2 De 013 cem ber
We Are The 99% This is a publication of the Communist Youth Organization of the Workers Communist Party of Iran
In this issue:
Thousands of fast food workers strike across the US: "Hey, hey, ho, ho, $7.40 has got to go!"
Greek workers and Unionists protest outside Greek parliament
Protests in Ukraine: a boss fight with large participation
Fresh protests in Italy: the "pitchfork" movement
Two Pussy Riot members freed
Tarja Cronberg visits Iran wearing hijab
Wages frozen as workers in Russia prepare for Winter Games
FEMEN foils Christmas mass in Kölner Dom of Cologne cathedral
Cambodian garment workers continue their strike!
Students protest tuition fee rises in London: uniting with all workers against corporations and privatization!
Endrogen's Islamist party scandal exposes internal conflict
Islamic regime's attack on Fernanda Lima: a failed representation of the Iranian people
My Pussy. My Rules!
The government of India takes gay rights back 153 years
(A discussion with a reader about FEMEN)
Anti-abortion law protest in Madrid
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We Are The 99% We are the 99% newsletter is always accepting new writers: please contact us if you are interested in submitting an article
Editor: Chia Barsen Assistant Editor : Arash Yazdan javanan.tamas@gmail.com http://cyo-iran.blogspot.co youtube.com/user/sjkiran1
1 Thousands of fast food workers strike across the US: "Hey, hey, ho, ho, $7.40 has got to go!"
Fast food industry workers across the US come out in force to show their anger, frustration and to demonstrate their growing unity against the fast food corporate giants such as McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell and Burger King. Protesters came to the streets of 100 US cities including Boston, Detroit, New York City, Oakland, Los Angeles and St Louis. Giving workers the wages as low as $8.25 (Chicago) an hour the corporate fast food giants have secured an immense profit margin at the cost of value producing workers both in the service sector and where the raw material is prepared. The federal minimum wage is as low as $7.25 which is equivalent to only $15, 000 a year for full-time work. The workers demand the minimum wage to be increased to $15/hour. The fast food workers were also joined in solidarity by unions from other sectors including the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the AFL-CIO and the grass roots organizations and progressive coalitions like New York communities for change (NYCC). The wages of fast food workers are heavily influenced by the unemployment in the market which is in part increase dramatically by the bourgeois economic crisis of 2008. With unemployment sky high corporations such as McDonalds is given a free hand to exploit its workers at an unparalleled rate. The high unemployment rate has made it easy for fast food corporations to hire and fire workers as they wish and in this way to keep wages as low as the federal and or state levels. The product that the fast food corporate giants sell is produced by the workers themselves from the first step of raising the cattle to the moment a burger is placed between two buns and handed to a consumer. In the span of a day thousands of burgers and other food items are sold in a single store, and in less than an hour a typical fast food worker is able to sell enough food items to pay for his/her own wages for the day: the rest of his/her day's labour is sold to the corporate giant. The workers are the value producers, they are the people that provide the service, and they are now standing against the inhumane profit-machine of the corporation, not only in the fast food industry, but the entire service sector!
2 Greek workers and Unionists protest outside Greek parliament The Greek parliament debated the 2014 austerity-heavy budget that includes at least a 3.2 Billion Euros cuts in addition to one billion being cut from health services budget alone. Further another 2.1 billion euros in taxes will be forced onto the working people of Greece. Next week the European Central Bank debt inspectors will ask to push for deeper pension cuts and to allow banks to foreclose houses on people who are unable to make mortgage payments. In the last three years wages and pensions have been cut by 40 percent in Greece! This occurred side by side with other cuts to healthcare, education and pensions which has had an enormous dire impact on the service sector workers including health workers and teachers. Currently over 40% of Greeks live under the poverty line and 350 thousands Greeks lack the resources to pay for electricity. This has all occurred in part by the Greek government paying for the crisis of capitalism by intensifying the rate of exploitation of the working people in Greece. Lower wages, higher taxes, cuts to social services and cuts to pensions is the blood infusion given to the bourgeois in order to live through another periodic overproduction crisis cycle. The contradiction of capitalism lies in the way it takes away the disposable income of workers and it cuts away the social services necessary (such as healthcare and education) to repair and replenish the labour market: while it needs the very same workers to have the purchasing power necessary to be its consumers in its markets.
