december 2019

obedience to christmasSS169BR

 

2019 2018 2017  2016 2015 2014 2013

“December, being the last month of the year, cannot help but make us think of what is to come.”
Fennel Hudson

“Now is the time of fresh starts…For that you need December. You need to have lived through the mindless biological imperatives of your life…December has the clarity, the simplicity you need for the best fresh start of your life.”
Vivian Swift

(November 2019 hereJanuary 2020 here)

References to IRAN have been transferred here

References to Hong Kong will not appear here, but in “HONG KONG latest!”.

  References to CHILE will appear here, references to Iran here, references to IRAQ  here and LEBANON here

“Reading the morning newspaper is the realist’s morning prayer. One orients one’s attitude toward the world either by God or by what the world is. The former gives as much security as the latter, in that one knows how one stands. ”

Hegel

31/12/19:

France: 14 towns and cities particpate in traditional New Years Eve car burning (videos and links)

Belgium, Liege: riots in 2 areas; cars burnt, shop windows smashed, clashes with cops10 cops hurtBrussels: clashes and vehicle-burning

28/12/19:

France, Paris: clashes, a bit of burning barricades as yellow vests join anti-pension reform demo

27/12/19:

UK, London: 13 screws rushed to hospital following riot in  young “offenders” prison

25/12/19:

24/12/19:

France, Var (Grasse): following deliberate cop car crash into vehicle, a youth gravely injured in a coma as a result, a dozen CCTV cameras are sawn through and cut down, and about 100 clash with cops

“After affirming that the origin of the night of rioting from Monday 23 to Tuesday 24 December in the Flowers district was linked to drug trafficking, confronted by the evidence of their lies, the media and politicians back down cautiously. The passenger of the 306 [a Renault] is still between life and death. After clashes in the night of Monday to Tuesday, in which dozens of people sawed through a dozen surveillance cameras and then attacked the cops with the help of fireworks, a police source first explained that, according to the first elements of the investigation, “the cameras simply obstructed the delivery of a large stock of narcotics planned before Christmas”. The media’s delerious  bullshit then printed everywhere this rubbish…In Le Monde of Thursday, December 26, a source close to the police investigation admitted, however, that it appears that it was following the accident of a vehicle chased by the anti-criminal brigade (BAC) which is probably at the origin of the violence.  We don’t even know where this story of delivery and traffic comes from….The prosecutor’s office in Grasse confirmed to Le Monde that an accident had indeed taken place in the Flowers district on Friday 20 December, after the police discovered the smashed-up 306. …The driver escaped but was charged with “unintentional injury”, “aggravated refusal to comply” and “being a foregner remaining on the territory having been obliged to leave the country” and the passenger, named Ilyes, 18, was taken to hospital “in a very serious condition”. According to the prosecution, “his prognosis suggests the worst.” The Flowers district of Grasse did not catch fire on  Monday night “amidst drug trafficking,” as local and far-right elected officials have suggested. …a judicial investigation has been opened and no one could ignore the causal link between the accident involving the BAC and the night of the riot……According to the investigation, the accident involving the BAC  occurred outside the area of coverage by the cameras, frankly questioning the impartiality of their use, since once again when their use could upset the police, they don’t work. Just as it did not work when Zineb Redouane was killed in the Noailles district on December 1, 2018….The responsibility of the cops who chased the car in the Flowers district is of course not even questioned although from Friday evening December 20, rumors circulated in the area claiming that the 306 was hit from the rear, implying that the police vehicle crashed into  the two young people’s car before it got smashed in. Though this is  denied by the prosecution, the driver, who was released from the hospital and could have been heard by the investigators, maintains that he felt “a big shock at the back”. “

23/12/19:

Greece: Attacks on Capitalist Targets on the Rise as Greek Police Increase Violence

Report on the last month.

France, Paris: Christmas cancelled as strikers clash with cops at Gare de Lyonvideo of clashes inside the station, cops firing teargas etc.

Germany, Berlin: Greek embassy occupied in solidarity with those resisting repression of squats in Greece

Argentina, Mendoza: 19 cops injured during clashes as thousands march against new law permitting poisonous copper, silver & gold mining

“…the amendment to Law 7.722 authorizes the use of mercury, sulfuric acid, cyanide and toxins in the development of mega mines, which will cause water pollution in the province”

19/12/19:

India: railway stations and highways blocked as 9 are killed so far; Bollywood stars join protests Mangalore: cops kill at least 2 as protests continue despite being declared illegal; state stops mobile phone connections in some areasArticle showing links between Hindu nationalist party and US nationalism

India has had 67% of the world’s internet shutdowns in the last year.

