World Social Struggles Newswire Archive

Spectacle productions need help making a film on the political thinker Murray Bookchin, the founder of the social ecology movement. Please visit  http://www.indiegogo.com/Bookchin?c=home

May 15-22 “Week of Global Struggle for the Liberation of Alberto
Patishtán Gómez and Francisco Sántiz López,”

news from struggle in Athens against fascism & racism

Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.

MANILA, Philippines - Eight of the 43 health workers collectively known as the Morong 43, who were arrested in February 2010 during a medical training, filed criminal charges against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several military officials before the Department of Justice.

What is to be done when capital and government abandon the people? It is a question that social movements throughout Europe and the US have begun to raise with a creative political militancy unseen in decades.

Anti-workfare protesters brought chaos to London’s West End yesterday after the annual Trade Union May Day march and demonstration. A roving mob of around 350 people successfully shut down countless shops and businesses who use forced labour under the Government’s workfare schemes.

THOUSANDS of trade unionists and activists poured into the streets of Manila and other key cities to celebrate May Day amid renewed hopes that the two latest efforts at labor unity will provide strong impetus to their uphill battle for labor and trade union rights.

International Squatter’s Convergence, Brighton UK May 17-20 2012

Coming soon!

A reflection upon the neccessary force to lead lives of strength and solidarity.

Stand off in Santa Cruze ends with arrests

While the UN embargo was clearly aimed at preventing the delivery of weapons both to Gadhafi and those fighting him, NATO looked the other way when it came to the rebels. Hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and arms breezed through the blockade, exposing what critics say was Canada and NATO’s real motive during the Libyan war — regime change under the guise of protecting civilians.

Declaration in support of the “WEEK OF GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR THE LIBERATION OF PATISHTÁN AND SÁNTIZ LÓPEZ: BRINGING DOWN THE PRISON WALLS”

St.andrews, long known as a bastion of conservatism, privilege and wealth, will be hosting a gathering in church square on Mayday of all those facing dire threats to their wellbeing, inflicted by the government, bosses and corporate fat-cats! Towards a combative anti-cuts movement!

The following is an urgent call to action from Movement for Justice in El Barrio, The Other Campaign New York, and supported by the Patishtán Family, to realize the:

“WEEK OF GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR THE LIBERATION OF PATISHTÁN AND SANTIZ LOPEZ: BRINGING DOWN THE PRISON WALLS”

To take place from Tuesday, May 15 to Tuesday May 22 of this year.

The trial opened with what would have been a comedy of errors if it hadn't been for the seriousness of what was happening.

Police from 20 European countries are meeting next week (24-25 April) in Den Hague, NL, for a conference on coordinating repression against FAI, No TAV, No Borders and other "euro-anarchists". Repost from "Out of Control Berlin"  http://euro-police.noblogs.org.

Here, we hope to share how international groups and persons (and others who have not been present in the planning structures up to now) can participate in #Blockupy Frankfurt, both in preparation for and during May 16-19. The action days are planned as participative and open, and their success depends on the presence, participation, creativity, initiative and spontaneity of everyone – please join in!!

Yaara Bou Melhem gets rare access to see what life is really like in Libya after Gaddafi was deposed by NATO backed reactionary forces against the wishes of the Libyan masses.

Protect the wilderness (Peasants) vs Gloucester County Council (Evill councillors (as referred to in the Bill of Rights 1688))

The argument is quite simple; the county council had a legal obligation to make an equality impact assessment before making any decision to evict us from the wilderness centre. Their attempt to follow this requirement exposes their negligence, carelessness and complete misunderstanding of the situation. We are going to argue that the county council has not shown due regard to take into account our statutory needs as part of the decision making process. In doing so they have discriminated against us and our beliefs as a socio-economically deprived group.

In Greece, the initial austerity measures developed into a full blown shock policy of devaluation of capital, which has deepened the recession and increased public debt. A main ingredient of the politics of devaluation of capital is the depreciation of labour power which aims at the weakening of the power of the working class by establishing permanent austerity and disciplining mechanisms, and by the creation of a large reserve army. Furthermore, this depreciation of labour power is facilitated by the institutional abolition of collective bargaining agreements, a process which, to a great extent, undermines the very function of the labour power representation mechanisms…

The idea of the worldwide Children's Revolution on May Day is for the women and children in the environmental movement to lead the marches all over the earth, and show that the World Revolution is peaceful and will save humanity from being driven to extinction by the burning of fossil fuels.
The proposal for the worldwide Children's Revolution is for kids' marches to be at the front of all the protests during the global General Strike, and for everyone else to lend their support by displaying banners reading “CAN YOU SAVE THE HUMAN RACE?” to help ensure the survival of future generations.

Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) officially launches their global Vegan Buddies programme ans appeals for vegan mentors to assist new and aspiring vegans.

Today a 77 year old retired man committed suicide in Syntagma square, Greece. He left a letter before he shot himself. Bellow is the link with the picture and a rough translation of the letter.

In September 2009, hundreds of Carabinieri stormed a school in the Magliana area of Rome and arrested dozens of people who were occupying it. The charges made against them were super harsh: organised crime, extortion, possession of weapons, theft, assaulting police officers, and more.

A report from the Cardiff prison noise demo held on 31st March in solidarity with prisoners by local campaigners against the prison system and I.P.P. sentencing.

Fake health food store Holland & Barrett faced angry demonstrations at 20 different locations yesterday as part of a National Day of Action Against Workfare.

Due to lack of time article copy-pasted from  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/31/petrol-crisis-thatcher-moment-tories