For a World without Pogroms, for a Future without Fascism: November 8 – November 11, 2018

Posted on October 28, 2018 by

The following call is one I’d seen a week or so ago, and had been meaning to write something about, but obviously recent events have rendered it far more urgent than ever.

A quick note on the UK context: while, in the US, the ruling party is more-or-less openly entwined with antisemitic bigots, here we face a different set of circumstances, where the ideology of the ruling faction is a grimly cynical “anti-anti-semitism” or “philosemitism” – the ideology of those who rush to attack Holocaust survivors who make unhelpful comparisons, while seemingly willing to turn a blind eye to, for instance, UKIP’s courting of Mark “gas the jews” Meechan.

This cynicism of the right and centre has produced and equally one-sided reflection in parts of the left, where suspicion of the media and the desire to defend left projects leads some people to automatically deny any suggestion of antisemitism at all, resulting in the kind of determined blind-eye-turning that lets a fascist collaborator like Patrick Henningsen get invited to things like the Merthyr Rising festival (although they at least had the decency to uninvite him) and the Levellers’ Beautiful Days festival (who did not). The appearance of Henningsen and his associate Vanessa Beeley at the latter festival led to prominent Corbynite MP Chris Williamson proclaiming how proud he was to have met Beeley, a keen promoter of the kind of antisemitic George Soros conspiracy theories that are so popular with the murderous terrorists of the US far-right*.

So, a few suggestions of what working for “a world without pogroms” could look like in our context: you could organise actions targetting antisemitic street organisations like Zjednoczeni Emigranci, or UKIP, who are the mainstream electoral party who’ve most eagerly embraced antisemitic figures. It could also be worth organising a discussion of the “red-brown” convergence to help people identify and oppose the antisemitic and fascist ideas and figures that find a way into left and anti-racist spaces.

Anyway, the original callout is below:

* of course, Beeley’s far from alone in peddling Soros conspiracy theories while still expecting to be welcomed in left and anti-racist spaces – when an anarcho-syndicalist facebook page recently made an anti-trans post, it was notable how quickly people started posting links to US pro-Trump sites making the same old claims about Soros.

 

For a World without Pogroms, for a Future without Fascism

November 8 – November 11, 2018 | 5779

#AntiFascistFall #CancelFascism #OutliveThem

* * * * *

Last Friday, a gang of “Proud Boys,” under police protection, staged a violent homophobic assault on anti-racist activists on the streets of NYC’s Upper East Side. This latest attack follows a sharp spike in anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic violence around the world since the November 9, 2016 election, from Chemnitz to Charlottesville.

November 9th also marks the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht – the “November Pogrom” in which German nationalists, under orders from the highest levels of the Nazi regime, murdered, raped, and brutalized thousands of Jews and desecrated over 1,200 synagogues.

But today, Jews are fighting back, as we always have. And today, in the spirit of centuries of our peoples’ resistance to racism, fascism, and carceral capitalism, we call on Jews everywhere – together with our allies – to join in a global wave of action to #CancelFascism this November 8-11.

We are Jews of the Diaspora, grandchildren of the Shoah, heirs to the antifascist resistance. Today, we say that a pogrom against any of us is a pogrom against all of us.

Our blood isn’t cheap: Violence against our communities will not be ignored. Violence against racial, religious, sexual, and gender minorities will not go unchallenged. Nor will the government that sanctions this violence, the church that blesses it, or the ruling class that profits from it.

On November 8-11, we will sing out and celebrate the survival of our peoples. We will say Kaddish for those who gave their lives in the fight against fascism. We will engage in acts of Kherem and ritually excommunicate those Jews who aid and abet the fascists of our time. And we will march on the institutions, the political parties, and the private businesses that collaborate with their genocidal agenda.

At the same time, we will show the world that the real threat to our security as Jews isn’t our Muslim neighbors, but “Western Chauvinists,” Christian supremacists, and white nationalists – the would-be pogromists of our day.

Starting now and continuing through 5779 and beyond, we will (re)build an international network of anti-fascist Jews and our allies. From the streets where we live to the places we work and play, we will organize to defend all of our communities from those who would exterminate us.

We invite you to join us in the fight: For a world without pogroms. For a future without fascism.

