9 Ιουνιου – Athens Pride!

Oταν 440.894 ανθρωποι ψηφιζουν νεοναζι, το να κατεβεις στο Pride ειναι περιπου σαν να κατεβαινεις περιφρουρηση σε απεργιες.

9 Ιουνιου ολες/οι στο Pride!

(Θα ειμαι και γω εκει!)

The future of the workers of Europe is being decided in Greece

Statement of the Fourth International

For two years the Greek people have fought against the austerity imposed by the Troika (the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank). After seventeen one-day general strikes, after mass demonstrations and the occupations of squares by the aganaktismeni (the indignant), after occupations of workplaces, in the elections held on May 6 it rejected the parties which had accepted the memoranda imposed on Greece by more than 60 per cent of the votes cast, and gave 37 per cent to parties to the left of the antisocial liberalism of PASOK.

For two years, crushed by public debt, which has been used as a channel for the over-accumulation of financial capital, Greece has become the laboratory of policies aimed at making the population pay for the capitalist crisis. The rescue plans imposed on Greece have only one goal: to guarantee the payment of the debt by the Greek state to the banks, to preserve the speculative money of the financial bubble that they have created. The “memoranda” which accompany these plans are aimed at testing in Greece how far capital can monopolize the wealth produced by the workers by reducing them to poverty. The effects of this policy are the brutal reduction of wages and pensions; the deconstruction of labour laws and regulations; the brutal rise in unemployment (which already affects in Greece 21.2 per cent of the active population, nearly 30 per cent of women and 50 per cent of young people); a recession similar to that of 1929-1930 (a drop in GDP of 6.9 per cent in 2011, with an estimated further drop of 5.3 per cent in 2012; a reduction of industrial production of 4.3 per cent in March 2012 compared to March 2011 …); the destruction of the health system (closing of 137 hospitals and disappearance of a fifth of employment in health, a lack of drugs because of unpaid bills of 1.1 billion euros …) and of the housing market (200,000 residences are unsellable … while the number of homeless people has sharply increased), malnutrition …

Making arbitrariness, secrecy and fear a veritable form of government, such a policy of brutal control of people could not fail to provoke reactions of rage, distress and anger. Part of this anger was canalized by a sinister racist, anti-semite and xenophobe force, the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn, which surfs on the government policy of repression of demonstrators and hunting down immigrants and has infiltrated the police. That must alert us and lead us to denounce the policy of governmental repression and racism imposed by the “Troika” in Greece.

Confronted by the policy imposed by the Troika, the Greek radical Left, and in particular Syriza, which today occupies a central place in the Greek political situation, defends a 5-point emergency plan:

1. Abolition of the memoranda, of all measures of austerity and of the counter-reforms of the labour laws which are destroying the country.
2. Nationalization of the banks which have been largely paid by government aid.
3. A moratorium on payment of the debt and an audit which will make it possible to denounce and abolish the illegitimate debt.
4. Abolition of immunity of ministers from prosecution.
5. Modification of the electoral law which allowed PASOK and New Democracy to govern to the detriment of the Greek population and to plunge the country into crisis.

The Fourth International calls on the whole of the international workers’ movement, on all the indignant, on all those who defend the ideals of the Left, to support such an emergency programme.

We want the Greek people to succeed in imposing, by its votes and its mobilizations, a government of all the social and political Left which refuses austerity, a government capable of imposing the cancellation of the debt. It is in this perspective that we call for the coming together of all the forces which are fighting against austerity in Greece — Syriza, Antarsya, the KKE, the trade unions and the other social movements — around an emergency plan.

The crisis is not Greece’s crisis, but the crisis of the European Union subjected to the will of capital and of the governments in its service. It is the crisis of the capitalist mode of production in the whole world. It is not up to the Troika, but to the Greek people to decide on the policy to be followed in that country. The attempts of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel to impose on the Greeks a referendum on the euro on the occasion of the elections on June 17 — a real electoral putsch — must be rejected. It is not the euro, but the diktats of the Troika that have to be combated today.

More than ever, the struggles against austerity policies make it necessary to fight for a break with the policies and the treaties which constitute the basis of the construction of the European Union. More than ever, fighting austerity does not mean retreating into nationalism, but the development of a movement for another Europe which defends the sovereign democratic and social rights of each people and the perspective of the Socialist United States of Europe.

