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Πανελλαδικό κάλεσμα για την απεργία στις 17/5/2017 | Αναρχική Ομοσπονδία- Call Out for the national general strike in Greece- 17 May 2017 ANARCHIST FEDERATION

crystalzero72 — Mon, 15 May 2017 14:18:10 +0000

ΟΛΟΙ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΔΡΟΜΟΥΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ 10:30 ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, Μουσείο, στηρίζουμε τα μπλοκ των σωματείων βάσης ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ 9:00 ΑΠΕΡΓΙΑΚΗ ΠΕΡΙΦΡΟΥΡΗΣΗ, Τσιμισκή με Αριστοτέλους 10:00 ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, Καμάρα, στηρίζουμε τα μπλοκ των σωματείων βάσης ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟ 9:00, ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, Άγαλμα Βενιζέλου

Μια απο τα ίδια ή μια καινούρια αρχή;

Το χειρότερο που μπορεί να σου συμβεί με τις αλυσίδες είναι να τις συνηθίσεις. Ηδη, εδώ και 7 χρόνια, ανά τακτά χρονικά διαστήματα κράτος και κεφάλαιο “δαγκώνουν” κι ένα νέο κομμάτι από τα τελευταία μέσα επιβίωσης του κόσμου της εργασίας. Μοιάζει με φυσικό φαινόμενο κάθε 1,5 χρόνο, μετά απο μια “αγωνιώδη” περίοδο υποτιθέμενων διαπραγματεύσεων του ελληνικού κράτους με τους πάτρωνές του, την ΕΕ και το ΔΝΤ, να ανακοινώνονται οι νέες περικοπές σε μισθούς και συντάξεις, να χάνονται νέα εργατικά δικαιώματα, να υποτιμάται η τάξη μας όλο και πιο πολύ. Ούτε καν η φρασεολογία δεν αλλάζει απο ΠΑΣΟΚ σε ΝΔ και από ΝΔ σε ΣΥΡΙΖΑ.

Δεν είναι όμως φυσικό φαινόμενο. Είναι πολιτικό φαινόμενο που παράγεται απο την αγωνιστική αποστράτευση της καταπιεζόμενης κοινωνίας. Κι αυτό σημαίνει ένα πράγμα: θα υποτιμηθούμε ακόμα περισσότερο. Τα σημερινά μέτρα είναι ο προάγγελος των επόμενων που είναι ο προάγγελος των μεθεπόμενων. Ωσπου το κεφάλαιο να πετύχει την πλήρη κυριαρχία πάνω σε κάθε πτυχή των ζωών μας.

Ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, για όποιον/α ξέρει πολιτική ιστορία έκανε ότι υποσχέθηκε. Όχι σε εμάς. Αλλά στο καθεστώς που πάντοτε υπηρετεί η καθεστωτική αριστερά και η σοσιαλδημοκρατία. Αφομοίωσε τη δυναμική της κοινωνικής αντεπίθεσης των πρώτων μνημονιακών χρόνων, την έσυρε στον εξευτελισμό της κάλπης και μετά την αντάλλαξε με μια θέση όχι μόνο στην εξουσία σήμερα, αλλά και ως σταθερός πόλος του νέου δικομματισμού τα επόμενα χρόνια. Οχι άσχημα για ευρωκομμουνιστές του 4%, πολύ άσχημα για όλους εμάς. Γιατί ο καλύτερος τρόπος να συνηθίσεις τις αλυσίδες σου είναι αυτός που σου υπόσχεται να στις βγάλει να σου πει πως είναι τελικά απαραίτητο να τις φοράς. Ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ήταν το καλύτερο δώρο, η πιο σίγουρη λύση για το κράτος και το κεφάλαιο που στην ιστορική περίοδο που ζούμε έχει αποφασίσει να τα “μαζέψει” όλα.

Και να λοιπόν που είμαστε μπροστά σε ένα νέο μνημόνιο.

Καλούμε τον κόσμο να πλαισιώσει τις αγωνιστικές κινητοποιήσεις που θα καλεστούν και την απεργία στις 17 Μάη. Να τις πλαισιώσει χωρίς καμιά αυταπάτη ότι όσο αυτές μένουν περιορισμένες στο γεγονός της ψήφισης δεν θα είναι τίποτα άλλο από αγωνιστικά τελετουργικά που δίνουν ένα κάποιο μήνυμα δυσαρέσκειας. Να τις πλαισιώσει έχοντας στο νου πως από την ίδια εκείνη στιγμή πρέπει να αρχίσει μια νέα διαδικασία. Μια διαδικασία πολιτικής και κοινωνικής στράτευσης, συμμετοχής και σχεδιασμένης αντεπίθεσης σε όλα τα μέτωπα: στο πεζοδρόμιο, στο δρόμο, στη δουλειά, στη γειτονιά. Έναν αγώνα που θα κρατήσει καιρό και θα είναι δύσκολος. Τόσο δύσκολος, όσο χειρότερη έχει γίνει η ταξική μας θέση και η δυνατότητα εκβιασμού της εξουσίας πάνω μας. Το κόστος της παραίτησης το πληρώνουμε ήδη και την επόμενη φορά που θα γίνει ψήφιση “μνημονίων” θα είναι ακόμα μεγαλύτερο από ότι σήμερα. Όσο ανεχόμαστε τις αλυσίδες αυτές θα γίνονται βαρύτερες.

Τα ψέματα έχουν τελειώσει από καιρό, όσο αποφεύγουμε τη μάχη τόσο θα γνωρίζουμε την ήττα. Με αφορμή αυτό το μνημόνιο να ξεκινήσουμε μια νέα περίοδο αγωνιστικής και πολιτικής ανασυγκρότησης, συμμετοχής και σύγκρουσης. Ώσπου το χέρι του κόσμου της εργασίας να γίνει ισχυρό και να προκαλέσει τον φόβο στο κράτος και το κεφάλαιο.

Ώσπου να συνειδητοποιήσουμε τη δύναμη μας και απαλλαχτούμε μια και για πάντα από τα καπιταλιστικά παράσιτα και τους κάθε χρωματικής απόχρωσης διαχειριστές της εξουσίας και των ζωών μας.

Χρειαζόμαστε μια καινούρια αρχή.
Ολοι στους δρόμους.

