new elections, the socialists probably because they see no way to go up up as the riots and the economic crisis drag on, the communists because they fear plunging even further into irrelevancy.

Without at least the passive acquiescence of the leftist parties the insurgency in the streets has a snowball's chance in Hell of actually toppling the government, let alone achieving any other vaguely defined goals. In the end the most likely major beneficiaries of the events will be the Syriza Party as they position themselves, in legend at least, as the heirs of the inchoate sentiment against the police and the state. As to the anarchists, all that Molly can say is that these happenings have shown in crystal clarity the need for a positive vision beyond the romance of rebellion. It's a old rhetorical canard that "revolutions that go half way dig their own graves". This should perhaps be updated to say that "revolutions that go 2% of the way and haven't the foggiest clue as to what to do next will get only a light sprinkling of dust rather than a decent grave".

But enough of editorializing. Here's more news from Greece. First from Athens Indymedia...

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Emergency Communique from the Occupation of the Polytechnic University in Athens:
There is increasing talk that the occupation of the Polytechnic will be stormed by the police. In sight of this, the occupation's assembly issued an emergency communique.

On the evening of Saturday December 20, and after the clashes in the area of the Polytechnic (one of the tens of massive clashes of demonstrators and police which followed the murder of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos), a flood of rumors started to circulate around the area of the occupation of the NTUA [Polytechnic].

Continuous information about an invasion of the police into the space of the occupied Polytechnic University, in combination with the strategic movements of the riot police during the time of the clashes, foretold the obvious. The police plan to rush the occupation. Doing an end run around the dean's council [who would ordinarily have to approve suspension of asylum that prohibits police from entering universities], and offering the "earth and water" of the Polytechnic to the prosecutor, the police force, and the ministry of the interior, they sent the message indirectly but clearly, with threats and intimidation, that we have only "a few hours" left.

We answer them that we have as much time left as the part of society that has risen up and doesn't accept ultimatums, decides. That, for all of those who participated and participate now and will continue to do so in revolutionary practices, they had best respect them and fear them. These very men, these very women, these thousands of people who have risen up, the students, the workers, the jobless, the immigrants, our comrades, we call on them all to keep unceasing vigilant watch in the area of the Polytechnic, in view of the plotted invasion.

We call everyone to a mass presence at the occupation of the Polytechnic.

We call you to an open general assembly today, Sunday, December 21, at 9 p.m.

We call you to a concert for solidarity and financial support for our imprisoned comrades in the uprising, at 6 p.m. in the area of the occupied Polytechnic University.

We will have the last word!

These days and nights are for Alexis!

Polytechnic Occupation, 12/21/08

http://katalipsipolytexneiou.blogspot.com/

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Here also from the Athens Indymedia is a further post about the lifting of the right of asylum, how it was done and what it means.

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Pushing for lifting of asylum (translation):
Saturday night the prosecutor decided unilaterally to lift the asylum that prevents the police from entering university grounds. Only the disagreement of the provost board prevented a police invasion.

Acting on his own authority, the prosecutor on duty on Saturday evening, December 21, decided to lift the asylum [that normally applies to university grounds and prevents the entry of police onto the campus] for the National Polytechnic University of Athens, but in the end the police did not intervene, after the disagreement of the provost's advisory board.

Police intervention in the university schools under occupation in the coming days, with the argument that they are being used as staging areas for disturbances, by means of a judicial decision and not an academic one, is now an open possibility.

The occupations in the central universities are expected to continue through the holidays, while the schools close tomorrow for Christmas vacation and the students bid farewell with a rally at midday on Tuesday in Athens, and they have set a date for a new rally on January 9th, the anniversary of the murder of Nikos Teboneras (murdered during the student uprisings in 1990-91). In their company will be teachers from all grades, since the unions representing school teachers and university professors decided the day before yesterday to participate in the rally and to act in common with the students, while they are also discussing the possibility of a strike.

Telephone call from the Greek police force about intervention

As the "News" [mainstream Greek daily newspaper] learned, the provost and vice-provost of the NTUA, Mr. K. Moutzouris and Mr. G. Spathis, this past Saturday evening during the episodes in the region around the university, received a phone call from the police force, which informed them a plan was in the works for intervention, since the prosecutor on duty decided that inside the building there were felonies being carried out, such as the construction of explosives. The law gives to police the right to intervene with an order from the prosecutor, even without a decision to lift asylum from university officials, when it is determined that felonies are being committed.

