Why do AF want to shut down Manpower?
Sep 25 2008
Continued from Libcommunity, as steven is being a bore . admin - and now locked
Quote:
1st November will be exactly six months away from May Day, international workers day. Well we at the anarchist federation ain't got that much time to lose and want to shut down greedy scum like Manpower, RIGHT NOW! Why wait til May Day? Take control today!Workers matter. We are the ones who sweat in your factories to bring you cheap plastic, we wait on you, we cook you your food and pour your drinks, we process your foods and pick your crops, we entertain you and clean your mess when you are done. We also pay your rent for run-down houses, we pay your taxes for your abuse and we pay your fees for the "right" to earn barely enough to live.
We are angry. We are angry when you take our wages for nothing more than finding us work, we are angry when you send us to scab on other workers who struggle as we do, we are angry that you exploit the fact that we may not know you language or don't know our rights, we are angry that when we take a stand you try to make us disappear.
We are angry and we can't wait. Why wait til May Day when the enemies of our class earn off our sweat every single day? Why wait til May Day when its easier to keep your head down and suffer than stand up for your rights? Why wait til May Day? Take Action Now!
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Manpower Inc., the international temping agency, has over 50 years experience in the field of job temping: 50 years to hone their skills of exploiting poor people, paying low wages and providing little or no job security. They're known for systematically refusing to increase wages for their workers – sometimes for 4 years at a time. They provide poor sickness, maternity and pension provision, too, and allow their staff fewer holidays than full time workers have.
In Sheffield, Manpower hire casual workers to work in BT call centres. They pay the staff that they hire 10% less than the market rate, leave them on temporary contracts for months at a time and systematically fire people with little or no recourse for industrial action because of the poor contracts.
And is if that wasn't enough, they not only exploit their own casual workers, they also hire temp workers to scab on other people's jobs, too, pitting working-class people against each other.
Last year, when Post Office workers went on strike against longer hours for less pay, it was Manpower who stepped in. They paid temporary workers to scab on other workers across the country, but many temp workers resisted, refusing to cross picket lines.
We aren't waiting til May Day. It's time to stop them now! Shut Down Manpower and temping agencies like them - 1st November 2008
Sheffield Anarchist Federation is calling for working class activists to take action against the international temping agency Manpower on the 1st November 2008,
Contact sheffield@af-north.org for more details.
Sep 25 2008
#2
Is this a call for a demonstration outside a temping agency? Or a call for a strike?
To me it is not even clear what it is proposing.
Devrim
Sep 25 2008
#3
They might not know what exactly they are proposing but they are clear on one issue; they will not wait until mayday, whatever that means.
Sep 25 2008
#4
sometimes when you're as angry as they appear to be things like having any kind of strategy or tactics aren't really important, it's a useful strategy that's often borrowed from the SWP
anyway the instructions are clear, the objectives are measurable, achievable, realistic and whatever else S and T stands for, i.e.:-
Quote:
Shut Down Manpower and temping agencies like them
what youse waiting for, get to it anarkiseds, you've got until the 1st of November, then you'll get your next mission
Sep 25 2008
#5
You have to keep busy, otherwise you might realise its all pretty pointless.
Sep 25 2008
#6
i bet all the folk currently employed through the soon to be shut down manpower organisation are cock a hoop about this
although i presume, given the prefigurative approach (copyright ben franks) adopted by most annakists they already have the full support of those that will be affected by this daring do of a mission
Sep 25 2008
#7
Bit more constructive, bit less snide lads 
.
Yeah it comes across as a bit ott (though frankly given that Manpower’s name crops up with monotonous regularity in strike situations as unofficially providing scab labour, getting the fuckers out couldn’t hurt), and needs to be thought through a bit more – for example, it would make more sense to set up a workers’ co-op temping agency which doesn’t skim off the top or scab as a rival and pit that directly against Manpower to drag it’s labour away while retaining available work for the people currently jobbing for them.
Sep 25 2008
#8
We wouldn't mind doing a demo in front of Manpower, only it's a Catholic holiday and in some countries everything is shut down that day.