Greece has become a laboratory for Europe. They are testing out on human guinea-pigs the methods which will then be applied to Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy and so on. The Greek people have revolted, in the workplaces, in the streets and at the ballot boxes, against these cruel policies. The resistance of the Greeks is our resistance, their struggles are our struggles. This resistance shows that the defence of the vital interests of the popular classes implies a confrontation with the ruling classes, on the national and European levels. We must multiply unitary initiatives in support of the struggles of the Greek people and of its radical Left. But the best form of solidarity with the Greek people is to imitate their example in all countries by developing and coordinating resistance against the inhuman policies of austerity and destruction. This is exactly what capital, which is responsible for the crisis, fears: the contagion of struggles!

May 24, 2012

Executive Bureau of the Fourth International

Red Square Revolt – Quebec Students on Strike

What’s happening in Quebec

In case you’ve been wandering what this is all about, here’s an excellent moderate account, by Daniel Weinstock.

“An Open Letter to English-Canadians, who might be feeling that Quebeckers have taken leave of their senses.”

An open letter to my English-Canadian friends. Please circulate in your networks as you see fit.

You may have heard that there has been some turmoil in Quebec in recent weeks. There have been demonstrations in the streets of Montreal every night for almost a month now, and a massive demonstration will be happening tomorrow, which I will be attending, along with my wife, Elizabeth Elbourne, and my eldest daughter Emma.

Reading the Anglo-Canadian press, it strikes me that you have been getting a very fragmented and biased picture of what is going on. Given the gulf that has already emerged between Quebec and the rest of Canada in the wake of the 2011 election, it is important that the issues under discussion here at least be represented clearly. You may decide at the end of the day that we are crazy, but at least you should reach that decision on the basis of the facts, rather than of the distortions that have been served up by the G&M and other outlets.

First, the matter of the tuition hikes, which touched off this mess. The rest of the country seems to have reached the conclusion that the students are spoiled, selfish brats, who would still be paying the lowest tuition fees even if the whole of the proposed increase went through.

The first thing to say is that this is an odd conception of selfishness. Students have been sticking with the strikes even knowing that they may suffer deleterious consequences, both financial and academic. They have been marching every night despite the threat of beatings, tear-gas, rubber bullets, and arrests. It is, of course, easier for the right-wing media to dismiss them if they can be portrayed as selfish kids to whom no -one has ever said “no”. But there is clearly an issue of principle here.

OK, then. But maybe the principle is the wrong one. Free tuition may just be a pie-in-the sky idea that mature people give up on when they put away childish things. And besides, why should other people pay for the students’ “free” tuition? There is no such thing as “free” education. Someone, somewhere, has to pay. And the students, the criticism continues, are simply refusing to pay their “fair share”.

Why is that criticism simplistic? Because the students’ claim has never been that they should not pay for education. The question is whether they should do so up front, before they have income, or later, as taxpayers in a progressive taxation scheme. Another question has to do with the degree to which Universities should be funded by everyone, or primarily by those who attend them. So the issue of how to fund Universities justly is complicated. We have to figure out at what point in people’s lives they should be paying for their education, and we also have to figure out how much of the bill should be footed by those who do not attend, but who benefit from a University-educated work force of doctors, lawyers, etc. The students’ answer to this question may not be the best, but then it does not strike me that the government’s is all that thought out either.

And at least the students have been trying to make ARGUMENTS and to engage the government and the rest of society in debate, whereas the government’s attitude, other than to invoke the in-this-context-meaningless “everyone pays their faire share” argument like a mantra, has been to say “Shut up, and obey”.

What strikes the balance in the students’ favour in the Quebec context is that the ideal of no up-front financial hurdles to University access is enshrined in some of the most foundational documents of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, in particular the Parent Commission Report, which wrested control of schools from the Church and created the modern Quebec education system, a cornerstone of the kind of society that many Quebeckers see themselves as aspiring to. Now, it could be that that ideal is no longer viable, or that we may no longer want to subscribe to it. But moving away from it, as Charest’s measures have done, at least requires a debate, analogous to the debate that would have to be had if the Feds proposed to scrap the Canada Health Act. It is clearly not just an administrative measure. It is political through and through. Indeed it strikes at fundamental questions about the kind of society we want to live in. If this isn’t the sort of thing that requires democratic debate, I don’t know what is.

