community activity
Myths of guerrilla warfare - Thames Valley Anarchists
Article looking at the limits of small group activism, when employed outside the context of mass class struggle.
The following extract is taken from a piece in Crowbar 47 which came out in August 86...
New clashes in Grammatico over open refuse dump
Clashes break out again over XYTA construction between locals and riot police with three protesters arrested.
New clashes between locals of Grammatico and riot police forces broke out in the morning of Friday 17/7 when the locals, opposed to the construction of an open refuse dump (XYTA) in the vicinity of their villages, moved to break the riot police blockade of the construction site and block company vehicles from replacing the ones that they had torched last week when their environmental struggle begu
Pitched battles over open refuse dump outside Athens
Pitched battles between locals of Grammatico, outside Athens, and riot police forces over the construction of an open refuse damp with locals digging trenches, building barricades and torching bulldozers; scores have been wounded as battles continue amidst spreading fires.
More than 1500 locals of the Black Mountain village of Grammatico, outside Athens, have erected barricades and dug trenches in order to stop the beginning of an open refuse damp (XYTA) construction in their area. The locals torched the company's bulldozers after riot police forces arrested and beat the resisting mayor, refusing to take him to the hospital to treat his wounds.
Beating the Poll Tax
Beating the Poll Tax was a widely distributed booklet that encouraged and analysed the rise of mass revolt against the Community Charge in 1989/90 as it was happening.
[i]It was first published by the Anarchist Communist Federation in March 1990, following 'The Poll Tax and How to Fight It' in October 1988. Scanned in and published online for the first time on the Anarchist Federation website in March 2006.
BEATING THE POLL TAX
by The Anarchist Communist Federation ( now, Anarchist Federation http://www.afed.org.uk )
TAZCVRL: Power beyond the state in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro
Article on the nature of life and power in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.
TAZCVRL
power in the favela
"The bandit is the hero, the defender, the popular avenger, the irreconcilable enemy of the State, and of all social and civil order established by the State. " M. Bakunin (1)
Popular justice: community policing in Guerrero, Mexico
A year old article about an indigenous initiative in the Costa Chica, Guerrero, Mexico in which police(wo)men are elected by assembly and security duties are shared around the entire villages, with each individual only policing for a handful of days a year.
Popular Justice: Guerrero's Community Police
By Puaz, Regeneracion Radio
Published on: March 10, 2008
"The freedoms that were conquered by the human species are always the work of the "illegals," those who took the law into their own hands and tore it to pieces."
-Ricardo Flores Magon, Regeneracion, September 8, 1910
The Community Police
Barricades erected and two police stations smashed in Athens over destruction of park by the City Council
After municipal bulldozers demolished one of the rare parks in the city of Athens, locals occupied the area, erected barricades, clashed with riot police forces and smashed two police stations.
On Monday 24th of January at 4 o’ clock in the morning bulldozers of the Municipality of Athens moved to destroy the park of Patision and Kyprou street in the greek capital’s most densely populated department, Kypseli. Cutting down more than 40 trees deemed by the Forestry Department as a natural heritage, the plans of the Athens Mayor is to build a 3 storage underground privately owned parking.
The London Coalition Against Poverty
This article originally appeared in Direct Action No. 42, Spring 2008, the magazine of the Solidarity Federation, the British section of the International Workers Association. It looks at the formation and practice of the London Coalition Against Poverty.
One of the most exciting developments in London over the last year is the formation of the London Coalition Against Poverty. LCAP is inspired by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty in Canada, who have created a successful and empowering model of grassroots community organising over the last two decades.
Resistance from the other South Africa
Neha Nimmagudda, a student from NYC, spent a few months working as a full time volunteer with the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement in South Africa. In this essay she reflects one of the movement's quarterly all night meetings in which critical issues are discussed.
The topic of this particular meeting was 'leadership'. While Abahlali has never stated that it is an anarchist movement many have drawn parallels between 'Abahlalism' and 'anarchism'. Certainly the movement considers both the state and the vanguardist left to be oppressors.
Neha Nimmagudda (2008-07-17)
Corfu garbage-dump protest followup: renewed barricades met with plastic bullets by greek riot-police
20 days after the battle between residents of Lefkimi township in south Corfu and the riot-police over the construction of an open garbage-dump, renewed mobilisation of the residents is once again being met with repression and arbitrary punitive measures such as inhibiting farmers from accessing their fields.
