Communiqué de la CGA face aux directives du gouvernement et au durcissement de la politique migratoire ... read full story / add a comment

This article looks at immigration in New Zealand/Aotearoa in the context of the impending General Election and it use as an issue by the main political parties. ... read full story / add a comment

Βλαχοευρωπαίοι της σαχλαμάρας, τσανακογλύφτες της αντιπαροχής και του πανωσηκώματος, υπανάπτυκτοι της ανάπτυξης, μωροφιλόδοξοι αεριτζήδες, διαχρονικά μικρονοϊκοί και εθελόδουλοι. Αδέλφια μου, αλήτες, σκουλικαντέρες. Εδώ στις ακρογιαλιές του Ομήρου, που ο Ελύτης έγινε πια ντεμοντέ, εδώ στο κέντρο μια ωκεάνιας νηνεμίας που προμηνύει τον αφανισμό, εδώ στο φτερό μια κοινωνίας που ίπταται πάνω από τη δυστυχία των άλλων, εδώ στο μεταίχμιο μια εποχής τεράτων, μουλιάζουμε όλοι μαζί. Θα σωθούμε; ... read full story / add a comment

A year ago, starting 20 October 2015, around 75 small shops were looted, some burned down, in the eastern townships and downtown area of the small Eastern Cape university town of Grahamstown/ iRhini, South Africa. The attacks targeted Asian and African immigrants, many of them Muslim, and displaced 500 people. These riots were largely ignored by the media.

The text below is a slightly revised revision of a briefing I was asked to write at the time for the local Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM). The UPM played a heroic role in opposing the attacks and assisting the displaced. The text’s general points remain relevant to the working class’s fight against prejudice and racism. And the riots of 2015 should not be forgotten.grahamstown-riots ... read full story / add a comment

Ακόμα δύο νεκροί ήρθαν να προστεθούν στους χιλιάδες που έχουν χάσει τη ζωή τους στην προσπάθεια να διασχίσουν τα ευρωπαϊκά σύνορα. Αυτή τη φορά οι θάνατοι σημειώθηκαν μέσα στο κέντρο κράτησης της Μόριας. Μία γυναίκα 60 χρονών και ο εγγονός της 4 χρόνων σκοτώθηκαν μετά από έκρηξη στο γκαζάκι που είχε ανάψει στην προσπάθεια της να μαγειρέψει. Από την έκρηξη και τη φωτιά που ακολούθησε, σοβαρά τραυματίστηκαν επίσης ακόμα 2 συγγενείς της οικογένειας οι οποίοι και έχουν μεταφερθεί σε νοσοκομεία της Αθήνας χωρίς να έχει γίνει γνωστή η πορεία της υγείας τους. ... read full story / add a comment

Once it became clear that Trump was going to become the president of the USA, my Facebook feed became cluttered with attempts to understand how that could possibly happen.  How could a white supremacist, misogynist and utterly transparent snake oil salesman accumulate so many votes?  Those on the left both inside and outside the borders of the USA struggled to understand what had happened. [Listen to the audio of this entire article] A common conclusion in too many of these pieces is that the left needs to reach out, and listen to the concerns of, those who voted for him as a priority.  In a similar fashion to how sections of the left evaluated Brexit, they see a working class anti-establishment rebellion in the Trump vote from what they term the ‘white working class’. They believe that component was won by Trump because it has been neglected by the left - often, they will assert, because the rest of the left was distracted by what they call identity politics. This is a simple explanatory story that is particularly attractive to those sections of the left that have a nostalgic yearning for an imagined past of pure class struggle, shorn of internal concerns around oppression.  But the concept of masses of otherwise progressive working class voters opting for Trump on economic grounds is a myth.  The attractiveness of that myth and its promotion has more to do with the hostility of that section of the left towards the influence of intersectional feminism than anything more substantive.  That hostility has caused them to seek out anecdotes and exceptional regions and present them as the typical story that defines the election just as liberal Hillary Clinton campaigners have focused in on Facebook false news stories as the cause of her defeat. ... read full story / add a comment

