Porto Marghera Film, Lewisham 77conference and new squatted centre in south London

Porto Marghera – the last firebrands
Screening and presentation/discussion Friday, 9th of November, 7.30pm, Pullens Estate community centre

A film about petrochemical workers who took matters into their own hands in the giant industrial zone
engulfing Venice. The mass refusal of literally toxic work forced hours on the job down at the same time as driving wages up. The labour hierarchy that sets white collar against blue, permanent against casual,
was attacked by workers insisting on the maximum for everyone. The battle in the factory was linked to
working-class life outside through direct appropriation of basic social needs (electricity, housing, food).
More clearly than any before them, the Porto Marghera workers identified the factory as the trigger of fatal diseases and destroyer of life. They remained on the offensive against the concerted hostility of unions, multinational employers and state from the late 1960s until well into the '70s. As part of an international wave of struggle, their actions contributed to a global accumulation crisis, provoking
the capitalist counter-attack which has never ceased since then.

Unlike most more or less academic accounts of Italian Operaismo, which tend to focus on high-profile groups and individual leaders, Porto Marghera – gli ultimi fuochi (Manuela Pellarin, Italy, 2004) documents
autonomous worker organization from the point of view of the worker-activists themselves, who talk about
their experiences in the film. Many aspects and problems of this phase of class struggle are of immediate relevance today. For example:
• The Porto Marghera workers fought for better conditions within their work and at the same time against the damaging impact of the chemical industry and of work itself. They defended their health-damaging jobs, yet did so from a deeply critical perspective, at a time when a middle-class moralizing green movement did not exist.
• They developed independent organizational forms within the existing struggles of the time. This meant
reassessing the relationships between:
- the workers' mobilizations and their own role as active workers
- the factory and the wider social terrain
- workers' struggles, new forms of union representation and 'professional' political groups like Potere Operaio
- mass movement, armed insurrectionist groups and state repression.

The film, which includes archive footage and interviews with known troublemakers, was first distributed on DVD with the winter 2006/2007 issue of Wildcat (Germany)[www.wildcat-www.de]. It will be presented at the screening by members of the Wildcat group. The DVD is also now available with English and other subtitles, together with the same director's short film Portrait of Augusto Finzi and a profusely detailed 70-page English-language booklet containing analysis and more interviews. To obtain copies of the
film plus booklet (1 DVD=€6, 10 DVDs €30, exclusive of postage+paypal fees) contact redaktion@wildcat-www.de

The introduction to the booklet is reproduced below.

Porto Marghera - the last firebrands. The title of the documentary has various meanings: the Italian word 'fuoco' means 'fire', and also a 'shoot-out'. In this case, the word also means the flames of the
petrochemical works that make the industrial zone visible from miles around.Its future is uncertain.
The environmental damage that it has caused cannot be overlooked. The hundreds of deaths from cancer can never be made good.The most polluting parts of the industry have since been outsourced east, but Italy is still among the largest PVC producers.

The fire in the industrial wasteland, where the illegal immigrants warm themselves, is a symbol in the film for the new class composition, making an immigration country out of an emigration one.

But the phrase 'the last firebrands' also refers to the heat waves of class struggle that swept across this industrial zone in the 1950s, 60s and 70s; struggles that characterised the area and left a lasting impact upon it. Sometimes history takes a violent leap: in 1968 inexperienced peasants from the countryside were catapulted into the centre of the worldwide revolution. No working class had previously identified the factory as a trigger of fatal diseases and as a destroyer of life as clearly as they did in this struggle.
The union shut out the organisers of the struggles.Those shut out found their own organisational forms. The autonomous assemblies in Porto Marghera in the early 1970s not only co-ordinated the struggles
in the factories of the industrial zone, but also squatted houses, formed neighbourhood committees, organised price reductions in the supermarkets and together with thousands of workers burned their electricity bills. The unions and the government could only look on.

Pullens Centre, Pullens Estate, 184 Crampton st.
London SE17

Buses 35, 45, 40, 68, 468, 171, 176, 12, 343 etc;
Elephant & Castle tube/train.

There is a new free space in Camberwell, the Squatters Arms, 121-123 Southampton Way.

For more details see: http://groups.myspace.com/squattersarms

LEWISHAM 77 - 30 YEARS ON

Remembering and Reflecting on racism and resistance

On 13 August 1977, the far-right National Front attempted to march from New Cross to Lewisham in South East London. Local people and anti-racists from all over London and beyond mobilised to oppose them, and the NF were humiliated as their march was disrupted and banners seized.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the 'Battle of Lewisham' we are holding a half day event in New Cross on Saturday 10th November with speakers and films (1 pm start at Goldsmiths College, New Cross).

It will provide an opportunity to both remember the vents of 1977 and reflect on their significance for today.

The event will include an exhibition, films, and a panel of speakers, including participants in the 1977 events.

Lewisham '77 conference SATURDAY 10TH NOVEMEBER 2007, 1-5 pm at Goldsmiths College (Great Hall), New Cross, London SE14.

The conference will provide an opportunity both to remember the events of 1977 and to reflect on their significance for today. It will include a photographic exhibition, videos, and a panel of speakers. Confirmed
to take part so are:
-Professor Paul Gilroy - sociologist, ex-Goldsmiths lecturer and author
of Ain't No Black In The Union Jack and The Black Atlantic;
- Balwinder Rana and Ted Parker - veterans of Lewisham '77 and the
Anti-Nazi League;
- Martin Lux, author of Anti-Fascist: A Foot-Soldier's Story;
- Dr William (Lez) Henry - former Goldsmiths lecturer and South London
reggae DJ, author of What the Deejay Said: A Critique from the Street.
- Les Back, author of ˜Race. Politics and Social Change, and
of Whiteness: Colour Politics and Culture.
- Dave Landau, No One is Illegal.
- speakers from Lewisham Anti-Racist Action Group (LARAG)
The event starts at 1 pm, admission is free. To be added to the mailing list with details of the event, please email lewisham77@gmail.com

http://lewisham77.blogspot.com