Action Items

  1. Mark your calendars for 11/8 – 11/11. Call your own people to action on these dates, in solidarity with this call from within the Jewish community, and with the International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism,* using the hashtags #AntiFascistFall #CancelFascism #OutliveThem.
  2. Share word of this weekend of action widely. Craft your own call: use or edit our words, images, and resources as you see fit. Come up with the strategy best suited to your ’hood, town, city, and region, and identify local targets for nonviolent direct action.
  3. In unity is our strength. Reach out to other groups already resisting the far right and state terror in your area or start your own. Organize an action together. Forge alliances with other oppressed communities that will endure beyond #AntiFascistFall.
  4. Document your actions and those of the oppressors. Share images, stories, and reportbacks with your social networks using the hashtags. Then share them with us at wewilloutlivethem@protonmail.com. Please include only as much identifying information as participants consent to give.
  5. Be safe, be smart, and be dangerous. Consider the needs, capabilities, and vulnerabilities of the people in your crew. Plan lower-risk actions that everyone and their yiddishe mama can participate in. People may or may not choose to plan higher-risk actions. We ask that all who answer this call be prepared to support one another in the event of arrest, detention, or repression.

* This action is in solidarity with but organized autonomously from the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism, observed in Europe and elsewhere since 2013.

* * * * *

This November, we remember. This November, we organize. This Kislev, we fight back.

wewilloutlivethem@protonmail.com | @outlivethem | outlivethem.wordpress.com

#AntiFascistFall #CancelFascism #OutliveThem

Suggested Actions:

Memorializing Kristallnacht by engaging in confrontation with fascists and their sympathizers can look many different ways. If you need a place to start, here are a few examples:

* Hold a sit-in in the lobby of a corporation that finances or benefits from the dealings of fascists.

* Hold a Yizkor service for those killed in the Shoah – and for all those who have fallen in the fight against fascism.

* Have a joint assembly with your non-Jewish comrades about anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia, xenophobia, and anti-black racism.

* Hold a self-defense or bystander intervention training in your living room with 10 friends.

* Launch a boycott of the white supremacist businesses in your area.

* At your Shabbat dinner, invite guests to discuss steps you could take to remove fascism from your own community.

* Organize a sing-in, musical gathering, dramatic performance, or artistic convergence at sites of anti-fascist resistance and from there, march to the consulates of states where pogroms or attempted pogroms are taking place with impunity: Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel-Palestine, Myanmar, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States of America; hold a speak-out once you arrive.

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Posted in Racism, The left, The right | Tagged | Leave a comment

Thousands to strike for equal pay in Glasgow, and other quick updates

Posted on October 22, 2018 by

In Glasgow, 8000 mainly female workers will be striking on October 23rd and 24th to demand equal pay. Glasgow Unison write:

“The dispute is about the council’s failure to make any real progress on agreeing compensation for past pay discrimination since the Court of Session key rulings against Glasgow City Council in August 2017, and after 21 meetings with senior council officers.

The council has agreed nothing nor offered anything on any of the key elements which would determine the settlement offers. The council has focused on process; not substance. UNISON members’ patience has worn thin.

We need agreement on the key elements which will determine the cash values of the settlement offers. These include the full range of job comparators, past shift payments, past working demands payments, past pay protection payments, past overtime payments, the rate of interest to be applied and parity between all claimants. Settlement needs to be based on entitlement not cost.

The council has responded to our strike notice by cancelling the negotiations. This is a big mistake.

The claimant side is united. Our members are united.”

Meanwhile, Wigan Royal Mail staff have gone out on a wildcat in solidarity with a victimised colleague.

Meanwhile, the Docs not Cops campaign against ID checks and other forms of border control in the NHS are staging a day of action on Wednesday 23rd.

They write:

“We are standing with healthcare workers and patients at Barts Health NHS Trust and demanding an end to ID checks and upfront charging in the NHS. Join us for a day of action, with pickets at 3 Barts hospitals in the morning, a #PatientsNotPassports selfie twitter storm at lunch, and a rally at the Royal London Hospital in the evening.

The 23rd October marks one year since the Government introduced the policy forcing NHS Trusts to check patients ID and charge people upfront for care. That year has seen untold harm caused to people trying to access the care they need. From the Windrush scandal and Sylvester Marshal being billed £54,000 for cancer care, to Trusts sending debt collectors to harass destitute mothers. The year has also seen unprecedented resistance from healthcare workers and patients, with mass demonstrations, the returning of medals, and healthcare organisations holding the Government to account.