ΑΘΗΝΑ
10:30 ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, Μουσείο, στηρίζουμε τα μπλοκ των σωματείων βάσης

ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ
9:00 ΑΠΕΡΓΙΑΚΗ ΠΕΡΙΦΡΟΥΡΗΣΗ, Τσιμισκή με Αριστοτέλους
10:00 ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, Καμάρα, στηρίζουμε τα μπλοκ των σωματείων βάσης

ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟ
9:00, ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, Άγαλμα Βενιζέλου

ΑΝΑΡΧΙΚΗ ΟΜΟΣΠΟΝΔΙΑ

anarchist-federation.gr
info@anarchist-federation.gr
twitter: twitter.com/anarchistfedGr
fb: facebook.com/anarxikiomospondia2015

The post Πανελλαδικό κάλεσμα για την απεργία στις 17/5/2017 | Αναρχική Ομοσπονδία- Call Out for the national general strike in Greece- 17 May 2017 ANARCHIST FEDERATION appeared first on Void Network.

“Wrong to work! Two perspectives on the abolition of work” by Joseph Kay

voidnetwork — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:36:00 +0000

ALL MUST WORK! declares the cabinet of millionaires. ‘Workers not shirkers!’, they implore. ‘Strivers not skivers!’ The divide-and-rule rhetoric trying to pit those in work against those without is as relentless as it is transparent. But what’s so good about work anyway?

Junge Linke’s short piece nicely skewers how attempts to mobilise resentment of claimants and the unemployed undermine even those in work who aren’t claiming benefits. What I’d like to focus on is two perspectives on what an explicitly anti-work politics might look like.

Robocommunism
Traditionally, anti-work politics has been bound up with rising productivity and technological development. A famous passage from Karl Marx’s notebooks, the ‘fragment on machines’, envisages a day when living labour moves to the side of a highly automated production process. Marx’s son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, authored a polemic titled ‘the right to be lazy’, which proclaimed:

…not to demand the Right to Work which is but the right to misery, but to forge a brazen law forbidding any man to work more than three hours a day, the earth, the old earth, trembling with joy would feel a new universe leaping within her.

At the dawn of the 20th century, sociologist Max Weber suggested the protestant, and particularly Calvinist, work ethic was a significant factor in the rise of capitalism. Weber’s thesis is considered unproven, but the glorification of work is certainly still with us, as the demonisation of claimants and the unemployed shows. Indeed, the introduction of workfare, Universal Credit and Universal Job Match threatens to transform unemployment into constant unpaid, supervised, psuedo-work – updating CVs, searching and applying for jobs, stacking shelves in Poundland… all subject to managerial discipline without even the sweetener of a wage.

Yet this is happening despite a big resurgence in the ‘tech debate’ from across the political spectrum – from neoliberals like Jeffrey Sachs, to Keynesians like Paul Krugman and comment pieces in the Financial Times, as well as the more usual anarchist and communist figures. Could it be that the renewed attempts to impose work on everyone masks a crisis of what Kathi Weeks calls ‘the work society’?

The thrust of the argument here is that technology-driven productivity rises are driving ever-greater output with ever-lower requirements for labour. Foxconn’s infamous iPhone manufacturing plant – the one with the suicide nets where workers have rioted and fought for better conditions – is facing automation by one million robots by 2013. When even intolerable sweatshop conditions are cheaper to automate, what future for work? There’s even developing technology which can replace traditionally labour-intensive sectors such as fast food andfruit-picking. Add in bittorrent distribution of digital media and literature, 3D printing technology… and work starts to look quite quaint.

Under capitalism, this means rising unemployment, and intensified work at lower wages for those ‘lucky’ enough to keep their jobs (due to the competition from the ‘reserve army’ of the unemployed). Historically, the service industries have absorbed some of this surplus labour, but as they automate too, potential abundance and increased leisure for all instead translates into generalised misery.1 But only so long as we put up with capitalism.

This kind of techno-utopianism promises a quantitative abolition of work, down to Lafargue’s maximum three hours a day and beyond. Just think how much labour-intensive work – like call centre cold-calling – is basically pointless except from the point of view of private profit. Abolishing capitalism – private ownership of the means of production, with consumption rationed by the market – promises to harness productivity improvements to reduce toil for everyone in a context of unprecedented abundance.

Rethinking ‘work’
The technological optimism of the above account has been criticised from some quarters. Maria Mies, in her book ‘Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale’, suggests ‘the abolition of work’ only makes sense if it takes the typically boring, repetitive – and male – production line work as its archetype.2 Mies suggests a redefinition of ‘production’ as ‘the production of human beings’ as opposed to ‘the production of surplus value for capital’, and suggests a radical rethink of work by replacing the archetypal figure of the production line worker with that of the mother.

A feminist concept of labour has to be oriented towards the production of life as the goal of work and not the production of things and wealth, of which the production of life is then a secondary derivative. The production of immediate life in all its aspects must be the core concept for the development of a feminist concept of work. (…) A feminist concept of labour has, therefore, to be oriented towards a different concept of time, in which time is not segregated into portions of burdensome labour and portions of supposed pleasure and leisure, but in which times of work and times of rest are alternating and interspersed. If such a concept and such an organisation of time prevail, the length of the working day is no longer very relevant.

Mies’ account is not unproblematic, and is bound up with a somewhat romantic advocacy of a return to the subsistence agriculture of her childhood, and more than a hint of gender essentialism. For this reason, it would be good to read her alongside an explicitly anti-work feminist text such as Kathi Weeks’ recent ‘The problem with work’. However, I think Mies’ reconception of work points towards a sort of ‘qualitative abolition’, that is, a breakdown between the separate spheres of ‘work’ and ‘life’, production and meaning.

Here, ‘work’ is understood as off the clock, variously affective, arduous, meaningful, frustrating, rewarding. Childcare not line assembly. (Re)producing life not value. It’s undertaken not because of a need to earn money to survive, but because it directly contributes to the reproduction of people, whether by raising children, growing food, cultural activities and so on. As it’s not production for the market, capitalist notions of efficiency fall by the wayside, and instead the focus is on making necessary toil tolerable through sharing the burden.

Mies views technology as embodying an instrumental relation to nature, which reflects a patriarchal logic of the domination of (male) culture over (female) nature. Hence she rejects the abolition of work through technology and instead advocates low-tech subsistence as an ecological, feminist alternative to both capitalism and state socialism. Her argument is well made, but I think a more emancipatory view of technology, informed by the feminist critique of the invisible domestic labour on which such utopias often rest, could see these two perspectives combined to good effect.

A critical application of technology could abolish, or at least dramatically reduce, repetitive toil, while rethinking production as the reproduction of life could abolish both the gendered division of housework and the capitalist production of care, in favour of something produced in common and distributed according to needs. Work, as a separate sphere of life would be abolished. In place of the pursuit of profit, ecological limits and human needs, including the abolition of boredom, would guide the production of things. Productive activity would consist in the reproduction of human beings in place of the relentless production of value. Do the conditions of this movement follow from premises now in existence?