"Dangerous for victims"

The provost authorities of the university disagreed with this decision. "I believe that the clearing of the Polytechnic [of the occupying students] must happen with dialogue and not police intervention. I hope that the occupation will have ended peacefully before the holidays," Mr. Moutzouris told the "News". "The lifting of university asylum is a political decision and if they want, let them make it, as they have the right to do even without our consent. We don't bring up such an issue because there is the danger of having victims, and also because there hasn't been serious damage to the university and the issue of occupations is more general", added Mr. Spathis.

Under occupation are about 160 schools in universities and technical institutes across the country, with basic centers the Law School, the Economic University and the Polytechnic University in Athens, and the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki.

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Finally, from the Occupied London Blog, further news about recent events, including news that the school occupations are likely to be ended as well.

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Polytechnic raid scenario weakens; police resort to dictatorship-style surveillance; shots against riot police van; student demo set to start:
UPDATE, 19:41 Mainstream media now report that the riot police van in Goudi received 7 shots, not 2. A group calling itself “Popular Action” (Λαϊκή Δράση) has claimed responsibility for the attack. The student demonstration in central Athens ended an hour ago. There was a very good turnover and the demo was relatively peaceful; one police car was flipped over.

After a quiet night at the Athens Polytechnic last night, mainstream media (which, more often than not, prepare the ground for police operations) are now reporting that a police raid of the polytechnic is unlikely. The people occupying the building have successfully defended their right to decide themselves when to leave - this will happen at today’s open assembly (6pm).

Reports are coming in, both on Indymedia and the occupations’ open assemblies, that the police have been approaching taxi drivers asking them to pass on information about their passengers (just like they would do during the 1967-1974 dictatorship). In one instance a woman who hailed a cab outside the occupied Economics University and asked to be taken to a northern suburb of Athens was driven straight to the police headquarters. Luckily she realised what was going on a block away from the police building and managed to jump out of the taxi’s window and escape, chased both by the taxi driver and the police.

Meanwhile, mainstream media also report a riot police van was shot at twice at 05:50 am in the Goudi suburb of Athens, next to the university campus in Zografou; one bullet hit the van’s tyre and the other hit the engine.

The last student demonstration for this year is set to start in a few minutes. There has already been a call for a fresh student demo on January 9th and it is expected that demonstrations will continue apace in the new year.

It is also expected that the anarchist occupations of the three universities (Economics, Polytechnic and Law school) will all end later this week, as fatigue is seriously kicking in at these unprecedented 17-days long occupations. Actions will, of course, continue - the biggest bet right now is to expand the revolt and unrest in time and people are focusing their plans on this. We should have a better idea of where things will go after this week’s assemblies.

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FURTHER NEWS FROM THE MASS MEDIA ON EVENTS IN GREECE:

**Greece: Second shooting provokes new wave of mass anger.

**Greek Parliament approves 2009 government budget.

**Greek Parliament passes budget.

**Greek Parliament adopts 2009 budget with 2 percent deficit.

**Police squelch violent Hamburg protest.

**Unrest has ND on shaky ground poll indicates.

**Greek police bus attacked; 3000 at rally.

**Students march, gunman shoots police bus in Greece.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

INSURGENT WORKERS OCCUPY UNION CONFEDERATION HEADQUARTERS:

I originally discovered the following item on today's LibCom site, but it is here, there and everywhere across the "anarcho-net" today. it is likely that the original source is the Athens Indymedia where it has been translated into Spanish and French as well as English. there is another take on the story as well at THIS LINK.

To say the least this may be the most important development in the events in Greece so far. Despite much government(and Communist Party) propaganda the students and immigrants have not been the only people present in the past two weeks of demonstrations and riots. Ordinary working class people, disgusted with the venality of the government and its conservative policies, have joined in as well, despite the efforts of the socialist PASOK and the communist KKE to contain and defuse the protests.

