»Friday, August 28, 2009 »

I would like to discuss an interesting communiqué from the French Anarchist Federation (FAF) (June 2009) which values ​​ »… practices based on the Amerindian habits and customs and tradition of direct democracy [which] not are not only developped into the « original » (native) peoples communities, but also expading outside those communities.  » Because « These values are joining some anarchist proposals : autonomy from the state and political parties, collective decisions, federalism. »

Anarchists realize that people in the Amazon rainforest are implementing principles that are dear to them, fine ! Although, contrary to what an unrepentant Westerno-centrism makes them write, it is not the Native Americans who « join us » but we who are getting our bearings : after all, their practices pre-exist a few centuries before the creation of the FAF (and of the CNT-AIT) !

The notion of « habits and customs / traditions » remains to be discussed. Presented as it is, it gives the impression that all this is respectable! But seniority does not make quality, and in the Americas, as in Europe, there is obviously a sort to be done in all the traditions ! Finally, the notion of « original (native) peoples » seems to me to be racialist (if not racist).

« The Sarajevo assassination » is known in history as the assassination perpetrated on Sunday, June 28, 1914, against Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie Chotek, Duchess of Hohenberg1, by the group Young Bosnia (Mlada Bosna). Gavrilo Princip was the author of the fatal shots. This event is considered as the trigger of the First World War, which resulted in the defeat, fall and dismemberment of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman empires, as well as the outbreak of the Russian and German Revolution.

But who were these Young Bosnia? Were they Serb nationalists, as the Serbian Government is now pretending, in an attempt to rewrite history?

Our anarchosyndicalist companions of Anarchosyndicalist Initiative (ASI) of Belgrade set the record straight at the History’s time …

(Translation of an article published in the July 2019 issue of « Direktna Akcija », Action Directe)

« Every night, I dreamed that I was an anarchist, that I was fighting with cops. »
Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia, talking about his life before the assassination of Sarajevo.

Today, on August 24, 2019, the mayor of Paris, a member of the Socialist Party (the one of the non-intervention in Spain in 1936 and much more bullshit since …), The Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of Spain (put in place by the military rebellion led by Caudillo Franco) ), the Ambassador of the […]

Currently, since beginning of summer 2019, a huge movement of strike is hitting the Health care industry in France, and especially the Nursing homes for elderly (EHPAD in French) and the Hospitals’ Emergency unit.

This movement fights for dignity for workers and for hospital patients.

What is new is that this movement emerged from the workers themselves, inspired by the dynamic of the Yellow Vests, outside from the trade-unions (even if unions are running after the movement to try to catch it and canalize it)

To understand what is at stake, we republish below an article we issued 10 years ago exactly … when we supported struggles and strikes of staff from different retirement homes. But at that time those strikes ran only localy, in isolated movements, so it didn’t last enough for a global change.

While the overall situation has not changed from what we described in our article (apart the name of the Ministers that has changed, but policy stays as ever .. ), maybe the generalized awareness of the workers in this industry will lead to a general strike (and not isolated struggles) that would achieve a balance of power sufficient ?

A wave of repression of unheard-of violence fell on our anarchosyndicalist and anarchist companions in Indonesia.

In Bandung alone, the police arrested 619 people, who were penned, undressed, head-shaved, piled up and taken away in pick-up , shorn and marked with red paint.