Colombia, Bogota: heavy clashes with the state in movement against privatisations, pension and work reforms (videos and links)

Greece, Samos: refugees riot in anger at overcrowding and other camp miseries

The camp  is now more than 11 times overcapacity, with 7,497 people registered as living in and around the facility  designed to house 648. For an anlysis in 2017 of aspects of the refugee situation in Greece, see this.

18/12/19:

Greece, Athens: Merry Crisis!

 

 

“While the greek government has been terrorizing the neighborhood of Exarcheia since the summer with squat evictions, attacks on people inside coffee shops and bars and brutal beatings and arrests for no reason – especially following the protests on 17 November and 6 December, where an atypical martial was imposed in the area -, few days ago made an attempt to cover up the riot police crimes against the people in the area, by decorating Exarcheia Square with Christmas lights and a Christmas Tree… ” – here.  See also this, this and this.

Colombia, Bogota: riots force closure of university for a month

India, Delhi: police booth smashed, motorbikes torched, cops pelted, etc.

17/12/19:

China, Guizhou: 14 miners killed as result of push to intensify capital accumulation

“Fourteen coal miners were killed in an explosion in the southern Guizhou province on December 17. A day later, five others died when a mine flooded in neighbouring Sichuan. Following the Guizhou deaths, the National Coal Mine Safety Supervision Bureau warned companies nationwide to pay stricter attention to safety. It said in the four weeks preceding the Guizhou blast, four coal mine accidents had left 43 dead. It was worse than that, according to the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin. The group, an advocate for workers’ rights, uses news reports to compile a map of industrial accidents that cause fatalities or injuries. Its figures say 55 coal miners died in a dozen accidents in the same period…China Labour Bulletin’s accident map, which it has been compiling since 2015, points to 90 coal mining accidents so far in 2019 that killed 219 people. That compares with 79 accidents and 160 fatalities recorded by the group in the prior year”

Ukraine, Kiev: 2 cops hospitalised during clashes over state’s intensification of land seizures (videos and links)

France, Seine-St-Denis: cops get very heavy trying to break strike picket at bus depot More here. Video here

16/12/19:

France, Lille: high school students chuck molotovs at cops during blockade of school, as several schools in city are also blockadedblockades and “operation snailspace”s  in lots of different parts of country as lorry drivers demand higher wages and better conditions

A TV report said that over 300 “operation snailspace”s (ie driving very slowly) took place on motorways throughout the country, sometimes causing 20 kilometre tail-backs.  Union-controlled actions, usually blocking industrial zones of towns and cities.

India: riots intensifyUttar Pradesh: police station torched

Senegal, St.Louis: clashes as students block major motorway for 2 hours, demanding immediate payment of long-delayed grants  (videos and links)

15/12/19:

India, Uttar Pradesh: university closed for 3 weeks following heavy clashes over discriminatory citizenship lawinternet blockedDelhi: 2 cop cars and 4 buses burnt during similar protests7 cities involved (videos and links)

14/12/19:

France, Oise: stones and heavy-duty fireworks chucked at cops in ambush

13/12/19:

UK, London: minor clashes after yet another gang of instigators of mass murder gets elected (receiving 43.6% of the votes of those who could be bothered to choose which humiliation they’d prefer)  Video here  Anarchist report here

“Lambs go to the slaughterhouse. They say nothing and expect nothing. But at least they don’t vote for the butcher who will kill them or the bourgeois who will eat them. Worse than animals, more crowded than sheep, the voter chooses his butcher and chooses his bourgeois. S/he made revolutions to conquer the right to do so.” – Octave Mirabeau

Australia: forward to the Middle Ages, as heathens are politely recommended to go to hell!

Malta: asylum seekers riot in detention centre

12/12/19:

UK, Bristol: 4 screws’ cars sabotaged and immobilised outside youth gaol

France, Nantes: protesters against pension reform block ring road, invade and close down shopping centreclashes at high schools in 5 towns and cities

Sample quote from Vaux-en-Velin and Décines (both suburbs of Lyon):The situation was very tense this Thursday in front of the Robert-Doisneau high school in Vaulx-en-Velin. While the school was blocked as part of the mobilization of teachers and students against the pension reform, clashes occurred with the police.  A car was burned by young people, a van was also overturned. In addition, law enforcement and firefighters were stoned. No arrests were reportedly made by the security forces, who preferred to disperse the crowds with tear gas.  In addition, at the same  time in the town of Décines, violence also took place around the Charlie-Chaplin high school. Again, the police were hit by projectiles. Five arrests were made… two police officers were slightly injured during these law enforcement operations”

11/12/19:

Brazil: Al Jazeera report on intensification of Bolsonaro’s powers

Ivory Coast, Dimbokro: cops kill 14-year-old in clashes sparked off by 2 days of demos by high school students demanding early end of term so as to have an extended Christmas holiday

10/12/19:

France: blockades and clashes at high schools in 9 cities and townsAles (Gard): account of some of the contradictions of the movement

An account of a disgusting bit of support for the cops by the CGT union and some yellow vests. Rough translation:

NO VICTORY WITHOUT SOLIDARITY IN THE STRUGGLE

12/11/19:
An anonymous response to events which followed the demonstration on Tuesday 10 December in Alès, found on the internet.

