Sir, there's a mouse in my soup!
Submitted by bulmer on Jan 10 2012 06:32
On 3rd of January workers at Lin Electronics Factory in Dongguan, Guangdong, started strike action after finding a dead mouse in their soup, served at a New Year's celebration banquet.
After initially denying the presence of the dead mouse in the food, the management accepted responsibility and tried to calm the situation down by offering workers a measly 10 RMB compensation each. The workers rejected this and went on strike.
General strike in Nigeria
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 9 2012 23:39
The launch of what unions have labelled an 'indefinite' strike in Nigeria, has led to many injuries and deaths as security forces clash with strikers and protestors. Despite Nigeria having substantial oil reserves, petrol prices have more than doubled in a week, in a country where the vast majority of the population live on less than $2 a day.
Violence has erupted today in Nigeria. The police have clashed with protestors who are demonstrating over rising fuel prices. So far the violence has seen at least six people killed.
Persecution of Greek trade unionists
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 9 2012 21:30
More than a dozen Greek trade unionists are due in court tomorrow, and are facing five years in jail for protesting against austeriy measures.
Tomorrow, Nikos Photopoulos, the president of the Greek power workers union GENOP/DEI, will appear in court alongside more than a dozen other trade unionists.
A report from the attempted eviction of Occupy Liverpool
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 9 2012 19:41
A Liverpool Solidarity Federation member reports on recent attempt to evict 'Occupy Liverpool' from their new location.
The following report is reproduced via the Jay O Doom Blog. Jay is a member of Liverpool Solidarity Federation
http://jayodoom.blogspot.com/2012/01/report-from-attempted-eviction-of.html
A short review of Chinese community and workplace struggles in 2011
Submitted by bulmer on Jan 9 2012 04:52
This is my first post, hopefully the first of many. I will be blogging a lot about China and Hong Kong, so this should give an idea of what's to come. I just want to do a short review of what has been happening in China in 2011 from labour and community resistance point of view. Obviously, the story of what happened in the village of Wukan is the stand out story of the year but it's not the only thing to happen.
Looking at the site China Strikes, you can see the amount of industrial disputes happening all around China. Workers are seeing that they are the backbone for the economic growth in China and in the last few years have become increasingly prepared to fight for better pay and conditions.
Not A Sick Society: A Sick State – 2nd January 2012
Submitted by Omar Ibrahim Ma... on Jan 9 2012 02:41
Comparing how States deal with dissent
This article was submitted to national prison magazine Not Shut Up. The editor approved it for print but the Head of Education at HMP Wandsworth blocked its final publication.
The winter is closing in but still the Arab Spring bursts through the concrete like some unstoppable rose, spreading seeds across the globe. Over there, across the Mediterranean, Syrian and Egyptian resistance reintensifies in the face of relentless oppression and tyranny. These are obvious police states that slaughter their citizenry with the contempt and brutality that only a state can wield.
2012 reading
Submitted by Choccy on Jan 9 2012 00:26
What are you planning to read this year? Will you bother your arse doing it?
It's clear from the 'what are you reading?' thread that people here a lot, no surprise.
I'm more interested in those books you've always meant to read or maybe are 'supposed' to read but have never got around to it or been intimidated, either by volume or technical nature.
Sponsored academies in the UK video
Submitted by Choccy on Jan 8 2012 23:39
A short video summarising some of the issues relating to the academies programme.
A short video has appeared called Sponsored Academies in the UK - A Form of Education Public Private Partnership. It's by the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative, not sure who they are but will have a look. A few talking heads involved include Melissa Benn (author of School Wars, Tony's daughter) and Kevin Courtney (NUT).
Workers' struggles in East Asia (December 2011)
Submitted by Spartacus on Jan 8 2012 09:36
Summary and links to news stories of workers' struggles around East Asia during December 2011 and related resources. The most important stories appear on my Twitter feed as soon as I find them: http://twitter.com/spartacusnews.
This month there has been news from Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. Signifcantly there has been both a wave of strikes and a number of land protests building simultaneously - these have continued into the first week of 2012 (though not covered here).
The most important stories:
Liverpool day of action
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 7 2012 20:36
Liverpool Solidarity Federation members participate in a UK Uncut (Liverpool) action this afternoon. We managed to directly and in-directly close seven stores.
This afternoon, six members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation participated in a UK Uncut (Liverpool) afternoon of action.
Education round up 7/1/12
Submitted by Choccy on Jan 7 2012 18:28
NUT and NASUWT reject pension offer. Gove talks shite about academies. Sutton council wants to ditch class size limit.