How to get involved?

Stalls
Join local Keep Our NHS Public and Save our NHS groups talking to staff and encouraging people to sign the open letter:
7:45-8:45am – Newham Hospital
8-9am – Whipps Cross Hospital
8-9am – Royal London Hospital

Online
Send Barts Trust a selfie of you holding a sign that says “I’m a patient not a passport”. Click here (https://www.medact.org/2018/actions/twitter-storm-guide/) to find out when to tweet and have a look at some example tweets.

Rally
6pm at Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.
Call on Barts NHS Trust to stand with healthcare workers and patients and demand the Government end up-front charging in the NHS.”

In other anti-border action, Waltham Forest Anti-Raids Network are having their first workshop on Saturday 27th, and Haringey Anti-Raids are having their second birthday party that night.

Also at the weekend, Bristol Care Workers Network will be taking on Mencap over the issue of pay for sleeping shifts.

“Mencap have gone to court to demand that the government overturns it’s recent ruling on pay for sleeping shifts. Because of Mencap, millions of low-paid workers will now be denied the minimum wage for their sleep shifts.

This has come at a time when non-payment of the minimum wage is at it’s worst ever level. The care sector is already one of the worst affected. Even for workers who are paid legally, studies have shown that it is almost impossible to make a living on the minimum wage. And now, Mencap want to make it even harder for workers to get the minimum wage.

Mencap say that the care sector can’t afford to pay it’s staff the minimum wage. We say that austerity is not the fault of the workers. We recognise that there is a funding deficit in social care, but employers should not be plugging the gaps from their workers’ wages. And despite crying poverty, Mencap themselves made record profits this year. Don’t make us pay!

This is everyone’s issue. This is about workers’ power. This is about feminism, because care workers are disproportionately working class women, and Mencap’s attack further undermines the value of women’s labour and the economic status of women. This is about race and migration, because migrant workers and workers of colour are far more likely to be working in minimum wage jobs, and will be hit harder by these changes.

We want a noisy and lively demonstration in Bristol. We want to send a message to Mencap- The working class are not powerless. We will not give up our pay without a fight.

Come and join us on College Green at 12:00 on October 27th. Bring banners, horns, drums, and anything else to make noise with!”

Manchester Solidarity Federation will also be holding a picket in support on the day, and ask anyone interested to email them for more information. Bristol care workers are also asking supporters elsewhere to help amplify their action:

“Call Mencap’s complaints line on 01582 560 003. Call between 1pm and 5pm on Friday 26th October 2018. Keep phoning until you get through to a real person. Then say something like
“I’d like to make a complaint. Mencap don’t think care workers deserve the minimum wage.” If you can keep them talking, then do it. After you get off the phone, call them again!

On Friday 26th, tweet to @mencap_charity. Tell them what you think about them. Use #wagetheft and/or #standuptomencap.

On Friday 26th, Fill out Mencap’s online feedback form at https://www.mencap.org.uk/feedback. (do it more than once for maximum disruption!)

Remember that the person on the other end of your message is a fellow worker,  so be assertive, but don’t be rude or aggressive.

And please share! We all work in the care sector. We don’t have any rich backers or a big publicity budget. We need normal people to show some solidarity and help us get our message out there. If you do nothing else today, just click share, or head over to twitter and RT. It’s a little gesture that goes a long way.

Get creative, and have fun 😉”

 

Posted in Gender, Strikes, Unions, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Frack Free Three are free – all out to Preston New Road on Saturday!