3 Protests in Ukraine: a boss fight with large participation This month Ukraine has been the centre of anti-government protests as thousands of working people have come to the streets to protest against economic insecurity and government corruption. The people have taken control of Ukraine's capital Kiev to express their anger as well as to find a way out of their economic misery. The mainstream media has been quick to label the protests as being against the economic ties with Russia that the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych as recently made opposed to having closer ties with the European Union: the East vs. the West. In their coverage, the people of Ukraine are so opposed to the current direction that the Ukrainian president has taken that they have gone as far as destroying a statue of Lenin. Whichever way the media has focused and framed the people's protests in Ukraine, the reality of most Ukrainians is quite telling. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union Ukraine's economy experienced a massive loss and came near collapse and has been only gradually gaining some new markets since that time only to be slammed by the world economic crisis in 2008 which deeply effected the Ukrainian economy: losing 15% of its GDP. Only recently has the Ukrainian economy begun to grow which has been in part due to the growth in the Russian economy. This economic growth only has relevance if it reduced unemployment, however that has not been the case: currently Ukraine has an 8% unemployment (by conservative national statistics that does not count underemployed and unregistered workers) and the average per capita earnings is only 300 Euros a month. Ukraine also has one of the most corrupt governments: ranked 144th out of the 176 countries investigated by the Transparency International Corruption perceptions Index. This index compares the exploitative makeup of bourgeois states to each other, in the way that the lower ranking states have gone over and beyond the exploitative world standards set by the majority and have in essence completely robbed their working class of every penny of the value they produce and give little in return in terms of social services and infrastructure. The Ukrainian working people frustrated with the level of corruption and economic insecurities are fighting for any vehicle to take them out of their economic misery while the Eastern and the Western bourgeois states are looking to expand their consumer markets and to ward off another recession. The media makes the toppling of Lenin's statue the front page news, the very leader that over through the bourgeois state in Russia in 1917. Lenin in his time stood against the first world war and correctly labelled it as a fight between imperialist states. Today the fight between imperialists states continue for larger shares of the Ukrainian market. The choice is not East vs. West, because neither side represent the working people of Ukraine nor guarantee any short-term or long-term economic relief. The Ukrainians must take on their own bosses and to emancipate their country from the clutches of the profit-run imperialist structures, the answers to economic misery is not from outside "relief" but from tackling corruption from within the country
4 Fresh protests in Italy: the "pitchfork" movement A movement that was originally sparked and organized by farmers in Sicily has become the rallying call to all Italian workers including the unemployed, truckers, and students. These protests took place in cities from Turin. Marches in Milan, Turin and Florence as well as Palermo included sit-ins and occupations of major city areas.
of lies are coming to an end, it is now the people united towards a revolutionary class consciousness that will be irreversible.
The protests highlighted the drop in income, climbing general unemployment which is 12% (41% of which is youth under 25) and demanded the removal of the government that only functions to pass further austerity measures that will fatten the pockets of the banks and other corporations at the expense of the value producing working class in Italy. The Interior Minister Angelino Alfano revealed the fear that the people of Italy have struck in the minds of the bourgeois elite in Italy by stating that these protests could "lead to a spiral of rebellion against national and European institutions". Which is really saying that the jig is up and the working class of Italy will no longer tolerate the continuing economic exploitation and capitalism crisis: that it is no longer acceptable to make the working people of Italy bail out the rich. These "institutions" that the Angelino Alfano speaks of, are the same institutions that protect bourgeois interest, that encapsulate society by protecting the profit of corporations via laws and violence: the state. It is always "violence" that the law makers and state representatives speak about when people come to the streets to protest: no matter how peaceful. However, how about when it comes to cutting healthcare benefits, cutting education, cutting pensions and wages: is this not violence too? Millions of workers have been used and abused by the system to generate profit for faceless corporations, these are the same workers that are now peopling the streets in protest. Each day in Italy the line between the workers and the bosses become deeper, economic class distinctions between the exploiters and the workers is clearer and the struggle fiercer. The hegemony
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“Revolutions are the locomotives of history�
MARX: Class Struggle in France (1850)
5 Students protest tuition fee rises in London: uniting with all workers against corporations and privatization! Students from universities across London came to the door steps of the University of London Union chanting against the privatization of universities. The students also chanted against police brutality on campus, standing by those that were arrested and harassed in previous protests as a strong demonstration of student unity and solidarity: 41 students were arrested last week. The students that had come out in their thousands showed their solidarity with all workers' rights and workers' struggle in addition to their focus on the anti-privatization movement on campus. Michael Chessum, the president of the national organization against fees and cuts, stated that this is the "reinvigoration" of the student movement. Once again the mainstream media framed the protests around "violence" and the "disturbance". The media never focuses on the actual grievances of the students standing outside the university, but of which group (police vs. protesters) has shed more blood. In this way, the mainstream media attempts to change the focus of the issue, manufacture anti-protest thoughts in the general public: to demonize the people who are fighting for the right to free and affordable education in the public eye. The youth in all societies stand at the forefront of change: with their modern thinking, methodology, and equipped with the understanding of the 21st century struggle. The protests against privatization is a protest against one of the most fundamental means for profit generation under capitalism. The placards of the students targeted profit, corporate greed as well as the police, which shows that the students have aligned and identified the major exploitative and oppressive structures in society and are busy building their movement to stand against them!