The role of the Communists (whose initials 'KKE' are known in Greece as either "kappa-kappa-epsilon" or "koo-koo-eh", the latter being most appropriate) has been particularly despicable. They have taken to sending their goon squads into premises to prevent their being occupied. They are also the source of the bizarre assertion mentioned earlier on this blog that the uprising is an "American plot". Like my asshole chews bubblegum. But unreconstructed Stalinists can believe anything. Look what they believed for decades. The problem with the goon squads is that they simply don't have enough goons to cover the now hundreds of targets of occupation. Can we say "outnumbered". The problem with the great lie is that only the most mindless party loyalist could take it seriously. The actions of the KKE are such that persons unknown have already firebombed several of their party headquarters in anger. Molly certainly doesn't agree with this sort of tactic, if for no other reason than the fact that such places contain resources that should be put to better use than Communist propaganda.

Within the union movement the Socialists and the Communists have held a stranglehold for decades. The occupation that is reported below shows that at least a segment of the workers that the politicians claim to represent are fed up with their conservative tactics, and are in support of more fundamental change in Greek society. The Communist-Conservative alliance in all but name should hardly be any surprise to anyone who knows the history of working class upsurges in the past half century in western Europe. The rejection of the traditional political parties of the left is an absolutely necessary prelude to any fundamental change in any developed country today. That may be happening in Greece today, even if only at a small level so far.

Before moving on to the article Molly would like to recommend a site that covers the events in Greece at a truly admirable level. The Open Anthropology Blog doesn't just post the news. It also has what is the best list of other libertarian sources on what is happening in Greece today that I have come across. VERY highly recommended.

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Workers in Greece occupy union offices:
The historic central offices of the General Confederation of Greek Workers in Athens have been occupied by militant workers.

The action forms part of a strategy to counteract the designs of the union bureaucracy to distance its membership from the current revolt, and protest its management and mediation of workers' struggles in Greece. The occupants aim to create a space in which to facilitate a grassroots and self organised workers response to the crisis, and bring the wider working class into the events unfolding on the streets of Greece. Town halls in Athens and Thessaloniki have also been occupied in order to hold general assemblies.

The communique of the "General Assembly of Insurgent Workers" follows below:
DECLARATION:
We will either determine our history ourselves or let it be determined without us.

We, manual workers, employees, jobless, temporary workers, local or migrants, are not passive tv-viewers. Since the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night we participate in the demonstrations, the clashes with the police, the occupations of the centre or the neighborhoods. Time and again we had to leave work and our daily obligations to take the streets with the students, the university students and the other proletarians in struggle.
WE DECIDED TO OCCUPY THE BUILDING OF GSEE
-To turn it into a space of free expression and a meeting point of workers.
-To disperse the media-touted myth that the workers were and are absent from the clashes, and that the rage of these days was an affair of some 500 "mask-bearers", "hooligans" or some other fairy tale, while on the tv-screens the workers were presented as victims of the clash, while the capitalist crisis in Greece and worldwide leads to countless layoffs that the media and their managers deal as a "natural phenomenon".
-To flay and uncover the role of the trade union bureaucracy in the undermining of the insurrection -and not only there. GSEE and the entire trade union mechanism that supports it for decades and decades, undermine the struggles, bargain our labor power for crumbs, perpetuate the system of exploitation and wage slavery. The stance of GSEE last Wednesday is quite telling: GSEE cancelled the programmed strikers' demonstration, stopping short at the organization of a brief gathering in Syntagma Sq., making simultaneously sure that the people will be dispersed in a hurry from the Square, fearing that they might get infected by the virus of insurrection.
-To open up this space for the first time -as a continuation of the social opening created by the insurrection itself-, a space that has been built by our contributions, a space from which we were excluded. For all these years we trusted our fate on saviours of every kind, and we end up losing our dignity. As workers we have to start assuming our responsibilities, and to stop assigning our hopes to wise leaders or "able" representatives. We have to acquire a voice of our own, to meet up, to talk, to decide, and to act. Against the generalized attack we endure. The creation of collective "grassroot" resistance is the only way.
-To propagate the idea of self-organization and solidarity in working places, struggle committees and collective grassroot procedures, abolishing the bureaucrat trade unionists.

All these years we gulp the misery, the pandering, the violence in work. We became accustomed to counting the crippled and our dead - the so-called "labor accidents". We became accustomed to ignore the migrants -our class brothers- getting killed. We are tired living with the anxiety of securing a wage, revenue stamps, and a pension that now feels like a distant dream.

