Dec.20-21 TWO DAYS OF SOCIAL DISOBEDIENCE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE ARGENTINA
Agrupacion La Dignidad Rebelde | 01.10.2002 22:48
CALLING ALL GRASSROOTS GROUPS, COLLECTIVES AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.. December 20th - 21st 2002 - TWO DAYS OF SOCIAL DISOBEDIENCE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE ARGENTINEAN POPULAR REBELLION
As Argentina tumbles further into uncharted financial crisis an
inspiring popular rebellion has been spreading across the country. An ongoing movement has developed that has become a living laboratory of struggle, a space where the popular politics of the future are being re-invented. The rising rebellion exploded on December 20th 2001, when over a million people took to the streets banging their pots and pans and ousting the government. This year on the 20th of
December people in Argentina and across the globe are calling for a global day of Action to demonstrate that those who are building alternatives to the dictatorship of the markets are not alone. From the unemployed workers movement, "the piqueteros", blockading roads and building community projects in their neighborhoods - to the "asambleas", the horizontally organized neighborhood meetings that have sprung up spontaneously in the cities. From the "Ahorristas", the angry savers who attack the banks daily to get their money back -
to the "Trueque" barter network which 7 million people are using instead of money. From the workers in numerous occupied factories who are self managing their work places - to the High school students occupying their schools demanding cheaper bus fares; the spirit of autonomy, the celebration of diversity and the practice of direct democracy can be seen across Argentina.
Every social strata is united in the slogan "Que Se Vayan Todos", they all must go, meaning that the entire political class leaves the stage, every politician from every party, the supreme court, the IMF, the multinational corporations, the banks - everyone out, so the people can decide the fate of their economically crippled country themselves. In the face of ever increasing poverty and total economic meltdown, the people of Argentina have found enough hope to continue
resisting, and have mustered sufficient creativity to start building practical alternatives to the despair of capitalism.
From Angola to Nepal, Bolivia to Turkey, the same cracks are
appearing in the neoliberal "logic," and people are resisting as
their economies fall apart and their societies are further crippled by foreign debt. A dozen countries are poised to be the "next Argentina," and some of them may be a lot closer to home than we ever imagined.
We need to be prepared, not only to resist, but to find ways to
rebuild our societies when the economic and ecological crisis hits.
If the popular rebellion in Argentina succeeds, it could show the world that people are able to live through severe crisis and come out the other side, not merely having survived, but stronger, and happier for struggling for new ways of living.
For two days in December, when tens of thousands of Argentineans will take to the streets to celebrate last years uprising, actions and events will take place across the world in solidarity with the people of Argentina.
What can you do on these days ? Here are some ideas ...Take pots and pans into the streets to celebrate the sound of the Cacerolazo, start up a local neighborhood assembly, Blockade roads in solidarity with the Piqueteros, occupy your workplace or college and try out self management, expropriate goods will dancing tango, subvert the spirit of consumer Christmas by creating a barter market ....the options are endless...
The aims of the Days of Social Disobedience include:
1) To show that the movement of movements against capitalism can move beyond insurrection towards a real social revolution. A social revolution, made of thousands of revolutions, where people are beginning to build the life that they want and preparing to defend it rather than simply protesting against what they don't want. And that Argentina is an inspiring model of this.
2) To build a powerful global network of solidarity for Argentina.
The movements in Argentina are in danger of isolation; without the security and the mutual inspiration of international solidarity, they will suffer further repression. Although many in the movement of movements worldwide have said "Thank god for Argentina," as we've had our hopes rekindled in the dark days post 9-11, most of the people on the streets of Argentina have no idea that they've provided such widespread optimism. By seeing the worlds social movements acting in concert and solidarity with their struggle, the people of Argentina
will inspired to continue their struggle.
3) To learn from the events in Argentina and apply these lessons to building our own autonomous spaces, neighborhood assemblies, alternative economic systems, self managed work places etc.
4) To spread the stories and information about the movements in Argentina to social movements across the world.