6 Islamic regime's attack on Fernanda Lima: a failed representation of the Iranian people
Iranians around the world display their outrage and contempt against the actions of a selected few Islamic regime apologists that have attacked the social media pages of the Brazilian supermodel Fernanda Lima and the Argentinian football striker Leo Messi. Standing next to the secretary general of FIFA, Jerome Valcke, as the FIFA World Cup draw was being read, the Islamic Regime in Iran and its mullahs used this opportunity to remind the people of earth about the humiliating and oppressed place of women under Islam. Fernanda Lima, wearing a beautiful golden dress that was displaying the beauty of the female body was raising all kinds of green haram flags and treated as too provocative and dangerous to the social identity that the mullah regime is forcing down the throats of the progressive and freedom seeking Iranians. Any moment that the television cameras were focused on her, was the very moment that was censored from the Iranian television broadcasting the FIFA draw. This censorship symbolizes the actions of the Islamic Regime from its inception: to wipe away any and all of women's agency in society to be completely subservient to men and crushed under the archaic thumb of Islam. The mullah thugs in Iran have something to fear, a woman's body, in its beauty, stands against all that is Islam. In itself, a woman's body, signifies the revolutionary rallying call for its emancipation from the clutches of the deep dark hole of Islam. With their censorship and attempts at humiliating the Iranian people on the world stage, the Islamic regime has managed to only make it even clearer to the world that they do not and have never represented the Iranian people. Further, the Iranian people, in response to this episode, have come out in their thousands via social media websites such as Facebook as well as news blogs to represent themselves and to further isolate the actions of the Islamic mullahs that are trying desperately and in a failed attempt at being the ambassadors of the Iranian people. Football is a working class sport that people from around the world play on the streets and the gravel roads from the young to the old. Today, more than ever, this sport has been hijacked by corporations via commercialization, and governments use it to breed nationalism and racism. In Brazil the stadiums are being built with billions of dollars worth of resources on the backs of cheap migrant labour during a time when the working class is struggling for basic social services. This is also the time that the bourgeois uses the opportunity to pull on the levers of society to redirect it: by distracting people from their real economic concerns and to press their heads under the sand of nationalism. The Iranian regime is doing the same, by reminding the people of Islam of the "love" for their native land and secondly humiliating them with a stark reminders via censorship. The Iranian people's love for football, as an accessible pleasurable sport, was used as whipping stick by the regime. However the Iranian people from around the globe have turned the table on this assault and have once again reminded the Islamic regime and the people of the world that the Islamic regimes and their full-time social media mullah thugs do not represent them, and that the days of this oppressive regime are numbered!
7 The government of India takes gay rights back 153 years
The supreme court of India made the decision to reinstate a 153-year-old law that defines marriage as between a man and a women. Gay rights activists flooded the streets of India to show their discontent at this decision. The law that is based on a 16th century English legislation states that "carnal intercourse" between consenting adults of the same sex is "unnatural" and will be illegal carrying a penalty: ten years jail time.
Today more than 70 countries are enforcing anti-homosexuality laws and now India has added itself to this list that includes African, Middle Eastern Islamic states and South Asian countries. Meanwhile, further east, Australia who has recently had a Women Prime Minister (which speaks to the progress of gender equality in bourgeois society) has also passed an anti-gay law. The Australian high court stated that "marriage equality law" does not sit well with the federal provisions that marriage is between a woman and a man.