As we struggle not to abandon our life in the hands of the bosses and the trade union representatives, likewise we will not abandon any arrested insurgent in the hands of the state and the juridical mechanism.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE DETAINED

NO CHARGE TO THE ARRESTED

SELF-ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKERS

GENERAL STRIKE

WORKERS' ASSEMBLY IN THE "LIBERATED" BUILDING OF GSEE

Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 18:00
General Assembly of Insurgent Workers
A banner handing from the facade of the building reads:
From labor "accidents"to the murders in cold blood

State - Capital kill
No persecution

Immediate release of the arrested
GENERAL STRIKE
Workers' self-organization

will become the bosses' grave
General Assembly of Insurgent Workers

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-GREECE:

GREEK RIOTS-THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME:

As the riots in Greece continue, with no clear victor on either side, public opinion in that country becomes more and more polarized on one side or the other. Various commentators from all political camps have given their opinions. Some of these have been quite off the wall. From the more gung-ho anarchists comes the idea that this is some sort of "revolution". It clearly is not, and cannot be until the majority of the population moves to change their actual conditions of living. Fighting police is essentially beside the point in terms of what defines "revolution". It is not even a "revolutionary situation" because presently the powers that be are still capable of ruling (poorly it must be admitted) as they have and the majority of the population are not yet under the necessity to change the way that they live. "Pre-revolutionary situation" perhaps best defines what is happening there. Political forces on the left, far larger than the anarchists, are quite hesitant, even in pursuit of their minimal goal of toppling the Conservative government.

This may be a good thing. The "autonomist" section of the Greek anarchist movement bears at least some credit for decades of keeping the pot boiling (though they haven't been the only force behind Greece's radical tradition since the overthrow of the dictatorship in 1974. They, however, do not just not have a program, but they glory in this very fact. If they have one idea it is only this..."more riots and more fighting". This incoherence would be fatal in a real revolutionary situation where other forces, better organized and with clearer ideas, would automatically out compete such people in setting up a new "revolutionary" regime. That is unlikely in Greece today. As in France in 1968 it is the Communist Party which in Greece hasn't followed its other European brethren into irrelevance who act as the major brake on the left forces.

Actually my favourite weird take on the events came from a so-called Polish "security expert". While mentioning the conspiracy theory that the riots were orchestrated by American intelligence because Greece had signed some trade deals that the Americans didn't like as "unlikely" but worth mentioning, his major thrust was that because the riots and their international solidarity actions spread so rapidly that they must have been centrally directed. In his mind he brought up the "international Islamist conspiracy" as the evil cabal behind what is happening. One wonders who would be foolish enough to hire his "expertise".

There are, however, other opinions that deserve attention because they have a much greater aura of plausibility about them. One of them is presented below, from the pages of the English newspaper The Independent. Are the riots in Greece merely a foretaste of greater unrest as the present economic hard times linger on ? As the article points out there are structural reasons beyond the clash of ideologies that have led to the present situation, and these reasons are common to many other developed nations.

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Are the Greek riots a taste of things to come?:
Greece's riots are a sign of the economic times. Other countries should beware, says Peter Popham in Athens
Saturday, 13 December 2008

After firing 4,600 tear-gas canisters in the past week, the Greek police have nearly exhausted their stock. As they seek emergency supplies from Israel and Germany, still the petrol bombs and stones of the protesters rain down, with clashes again outside parliament yesterday.

Bringing together youths in their early twenties struggling to survive amid mass youth unemployment and schoolchildren swotting for highly competitive university exams that may not ultimately help them in a treacherous jobs market, the events of the past week could be called the first credit-crunch riots. There have been smaller-scale sympathy attacks from Moscow to Copenhagen, and economists say countries with similarly high youth unemployment problems such as Spain and Italy should prepare for unrest.

Ostensibly, the trigger for the Greek violence was the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy, Alexis Grigoropoulos. A forensic report leaked to Greek newspapers indicated he was killed by a direct shot, not a ricochet as the policeman's lawyer had claimed. The first protesters were on the streets of Athens within 90 minutes of Alexis's death, the start of the most traumatic week Greece has endured for decades. The destructiveness of the daily protests, which left many stores in Athens's smartest shopping area in ruins and caused an estimated €2bn (£1.79bn) in damage, has stunned Greece and baffled the world. And there was no let-up yesterday, as angry youths shrugged off torrential rain to pelt police with firebombs and stones, block major roads and occupy a private radio station.

