agriculture
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in retail and the food industry around the world.
Guyanese sugar workers strike again
Workers striking for higher pay shut Guyana's sugar industry for a second full day on Wednesday (27th August), seriously threatening sugar exports to the European Union according to the government.
Labor Minister Manzoor Nadir said the government has ordered an end to the strike by about 17,000 workers, which he said could be "gravely injurious to the national interest" if it continued.
Guyana sugar workers strike
As workers at four sugar estates staged industrial action on Wednesday, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) has warned that their action has pushed back production even further and could result in a significant loss of revenue.
Workers at the La Bonne Intention (LBI), Enmore, Rose Hall and Wales sugar estates have ceased operations, even as wage negotiations between GUYSUCO and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers' Union (GAWU) take place.
Roundup of a month of strikes in Iran
A round-up of recent strike activity in Iran, including the car industry and agriculture.
After three weeks of not receiving wages workers at the Alborz Elastics Factory began a strike on July 12. Management had reneged on a promise to pay a New Year's bonus to 400 workers, and has refused to pay into a loan fund for workers despite taking regular deductions from salaries.
Iranian sugar cane workers enter sixth week of strike
Workers of the Haft-Tapeh Sugar Cane Factory in Shush escalated their fight for unpaid wages this morning by blocking the main highway into the factory.
The blockade of the factory is the latest in a series of actions undertaken by workers, who are continuing their strike in the face of brutal repression by security forces.
Workers at Haft-Tapeh started their strike on May 5 to demand immediate payment of wages, which had not been received for three months prior to the strike.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
With a planetary ecological crisis on hand, it can no longer be denied that socialism will be incompatible with mass production and mass consumption. Indeed, even without returning to Malthusian catastrophe theories, we are forced to admit that the planet’s resources are not inexhaustible. These resources could provide for humanity’s needs, but only if they are used in a reasonable and rational way, i.e., in a manner directly opposed to capitalist logic, which in itself is a source of imbalance.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
by Alternative Libertaire
A world food crisis; empty rice bowls and fat rats
A short look at the problems in world food production and supply, and its links with rising oil prices, global warming and changes in farming techniques.
In the Chittagong hill tracts of rural south-eastern Bangladesh the bamboo is in bloom - and the local poor are hungry and facing famine. Bamboo blooms and seeds itself roughly once every 50 years; the rats love the seeds, and their high protein content causes them to breed four times faster than normal.
Railway, agricultural workers protest and walk out
Recent weeks have seen a continuation of the workers' unrest in Egypt, with over 2,000 agricultural workers going on all-out strike at the end of February and 100 railway workers protesting their pay and conditions at the start of March.
Agricultural workers strike & sit-in
Mozambique: wildcats and sabotage on the sugar cane plantations
600 seasonal workers at the Xinavane sugar plantation in Maputo province of Mozambique have been on wildcat strike since last Friday (15th February).
The workers are demanding a wage increase of over 100%, from 1,100 to 2,500 meticais (from US$46 to US$104), as well as protective clothing, overtime for working on Sundays and the right to a day off in the event of the death of a family member.
Ivory coast workers win cocoa strike
Workers across the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast have gone back to work after winning a strike action which brought shipments to a standstill at the beginning of January.
The strikers wanted to secure better pay and working conditions, and oust senior management in government agencies accused of severe malpractice.
US: The Thibodaux Massacre of 1887
One of the most interesting, and probably least known events in Louisiana history is the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887.The Thibodaux Massacre of 1887 was the second most bloody labor dispute in U.S. history.
Although most of the blood letting occurred in the environs of Thibodaux, the strike encompassed a larger area. The strike affected sugar plantations in St. Mary, Terrebonne ,and Lafourche parishes. These parishes make up an area known as the "sugar bowl." Thibodaux is the parish seat of Lafourche.
