People's Assemblies Network

8 July 2013
by pa-webgroup
1 Comment

Turkey’s Protest Forums – Towards a New Political System

After Protests, Forums Sprout in Turkey’s Parks

Ed Ou for The New York Times

Crowds gathered at Abbasaga Park in Istanbul in late June. Anti-government protests have dimmed after an intense crackdown, but Turks continue to gather each night in dozens of parks across the country to brainstorm about ways to get politically organized.

By SEBNEM ARSU

Published: July 7, 2013 

ISTANBUL — More than a thousand people sat quietly in a stone amphitheater at a park here on a recent mild summer evening, keenly listening to dozens of Turks who took the floor, one by one, to speak their minds.

 “I have never done this before, talking to so many people,” Muge Cevik, a computer engineer, said timidly as she stood on a stage barely lighted by street lamps at Abbasaga Park, trees casting a shadow over the audience.

The recent antigovernment riots, which began with a sit-in at an Istanbul park scheduled for demolition and grew to encompass the grievances of millions of Turks disillusioned with their government, have largely faded after an intense crackdown about three weeks ago. Now, Turkey’s parks have become safe places to gather and speak freely, with people arriving each evening in dozens of parks nationwide to discuss what happens next.

Their movement is driven by concern about what critics of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan call his autocratic tendencies, the growing influence of religion in state institutions, and government intrusions into private life, like legislation to regulate alcohol use.

Turkey’s opposition parties are widely viewed as ineffectual, and in the absence of credible institutional opposition, the largely youthful demonstrators have taken to what they call “people’s forums” to create a different platform for dissent.

The forums, an unprecedented exercise in grass-roots democracy in a country with no tradition of public assembly, are not affiliated with any political party. Organically evolving, and with no leadership, they aim not to form a new political party but to structure a new political system. At the very least, participants say, they are a way to keep up the pressure on Mr. Erdogan’s administration.

Those attending them say a heavy-handed police response to the protests — tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets were used to disperse crowds, and four people died — has united them despite political, sectarian, ethnic and social differences.

“Those with or without head scarf, Marxist or communist, believer or not — we walked all together, and should continue to stand for each other,” said a man wearing a black T-shirt, speaking on another recent evening to a crowd of nearly 100 men and women in Ortanca Park in Ferikoy, an Istanbul neighborhood. “I am here on behalf of revolutionary Muslims, and we are determined to ruin the government’s game, end their exploitation of pious people.”

Those in the crowd did not applaud, but instead fervently waved their hands in the air, following a sign language now common in these forums. Crossed arms mean “no” or disapproval; arms moved in a rotating motion mean “wrap it up” for those who speak too long. The gestures, adopted from those used at matches by a fan club for a local soccer team, are used to avoid disturbing the public during the late-night forums.

Ms. Cevik, in Abbasaga Park, is one of thousands who show up each evening to brainstorm about ways to get politically organized around basic principles like democracy, equality and human rights before local elections in nine months. “Istanbul is the heart of Turkey,” she said. “We should be able to send at least one independent candidate of ours from this city to Parliament in upcoming elections.”

A large crowd waved hands to applaud as she turned the stage over to an older man who wanted to share his experience in Turkey’s long struggle for democracy after at least three military interventions. “We do not have time to lose,” said the man, who identified himself only as a 58-year-old “democracy veteran.” “Young people should get engaged in politics and try to win over government supporters.”

Many of the speakers in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, have withheld their names as the police continue to track down protesters. More than 75 people have been formally charged with violating the law on public protests during the riots, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, based in Istanbul, said in a report late last month.

Also last month, the Turkish Ministry of Communication contacted Twitter and Facebook, seeking copies of messages that users in Turkey exchanged during protests — a request that both companies declined, news reports said. And the transportation ministry planned to form a special unit to monitor social media for crimes committed online, a pro-government newspaper, Yeni Safak, reported Tuesday.

Twitter and Facebook are still the main tools of information exchange among protesters, who have accused Turkey’s mainstream news media of censorship and failing to adequately cover the uprising. So around 200 people who converged on a green slope in Kugulu, or Swan, Park in Ankara waved their hands for Unver Coskun, an electronics engineer, when he suggested reaching out to the elderly to inform them about political conversations on social media sites.

“We need to safeguard ballot boxes, link with other forums, create lists of volunteers who would contact elderly people or others that do not use the Internet,” Mr. Coskun said.

Close to midnight on a recent Thursday, couples, parents and children filled benches in the bowl-shaped Kugulu Park — which protesters had used as a base until the police pushed them out of their tents and removed their banners and posters.

Two young women sat close to a small artificial lake that a large family of swans had inhabited before they were moved to a safer location, along with a couple of ducks, out of fear that they would die of exposure to tear gas fired by the police.

“I hope that these forums will serve some purpose,” said one woman, a public worker with dark hair and a beaded short-sleeve top. She chose to watch the forum from a distance.

“At work, it is a different world — they have the power and treat us as a minority. They run the office like a religious institution, with prayer breaks and Koran readings.”

Mr. Erdogan is still popular among conservative Muslims, who see him as a savior from the rule of the elitist secularists, and officials of his pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party have dismissed criticisms of autocratic or religiously oriented government policies. They have labeled the protesters internationally driven conspirators, or even terrorists.

“We stood together, listened to each other,” said Fatma Ozdogan, 24, an architect who joined the Abbasaga Park forum. “From now on, the Parliament, political actors, will be obliged to listen to the voice of their people.

“The protests, and now the forums, will be the game changer in Turkey’s political life.”

Re posted from NY Times

1 July 2013
by pa-webgroup
2 Comments

London General Assembly Statement on Police Abuse of Power

Where we stand

The women who are bringing this case, and Occupy London, believe that:

where we standThere are no circumstances in which it would be acceptable for an undercover police officer to engage in intimate relationships with either targets or members of the public under the guise of their undercover identity.

The fact that this has taken place repeatedly, despite being morally wrong and unjustifiable, shows that within the police forces in the UK there exists:

  • institutional sexism – women have been used to shore up undercover identities, without regard for those women’s right to a private life (whilst men have been affected, evidence so far shows that it is primarily women’s lives that have been abused in this way).
  • institutional prejudice against members of the public who engage in social justice and environmental campaigning, including a disregard for their human rights.

Both these forms of institutional prejudice must be challenged and stopped; each has reinforced the other.

We call for:

    • a clear and unambiguous statement that the abuse has ceased, and will never, in any circumstances, be permitted.
    • the past to be thoroughly and openly investigated, so that the damage may be acknowledged, those responsible may be held to account, and that as a society we may come to terms with what has happened, heal the wounds that have been inflicted and be confident that the practice has ceased.
    • action and change to prevent these human rights abuses from ever happening again, including stronger support for whistle-blowers and greater protection for rights of association and expression.

Until these things happen, we have no reason to believe that these abhorrent abuses have stopped, or that the police acknowledge their actions are wrong, and that they must change.

We come from different backgrounds and have a range of political beliefs and interests, and we are united in believing that every woman, and every person, has a right to participate in the struggle for social and environmental justice, without fear of persecution, objectification, or interference in their lives. We welcome allies who wish to engage with the above issues in this spirit of democratic empowerment.

The eight women bringing this legal action are doing so to highlight and prevent the continuation of psychological, emotional and sexual abuse of campaigners and others by undercover police officers. 

We stand in solidarity. 

Ends

You can take a stand with them by signing up to the above statement – using the contact form below.

25 June 2013
by Robbie Griffiths
0 comments

Assemblies emerging in Turkey: a lesson in democracy

By Jerome Roos On June 19, 2013

First published on ROARMAG.org

Post image for Assemblies emerging in Turkey: a lesson in democracy

The protesters are starting to counter-pose their own direct democracy to the sham of a democracy proposed by Erdogan’s authoritarian neoliberal state.

 

Something quite amazing is happening in Istanbul. In addition to the silent “standing man” actions around the country, people’s assemblies are slowly starting to emerge in different neighborhoods across the city. As in Spain, Greece and the Occupy encampments before, the protesters in Turkey are starting to counter-pose their own form of direct democracy to the sham of a democracy proposed by Erdogan’s authoritarian neoliberal state. If there was ever any doubt, this shows how deeply intertwined the global struggles truly are.

