English

On some recent struggles in Greece

Capitalist development in Greece during the 60's meant the growth of the secondary sector, namely construction and manufacturing (mainly based on the low cost of labour and not on big investments in fixed capital), the corresponding influx of peasants in the towns and the erosion of local subsistence economies. Gradually, this development created the need for a more skilled and diversified labour power. As a consequence, public education expanded, basic education became obligatory and the population of university students started to rise. Wildcat strikes were on the daily agenda, campaigns on welfare, housing or local issues were organized in almost every neighborhood. This was also the time when struggles for a "free and public education" began.

On 26th and 27th September 2008 took place the third edition of anarcha-feminist festival Lovekills in Timisoara, although it seemed almost impossible to organise this kind of festival in a society where ignorance and materialism can be transformed very easy in a violent oppression against everything different.

A Further Complaint is Pending on Starbucks Lawyers Questioning of Baristas

Grand Rapids, MI- The Starbucks Coffee Co. barely had time to wipe the dust off after settling a Labor Board case against it in Minnesota when it got hit with another complaint here. With stark similarities to the Minnesota case and prior cases in New York, the National Labor Relations Board contends that Starbucks engaged in Unfair Labor Practices when it unlawfully terminated outspoken union member and barista, Cole Dorsey, because of his protected activities. Starbucks also has a week to decide if they will settle the complaint issued against them that they further engaged in Unfair Labor Practices through their lawyer's interrogation of baristas. Starbucks is set to stand trial on November 20, 2008.

Talk at Dublin WSM meeting on October 1st

Avery detailed talk on the cause of the current world financial crisis that starts off by explaining the background economics in an easy to understand manner, moves on to the role the war and other events apart from the sub-prime crash played and concludes with a look at what opportunities have been created for anarchist by this sequence of events. This talk has been made available in a range of formats as described below, if you view the google video file please follow the direct link below and rate it. The talk was recorded at a Dublin WSM meeting on October 1st.

A defining event in terms of international resistance to immigration controls.
NO BORDER PATRAS 29, 30, 31 AUGUST 2008

In Patras, the (mainly) Afghan refugees reside in a settlement under constant police surveillance. The settlement is located in the eastern part of the city,three kilometres from the port. The population consists of over 1000 young men (and grows during the summer months). This overcrowded community has existed in Patras for the last 13 years. It was originally built by Iraqi Kurds outside the city on the same site, yet the city itself has grown towards the outskirts to include the settlement area, while the settlement itself has also grown enormously after the last «anti-terrorist» NATO «campaigns» in Iraq and Afghanistan. Initially, the Afghanis used the settlement mainly as a temporary stopover before travelling to Italy. Yet after the Dublin treaty, those who
manage to reach an Italian port are returned to Patras by the Italian police.

Potential troubles for union-busting Lionbridge and the Irish State. The European Commission is threatening to take Ireland to court over its award of a multimillion-euro interpretation service to Lionbridge. This week Brussels sent a final written warning to the Department of Justice arguing that it changed the rules of a competition for the contract during the tender process. It asked the department to explain why it applied the award criteria in a different way than stated in the tender documents.

Lionbridge provides interpretation services to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, and the Reception and Integration Agency.

Translator associations in Ireland have complained that the contract with Lionbridge has led to a decrease in wages in that area of interpretation.

[Warning: Excerpt from mainstream media report. -ed.] ... Questions are now emerging about the tactics that the police used to control the many rallies and marches that took place. Last Wednesday city officials appointed two former federal prosecutors to review the planning and strategies used by the police before and during the convention.

...

Ultimately, more than 800 people, including about two dozen credentialed journalists, were arrested. Dozens more were handcuffed and photographed without being accused of any crime. And police officers in some instances used pepper spray, tear gas, bullets made of plastic and foam and flash grenades that exploded with a burst of light and a sharp bang.

Despite nationwide public opposition, Valley Animal Research Centre is still using beagle dogs in experiments. However, these cruel and unacceptable experiments can be stopped; the animals just need you to continue to act as their voice! Triko Security are currently providing VARC with security services at the Hawkes Bay breeding site and the Palmerston North testing lab.

TODAY please call and/or email Triko Security and ask that they withdraw their support and protection of this cruel company!

Triko Security
andy@triko.co.nz
dave@triko.co.nz
tracey@triko.co.nz
027 210 4450
021 1317 493
Hastings branch (06) 878 7070
Napier branch (06) 833 5321
Palmerston North branch (06) 357 1727

Sample letter below.

A short and incomplete summary of actions organised in Slovakia and Czech during the last week of August as part of the IWA campaign in support of Federico Puy - a teacher and FORA-IWA member sacked from Red Cross branch in Buenos Aires.

WHAT WE DID

1) A protest action and a delivery of official protest note to the nearest branch of the Red Cross

Red Cross has branches in a lot of even small towns. This was a great opportunity for people who were outside the “centers of activism” to organize their own actions.

Two of our comrades made a small action on 15th August in the small town of Bardejov in Slovakia. And it went very well. Two people were enough to go to the RC branch office, told employees there why they came and talked with them a little or gave them the leaflet. Then they asked to meet the office boss to give her a protest letter.