1.A counter-tendency here is the proliferation of affective labour in things like food service jobs, ‘the human touch’ being the one thing robots can’t offer.
2.Furthermore, she argues it relies on the continued exploitation of women’s housework, and of neocolonial exploitation of much of the world for the raw materials.
article’s source: http://libcom.org/blog/wrong-work-two-perspectives-abolition-work-03012013

The post “Wrong to work! Two perspectives on the abolition of work” by Joseph Kay appeared first on Void Network.

To Everyone Feeling Screwed Over by the Economy! Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Population, Society, Village Development — by Kyle Chamberlain

voidnetwork — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:47:00 +0000

To everyone feeling screwed over by the economy,

We are told that our problem is that there aren’t enough jobs. This message is everywhere. The media gauges our plight with regularly updated unemployment statistics. Politicians debate theatrically over who can create more work. People everywhere clamor for scarce positions at factories and corporations.

I’d like to point out the great irony of this situation — people hate their jobs. How many people do you know who love their job? The truth is, most of us who have ordinary jobs can barely tolerate them. All else being equal, we’d rather not do them.

Work ethic is something this society takes pride in. But, if we are honest, we will confess that we call ourselves ‘hard working’ primarily to rationalize the daily abuses, deprivations, and indignities of the workplace. Work ethic is the only ethic most of us satisfy at our jobs. I think we can agree that most of our jobs aren’t making the world a better place.

So here we are, bickering and begging to fill roles we hate.

We should remember, that ‘employed’ is just another word for ‘used’. Just as you might employ a hammer and nails, your employer employs, or uses, you. The term ‘used’ very aptly describes our relationship with our employers. Like prostitutes, we resign ourselves to fake relationships for an empty cash return. In a healthy relationship, our devotions are reciprocated in kind. But in a relationship of use and abuse, the best you can expect is a cash settlement.

It should not surprise us, then, that politicians and other powerful people will laud our enthusiasm for employment and champion that cause. To the elite, unemployment is a crises because it means that the population is insufficiently used. An unused population is unprofitable, and potentially unruly. So, when the wealthy come to our rescue, they do it with jobs. As the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation slogan goes, “We believe that all people deserve the chance to lead healthy productive lives.” (emphasis mine)

Employment has become almost inseparable from other values like responsibility and human welfare. In our culture, promoting employment has become synonymous with supporting families, communities, and countries. At a time when we are so utterly reliant on employment and the economy for our survival, being anti-job is like being anti-life. Who but the laziest and most unrealistic sort of hippie would oppose jobs?

But let us not forget; people were not always so dependent on employment or the economy for survival. In fact, we’ve been hunter/gatherers for most of our existence. Money, the economy, and even farming are relatively recent contrivances. We made them up. And, until very recent history, jobs were merely part of a mixed strategy used by families to make a living. Hunting, gathering, gardening, crafting, gifting, cooperation, trade, and self-employment, are all perfectly viable ways to make a living. Our grandparents recognized that money wasn’t always the most effective way to meet a need. Living by paycheck alone was a thing for the urban wealthy.

At periods in history, it’s been possible for some people to use currency to maintain an affluence disproportionate to the real value of their work. We may be nearing the close of such a period. Unfortunately, alternatives to employment are growing scarce.

It’s not something taught in history class, but our reliance on employment stems ultimately from the destruction and monopolization of our environment. People once relied exclusively on free natural resources. The trend toward universal employment has followed in lock step with the destruction of those resources. When the things we need are no longer freely available in nature, we’re forced to labor at ever more complicated and dubious methods of resource extraction. The story of our culture’s relationship with American Indians and other indigenous cultures, illustrates the common pattern.

My young men shall never work. Men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us in dreams. You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men. But how dare I cut off my mother’s hair? — Smohala, Wanapum spiritual leader, 1851

Time and time again, indigenous resistance to work, as we know it, only broke when traditional resources failed.

My people did not farm and had no use for crops until the salmon runs began to disappear from the streams and rivers. White activities causing pollution, and commercial fishing projects were the cause of this. Every year, the Colville found fewer salmon to take, not enough to live on, and so began to farm to stay alive. Finally, dams were built on the Columbia and the salmon were stopped altogether from coming above Grand Coulee. The salmon were gone, and high powered rifles are doing about the same to our game animals. By the time we saw the need to farm, the younger generations realized their ancestors had let the whites have the richest and most fertile bottomland. And it was too late to get it back. — Mourning Dove, Colville author, 1888-1936

The indigenous haven’t been the only people forced to deal with resource destruction and monopolization. Corporations and governments are actively marginalizing our access to clean water, healthy food, safe shelter, and social support. All of these things, once provided freely by our environment, are now increasingly expensive.

It’s not just our physical environment that is being destroyed. Our social and psychological environments are also under attack. Economic pressures, advertising, and propaganda have undermined the self-reliance of families and communities. Perhaps the ultimate victory of consumerism is that many people have lost their ability to find meaning outside of work. Many people will tell you they simply wouldn’t know how to spend their time without a job. Can they really see no higher value in their lives? Without respect for ourselves, and the support of others, there’s no climbing out of this abusive system.

The influence of the world’s powerful minority should not be underestimated. But those of us in privileged countries need to understand that this economic ‘crisis’ is largely due to the world, and perhaps mother nature herself, finally calling our bluff. The fact that our economic prosperity can falter so rapidly is proof that our wealth is not based on the real value of our work, but our success in a deceptive and exploitative game. We owe our declining wealth to mountains of debt and our lucky political position, and we’ve milked them for all they’re worth. We’ve been cheating people out of real value, for novelties and speculation, since the fur trade era. And now, bubbles are bursting.

Our way of life has also depended on finite fossil energy resources. This is not to mention threatened soils, waters, and forests. And the world is getting more crowded. It might be time to figure out what it actually looks like to live within our means.

But let’s be clear. We don’t need more jobs. We need access to the basics of survival. We don’t need more money. We need to heal our environment. We don’t need employers to keep us busy. We need time to make our communities into healthy habitats for people again.

The less we participate in this abusive economy, the better. 10% unemployment is deplorable. We need 90% unemployment. If we really resent this system, let’s earn less, buy less, and own less. Let’s invest our time, energy, and resources in things that can’t be taxed or parisitized by corporations. Let’s deal not in dollars, but in energy, nutrients, materials, local currencies, and relationships. Let’s not expand, let’s stabilize. Let’s enjoy art, culture, and leisure. Perhaps we can topple the pyramid by shrinking the bottom.

Our work is this: We’ve got to make clean water available wherever rain falls. We’ve got to make food grow so rampantly that you can’t give it away. We need to build affordable and debt free housing. We need to start creating opportunities where we live so we don’t have to drive. We need to wrest control of land and resources away from powerful minorities. We need integrative, sustainable methods for managing land. We need to ranch in a way that makes game more abundant. We need to farm in a way that makes forests grow. We need to use energy in a way that generates peace and stability. We need to strengthen our social bonds.