The struggle for gay and lesbian rights goes far beyond just marriage equality. This is a struggle for human rights and acceptance of gay and lesbian in society. The right to be married is a vehicle against patriarchy and the traditions and institutions associated to these structures that have strong roots in religions and conservative ideologies. Marriage itself, as an institution, is inherently oppressive in nature due to the above reasons, however in this cause it serves as a tool for legitimizing the socio-political place of gays and lesbians as equal citizens in society. Civil marriage, or any other types of paper bondings are just that, paper proclamations. As socialists we realize, even beyond their patriarchal archaic roots, that they serve a role in socio-economic exploitative tool for the bourgeois. But we must also realize the role that this particular struggle has in the larger class struggle and class consciousness.
This struggle for gay and lesbian equality is hand in hand with the struggle for the emancipation of all working people for total equality via the eradication of the exploitation of labour. The bourgeois state as an oppressive structure will always have a foot in patriarchy, religion, racism, nationalism, sexism and gender inequality when it serves its purpose. It will reverse history to which ever decade it wishes if it is not pushed back by the people's movement, in this case it has rolled back time 153 years. The struggle of the gay and lesbian groups against the bourgeois state is the struggle of all working people.
8
Anti-abortion law protest in Madrid Activists took their fight to the Ministry of Justice building in Madrid to protest the approval of the law "the Reformed Abortion Act" by the Spanish Council of Ministers. The protesters demanded the resignation of the Justice Minister Jose Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon. This law rolls back 3 years of history where women were allowed to have abortion without any state restrictions up to 14th week of pregnancy. The association of Accredited Abortion Clinics made it very clear the calamity of health risks this new anti-abortion law will cause: 100,000 out of 118,000 abortions carried out will be made illegal. Demonstrators from a group called "We Decide" clashed with the police in the Plaza Jacinto Benavente. Here the police, using brutal tactics, beat and knocked unarmed women to the ground. Protests also were held in Barcelona against this draft legislation. Once again the Spanish government during an economic crisis, with the open arm collaboration of the church and religious groups, has put its hands on the rights of women in Spain. The patriarchal government of Spain, corrupt and only focused on reducing social spending, should be the last body of authority to decide on the legality of abortions. The government of Spain is effectively prioritizing fattening the pockets of its lenders rather than caring about the health and safety of the Spanish working people. The women in Spain that require abortion will be effectively abandoned by the Spanish healthcare system and will need to find other means for having this procedure. The health risk will involve the death of countless women who will be undergoing abortions in clinics that are both unsafe and away from the comfort of their loved ones during this often dangerous and traumatic procedure. Restrictions on abortions is an attack on both women and men, it is an attack on all families and working people of Spain. The government of Spain must be stopped! The blood of countless Spanish women will be dependant on it.
9
Two Pussy Riot members freed
The Pussy Riot group which was formed in 2011, become internationally known when its members performed a song in Moscow's Cathedral church in 2012. The Punk Prayer was an attack on the Orthodox Church for its support of Vladimir Putin. Soon church officials supported the arrest of the group members and charged them with "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". They were convicted to two years in prison, Samutsevick was freed on probation in October 2012, but the other two members of the group were kept in jail until now. The arrests of the Pussy Riot members created world wide protest and uproar. Many lefty groups, secular and atheist groups, people against the authoritarian rule of Putin, all came out to support the group members demanding their release. Also musicians and rights groups spoke out for the freedom of expression and speech. Among them were well known artists such as Sting, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Madonna and Yoko Ono calling for their release. Other human rights groups accused the Putin government for holding them as prisoners of conscience. The Pussy Riot's balaclavas became a worldwide recognized symbol. After a long mal-treatment in prison the Pussy Riot members (both mothers) went on a hunger strikes. Now after international pressure as well as the group members vocal stance against the authoritarian Putin regime they have been released on an amnesty law which was signed by the Russian parliament that released 20,000 prisoners, including mothers. The recent passing of this amnesty law by the Putin government will be one of the many campaigns that the government will use to increase its feeble popularity with the Russian people as it goes into elections. The last election was widely considered as rigged and a complete sham. The Putin regime is taking desperate measures since the rising Communist Party of Russia has been gaining votes in recent elections. The world wide right wing media, especially the US and the UK major media outlets, have widely broadcasted the news about Pussy Riot as they continue to follow the recent US anti-Putin agenda, and they use the Pussy Riot story in their campaign. However the people of the world know well that the choices are not simply between the East and the West, between two imperialist powers competing for consumer markets. The secular and anti-religious, anti-economic exploitation people of the world have their own camp: the fight against the bourgeois and religion the world over.