Our members, comrades or friends also visited local branches in Bratislava (photo right), Košice, Prešov, Žilina (photo with poster below), Žiar nad Hronom, Trenčín in Slovakia; and Olomouc, Písek, Ostrava, Karviná (and possibly more as Czech part of Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation also took part in the campaign) in Czech republic. With aim to spread the campaign also in Czech Republic and with cooperation with comrades from Czech we made leaflets, posters and protest e-mails also in Czech language.

2) Posters were placed near the offices of the Red Cross in Slovakia and Czech cities/towns

There were two types of posters that people used. One was for the teachers to encourage them to show their solidarity in some way. The other one was for general public (just with informative effect). Posters for teachers were placed at front doors of schools in Bratislava (altogether over 30 schools!). Posters with general information were placed on much less places as we concentrated mostly on teachers this time. Several comrades and friends asked their former teachers for solidarity by e-mail or face-to-face. Except above mentioned towns, people public see the posters also in few other towns mostly in mid-Slovakia.

The Aegean Coast of Turkey is very close to Greece and many Greek Islands; it is one of the external borders of the European Union. Groups of refugees, seeking a close and relatively easy route, try to cross the sea, especially at night. Turkey has long land borders with countries like Syria, Iran and Iraq and refugees, especially from these last two countries, are among those trying to get across the sea. There is also a large number of refugees from Somalia, Mauritania, Eritrea, Pakistan and Palestine who made their way to Turkey. Recently even refugees from as far away as Burma have been caught trying to leave Turkey for the EU.Turkey, who is still talking with the EU about possible accession or at least having permanent "special relations", is coming under increasing pressure and is receiving more and more money to police the borders and to stop the refugees before they can even make their way to the sea.

In the beginning of Sept., the first NoBorder Camp was held in Turkey and brought toegther people who oppose the border regime and who would like to take some action.

For those interested in the topic, we recommend the report "Unwelcome Guests:. The Detention of Refugees. in Turkey’s. “Foreigners’ Guesthouses” which can be found here.

Terence Wheelock, a young Irish man, died in a Irish police prison cell in 2005. His family and friends of are still waiting for a credible and complete account of what happened in the station from the Garda (Irish police) [1] . In 2005 they launched a campaign demanding an independent inquiry into the case. Below we interview Larry Wheelock, Terance's brother, about the campaign he and others has been fighting.

By tirelessly pushing the case in the media and organising meetings, protests and vigils they have managed to build a well supported and highly visible justice campaign based in Dublin’s north inner city, a working class community that has long suffered from heavy handed policing. The Justice for Terence Wheelock Campaign (JTWC) is currently the only such initiative that has managed to ask questions about the nature of policing in Irish society for any extended period of time [2] and because of that has become a reference point for other families who have experienced police brutality across Ireland.

The WSM and other Irish anarchists actively support and are involved in building support for the family’s campaign. In this interview, Terence’s brother Larry Wheelock, the main spokesperson for the JTWC, a determined man in his thirties, offers an in-depth and intimate account of his brother’s life and death, and his family’s ongoing struggle for justice.

International Anti-Prison-Weekend

http://noprisonnostate.blogsport.de/

The state repression against radical left wing, anarchist and other social movements is getting harder and harder, but nearly none seems to be interested in what happens, when we cross the line of laws and get arrested, sometimes for years, even though the danger of getting imprisoned is getting bigger then it ever was.

From the 26th to the 28th of September (2008) is going to be an anti-prison-weekend in the german city of Kiel, where we invite every autonomous, anarchist or radical-left wing group or activist who deals with anti-prison activities or is interested in it to discuss, inform and take action against the state and its prisons. It would be great if those people who are involved in anti-prison or anti-repressionn groups like the ABC or solidarity-groups could prepare lectures about the topic of the weekend, examples could be reports about special prison-systems of the country you live in or about the kinds of repression you are confronted with.

On Sept. 11, a protest was held in front of the US Embassy in Warsaw. Sept.11 is a day which is strongly connected in the American mind with terrorism, so it was no coincidence that on this day, people showed up to challenge the way the idea of terrorism is being used in the US (and in other countries) to stifle legitimate protest and resistance while at the same time terrorizing people into supporting repression, torture, war and murder.

The immediate inspiration for this picket was the arrests of hundreds of people at protests against the DNC and RNC in the US and, in particular, the arrest and charges of "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism" against some people involved in organizing the protests or their logistic support. We would like to send our message of solidarity to Monica, Eryn, Luce, Erik, Nathanael, Robert, Garrett, Max and others who face these harsh charges while the real terrorists carry on their business with impugnity.

In the opening days of September 2008 people from all over the country came together in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to protest the agenda of the Republican National Convention. And in response, police cracked down, hard. And even before the events had begun police responded to mere calls for protest through strong-arm tactics reminiscent of a police state, including infiltration and spying by state agents against protest organizations and preemptive raids with guns drawn against private protest centers. During the event police responded with the indiscriminate arrest of hundreds of protesters, and even journalists recording the event where arrested. Decked out in full military garb masses of police indiscriminately assaulted numerous protesters with batons, pepper spray and other weapons, that though listed under the term 'less then lethal' nevertheless inflict great pain and suffering, and have been
implicated in serious medical complications and even death. Fortunately no one was killed in the Twin Cities, but the use of tactics befitting a police
state should be a cause of grave concern for all people of good conscience.