Posted on October 18, 2018 by

In an impressive reversal, the three anti-fracking protesters who were recently jailed have now been given conditional discharges and released following a successful appeal. On a related note, apparently another person who took direct action at the fracking site in Preston was briefly sectioned under the Mental Health Act before being released as a result of outside pressure and solidarity. The formerly-jailed protesters are now asking for everyone to come to a demo at Preston New Road on Saturday:

“TODAY OUR FRIENDS WERE GIVEN CONDITIONAL DISCHARGES, THE JUDGE REFERRING TO THEIR SENTENCES AS ‘MANIFESTLY EXCESSIVE’. ON BEHALF OF THESE MEN, WE THANK EVERYONE FOR THEIR INCREDIBLE SUPPORT OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS. THIS WEEK TOO, FRACKING BEGAN IN THE UK, AND RICH, RICH AND ROSCOE HAVE ASKED PEOPLE TO COME TO THE DEMO AT THE PRESTON NEW ROAD SITE THIS SATURDAY 20th OCTOBER: https://www.facebook.com/events/290251588248035/”

“Now is the time for all of us to show them that we will step up our fight and ensure that every community under threat is ready to stand up and fight. We won’t be bullied and this event is to show the whole country that we will resist the fracking companies wherever they go.

Come to Maple Farm next to Cuadrilla’s fracking site at Preston New Road to hear from speakers from all over the country and let us all make a stand against this unwanted and toxic industry.

Let’s tell the frackers that we have said no and that we will continue to say no.

* No to fracking at Preston New Road
* No to fracking at Roseacre Wood
* No to prison sentences for protectors
* No to permitted development and NSIP
* No to climate change
* No to fracking anywhere and everywhere

All anti fracking groups come together and stand together.

No means No.”

Simon Roscoe Blevins has also written a piece putting his sentencing into context and linking it to the wider fight against repression:

“The “justice” of releasing three white middle-class men from prison does represent a minor victory, but this is dwarfed by the injustices that motivated our protest to begin with. Around the world, the planet’s poorest, most vulnerable people, who have done the least to cause climate change, are those most affected by it. They – those communities who are already marginalised and oppressed on a daily basis – are the first to feel the real impacts. People of colour, queer people, trans people and other oppressed communities are also all more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because they have least access to safe spaces and resources in times of emergency.

Here in the UK, the prison system is also hugely unjust. Our sentences were a drop in an ocean of people wrongfully imprisoned, in both the UK’s prison and detention systems. Most of the people I met in prison did not need to be in there. The system exacerbates existing inequalities in our society, disproportionately affecting people of colour, those on low incomes, working-class people and those struggling with mental health or addiction problems.

We need to reduce the prison population and expand public services. Yet the government is doing the opposite. Keeping someone in prison costs four times as much as sending them to university. At a time of austerity, prison expansion is driving forward inequality and harming communities.

We oppose the government’s plans to create 10,000 new prison places by 2020. We don’t need more people behind bars, we need stronger support structures for people in need.

The coverage and support we have received as a result of our trial has been hugely overwhelming and appreciated – but it also exacerbates the perception that white middle-class environmentalists are leading the resistance against injustice. We need to do more to ensure that grassroots groups, especially those led by marginalised voices and those experiencing real impacts, are the ones who are given platforms – and that they are part of decision-making processes for implementing change. The rest of us should follow their lead.”

In other news, a new magazine called Commune is launching and has a few preview articles up, and Football Lads & Lasses Against Fascism have published their take on last Saturday’s events:

“Saturday 13th October was a good day for anti-fascism and the working class. The DFLA had forecast that tens of thousands would march behind their banner from the West End into Whitehall and rallying outside Downing Street. While we were sceptical about their predicted numbers, we did not expect the collapse of the DFLA into disarray so soon after the emergence of FLAF. However, we take no credit for their collapse, the cracks were already apparent.

On Saturday, ours was a small part in an overall demonstration of anti-fascist unity that saw us organise separately, but strike together. FLAF liaised with AFN who were, with others, organising the blockade of the march at Trafalgar Square in order to prevent the DFLA getting into Whitehall & Downing Street. We also communicated with RMT stewards at the other end of Whitehall who were stewarding the SUTR demonstration. There were 1800 labour movement activists at the SUTR demo and 1200 at the AFN blockade.

The ‘black bloc’ style tactics of the AFN & Women’s Strike worked beautifully and the police decided that the risk to public order was too great for them to try to push the DFLA march through to Whitehall. Respect to the organisers of the blockade. An old slogan that all too easily trips off the tongues of the left was made a reality again on Saturday. We said ‘They Shall Not Pass’ and they did not pass. Being so close to the anniversary of Cable Street it was also a fitting moment for such a blockade.