10
Tarja Cronberg visits Iran wearing hijab As the European parliament delegation visited Iran this week, the head of the delegation, Tarja Cronberg wears hijab. This meeting was part of the continuing "relations building" with the Islamic regime in Iran after the recent nuclear deal reached between Iran and the Sextet of world powers in the Swiss city of Geneva. Ali Larijani, the speaker for the Majlis in Iran described the meeting as "beneficial for the establishment of security and peace under the existing sensitive conditions in the region". During the six day visit, the eight member European Parliament delegation also met with rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and the filmmaker Jafar Panahi (who both won the Sakharov prize for human rights in 2012). Ms Sotoudeh was only freed from jail in September after serving 3 years in prison and was banned for practicing law as "acting against national security and propaganda against the regime". Mr Panahi was banned from making film for 20 years after attempting to make a documentary in 2009. Tarja Cornberg's European parliament delegation visit was already a slap in the face of many Iranian women when she entered Iran wearing a hijab. Her visiting the regime critics such as Ms Sotoudeh and Mr Panahi did very little to counterbalance her turning her back to the fight and the struggle of millions of Iranian women against the patriarchal and the inhumane regime in Iran. Islam has been forced down the throats of the Iranian people for over 34 years, and the people of Iran have continuously fought back against this regime. One of the biggest symbols of this oppressive regime is the hijab, the forced veil. Cornberg's action of wearing the hijab is indignant to the struggle of Iranian women for emancipation and is also an insult to all women the world over, including herself! Mr Ali Larijani, one of the many mullahs ruling Iran, has criticized the delegation for mixing human rights with politics. As though human rights have no place in politics, even though the two are one and the same! The reality is that Ms Cronberg has little interest in human rights, since the world powers have stood as witness as the Islamic Regime in Iran has annihilated every single human rights of the Iranian people for the last 34 years. "Human rights" for West has become nothing but poking stick for making political points and political manoeuvres for the Western interests. Tarja Cronberg wearing a hijab to this meeting is testament to this very point.
11
Wages frozen as workers in Russia prepare for Winter Games In Russia many are traveling south in seek of jobs as the pre-Olympics construction continues. Youth are especially in a rush to get jobs as they are hit the worst by the Russian unemployment rate. In a country where there is little to no protection for low-level labourers, workers are often both underpaid and are forced to wait for long periods of being without pay. Among the workers are the waves of immigrants that have flocked to Russia from Central Asia competing with Russian youth for work. The constructions for the Olympics includes building 40 new/refurbished hotels and Olympic venues as well highways, railroads and power facilities in Sochi. Human Rights Watch has documented large number of cases using interviews from the workers that many of the migrant labourers working on the Olympic sites are earing wages of only 55 to 80 rubbles/hour and have found employers that have failed to pay the full wages or any of it at all. In addition there are frequent cases of abuse and mistreatment of workers by the employers. The corporations and companies that have been given the Olympics construction contracts are in part state owned companies, such as OAO Tsentr Omega, which demonstrates how the Russian state is turning a blind eye to the mass exploitation and abuse of the migrant workers. It has now become a norm between countries hosting world and or large continental events such Olympics, the World Cup, another tournaments to build their venues on the backs of very low paid migrant workers. As a way to cut the enormous cost of the games and also as way to increase the profits and the returns for state investments these states have degraded and dehumanized the migrant workers even beyond wage slavery levels: a total theft. As the people of the world come together to witness the Winter Olympics, there may never be any media coverage of the mass abuse and wage theft that took place in the construction of these Olympic venues. The workers, migrant and domestic, are both caught in the corporate and state machine of exploitation and abuse. This cycle can only stop with the unity of domestic and migrant workers against the large scale theft occurring at their expense.