As the state launches its merciless witch hunt on protesters, activists and Tweeters, thousands of people are starting to gather in dignity in various public spaces. As Oscar ten Houten reports from on the ground in Istanbul, the Beşiktaş Assembly in Abbasaga park, which has been going on for days, tripled its number of participants on Tuesday night, with a total of ten popular assemblies taking place in Istanbul alone and at least one more in Izmir. As Oscar writes on his great blog (which he started at the occupation of Puerta del Sol in Madrid in 2011):

These meetings have nothing to do with Taksim Solidarity any more. They are spontaneous initiatives by local people who are fed up with Erdogan’s disregard for the Turkish citizens, their rights and freedoms, their history, beliefs and traditions. … We arrive in Kadıköy, and truly, I couldn’t believe this was happening. Well over two thousand people were gathered on the green, to express their anger with the government’s eviction of Gezi, and to share their hope for a better Turkey. Like anywhere else, it was a cross section of the population, which included all races and creeds.

Interestingly, the members of the popular assemblies in Turkey use the same hand-signs as the indignados, indicating that some of the methods were directly inspired by the real democracy protests in Spain. This, in turn, seems to confirm the idea we raised very early on in the Turkish uprising, and a claim that many Turkish activists have been making from the very start: namely that this movement is not just a local or national protest, but part of a global struggle against the subverted nature of representative capitalist democracy and for realdemocracy and total liberation.

What, then, is real democracy? Obviously it’s difficult to have a straightforward answer to such a complex question, seeing that different people will interpret the idea (and the ideal) differently. It is quite easy, however, to identify what it is not. Democracy stands for the rule of the people. As a result, when corporate interests and religious delusions begin to dominate government, that is not democracy. In fact, when a small elite of elected politicians is delegated to speak on behalf of the rest, that is not the rule of the people but their representation.

Illustration: map showing 35 active popular assemblies in Istanbul

The worldwide experiments with direct democracy — in the form of horizontal self-organization through popular assemblies, decentralized mutual aid networks, thematic working groups, and so on — provide a glimpse of what another world could look like. Of course, none of this is to say that the protesters have a blueprint in hand for the ideal revolutionary society; but they are actively testing and trying out different models to see how large groups of people can effectively organize themselves without hierarchical and centralized leadership.

Last year, when shooting our first ROAR documentary – Utopia on the Horizon – in Athens, we interviewed Manolis Glezos, the 90-year-old Greek WWII resistance hero who is currently an MP for the coalition of the radical left. Glezos experimented with direct democracy when he was the mayor of a village on the island of Naxos. Even though Glezos still believes that a parliament controlled by popular forces can help activists on the ground, he insists that the citizens’ revolution as such cannot proceed if the people do not organize themselves from below.

So what about the popular assemblies in Syntagma Square, Puerta del Sol and Zuccotti Park? Was that real democracy? When we asked Glezos, he looked at us with an amused smile on his face, and — to our great surprise — just said: “No. This is not democracy. How can a few thousand people assembled in a square claim to speak on behalf of the millions that live in the region? This is not democracy — it’s a lesson in democracy. If this movement wants to survive, its direct democratic models will need to spread to the neighborhoods and to the working places. Only then will we start seeing the emergence of a genuinely democratic society.”

What Glezos is saying, in other words, is that for direct democracy to work, the assemblies need to be radicalized and extended into the working places in the form of workers’ self-management, as in the inspiring case of the Vio.Me factoryin Greece. Obviously, none of this will be enough to overthrow the capitalist state as such; but it is a starting point to help engage people in different forms of decision-making, different forms of production, and different ways of being, thinking and interacting. In a word, it is about building the social foundations of self-organization that will allow us to replace the oppressive institutions of the capitalist state when the time comes.

But there is something more. The direct democracy of the squares is also about saying that we cannot wait for some distant revolution to overthrow the capitalist system. We are currently facing a global humanitarian tragedy, an ecological disaster and a profound social and political crisis. We have to act now. We cannot rely on corporate elites to do this for us. We cannot trust in political representatives to take the process ahead. The only ones we can trust are ourselves. We, the people, will have to carry this revolution forward. Starting now.

Still, on a more humble level — yet perhaps the most important of all — we should be careful not to fetishize direct democracy. At the end of the day, the assembly is a very simple phenomenon: it is about ordinary people craving to be heard and to have a say in their lives. Assemblies are a way to allow those who have been shut up for years to finally stand up in dignity and to speak their voice — and be heard. It is about recovering our collective sense of humanity from the rapacious claws and unrepresentive institutions of the capitalist state.

As such, the assemblies are a beautiful and crucial form of social engagement and political participation. In the future, they may well be expanded to cover more and more segments of the population. But even in these moments of elation, when we see the people taking matters into their own hands and enactingreal democracy in the places where they live and work, we should stay realistic: this is only just the beginning. The capitalist state survives, and creating our own parallel society is not enough. We must self-organize, and then push our quest for autonomy outwards to eventually encapsulate all of society.

Luckily, there is hope that such radical aspirations may not just be a pipe dream. In a sign that this leaderless movement is already deregulating the violent flow of authority unleashed by the Turkish state, the increasingly desperate government is doubling down on the repression, arresting random people who were sighted at the protests or who sent out “provocative” Tweets, and even threatening to send in the army. As Oscar puts it, “the authorities still don’t understand what’s happening. They look for leaders, people to corrupt or to eliminate. But there are none. We are not an organisation, we are a world wide web. We are the people on the threshold of changing times.”

24 June 2013
by pa-webgroup
1 Comment

Greek Self-Run Public Radio / TV Assembly Resolution

General Assembly Resolution of the workers in the Music Ensembles of #ERT [EN-FR-ES-AL-GR]

psifismata-mousikon

General Assembly Resolution of the workers in the Music Ensembles of ERT

1) Self-run public radiotelevision, open to the major problems of the tortured society.

2) ERT is to become a real democratic means of expression of the popular desire for Democracy and Freedom.

3) There should be an elected Board of Directors, revocable, voted directly by the Greek people. This Board will undertake the safekeeping of polyphony and pluralism on the basis of Democracy and National Independance, as mentioned in the 1730/87 establishment law of ERT S.A.

4) Reactivation of ASKE (Representative Assembly of Social Control), of the Supervisory Board which will control and oversee the Board of Directors of ERT.

Every Greek citizen should have access and an inalienable right to communicate his opinion, his problem to the public radiotelevision.

The Music Ensembles as always undertake to elevate the feeling of the Greek people through art, tradition, the Greek character and culture which, throughout the political changeover, have been brutally hit by every sort of political mechanism which, in combination with the trash of private television, have ruined every value-based background of our society.

We will not allow them to abolish the Music Ensembles of ERT, an oasis of civilisation, the last bastion of culture and intellectual uplift.

The workers of the Music Ensembles

 

Résolution adoptée par l’assemblée générale des ensembles musicaux (orchestres et chorale) de l’ERT

Ils demandent :

1. un audiovisuel public autogéré et ouvert aux grands problèmes de la société éprouvée.

2. que ERT devienne un moyen d’expression réellement démocratique des désirs populaires pour la Démocratie et la Liberté.

3. un Conseil administratif révocable, élu directement par le peuple grec et qui serait chargé d’assurer pluralité et pluralisme, basés sur la Démocratie et l’Indépendance Nationale selon la loi fondatrice de l’ERT S.A. (1730/87).

4. réactivation de l’ASKE, Conseil de supervision qui serait chargé de contrôler et de superviser le Conseil Administratif de ERT.

Tout citoyen Grec devra avoir accès et le droit incontestable de faire connaître tout point de vue et tout problème à la Radiotélévision publique.

Les ensembles musicaux entreprennent, comme toujours, d’élever les sentiments du peuple grec au moyen des arts, de la tradition, de la grécité et de sa culture, qui depuis la chute de la dictature ont été durement frappés par tous les mécanismes politiques et partisans qui alliés aux ordures des chaines de télévision privées ont détruit toute base des valeurs dans notre société.

Nous ne les laisserons pas anéantir les ensembles musicaux de l’ERT, une oasis de civilisation, un dernier bastion de culture et d’élévation intellectuelle.

Les Ensembles Musicaux de l’ERT

 

Votación de la Asamblea General de los trabajadores en los Conjuntos Musicales de ERT.

1. Radiotelevisión Pública autogestionada y abierta a los grandes problemas de la sociedad griega.

2. Que ERT sea un verdadero medio de expresión del deseo popular para la Democracia y la Libertad.

3. Que haya un Consejo Administrativo electo, revocable y votado directamente del pueblo griego y responsable para asegurar el pluralismo y la polifonía en base a la Democracia y la Soberanía Nacional como, además, se menciona en la ley fundacional de ERT número 1730/87.

4. Reactivación del consejo supervisor que controlará y supervisará el Consejo Administrativo de ERT.

Cada ciudadano griego tendrá acceso y derecho incuestionable de comunicar su opinión y postura en la Radiotelevisión Griega.

