World Social Struggles Newswire Archive

Students across France have been voting on the next step in the ongoing struggle against the so-called reforms of the LRU law.

November 28th, 2007 by jef costello
Reposted from www.libcom.org

"Move into the Light?: Postscript to a turbulent 2007"

By Turbulence

At the beginning of 2007, the Turbulence collective commissioned 14 articles from around the global 'movement of movements', asking authors: "What would it mean to win?" We edited their responses into a newspaper and printed 7,000 copies, most of which were distributed at the mobilisation against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June. A few months later, we want to return to the question of winning.

As we resume our search it's no surprise that we keep coming across the problem of visibility. When we think about winning, our eyes are drawn to things that are highly visible or easy-to-measure, such as institutional or legislative change, the opening of a social centre or an increase in membership. That's where the light is. But we also need to assess victories in the less tangible though just as real realm of possibilities. Winning in this realm may involve increased potential, changes in perception or patterns of behaviour. Yet these seem to exist at the very edge of the luminous zone.

This problem leads into another: our experiences create their own luminosity and consequently their own areas of darkness. When we think about winning we are drawn to movements, people and events that are familiar to us; and we have expectations about how things should turn out if they are to constitute a victory.

So how can we overcome our night-blindness once we move beyond the familiar?...


To download the new Turbulence booklet, "Move into the Light?", as a PDF go to:  http://www.turbulence.org.uk/Resources/postscript_1107.pdf

To help distribute the booklet, or to offer a translation, please write to:  editors@turbulence.org.uk

A web-banner linking directly to the article can also be downloaded from:  http://www.turbulence.org.uk/Resources/banner_234x60.jpg

Copies of the booklet can be ordered via our website, www.turbulence.org.uk

And, as ever, we're keen for comments, criticism and feedback on the text.

The Editors

www.turbulence.org.uk
 editors@turbulence.org.uk

YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO – Former professor and author David Korten told close to 300 applauding peak oil activists that they are not a fringe minority but the leading edge of a super-majority "and it's time we start acting like it."

Korten issued his rallying call in October at the "Fourth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions" where activists from 30 some states discussed ways to respond to declining oil production and other coming planetary woes. Korten joined a dozen other speakers in "Planning for Hard Times," the theme of the three-day conference sponsored by Community Solution at Antioch College.

"The day of reckoning for our profligate ways has arrived," Korten said. "Peak oil, climate chaos, exhaustion of freshwater, species extinction, financial collapse, and social disintegration are causing a great unraveling." Now is the time, Korten said, for a great turning from a 5000-year history of empire, driven today by a suicidal competition over the earth's remaining resources, to a cooperative earth community which shares resources to maintain healthy communities, families and natural systems.

Peace Con kicks off with 6 dead in 24 hours.
Bulldozers, tanks & fighter planes.
Welcome to Gaza

Gates Foundation Injects $10 Million into Embedded NGO that Claims to Represent Shack Dwellers. Abahlali, the Durban Shack Dwelllers Movement, an amazing community response to the failure of ANC party politics on the ground, responds with a brilliant critique and a resolution to keep on fighting.

"Today is just another ordinary day in our struggle. The march is not ours. The money is not for us. Our struggle is ours. Our struggle continues. Our struggle is for land and housing in democratic cities" Abahlali

Check
 http://www.abahlali.org/
for why this movement is one of the most important struggles we could support today!!

Encore!

Paris - More than 60 police officers were injured, five of them seriously, when bands of youths rioted late on Monday for a second consecutive night in the suburbs of Paris after the deaths of two minority teenagers.

Yes there are four albums of photos of recent events in Nantes, France. Photos of the occupations, barricades, demos, grafitti and more

Thousands of Dutch school pupils walked out of lessons on Friday in wildcat protests organised online against lesson times.

Under the guise of a bill that calls for the study of “homegrown terrorism,” Congress is apparently trying to broaden the definition of terrorism to encompass both First Amendment political activity and traditional forms of protest such as nonviolent civil disobedience, according to civil liberties advocates, scholars and historians.

A police station in Paris has been attacked by angry youths with petrol bombs after two teenagers will killed when hit by a police car. Guns were used in the attack against the Sarcelles police station in the suburbs in northern part of Paris and at least one senior police officer seriously injured. Cars were also torched and police had to call in reinforcements from other parts of the city to secure the police station.

But I’ll tell you what, if conservatism is the ideology of freedom - then I’m the Queen of England. And, one thing you can be sure of is that I’m not the Queen of England. I don’t even have the right parts and pieces, and the only crown I’ve ever worn was given to me forty years ago by some pimply-faced teenager working the cash register at Burger King. Somehow, I don’t think that counts.

Actions were taking place at Total Oil garages around the country on Saturday 24 Nov, demanding that TOTAL Oil, the fourth largest oil company of the world, described by Aung San Suu Kyi as "the biggest supporter of the military regime in Burma," pull out of Burma.

Today Somers Town Residents came out and protested government plans to sell off one of the few remaining undeveloped plots of land left in Euston / Kings Cross area.

Rioters ransacked the mayor's office, overturned and burned cars, blocked off streets and clashed with police as authorities attempted to remove all the sidewalk vendors, blamed for causing traffic congestion, from the streets early yesterday morning.

Renewed blocking at the occupied Stendhal university. The next AGs will be: Monday 26 for the personnel of the university, Wednesday 28 for the coeds. Every evening at 18h, Agora: the committee of mobilization.

A council decision on the guidelines for running a new social centre is to be taken on December 13th. A common set of guidelines have been agreed between the Monday meeting negotiation delegates and the Mayor and her legal staff. Central to the agreement is the foundation named Jagtvej 69, which will be responsible for ensuring the new social centre complies with council health and safety standards and making financial reports to the council.

Antifa infoshop Demos has been attacked for the third time this year, on 11/11/2007

A Canadian parliamentary committee and a provincial government each launched a review into the use of hand-held stun guns amid reports of another death following a shock from one of the devices.

Helsinki, Finland: We get more time – 300 on the streets of Helsinki for squat Elimäki
Thursday was a day of victory for the squatting scene in Helsinki. 300 people defied the really shitty weather and gathered to demonstrate at the Youth Department of the city to show their support to the social centre Elimäki, aka squat E15.