Sep 25 2008
#9
Rob Ray wrote:
Bit more constructive, bit less snide ladsYeah it comes across as a bit ott (though frankly given that Manpower’s name crops up with monotonous regularity in strike situations as unofficially providing scab labour, getting the fuckers out couldn’t hurt), and needs to be thought through a bit more – for example, it would make more sense to set up a workers’ co-op temping agency which doesn’t skim off the top or scab as a rival and pit that directly against Manpower to drag it’s labour away while retaining available work for the people currently jobbing for them.
Communists should form temp agencies?
Sep 25 2008
#10
Rob Ray wrote:
Bit more constructive, bit less snide ladsYeah it comes across as a bit ott (though frankly given that Manpower’s name crops up with monotonous regularity in strike situations as unofficially providing scab labour, getting the fuckers out couldn’t hurt), and needs to be thought through a bit more – for example, it would make more sense to set up a workers’ co-op temping agency which doesn’t skim off the top or scab as a rival and pit that directly against Manpower to drag it’s labour away while retaining available work for the people currently jobbing for them.
yeah, yeah and then we can form a peoples bank too!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 25 2008
#11
Rob Ray wrote:
it would make more sense to set up a workers’ co-op temping agency which doesn’t skim off the top or scab as a rival and pit that directly against Manpower to drag it’s labour away while retaining available work for the people currently jobbing for them.
Why does that make more sense? Such a venture would soon foul of the laws of the market anyway. The idea is almost as ridiculous as the AF itself!
Sep 25 2008
#12
Communists should aim solely for unattainable goals like the complete elimination of casual labour?
I’m pro NHS, in the absence of a community owned and run healthcare system, because it does at least strip out the profit motive and is more susceptible to public pressure. It seems to me that similarly having a syndicalist-style job-clearing house is a step up from a temp agency in the absence of a worker-controlled economy which eliminates the market for temp workers.
Sep 25 2008
#13
oisleep wrote:
sometimes when you're as angry as they appear to be things like having any kind of strategy or tactics aren't really important, it's a useful strategy that's often borrowed from the SWPanyway the instructions are clear, the objectives are measurable, achievable, realistic and whatever else S and T stands for, i.e.:-
Quote:
Shut Down Manpower and temping agencies like them
Specific - it's not quite specific, as it doesn't say how it intends to do so
Time-related - this it is NOW, not Mayday!
Sep 25 2008
#14
Quote:
We are the ones who sweat in your factories to bring you cheap plastic, we wait on you, we cook you your food and pour your drinks, we process your foods and pick your crops, we entertain you and clean your mess when you are done.
We have seen Fight Club, we don't realise workers are also consumers, we probably have office jobs in the public sector.
The problem here is that while some agencies might be shitty they are a part of the employment market that are hard to avoid. We can organise against them on specific issues (non-payment, blacklisting etc) or even when they organise scabbing
Quote:
Last year, when Post Office workers went on strike against longer hours for less pay, it was Manpower who stepped in. They paid temporary workers to scab on other workers across the country, but many temp workers resisted, refusing to cross picket lines.
This is what should be built on.
I'm not sure exactly what they plan to do, an information picket might be an idea but this doesn't seem to be one. Also aren;t most of the people who go to the offices either looking for work or trying to solve a problem. In which case it being blocked off will piss them off. Work against manpower might make it treat its workers better and if the campaign was done well enough then it might force other temp agencies to improve conditions. I'd like to see more clear ideas of how this might be achieved though.
Sep 25 2008
#15
Rob Ray wrote:
Communists should aim solely for unattainable goals like the complete elimination of casual labour?I’m pro NHS, in the absence of a community owned and run healthcare system, because it does at least strip out the profit motive and is more susceptible to public pressure. It seems to me that similarly having a syndicalist-style job-clearing house is a step up from a temp agency in the absence of a worker-controlled economy which eliminates the market for temp workers.
christ on a bike.