Los Conjuntos Musicales como siempre se encargan de enaltecer el sentimiento del pueblo griego a través del arte, la tradición, la identidad Helena y su cultura, afligida cruelmente desde la transición hasta hoy por cada tipo de mecanismo político y partidario que, en combinación con la basura de la televisión privada, intentó destuir todos los valores éticos y la conciencia de la sociedad griega.

No les vamos a dejar anular y destruir los Conjuntos Musicales de ERT, un oasis de cultura, uno de los últimos vestigios de la producción cultural y espiritual en nuestro país.

Los trabajadores en los Conjuntos Musicales.

 

Rezolutë e mbledhjes së punonjësve në asamblet muzikore të Radiotelevizionit publik (ERT). 

1) Radiotelevizion Publik i vetë-menaxhuar dhe i hapur për problemet e mëdha të shoqërisë.

2) Të bëhet ERT-i një mjet i vërtetë demokratik i shprehjes së aspiratave të popullit për Demokraci dhe Liri.

3) Të zgjidhet një Këshill Drejtues i votuar drejtpërdrejt nga populli grek. i cili do të sigurojë polifoninë, pluralizmin në bazë të demokracisë dhe të pavarësisë kombëtare, siç thuhet edhe në Ligjin themelues 1730/87 të ERT A.E.

4) Riaktivizimi i këshillit mbikëqyrës, i cili do të monitorojë dhe do të mbikëqyrë Këshillin Drejtues të Radiotelevizionit Publik (ERT).

Çdo qytetar grek (qoftë edhe një) duhet të kenë qasje dhe të drejtë të patjetërsueshme, për të paraqitur pikpamjen ose problemin e tij në Radiotelevizionin Publik.

Ansamblet muzikore si gjithmonë do të ndërmarrin rritjen e ndjenjës së popullit grek nëpërmjet artit, traditës, helenicitetit dhe kulturës së tij, e cila gjatë gjithë periudhës pas juntës është goditur brutalisht nga çdo lloj mekanizmi politik, partiak që në kombinim me mbeturinat e televizionit privat shkatërroi çdo sfond të levave në shoqërinë tonë.

Nuk do të lejojmë shkatërrimin e ansambleve muzikore të ERT-it, një oazë e kulturës, një bastion i fundit i kulturës dhe i ekzaltimit shpirtëror.

Punonjësit në ansamblet muzikore.

 

Ψήφισμα Γενικής Συνέλευσης εργαζομένων στα Μουσικά Σύνολα της ΕΡΤ.

1)Δημόσια Ραδιοτηλεόραση αυτοδιαχειριζόμενη και ανοικτή στα μεγάλα προβλήματα της χειμαζώμενης κοινωνίας.

2)Να γίνει η ΕΡΤ ένα πραγματικό δημοκρατικό μέσο έκφρασης των λαικών πόθων για Δημοκρατία και Ελευθερία.

3)Να υπάρξει αιρετό Διοικητικό Συμβούλιο,ανακλητό,ψηφισμένο απ΄ ευθείας από τον Ελληνικό λαό όπου και θα αναλάβει την διασφάλιση της πολυφωνίας,του πλουραλισμού στην βάση της Δημοκρατίας και της Εθνικής ανεξαρτησίας όπως άλλωστε αναφέρεται στον 1730/87 Ιδρυτικό Νόμο της ΕΡΤ Α.Ε.

4)Επανεργοποίηση της ΑΣΚΕ,του εποπτικού συμβουλίου όπου θα ελέγχει και θα εποπτεύει το Δ.Σ. της ΕΡΤ.

Κάθε ΄Ελληνας πολίτης (έστω κι ένας) θα πρέπει να έχει την πρόσβαση και αναφαίρετο δικαίωμα να κοινωνήσει την άποψή του το πρόβλημά του στη Δημόσια Ραδιοτηλεόραση.

Τα Μουσικά Σύνολα όπως πάντα αναλαμβάνουν να ανυψώσουν το αίσθημα του Ελληνικού λαού δια μέσου της τέχνης,της παράδοσης ,της Ελληνικότητας και της κουλτούρας του, όπου σε όλη την μεταπολίτευση χτυπήθηκε βάναυσα από κάθε είδους πολιτικού ,κομματικού μηχανισμού που σε συνδυασμό με τα σκουπίδια της ιδιωτικής τηλεόρασης κατέστρεψε κάθε αξιακό υπόβαθρο στην κοινωνία μας.

Δεν θα αφήσουμε να καταργήσουν τα Μουσικά Σύνολα της ΕΡΤ, μια όαση πολιτισμού, ένα τελευταίο προπύργιο κουλτούρας και πνευματικής ανάτασης.

Οι εργαζόμενοι στα Μουσικά Σύνολα.

Source: http://realdemocracygr.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/5-languages-general-assembly-resolution-of-the-workers-in-the-music-ensembles-of-ert/

21 June 2013
by Robbie Griffiths
1 Comment

The People’s Assembly Against Austerity London 22 June

DEMOCRACY AND DECISION-MAKING: FIXING OUR BROKEN POLITICAL SYSTEM

Session: 12.45pm – 2pm

EMMANUEL CENTRE
9-23 MARSHAM STREET
LONDON SW1P 3DW

Social movements such as Occupy have recently brought alternative models of decision making and an anti-systemic critique into the public eye. As a complement to resisting cuts, privatisations and all out attacks on the welfare state this sub-assembly will examine how the People’s Assembly might develop a programme of demands to fix our political system while also building a participatory alternative. Its format will be a combination of brief presentations on key reforms and a more participatory discussion about how to take forward a democracy reform programme and building local People’s Assemblies.

The planned structure for the session at this stage is as follows:

Part 1 12.45pm – 1pm
Invited presentations (3-5mins per speaker) and feedback on

(1) What reforms are necessary to fix our broken political system ?
(2) How can grassroots People’s Assemblies ( ie in local communities, workplaces, places of study etc) make these demands and an alternative system into a reality ?

Part 2 1pm-2pm

Faciliated Open Assembly discussion on questions

(2) How can grassroots People’s Assemblies ( ie in local communities, workplaces, places of study etc) make these demands and an alternative system into a reality ?
(3) How are we to build local Peoples Assemblies?
(format TBC)

Speakers: Mark Barrett (Peoples’ Assembly Network) – Natalie Bennett (Green Party) – Loz Kaye (Pirate Party UK) – Naomi Colvin (City Reform Group) – Corinna Lotz (Agreement of the People, Campaign for a 21st Century Constitution) – Bill Greenshields (Peoples Charter)

 

20 June 2013
by pa-webgroup
1 Comment

Assemblies Emerging in Turkey

Assemblies emerging in Turkey: a lesson in democracy

By Jerome Roos On June 19, 2013

Post image for Assemblies emerging in Turkey: a lesson in democracy

The protesters are starting to counter-pose their own direct democracy to the sham of a democracy proposed by Erdogan’s authoritarian neoliberal state.

 

Something quite amazing is happening in Istanbul. In addition to the silent “standing man” actions around the country, people’s assemblies are slowly starting to emerge in different neighborhoods across the city. As in Spain, Greece and the Occupy encampments before, the protesters in Turkey are starting to counter-pose their own form of direct democracy to the sham of a democracy proposed by Erdogan’s authoritarian neoliberal state. If there was ever any doubt, this shows how deeply intertwined the global struggles truly are.

As the state launches its merciless witch hunt on protesters, activists and Tweeters, thousands of people are starting to gather in dignity in various public spaces. As Oscar ten Houten reports from on the ground in Istanbul, the Beşiktaş Assembly in Abbasaga park, which has been going on for days, tripled its number of participants on Tuesday night, with a total of ten popular assemblies taking place in Istanbul alone and at least one more in Izmir. As Oscar writes on his great blog (which he started at the occupation of Puerta del Sol in Madrid in 2011):

These meetings have nothing to do with Taksim Solidarity any more. They are spontaneous initiatives by local people who are fed up with Erdogan’s disregard for the Turkish citizens, their rights and freedoms, their history, beliefs and traditions. … We arrive in Kadıköy, and truly, I couldn’t believe this was happening. Well over two thousand people were gathered on the green, to express their anger with the government’s eviction of Gezi, and to share their hope for a better Turkey. Like anywhere else, it was a cross section of the population, which included all races and creeds.