It was with bitterness and anger that we ended the day of mobilization yesterday. Discouraged and outraged by what happened at the end of the event.

At the end of the demonstration, an action to block the economy had been planned. The need to block the economy to add weight to the balance of forces had been discussed several times in inter-professional General Assemblies.
And the action planned for yesterday was decided in the assembly of the GJs [yellow vests] and offered to teachers by the GJs that morning, who had accepted the idea.

At the end of the event, around a hundred people left in
procession to reach the place to be blocked that had been decided in the morning. Others there went by car. Arriving at the roundabout of avenue Carnot, the procession on foot was forced by the CRS to go back to the station. And there a trap was formed. Part of the demonstrators, GJs, teachers, workers found themselves surrounded by the CRS and at the mercy of their humiliations and their insults.

All this took place about ten meters from the CGT barbecue with railway workers in which trade unionists, GJs etc. participated. One of the kettled comrades having managed to get out of the kettel, went to tell everyone who was at the barbecue, thinking logically he’d obtain solidarity from comrades in struggle.

There were very few reactions. Worse still: some people who wanted to come and show their solidarity were prevented by a union official who ordered them to stay at the barbecue. Various people, including so-called GJs, went to explain to the CRS that they had nothing to do with the kettled protesters. A so-called GJ was also seen preventing people from coming along to express solidarity together. Unspeakable.

Result: a grotesque, scandalous and distressing picture which Macron must have revelled in!
On the one side of the fence, demonstrators were kettled, humiliated and insulted by twice as many robocops as them.
On the other side, an aperitif and grilled meat, with loud music. A few people who from time to time came to observe the police operation, laughing 🤮. Some people tried to come to support the demonstrators who were trapped but were prevented from doing so by a union official and some GJs who did not hesitate to dissociate themselves from them, screaming at the ketttled demonstrators.
And people went to explain to power’s guard dogs that “They are not with them!”, “That they have nothing to do with it!”.

6 arrests including two with violence and two taken into custody, observed with the complicity of people we thought were on our side in the struggle.

A sad sight.
Troubling.
All the kettled demonstrators, GJs, teachers, various workers, all had the same thought: fortunately this is not 1940… shivers down our spine.
Last night all of us suffered a great bitterness, very upset.

What to conclude from this?
Where has class solidarity gone, necessary for any victory against power and capitalism?
We will not win like that.
Without some rapid attack of conscience/consciousness by some, we will all go to the wall.

We reaffirm our respect for all those in struggle and for all forms of struggle: from the little grandpa at the roundabouts to the young man who throws a stone, via the worker blocking his factory and the anonymous people who sabotage a speed camera.
We also reaffirm our solidarity with all the comrades who face repression.

We believe that the union of all workers, the unemployed, the precarious, of all origins is the necessary condition for any victory, if we do not want to be satisfied with victories for just single categories.
Especially if we fight for the honor of the workers and for a better world! [line from the most famous yellow vest song sung on almost all yellow vest demos]

But yesterday, this union, we did not live it.

Hopefully the struggle will see better days.


I should also add that round about this time  some high school students, during an assembly in Montpellier, affirmed their opposition to a proposition to bring back some limited version of military service (which was abolished here over 20 years ago). Wikipedia says this: “In 2019, President Emmanuel Macron reintroduced national service on a voluntary basis, for a period of 4 weeks. It will become compulsory in the future. Conscripts will spend two weeks in training and two weeks performing community service. The system has been described as “more scout camp than military service”.”  Low-level CGT bureaucrats told them to withdraw this demand! Fortunately they refused. We know full well that “scout camps” before WWl were useful methods of inculcating hierarchical respect and the love of uniforms so very useful for those organising the slaughter to come.

Lyon:clashes as bins burnt in front of 2 high schoolsBrest: heavy cop intervention at University condemned by uni’s president

This happened after hooded youths being chased by the cops rushed into the uni library following some bin-burning and attacks on shop windows during a demo, and the cops ran in and jumped on them. It breaks an 800-year-old law that, apart from in situations of absolute urgency, the police can only intervene on a university site at the request of the president.