The government has met the very reasonable request that this issue, and broader issues of University governance, be at least addressed in some suitably open and democratic manner with silence, then derision, then injunctions, and now, with the most odious “law” that I have seen voted by the Quebec National Assembly in my adult memory. It places the right of all Quebec citizens to assemble, but also to talk and discuss about these issues, under severe limitations. It includes that most odious of categories: crimes of omission, as in, you can get fined for omitting to attempt to prevent someone from taking part in an act judged illegal by the law. In principle, the simple wearing of the by-now iconic red square can be subject to a fine. The government has also made the student leaders absurdly and ruinously responsible for any action that is ostensibly carried out under the banners of their organizations. The students groups can be fined $125000 whenever someone claiming to be “part” of the movement throws a rock through a window. And so on. It is truly a thing to behold.

The government is clearly aware that this “law” would not withstand a millisecond of Charter scrutiny. It actually expires in July 2013, well before challenges could actually wind their way through the Courts. The intention is thus clearly just to bring down the hammer on this particular movement by using methods that the government knows to be contrary to basic liberal-democratic rule-of-law principles. The cynicism is jaw-dropping. It is beneath contempt for the government to play fast and loose with our civil rights and liberties in order to deal with the results of its own abject failure to govern.

So that is why tomorrow I will be taking a walk in downtown Montreal with (hopefully!) hundreds of thousands of my fellow citizens. Again, you are all free to disagree, but at least don’t let it be because of the completely distorted picture of what is going on here that you have been getting from media outlets, including some from which we might have expected more.

Daniel Weinstock

Ποινικοποίηση διαδηλώσεων και ιδεών στο Κεμπέκ του Καναδά. Ο ολοκληρωτικός νεοφιλελευθερισμός ρίχνει τις μάσκες και εγκαθιδρεί φασιστικά καθεστώτα.

Reblogged from peripeton:

Μια μια πέφτουν οι μάσκες των δημοκρατιών τους παγκοσμίως.Μετά τις εγκαθίδρυση τραπεζικών δικτατοριών σε Ελλάδα και Ιταλία ο νεοφιλελεύθερος ολοκληρωτισμός χρησιμοποιεί όλα τα μέσα για να εξαφανίσει κάθε αντίδραση στο φασιστικό του πρόγραμμα που επιβάλλεται πλέον παγκοσμίως. Στο Κεμπέκ, εν μέσω της 15ης εβδομάδας γενικής απεργίας από μέρους των φοιτητών οι οποίοι ζητούν την ακύρωση της αύξησης κατά 120% (σε 6 χρόνια) των διδάκτρων των πανεπιστημίων, σε μια συντονισμένη επίθεση στις ελευθερίες της έκφρασης, του λόγου, του συνδικαλισμού, του συνέρχεσθαι  και της διαμαρτυρίας από όλα τα επίπεδα κυβερνήσεων (ομοσπονδιακό, επαρχιακό και τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης) μέσα σε 2 ημέρες πέρασαν 3 νόμοι τέρατα. Και οι 3 παραβιάζουν κατάφωρα τα ανθρώπινα και συνταγματικά δικαιώματα των πολιτών.

Συγκεκριμένα, η ομοσπονδιακή κυβέρνηση περνά νόμο που τιμωρεί με 10 χρόνια φυλάκιση την κάλυψη του προσώπου διαδηλωτών, είτε είναι με μάσκα, είτε με φουλάρι, είτε με ιατρική μάσκα. Οι παραβάτες θα τιμωρούνται με 10 χρόνια φυλάκιση.

Η επαρχιακή κυβέρνηση περνά νόμο όπου:

Υποχρεώνει τους φοιτητές να επιστρέψουν στην τάξη με την απειλή φυλάκισης και εξαντλητικών προστίμων,

 

Ποινικοποιεί την συμμετοχή σε διαδηλώσεις που δεν έχουν “εγκριθεί” απο την αστυνομία και τιμωρεί τους οργανωτές (ακόμη και μέσω Facebook) με 150 χιλιάδες $ πρόστιμο εάν είναι συνδικάτα ή ενώσεις και με 35000$ εάν είναι φυσικά πρόσωπα. Οι συμμετέχοντες τιμωρούντε με πρόστιμα εώς 5000$.