If you still have a job, get everything in order, and quit. Do it as soon as you can, because we’ve never had a more important work to do.

article source: http://permaculture.org.au/2012/02/10/to-everyone-feeling-screwed-over-by-the-economy

Editor’s Note: If you enjoy the article below, and you missed Kyle’s past 3-part series, amongst others, be sure to check them out! (Part I, Part II, and Part III.)

The post To Everyone Feeling Screwed Over by the Economy! Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Population, Society, Village Development — by Kyle Chamberlain appeared first on Void Network.

Occupy Nigeria!: Moments of Insurrection from Revolted Nigeria

voidnetwork — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:13:00 +0000

short introduction by “Moment of Insurrection” group:

Nigeria is known to many antagonists for the on-going indigenous insurgency against ecological destruction. Over the last week the country has ruptured into massive upheavals triggered by the states removal of fuel subsidy. Given that Nigeria is exploited for a massive quantity of the worlds oil supply, and that the state is recognized for little more then the fuel subsidy- the initial strikes called for by the unions have been transvered by the multitude and now across Nigeria insurrection bellows.

Below is a chronological montage of twitter feeds from numerous people and various sites, including #OccupyNigeria. Although social media remains problematic for antagonists in many struggles-, the recent ‘Arab Spring’ and Occupy movements have found a social detonator in the medium. The reproduction of these messages here creates for me a (cyber)space in which to view the belligerent pluralism of a community-in-motion’s assembly.

In From Riot to Insurrection, Alfredo M Bonanno believes we must be ‘capable of understanding the communications of the future, because it is this that will make it possible to construct the insurrectionist instruments of the future to be put alongside the knife our predecessors carried between their teeth’. And it is in this way ‘we can build an air bridge between the tools of the past and the dimensions of the future’.

Messages from revolted Nigeria:

JAN 5

ANYONE IN KANO LIBERATION SQ PLEASE DM ME A NUMBER

The #Kano protesters are scampering for their lives as Police fire live ammunition and tear-gas into the crowd

The Nigerian Police are still following the #Kano Protesters to Sabuwar Kofa firing tear gas and shooting randomly.

The latest terrorist group in #Nigeria is called “Nigerian Police Force”

“some of my friends were injured but there’s no one to take them to hospital. #Kano” Police block injured protesters

Medical attention needed in #Kano as some of the peaceful protesters are injured, following the police midnight attack.

Sometime after midnight, #Kano police used teargas to disperse the peaceful crowd at Silver Jubilee Square

Friends Please as we #occupynigeria pls check the Hashtag #TearGas for info on how to prevent&deal with it. PLEASE RT

#occupynigeria has now besieged the Edo house of assembly in Benin city. If you’re in Edo state pls join them asap!

So, let’s prepare for medical teams/mobile units to go along with our protest. Unlike the FG, every life is important to us.

For tear gas, use gas mask, or soak bandana in lemon juice or vinegar&cover ur nose till u reach high ground. Wear Goggles

Lawyers protest at Ikeja,

<><><><>

JAN 6

time is 8am and start-up point is Olaiya Junction

Lugard Hall needs you RIGHT NOW!!! You should be there if you want CHANGE!!!

The Police in Ekiti have agreed to protect the #occupynigeria protesters to ensure the demonstration is not hijacked

Meanwhile, Ogun kickstarted demonstrations this morning. Protesters now at Oke Ilewo.

Volunteer medic personnel needed in Abeokuta, Abuja, Kaduna today.

Veteran Musician Eedris Abdulkareem releases Nigeria Jaga jaga part 2.

BIS services on @MTNNG is shut down in #Kaduna

Crack down started in Kano where an amazing thing happened. Xtians & Muslims protected each other.

The Nigeria Medical Association has said it will join millions of Nigerians to protest government’s subsidy removal policy.

Some ex-militants in the Niger Delta have threatened to regroup if there is excessive use of force on #occupynigeria protesters.

Soldiers beating and molesting protesters around UI and Poly area, Ibadan.

Sokoto is tomorrow. Pls join and retweet.

Lawyers in Lagos have begun a protest against the fuel subsidy removal

STRATEGIC BRIEFING 1! Remove your phone contact details from social media network. DM Your number ONLY to Trusted organizers!

Leaders of Nigerian labour unions and the Federal Government holding secret talks in Abuja right now

I must confess I never expected the protest to be dis massive, a lot of people are out here…goin strong!

Police crack him gun carry am face up, a protester shouted “u shoot one, we shoot five” other policemen begin laff

Benin City protesters block Lagos highway. Students and lecturers join in.

Word is its crazy up at Ugbowo/Lagos road as well, benin/lagos road blocked!!!

just got word dat d emir of bauchi is marching with the masses…..Sanu Sir!!!

Protesters in Benin carried jonathan’s coffin

A building has been burnt down in ilorin belonging to the minister of youth and development

Flash! The police dat killed a protester in ilorin has been stoned to death

Another Nigerian Killed during #occupynigeria protest! Nigerian TV AIT Report says 1 protestor killed in Gusau, Zamfara

#OccupyNigeria Inspires #Kenya as Kenyan activists cite Nigerian Movement as Inspiration as they start mobilisation. Now We INSPIRE others

We’ll occupy dr minds, dr thots, dr meetings, dr plans… Until Lambs become lions and the timid become bold…

Any connections to printers in #Abuja that can work magic & print flyers for tomorrow’s protest?

Join #OccupyEnugu peaceful march this Monday by 8am @ Okpara Square, Enugu.

Im so ready for the protest…however long it takes, you should be too. This madness must end, and the time is now!

murtala mohammed international airport will be occupied retweet

OccupyNigeria protest to hold in #London, #Abuja, #Ekiti, Ile-#Ife, #Oshogbo, #Ibadan, #Ijebu-Ode, others today.

A group of newspaper readers, Thursday in Yenagoa, mobbed a man who tried to support GEJ’s-led FG removal of #fuelsubsidy.

Protester killed in Kano

<><><><>

JAN 7

Security Operatives have reportedly blocked all the routes to the Eagles Square, Abuja, in bid to stall the planned #occupynigeria protest.

The nbc is blacking #occupynigeria protests out pls send your videos to occupynaija@gmail.com..

If I Die Durin D Struggle,PLS DNT LET MY BLOOD FLOW IN VAIN. C DIS BATTLE2D END.. I REST MY CASE

Go and #occupynigeria don’t be violent, don’t give the government or policemen opportunity to say we are violent….