India (north-east): General strike against divide-and-rule racist citizenship deprivation law

9/12/19:

India, Assam: heavy clashes over fascistic state deprivation of Muslim refugees’ citizenship rightsTripura: state suspends internet Video here

7/12/19:

Germany, Wuppertal: report on cop killing 25-year-old and other German cop shootings

France: yellow vest clashes in Montpellier, Paris & Nantes (videos, links)

6/12/19:

France, Montpellier: 3 schools blockaded in protest against increased university selection, the reform of the baccalaureat and in solidarity with pension movementcops get heavy (videos)tramway blocked by burning binsGrenoble: 500 high school students blockade 7 schools for the same reasonLyon: cops hospitalise 15-year-old using flashball, during similar clashes

Colombia, Medellin: clashes as state confiscates flypitchers’ goods

Peru, Lima: cops teargas school students as they clash during protests against increase in school bus fares

Greece: 11th anniversary of cop murder of 15 year old Alexis Grigorpoulos 

See also Greece unrest: Merry Christmas! – TPTG (December 2008), Greek Fire (Collective Reinventions) (December 2008),Workers in Greece occupy union offices (December 2008), WE DESTROY THE PRESENT BECAUSE WE COME FROM THE FUTURE (December 2008), Like a winter with a thousand Decembers – TPTG/Blaumachen (on the events of December 2008 and other things).

5/12/19:

Benin, Klouékanmè: barricades across major road & clashes after black market petrol trafficker breaks leg in cop chase

Greece, Athens: the best form of defence is attack

Colombia: clashes in 3 cities

4/12/19:

Paris: cops get heavy during blockade of high school in support of strikes against pension reforms, as well as opposition to intensified university selection

3/12/19:

France,Villeneuve-d’Ascq: school personnel “deplore” cops for their heavy intervention in blockade  by high school students

Belgium, Brussels: students lock themselves inside school in protest against poor conditions

“The students, who are “rioting” inside the building, demand the resignation of the school principal because of ongoing problems with computers, heating and hygiene…“After receiving their exam schedules, the students started to hide in a common area [inside the building], where they are breaking things down”

2/12/19:

China, Guangdong: temporary victory for protesters against crematorium construction

“Last week’s clashes in Huazhou’s Wenlou township, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Hong Kong, saw around 1,000 armed riot police take over the town after residents made barricades on the streets to block the passage of armored vehicles. Social media posts showed a line of overturned police cars, while eyewitnesses said younger people had hit back at incoming police lines with projectiles. Dozens of people were beaten and detained before police regained control of the area, according to local media reports and eyewitness accounts. Media reports said some demonstrators were chanting slogans similar to those heard across Hong Kong, including “Revolution now!” See also entry for 29/11/19

Cambodia, Tbong Khmum: villagers block Chinese company from expropriating their land

“More than 100 villagers in eastern Cambodia’s Tbong Khmum province on Monday blocked Chinese earthmovers digging a canal and destroying crops on disputed land, temporarily halting the work, local sources said. Hamenivent Investment, a Chinese company that claims ownership of the land, had already cleared over 20 hectares of cassava and cashew farmland worked by residents of Dambe district’s Trapaing Pring commune, a resident of the commune’s Bos Snor village told RFA’s Khmer Service. “This has interfered with villagers’ farming, and that’s why they have come to stop this company from clearing their crops,” the resident named Maut Mon said, adding that Hamenivent has also encroached on flooded forest land used by the commune as a shelter for spawning fish. …“The area is a flooded forest. It is a shelter for fish to lay eggs, and many wild animals used to live there, but there are many fewer there now,””

Bolivia: informative but clumsily translated text by anarchist on situation there

Comments

40 responses to “december 2019”

  1. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    Gottfried Kellor, “The Three Just Comb-makers”:

    “They regard the world as one enormous well-patrolled police station, in which no one need fear of punishment, provided that he keeps his doorway well swept, looks after his window boxes, and pours no water over the edge.”

  2. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    I am most happy to see that our Good Editor is on strike. Vorwärts……

    1. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      “When all the inner conditions are met, the day of… resurrection will be heralded by the crowing of the Gallic cock.”

  3. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    New Jersey, 11/12/19:

    Two orthodox Jews protest the high price of kosher food by besieging a supermarket in Jersey City.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50737537

    1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      Is this meant to be some perverse ‘joke’? 6 people die in a racist attack and you make a ‘joke’ about it? And it has some kind of relevance to….what exactly?