Many groups are planning actions/events: ranging from the
Disobedients in Italy, to Direct action groups in Belgium, Wombles in the UK, Yamango and in Spain, as well as groups in Jordan, Finland and Germany.
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Be realistic and do the impossible, because if we don't do the
impossible, we face the unthinkable." Murray Bookchin
inspiring popular rebellion has been spreading across the country. An ongoing movement has developed that has become a living laboratory of struggle, a space where the popular politics of the future are being re-invented. The rising rebellion exploded on December 20th 2001, when over a million people took to the streets banging their pots and pans and ousting the government. This year on the 20th of
December people in Argentina and across the globe are calling for a global day of Action to demonstrate that those who are building alternatives to the dictatorship of the markets are not alone. From the unemployed workers movement, "the piqueteros", blockading roads and building community projects in their neighborhoods - to the "asambleas", the horizontally organized neighborhood meetings that have sprung up spontaneously in the cities. From the "Ahorristas", the angry savers who attack the banks daily to get their money back -
to the "Trueque" barter network which 7 million people are using instead of money. From the workers in numerous occupied factories who are self managing their work places - to the High school students occupying their schools demanding cheaper bus fares; the spirit of autonomy, the celebration of diversity and the practice of direct democracy can be seen across Argentina.
Every social strata is united in the slogan "Que Se Vayan Todos", they all must go, meaning that the entire political class leaves the stage, every politician from every party, the supreme court, the IMF, the multinational corporations, the banks - everyone out, so the people can decide the fate of their economically crippled country themselves. In the face of ever increasing poverty and total economic meltdown, the people of Argentina have found enough hope to continue
resisting, and have mustered sufficient creativity to start building practical alternatives to the despair of capitalism.
From Angola to Nepal, Bolivia to Turkey, the same cracks are
appearing in the neoliberal "logic," and people are resisting as
their economies fall apart and their societies are further crippled by foreign debt. A dozen countries are poised to be the "next Argentina," and some of them may be a lot closer to home than we ever imagined.
We need to be prepared, not only to resist, but to find ways to
rebuild our societies when the economic and ecological crisis hits.
If the popular rebellion in Argentina succeeds, it could show the world that people are able to live through severe crisis and come out the other side, not merely having survived, but stronger, and happier for struggling for new ways of living.
For two days in December, when tens of thousands of Argentineans will take to the streets to celebrate last years uprising, actions and events will take place across the world in solidarity with the people of Argentina.
What can you do on these days ? Here are some ideas ...Take pots and pans into the streets to celebrate the sound of the Cacerolazo, start up a local neighborhood assembly, Blockade roads in solidarity with the Piqueteros, occupy your workplace or college and try out self management, expropriate goods will dancing tango, subvert the spirit of consumer Christmas by creating a barter market ....the options are endless...
The aims of the Days of Social Disobedience include:
1) To show that the movement of movements against capitalism can move beyond insurrection towards a real social revolution. A social revolution, made of thousands of revolutions, where people are beginning to build the life that they want and preparing to defend it rather than simply protesting against what they don't want. And that Argentina is an inspiring model of this.
2) To build a powerful global network of solidarity for Argentina.
The movements in Argentina are in danger of isolation; without the security and the mutual inspiration of international solidarity, they will suffer further repression. Although many in the movement of movements worldwide have said "Thank god for Argentina," as we've had our hopes rekindled in the dark days post 9-11, most of the people on the streets of Argentina have no idea that they've provided such widespread optimism. By seeing the worlds social movements acting in concert and solidarity with their struggle, the people of Argentina
will inspired to continue their struggle.
3) To learn from the events in Argentina and apply these lessons to building our own autonomous spaces, neighborhood assemblies, alternative economic systems, self managed work places etc.
4) To spread the stories and information about the movements in Argentina to social movements across the world.
Many groups are planning actions/events: ranging from the
Disobedients in Italy, to Direct action groups in Belgium, Wombles in the UK, Yamango and in Spain, as well as groups in Jordan, Finland and Germany.
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Be realistic and do the impossible, because if we don't do the
impossible, we face the unthinkable." Murray Bookchin
Agrupacion La Dignidad Rebelde
e-mail:
ladignidadrebelde@hotmail.com
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
Photographs, 20th December.