12 FEMEN foils Christmas mass in Kรถlner Dom of Cologne cathedral
FEMEN Sextremist of Germany, Josephine climbed on to the altar of the cathedral protesting against the Vatican criminalization of abortion. The catholic church is one of the most dominant institutions that has used archaic ideas to justify its cruel, abusive and inhumane stance against women. In its propaganda and lobbying against the use of contraception and birth control as well as its stance against abortion, the Catholic Church is effectively one of history's largest killer institutions. FEMEN is a group founded in Ukraine in 2008. It is an international feminist protest group that is uses topless protest against sex tourists, religious institutions, patriarchy, and sexism as attacks on human rights and women. It currently has branches in many cities around the world including Warsaw, Zurich, Rome, Tel Aviv, and Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Paris, Quebec and many other cities. FEMEN's topless protests have essentially attacked the very heart of patriarchal intuitions, and has effectively put large cracks into their "sacred" image of the church. Using their body to protest, it is a precisely the action necessary and geared for, tackling all manifestations of patriarchy in society: the women body is often the first point for attack, control and domination by patriarchyz As the world goes through austerity measures set between financial intuitions and country states, the first cuts are always in social services. As we have witnessed in Spain this month, one of the many cut-backs is to make abortion illegal in Spain. Due to the patriarchal setup of many world states, often the first line of attack on the working people via social service cuts are against women's rights and freedoms. It is here where the cause of FEMEN is the fighting cause for all working people, and their fight against patriarchy and all its manifestations, is the fight of all freedom lovers.
13
Cambodian garment workers continue their strike! Cambodian garment workers have been on continuous strike this year for increased wages from $80 to at least $160. However the Cambodian government only increased the monthly wages from $80 to $95. This new minimum wage is due to take effect in April 2014. The economic situation of workers in Cambodia is at poverty levels with high rent (and increasing) as well as price increases in the market. This has forced many Cambodian to work long hours to simply make ends meet. The wage increase of $15/month has already pushed up price of rent and foods, as the small increase in disposable income is quickly snagged away by the market vultures. The garment industry employs 400,000 workers and has a net worth of $5 billion dollars a year. Most of the garments are exported to retailers such as H&M in US and European countries which sell the garment at record profit. Since 1995, where the Cambodian economic model changed from a planned economic model to the "free" market, essentially the state sold its human resource and labour to the world at a very cheap price. Here the international corporations in the interest of bringing the costs of production down, used cheap labour, low taxes, proximity to Asian raw materials to make their products. This was in addition to creating new markets for Western exports. This change in the economic model effectively introduced Cambodia to the waves of economic crisis as experienced by other bourgeois markets in the West. Currently the Cambodian economy is heavily dependent on Western consumption. Western working class themselves are under austerity attacks on their wages and benefits and they too are finding it difficult to make ends meet and are forced to buy from the cheapest retailers such as H&M: thus continuing the vicious cycle of exploitation in Cambodia.
International retailers are profit driven and in competition with one another, and represent the very class enemy of the working people of the world and they continue to mercilessly produce products at the cost of blood and bone of the working class in Asia and the world over. The workers in Cambodia are the producers of value, they are the owners of the products, the wealth generated from their labour belongs to them!
14
Endrogen's Islamist party scandal exposes internal conflict This week the Erdogan Islamic party once again made international headlines as nearly half the cabinet members are replaced and reshuffled due to the exposure of a corruption scandal. Three cabinet members were immediately thrown out of the party when the Turkish police uncovered high level theft by the cabinet members in cooperation with renown businessmen in the country.
In this case, added to other exposed money laundering, bribing and high level theft by the state officials, only demonstrates the corrupt core elements of the Erdogan's politics. In addition to his failed attempts to Islamize a secular country, which was a major political blow to his party, now Erdogan has dug himself a deeper grave within the bourgeois ranks as well.
This new development in the Edrogan administration is by no means a new phenomenon, but it serves well to illuminate that even within the Turkish bourgeois state there are massive divisions. The police and investigative force is a bourgeois state tool that exists primarily to keep the working people in line and to protect the profit margins of internal companies, corporations and other for-profit organization. The police force does not have the role of exposing the government unless there are divisions within the bourgeois interests in the country, it is only during these times that it will act to expose and scandalize the government. Perhaps to state this clearer, the police force only exposed the Edrogan government because it is supporting another bourgeois element that wants the country's resources and wealth divided in a different way (and by no means to say in a more "humane" way), and to support the profits from another sector of the economy.
Exposure of the Edrogan Islamic regime, even in the context of the divisions in the state, is an important focal point, since it breaks down the reactionary government and embarrasses them on a world stage: this is exactly what needs to happen with reactionary ideas and political parties, exposed and overthrown. This is also a small victory for the Turkish women considering the long list of oppressive Islamic rules and laws that is high on Edrogan's to do list. Discrediting a reactionary party creates and perpetuates the momentum necessary to continue the Turkish people's struggle to live in a free and secular country, safe from the Islamic sword that is currently looming above their heads.