Our comrades are gathered at Transcorp junction, Merit House. Please tell those on your TL, FB Wall, and BB contact

NANS south west have taken over Ibadan protest. As things are, it may soon turn violent

We are flooding all the senators private phones with 1 million SMS each. What do you want the message to be? Pls reply.

Support the protesters! We need handkerchiefs, mats, first aid kits, water, snacks, recharge cards for Monday!

#BenueState is on at Woodland Park, #Makurdi. Join Now!!! Please retweet, broadcast, post on facebook. Inform everybody!!!

Donations keep coming in! We just got 8 cartons of biscuits&wafers for Monday! If you can’t march, u can and should support!

Even hackers have started their onslaught. The federal looters are in trouble

All web programmers, and developers with advanced knowledge in SQL injections, proxy by pass should contact me…

London protest Live! #OCCUPYNIGERIA photo! more arrive as Nigerians students protest in london http://t.co/7tqJ27ig

Now approaching Police barricade at Secretariat, Abuja

Across Nigeria, Christians provide protection for Muslims as they observe Jumat prayers. United Nigeria.

occupynigeria‘s getting interesting. Government people should just start hiding in their offices….before una chop slap outside

UPDATE: PENGASSAN announces indefinite strike and will NOT call off even if NLC directs, until price is reversed

Market women, today, occupied the streets in Ile Ife.

SSS, today in #Minna, arrested a protester, Fatihu Aminu, a graduate of the IBB University. He’s still in SSS custody.

Attention! #OccupyNigeria #Abuja Cover your faces with kerosene dabbed hankys… That’s the fastest antidote to TEARGAS. Pls retweet!

BREAKING: #Nigeria‘s National Industrial Court rules that NLC must not embark on Strike on Monday 9 Jan

BREAKING NEWS! THE KANGAROO INJUNCTION obtained by GEJ from National Industrial Court is NOT APPLICABLE TO #OCCUPYNIGERIA NO TURNING BACK!

The criminal Judges think they carry any weight. They’ll only help upgrade this from protests to full-blown revolution.

Subsidy removal : Reps to convene emergency session on Sunday

We’ve gotten loads of water but we need First Aid Kits. Please donate towards the Monday protest

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – nitda.gov.ng HACKED in solidarity with the #occupynigeria protests.

We will disobey all kangaroo court rulings. That’s why its called civil disobedience, idiota! The prostests will hold.

Okada men just troop out in Benin blocking all road junctions and roundabouts. E don dey red o.

Opposition politician supporting the #occupynigeria movement, you’re also chopping our money so you don’t fool me.

Some #OccupyNigeria protesters are still at the Eagle square Abuja after passing the night there.

Every 24hrs, we @NaijaCyberHack will bring down a Nigerian Government Website until they respond to our cause!

Nigerian transport ministry website hacked by activists

#occupynigeria protests at World Bank on Monday, January 9th at 11am to 1pm & at IMF on Friday, January 13th at 10am to 2pm in Washington DC

Dear Nigerians in South Africa, ball in your court! Please welcome GEJ tomorrow. Reconfirm his attendance and go say hello.

OccupyNigeria-US washingtonDC/NewYork,Otawa-Canada,Kiev-Ukraine in top gear..international movment’s spreads.. #London a success already!

<><><><>

JAN 8

The Nigerian Medical Association and Nigerian Bar Association to offer free services to Nigerians in the struggle.

What You Should Know if Arrested While Protesting in Nigeria. http://is.gd/JAF0NP

Four staff unions of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria have planned to join the mass protest called by the NLC tomorrow.

House of Representatives vote against the removal of #fuelsubsidy.

Do you know what these Honorables have done? They are trying to stop you from occupying them.

Protest kicks off at 9AM tomorrow @ Gani fawehinmi Park, Ojota bus stop, Ikorodu road, Lagos. Pls be there!

Nigeria Labour Congress commends House Motion But Says, “The Strikes and Protests Must Go On” Tomorrow

Lagos – the take-off point for the Island crowd in Lagos tomorrow is under the Falomo Bridge at 8am

FGN is offering to buy airtime on all TV & radio stations in Nigeria tomorrow to prevent #occupyNigeria broadcasts. Watch out between 12-5pm

People of Meiran, Abule Egba, Sango, Agbado & their environs converge @ Mr Biggs, Abule Egba Bus Stop, 7:30am, then to Ojota.

Redeemed University of Nigeria forbids students from joining the #occupyNigeria protest, students threatened with expulsion.

PDP vigilantes in 30 buses NOW at Hotoro to attack #occupyNigeria protesters in the morning on the instructions of Kano State Government!

President Jonathan to disregard House of Rep order on Fuel subsidy, says Reuben Abati, his media assistant.

This just got personal! 40+ innocents #occupynigeria protesters just attacked camping outside eagle square

The Nigerian police used this steel iron to beat the young man while he slept. #occupynigeria http://t.co/XlNRxPz2

I just called 911 when I reported my emergency, the operator switched off my call

Police Attacks Law Abiding Protesters, Ordered to Shoot and Kill

It’s abt 2hrs to d grand #OccupyNigeria rally, so get d words out to everyone by SMS, BBM, FB, eMail. Rally starts @ 9am all across d land.

Streets of Lagos has been empty this morning, devoid of usual Monday morning traffic. #OccupyNigeria seem to have folks away from work

Conference of Islamic Organisations, CIO, has insisted that the NLC/TUC strike should go ahead, supports #occupynigeria protests.

BREAKING NEWS! CABAL MBR Dangote website hacked by NaijaCyberHactivists4Violating workers righ

<><><><>

JAN 9

In Ojota, protesters already marching

About 40 protesters coming to Ojota, saying “We must fight, amen.”

Flash! #OCCUPYNIGERIA Ibadan-Nigeria Protesters set up bonfire to prevent police from firing live rounds

Protesters already smacking cars, shouting at motorists at Ojota.

More than a thousand at Ojota, Lagos for demonstration

Hundreds protesting outside wuse market Abuja. Banners say ‘subsidy removal is a crime against Nigeria’

Police at Ring Road firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately.

The number of innocent Nigerians murdered by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s dogs is growing. Two added today in Lagos alone!

With a bunch of concerned Nigerians, trekking through a deserted Ikorodu road, to join the Ojota-bound crowd

Network going a bit screwy in Ojotoa _ likely as there are thousands here now

Mob action reported to be gathering for a showdown with Area G police command over the shootings of 3 boys.