Interestingly, the members of the popular assemblies in Turkey use the same hand-signs as the indignados, indicating that some of the methods were directly inspired by the real democracy protests in Spain. This, in turn, seems to confirm the idea we raised very early on in the Turkish uprising, and a claim that many Turkish activists have been making from the very start: namely that this movement is not just a local or national protest, but part of a global struggle against the subverted nature of representative capitalist democracy and for realdemocracy and total liberation.

What, then, is real democracy? Obviously it’s difficult to have a straightforward answer to such a complex question, seeing that different people will interpret the idea (and the ideal) differently. It is quite easy, however, to identify what it is not. Democracy stands for the rule of the people. As a result, when corporate interests and religious delusions begin to dominate government, that is not democracy. In fact, when a small elite of elected politicians is delegated to speak on behalf of the rest, that is not the rule of the people but their representation.

The worldwide experiments with direct democracy — in the form of horizontal self-organization through popular assemblies, decentralized mutual aid networks, thematic working groups, and so on — provide a glimpse of what another world could look like. Of course, none of this is to say that the protesters have a blueprint in hand for the ideal revolutionary society; but they are actively testing and trying out different models to see how large groups of people can effectively organize themselves without hierarchical and centralized leadership.

Last year, when shooting our first ROAR documentary – Utopia on the Horizon – in Athens, we interviewed Manolis Glezos, the 90-year-old Greek WWII resistance hero who is currently an MP for the coalition of the radical left. Glezos experimented with direct democracy when he was the mayor of a village on the island of Naxos. Even though Glezos still believes that a parliament controlled by popular forces can help activists on the ground, he insists that the citizens’ revolution as such cannot proceed if the people do not organize themselves from below.

So what about the popular assemblies in Syntagma Square, Puerta del Sol and Zuccotti Park? Was that real democracy? When we asked Glezos, he looked at us with an amused smile on his face, and — to our great surprise — just said: “No. This is not democracy. How can a few thousand people assembled in a square claim to speak on behalf of the millions that live in the region? This is not democracy — it’s a lesson in democracy. If this movement wants to survive, its direct democratic models will need to spread to the neighborhoods and to the working places. Only then will we start seeing the emergence of a genuinely democratic society.”

What Glezos is saying, in other words, is that for direct democracy to work, the assemblies need to be radicalized and extended into the working places in the form of workers’ self-management, as in the inspiring case of the Vio.Me factoryin Greece. Obviously, none of this will be enough to overthrow the capitalist state as such; but it is a starting point to help engage people in different forms of decision-making, different forms of production, and different ways of being, thinking and interacting. In a word, it is about building the social foundations of self-organization that will allow us to replace the oppressive institutions of the capitalist state when the time comes.

But there is something more. The direct democracy of the squares is also about saying that we cannot wait for some distant revolution to overthrow the capitalist system. We are currently facing a global humanitarian tragedy, an ecological disaster and a profound social and political crisis. We have to act now. We cannot rely on corporate elites to do this for us. We cannot trust in political representatives to take the process ahead. The only ones we can trust are ourselves. We, the people, will have to carry this revolution forward. Starting now.

Still, on a more humble level — yet perhaps the most important of all — we should be careful not to fetishize direct democracy. At the end of the day, the assembly is a very simple phenomenon: it is about ordinary people craving to be heard and to have a say in their lives. Assemblies are a way to allow those who have been shut up for years to finally stand up in dignity and to speak their voice — and be heard. It is about recovering our collective sense of humanity from the rapacious claws and unrepresentive institutions of the capitalist state.

As such, the assemblies are a beautiful and crucial form of social engagement and political participation. In the future, they may well be expanded to cover more and more segments of the population. But even in these moments of elation, when we see the people taking matters into their own hands and enactingreal democracy in the places where they live and work, we should stay realistic: this is only just the beginning. The capitalist state survives, and creating our own parallel society is not enough. We must self-organize, and then push our quest for autonomy outwards to eventually encapsulate all of society.

Luckily, there is hope that such radical aspirations may not just be a pipe dream. In a sign that this leaderless movement is already deregulating the violent flow of authority unleashed by the Turkish state, the increasingly desperate government is doubling down on the repression, arresting random people who were sighted at the protests or who sent out “provocative” Tweets, and even threatening to send in the army. As Oscar puts it, “the authorities still don’t understand what’s happening. They look for leaders, people to corrupt or to eliminate. But there are none. We are not an organisation, we are a world wide web. We are the people on the threshold of changing times.”

 

Re-published from ROAR :)

19 June 2013
by pa-webgroup
1 Comment

London People’s Assembly Against Austerity

Reasons to be cheerful? Dangerous possibilities for People’s Assemblies

Posted on 

JD Taylor examines dangerous possibilities for the People’s Assemblies – and reminds us that actions speak louder than words. Can the British left be less conservative, and will thePeople’s Assemblies provide the spark that ignites the flame?

 

Reasons to be cheerful? Dangerous possibilities for People’s Assemblies

These laptops and handheld gizmos we spend so much of our time gazing into are highly depressing devices. Take a cursory glance at the news for a quick refresh, if you dare. No doubt there’ll be some fresh new excess of corruption by our homogeneous political establishment, or some new low in welfare cuts, payday lending or NHS privatisation.Racism and suspicious deaths in custody continue to blight the widely-discredited Metropolitan police. Overseas, British soldiers are caught in yet another Iraqi torture scandal or murder. Skim down to the reactionary comments and sigh. Flick to Twitter or Facebook, where some bot has mined your search terms to flog you drunkenness, the consolation of online poker or even the opportunity to share a moment’s digitised intimacy with another lonely soul, at a price. But at least these communication devices are getting cheaper. There’s got to be some distraction from the growing homelessness, boarded-up businesses, poverty, and decay of our communities.

Since 2010 we’ve been hovering in a moment of indistinction. Ask the man or woman sitting next to you what they think of bankers, politicians, or Rupert Murdoch and chances are you’ll receive an expletive in response. The effort’s worth it though, as it underlines a general popular consensus that the power network that controls the national population, one that’s imposing yet another round of tax-cuts for the rich and privatisation of public assets, is one that is deeply unloved. So why is it still allowed to exist and go unchallenged on a daily basis?

In fact something new and exciting is happening. A wide number of separate voices committed to equality, justice and democracy have sprung up and made a good case for a new political movement and organisation. Left Unity and the People’s Assembliesmovements are already gaining popular traction in bringing together communities opposed to austerity. With a number of national assemblies planned over the year, spearheaded by forward-thinking and hard-working figures like Owen Jones, there could be something to be optimistic about.

This all depends on how the assemblies are used. These days the internet gives us all the freedom we might need to bash out our opinions into the idiotic ether of forums and social media. Rabble-rousing and back-patting won’t prevent another unpopular government coming to power or poverty and living standards worsening. If the all-star national People’s Assembly in London on 22 June results in a few thousand people being lectured by the great and the good to have faith in the neoliberal Labour party and wait for their well-paid Trade Unionist cronies to one day maybe even suggest a general strike, then that’s ok. We’ll come away feeling good about ourselves like at the Stop the War marches, and the later TUC-led anti-cuts demonstrations over the last two years, where the same discredited tactics of A-to-B marches and SWP-era petitions were mobilised to spectacular effort.

But I don’t mean to be too cynical, because I really do believe that People’s Assemblies can work, particularly if their goal is communities coming together to seize power of their own affairs and demand justice. This final aspect is crucial. It happened back in Tottenham in August 2011, as angry relatives and residents confronted the police over the death of Mark Duggan. Autthority’s apparent power quickly caved in as a sham, and for three days in England everything felt possible. It also occurred in Tunisia, and later Egypt, as the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi empowered enraged communities to turn out and confront police and government corruption.

In both cases, the message was simple: justice, truth, equality. It came attached to a particular enemy: the police or local government, and attached to a particular target: a police station or local town hall. Above all, it possessed a determination to confront and damage that target.

Recent congregations of the British Left have so far lacked that determination, lacked a gut message to attract the wider employed and welfare-dependent working classes to the campaign, and lacked an organisational vision of the movement ahead. The wider number of people are dispirited and bored by idealistic politics and the dubious voice of a white middle-class minority claiming universality. But if certain strategies are seen to be genuinely disrupting the establishment, then this cynicism could be abandoned.

