[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Fwd: [project2012] Re: AWTW, centralism and antisemitism

Fri Jun 11 12:50:02 UTC 2010

Uri see Fiona's comments below aswell as mine.

As usual we cannot ignore Shakespeare, for surely it is HIS anti-semitism
via Shylock's words you are connecting with and then making an awfully big
assumption over!! People use words from art all the time so please don't
jump to such unwarranted conclusions

Folks, A World to Win are a good bunch and their politics are consistently
good. I know their core group well, and worked with them closely and to my
satisfaction in the past (2006) and have stayed in ongoing contact and
mutual support ever since. We set out the need for a Peoples Assembly based
revolution in 2006 and the present call out and sign up request is a natural
progression from that and all the work they're been doing since. Read their
excellent blog and website to see their politics and organisational skills
are good. They are the best people I know to help steward the revolution and
their work also appeals to non die hard activsts which is a great sign. They
are quite theoretical, but at the same time they get stuck in at demos.

About your concern regarding centralisation, perhaps their org will need
cracking open (as we all, if we hook in, find ways to fully democratise it)
but surely that is no reason to assume they are wrong. Rather that must be
something we need to bring to the 1st Peoples Assembly held under the call
out. So thank you for flagging it.

>From my side their commitment to "the democratisation of all spheres of
life" is enough and we just need to push that forward at each step to
ensure the real democracy / anarcho communist movement, when it actually
emerges from (potentially their endeavour) absolutely embodies the equality
that must come with such sentiments. But surely there is nothing at all
wrong with a *relatively* democratic group getting the movement ball
rolling, as long as we deal with the issue of centralisation at each stage
in the process?

Best practice will emerge in communities as long as worst practice and with
the web Trotsky becomes far less of a possibility as are all able to keep
tabs on what's being said by whom on whose behalf and then deal with it.
Suggest people sign up and help them help us get the show on the road - we
all have to be in it to win it, so lets unite over this and see what
happens. For in this time of extraordinary potential, I strongly believe
that even failure, with the right ideals in mind will seem as a huge step in
the right direction, and hardly catastrophic in sofar as it will show us how
to do it perfectly the next time.

"A Peoples Art is the Genesis of their Freedom"

Mark

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Fiona Harrington <Fiona.Harrington at brunel.ac.uk>
Date: 11 June 2010 11:22
Subject: RE: [project2012] Re: AWTW, centralism and antisemitism
To: project2012 at googlegroups.com

Are you seriously insinuating that those who coined the phrase "Financiers
have already had their pound of flesh" (which is true enough) are
anti-semitic and thus are being deliberately offensive?
Why are you assuming that anybody reading that line would automatically
assume that it is anti-semitic? Or again why do you so readily assume that
the word "financiers" is code for Jews? Or is it the combination with the
"pound of flesh" mataphor, or what? I mean you would agree wouldn't you,
that there are financiers of every shape, colour, gender and religion in the
world who have had their "pound of flesh" or who are in expectation of
reaping the 'reward' of their greed. It is of course the capitalist system
itself within which financiers are major players, that is at the back of our
woes in any case - I am sure you would agree with that!

Fiona

________________________________

From: project2012 at googlegroups.com on behalf of uri at riseup.net
Sent: Fri 11/06/2010 6:51 AM
To: Deborah Phelan
Cc: Mark Barrett; project2012 at googlegroups.com;
campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org;
self-propelled-community-organisations at googlegroups.com;
buildinglocalgroups at lists.riseup.net; democracyvillage at googlemail.com;
election-meltdown-activists-group at googlegroups.com; climateorg copenhagen;
peopleincommon at lists.riseup.net
Subject: [project2012] Re: AWTW, centralism and antisemitism

Not irrelevant, just despicable.

Trotskyist front groups like AWTW regularly promote themselves with such
copycat ploys, sucking the energy out of the real movement.

Their use of overtly antisemitic language ("Financiers have already had
their pound of flesh") is extremely offensive.

Uri

Deborah Phelan wrote:
> Am i reading this correctly? That this post is not relevant in this group?
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 7:39 AM, Mark Barrett
> <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>wrote:
>
>> Great initiative from AWTW, please distribute widely:
>>
>> *Build People's Assemblies*
>> A World to Win urges communities to unite to defeat the attacks by the
>> Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government on public services and living
>> standards already under way.
>>
>> Tens of thousands of public and private sector workers will lose their
>> jobs
>> and local communities be deprived of vital services unless we come
>> together
>> to defeat the government.
>>
>> What Cameron and Clegg call the 'national interest' in reality means
>> doing
>> what's right by the bankers and speculators who are responsible for the
>> global crisis in the first place.
>>
>> We should reject the spending cuts altogether. Financiers have already
>> had
>> their pound of flesh, with taxpayers' bailing out the banks when they
>> collapsed after running up enormous debts.
>>
>> The greatest economic and financial crisis since the 1930s is the
>> responsibility of capitalist corporations and bankers. They have
>> forfeited
>> the right to run the world.
>>
>> Parliament won't defend us and New Labour is equally responsible for the
>> disaster. So A World to Win suggests that we create a network of
>> People's
>> Assemblies to unite communities.
>>
>> People's Assemblies will represent ordinary people's interests, whether
>> they are young or old, in work or unemployed, in the public or private
>> sector, trade unionists, students, minorities and community groups
>> resisting
>> the cuts.
>>
>> The Assemblies will also look beyond a failed economic system where
>> profit
>> and speculation comes first and towards building a true democracy in
>> place
>> of the sham one we live under now.
>>
>> *Register*
>> Register your support for a People's Assembly in your area and together
>> we
>> can defeat the coalition and change the world.
>> http://www.aworldtowin.net/frontline/BuildPeoplesAssemblies.html
>>
>>
>> -.-.- Climate Justice Action Network International Coordination List
>> -.-.
>> POST TO LIST: climate09-int at lists.riseup.net
>> UNSUBSCRIBE:  send a blank email to
>> climate09-int-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net
>> LISTKEEPERS:  climate09-int-editor at lists.riseup.net
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> "You have construction workers who are idle, and they're going to be idle
> for twelve months, twenty-four months, thirty-six months. They're not
> going
> to be able to build anything. Let them rebuild everything. We have people
> coming home from wars, coming home from prisons, coming out of high school
> with no job prospects whatsoever. Let us connect the people who most need
> work with the work that most needs to be done." Van Jones
>

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