The crowd is overwhelming.. Its hot but we are together

Kano protesters burn down police vehicle for attacking peaceful #occupynigeria protesters

TVC station owned by Bola Tinubu switches off broadcast

Protesters shut down Warri, Effurun, Udu

Jonathan’s police has killed 3 protesters in Lagos and 6 in Maiduguri today

It is a peaceful protest in Birnin Kebbi capital of Kebbi State

At least 1 dead as security forces open fire on #OccupyNigeria protestors in Kano city,

Thousands of protesters burn down police vehicle for as security forces keep attacking #OccupyNigeria in Kano.

Another 7year old crushed to death in a stampede at the protests in #Kano

Nigerian Police, no more Nigerians MUST lose their lives in d course of dis Protest if y’all don’t wanna risk an OPEN WAR !!

A chopper (registration no 5N L50) is flying over the #OccupyNigeria protest venue in circles. The crowd is chanting “ole” (thief).

The NLC chairman, Abdulwaheed Omar, abruptly stops Abuja protest, without explanation. People disperse

Protesters set vans ablaze, sought to set fire on CBN gov’s home

OccupyNigeria Lagos protest called off for Day 1. Everyone returns to Gani Fawehinmi Park tomorrow at 9am. Thank you, Nigeria!!!

There’s false information on both sides. Please be careful about the information you share so we don’t cause more harm.

We will be on TVC tomorrow. We must be heard by force by fire

S/O to everyone that took part in 2day’s protests. Tommorow is another day. We won’t STOP until Nigeria is Liberated

My friend Taiye Fatoki was run over by ex gov Oyinlola’s car in #osogbo while protesting

GTB Segun Agbaje summoned 7 branches to resume duty 2day, All in VI…AjoseAdeogun, plaza and others. Letz shut them down.

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Jan 10

Todays set up is much better. Looks more organized. The crowd is also plenty

crowd heading to Governor’s house in Marina after stopping at otedola & tinunbu’s house to sing OLE!!!

Do you want to call President Goodluck Jonathan? This is his no 08022477777

How can you deploy Special Anti robbery squad to stop Protesters in Abuja?

Policemen reported to be shooting at protesters at Onipan #Lagos

A lot of stranded passengers waiting at Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

5 dead, 10,000 displaced after clashes in Benin

Anti-terrorism squad here at Ojota. How did they miss the road to Maidiguri?

Nigerians in Ghana have just decided – they will be occupying the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana tomorrow.

Due to threats of violence and heightened tension, #OccupyNigeria in Kaduna suspends protests till further notice

P lease remember as we #OCCUPYNIGERIA it is our duty to protect D aged, young children, women & physically challenged if we are able to

lease remember as we #OCCUPYNIGERIA it is our duty to protect D aged, young children, women & physically challenged if we are able to

<><><><>

JAN 11

Day 10 of Protests. Day 3 of National Strike. #Abuja: 8am – Berger. Same route as yesterday.

Protests-Day 10. National Strike-Day 3. #Lagos-9 am: Ojota; 8am: Falomo; 7:30am: Anthony Grds; 7:30am: Mr Biggs, Abule Egba

Abuja protesters were attacked again overnight.

Nigerian Army involved in Tuesday midnight attack on #OCCUPYNIGERIA protesters who are camping in Abuja.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement will, today, make a solidarity march at Nigeria House in New York, to support the #OccupyNigeria protesters.

At about 1.30am this morning about 15 vehicles full of plain clothes men beat up #occupyNigeria youths at Ascon Oil, Wuse. Many were wounded

Ironically, d crime rate in Lagos has fallen to an all-time low sinx d beginning of #OccupyNigeria movt, crimes recorded committed by police

As you’re occupying here in Ojota, we’re occupying Nigeria’s entire airspace. No one can fly!” – Labour Union (Aviation) Rep

This is not a Nigerian spring…it is a Nigerian awakening. After the awakening comes the spring

Update: The strike still continues tomorrow Thursday, RT and Broadcast

We no longer want the round table..we r tabling the issues on d floor

There was a casket making the rounds today, at the #occupynigeria rally. And several attempts to bring down a police helicopter with curses

<><><><>

List ends in mid-morning…

The post Occupy Nigeria!: Moments of Insurrection from Revolted Nigeria appeared first on Void Network.

General Strike in France 12, 13 , 14 October 2010

voidnetwork — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:11:00 +0000

Προσθήκη λεζάντας

Void Network recieves very positive news from France this week about the general strike is taking place there and especialy about the actions and initiatives of young people there.

As the maintream media reports:

….”Rampaging mobs vandalised banks, expensive cars and designer shops across France yesterday as two million people protested at Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis.

A general strike paralysed the country as workers caught in the credit crunch demanded higher wages, job protection and taxes on the rich from the French president.Looting and violence erupted in most major cities, with gangs smashing bank and shop windows and attacking other symbols of wealth.Riot police used tear gas on marauding youths as they tried to contain the chaos in Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Riot police said: “There were outbreaks of violence everywhere. There were groups set on targeting anything that represented ostentatious wealth. “Banks, expensive cars and some shops were vandalised.” Teachers, train drivers, air traffic controllers, hospital and mail staff joined the action supported by all the unions and the socialist opposition. It caused severe disruption to trains and airports and the Paris underground. The protests also delayed thousands of Britons though Eurostar services were running. Unions said at least two million turned out – as many as the last general strike in January…”

You can read political analysis about the strike in France here:

http://libcom.org/news/general-strike-france-13102010

The post General Strike in France 12, 13 , 14 October 2010 appeared first on Void Network.

The Tyranny Of The Clock by George Woodcock

voidnetwork — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:57:00 +0000

THE TYRANNY OF THE CLOCK

George Woodcock (1912-1995)

In no characteristic is existing society in the West so sharply distinguished from the earlier societies, whether of Europe or the East, than in its conception of time. To the ancient Chinese or Greek, to the Arab herdsman or Mexican peon of today, time is represented by the cyclic processes of nature, the alternation of day and night, the passage from season to season. The nomads and farmers measured and still measure their day from sunrise to sunset, and their year in terms of seedtime and harvest, of the falling leaf and the ice thawing on the lakes and rivers. The farmer worked according to the elements, the craftsman for as long as he felt it necessary to perfect his product. Time was seen as a process of natural change, and men were not concerned in its exact measurement. For this reason civilizations highly developed in other respects had the most primitive means of measuring time: the hour glass with its trickling sand or dripping water, the sun dial, useless on a dull day, and the candle or lamp whose unburnt remnant of oil or wax indicated the hours. All these devices were approximate and inexact, and were often rendered unreliable by the weather or the personal laziness of the tender. Nowhere in the ancient or mediaeval world were more than a tiny minority of men concerned with time in the terms of mathematical exactitude.