FLAF met at a location that had to be kept tight only to those we knew and trusted and those that they knew and trusted… Based on that method of primitive communication, we gathered around 200. Others that we didn’t know so well were directed to the AFN assembly point, however, our plan to pick people up from there along the way was scuppered by a mix of impatience and a lack of leadership from us. We hold our hands up. Lessons have been learned and people will be kept aware of what is going on and how long we wait at certain points until we make a move. A bit of patience on Saturday might have produced an even more spectacular result. We apologize to those that we had arranged to meet at the AFN assembly point, we should have had a contingency plan to get word to you if plans changed. As a result we will review our organisation and expand our steering group and communications network.

Applied on a smaller scale than expected on Saturday, our strategy worked. Groups of FLAF were able to work in the area between the two demos at either end of Whitehall. DFLA and fascists were confronted at several locations. In Whitehall, some of the London firms were in the pubs. As one tweeter put it, “FLAF called them out on Whitehall and they didn’t want to know.” A handful emerged from one of the pubs and then regretted not leaving the door open for their retreat. It was only after the police corralled FLAF in Whitehall that more emerged from the pubs to do a bit of shouting for “Tommy Tommy Knobinson,” whoever he is?

Towards the end of the day, the main group of FLAF decided to wait at Parliament Square, it was a nice day, we blended in with the tourists and spread out on the square. Schoolboy error, no spotters on the corners, we got too relaxed. Some of us were almost sunbathing when a big firm of Tottenham old boys, armed with bottles, strolled into the square and took us by surprise. A few of ours got digs from behind and side-on before they could get on their feet. Once we’d recovered composure the other FLAF lads had joined from either side and more blows were exchanged, with Tottenham backing off and having a go again only after the police had cordoned us. A bit of blood on both sides but little more than a couple of black eyes for us. No-one among the FLAF contingent was carrying a weapon, a glass or a bottle. The other mob all had bottles and still couldn’t do the job.

If this all sounds a bit too macho for some, I apologise, but we know what they’re about and we choose to fight them on their terms. We are the working class firm. We are the multi-ethnic firm. We fight for our clubs and our class. You will never beat us because we are about UNITY, but you – the DFLA – are about division.

One visible and very noticeable contrast was the difference in age between the anti-fascist fans and our opponents from the far-right. The DFLA are old, they should be a forgotten blob of fat old men trying to relive the NF glory days – and they weren’t that glorious then either. They might be from our class, but everything they do breaks the unity of our class and our communities. Enoch Powell is dead, you wankers. Give it up!

While there was more than a few old heads on the FLAF side, our firm on the day was predominantly young English working class lads and they were committed and fearless and they know what they’re fighting for… It’s not just about ‘the row’ for us, in fact it’s not even about the row. This is about our communities and the poison that these fascists and racists bring to them. We will oppose them wherever we find them.”

Posted in Climate Change, Protests, Racism, Repression | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

New resources: analysis of revolt in the service sector, and a database of known spycops

Posted on October 15, 2018 by

A few resources that have come out over the last few days:

Notes from Below have published a new mini-issue focusing on the service sector strikes at the start of October, which looks well worth a read:

“This mini-issue reflects on the month of revolt in the hospitality and platform work sectors. Workers at Uber/UberEats, Deliveroo, Wetherspoons, McDonalds and TGI Fridays have previously been organising, but in October they coordinated to strike on the same day. This is the first time that workers in the so-called “gig economy” have fought together with workers in the more-traditional service and hospitality sectors. For some of these groups of workers there are direct links, for example UberEats delivers food from McDonalds. Others are brought together through the experiences of low paid and precarious work, providing services that workers across the economy use – and increasingly rely upon.

At Notes from Below, we have covered the struggles of platform workers extensively in previous issues, as well as the earlier strikes at TGIFriday and an inquiry into the hospitality sector. For this mini-issue, we have drawn together a series of pieces that reflect upon the recent strikes as part of our move towards more frequent and focused inquiries. Across the five pieces, we present different takes on the day.”

The Undercover Research Group and the Guardian have collaborated to produce a full guide to known spycops to date and their targets, giving a clearer picture of the extent of state harassment of political campaigners. The Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance have also published a guide to recent developments in the long fight against the police cover-up on this subject. There’s also a personal reflection from someone who was spied on by South Wales spycop Marco Jacobs as a fifteen-year-old here.