      In fact, what’s the relevance of almost all the above posts you’ve sent, outside of some unfathomable idea in your head? You really should seriously reflect on the crap you say and/or banal comments you make. Living in the UK, increasingly the land of an overwhelming stupidity that suffocates even the most ‘class conscious’ of the population, is no excuse.

      1. Jim Katz avatar
        Jim Katz

        Perhaps you should consider removing the following racist, banal caption:

        “Above: official version is that this shows ultra-orthodox Jews running as members of the Israeli Ethiopian community block the main entrance to Jerusalem on July 2, 2019, to protest the killing of 19-year-old Solomon Tekah by an off-duty police officer, who was merely put on house arrest.”

        Are you in the religious habit of repeating official lies and racist slurs?

  4. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

    The above – for readers who are vaguely interested but are perplexed by a reference that “Jim Katz” has not made at all clear – is related to something that happened in July, which I re-printed in the November “News”. I said it was the “official version” and followed it with a quote from a friend, which clearly JK missed – “They even lie about what they show to the viewers while they show it, for example showing live a demo/blockade at the entrance to Jerusalem where you can clearly see a large presence of non-Ethiopians and even Orthodox Jews among the protesters and the reporter ignores this and describes all of them as Ethiopians. ”

    But even the official version isn’t simplisticly “racist” – it’s an attempt to imply that orthodox Jews were opposed to the Ethiopian Jews rioting when they were actually supporting it. Besides, mentioning something like this is just a manipulative attempt to distract from what I said about you said about the killings yesterday in New Jersey, to which you have no response.

    1. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      I don’t know why my name is in inverted commas but no matter.

      I don’t know what happened in Jersey City yesterday. As I understand it, the police apprehended two persons with illicit firearms. The two persons were chased by the police and ran into a kosher supermarket (hence my allusion to the levitical tax charged on kosher food, on top of national taxes).

      Yes, you are right, I cannot see your friends quote. All I see is a photograph of a young hassid running past a flame with a caption underneath that reads:

      “Above: official version is that this shows ultra-orthodox Jews running as members of the Israeli Ethiopian community block the main entrance to Jerusalem on July 2, 2019, to protest the killing of 19-year-old Solomon Tekah by an off-duty police officer, who was merely put on house arrest.”

      Yes, you are right. Today is a miserable day in England. Fools are flocking to the polling stations and it is cold and wet. My shoes have holes in them so I got wet feet taking the little yids to school and my feet haven’t warmed up yet.

      Take care Sam and stay warm.

  5. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    The world waits with baited breath for succinct political analysis of the UK’s General Election result:

    The English working class overwhelmingly reject the arch supporter of counter-revolution in Venezuela. The Irish working class vote for Ireland to remain united. The jesters that vote Tory play the killing joke on themselves.

  6. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

    The English working class overwhelmingly reject the arch supporter of counter-revolution in Venezuela and vote for the arch supporter of counter-revooution everywhere.

    JK as usual hangs onto his rose-tinted glasses and finds solace in dressing up misery in pretty colours .

    The only very tepid solace I have is that voter turnout was down on 2017 – 67.23 percent as opposed to 68.7 percent in 2017.

    1. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      Your solace is ill conceived as the slightly lower turnout is only a reflection of a cold, wet day in Blighty. I do share your misery, however.

      My gloss of the election is nothing compared to the BBC local radio describing the weather here as “breezy” when it feels more like a gale out there:

      It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

    2. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      “The… vote for the arch supporter of counter-revolution everywhere.”

      Again, by making blanket statements you are slip slidding into dogma, not dealing with reality.

      It would be valid, and specific, to say that the Tory government is sponsoring counter-revolution in Yemen by supplying armaments to the Saud bourgeoisie.

        1. Jim Katz avatar
          Jim Katz

          Keep your comfort blanket if you wish to. I aim to rid myself of mine. Eventually.

          1. Jim Katz avatar
            Jim Katz

            NB: UK, Bristol: 4 screws’ cars sabotaged and immobilised outside youth gaol

  7. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    13 December 2019,

    Violent proletarian opposition to India’s new Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) leads to cancellation the meeting of a committee of the bourgeoisie. See below for reference:

    https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/deadly-india-protests-force-postponement-japan-summit-doc-1n163s2

  8. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    The merchant state is the foundation of racialism and the only true racist:

    “The citizenship amendment act [sic], signed into law on Thursday, allows tens of thousands of Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to claim Indian citizenship. The same will not apply for Muslims.”

    The Guardian [of social democracy], Monday, 16th December, 2019, on the new law passed in the world’s biggest democracy.