Modern, western man, however, lives in a world which runs according to the mechanical and mathematical symbols of clock time. The clock dictates his movements and inhibits his actions. The clock turns time from a process of nature into a commodity that can be measured and bought and sold like soap or sultanas. And because, without some means of exact time keeping, industrial capitalism could never have developed and could not continue to exploit the workers, the clock represents an element of mechanical tyranny in the lives of modern men more potent than any individual exploiter or than any other machine. It is therefore valuable to trace the historical process by which the clock influenced the social development of modern European civilization.

It is a frequent circumstance of history that a culture or civilization develops the device that will later be used for its destruction. The ancient Chinese, for example, invented gunpowder, which was developed by the military experts of the West and eventually led to the Chinese civilization itself being destroyed by the high explosives of modern warfare. Similarly, the supreme achievement of the craftsmen of the medieval cities of Europe was the invention of the clock which, with its revolutionary alteration of the concept of time, materially assisted the growth of the middle ages.

There is a tradition that the clock appeared in the eleventh century, as a device for ringing bells at regular intervals in the monasteries which, with the regimented life they imposed on their inmates, were the closest social approximation in the middle ages to the factory of today. The first authenticated clock, however, appeared in the thirteenth century, and it was not until the fourteenth century that clocks became common as ornaments of the public buildings in German cities.

These early clocks, operated by weights, were not particularly accurate, and it was not until the sixteenth century that any great reliability was attained. In England, for instance, the clock at Hampton Court, made in 1540, is said to have been the first accurate clock in the country. And even the accuracy of the sixteenth-century clocks is relative, for they were equipped only with hour hands. The idea of measuring time in minutes and seconds had been thought out by the early mathematicians as far back as the fourteenth century, but it was not until the invention of the pendulum in 1657 that sufficient accuracy was attained to permit the addition of a minute hand, and the second hand did not appear until the eighteenth century. These two centuries, it should be observed, were those in which capitalism grew to such an extent that it was able to take advantage of the techniques of the industrial revolution to establish its economic domination over society.

The clock, as Lewis Mumfordhas pointed out, is the key machine of the machine age, both for its influence on technics and for its influence on the habits of men. Technically, the clock was the first really automatic machine that attained any importance in the life of man. Previous to its invention, the common machines were of such a nature that their operation depended on some external and unreliable force, such as human or animal muscles, water or wind. It is true that the Greeks had invented a number of primitive automatic machines, but these were used, like Hero’s steam engine,either for obtaining “supernatural” effects in the temples or for amusing the tyrants of Levantinecities. But the clock was the first automatic machine that attained public importance and a social function. Clock-making became the industry from which men learnt the elements of machine-making and gained the technical skill that was to produce the complicated machinery of the Industrial Revolution.

Socially the clock had a more radical influence than any other machine, in that it was the means by which the regularization and regimentation of life necessary for an exploiting system of industry could best be assured. The clock provided a means by which time — a category so elusive that no philosophy has yet determined its nature –could be measured concretely in the more tangible terms of space provided by the circumference of a clock dial. Time as duration became disregarded, and men began to talk and think always of “lengths” of time, just as if they were talking of lengths of calico. And time, being now measurable in mathematical symbols, was regarded as a commodity that could be bought and sold in the same way as any other commodity.

The new capitalists, in particular, became rabidly time-conscious. Time, here symbolizing the labour of the workers, was regarded by them almost as if it were the chief raw material of industry. “Time is money” was one of the key slogans of capitalist ideology, and the time keeper was the most significant of the new types of official introduced by the capitalist dispensation.

In the early factories the employers went so far as to manipulate their clocks or sound their factory whistles at the wrong times in order to defraud the workers of a little of this valuable new commodity. Later such practices became less frequent, but the influence of the clock imposed a regularity on the lives of the majority of men that had previously been known only in the monasteries. Men actually became like clocks, acting with a repetitive regularity which had no resemblance to the rhythmic life of a natural being. They became, as the Victorian phrase put it, “as regular as clockwork.” Only in the country districts where the natural lives of animals and plants and the elements still dominated existence, did any large proportion of the population fail to succumb to the deadly tick of monotony.

At first this new attitude to time, this new regularity of life, was imposed by the clock-owning masters on the unwilling poor. The factory slave reacted in his spare time by living with a chaotic irregularity which characterized the gin-sodden slums of early nineteenth-century industrialism. Men fled to the timeless worlds of drink or Methodist inspiration. But gradually the idea of regularity spread downwards and among the workers. Nineteenth-century religion and morality played their part by proclaiming the sin of “wasting time.” The introduction of mass-produced watches and clocks in the 1850’s spread time-consciousness among those who had previously merely reacted to the stimulus of the knocker-up or the factory whistle. In the church and the school, in the office and the workshop, punctuality was held up as the greatest of the virtues.

Out of this slavish dependence on mechanical time which spread insidiously into every class in the nineteenth century, there grew up the demoralizing regimentation which today still characterizes factory life. The man who fails to conform faces social disapproval and economic ruin — unless he drops out into a nonconformist way of life in which time ceases to be of prime importance. Hurried meals, the regular morning and evening scramble for trains or buses, the strain of having to work to time schedules, all contribute, by digestive and nervous disturbance, to ruin health and shorten life.

Nor does the financial imposition of regularity tend, in the long run, to greater efficiency. Indeed, the quality of the product is usually much poorer, because the employer, regarding time as a commodity which he has to pay for, forces the operative to maintain such a speed that his work must necessarily be skimped. Quantity rather than quality becoming the criterion, the enjoyment is taken out of the work itself, and the worker in his turn becomes a “clock-watcher,” concerned only with when he will be able to escape to the scanty and monotonous leisure of industrial society, in which he “kills time” by cramming in as much time-scheduled and mechanical enjoyment of cinema, radio and newspaper as his wage packet and his tiredness will allow. Only if he is willing to accept the hazards of living by his faith or his wits can the man without money avoid living as a slave to the clock.

The problem of the clock is, in general, similar to that of the machine. Mechanized time is valuable as a means of coordinating activities in a highly developed society, just as the machine is valuable as a means of reducing unnecessary labour to a minimum. Both are valuable for the contribution they make to the smooth running of society, and should be used in so far as they assist men to co-operate efficiently and to eliminate monotonous toil and social confusion. But neither should be allowed to dominate men’s lives as they do today.

Now the movement of the clock sets the tempo of men’s lives — they become the servants of the concept of time which they themselves have made, and are held in fear, like Frankenstein by his own monster. In a sane and free society such an arbitrary domination of man’s functions by either clock or machine would obviously be out of

the question. The domination of man by man-made machines is even more ridiculous than the domination of man by man. Mechanical time would be relegated to its true function of a means of reference and co-ordination, and men would return again to a balanced view of life no longer dominated by time-regu1ation and the worship of the clock. Complete liberty implies freedom from the tyranny of abstractions as well as from the rule of men.