07.10.2002 11:33
These are some photographs I took in Buenos Aires on the 20th of December, 2001. For many of us that day represented a turning point, an awakening experience, where we begun looking in the ugly face of reality. Like the red pill in the Matrix.
Click below for the images:
Juan Manuel.
Juan Manuel.
e-mail:
xoan@ivm.org.ar
Homepage:
www.ivm.org.ar
sad truth about the situation
27.10.2002 12:38
In solidarity,
Carlos Alfonso
Argentina IMC
Carlos Alfonso
Dear Carlos...
28.10.2002 11:47
A few points. I don't know exactly how "anarchist" the events in Argentina are. However, what I do see is ordinary people acting for themselves, taking matters into their own hands - and this is something anarchists would generally approve of.
Yet, when people act for themselves, the powers that be get jittery. When people rise up, fascism is an ever present threat - after all, fascism is used primarily as the last card of a desperate boss class. Let's face it, the ruling class will never peacefully give up its power, wealth and privilege. They will fight to the last drop of our blood, if necessary.
But if people do nothing and just accept the status quo, they are left with the bourgeois democratic system (which has probably been responsible for more carnage than any other system in the entire history of the world - even fascism).
If people resist and fail, the violence of the boss class may be unleashed on an even more terrible level. But if they resist and succeed, a far better world is possible. And the better that resistance, the better our chances of success.
One point of yours that did make me wonder though... you said there's no organisation, only anarchy. Well Carlos, I get the impression that you don't really understand what anarchism is actually about. If you did, you'd know that anarchy is not about there being 'no organisation' but in fact, is about loads of organisation that is non-heirarchical.
But maybe the clue is in your desire for 'leadership', whatever this means. The only worthwhile 'leadership' I can think of, is the leadership of good ideas, i.e. when those ideas come to the fore and set an example to other workers across the globe (which seems to be art of what is happening in Argentina, although of course the global bourgeois media blackout is seriously hampering the dissemination of that example).
Or maybe, Carlos, you mean another kind of 'leadership'? The kind associated with a 'strong party' or a 'strong leader'? But surely not, as that would be the leadership of authoritarianism, statism, of reaction.
By the way, to be Argentinian doesn't automatically make you right on the matter - just as to be Palestinian doesn't necessarily give someone right about the situation there (if you doubt this, just ask Hamas, or Yasser Arafat).
Besides, the sure aim of revolutionaries is to clearly divide all nations between those who are with the working class and those against, while uniting proletarians of all countries.
Serge Forward
e-mail:
leicester_af@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/leicester_af/org.html
could carlos give any suggestions
13.11.2002 17:20
James Holland
No organization???
24.11.2002 22:12
No organization???
This is our organization: one for all, ready when needed, and that's all!
Thanks for global solidarity actions on december 20/21!
We'll be near you all!!!
Que se vayan todos!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cristina(from Argentina)
Wombles Days of Disobedience action
27.11.2002 13:51
We’re all consumers now....
Every year we’re force-fed the same bullshit, blackmailed, bullied into believing we must buy in order to feel happy. We are, en masse, defined by our ability to purchase. And each year we’re left feeling empty, used, less human, more worthless. We are never made happy by the things we’re told make us real.
Coca-cola invented christmas....
Christmas is given its value by the commerce it generates. Consumer culture has long since abandoned any pretence that this time of year is anything other than a sustained campaign of greed & the fight for profit. Our faith in people is distorted by the obscenities that capital creates - we are told we are not popular enough (try more), not healthy enough (eat more), not desirable enough (drink more), not human enough (buy more). We kill ourselves constantly in the desire to feel whole. Not surprisingly there are more homeless people & more suicides at christmas than at any other period of the year.
Giving the kids what they want....
Oxford St is Europe’s largest shopping district. Millions & millions of pounds pass between its palaces & glittering arcades while the damaged & starving lay abandoned & shivering in its doorways. Sat 21st Dec is the retail establishment’s most important day. They’ve spent the last 6 months preparing for it with almost military precision. They demand we buy, consume, sell our worth for the privilege of knowing our place. This year we intend it shouldn’t happen.