Their parents grope for explanations. Tonia Katerini, whose 17-year-old son Michalis was out on the streets the day after the killing, emphasised the normality of the protesters. "It's not just 20 or 30 people, we're talking about 1,000 young people. These are not people who live in the dark, they are the sort you see in the cafes. The criminals and drug addicts turned up later, to loot the stores. The children were very angry that one of them had been killed; and they wanted the whole society not to sleep quietly about this, they wanted everyone to feel the same fear they felt. And they were also expressing anger towards society, towards the religion of consumerism, the polarisation of society between the few haves and the many have-nots."

Protest has long been a rite of passage for urban Greek youth. The downfall of the military dictatorship in 1974 is popularly ascribed to a student uprising; the truth was more complicated, but that is the version that has entered student mythology, giving them an enduring sense of their potential. So no one was surprised that Alexis's death a week ago today brought his fellow teenagers on to the streets. But why were the protests so impassioned and long-lasting? "The death of this young boy was a catalyst that brought out all the problems of society and of youth that have been piling up all these years and left to one side with no solutions," said Nikos Mouzelis, emeritus professor of sociology at LSE. "Every day, the youth of this country experiences further marginalisation."

Although Greece's headline unemployment of 7.4 per cent is just below the eurozone average, the OECD estimates that unemployment among those aged 15 to 24 is 22 per cent, although some economists put the real figure at more like 30 per cent.

"Because of unemployment, a quarter of those under 25 are below the poverty line," said Petros Linardos, an economist at the Labour Institute of the Greek trade unions. "That percentage has been increasing for the past 10 years. There is a diffused, widespread feeling that there are no prospects. This is a period when everyone is afraid of the future because of the economic crisis. There is a general feeling that things are going to get worse. And there is no real initiative from the government."

For Greek youngsters such as Michalis Katerini, job prospects are not rosy, but without a university degree they would be far worse, so he and his mother are making serious sacrifices to get him into further education. So inadequate is the teaching in his state high school that he, like tens of thousands of others across the country, must study three hours per night, five nights a week at cramming school after regular school, to have a hope of attaining the high grades required to get the university course of his choice. His mother, whose work as an architect is down 20 per cent on last year, must pay €800 a month to the crammer for the last, crucial year of high school.

She believes the government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis faces more turbulence if it fails to grasp the reality of the past week, and pass it off as a spontaneous over-reaction. "The government has tried hard not to connect what is happening with the problems of young people. The government says one boy died, his friends are angry, they over-reacted then anarchists came to join in the game. But this is not the reality."

Vicky Stamatiadou, a kindergarten teacher in the rich northern suburbs with two teenage sons, agrees. "Until now, our society was full of dirty but calm water; nothing was moving, nothing improving, all the problems of our society remained unsolved for years. People pretended that everything was going well. But now this false picture has been broken and we are facing reality."

Greece's official youth unemployment statistics are not far removed from the rates in other European countries with a history of mass protest, such as France, Italy and Spain. With the graffiti "The Coming Insurrection" plastered near the Greek consulate in Bordeaux this week, the warning signs to the rest of the continent's leaders are clear.

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MORE NEWS FROM GREECE:

Here's a selection of various recent articles, from various viewpoints and various countries, about what is happening now in Greece. Molly will continue to update this list as the events continue.

**Fears of Renewed Rioting in Greece, calls for early elections

**Riots in Greece Spark Protest Across Europe

**Greece is Burning:Lost principles have led to lost control

**Violence Continues in Greece for Sixth Day

**Greek Riots"They do protest too much

**Protesters Attack Police Posts in Athens

**Greece:'The Masked Ones' Plot Revolution as riot police begin to run out of tear gas

**The Greek Riots Explained

**Greek Unrest Spreads to the Rest of Europe

**Greek Riots: Teen Tribute Floods Messaging, Video Sites

HISTORY:

TODAY IN HISTORY- THE SPANISH REVOLUTION BEGINS:

It was not a dark and stormy night, but the atmosphere in the streets of Barcelona was just as electric. On July 14, 1936 General Mola had summoned military commanders to his headquarters in northern Spain to finalize the details of a military coup against the Popular Front government. On July 17 General Franco flew to Morocco where the military uprising had already begun. The Spanish government dithered and proclaimed the situation "under control". The government censored a notice in the CNT's paper Solidaridad Obrera warning the workers of the impending coup, but the anarchists considered it important enough to reprint and distribute by hand. The local government of Catalonia refused to turn over arms to the CNT's Defence Committees, and anarchist longshoremen stormed ships carrying arms on the night of the 17th and turned them over the the CNT. The government tried to recover the arms but failed. Throughout the 18th the workers in Barcelona obtained what arms they could while the government issued paper decrees in the absence of any real authority.

At 4:45 am on the 19th members of the Assault Guards of Barcelona began to turn their weapons over to crowds of workers who were demanding arms. Factory sirens sounded throughout the city. The Spanish Revolution had begun. Through the course of the day a back and forth struggle raged in the streets of Barcelona, and at the end of the day the Army was defeated. The workers were in control.

Over the course of the next three years Spain witnessed the most profound and inspiring revolution of modern times. Steeled and educated by decades of anarchist propaganda, agitation and organization the Spanish people knew instinctively what to do. Throughout half the country the military was beaten back and enterprises and land were socialized under real local control. The pace of the Revolution far outstripped what the leaders in the anarchist organizations could comprehend, let alone direct, but the instinctive methods of the Spanish revolutionaries- a people in arms- were based on a long period of instruction in organization.

At its height most of the economy of Republican Spain ran on collective lines, either workers' control via the syndicates (unions) or the free communes of the rural areas. This revolution certainly had its failings, not the least of which was the desire to make common cause with the Communists who eventually destroyed the revolutionary institutions that the Spanish people had built. In the end the fascists ,under Franco, received far more aid -for free or for vague promises- than the Republicans did in exchange for sending Spain's gold reserves into Stalin's sweaty hands. The Spanish anarchists were well skilled in organization, but their internal disputes had marginalized the very people who could have negotiated a more successful path through the maze of compromise.

All that being said the Spanish Revolution is a standing example of an obvious fact. Yes...anarchism can work. It worked very well in much of the Republican Zone for years, despite the pressures of both war and Communist treachery. Anarchism is not an utopian dream. It has happened and can happen again.

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The historiography of the Spanish Revolution is vast, and each side of the dispute has its own axe to grind. Classical fascism is pretty well a thing of the past nowadays, but the historical record contains a wealth of apologetics for the actions of the coalition that formed around Franco, more clerical conservative than fascist. Today one has to search the byways of the 'Catholic Right' to find echoes of the lies that were commonplace amongst conservatives of the mid-30s. Speaking of dead horses and lies...the Communist press spread probably more of these than the fascists did at the time, and they continued to distort the historical record up to the demise of the Soviet Empire. The Trotskyists had their own point of view, often more a matter of absurd "recommendations" and exaggerations of the importance of the POUM (not Trotskyist-more left communist than anything else) and their own infinitesimal group of Spanish supporters. To say the least one can take little from Trotskyist sites other than the fact that they slot all events into the category of "things that would go better if they were in control".

The unbiased academic studies such as that of Hugh Thomas "generally" support the anarchist view in most important points. They confirm both the efficiency of the collectives that the Spanish people formed and the role of Communist treachery in the defeat of the Revolution. They may point out the anarchist atrocities in the early stages of the Revolution (which anarchist sources generally gloss over) which were soon ended by the actions of the anarchist organizations themselves. They may be doubtful (this is often an understatement) of the military efficiency of the anarchist "militia" idea of waging war. But in the important points, as I said, they confirm the anarchist version.

Here's a little collection of anarchist sources on the Spanish Revolution. It is hardly complete, and there is a wealth of anarchist writing on what is the "high noon" of anarchism in the 20th century. Molly suggests that the reader look at these things at the same time as they read a general academic history such as that of Thomas.

Overview:

The Spanish Revolution on Wikipedia.