>>>the essay originaly found in the amazing archive site Lust For Life:

http://www.lust-for-life.org/Lust-For-Life/Anarchist/Anarchist.htm

The post The Tyranny Of The Clock by George Woodcock appeared first on Void Network.

Enraged About Corporate Greed? Kidnap Your Boss By Christopher Ketcham

voidnetwork — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:07:00 +0000

Enraged About Corporate Greed? Kidnap Your Boss By Christopher Ketcham, AlterNet. Posted April 30, 2009

The French have taken to bossnapping — “sequestering” their bosses while keeping them comfortable and safe — to protest economic unfairness.

In answer to their own economic crisis, the French have taken up “bossnapping.”

Here’s how it works: An executive of a company, perhaps the CEO, stands before a group of his employees, puts his hands together, sighs, and then, with regret as smooth as brie, explains the fact that downsizing is needed to meet the exigencies of economic crisis (read: the preservation of profits in downturn).

The employees get pissed off — and bum-rush the boss. They trap him in his office, barricade the door, feed him espresso and baguette, and demand a fair deal.It’s a sort of soft-touch storming of the Bastille.

And lo, it works. A few weeks back, this happened at the FM Logistics Co. in Woippy, France, as 125 workers charged into a meeting of five company managers and held the poor creatures hostage for a day. At least 475 workers at FM Logistics, which is owned by Hewlett-Packard Co., were facing the specter of “redundancy” as HP sought to move its printer packaging operations to the cheaper labor pool in Malaysia.

By midnight, the company had turned tail, promising “new proposals on redundancy talks,” according to Reuters. The news service quoted one of the bossnappers: “We’ve had enough. We have been negotiating for a year, if you can call it negotiating, and we haven’t managed to make ourselves heard.”

At 3M’s pharmaceutical factory in Pithiviers, 50 miles from Paris, workers exploded upon hearing that 110 of them were to lose jobs. They surrounded the manager and forced him into his office, where he was held hostage for 24 hours until 3M agreed to resume negotiations.
The president of Sony France in March was locked in his office by employees who barricaded the doors and windows with tree trunks.
Angry factory workers at the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble took four managers hostage on April Fool’s Day.

In the last month across France, at least a dozen such incidents have been reported, with no less than five CEOs of major corporations held in what the French are calling, with typical delicate aplomb, “sequestration.” In each case, the sequestered bosses have been well-fed and well-treated — though sometimes, alas, forced to sleep on the floor.

I called my family in France — my ex lives in Paris with our daughter — to get the home-fire take on these outrages.

“Most people are for it,” my ex told me. “Because of les inegalites” — the inequalities of the rich doing well as the rest of the country immolates.

I e-mailed her sister-in-law, a schoolteacher, who wrote back, “These bossnappings seem to be peaceful most of the time, and I’m not so shocked. Workers are totally desperate, and I don’t blame them for wanting to be heard, as long as no one is hurt.” (She also noted that she personally knows a company boss in the south of France who has taken to keeping a bedroll and extra food in his office, just in case.)

A poll this month found that 45 percent of French agree with the practice of bossnapping, while only 7 percent condemned it. A second poll found that 55 percent of French believe that “radical protest” under the current circumstances was justified, while 64 percent said that bossnapping should be depenalized. And perhaps most compelling is that authorities are listening: In most cases, they are declining to prosecute the bossnappers.

It’s lovely to behold all this, and even lovelier to think my daughter is growing up weaned on the grand French tradition of raising hell. The habit goes back to the revolution — its call signs, Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite — to the Paris commune, the resistance, the Soisante-Huitards toppling the republic.

This is a country where, two weeks ago, fishermen at the ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk amassed a flotilla of 500 boats to blockade shipping in the major northern ports (their ire directed at European Union fishing quotas issued from on high for the benefit of corporate interests backed by the EU).The government answered the blockade by handing the fishing industry $66 million in loans to ride out hard times.

In January, over a million citizens on strike took to the streets in protest of government stimulus policies that appear to favor big business and special interests over average Frenchmen (sound familiar?). The country almost literally came to a halt: Flights canceled, the Paris metro paralyzed, commuter transit dead on the rails, schools and courts and post offices shut down.

When French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently visited the small town of Chatellerault, he was met not by the typically American crowd of corralled sheep but by thousands of protesters who pelted with eggs his cordon of teargas-firing police.

There is a reason the French enjoy the best health system in the world (according to the World Health Organization), some of the best unemployment benefits, a free education system and some of the shortest work weeks and most productive worker-per-hour output among developed countries.

They make noise, they marshal in the streets, they bossnap, sometimes they set things on fire, barricade roads, demolish infrastructure (as in the recent rash of railway sabotage in France).

Sheldon Wolin, a professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University, celebrates this kind of behavior among citizens as “the disorderliness that has always been the hallmark of a vibrant democracy” — and in talking about “democracy,” lame old word that it’s become, he is cleaving to its earliest meaning in politics: rule and resistance by that dangerously unwashed thing the Greeks called the demos, the people themselves.

In his troubling book, Democracy Incorporated, published last year, Wolin, who was a bomber pilot during World War II, laments that disorderliness in the U.S. has been on the wane since the 1960s, helped along by the widening reach of an anti-democratic corporate-state apparatus — “highly managed, money-saturated elections, the lobby-infested Congress, the imperial presidency, the class-biased judicial and penal system, [and not least], the media” — that encourages docility, depoliticization, the shrugging-off of participation.

“One of the reasons why the ’60s continues to be a favorite punching bag of neocons and neoliberals,” he writes in Democracy Incorporated, “is that it represented a decade of prolonged popular political education unique in recent American history. The most frequent topics were racism, foreign policy, corporate power, higher education and threats to ecology — each in one form or another a domain of elitism.”

What Wolin is saying is perhaps a hard dose of the obvious: When Americans protest — and they’re not protesting very much (on the eve of the Iraq war, the French had more people in the streets than did the whole of the citizenry of the United States) — the system today isn’t geared to listen, or, rather, is geared more handily to ignore the noise.

The goal, of course, is “to isolate democratic resistance, to insulate society from hearing dissonant voices, and to hurry the process of depoliticization,” says Wolin.

Americans, it appears, are good at depoliticization, certainly no good at bossnapping.

Christopher Ketcham, a freelance writer, is working on a book about secessionism and the dismantling of the United States government. He can be reached at cketcham99@mindspring.com.

This article originaly found in Alternet.org:
http://www.alternet.org/story/139052?page=entire

The post Enraged About Corporate Greed? Kidnap Your Boss By Christopher Ketcham appeared first on Void Network.