The kids giving it back....
Christmas is also a time when elves & pixies come out to play. As small, simple acts of everyday disobedience shoplifting has come to symbolise the changing nature of our times - a conscious desire not to comply, to accept our place, our roles, the social conditions that are forced upon us. Last year the retail industry lost a total of £2044 million in theft, 1.76% of total turnover (an average of £42 per customer). This makes the UK the shoplifting capital of Europe. We are not isolated by our acts of refusal.
The Wombles in no way endorse or encourage activities that may get you into trouble with your mum. We do, however, fully endorse creative use of your own imagination.
D21 - la lucha es una sola....
More importantly it was Christmas time last year that the people of Argentina, enraged & desperate after years of oppression, engaged in a popular uprising, forcing out the corrupt government that had, with the aid of IMF/World Bank intervention, brought the country to financial collapse.
After a year of almost constant crisis they are now beginning to wrestle themselves away from the chains of capitalism & discover the freedom necessary to explore & develop their own future.
On sat Dec 21st we’ll be taking to the streets as part of a global day of action in celebration of the courage & resilience of the people of Argentina who dared to act...
What’s going on....
Exchanging money for goods is about power & control. Capitalism was built, & is sustained, by the imbalance that this power creates.
The Wombles, with others, will therefore be creating an autonomous space in the middle of Oxford St featuring:
A FREE SHOP - Come & get stuff for free. Books/cd’s/toys/clothes. Bring stuff down you want to give away.
A MOBILE KITCHEN - Giving away Womble veggie burgers & wonderous edible delights
MUSIC - with free dancing lessons. Learn to tango Argentinean style.
Bring old pots & pans to bang (like the cacerolazo of Argentina), create your own DIY samba band.
Guerrilla santa’s will be on hand to show you how to make the most of your ‘disposable income’.
Come join the fun
Lots to be had by everyone
‘HISTORY IS WHAT WE’RE GIVEN WHEN WE’VE GOT NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE’
Other groups involved in the Global Day of Disobedience in solidarity with the Argentinean popular rebellion are:
DISOBBEDIENTI - ITALY
JNM - BELGIUM
YOMANGO - SPAIN
BLACK REVOLUTION - SWITZERLAND
as well as actions in Jordan, Finland, US, Germany
It goes one at a time.
It starts when you care to act.
It starts when you do it again after they say no.
It starts when you say ‘we’ & know who you mean;
& each day you mean
one more
WED 18th DEC
Argentinean Night
Film & talk about the uprising, food
Union Tavern,
Camberwell New Rd, SE5
free/donations
FRI 20th DEC
Night of Rage
Affinity group actions & individual acts of defiance against
those institutions that enforce control & our compliance
SAT 21st DEC
Day of Disobedience
Mass santa action in Oxford St.
Meet Oxford Circus, Midday onwards
www.wombles.org.uk
the enemies of capitalism
If you would like to help in this action please come to the wednesday meetings [see www.wombles.org.uk].
Here is also a short wish list:
Freeshop: collect clothes [preferably nice ones!], Books. CD's anything which you feel will be good on a freeshop, bring them to the wednesday meetings or on the 18th Decemeber, Union Tavern for Argentinean nite.
Agit-Prop: Think of ways of labelling Oxford Street i.e. "Shoplifting area", or "Autoreductions in progress" or other such things.
Actions: Oxford Street is a large area, think of actions which could be done to disrupt the consumer-commodity relationship. Mcdonalds Workers
Resistance are discussing a Global call for the day in support see www.mwr.org.uk for more info.
W@
e-mail:
wombles@hushmail.com
Homepage:
http://www.wombles.org.uk
This action is too vague!
27.11.2002 19:57
Harlequin
"NO-ONE WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO"
29.11.2002 14:57
Something clear & precise: TURN UP. CREATE CHAOS.
(Clear & precise instructions on how to create chaos can be found...)
Let's Vanguard