 

Ταυτοχρόνως ποινικοποιείται και το να δείχνεις ότι “συμπαραστέκεσαι” σε διαδηλωτές. Π.χ. εάν έχεις διακριτικά επάνω σου που είναι τα ίδια με αυτά ανθρώπων που συμμετέχουν σε συγκεκριμένη διαδήλωση, τότε μπορείς να τιμωρηθείς ακόμη κι αν δεν συμμετείχες απευθείας σε αυτήν. Στο Κεμπέκ ας πούμε εκατοντάδες χιλιάδες κόσμου φορά στο πέτο ένα κόκκινο τετράγωνο/καρφίτσα το οποίο είναι το σύμβολο της φοιτητικής κινητοποίησης. Αυτοί οι άνθρωποι θα θεωρούνται στο εξής συμμετέχοντες σε παράνομες κινητοποιησεις.

 Επίσης οι καθηγητές και οι διδάσκοντες απαγορεύεται να παρακινούν τους φοιτητές τους σε “παράνομες δραστηριότητες” ή να υπακούν τις αποφάσεις των συνδικαλιστικών οργάνων τους και υποχρεώνονται υπό την απειλή ποινών να συνεχίζουν τα μαθήματά τους.

Απαγορεύτεται η συνάθροιση πάνω από 9 άτομα χωρίς άδεια από την αστυνομία. Εάν 10 άτομα μαζευτούν για οποιονδήποτε λόγο, πρέπει να ειδοποιήσουν την αστυνομία και να τους ενημερώσουν για το που θα βρίσκονται και ποια στιγμή.

 

Η δημοτική αρχή του Μόντρεαλ πέρασε σήμερα νόμο που ποινικοποιεί την κάλυψη του προσώπου, την συμμετοχή σε διαδηλώσεις που δεν έχουν ενημερώσει για την πορεία τους την αστυνομία και την χρήση μάσκας σε οποιαδήποτε περίπτωση.

 

Η δικτατορίες με δημοκρατικά προσωπεία όταν βρίσκονται αντιμέτωπες με πραγματικές απειλές για την επιβίωσή τους αναγκάζονται να βγάλουν τα προσωπεία και να δείξουν ποιοι πραγματικά είναι. Εδώ στο Κεμπέκ οι φοιτητές ανάγκασαν τις κυβερνήσεις να ρίξουν τις μάσκες και να δείξουν το πραγματικό τους ολοκληρωτικό, φασιστικό πρόσωπο. Ταυτοχρόνως ανάγκασαν με τις δράσεις τους πολλούς πολίτες να βγάλουν στην επιφάνεια τα φασιστικά πιστεύω τους καλώντας την κυβέρνηση να στείλει τον στρατό για να σταματήσει η απεργία και να απαγορεύσει κάθε συγκέντρωση και απεργία.

 

Η παγκόσμια μετωπική σύγκρουση φασισμού-ανθρώπισμού έχει ξεκινήσει και κανείς δεν θα μείνει αλώβητος.

 

Διαβαστε την εξαιρετικη ανταποκριση του Περιπετωντα. Να προσθεσω μονο αυτην εδω την αηδια για να μπαινουμε στο κλιμα και να καταλαβαινουμε πού και πώς συνδεονται καποια πραγματα.

Future Of The Left – The Lord Hates A Coward

Tales are told of terrible men
Of anger, poise and pride
She’s got a lot of pickled onions
Hanging from her thighs
Then violence solved everything
Violence, she solved everything
Violence solved everything
Violence, she solved everything
Get some, get some, no pressure son
Get some, get some, no pressure son
If you want to press, press us
If you want to press, press us
If you want to go, if you want to go
If you want to go, if you want to go

She faked her death for maximum love
Then loved until she fell
She’s got a lot of opinions,
A present from a friend
Then violence solved everything
Violence, she solved everything
Violence solved everything
Violence, she solved everything
Get some, get some, no pressure son
Get some, get some, no pressure son
If you want to press, press us
If you want to press, press us
If you want to go, if you want to go
If you want to go, if you want to go

 

Στο περιπου