And there are plenty of good tactics that could be used by the new people’s assembles:

  • Put Britain’s enormous number of empty buildings to good use, and protest the further criminalisation of squatting, and the frankly criminal increase of homelessness, through occupations. Provide spaces for communities and run Black Panther style breakfast clubs.
  • Empty police stations and abandoned council estates awaiting demolition/gentrification could provide temporary accommodation for the increasing number of homeless people.
  • Banks now own so much of the nation’s infrastructure – like schools and hospitals – through PFI schemes, it’s a pretty raw deal that they continue to suck up public money, dish out bonuses and thrive whilst collective living standards decline. Occupying and redistributing the contents of their tills would boost community reinvestment.
  • These days the only things being built are pound-shops and supermarkets. Learning from the Andalusian village of Marinaleda and its mayor Sanchez Gordillo, people’s assemblies could set up their own secular food-banks that source their supplies not from well-meaning donations, but collective raids from local supermarkets. “Community Supermarket Sweep” could catch on, uniting young and old and all the family in a fun day out.
  • Parliament Square no longer has a fence around it – a camping trip to coincide with the re-opening of parliament could also be fun. #OPS, anyone?

A final possibility for disaffected Labour councils hit hardest by austerity in the North, and Wales, is to try out ‘Poplarism‘ – that is, a refusal to pay taxes or cooperate with central government. It’s named after the east London suburb and its radical Labour mayor George Lansbury, who in 1921 chose to use local tax-money to provide relief and support for the poor, rather than pay them on to central government. He went to jail briefly, as did many others, but the Poplar Rates Rebellion succeeded once influence and sympathy caught alight, and tax burdens between rich and poor districts were soon equalised by a national government fearing social unrest.

In any case, there could be some reasons to be cheerful. Hard work and passion is already mobilised, and the collective mood of the British people is increasingly one of anger, frustration, and a desire for revenge against bankers and politicians. Public confidence in our political masters is so low that it wouldn’t take much of a spark to ignite a flame that could quickly catch and spread. Bring on the popular revolt.

JD Taylor is a writer and PhD researcher from south London. His Negative Capitalism: Cynicism in the Neoliberal Era was published by Zero Books earlier this year. @jd_taylor /drownedandsaved.wordpress.com

18 June 2013
by pa-webgroup
0 comments

#peoplesassembly against austerity – london june 22

People’s Assemblies can move beyond resistance

 
The powerful response to the call for the People’s Assembly against Austerity on June 22 confirms that the build-up of opposition to the ConDem cuts is reaching boiling point, presenting a unique opportunity to move beyond resistance.  
 
Over 3,000 people have registered for the Assembly, many with the support of the major trade unions. Clearly, people welcome the fact that the Assembly brings together all those fighting against austerity. The support of key figures like Tony Benn, Owen Jones and Ken Loach has helped boost attendance.
 
What is crucial is the perspective for and beyond the Assembly. The draft statement is absolutely explicit about the intended direction of travel, declaring: “We have a plain and simple goal: to make government abandon its austerity programme. If it will not it must be replaced with one that will.”
 
The statement insists that the government’s austerity programme is not “necessary” and that the “banks and the major corporations should be taxed at a rate which can provide the necessary resources”.
 
To that end, there is a call for a national demonstration and civil disobedience towards the end of the year, the building of local Assemblies and a recall of the national Assembly in 2014.
 
In practice, the central demand is based on the notion that this most reactionary of governments is for turning and, if not, that Labour is an alternative. Both are utterly misguided.
 
The ConDems are cutting not simply because they are viciously anti-working class (which they are) but in response to an historic crisis of the financial and economic system, aka capitalism. The dreaded “C” word does not get a mention once in the draft statement, however, which is a major weakness.
 
Its exclusion leads to the idea of restoring the status quo of the welfare state through taxing the corporations as the main policy idea. With key analysts forecasting another global crash, such a policy does not begin to match the gravity of the situation we face.
 
As to installing a government that will “abandon austerity”, the implication is that this is Labour. But Ed Miliband’s party, which is taking shape as New Labour Mk II, intends to continue with austerity and cuts and every day incorporates another ConDem policy.
 
So Owen Jones’ view that “there is a battle to be won in compelling the party to fight for working people” is based on faith rather than judgement. Unions like Unite which bankrolled Miliband’s election have put the pressure on already – and come away empty handed.
The central issue is the fact that the system is broken – economically and politically. A semblance of democracy is rapidly being replaced by an authoritarian, surveillance, security state as the leaks about the US/UK spy network reveals.
 
A minimal amount of time has been found for discussing this crisis of democracy. Yet it is the key to our future. A World to Win and others have campaigned for a network of People’s Assemblies since August 2006.
 
We and others in Occupy and the Agreement of the People for the 21st Century see People’s Assemblies as integral to a strategy for moving beyond resistance towards a real democratic political and economic system in place of the façade we have today.
 
Permanent People’s Assemblies should:
 
-         be inclusive, inviting all sections of the community to be part of their work
-         discuss in depth why there is a global economic crisis
-         draw up, with the help of experts, alternatives to austerity/cuts that go beyond the profit system
-         discuss how to introduce democracy throughout society – in ownership and control of workplaces, land, etc
-         debate the crisis of democracy, where our voices/votes count for very little
-         consider alternative forms of democratic government and self-rule throughout theUK 
-         consider plans to deal with the eco-crisis.
 
People’s Assemblies should not develop into talking shops, but into rival centres of power to a system that has lost its legitimacy and the right to rule over us. That’s the big challenge and we call on others to help us campaign for this on Saturday.
 
Paul Feldman and Corinna Lotz
17 June 2013

12 June 2013
by mirimmi
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BARCELONA #15M Newsletter nr 47

Hello from Barcelona,

This is the (almost) weekly newsletter that will inform you about the activities of 15M movement in Barcelona, Catalonia and occasionally the main events in Spain. If you do not wish to receive it anymore, please say so.

1. Markets over people: The Health Care Apartheid
2. #WeAreGezi, Even in Barcelona
3. In Barcelona justice is judged for the second time
4. A Pyrenees’ project to save sheep and their wool

1. MARKETS OVER PEOPLE: THE HEALTH CARE APARTHEID

In a move that benefits only the economic elite, the right to an universal health care is over in Spain. On September 1st, 2012 the Royal Decree-Law 16/2012 was implemented, leaving thousands of people with no primary health care. Althought the law has considered certain exceptions, ie: medical emergency, pregnancy and assistance to minors, they are not being granted in actual practice.

The RDL is applied in different ways throughtout Spain.  The most serious cases of denial of assistance are the regions of Madrid, Valencia or Balearic Islands which are following  the legislation scrupulously. This has led to the death of a woman in Valencia and a young man in Mallorca after being rejected several times by the Emergency Room for being considerated “illegal” immigrants. Some cases of denial of the Right to be medically attended during pregnancy for women under 18  have also been denounced.

In other Regions, for instance Catalunya,  the RDL is applied in a less restrictive way, although all  unregistered residents or those registered in a Catalan home less than 3  months ago are still excluded. If they need a specialist, they must wait to be registered for a whole year or they will be billed for all medical attention. If they are unable to pay, they  become State debtors, with all the legal consequences such as non renewal or difficulty to achieve their permits.

However bleak the situation appears, there is a solution to this violation of human rights: professionals and users from everywhere have started campaigns to denounce, disobey and defy these laws. Thousands of professionals are supporting this campaign, called “Right to cure”, which started off by Médicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) . The platform Yo, Sí Sanidad Universal (I, Yes to Universal Health Care) , in Madrid, has created affinity groups to provide support to those excluded from health care benefits all over the state. In Catalunya, several associations and assemblies are programming a workshop for June 15th and 16th, 2013 to organize and spread these groups throughout Barcelona’s neighbourhoods. Furthermore, some Health Care Centers have gone one step further and launched a disobedience campaign to adress professionals http://desobeeix.wordpress.com/  Several pro-human rights associations and citizen collectives have joined them to start a Platform aimed at collecting and denouncing cases that violate the right to assistance. The name of the platform is Sanitat per tothom (Health Care to everyone).

There is still much work to do, as this RDL is an enormous attack on the fundamental right to health care assistance, but citizens are starting to defend themselves and stand together creating better solutions.

LINKS

Articles

Social Networks

2. #WEAREGEZI, EVEN IN BARCELONA

Since Saturday June 1st Turkey is the scene of an emerging “revolution”. It began as a protest against the decision to destroy the now famous Gezi Park in Instambul and in it’s place build a shopping mall.  The police tried to evict the protesters’ camp by brutally attacking them with violence and spraying clouds of tear gas throughout the whole area, resulting in  thousands of Turks joining the protesters at Gezi demanding an end to police brutality. What initially started as an action taken by a coalition against the destruction of a  public park in central Istanbul has spread to more than 60 cities and  provinces, bringing several million people out onto the streets in a widespread  protest against the increasingly repressive ruling of the AKP-run government. The Turkish government has periodically jammed communications, shut off surveillance cameras, and  used its influence over the national media to suppress knowledge of both the scale of the uprising and the brutality of the police response.

