IWA 2009 Congress reports

Brief reports in Portuguese:

Brazil Indymedia
http://midiaindependente.org/pt/red/2009/12/460465.shtml

COB
http://cob-ait.net/

They are basically press releases saying that the congress was successful as was the parallel seminar on autonomous unionism in the americas.

http://www.aitrus.info/node/496
http://cnt-ait.info/article.php3?id_article=1744
http://zsp-msp.blogspot.com/2009/12/kongres-miedzynarodowego-stowarzyszenia.html

Try your language skills.
Last link will also give a hint about one piece of news.

OK, quick translation/summary of French CNT-AIT article for the benefit of others:

24th congress, Brazil 4-6 december, first time congress was held outside Europe.

Discussed different internal organisation questions as well as current and upcoming campaigns.

Decided to intensify campaign for the ASI members in prison. ASI will organise an international camp (as in pitching tents) in Croatia. CNT will do the same in Spain. Campaigns were discussed including temp work and a conference on precarious employment.

The congress brought several changes to the composition of the IWA. Good news: new section in Poland, ZSP. Czech section will eventually renew its membership, to be confirmed. Still no info for several years about Nigerian section so it is withdrawn from member list.

The congress was a success, even though there were too many topics to deal with, which would have required an extension of the congress. The atmosphere was very positive, despite the Serbian situation - the comrades are expecting their organisation to be declared terrorist (by those who carried out genocides a decade ago) and therefore banned, which will certainly have repercussions on the IWA and its sections. All sections have accepted to join the support campaign and continue the fight against power and capital.

Next congrss in Spain. IWA secretariat now in Norway - NSF-IWA.

akai wrote:

Now there are some problems with FAU in Berlin and we hope there will be a swift international response.

Are you referring to this? http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_091212-141820
I only just found out, bad news.

ZSP-MSP comrades, welcome to the IWA!

[de|en] http://tinyurl.com/yaspbj4
[pl|en] http://tinyurl.com/yc9vb99

Concerning the FAU, Laure is refering to a restrainiung oder of the higher Berlin-Brandenburg labour court against the Berlin local of the FAU three days ago. This order interdicts the Berlin local to name itsself a "union" or an "alternative union" and fines each individual attempt to do it anyhow with up to € 250,000. That order is part of a conflict between the mangement of the Kino Babylon GmbH and the FAU branch over wages, working conditions and regularisation of temp workers in that company. The management is backed up in that conflict by the local SPD / Die Linke government at Berlin (social democrats and left social democrats) and ver.di, the monopolist public sector trade union within the DGB trade union federation. Restraining orders under Germany law are released without hearing or even notifying the accused party.

If that sentence cannot be repelled, it would be the first time a union in Germany is de facto forbidden since the nazi regime in 1933. And it might serve as an authoritative precedent against every attempt in Germany to build unions others than the reformist monopolist trade unions of the DGB.

This is only a short summary in order to explain what Laure was talking about. There will be more information about what happened and what people might do within a couple of days. Translation into English, Spanish, French, Polish and Slovakian is currently prepared. We will of course keep you informed.

A few points:

Personally, I would like to have more information about Die Linke and their connection with this FAU situation. I believe that we should really stress this, if this is the case and put direct pressure on them.

One thing I have been observing is that several left parties from various European countries have been coordinating internationally with union federations which are attacking union pluralism. This is no coincidence and I think we need to examine this issue, present a deeper analysis and expose the authoritarian plan of the left to try and exert hegemony over unionism through legal repression and introduction of legislation that would limit both independent unionism and impose legal requirements which dilute the class conflict.

About the IWA Congress, maybe the comrades from SolFed will eventually publish something in English. Personally, I am new and not even sure where the lines are in terms of informing people of the discussions held. In my personal opinion, many of the discussions were internal in character and do not need to be shared. I can offer a few impressions though.

In my opinion, there was a rather good feeling at the Congress and discussion went smoothly, although perhaps sometimes chaotically, on most points.