  9. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    GB, Friday 13th, December 2019: Residents of a street in Bath City block the encroachment of capital successfully.

    Source: https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/bath-residents-hold-sit-protest-3647515

  10. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

    “block the encroachment of capital successfully”. And that’s why this action has already inspired the masses in Chile, Iraq, Iran, Hong Kong, Lebanon, France and everywhere else – with millions shouting “Bollocks to Bollards!”, and, inspired by the revolutionaries of the insurrectionary city of Bath, are declaring “we must create 2, 3, many Meadow Gardens!”

    Picture of Jim Katz:

    https://www.facebook.com/AbcLanguageCentreDM/photos/a.158405510997816/1065157703655921/?type=3&eid=ARDnrtJyYS_gcUvMsnPIsmrlLmdUeLfrnDl7dqK9yMKcjoyekyu36FDzoch6k_dGqvGpy_4E_srv8Zef&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCULRT3tgNwCWiosge1EFJnV-ND3eoXcwdq-SGwxOh_LNo4pt-Oxi1tawAlp6MhiWjBVlhWB4iSMOAGR29qL8lWALCl5SHTigPnBDa6aimPLSdkGHFIaetO3zu7xgHI83bTnkayk2To8Rf1qugemd2qLh85HiKMdUf52Vv5Z2omGHeCb5C46KtLVvk-mKDdRa3Onezg35fhOMB7Vax1MrR4f2jB_owmN1ytApRKAK705EebZREpcHJ0CtM_DY1ff0VkyZiDOGi1CdQK2sGa-2KrdMF55tWRq8O-TX9Q7J87hkfgGQDZih7GboDNjlVBF343Ah4LYFW3KKK1W1MeeWeKJw&__tn__=EHH-R

    1. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      Political voluntarism vs social needs

      Sam, you and your fellow anarchists are situated firmly within the idealist camp. Despite my words, please don’t banish me. Even a red deserves a place on the web!

      1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

        I am not an anarchist and have never called myself one.

        As usual you explain nothing. What on this site shows a tendency to “Political voluntarism vs social needs” and how am I ” situated firmly within the idealist camp”? In your head, spitting out re-digested platitudes and attempts to stereotype me somehow substitutes for the effort of making sense to anybody but yourself. A kind of solipcism decorated with old set-piece “critiques” that don’t get beyond being one-liners.

        I really don’t understand what you get out of being persistently annoying without striving to really say anything. I’m not automatically opposed to being annoying as such, it’s just there’s no content or point to your annoying attitude, other than maybe the purely self-centred adolescent pleasure of being annoying for its own sake.

  11. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    Words like solipcism, platitudes and stereotypes are utterly meaningless to me and I see no need to educate myself as to their meaning. We speak a different form of English.

    You are an anarchist, whether you call yourself one or not. In the news page on this site for November last, there are 9 uses of “anarchist”, only one of which was used by me in a criticism of your anarchist dogma.

    The anarchists that vandalise some cars outside a detention centre or scorch the bottom of a Christmas tree do so out of some political ideal, not because of their material needs—e.g. to gain access to their homes.

    Anyone with a modicum of common sense could have deduced that point from the statement, political voluntarism vs social needs.

    As communists, we are for anarchy but firmly opposed to the political ideology, anarchism, that you espouse.

    1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      Who is this ‘we’? Are you in a group/organisation? Are you the representative of the group/organisation?

      What ‘social need’ is being struggled for by you in your posts to this site? What social need, for example, is searched for by defining the action in Bath as “block[ing] the encroachment of capital successfully”, for instance? How do you clarify reality by splitting things into “political voluntarism” and “social need”? Why are you at all interested in this site? Is this interest “political voluntarism” or “social need” or what?

      1. Jim Katz avatar
        Jim Katz

        “All the powers of the old world have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: State and Capital, the press and academia, French radicals and German police-spies.”

        Manifesto of the communist party

        1. We are communist
        2. We are the communist party
        3. We represent our party
        4. The struggle for communism
        5. The need to communicate our struggle
        6. By identifying remnants of the old world
        7. To glean news of the proletarian revolution
        8. It is a social need

    2. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      JK says ” You are an anarchist, whether you call yourself one or not. In the news page on this site for November last, there are 9 uses of “anarchist”, only one of which was used by me in a criticism of your anarchist dogma. “

      In fact 3 ‘uses’ of the word – used uncritically to mention the type of site being linked to – by me. Even a 7-year-old knows that use of a word does not imply that one is that word. And linking to a site doen’t mean one agrees with everything on that site (for fucks sake – I link to loads of mainstream sites whose perspectives on this world are utterly opposed to mine). Plus 2 mentions of anarchists criticising them :

      “Despite it’s limitations, this movement is a refreshing contrast with the more obviously hierarchical state of Rojava, beloved by far too many “anarchists” desperate for some mirage of “hope” which allows them to throw their uncritical minds into supporting it, rather like Leftists did in their admiration of Mao’s China back in the 60s.” and “It’s really useless and exasperating reading anarchist sites like itsgoingdown that almost invariably avoid looking at, or at best minimising,  the contradictions of movements, that think being excessively positive about wherever actually contributes to the progress of movements, when it’s clear that it just helps blind people to the complexities.”