Communiqué de CGA sur la situation de la jungle à Calais, et plus globalement sur la question des migrant-e-s. ... read full story / add a comment

Negli ultimi tempi, la Francia è diventata il bersaglio preferito dagli attentatori terroristici di matrice "islamista". Mi domando il perché, ma soprattutto "cui prodest": a chi giova una simile strategia terroristica e destabilizzante? Non credo proprio che convenga ai milioni di fedeli musulmani che vivono in Francia e sono sparsi nel mondo... ... read full story / add a comment

Συμπυκνώνοντας την αριστερή αφήγηση της κυριαρχίας, έχουμε «ανθρωπιστικό» «πρόβλημα» «προσφύγων», με ολίγη ανέξοδη «αλληλεγγύη» προς ανθρώπους περαστικούς, γιατί αν προτίθεντο να μείνουν εδώ, θα ήταν απλά και ξεκάθαρα ανεπιθύμητοι. Κάθε όρος με τα δικά του εισαγωγικά, για να αναδεικνύονται ξεχωριστά οι ντρίμπλες της αριστερής διχάλας της αφεντικίσιας γλώσσας. «Ανθρωπιστικό» «πρόβλημα» «προσφύγων» Η Ευρώπη πολιορκείται από αθρόες μεταναστευτικές ροές. Αυστρία, Σλοβενία, Σερβία, Κροατία και άλλες χώρες κλείνουν τα σύνορά τους εμποδίζοντας τους μετανάστες να προχωρήσουν βαθύτερα στην Ευρώπη. ... read full story / add a comment

Μετά τη συμφωνία της 18ης Μαρτίου μεταξύ Ε.Ε. και Τουρκίας, ένα νέο σκηνικό φάνηκε να διαμορφώνεται στη Λέσβο για ακόμα μία φορά. Οι περιπολίες των νατοϊκών, ευρωπαϊκών και τουρκικών σκαφών εντατικοποιήθηκαν ελαχιστοποιώντας τις βάρκες με μετανάστες-ριες που καταφέρναν να περάσουν τα ελληνικά υδάτινα σύνορα, ενώ ένα νέο εσωτερικό «σύνορο» δημιουργήθηκε στο λιμάνι της Μυτιλήνης. Όσοι πρόλαβαν να περάσουν πριν τη συγκεκριμένη ημερομηνία προωθήθηκαν στην ηπειρώτικη Ελλάδα για να καταλήξουν στα διάφορα «κέντρα φιλοξενίας» και η Λέσβος μετατράπηκε, μαζί με τα υπόλοιπα 4 νησιά που προέβλεπε η συμφωνία, σε μία ιδιότυπη φυλακή για όσους-ες συνεχίζουν να φτάνουν από τις 20 Μαρτίου και μετά , ημερομηνία έναρξης της εφαρμογής της. ... read full story / add a comment

Le gouvernement s'apprête à évacuer une partie du camp de Calais, pour répartir de force une partie des migrant-e-s dans des conteneurs ou les disperser loin de Calais dans des CAO (centres d’accueil et d’orientation), baptisés « lieux de répit ». Ces derniers ne constituent évidemment pas une solution, pour des personnes dont le projet est le plus souvent de rejoindre l'Angleterre. D'autant moins que ces CAO sont sensés fermer dans quelques semaines ! ... read full story / add a comment

Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο απαιτείται οι αυτοοργανωμένες και αλληλέγγυες δομές, με την σημαντική πρακτική τους συμβολή αλλά και με το σεβασμό που δείχνουν όχι μόνο σε κάθε ζωή αλλά και στην ελευθερία, θα πρέπει να σταθούν ως αντίπαλο δέος. Όχι μόνο ολόπλευρη υλική στήριξη από όλες της κινηματικές δυνάμεις αλλά και η διαμόρφωση μιας πολιτικής που, ξεπερνώντας τον κλειστό και αυτοαναφορικό λόγο, να μπει δυναμικά στο προσκήνιο για να κυριαρχήσει. Δεν δικαιούμαστε να χάσουμε αυτή τη μάχη. ... read full story / add a comment