For anyone in the Peterborough region wanting to act on this information, there’ll be demos against scumbag spycop-turned-tory-councillor Andy Coles on October 17th and December 12th.

Meanwhile, End Deportations continue to produce regular updates on the Stansted 15 trial as it continues, which you can read here. With the big counterdemo against the DFLA out of the way – and fairly successfully, by all accounts – other upcoming events in October include the “not the bookfair” festival this weekend and the “rise of the precarious workers” demo just before Halloween. Plan C have some further thoughts on what’s next for feminist antifascism here. Unite Community are also talking about a national day of action against Universal Credit in December, though not much seems to be confirmed yet.

Posted in Protests, Racism, Repression, The right, Unemployment/claimants and welfare | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Uber Drivers to strike for 24 hours in London, Birmingham and Nottingham on October 9-10th, and other upcoming events

Posted on October 8, 2018 by

From the IWGB:

IWGB is calling 24 hour strike of Uber drivers in London, Birmingham and Nottingham from 1pm on 9 October Demonstrations to be scheduled at 1pm on 9 October at Uber’s offices in each of the cities. Drivers demand an increase in fares, an end to unfair deactivations and that Uber respect rulings on worker rights.

8 October: The United Private Hire Drivers (UPHD) branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has today called a 24 hour strike of Uber drivers in London, Birmingham and Nottingham from 1pm on Tuesday 9 October. Drivers will be staging protests outside Uber’s offices in each of these cities at the start of the strike. Details on location can be found below.

Drivers are demanding:

  • The IWGB is appealing for public support for striking drivers and asking customers to not cross the digital picket line by using the app during the strike. Supporters are invited to join protests outside Uber’s offices in London, Birmingham and Nottingham.
  • An increase in fares to £2 per mile (currently £1.25 in London)
  • A 10% reduction in commissions paid by drivers to Uber (currently 25% for UberX)
  • An end to unfair deactivations which are de facto dismissals
  • Uber apply the Employment and Employment Appeal Tribunals’ judgements and immediately implement employment conditions that respect worker rights for drivers, including the payment of at least the minimum wage and paid holidays

James Farrar, Chair of the IWGB’s UPHD branch, said: “After years of watching take home pay plummet and with management bullying of workers on the rise, workers have been left with no choice but to take strike action. We ask the public to please support drivers by not crossing the digital picket line by not using the app during strike time.”

The strike will combine the IWGB’s efforts to secure private hire drivers rights as limb (b) workers through the courts, with ongoing cases against Uber, Green Tomato Cars and A2B Cars, as well as building on previous protests against London transport regulator Transport for London.

The IWGB and co-claimants Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar will be facing Uber at the Court of Appeal on 30 and 31 October on the landmark employment rights case. Farrar and Aslam are being represented by solicitors Bates Wells Braithwaite and barristers Jason Galbraith-Marten QC and Sheryn Omeri from Cloisters.

Protest details: 1pm Tuesday October 9th

  • London – Aldgate Tower, 2 Leman Street, E1 8FA
  • Birmingham – 100 Broad Street, B15 1AE
  • Nottingham – Unit C, King Edward Court, NG1 1EL

For more information:

James Farrar – jamesfarrar@iwgb.co.uk Yaseen Aslam – yaseenaslam@iwgb.co.uk

 

Also, just a quick round-up of a few upcoming events over the next few weeks:

On Saturday 13th, there’s the big demo that’s been called against the far-right DFLA in London, featuring both a feminist bloc and the first street outing for the newly-formed Football Lads & Lasses Against Fascism.

The weekend after that will see the Not the Anarchist Bookfair in London, while the IWW  will be hosting an organising summit in Sheffield. And at the end of the month, on the 27th Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants will be hosting a Halloqueen party in London as a fundraiser for the Stansted 15 whose trial will be ongoing, Haringey Anti-Raids will be having a party to celebrate their second birthday on the same day, and further north Dodsworth WMC will be hosting a fundraiser to pay for repairs to a historic NUM banner. And finally, going back to the IWGB again, on the 30th they’ll be hosting a “rise of the precarious workers” demo to join up various campaigns they’re currently involved with.