      I could point out loads of other nonsense in the above post by JK, and in many of his posts just this month, but I’ll leave it at this:
      I have already banned him once but he came back a few months later using a different name. If he continues to be so slapdash about facts and ideas as he has been (and certainly not just in the above quoted post), he will be banned again and if he comes back with another name I shall eventually find out it’s him and ban him without warning. As I said on the homepage: “This is not an open access site: it has no pretensions to being “democratic” in the sense of being welcoming to absolutely anybody. Anyone who persists over time in dogmatic ideological arguments which go nowhere will be censored and/or banned. Undoubtedly there will be many who have ideologically petrified notions whilst also having some lucid ideas and interesting facts to contribute. But if they persist in pursuing their dogmas impervious to argument, then their comments will be suppressed. The aim of this site is not to get into head-bashing ego-battles, to repeatedly refute the same stale ideas, but to develop perspectives that clarify and help advance social contestation, to bring a breath of fresh air.

      I suggest JK asks himself why he seems to be fixated on sending comments to this site other than a desire to irritate me (and probably others reading this) or some false exit from isolation. I also suggest that rather than his constant ego-bashing mentality which assumes I too am only responding in the same way and with the same motivations, he think about what he could do to contribute to subverting the aspects of life and the world that are unnecessarily complicitous with dominant social relations, which is also something I constantly ask myself.

      And,by the way, I don’t attach a label to myself just as I don’t judge others by their label: it’s what you do and say that counts, regardless of whether you call yourself an anarchist, a communist or whateverist. As I wrote 7 years ago (“anarcho-leftism & the politics of libcom” – http://dialectical-delinquents.com/war-politics/anarcho-leftism-the-politics-of-libcom/ ) : “…whatever you call yourself is largely irrelevant: it’s in the practical struggle against our alienation, the world and our comportment in it, that we express our desires for a different world, and that can include those who do not call themselves communist/ anarchist/ libertarian/ situationist/ autonomist/ marxist or whatever as much as those who do. Those who are complacent, resigned and who unnecessarily reproduce hierarchical relations and strengthen contradictions within the margin of choice their lives have are supporters of this society whatever they call themselves. Such an attitude runs counter to the historical experience of the movement that has described itself as “communist”. On the most basic level, history – of above all the 20th century – is littered with examples of people who called themselves “communist”, “socialist” or “anarchist” which they weren’tin any way or degree. Labels tend to create an inner and outer definition of yourself that allies yourself with those who adopt the label, and oppose those who don’t, when the reality is that regardless of the label you adopt or avoid adopting, it’s on your acts and their consequences, on how you embody your ideas in practice (including what you say or write) – not on whether you in theory support or oppose this, that or the other.”

      1. Jim Katz avatar
        Jim Katz

        “…dominant social relations…”[?], Sam

        The dominant social relations of the working class are human relations—non-hierarchical, if you like; the anti-social relations of the petty and grand bourgeoisie are exclusively monetary, although they delude themselves they have a “social life”.

        Unlike other, privately owned websites, you don’t have the facility to ban a user of your site according to the user’s IP address, as far as I know. If you don’t wish me to comment on the news posted here, or on whatever takes my fancy, you simply have to ask and I will desist.

        You are wrong to think that I follow this news forum out of a feeling of isolation. It is because I feel connected to my social class, my species properly speaking, that I wish to express our dominant position in relation to the world.

  12. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    Earlier today I got in touch with a former friend from school who now happens to be a capitalist, investing predominantly in property and film production. I got in touch with him because he owns a private club in London and I thought it would be fun for my wife and I to join. Before I got round to messaging him I looked down his Facebook Timeline and came upon a photo of an audience at a Dreadzone concert. I know the band produced a song entitled, “Tomorrow Never Comes”, and I innocuously posted a photo of the ongoing insurrection in New Delhi with the caption, Tomorrow has come, boom Shankar. This seemingly innocuous remark was enough to spur this entrepreneur to block my account from his own.

    It is certainly true that the bourgeoisie is getting more afraid with each uprising of our class, or as they say in Jamaica, Babylon is getting jumpy.

