Hey there,
We are a small group in London, working bad jobs and publishing a workers’ paper for our area. Some of us are also in the IWW, others in a Marxist Feminist organisation, our friends involved in this series are in Mouvement Communiste or active in the cooperative movement.
www.angryworkersworld.wordpress.com
www.workerswildwest.wordpress.com
https://mouvement-communiste.com/Presentation.php?lang=EN
We put our heads together with some friends and comrades to prepare a series of meetings on all the stuff we can learn from comrades in the USA at the moment. We hope that some prepared Skype sessions could get some good exchange going between people on the ground in the US and here in London.
Why the interest in the US?
We think that you guys are two steps ahead of us. The financial crisis hit first and harder in the US, Occupy was bigger and had at least a bit of a working class perspective, there are more things going in the low wage sector, the mobilisations of migrant workers against deportations and state repression have a mass base - whereas here things are still recovering from the Brexit bullshit blow. There are similarities, but also big differences. We want to build up a more accurate picture of what these are, with an eye to how we orient ourselves in terms of our political activities.
Possible topics and how can you help?
We thought of the following topics or aspects of working class struggle we would like to focus on – do you think you would like to be involved in any one in particular? Or if not, perhaps you can suggest people we can get in touch with? Do you have any advice on the series or some suggested readings?
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1) Context Meeting
The first meeting is supposed to introduce the series and provide a general context for the following meetings, which will look at more concrete and particular aspects of working class reality. We will try to raise some general questions, e.g. about the relationship between class and race in the US, which can then be debated in concrete in the following meetings, e.g. about the role of the prison system.
In the left there are two predominant ways to look at the United States, either as a rather monolithic imperialist world power or as a rich source of ‘popular culture’ (Wobblies, Civil Rights movement etc.). It would be interesting to look at how the US’s position as a dominant - and now declining - economic and political global power forms and impacts on the working class stratification within.
The first meeting will try to provide a brief historical context for the working class stratification in the US: the role of racial divisions, of the rural hinterland, of Latin American migration etc. - and about the difficulties and possibilities for a general class movement.
2) Migration / Industrial backyard
There has been all kinds of militant actions against police raids and within the deportation centres recently so it would be good to have a closer look at the differences between US/Mexican and UK/Eastern European labour migration. We would focus on the importance of migration from, and industrial relocation to, Mexico etc, as well as getting an overview on migrant workers’ organisations and struggles in general and against deportations in particular. - There is an active core of mainly cleaning workers from Latin America here in London, organised in rank-and-file unions who we will invite specifically to the meeting. It will also be important to look the difference between EU migration to the UK and Mexican migration to the US.
3) Trump / Protectionism / Crisis
General discussion about the economic and social background to Trump’s ‘protectionism’.
- We want to discuss similarities and differences to the material basis of Brexit.
4) Prison system and revolts
Class stratification and hierarchical segmentation of the labour market needs external, as much as internal borders in form of the prison system. Recent strikes and riots in US prisons gave us much hope that these walls won’t stop the wider struggle from spreading.
- The IWW in the UK have started some ground work to set up an IWOC, hopefully some FW can be present.
5) Rural/Urban divide
What is the social landscape that underpins the massive levels of inequality in the world’s richest country? Many in the Rust Belt switched from voting from Obama to Trump so a more detailed look at the composition of the working class in these areas is necessary to avoid fall into the trap of seeing this right-wing turn as just ‘history repeating itself’. It might be good to look at initiatives in the rural or socially more remote areas; people like 'red neck revolt' might be interesting to talk to; how do they see the difficulties of bridging the gap between metropolitan and (white) hinterland proletarians?
6) Industrial world / Logistics / Strikes
There have been bigger strikes recently (oil workers, Verizon, Chicago teachers etc.), as well as ongoing struggles in the logistics sector (Walmart) and mobilisations for a higher minimum wage. It would be good to have a closer look at these disputes and how they are related or not to the other more street-based protests of the class as well as how these struggles relate to e.g. the question of migration and (racist) police violence or the different types of organising strategies in modern and precarious workforces.
- We mainly work in warehouses and factories with majority migrant workers and are eager to hear from similar situations in the US.
7) Working class self-defence
Various Black proletarian groups, the IWW and other initiatives like pro-choice groups have started to organise structures of militant resistance against fascists and state attacks - would be good to discuss how they do this practically and how they see it connected to wider working class organising.
- London Antifascists is an active local group and there are many migrants of Eastern European origin in the London antifascist scene.
8) Reproductive justice and the right-wing ascendancy
One of Trumps’s first measures as President was the enactment of the Global Gag rule. Abortion rights are even more under threat and the Women’s March got millions onto the streets. How can we understand these developments and what options do we have to resist them?
- Feminist Fightback and other comrades have organised various blockades of Christian fundamentalists here in London and worked on a theoretical analysis of the current backlash.
9) Solidarity networks, community organising, housing
There have been various experiences with solidarity networks and 'community organising' (e.g. the Flint water dispute etc.); would be good to see what worked and what didn't, as well as what role the more 'NGOised' sector plays in that regard.
- Groups like LondonCoalitionAgainstPoverty and others have done consistent work in London, we hope they can present their approach at the meeting.
10) University struggles
CUNY dispute and other stuff that went down at universities recently.
- There have been various mobilisations of both maintenance staff and precarious lecturers at, e.g. SOAS university in the recent past.
11) Experiences from the past
Would be good to talk to comrades from Sojourner Truth Organisation or from League of Revolutionary Black Workers and how they see the current struggles from a more historical perspective.
- We hope that some comrades from Big Flame will make it to the meeting.
12) Final meeting: On organisation
Some comrades are trying to 'collectivise' reflection on practical experiences and propose some strategical orientations; this could be more a 'general debate' about the situation and about the revolutionary left.
- Round-up question: What is to be done?
We look forward to hearing from you!