 

Posted in Anarchists, Protests, Racism, Strikes, The right, Unions, Work | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

“No Borders” beyond a slogan: brief comments on a recent Angry Workers text

Posted on October 7, 2018 by

From the #paytherate protest in Rotherham

Angry Workers of the World, the West London-based collective who consistently produce some of the best contemporary analysis out of the UK at the moment, have just published a new piece reviewing a book on the Grunswick and Gate Gourmet struggles, and then using this as a jumping-off point for a broader discussion of what they see as the limits of “intersectionality” as a concept.

In the past, I’ve been very heavily critical of the level of discussion around critiques of “identity politics” and “intersectionality”, so it’s very refreshing to see a piece that avoids the common flaws that ruin most mainstream left critiques. In particular, criticisms of intersectionality often fall back on an appeal to a supposed universal subject, an imagined figure which is vague enough to appeal to centrist liberals, social democrats and some self-proclaimed communists, whereas the AWW piece is very clear about the need to start off from an understanding of class composition as it actually exists – so, real workers, who always exist in a specific context of some kind, unlike the abstract universal proletarian phantoms beloved of most anti-intersectionalists.

The other thing that often does my head in about critiques of intersectionality is that they often seem to get stuck at the moment of “don’t do that”, and never really arrive at the “do this instead” – which often seems to come across as saying “don’t do anything”. Again, the AWW piece is far, far better than most examples of the genre in this regard, but there are still a few moments where I really felt like the “do this instead” they advocate for could use some further discussion. So, a few notes on their article, mostly just saying “I’d like to see this bit explained in more detail”, and possibly repeating myself from  previous discussions on similar subjects:

One possible point of disagreement is with their claim that “We are currently witnessing a problematic intersection [I can’t work out if the pun there is deliberate or unintentional] of state ideology and liberal leftist politics when it comes to race, class and gender – and ‘intersectionality’ will be a useless tool to question this.”

If I understand what they’re saying correctly, then I think that this is a point where different understanding of the concept of “intersectionality” diverge – so there are certainly forms of intersectional analysis that are open to this kind of state co-optation, but I’d think any version of intersectionality that recognises class as an axis can be used as a tool to pry open the kind of statist, top-down managerial ideology where, for instance, “the Jewish community” can be represented by the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies, “the Muslim community” are represented by the Muslim Council of Britain and so on.

But maybe that’s too simplistic, and it’s also necessary to acknowledge that, just like “intersectionality”, “class” is also used to mean different things, so the correct formulation would be more like “any version of intersectionality that recognises class as an axis – and understands class as a social relationship, not a fixed, unchanging identity – can be used as a tool to…” I’m sure there are some versions of intersectionality that would go along with idiocies like “ah, Sajid Javid, son of a bus driver – he can tick the working-class box”, but I don’t think that’s true of all of them.

Anyway, the main point I wanted to see expanded on is touched on in two sections: one talks about “the wider liberal left, which demands ‘open borders’ as some kind of human right and denounces local working class reaction against this as xenophobic or anti-migrant – the left should check their privileged position of not feeling potentially threatened by an increase of competition on the labour and housing market. The demand for open borders has to be solidly founded on working class politics that take up the enormous challenge of organising local and migrant workers against all odds of limited jobs, language issues between workers and so on.” Later on, this is echoed by “the way the Gate Gourmet workers were undermined through the employment of recently migrated agency workers from Eastern Europe confirms our critical position towards a liberal left that berates working class people who voted for Brexit as being complete wallies misguided by UKIP.”

I think this is a really important point, and it’d be good to see further discussion of this. Of course, there is a section of the (radical) left that’s vocally critical of the no borders position, what we could loosely call the RMT/TUSC/IWCA tendency (without wanting to collapse the differences between them), but as I understand it Lexit-leaning types tend to be opposed to open borders as such, even if most of them are shy about saying exactly what kind of border controls they’d like to see, whereas the AWW perspective seems to be more about approaching the demand for no borders from a different angle.

I’m certainly not claiming to have all the answers on this question, that’s one of the reasons I’d like to see more comradely discussion of this point, but to sketch out what I’d see as a few starting points: I think, as the AWW hint at, the left dogma that migrants never have a negative impact on wages or working conditions is unhelpful, and that a better way of framing the argument is to acknowledge that there are circumstances where migrant workers will accept lower wages or worse working/living conditions, but that these circumstances are related to the insecurity created by the border regime itself. This then means that, rather than trying to stop migrant workers undermining wages by demanding increased border controls – and so more anxiety and less confidence among those migrants who do, legally or illegally, make it in – we can combat these negative effects by fighting against all the hierarchies and divisions that produce “migrant workers” as a distinct, separate group, cut off from the rest of the local working class.

