On Friday 25th to Sunday 27th June 2021 the IWA Plenary and Extraordinary Congress took place. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions both meetings were organised online, not in-person in Bratislava as was initially planned. Most of the IWA-AIT affiliates (Sections and Friends) were able to attend. Since it was online, our meetings were not interrupted by repressive regimes and travel visas. In the report that follows we summarise what was discussed and how Priama Akcia as the host Section of the IWA-AIT evaluates the meetings.
During the following 25th, 26th and 27th of June the Plenary and the Extraordinary Congress of the IWA will be going on. Even though the agreement of the Congress in Melbourne 2019 was to hold the Plenary in Slovakia, at the end it will take place online because the delegations wouldn't be able to reach Slovakia in the context of the travel restrictions still prevailing in a lot of countries.
When there is an armed conflict between two or more states, it is very tempting to take a stance for the state that seems to defend rights like self-determination, freedom of movement, the right to live where you where born, the right to be part of the society and not to live under the Apartheid.
Since May 12, 2021 the civilian population in Gaza has undergoing an atrocious military aggression. We have seen also in Israel unbearable lynching scenes.
It is neither the first time in History nor to the only place in the world, that civilians, women and children, are slaughtered by a Power guilty of crime against humanity. Right now for instance :
According to official figures (FAO) 25,000 people, including 10,000 children, are dying of starvation each day!
Today, we, different anarchist groups, collectives and organizations, publicly manifest ourselves against the tax reform’s hikes on essential subsistence goods. But not only because we consider the reform as an organized robbery into the pockets of the working class, peasants, service workers, self-employed and freelancers. But also, we make evident the failure that constitutes this Uribist government of Iván Duque and the disaster that is the whole state apparatus of this country.
From the Secretariat of the IWA we make public this international declaration of solidarity with the workers of the world on May 1 in memory of the Martyrs of Chicago.
This year marks the 135th anniversary of the Haymarket revolt, Chicago (USA) in 1886, where the police and judicial authorities repressed the general strike called by the labor movement in defense of the 8-hour workday.
The International Secretariat of the IWA (International Workers Association) wants to publicly condemn a series of attacks that our sections have been suffering for many years in several parts of the world. Once again, we are forced to defend our international organization from similar aggressions.
As part of the libertarian movement already knows, for several years now the CNT-AIT faces a process of suffocation by an organization that calls itself “anarcho-syndicalist” and also claims the name of CNT. The individuals and anarchist groups that feel that they are not part of anarcho-syndicalism perceive this situation with some suspicion, with skepticism and even with a bit of irony.
We, anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists, consider it completely unacceptable for ourselves to take any part in political shows organized by supporters of the right-wing populist Navalny, who is sadly "famous" for his openly nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-Caucasian and anti-Semitic statements. To march in the ranks of the demonstrations they convened would mean - regardless of any excuses or "explanations" - to turn into the back of one of the political gangs waging a dirty and unprincipled struggle for power.
Short Statement by the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA)
On Wednesday, January 6th 2021, an attack organized by a far right wing mob on the Capitol Building of the United States took place while congress met to certify the presidential election results. They were encouraged by a deranged authoritarian and outgoing President of the United States, Donald Trump and focused heavily on his corrupt grift and inflated ego. Even though the event was anticipated and all but announced publicly, the police initially appeared to treat the mob with “kid gloves” especially when compared to how they have treated Black Lives Matter protests and others just this year, something even the mainstream media has commented on.
