fasinpat (ex-zanon) workers win their factory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡felicitaciones, fasinpat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
¡que vivan los trabajadores! ¡que viva el poder del pueblo!



foto: expropriation now! banner at 2006 world cup in germany.

fired workers at zanon ceramics in neuquén province (argentina) took over their closed factory in 2001. they have operated it under worker control ever since. they have faced eviction attempts, police, and a repressive conservative provincial government and over & over again the factory has been ardently defended by the workers and the surrounding community. they have inspired solidarity from people all over argentina & the world. finally finally finally the expropriation has gained legal recognition!

this posted at no sweat by marie trigona :

The workers at Argentina's occupied ceramics factory, FASINPAT (Factory Without a Boss), won a major victory this week: the factory now definitively belongs to the people in legal terms. The provincial legislature voted in favor of expropriating the ceramics factory and handing it over to the workers cooperative to manage legally and indefinitely. Since 2001, the workers at Zanon have fought for legal recognition of worker control at Latin America's largest ceramics factory which has created jobs, spearheaded community projects, supported social movements world-wide and shown the world that workers don't need bosses.

"This is incredible, we are happy. The expropriation is an act of justice," said Alejandro Lopez the General Secretary of the Ceramists Union, overwhelmed by the emotion of the victory. "We don't forget the people who supported us in our hardest moments, or the 100,000 people who signed the petition supporting our bill."

Hundreds of workers from the FASINPAT factory waited anxiously until the late hours of the night for the legislature's decision. The expropriation law passed 26 votes in favor and 9 votes against the bill. Thousands of supporters from other workers' organizations, human rights groups and social movements, along with entire families and students, joined the workers as they waited outside the provincial legislature in the capital city of Neuquén. Enduring the Patagonian winter weather, activists played drums and shouted: "here they are the workers of Zanon, workers without a boss."

this trailer for corazón de fábrica (heart of the factory) about fasinpat gives some background:



and this is video of the vote in the legislature & workers' reaction. they also pay respects to their comrades who have died in the struggle. oohh, so beautiful!



and this is a speech on the occasion at the factory by one of the mothers of the plaza de mayo, claiming the victory for the workers and also for all people who fight for justice. ¡zanon es del pueblo!



this is attaque 77 playing at the factory a couple years back:



cuantos ríos de sangre han de correr,
tanta muerte ya, tanto horror, tanta injusticia
cuanto tiempo para reconocer que la historia es,
otra vez y todo de vuelta

how many rivers of blood have run
so much death, horror, injustice
how much time to recognize that history
is coming around again

...
si estaba en el cordobazo hace tiempo atrás,
y estaba en el rosariazo y en Tucumán

if it was present in the days of uprising in córdoba,
& the uprisings in rosario & in tucumán,

espíritu setentista vuelve hoy,
gente que no puede decir:
hey, hey, no te metas
en neuquén resiste zanon
lucha obrera, movilización
los bastones acechan, también voy yo!

the spirit of the 1970s returns today
people that won't say:
hey, hey don't get involved
in neuquén zanon resists
the workers' struggle, mobilization
batons lie in wait, i too will go!

gracias, mariana y liliana por las buenas noticias :)

the police

...the “power” which is called the state ... arose from society but places itself above it and alienates itself more and more from it. what does this power mainly consist of? it consists of special bodies of armed men having prisons, etc., at their command.

: the state and revolution (lenin)


when they kick at your front door
how you gonna come?
with your hands on your head
or on the trigger of your gun...

: guns of brixton (the clash)




24th street, san francisco

**


ok, a disclaimer: as with the songs about public transportation, this list of songs about against the police will not be exhaustive or i would be here all day...

alta magia : la vela puerca



solamente por pensar : ska-p



tributo a la policia : calle 13



brigada anti disturbios (b-a-d) : attaque 77



fuck tha police : bone thugs-n-harmony (original by nwa)



clampdown : the clash




take the word "overseer," like a sample
repeat it very quickly in a crew for example
overseer overseer overseer overseer...
officer officer officer officer!
yeah, officer from overseer
you need a little clarity?
check the similarity!
the overseer rode around the plantation
the officer is off patroling all the nation...

: sound of da police (krs-one)

**


the oakland police department wants to push a youth curfew law through the public safety committee of the oakland city council tomorrow. the curfew would apply to all young people under 18 years of age on the public streets between the hours of 10pm and 5am sunday through thursday, and 11pm to 5am fridays & saturdays. young people who violate the curfew would be questioned and detained. what?! really it's the police who should be put under curfew. they're the ones that go around shooting unarmed people in the back in the middle of the night.

show up for public comment!

public safety committee
5:30pm : tuesday, february 10th
oakland city hall : hearing room 1




19th street station, oakland

no complicity

update: new article on the egyptian people's resistance to mubarak's love affair with zionism in electronic intifada. ¡que viva la resistencia del pueblo!



an egyptian national burns his passport outside the egyptian embassy in beirut, 2 january. foto by matthew cassel, posted on electronic intifada.