The above is pretty abstract, but for a glimpse of what it can look like in practical terms, I still think the best example is the dispute at Fawley oil refinery, when workers reacted to migrants being employed on lower wages by striking and demanding their immigrant coworkers be paid at the same rate. More generally, there’s a long history, going back to at least the Lindsey dispute in 2009, of struggles in construction and oil related to the employment of migrant workers on lower rates, with both nationalist and internationalist working-class perspectives visible in these struggles at various points.

But looking at these struggles, while useful, can only be a starting point. After all, most of us don’t work in construction or oil, and don’t have the relatively high levels of (recognised) skill and organisation associated with those sectors, so “just react the way oil refinery workers would” is not always a practical piece of advice for us. Of course, there are also the rightly-celebrated struggles among migrant cleaners, who are making a commendable contribution to challenging the position of “low-waged migrant worker”, but here we can also see sectional barriers that militancy has not yet spread beyond, with almost all such struggles taking place at relatively high-profile employers in (central?) London.

As the above makes clear, I don’t have any kind of magic formula for joint struggles between local and migrant workers outside of very specific situations, but I think the AWW are right to highlight it as an important question, and in refusing to play down its difficulties – more discussion, and most importantly practical examples, on this point would be very welcome.

As a sidenote, when discussing the relationship between British Asian workers and EU migrants, they mention that “the ‘pool of disposable workers’ is also replenished by recent migrants from South Asia itself – a lot of our colleagues have arrived from Punjab, Gujarat, Goa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Afghanistan in the last decade”. I was intrigued by this, since that definitely contradicts my understanding of how the current border regime works – I thought the points-based system made it pretty much impossible for non-EU “disposable workers” to get in, so I’d be curious as to whether they were mainly family members of established UK citizens, students who’d stayed after their courses (although even there I thought there were pretty strict restrictions), refugees or what.

Posted in Bit more thinky, Debate, Internationalism | Tagged , | 3 Comments

The Vaughn/Smyrna 17 face trial, and other US prison/repression news for early October

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

The Vaughn/Smyrna 17, prisoners facing charges for alleged participation in a prison uprising at the time of Trump’s inauguration, will be going to trial from October 8th onwards, and are asking for displays of solidarity. Further info on the case is available here.

“We need as many supporters as we can get inside and outside of the courtroom to counter the attack from the prosecution and the state. We need everyone who can to contribute to this cause, whether it be posting messages on your social media accounts, making T-shirts with “Smyrna 17” on them, or just educating the people on mass incarceration and why prison uprisings happen.

We personally believe that your presence on social media and at the trial in the courthouse would be the most effective and beneficial contribution. However, we accept and appreciate all forms of solidarity.”

Meanwhile, there’s a few updates on the Lucasville inmates, who’re still facing repression for an uprising that took place in 1993. Greg Curry is asking for support and help getting out of the supermax prison where he’s been held in solitary confinement for years, while the state is seeking an execution date for Keith LaMar/Bomani Shakur.

The IDOC Watch site is always active with news from the Indiana prison system, including a major update on repression against Indiana State Prison protest organisers.

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee has called for a number of phone zap actions recently, asking for an end to repression against alleged organizers in North Carolina, Lieber Correctional to be taken off lockdown after a year, opposing a new Philadelphia policy that would put harsh restrictions on books and mail, and asking for the Missouri inmates who lost property in the rebellion at Crossroads Detention Center to have it replaced, among other things. One such phone zap, against a proposed new policy that would have banned visitors wearing tampons from Virginia prisons, appears to have been successful in getting the policy rolled back.

Finally, water protector Michael “Rattler” Markus has been sentenced to 36 months for a Civil Disorder charge related to the Standing Rock protests, although he won’t begin serving his sentence until November, and another call has gone out to support Kris Thompson, the spouse of a trans woman killed by the police who is now facing false charges in an attempt to prevent her speaking out about the killing.

Posted in Repression, Riots | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment