Anarkismo (en)

On Saturday members of the Dublin anarchist Black Cross attended a vigil held outside the GPO (General Post Office) in Dublin to highlight the continued use of interment by remand against Republicans prisoners throughout Ireland.

The Paris Agreement has mostly been greeted with enthusiasm, though it contains at least one obvious flaw. Few seem to have noticed that the main tool mooted for keeping us within the 2℃ global warming target is a massive expansion of carbon trading, including offsetting, which allows the market exchange of credits between companies and nations to achieve an overall emissions reduction. That's despite plenty of evidence that markets haven't worked well enough, or quickly enough, to actually keep the planet safe.

The debate over whether to include carbon markets in the final agreement came right to the wire. Some left-leaning Latin American countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia vehemently opposed any mention, while the EU, Brazil, and New Zealand, among other countries, pushed hard for their inclusion – with support from the World Bank, the IMF and many business groups.

Welcome to the first double issue of Tokologo, combining issues 5 and 6. This marks our third year of publishing by the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective and its study circles.

Editorial of Tokologo #5/6
Welcome to the first double issue of Tokologo, combining issues 5 and 6. This marks our third year of publishing by the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective and its study circles.

2015 has been a turbulent year. On the one side, the horrors of attacks on immigrants and foreigners continue. In April, attacks broke out, mainly in KwaZulu-Natal, spurred directly by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's inflammatory statements. One of the big failures of the 1994 transition was that much of the old Bantustan/ homeland apparatus remained in place, with the continuing power of chiefs and kings. Again, in October, this time spurred by rumours and the taxi associations, there were riots in the Eastern Cape.

Next week will see the promotion of Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA (Member of Northern Ireland Assembly), Arlene Foster to the position of DUP leader and the North of Ireland’s First Minister. Foster is a woman who was once described to have “learned a lot from the likes of Thatcher when it comes to dealing with men in politics."

The current economic, political, and social situation in Venezuela is very complicated, which makes it somewhat difficult for outsiders to make sense of. On the one hand there are many people who defend the Bolivarian revolution, pointing to the successes it has had in reducing poverty and inequality and in increasing citizen participation and self-governance. On the other hand, there is a chorus of critics, not just from the usual suspects on the political right, but often from the left, who criticize the Maduro government's economic management of the country, corruption, the high inflation rate and shortages, and the trial of a high profile opposition politician, who the government accuses of fomenting violence. How did Venezuela get here? What happened since Hugo Chavez's death? Did the project derail, get stuck, hit a speed bump, or crash altogether? In order to answer this question, I will first analyze the origins of the current economic situation.

Anarchism Needs a Working Class Revolution
Murray Bookchin was an influential and prolific writer and thinker on anarchism. Recently his work has been in the news. While he made significant contributions, he made a major error in rejecting the working class as important for an anarchist revolution. This article reviews why he believed this and why, on the contrary, the working class must be a major force for a successful anarchist revolution.

Republished in "Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism" no.14 in the Black Stars of Anarchism series

‘I woke at 5.00 am. Passos, who had been up and about for hours, was sitting on his bed reading Determinism and Responsibility by Hamon. I grabbed a towel and went downstairs to wash my face. When I came back from the yard, after drying off, I saw two individuals. It was a moment or two before I realised who they were. With revolvers drawn they spoke to me and asked me harshly: “Where’s Domingos Passos?”Anticipating another of the attacks that our comrade had been through so often before, I was keen to cover for him and said that he was not around. I told them: “There’s no Domingos Passos living here!”

Somewhere in the region of 70 people attended an emergency protest yesterday outside Belfast City Hall.

First published in "Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism" no.14
Trade unions have played a major role in defending workers’ rights against the bosses and politicians, also in advancing workers’ interests. This is why, even today, workers are still loyal to their unions. However, there are obstacles within the unions – one being the union bureaucracy, of paid and full-time officials. This can develop its own interests, undermining the unions.

This is a challenge faced by many unions. This bureaucracy is at times unable to represent workers’ grievances effectively: they often spend more time fighting amongst themselves for certain positions within the union instead of for workers’ rights. Due to this bureaucracy, which is structured hierarchically, higher positions hold more power, including in terms of decision-making. Those in leadership are often full-time and recieve much higher salaries than those of the workers they represent. This means they often want to prevent union actions that threaten their own positions, like long strikes.

First published in "Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism" no.14
We, anarchists, are committed to building a society based on self-management and equality. We identify with the analyses and experiences of Mikhail Bakunin, who stated the need for freedom beyond the limited confines of “democracy” – where you are only free to vote on who is next to govern you. Bakunin argued that freedom comes responsibility: this included responsibility to others in the maintenance of this freedom. We need a society based on these principles; an anarchist society which expects from each according to their ability, and provides to each according to their needs.

How do we achieve this? The anarchist society is achieved through a revolutionary strategy based on mass organization to overthrow systems and relationships of hierarchical (or top-down) political, economic and social power. These organisations – trade unions and community movements – we refer to as counter-power.

November 19th marks the 100th anniversary of the execution of activist and labour organiser Joe Hill by the hands of the state.

Bil'in, Ni'ilin, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Qaddum, Sheikh Jarrah and the South of Hebron Hills
You struggle when you have hope for a developing change. You struggle when you refuse to accept the present as the only possible future. You struggle even when the hope is low just to keep your dignity from evaporating. And there are people their rage is so strong that no reasoning can hold them back. Now, when the hope for a better common future evaporated, and the hope for a nice personal future is even lower, the anger of lot of youth is stronger than the preservation of life instinct... it is just waiting for a chancy trigger to pull another boy or girl and send them to a suicide mission. And the mighty Israeli state just start to admit that their brutality reached the wall it cannot overcome. The military elite already stated to reveal it in the open that the new emerging "individualist" Intifada cannot be stopped by force. For those who are not burnt out or desperate the non armed joint struggle is the only sane road. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/28852]

Is Terrorism actually a threat to the State?
This article arguing that State and the terrorism completes one another's action and make each other stronger and the movement of people weaker. It tells the readers about the motive of killing innocent people by terrorism is not just ideological factor, in fact there are other reasons for this terrible act. Meanwhile the article urges us not to listen to Media, State and terrorist propaganda that they want to divide us. We should not be deceived and our demos and protests should be against both of them in the same time.

This pamphlet by the “enigmatic” title “Alpha below zero - Nemesis and new anarchy”, appeared online almost a year ago in Greek language by Anarpsy project. Anarpsy is a project about speech, theory and analysis in the context of social psychology, psychoanalysis, psychodynamic approach and psychiatry through Antiauthoritarian - Anarchist perspective, in order to analyse the reality of social and political phenomena. “Alpha below zero” is the second Anarpsy’s pamphlet. (The first was the “ELthnikismos (ΗELlenicNATIONALISM), - A contribution to the understanding of Greek nationalism”). “Alpha below zero” reflects a shift towards nihilism that exists into so-called neo-anarchists.

Erase the Borders of the National State
In the US, right-wing politicians have attacked all immigrants, Latinos, and Arabs and Muslims, by whipping up nativist and racist hysteria. They promote "research" blaming immigrants for a lack of jobs. Liberals want "comprehensive" immigration policies which will also increase repression.

A letter from France by a libertarian socialist discussing the reactions of the French people and the government's turn to "war."

Almost 80 years ago the peasantry and working class of Spain, inspired by anarchism and syndicalism, rose up to change the world. The Spanish Revolution of 1936-1939 involved millions creating, from below, a new society of freedom based upon equality and participatory democracy. Had the revolution succeeded and spread, the world would have changed forever. Rather than being trapped in decades of oppression and crisis and futility, humanity could have invested the last three generations into a universal human community of libertarian communism and scientific advance.

Remarkably, the Spanish Revolution has received very little attention. The republication in English of volume 1 of José Peirats’ masterwork The CNT in the Spanish Revolution by Merlin Press and PM Press should go some way to addressing the problem. The book originally appeared in 1951 in Spanish, finally appeared in English in 2001 but soon went out of print, and is now, finally, readily available (see contact details at end). (A much-abridged version appeared in one volume in English in 1990, called the Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution) [1].

As the 100th anniversary of the outbreak in August 1914 of World War One fades, let us remember that imperialism harms all working class people – including those in imperialist and Western countries, and the white working class.

It is often said that Western workers benefit from imperialism, or imperialist profits, or that welfare in the West is funded by imperialism – but all of these claims fall in the face of realities like World War One (1914-1918). This war – between Germany and Britain and their respective allies – was, at least in part, fought for a re-division of the European-ruled colonies.

A wave of deadly attacks took place last night in Paris and Saint-Denis. The French government has been conducting wars in several countries (Libya, Mali, Syria ...) for years. These wars today have an impact on the French territory.