In terms of internal proposals that were already publically discussed here, the CNT made its controversial proposal about group size and voting, and I think it is no surprise that it was not accepted. For me, this was also clear, but it was important for them as a symbolic statement. This said, most members of ZSP at our last Congress expressed doubts that CNT or other groups supporting their position would like to include us in the IWA since they could argue that we don't meet their standards - but to my great surprise this was not the case. So this, at least for me, was proof that the larger groups in the IWA want to maintain some openness, give chances and be supportive to the development of the movement - and in fact there were many references during the Congress for the need to do so, especially in places like Latin America. (It is clear EVERYBODY wants to do so, we just have to come up with a common plan that is acceptable for everybody and starts to bring some results.) We personally were very happy about this, are trying to develop ourselves and certainally hope to prove that the choice to give us a chance was a good one. That said, I think that there were not too many concrete decisions about how to go about encouraging development in new places- rather only talks between people later on and discussion on about what we can do. That is why rather than report on some intention which is not very specific, I say to wait for the projects to unveil themselves.

One project I think we can and should talk about now though is that COB has inherited the archives of Edgar Rodriquez. They would like to open a center for libertarian educational purposes in Brazil. As you can understand, such centers are much more than libraries and also serve as meeting places, places to promote the movement. They produced a document in English about it - maybe I can put it up later. IWA supports it and individual sections may later join in making appeals for further support.

Maybe later I can or other people can mention one or two other things.

akai wrote:

A few points:

Personally, I would like to have more information about Die Linke and their connection with this FAU situation. I believe that we should really stress this, if this is the case and put direct pressure on them.

One thing I have been observing is that several left parties from various European countries have been coordinating internationally with union federations which are attacking union pluralism. This is no coincidence and I think we need to examine this issue, present a deeper analysis and expose the authoritarian plan of the left to try and exert hegemony over unionism through legal repression and introduction of legislation that would limit both independent unionism and impose legal requirements which dilute the class conflict.

While this is propably not the right threat and time to discuss that matter in details (the more as my boss hangs around just one small comment on it: In Germany there are generally no union built around ideologies as are/were in Spain, France and Italy. Everybody from christian conservatives over social democrats to the left advocates the lame, reformist and co-management focused DGB trade unions (They are in the board of management of a big number of mayor German companies). While many workers do feel very uncomfortable with those unions, the German leftist are their most stubborn defenders. Not only because many members of left parties carry functions and jobs in the lower union hierarchy but as well because of ideological reasons. For them those unions are the alleged transmission belts for their party politics.

The Berlin case is very special in itsself. One of the two members of the Babylons management board is directly linked to the "Die Linke" party which governs Berlin together with the SPD. His father is a former Wobbly from the sickest dungeons of the stalinist IWW faction of the 50th. He emigrated into the GDR in the 60th and was used by the SED government as a speaking tube for their propanda. He remained a member of the SED who later became the PDS and now the "Die Linke". During the conflict the old stalinist even made a presentation at the cinema where he talked about how fantastic the historic IWW was and that the FAU has nothing to do with that kind of industrial organization and that his son is such a nice guy, blabla blabla.

Nigerian Awarness League is no longer a section because of years without any contact.

How about the Australian Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation? I think they been seeking readmission (or something like that) for the last two Congresses. I see no mention of their readmission, perhaps an oversight?

ASF is a Section.

The fact that – since more than one year - all the IWA sections and friends face harsh repression (COB militant arrested during the 1st of may 2008, a process against CNT AIT Toulouse for militant activity amongst pension house workers, ASI in Serbia, Amadeus Casellas still in jail after 23 years, the 11 of Lisboa inPortugal, and now friends of FAU Berlin forbiden !

ASI statement on the Belgrade Six - http://libcom.org/library/asi-report-iwa-congress-2009-belgrade-six

A longer report from the CNT (in Spanish), which may answer syndicalist's original question a bit better.

es|en http://tinyurl.com/yhv73l2