Sep 25 2008
#16
Communists should aim for Communism, not piecemeal "improvements" to capitalism
"Workers Control" of the market economy is in no way a step towards this and would be a painful diversion...
Sep 25 2008
#17
Quote:
We are the ones who sweat in your factories to bring you cheap plastic, we wait on you, we cook you your food and pour your drinks, we process your foods and pick your crops, we entertain you and clean your mess when you are done.
Oh hai, I am the ones who writes your tabloids. Nice to meet you.
Sep 25 2008
#18
xConorx wrote:
oisleep wrote:
sometimes when you're as angry as they appear to be things like having any kind of strategy or tactics aren't really important, it's a useful strategy that's often borrowed from the SWPanyway the instructions are clear, the objectives are measurable, achievable, realistic and whatever else S and T stands for, i.e.:-
Quote:
Shut Down Manpower and temping agencies like themSpecific - it's not quite specific, as it doesn't say how it intends to do so
Time-related - this it is NOW, not Mayday!
hold on, is it now or on the 1st november that manpower and temping agencies like them should be shut down
some fool may have already went out and shut down manpower and temping agencies like them already based on the conflicting message laid out in the original bulletin
Sep 25 2008
#19
Why? There’s plenty of examples of workers’ co-ops being strong supports to the labour movement in terms of creating spaces for organisation, physical and financial aid etc, as hubs of contact for radicals, a means of interrupting the supply chain... I’m not talking about it as the be all and end all, or even as something which communists should be going all-out to organise, but as a tactic which would bring more benefit than demanding the closure of workplaces. I could have gone with ‘organise the temps within the agency’, but I like to mix things around .
Sep 25 2008
#20
rob ray, be sure to mark the door of your temp agency with the blood of a lamb so that it may be passed over when manpower and temping agencies like them are shut down on 1st November/Now
Sep 25 2008
#21
can someone confirm whether libertarian communists should be closing down employment agencies or opening them up?
Sep 25 2008
#22
oisleep can you stop sniping please, everyone knows capitalism is basically ok as long as it's run by nice people.
Sep 25 2008
#23
Rob Ray wrote:
Why?
Well, how long have you got? But seriously, maybe here would be a good place to start!
http://libcom.org/forums/theory/marxs-capital-vol-1-online-reading-group-22092008
Sep 25 2008
#24
AF wrote:
We are the ones who sweat in your factories to bring you cheap plastic, we wait on you, we cook you your food and pour your drinks, we process your foods and pick your crops, we entertain you and clean your mess when you are done.
So that's what the AF has been up to lately. They must be tired 
Sep 25 2008
#25
<3 oisleep <3
Sep 25 2008
#26
darren p wrote:
AF wrote:
We are the ones who sweat in your factories to bring you cheap plastic, we wait on you, we cook you your food and pour your drinks, we process your foods and pick your crops, we entertain you and clean your mess when you are done.So that's what the AF has been up to lately. They must be tired
they definately entertain us 
Sep 25 2008
#27
i never expected the smiley to come out like that
Sep 25 2008
#28
darren p wrote:
Rob Ray wrote:
Why?Well, how long have you got? But seriously, maybe here would be a good place to start!
http://libcom.org/forums/theory/marxs-capital-vol-1-online-reading-group-22092008
Well meaning people on both sides, silly activist work and marxist reading groups are a rock and a hard place really.
Sep 25 2008
#29
Coincidentally, some 'autonomous workers' from Sheffield did an action against their local Manpower offices a few months back - http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401271.html
So, I imagine some folk are planning to smash Manpowers windows and glue their locks up as a propaganda action, which could get in the local paper wherever it was done.
Not useful, but not detrimental to the class struggle i would say. Probably quite fun!
Sep 25 2008
#30
What seems strange to me about this is that this seems to be organised by one branch of the AF. Surely if you are going to organise something against a nation wide employer, it would be better to do it with a national organisation. The other advantage to having a more centralised mode of organisation is that if it had had to go to the whole organisation there might have been people to question the validity of the whole thing.
Devrim
square go now!