The Turkish community worldwide started immediatly to show its support to their people.  At the same time many non-turkish people from all over the world spontaneously began to express solidarity. The social networks such as twitter detonated and the HT #OccupyGezi has been TT during many of the last few days.

In Barcelona the support group held a protest on June 1st at the popular Ciutadella park, which they compare to Gezi asking the Catalans “What if they wanted to demolish Ciutadella Park?”. In the afternoon they joined the demonstration against the Troika
(see NL# 46,1 ), getting to know some of the local activists, starting the path of cooperation they would improve during the following days.

On June 2nd the Occupy Gezi Barcelona group started a daily concentration at 19h in front of the Turkish Consulate in Barcelona, located in Passeig de Gracia, the most glamorous street in Barcelona .  Each day they bring pictures, banners, handouts with manifestos and written messages of support to show the Catalans and tourists in the area, while singing slogans asking for freedom, for the end of violence and for the resignation of  Erdogan. These messages don’t stay just in Barcelona: they cross borders through the social networks and livestreams which are spread throughout the world. The Turkish community living in Barcelona, for instance, may have members who struggle with  understanding Spanish or Catalan, but they have begun to organise assemblies where they can decide their next steps and involve everyone to a greater extent.

Now they are building bridges with other social movements and activists to start an information campaign through talks in neighbourhoods, universities, social and cultural centers and other areas so the that Catalan population can be aware of what is  happening in Turkey and offer their solidarity and support. And every day a dozen or two of local activists join their daily protests, convinced that #WeAreGezi in Barcelona, too!

LINKS:

Articles

Pictures 

Video and Streamings

Social Networks

3. IN BARCELONA JUSTICE IS JUDGED FOR THE SECOND TIME 

On Thursday May 30th the Justice Workers’ Assembly protested against cuts imposed jointly by the Spanish and Catalan Government.

This was the second action aimed at the Justice Alliance, a symbolic act to remind people of the past  20 months of protests. The first action was exactly one year ago (See NL#16, 2 ). Activists from different platforms gave speeches. Several collectives accused the Justice Alliance of  having “two speeds, one for the rich and another for the poor”. Albert Sales, professor of Sociology at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, explained how the  gradual disappearance of the welfare state “increases the vulnerability  of large segments of society.  It is a punitive policy copied from the United  States, which has led Spain to have the highest prison population in Europe, with 160 prisoners for every 100,000 inhabitants.”

The economic crisis has proved the perfect excuse for them to minimize our rights and implement  the long-planned agenda of neoliberalism. Now we are witnessing a clash between legality and legitimacy, where the Government seeks to criminalize  protests and silence dissent, but fortunately is not suceeding in creating their desired effect.

LINKS

Videos and pictures

Twitter

  • Account @acciointerina HT #judicialajusticia #30m

4. A PYRENEES’ PROJECT TO SAVE THE SHEEP AND THEIR WOOL

Obrador Xisqueta (Xisqueta workshop - after a race of pyreneen sheeps)   is an association for local development located in Pallars Sobirá (a town in the catalan Pyrenees), a spin off of the association Projecte Gripia  that works on the dinamization of the primary sector of the economy in the Pyrenees and the rural world in general.

The  ovine sector in general is in crisis, mainly due to an increasing devaluation of its products, such as meat and wool. The wool especially hardly has any value in Spain, and is considered a waste material. So a pilot project in Catalunya is engaging shepherds, artisans and citizens, using wool as its central point: the aim of the project is to pay a fair  price for the wool of the xisqueta sheep, bringing to knowledge the work shepherds and artisans do while teaching those skills, and to sell the products (autonomy-quality-sustainability). The association works with 25 farming families and part of the ACOXI – (Association of breeders of xisqueta sheep in Catalunya)

The main sponsor of the association is the National Park of Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici .
Also Artesania de Catalunya (Catalans Artisans Consortium), the Town Hall of Lleida  and the Natural Park of High Pyrenees  collaborate and support Obrador Xisqueta‘s project and educational work .

As we can read in their blog, they also sell nice and colorful balls of wool and lovely handicrafts and promote the training of shepards and the organizing many workmanship’s workshops. The Obradors study the qualities of this special wool in collaboration with the mexican university of Chiapas  and participate in the international BerwaldProjekt (Wood Project)  using the xisqueta wool to protect the young birds from the ungulates.

At this very moment the project is “on the road” with the Caravana Xisqueta  promoting the project in the towns they find when touring the High Pyrenees.

LINKS


Filed under: English, newsletter Tagged: #JuduciALaJusticia, #OccupyGezi Bcn, Health Care Aparhteid, Obrador Xisqueta

2 June 2013
by pa-webgroup
3 Comments

Occupy Gezi

Statements of solidarity http://piratepad.net/Solidarity-20Statements-20Istanbul

Live news page: https://www.rebelmouse.com/OccupyGezi/

Report from Turkey: A Taste of Tahrir at Taksim | The Bullet

by Sungur Savran

Istanbul has become a battlefield covered by tear gas. The police, no doubt at the behest of the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP government, have been attacking protestors in the centre of the city, near Taksim Square, for five consecutive days. This would have been no news at all: Turkish police are famous for their brutality in dealing with demonstrations unwelcome to the government. Only a month ago, on May Day, they had dispersed a gathering of thousands of workers and unionists using tear gasunsparingly. So nothing new on the police front. This time is different for another reason.

The difference lies in the determination and audacity of the protestors. The first four days saw a growing number of people, reaching many thousands Thursday night, that is, the fourth day of action, set up a camp each night on the so-called Promenade near Taksim Square. Every night, in the small hours of the morning, the police attacked the campers and dismantled their tents, burning them on the last third and fourth nights. The protestors are trying to protect life, the life of very precious trees right in the middle of a city with extremely limited green area. The Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul, under AKP rule, has been busy preparing the ground to build a shopping mall (in the guise of a historic building) in the place where stands the Promenade now.

Police Brutality

The sheer brutality of the police and some plainclothes thugs claiming to be municipal police (it is they who burnt down the tents) provoked the people of Istanbul to run to the aid of the attacked protestors. Istiklal, a major artery that runs from Taksim several kilometres south, a pedestrian zone that is the heart of culture, politics, entertainment and lately tourism, was soon packed full of people from one end to the other, Taksim Square itself being controlled by the police. Istiklal resounded to chants against the government, some going somewhat rashly as far as predicting its imminent fall.

There have been demands for some time that the Foreign Minister, responsible for the criminal policy of the government in Syria, and the Interior Minister, whom we call the “Chemical Muammer,” as a reference to “Chemical Ali” of the Saddam administration, be removed from office. The removal of the latter has now already come squarely on the agenda. There were already unconfirmed rumours tonight that the chief of police for Istanbul has been dismissed. Even if this were true, which is too optimistic, this is not where the cleansing should stop!

The working-class, left forces and the youth of Turkey are coming out of a period of extreme political passivity. But for the incessant struggle waged by the Kurdish people, Turkey has been a desert in terms of mass struggles for the past 15 years at least, interrupted exceptionally by the struggle of the Tekel workers (the tobacco and alcoholic drinks company, privatized earlier) in winter 2009-2010, unfortunately sold out by the union bureaucracy. So it would be rash to say that the movement is already at a point of no return. But the spirit is definitely one of regained self-confidence on the part of the masses. What is most important is to see how the organized working-class will react. There have been several important industrial actions lately. These may very well radicalize the attitude of some sections of the working-class, including the workers of Turkish Airlines. They have been on strike for a fortnight putting forth serious demands, albeit with limited participation. Their central demand is the reinstatement of 305 from among the work force, fired a year ago for a wildcat strike protesting the partial prohibition of strikes in civil aviation, which has always been a recognized right in the last half century. The prohibition of strikes has had to be rescinded, but the workers laid-off have yet to be reinstated.

More Strikes

Another strike is waiting in the wings, one with potentially devastating consequences for the government. This is the metal workers’ strike which has already been announced (a legal precondition), but not yet put into practice. If all the workers involved go on strike (for legal reasons this has to be some time in the course of June), this will amount to over one hundred thousand workers, in a sector that has become the main export engine of the country’s manufacturing industry in recent years. Although there are immensely complicated factors to be taken into account when analysing this potential strike, not least the clearly reactionary political stance of the ruling bureaucracy in the major union in the industry, the results may be dire in the context of this explosive situation.