Attacks on African and Asian foreigners flared up in South Africa twice in 2015, first in April, mainly in KwaZulu, then in October in Grahamstown, the Eastern Cape. Many attacks were on small (spaza) shops run by foreigners. Maybe 500 were displaced in October. The looting and smashing of property in spaza shops, and the immensity of these criminal activities country wide, has had an incredible and negative impact on our democracy, on our lives, on our livelihoods, and reflects badly on the nation's morality. ... read full story / add a comment

La islamofobia cumple el fin de naturalizar el imperialismo, el neo-colonialismo y la misión civilizadora de Occidente, a la vez que convierte el racismo, la discriminación y la violencia anti-inmigrante en algo excusable. Los tiempos actuales son de profunda reacción en Europa en todo sentido, sea en la cultura, en los derechos sociales y económicos, en la política. La islamofobia no es más que la banda sonora del ascenso político de una siniestra ultra-derecha global que desprecia todo cuanto huela a progresismo y pasa desapercibida, precisamente, porque todo el mundo está demasiado preocupado de los molestos musulmanes. La islamofobia es, de hecho, una pieza clave en el sistema de dominación. ... read full story / add a comment

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. ... read full story / add a comment

The poem below was written by Zimbabwean Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front comrade Leroy Maisiri, against the backdrop of the a wave of riots against African and Asian ‘foreigners’ that started to sweep Grahamstown, South Africa, from Wednesday 21 October 2015. By Saturday, around 300 shops, mostly small businesses, owned by people from countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Somalia, had been targeted, many burnedand looted. Perhaps 500 people have been displaced, many are in hiding. While university and college student protests across town faced down the state in the fight against high fees in a heroic struggle, mobs provoked by rumours of murders and mutilations by ‘foreigners,’spurred on by malicious forces including local taxi drivers, attacked the ‘foreigners.’ Heroic efforts by the local Unemployed Peoples Movement (UPM) and some other township residents were not enough to halt the carnage. Working class, see this divide-and-rule for what it is! You have nothing to gain from this. As the UPM says, “We are all the victims of colonialism and capitalism. We all need to stand together for justice. If unemployed young men chase a man from Pakistan out of Grahamstown they will still be unemployed and poor the next day. The students have shown us what unity can do.” The students have shown us the way forward.
... read full story / add a comment

2016 is fast approaching and we will be subjected to endless documentaries about that start of our bloody history as a nation. It will also be a time for analysis of how far we’ve come since the proclamation of this Republic.

In the proclamation there are lines which are aspirational, but grounded in the reality of experience of the rebels.
“The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.” ... read full story / add a comment

Last weekend, ten people died in a fire at a halting site in South Dublin. Thomas Connors, Sylvia Connors, Willie Lynch, Tara Gilbert, and Jimmy Lynch and five children lost lives. Their deaths are a tragedy, and we mourn their loss. But we are also angry. Because we know the loss of their lives was not the outcome of chance or blind fate. Our society, its laws and its institutions are designed to marginalise, to penalise and to discriminate against Travellers (traditionally itinerant ethnic group) . So long as we accept these forms of oppression and exploitation, tragedy will follow tragedy. ... read full story / add a comment

The Refugees Welcome rally saw a good crowd assembled at the Spire in Dublin. The rally was a response where people wanted to express their solidarity with the refugees who are attempting to escape war and death. ... read full story / add a comment

Thanks to the work of a few volunteers we had some banners to bring to the Refugees are Welcome rally and march at the Spire on Saturday the 12th of September. I was on my bike into the Barricade Inn to pick up the banners. The banners were important to link up certain struggles. One linked the appalling reaction to the social housing crisis by this government with their slow reaction to the humanitarian crisis on the edges of fortress Europe, which simply stated Homes for All, Refuge for All, and another which read No Borders No Nations. There was a good crowd assembled there when we arrived at the Spire and it grew steadily as Memet Uludag spoke frequently, often, and introduced each of the speakers. The rally was a response where people wanted to express their solidarity with the refugees who are attempting to escape war and death. ... read full story / add a comment