i've been thinking a lot about complicity...

in argentina, the court system has yet to process decades-old cases against the majority of the country's dirty war criminals. just last month in fact, the courts were set to release alfredo astiz, one of the most notorious milicos from the esma, the largest of the ex-clandestine centers for detention and torture. he remains in custody (just barely) but the case against him is stalled despite mountains of evidence. 25 years after the formal end of the dirty war, and sectors of the state & civil society are still its active accomplices. it's been up to the popular organizations, the mothers and the recovered children of the disappeared, to call out this complicity with the dictadura & its legacy for what it is. in recent years that's taken the form of escraches, noisy protests that publicly identify these asesinos, exposing them to their neighbors & acquaintances, and shining a light on the blood they have on their hands. so they are not permitted to go about their daily lives as if nothing has happened, as if 30,000 people were not disappeared and 300,000 more were not exiled. perhaps the courts are too lazy & slow to hold these murderers and torturers accountable. but the people are not!




last week the egyptian embassies in yemen, syria, and lebanon were attacked in popular demonstrations as symbols of the mubarak dictatorship's hand-holding with the murderous israeli state. in addition to hosting tzipi livni a couple days before her government unleashed this ongoing massacre on the palestinians, the mubarak regime has maintained a sealed boarder with gaza, and has its troops positioned there ready to fire upon people whose desperate circumstances have forced them to flee. egyptians have come out to the streets in the thousands, facing police assaults and arrests at every turn, to express solidarity with the people of gaza, and to denounce mubarak directly for his complicity with the genocide mission against palestine.

for sure it's time to call out the collaborators, the vendidos, and the apologists. no business as usual!! no complicity with the imperialists or their puppets!

next gaza solidarity action in sf:

tomorrow
monday : january 5th
8am rain or shine
market & montgomery in sf


**

and now for some relevant attaque...

resistiré : attaque 77

criminales disfrazados
seres sin razón ni piedad,
no hay palabras en el mundo
que describan vuestra maldad,
por dinero asesinás,
por placer aniquilás,
por poder nos destruís,
suciamente mentís.

aunque siempre vigilés
y mis datos procesés,
no es tan fácil hacerme callar,
resistiré,
resistiré hasta el fin
resistiré
resistiré hasta el fin...

nos hablás de sumisión,
nos pedís resignación,
pero no me dejaré engañar,
resistiré,
resistiré hasta el fin.
resistiré
resistiré hasta el fin.

el rock nacional

oh my goodness, had quite a time trying to see a rock en español concert in argentina! first, divididos. the singer called in sick, show was postponed. then ska-p. after all these days of south american summertime heat, out of nowhere came all this rain, an electrical storm complete with flooding on that exact night. umm, no concerts in outdoor ampitheaters :(

so our last chance was to see attaque 77 in temperley, about 45 minutes outside buenos aires. we had to go to three different roquero ticket outlets before we found one with tickets for that show. on the day of the concert we were convinced that the forces of the universe really were conspiring against us because, while the singer was in good health and the skies were clear, there was a nationwide one-day paro of gas station workers (¡adelante, compañeros!), resulting in almost no available fuel for 24 hours. the car we were planning to take, of course, had an almost empty tank. mariana's tío negro to the rescue! he's very sweet, resourceful, and a mechanic. luckily, he was working on a friend's car with a full tank of gas. off we went!

so the show... was great!! the audience was filled with super-fanáticos de attaque. i think probably 75% of people who attended were wearing attaque t-shirts or had attaque tattoos. it was one of those very affectionate latin american audiences that sings along with every song. my favorite was this little boy who spent most of the evening perched on his parents' shoulders, arms outstretched, singing at the top of his lungs. something particularly delightful about a tiny roquero reciting...

¿ellos o nosotros?
¿quién es más criminal?
¡policía federal... la vergüenza nacional!

;) have to teach them young! in between songs, the audience would start up these futból-style chants to the band:

¡soy de attaque!
olé olé olé. olé olé olé alá,
olé olé olé cada día te quiero más
yooo soy de attaque,
es un sentimiento...¡no puedo parar!

jaja, sweet. and so much better than the tendency around here to fill up any silences with calls of "culero". for their part attaque 77 responded to all that love with lots of noisy affection of their own. i believe this is their que 21 años no es nada tour. but 21 years is actually quite something! musically they're maybe a little less punk, but they still play hard and their lyrics are politically relevant as ever. throw in some of those rock en español tormented love songs which i so adore, plus an encore with the guy from ska-p joining them on stage to sing a cover of i fought the law / yo combatí la ley and really what more could you ask for? thanks to attaque for an excellent recital! and victory to the gas station workers!

here's a video from that night that someone posted on youtube:



on a side note: one thing i noticed about the rock en español situation in argentina was it's availability via tv. similar to mexico (or lots of other places i imagine) there is actually still music on their music-television channels. here's a good one we came across while watching videos with the abuelitas... hurray for rock + cumbia villera!

fabulosos cadillacs : padre nuestro