My Pussy. My Rules!
15
(A discussion with a reader about FEMEN) Rashedul Chronos Femen's message is ridiculously dumb. I initially thought they were on to something but other than nudity they don't have a message. I'm sorry I fail to see how their demonstration actually had any message other than nudity or informed anyone on the issues. I always see the claims that they are protesting this cause or that cause but it ultimately gets down to ...boobs! Yep, total disservice to any real discourse on the issues. They are doing more damage to Feminism than good.
Chia Barsen I think by being topless, and their method of protest in fact attacks the very heart of all that is "sacred" in the church. The woman's body is precisely the first line of attack, control and domination by patriarchal institutions. By standing on a massive "sacred" alter nude, is a massive symbol, and counter punch to patriarchy. The protests are none conventional, they are built to get media attention, similar methods are/were used by greenpeace activities in the past and has had impact. Religion, aside from its social impact, is based on an archaic idea buried deep into the minds of people, if this idea can be broken, or to have people questioning it, it is massive turn around. Many women from around the world, including deep black holes in north Africa and middle east are coming out in their large numbers, inspired by FEMEN, to fight against their own patriarchy. Amina was one of many.
Rashedul Chronos The very attitude that Femen is helping women from "deep black holes" in North Africa and middle is based on colonial era ideals of Feminism where the western women are somehow inspiring and saving the others. It has been tried before and it has failed. It uses experiences and values of one culture to impose on women of another culture. You think you want to fight patriarchy by protesting income levels, education levels, political particpation etc? Shutup and take your hijab off and strip naked first. You are not a feminist women if you are not displaying your body. Secondly I dispute the claim that its inspiring large numbers . Femen inspired movement is so incredibly limited not large as you claim. If it wasn't for their shock tactics we wouldn't be discussing them (and I prefer to ignore them since as I said before they do more harm to feminism than good). Theres a larger feminist movement out there that is about about empowering women of all culture and all experiences. Furthermore, their tactics attack nothing of patriarchy but rather perpetuates the same old message of a sexist society. Objectifying women and sexualizing women is a favourite hobby of patriarchy. Femen simply repeats that and puts on a show. Their idea is hey you have been objectifying and sexualizing me for years so let me protest that by letting me take charge of it and helping you do it. They repeat the same thing they are claiming to protest. The debate that they create revolves around women's body, not the multitude of issues that need to be tackled. Femen's demonstrations create only one discussion and one focus, woman's body (sounds similar to other sexist institutions to me).
Rashedul Chronos Human rights are not cross cultural. I believe certain human rights, those that I consider universal should be found everywhere but I dont think they are actually cross cultural. I believe in universal human rights but its spread need to be done very carefully through local empowerment. Anything else will slide back toward colonialism. I'm sure you know history of colonialism and exporting colonial ideals in order to educate the "savages". Don't forget Victorian women once tried to cover up the savages in the name of what it means to be a woman or a proper lady. That is no different from women of Femen telling other women that exposing yourself is the proper way to be an empowered woman. We are discussing movements that are about emancipation, not oppression. It needs to be organically cultivated through education and local empowerment. It is a global fight fought on local scale. The problem here isn't anything new. It was used during second wave feminism where western feminists were trying to "free" the women of third world by imposing their views. You fail to understand the criticism of Femen. Femen focuses on the wrong fights. The problem with Femen doesn't have to do with fight against restrictive abortion laws or laws that opress women. Femen has decided that the way to fight those is to objectify the female body. I'm not against take back control over something that has been used by others, but Femen has lost that message and their focus simply relies on displaying and objectifying the body. Just like large corporations try to use women to sell their products, Femen is under the impression that they need to do the same, its that kind of obsessive focus on the female body. But my biggest irritation is the attitude of Femen as if they are doing something that haven't been done, they are creating waves and headlines. Women has been making headlines and other feminist movements has been making headlines long before Femen. Femen isn't inspiring a "large" number of women. Yes Femen has supporters in different countries but in our globalized world even the smallest fringe groups can organize on a global scale. Femen has 20-30 something active members in 8-10 countries. That can hardly be called a large movement. Many other feminist movements are much larger but gets less attention because they don't go around taking their clothes off... that is not a praise of Femen's tactic but another example of a sexist society and condemnation of what draws attention in our society.