Movies:

Land and Freedom

Libertarias (en español)-A story of women in the Spanish Revolution

Images:

Images From the Spanish Revolution

Writings:

Statistical Information on Socialization in the Spanish Revolution

1936-1939:The Spanish Civil War and Revolution

Collectives in the Spanish Revolution-Gaston Leval

To Remember Spain- Murray Bookchin

Militant Anarchism and the Revolution in Spain-Federica Montseny

For further information consult the LibCom site under their history section and also the Anarchist Archives. What may be most valuable for the unbiased reader are the writings of George Orwell on the Spanish Revolution and Civil War. His works are available at George Orwell.Org. Orwell was not an anarchist(though he was a leftist who was disgusted by the left,just as Molly is), and it is instructive to see his take on the treachery of the Communists as well as his unbiased description of the anarchist polity he met when he fought during the Spanish Civil War.

Homage to Catalonia

Looking Back on the Spanish War

Spilling the Spanish Beans

WINNIPEG:

THE COMMIES HOLD A PATHETIC BIRTHDAY PARTY- OR IS IT A WAKE ?

Last November 7th about 100 very sad people gathered at the Ukrainian Labour Temple to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik coup-de-etat whereby they betrayed the Russian Revolution-- though I am sure that few of the nostalgic attendees would describe that event as such. The present membership of the Communist Party in Manitoba is about 50 people ie if you were to go out and question 10,000 people you would meet about 1/2 a Communist. I'm amazed that there are so "many" people who are totally mindless. That's about right because the average commie today is of even more of a divided mind than the mindless followers of the Moscow line were in days past. At best they have half a mind. The commies should watch out. It would be an easy joke for any libertarian socialist organization to call out 4 times their membership in any place in Canada today, promising "free beer" of course, and to take over any of their locals and declare them in favour of libertarian communism. Eat your hearts out suckers. But why would you want to, besides as part of a sick joke, such as the commies are today.The arguements about the financial resources of the dead Communist Party are now, hopefully, resolved and Moscow gold has flowed to its proper owners. Happy dreams about the prison camps you would like to put us all in oh great defenders of the working class, all 50 of you.

Today in History: Sept 26th
1919: Anarchist Makhnovist army counterattacks the forces of White Army General Denekin near the village of Peregonovka, routing the forces arrayed against them. The Makhnovischina goes on to cut the supply lines of Denekin's forces driving towards Moscow, forcing him to abandon the advance. The Bolsheviks repay this kindness by betrayal of their anarchist allies on more than one occasion. For more on Nestor Makhno see the 'Nestor Makhno Archive' at http://www.nestormakhno.info
1936: Oops !!! Three anarchists, Juan Domenech, Juan Fabregas and Antonio Garcia Birian compromise and betray anarchist principles by joining the government of the Catalan Generalidad. This is the first move in a series of depressing compromises that the Spanish anarchists make in the name of "anti-fascist unity". The main beneficiary of these compromises is the previously insignificant PCE - The Spanish Communist Party. This Stalinist party-of course- goes on to betray its allies, anarchist and otherwise. Do we see a pattern here ? Finally the great and glorious bastion of the working class against fascism forms a "temporary, eternal friendship" with guess who on the signing of the Hitler Stalin pact.
For more on some of the anarchist opposition to the collaborationist policies of the CNT-FAI see 'The Friends of Durruti Group:1937-1939' (Agustin Guillamin) at http://www.spunk.org/library/places/spain/sp001780 .
1969: Eighth Conference of the Situationalist International held in Venice. The SI lasted until 1972 when it dissolved at the point when it had only two members. Most of the internal activity of the group consisted of the search for grounds for expulsion. Hence the fact that it rarely had more than 10 or 15 members at a time. You might say that heresy hunting was a "matter of everyday life" for them. Despite admirable bursts of creativity the SI remained a basically incoherent group. There was thus always good grounds for expulsions. Should it have continued until only Debord remained the combination of incoherence and megalomania would possibly have led him to expel himself. But that would be expecting a little too much from someone fantastically convinced of his own importance.
Anyways see the Wikipedia article on the SI at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationalist
. You can also access the actual texts of the SI at the 'Situationalist International Online' at http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline .
All being said the SI was more than a slight cut above some of its progeny.
That's about it for today. Sorry about the slim picking.
Molly.