History seems to be aiding the popular masses of Turkey. KESK, the Federation of Public Employees’ Unions, one of the fighting organizations within the union movement, had already declared a sector-wide strike for 5 June. This needs to be transformed into a general strike, adopted by the whole union movement, putting forth demands in the political sphere as well as voicing the considerable grievances of the workers of different sectors and industries. The present moment witnesses a people’s revolt in the face of the arrogance and repressive practice of the government. Should this be combined with an insurgent working-class movement, Turkey would become open to all kinds of revolutionary change.

It cannot be exaggerated how a revolutionary transformation of Turkey will have a tremendous impact on the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. Under Erdogan, Turkey has become a decisive actor in the region, a “model ally” of the U.S., role model for the newly fledgling Muslim governments of Egypt and Tunisia, frontline fighter for the Sunni front established by the Saudi and Qatar kingdoms in a potentially disastrous sectarian confrontation between the Sunni and Shiite fronts in the region and a growing economic and military power with a hegemonic project. The elimination of this reactionary actor and its possible replacement by a progressive force at the helm of this NATO member will have immense repercussions throughout the region. Solidarity with the mass movement of Turkey will definitely be helpful to the progressive and revolutionary agenda in the whole Middle East.

Istanbul, 3 a.m.

I have just left another central square of Istanbul, itself not far from Taksim. The place is packed with people and thousands, even tens of thousands of cars are still slowly moving toward that square. There would have been nothing extraordinary about this – were it not almost three o’clock in the morning. Ankara, the capital city, was out protesting today as well. Izmir, the third biggest city on the Agean sea, is still alive, with street fighting going on.

One blogger said tonight: “Well, Tayyip Erdogan, through his arrogance, has at last united Turk and Kurd, Sunni and Alevi and secular!” Well, this is what we have been saying all along. This was what happened when the Tekel workers entered their two and a half month fight. This is what is now happening on a much more gigantic scale.

This is not yet Tahrir. But demonstrations on the two continents of Istanbul, Asia and Europe at three in the morning, that is decidedly unusual and gives one a taste of Tahrir. This is not yet a revolution, but it is not only tear gas that marks the air in Istanbul. It is also a scent of revolutionary aspirations. •

Sungur Savran is editor of the newspaper Isci Mucadelesi (Workers’ Struggle) in Istanbul, Turkey.

Article re-published from our friends at http://snuproject.wordpress.com/

1 June 2013
by pa-webgroup
2 Comments

Occupy London Statement of Solidarity May 2013

STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY
(approved by the Occupy London General Assembly on the steps of S.Pauls on the 31stMay 2013)

Occupy London stands in solidarity with all who refuse to accept the current
unsustainable, unjust and undemocratic system. We want structural change towards authentic global equality.  The world’s resources must go towards sustainable care-taking of people and planet, not towards corporate profits, the military, or the rich.  We reject finance-funded politicians who mouth reform but instead derail democracy and enact policies and legislation which further increase inequality.  We welcome all action which, in good faith, seeks redress of injustice through non-violence. 

We send a message of solidarity to Occupy Turkey that is facing today a brutal repression.

We stand in solidarity with the following citizens and activists
who will be in court in the next month:

No Dash for Gas activists
Bradley Manning

Finally the month of June sees a series of potent actions and events happening for
which Occupy London would like to show full support.

These include:

Anti-fascist marches happening around the country
People United against Austerity
OpBigBrother against a Surveillance Society
Occupy Bilderberg and the Bilderberg Fringe Festival
Radical London Conference
GlobalSkillsXChange
The Sparks
Carnival Against Capitalism (StopG8)
They Owe Us!
Food Liberation Front

29 May 2013
by mirimmi
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BARCELONA #15M Newsletter nr 46

Hello from Barcelona,

This is the (almost) weekly newsletter that will inform you about the activities of 15M movement in Barcelona, Catalonia and occasionally the main events in Spain. If you do not wish to receive it anymore, please say so.

1. Once again so say we all: Fuck the Troika! June 1st demos
2. Clean up the Med!
3. Spain is a Country where you can be jailed for your way of thinking

1. ONCE AGAIN SO SAY WE ALL: FUCK THE TROIKA! JUNE 1st DEMOS

On the 1st of June there is an international call for protest against the Troika, under the main idea, translated into several different languages,of “Fuck the Troika”. At the same time the international group Blockupy Frankfurt is going to block the central bank during the period beetwen may the 30th and june the 1st as they did last year.
The response is expected to be massive for this European demonstration against austerity policies and the sumbission of the governments to the dictatorship of the markets over people’s lives.

In Barcelona the motto will be different to the one decided during the meeting in Lisbon in April, 26th (People united against the troika) as this demonstration will be only a small part of a bigger campaign against the budgets of the Generalitat, the local government, which are foreseen to be the most anti-social budgets in the Democratic period, with cuts of more than 7 billion euros. Catalunya, one of the most indebted regions in Spain, justifies these cuts with the solvency of the region, which actually means that the budget cuts are needed to pay the interests of the debt and the bonus that are due to be paid this year. That is why the slogan is “We won’t pay their debt, fuck the troika, together we can”.

The demonstration will cross the whole city center, highlighting hotspots of the budgets cuts and repression such as the Education HQ, EU delegation, some political parties headquarters, universities, etc, joining different sectors in struggle such as Health Care, Education, Working rights, Universities, Anti-repressive groups, Welfare office workers, Culture, certain neighbourhood assemblies, alternative unions and platforms. On the previous days to the demonstration some of the groups are preparing actions to warm their way up to the demo.

The following months the organizers will try to make visible all the campaigns already going on and the new ones, resisting against any negotiation which means just more cuts on social issues.

LINKS

Social Networks

2. CLEAN UP THE MED!

Since 1995, the Italian NGO Legambiente launches an international call every year to clean the coast of the Mediterranean for one day: It is a way to build conciousness about the trash we generate with our consumption and which very often arrives to the seas, causing serious damage to the environment and even to our health. More than 150 places in the whole country participated, coordinated by Ecologistes en acció (Ecologists in action). Badalona, a town nearby Barcelona, picked up their cleaning tools on May 26th, specially focused on plastic waste.

There, it was organized  with the collaboration of a local diving Club (SASBA).Ecologists, environment activists, fishermen and citizens in general worked together to clean up a section of a beach. Three groups started the work: one on the beach, some scuba divers in the water, and fishermen with their nets. The volunteers classified the residues so they could identify where they are coming from, explain the threat they mean and find solutions: On the beach, 90% of the bags of rubbish collected were composed of plastic waste, packages mainly. Meanwhile, the group of divers found mostly fishing stuff and sanitary towels. The fishermen with their nets caught almost 100% of sanitary towels.

Then, with the contents of the bags, scientists showed the people on Badalona’s seafront promenade which are the risks of throwing these objects to the sea, not only for the environment but to our health. The main idea is to gather people’s support to force a change in the consumption model, which uses a lot of packaging, and dispensable products. Among the alternative systems of rubbish control proposed, recovering the tradition of deposits and returning the packaging after use was one of the options to decrease the production of waste.

As a fisherman said, “A change of habits is needed, and it has to come through cititzen awareness and environmental education, which is essential in new generations”. Showing alternatives to this trash generation and making people understand the importance of environmental care are the first steps to achieve this change.

LINKS

Photos

Social Networks

3.SPAIN IS A COUNTRY WHERE YOU CAN BE JAILED FOR YOUR WAY OF THINKING
On 15th of May Yolanda, Silvia, Juan, Xabier and José were arrested at their homes, in the province of Barcelona, by order of the Spanish National Court in a police operation that resulted also in the smashing and seizure of material from Catalan anarchists’ premises.

Accused of committing the crimes of being members of a terrorist group, praising terrorism, recruitment, indoctrination and storage of explosive substances, they are currently remanded in custody in Soto del Real prison (Madrid).

The five people are considered by Spanish National Court dangerous anarchists based on

  • Their involvement in Facebook pages (such as Bandera Negra and Front Solidari de Barcelona among others) that the state and regional police consider to be “terrorist gangs”, though no activity outside the social networks has been proved
  • Their attendance at demonstrations in which there have been incidents and sharing of opinions “that have aimed to disseminate subversive ideas and to incite and/or commit crimes against State and capitalist interests” (Writ 17/05/2013).
  • Accusation reinforced by the material seized in their homes: Flags and shirts with anarchist iconography, an ACAB sweatshirt, libertarian philosophy books, gasoline from the garage, screws of various kinds, Valencian firecrackers and rockets whose marketing is legal.