16 Rashedul Chronos I do support slutwalk and I think that is quite different from Femen in its message and use. But that is another topic. the Femen story gets weirder the more you dig into it. One of the founder of Femen is actually a guy, Victor Svyatski. He hand picked the "prettiest girls" because it will gain more attention and sell more papers. He sees himself as this trainer and had to say this about the women: "They show submissiveness, spinelessness, lack of punctuality, and many other factors which prevent them from becoming political activists. These are qualities which it was essential to teach them." Sounds like a wonderful guy. The current leader of Femen has distanced herself from him but she has gone on to say some brutal things about feminism as well in order to promote her "new feminism". Again I believe that the attention Femen gets actually shows the sad state of our society. In germany a group of refugees were struggling to get media attention until one woman asked a journalist if she has to get naked. The journalist replied yes and soon enough there was a mob of reporters at the scene.
Chia Barsen Human rights are not cross cultural? I like to know to which human right you are referring to that is not cross cultural. The point you make about being cautious about the “export” (quoted to make it neutral) goes deep into anther debate. Namely the colonial era and how ordinary working people had a role in it. In short, they didn't, the colonial era had more to do with capitalism's mode of production, distribution and exchange which necessitated to secure larger consumer markets, to secure larger resources (of all kinds) in order to ensure the continuation of production and to reduce over-production (which in part creates economic crisis). The colonial era (which you keep bringing up), is only part of the domination of the Western markets in human history, you could have used even more recent examples to make your point, namely neo-colonialism: the world bank, side by side with international corporation buying massive sectors of a “developing” country's economy (which there are numerous and current examples of). The point here is that it is the capitalist form of production that necessitates this form of domination, it is not the working class who are themselves wage slaves in the capitalist system, and have no choice but to buy the cheapest goods, and try to sell their labour at a highest price possible, because they themselves have such low disposable income that can not always afford to pick and choose where they buy their goods, and do NOT have a real alternative form of satisfying some of their daily needs: they are themselves trapped in a system of control and domination. The colonial era introduced religion as a tool for assimilating and creating consumerist markets, and to essential to make them accepting of their new wage-slave status. All the wars that we have fought inclusive of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, was not our fault, but the bourgeois imperialist neocolonialism ambitions. There is no need for the working class who paid a heavy price both in taxes and their blood for it, to apologize and to think somehow it was their fault. It was not us, it was capitalist system that did this. By the virtue of being born in the West, or living there, does not in any form make us guilty of the exploitative nature of the capitalist system.
FEMEN is NOT saying that the only way against patriarchy is to expose your breasts. This is a very distorted understanding of the message that the FEMEN group. FEMEN's worldview appreiciates the differences in the way patriarchy dominates different societies. For example genital mutilation is an issue in one part of the world, and is not in another. Abortion is currently a battle being fought in Spain, but not in Sweden. “All manifestations of patriarchy” means precisely this. Something that I have also taken from your statements about local struggle, and its importance, is the speed at which change takes place. Does local change, specific to the local environment also mean we need to take our time to make change? This argument ties in with the previous statement you made about human rights. Feminist and Human rights activists coming into a locality and pointing out human rights abuses, is this ok, or a itself a form of colonialism? A clearer example, a child is married off at 9 years of age (in places such as India it is before they are even born), aside from marriage itself being a patriarchal institution (in the general current definition of the word), marrying a 9 year old is a human rights abuse. So are we to fold our arms and wait, or come in and make this practice illigal. The same goes with stoning, FGM, are we to wait, because we are too afraid of “colonizing” the locals with our “western” views? The answer is no, we are not colonizing, human rights has historically has developed in the West, but it by no means a manisfestaion of the Western bourgeois, but the working class movements who have fought for it and struggle years to attain them. If capitalism had its way we would still have slavery, still have massive gender inequality in wages, we would still have zero rights for gays, we would have no such thing as a minimum wage, lower working hours, vacations, sick leaves, socialized health care and the general welfare state. These freedoms and rights were fought by the working class and by fighting for people's right in the middle east, Europe, Africa or anywhere in the world is NOT colonialism but supporting the emancipation of those people from the clutches of the imperialist domination and religious oppression.
As for the comment on FEMEN being made by man. Even if FEMEN was made by a man, or an alien or by the president of the united states, it has nothing to do with what they stand for. To answer the statement: read more about it and you will see that they were not made by a man. Even if they were, modern feminism sees men as equal partners in the battle against patriarchy, not as enemies.
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