Pension offer
So yesterday, NUT and NASUWT, the two largest teaching unions with a combined membership of about half a million, rejected the governments latest pension offer. They join PCS and Unite in doing so. ATL, a smaller teaching union and NAHT, headteacher union had accepted the offer before Christmas.
A 2012 New Year Resolution: against the politics of abstraction and charity, for the real movement in our interests!
Submitted by Caiman del Barrio on Jan 7 2012 17:16
A critical - if somewhat rough - evaluation of the events of 2011 and the anti-cuts movement's relevance to them. The ideas here are ones which I've been mulling for a while, but I've found difficult to articulate, so please be fair in your responses!
As we career headfirst into 2012, and the now customary cycle of ‘actions’ and demonstrations continue to sustain the British activist movement, I would like to use the commencement of a new year as an opportunity for a moment of self-reflection.
Isolated activism
Submitted by bulmer on Jan 7 2012 06:18
Like the vast majority of anarchists, I've never lived anywhere that is a hotbed of activism really but at the moment I'm more isolated from political activism than I have ever been. I live in a country that is more authoritarian than most and I speak very little of the native language, so it's hard to be as politically active as I would like. So for both my own personal use and as a guide to others here are suggestions for what you can do as an isolated anarchist. I've split it into four short (often overlapping) sections; Your Local Area, Travelling Further Afield, The Internet and Your Skills.
Your Local Area
Shell Oil joins the great private sector pension scam
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 7 2012 00:15
Royal Dutch Shell, one of the largest and most profitable companies on earth has announced it is closing its pension scheme for new UK employees. This is despite having record high share prices, a turnover of over £360 billion, and having much more money paid into the pension scheme than is taken out. Shell has one of the most financially sound schemes in the UK, with a £1.1 billion surplus. There needs to a be a genuine joining up of pension campaigns between the private and public sectors.
Royal Dutch Shell is the latest in a long line of companies to call time or downgrade its pension provision to workers in the UK.
Attica Prison Liberation Faction, Manifesto of Demands 1971
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 6 2012 19:09
“WE are MEN! We are not beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace has set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States.”
The Attica Prison riot of 1971 has been well documented elsewhere; therefore I will not be attempting to revisit the events that took place.
Struggle changes people
Submitted by Nate on Jan 6 2012 05:27
This article discusses the idea that the experience of struggle and direct action transforms people.
Some of my friends and I have been saying for a while stuff like “struggle changes people” and about what we’ve called “developing” people. In this post I want to lay out some of the specific things that I think can happen in struggles, in terms of how people develop. In the first section below I try to lay out some ways that people in struggle can change.
Folsom prison strike manifesto and bill of rights 1970
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 5 2012 23:14
In 1970, prisoners protesting about the brutal regime at Folsom Prison, went on strike for 19 days. They wrote the following manifesto and bill of rights in support of their action.
The following manifesto and bill of rights were written in 1970 by inmates at Folsom prison in the United States. They were formulated to support a prisoners strike.
Diane Abbott: stupid, naïve, or a racist?
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 5 2012 20:32
Diane Abbott has made remarks on twitter that have been deemed as racist by some, and not by others. She has form for making remarks that have racial undertones, but is she a racist, or just stupid?
I have briefly watched and read the media coverage of the debate around Diane Abbott’s comments on twitter. For those who did not see them, she said:
Venezuelan prison occupation
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 5 2012 00:24
1000 friends and family members of inmates are currently occupying a prison in Venezuela. This in protest against the judicial system, and prison conditions and brutality. The Venezuelan government believes the occupation to be part of a CIA backed plot to destabilise the country.
Around one thousand friends and family members of inmates held within Venezuelan prisons, have today entered the Yare prison near Caracas, and have refused to leave. They are made up of around 800 women, 150 children, and a handful of men.
Class War on the Work Floor – Audio Recording
Submitted by Recomposition on Jan 4 2012 10:16
We’re pleased to repost this from our comrades at Common Cause.
Between October 22 and October 25, Common Cause organized a speaking tour entitled “Class War On The Workfloor” in four Ontario cities (Hamilton, Toronto, Kitchener & London). The speaker was postal worker, anarchist and rank-and-file trouble maker, Rachael Stafford, from Edmonton.
Multicultural policies have come to be seen as a means of empowering minority communities and giving them a voice. In reality such policies have empowered not individuals but ‘community leaders’ who owe their position and influence largely to their relationship with the state.
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