    1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      Was this idea of having “fun” with your wife by joining a private club and mixing with property and film production investors an example of “political voluntarism” or “social need”?

      1. Jim Katz avatar
        Jim Katz

        Going out for a date with my spouse is neither political, nor social.

        The clientele of a nightclub are not representative of the owner of that club.

        We wish you a happy Xmas, Sam, and look forward to hearing of a turbulent year from your news bulletin.

        Many thanks.

  13. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    Today, a starker contrast cannot be drawn than between the party of anarchy in Australia and beyond, which makes a real material impact on the political economy through acts of arson that foment wildfires, and the individual acts of propaganda by deed of the anarchists of Europe.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=wildfires&safe=strict&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB839GB839&sxsrf=ACYBGNSPQYzQvjoLkdvUqDB2U_zAPs6OSQ:1577176013981&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=9IS7w9o05BNwYM%253A%252CkgCvJCuGGisNiM%252C%252Fm%252F0fjy1&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQDux-nhEodVAUvCQ-3oSPIb73N6w&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwimwb7A7s3mAhVLilwKHe4iBMQQ_B0wJHoECAoQAw#imgrc=9IS7w9o05BNwYM:

    1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      I sincerely hope, for the remnant of sanity you may still possess, that this is just a bad attempt at a joke, even though ecological disaster is not funny.

      1. Jim Katz avatar
        Jim Katz

        Sam resorts to playing the Section 136 card.

        The higher the monkey climbs….

  14. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    “Only a world war can break old England, as only this can provide… the organised English workers, with the conditions for a successful rising against their powerful oppressors.”

    Organised workers of Chile, Iran, Iraq and India…

    1. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      Centralised

  15. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    On “Feltham bwoys”:

    “Among the young people there is very much this gang culture where if you attack prison officers then you go up a level in the esteem held by others.”

    1. Jim Katz avatar
      Jim Katz

      Contrary to what the union official is quoted as saying above, the use of violence by prisoners is a material necessity and not a matter of prowess.

  16. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    17/12/2019, state of Ukraine:

    Proletarians opposing land reform bill battle police defending the bill designed to facilitate increased GDP, i.e. an increase in the rate of valorisation of capital.

    https://youtu.be/Lx9LzYosIco

  17. Jim Katz avatar
    Jim Katz

    NB: “…whatever you call yourself is largely irrelevant: it’s in the practical struggle against our alienation, the world and our comportment in it, that we express our desires for a different world, and that can include those who do not call themselves communist/ anarchist/libertarian/situationist/autonomist/Marxist or whatever as much as those who do. Those who are complacent, resigned and who unnecessarily reproduce hierarchical relations and strengthen contradictions within the margin of choice their lives have are supporters of this society whatever they call themselves. Such an attitude runs counter to the historical experience of the movement that has described itself as “communist”. On the most basic level, history—of above all the 20th century—is littered with examples of people who called themselves “communist”, “socialist” or “anarchist” which they weren’t in any way or degree. Labels tend to create an inner and outer definition of yourself that allies yourself with those who adopt the label, and oppose those who don’t, when the reality is that regardless of the label you adopt or avoid adopting, it’s on your acts and their consequences, on how you embody your ideas in practice (including what you say or write) – not on whether you in theory support or oppose this, that or the other.”

    Proletarians are not communist because we call ourselves “communist” but because we are propertyless; we are living socially, rather than socialist; we are for anarchy because we are powerless over others.

    As for alienation, I am happy to be alienated from capital and its personification; I am at home with my family and comrades—my class.

    I would caution you on your “desires for a different world”. Desire is at the root of suffering and, although I don’t like you, I still don’t want you to suffer.

    1. Sam FantoSamotnaf avatar

      Due to his persistent evasion of the most basic critiques and rationality, I realise I’ve wasted far too much of my time trying to get through to this guy complacently sleeping on his cloud of stale ideas – a strange mixture of Buddhism (“Desire is at the root of suffering”),a particularly narrow form of Marxism and Rastafarianism (constant posts of Rasta reggae songs and the fact that he said to me several years ago that he was into this ideology) that he takes for some kind of opposition to this world. One only has to look at how he avoided responding my pointing out the fact that he lied about the use of the word “anarchist”( http://dialectical-delinquents.com/news-of-opposition-5/2019-2/december-2019/#comment-307922 ) to see that this guy has no desire to communicate however much he thinks of himself as a good person. I’ve been pointlessly patient. All further posts by him will be suppressed as soon as I discover them. Or else he can voluntarily “desist” as he suggested earlier.

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