In connection with these events, several platforms organized to protest demanding  freedom for the five, whose purpose is the dissemination and reporting of the unfair situation in which the so-called “5 anarchists” are.
They are demanding the inmediate release of the five as there are no evidences of any terrorist activity and such charges are “ridiculously disproportionate and extremely unfair, which demonstrates once again the lack of validity of the current political system” in association with the lack of independence of the judical system, which every day more people see as a puppet of political interests, which in turn is at the total service of economical ones.

The arrests and continued detentions all around the Country clearly reflect a desire of a repressive and ideological persecution to those who reject the current political regime.This is absolutely unacceptable and unjustifiable in a real democracy. But this is what people are fighting for, a real democracy now.

LINKS

Articles 

Social Networks

  • Twitter HTs #5AnarquistasBCN #LibertadanarquistasBCN Account @Freedomforthe5
  • Facebook page

Filed under: English, newsletter Tagged: #1J, Clean up the med, Ecologistas en accion, five anarchists, Fuck the Troika

23 May 2013
by mirimmi
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BARCELONA #15M Newsletter nr 45

Hello from Barcelona,

This is the (almost) weekly newsletter that will inform you about the activities of 15M movement in Barcelona, Catalonia and occasionally the main events in Spain. If you do not wish to receive it anymore, please say so.

1. “We are not back, we never left” – #12M15M
2. Madrid wants a public health care system. Almost a million votes prove it
3. A Paper Tiger to be read: a cooperative publishing house

1. “WE ARE NOT BACK, WE NEVER LEFT” – #12M15M

On May 12th Spanish people took the streets again in dozens of cities.
This call has been a kind of celebration of the #15M movement, born in Spain 2 years ago. London, Brussels, Dublin and other cities around the world also celebrated the 15M’s second anniversary in the streets. Barcelona had announced  five days of action (see NL#44, 3) to celebrate two years of working together.

After the press conference on the 10th,  the square was filled on May 11th with several conferences, debates and information points. Some of the working groups took the chance to launch their campaigns for the next months. (#11M15M , #12M15M)

On May 12th the camp in Barcelona ended to give way to a theater play and a performance by Che Sudaka. Soon after the demonstration started under the slogan “Stop the financial genocide”. After the demo, a building in the old town was occupied with the support of over a hundred people from the demo, but it was evicted early in the morning two days after. As the coordinators of #Okupem12Msquat had planned lots of activities, they are carrying them out in the streets and squares nearby ( #Yovoy12M #12MBcn, #Razones12M, #okupem12M).

On the days that followed, decentralized actions were programmed:

On May 13th Iaioflautas did the action #IaiosPaBoi against Boi Ruiz, the health care minister for the local government Generalitat of Catalunya, who is responsible of the privatization and the budget cuts in Catalonia.

On May 14th, in Catalunya square, the campaign against the Generalitat’s budgets started with #AturemElsPresupostos a debate on economy and debt. It was the starting point for a longer campaign whose aim is to stop the approval of the 2013 budgets for the Catalan government (#JuntesPodem).

On May 15th, the official anniversary, the police attacked many strategic points.They tried to cut the water supply in a building occupied by the PAH in Salt, Girona (#blocsalt). Can Piella (see NL#29 ,2 ), already aware of a possible eviction, stood strong for over six hours but was finally raided by police (#SOSCanPiella). Their reaction was to have two people abseiling from a building (property of those responsible for the eviction) with huge banners. After the eviction, a spontaneous demo blocked an important highway (AP7). In Sabadell, the Libertarian Ateneu was also raided and searched by the police, with other raids in homes of people associated with the libertarian or anarchist movement. Five people were arrested and accused of terrorism, now still in jail (#Ateneullibertari, #5anarquistasBCN).

Three actions were carried out:
In the morning, the group Reflectantes did an action where, during the #BancaRuta tour along several banks, activists explained people why it’s a good idea to close their bank accounts; 3 accounts were closed and celebrations carried out next to the bank offices (#el15cierratucuenta).  An “escrache” (see NL#42, 2) against Boi Ruiz in the afternoon, announced as #BoiDeEscrache, was organized by the health care working group PARS (Platform of afected by public health system cuts, see NL#9, 3  ), while under the call #habitatgepertothom a building with 32 apartments was occupied in the Nou Barris neighbourhood to hand it over to the evicted families. This building has been object of a negociation iwht the Town Hall and, after meeting an agreement, it shall be abandoned with the condition that the District will provide 30 immediate homes for evicted families and eventually another 100 low-rent homes by agreements with banks who have empty buildings.

The month continues very rich in political and civil activism: people are getting stronger and are focusing more clearly on their objective and organizing themselves, many new collectives have been created since the last anniversary. It seems that the change is on its way, even if it is a quite large and dangerous one.

LINKS

Videos, Pictures and Streamings

Twitter

  •  HT #12M15M #11M15M #12Mbcn #Razones12M
  •  Account @acampadabcn @15Mbcn_int @fotomovimiento

2. MADRID WANTS A PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. ALMOST A MILLION VOTES PROVE IT

Some time ago the demonstrations that filled public spaces were enough for a government to rectify. When the demonstrations were very numerous, governments even resigned.

For years, public health workers have been demonstrating in the streets against the government’s privatization policy. But the government, instead of correcting or giving up their pretentions of privatizing public health, continues to change the laws to goon with their eagerness to privatize public health.

In the week of May 10th to 15th a popular consultation was held outside public hospitals and municipalities of Madrid. The topic of the consultation was to express a preference on the healthcare system’s future: public or private?

Organizers are defined on their website as “Health Care employees”, Marea Blanca (White Tide), and several citizen groups participating in organizations and grassroots movements.

The popular referendum’s result yields the following numbers: in six days 935,794 people have voted in 103 municipalities. The question was: Are you in favor of a universal, high quality, public-run healthcare system and against privatization and the laws that allow it?

  • 929,903, 99.4%, answered YES
  • 3,558, 0.4%, voted NO
  • 1,454, 0.2% have voted blank
  • 879 null votes, 0.1%

After these results it is clear that the population of Madrid does not agree with the government’s privatization plan for public health. On the other hand, it’s a democratic paradox that not the government, but healthcare workers are the ones who organize this consultation.

A good example of how the citizenship wants to have a voice on political decisions, and people know not only how to participate, but how to organize in a participative democracy. So, what is this Government for? 

LINKS

Video

Social networks

  • Twitter
    •  HT #ConsultaSanidad #MesaCS #votosCS
    • Account @ConsultaSanidad
  • Facebook

3. A “PAPER TIGER” TO BE READ: A COOPERATIVE PUBLISHING HOUSE

The publishing house Tigre de paper (Paper Tiger)  is a cultural project, forming part of the cooperative Cultura21 (Culture 21). it is a starting point for developing critical thought, building collective identity and promoting catalan literature.

 Tigre de paper belongs to a movement that motivates a critical and collective change and books give both practical and theorical tools for the revolution: the publications (essays, novels and biographies) cover political and social themes, with the idea that “without revolutionary theories there is no revolutionary practice”. They are actually against the “art and culture industry”, which in the publishing field is dominated by few corporations controlling  the contents and thus controlling the collective imaginary, manipulating thought in a easy, silent way. They would prefer selling “instant emotions” to producing intellectual, critical work on the social, educational and global situation.

A book club called La Bandada de les lletres (The flock of letters) has been created  in order to promote and support the publsher. It’s a reader community actively involved in reviews, discussion and diffusion of the publications, building together what they call a tiger of popular culture. The website’s structure allows to easily disseminate articles and educational materials. The subscription to the club is free.

All the books are CC (Creative Common Licence) , available to be bought both online and offline in several bookshops.

LINKS


Filed under: English, newsletter Tagged: 12M15M, Consultation Pucblic Health, Paper Tiger, Reflectantes

21 May 2013
by pa-webgroup
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Nottingham UK People’s Assembly Report

Thanks for coming to the People’s Assembly and for making it such a success! We had almost 400 people there throughout the day and it ended on a high with Tony Benn, Francesca Martinez and Owen Jones as the highlights of the final plenary.

The workshops were phenomenally successful with packed and informative sessions all day and we hope to follow each one up. Check out our events page for upcoming meetings and protests you might be interested in.

National People’s Assembly

2000 people are already registered and we’ll be running a coach from Notts to the national assembly. If you’d like to come email us back and we’ll let you know about prices when we’ve got the cheapest quote. It’s a great opportunity to launch a national opposition movement against austerity and to link up with groups across the UK.

Most importantly, keep in touch with us and each other. We’ll be in contact soon about the next event in Nottingham!

The People’s Assembly team

Nottingham People’s Assembly
http://www.nottspeoplesassembly.org/