occupations
Articles about direct action in the form of occupations, including sit-ins and sit down strikes.
Ssangyong occupation update: day four, July 23, 2009
This report, from yesterday, is about the 3rd day of the police attack to evict the occupiers of the Ssangyong Motors factory at Pyeongtaek in South Korea. The cops and the strikebreaking gangsters ("kkang-pae") have resorted to using taser guns on individual strikers, in addition to using helicopters to spray a thinner-based teargas liquid directly onto the strikers on the roof of the occupied paint department.
(translated from the website of SSanyong Branch of Korean Metal Worker Union, http://sym.nodong.org/)
3rd day of cop assault on the factory
[Slogan spray painted on top of paint department building says: "Kill us all if you don't want negotiation"]
Wind turbine manufacturing workers occupy company offices
Workers from the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight who are set to lose their jobs are staging a sit-in protest at the firm's offices.
Danish company Vestas Windsystems is laying off 625 workers at the end of July, despite rising profits. It said the Newport factory was being closed due to reduced demand for wind turbines in northern Europe.
About 20 people inside the offices in Cowes have vowed to remain there until "somebody listens to us". They began their protest at about 1930 BST.
Korean police fail to break Ssangyong factory occupation
South Korean police were not able to carry through with a pledge to enter a Ssangyong Motor Co. factory, which has been occupied by fired workers for almost two months, as the carmaker tries to resume production at the plant.
About 800 fired employees were still in a paint shop, confronting more than 3,000 police as of 5:22p.m. in Seoul, Ssangyong spokesman Cha Ki Woong said by phone at the plant in Pyeongtaek, where the automaker is based.
French 'explosion-threat' workers win redundancy pay
A group of French workers facing layoffs obtained extra money after threatening to blow up industrial equipment at their plant, labor union representatives said on Friday. Meanwhile, workers at two other companies continue their threats to blow up their workplaces.
The workers, at JLG, a manufacturing company, were the third in France to make similar threats this month, after workers from Nortel, the telecommunications equipment maker, and New Fabris, a car parts maker.
Korean Sanggyong strike up against the wall
The Ssangyong Motors strike in Pyeongtaek, South Korea (near Seoul), is now in its eighth week, and the situation of the strikers is increasingly dire.
Loren Goldner
July 17
(The following article reports “just the facts”, based on communications from workers and other activists involved in the struggle.)
The Ssangyong Motors strike in Pyeongtaek, South Korea (near Seoul), is now in its eighth week, and the situation of the strikers is increasingly dire.
French auto workers threaten to blow up factory
Workers at collapsed French car parts maker New Fabris threatened on Sunday to blow up their factory if they did not receive payouts by July 31 from auto groups Renault and Peugeot to compensate for their lost jobs.
New Fabris was declared to be in liquidation in April, so the 366 workers stand to get no redundancy money, although they are entitled to draw state unemployment benefit.
Reclaim the Streets, Islington 1995 and the role of road-building in the restructuring of Capital and the recomposition of the proletariat - Antagonism
Leaflet written for distribution at a 1996 Reclaim the Streets occupation of the M41 motorway, looking at the limitations of such occupations in the broader context of the capitalist restructuring occuring at the time.
Returning to Upper Street a week or two after July '95 "Reclaim the Streets" was unsettling and strange. Heavy traffic now roared through the area where a children's sandpit previously was and where a settee and carpet had been too.
Housing activists seize MPs' home
A group of housing activists have entered and occupied the house of expenses-scandal hit husband and wife Anne and Alan Keene.
Pyeongtaek strike continues in South Korea
A strike now completing its fourth week at Ssangyong Motors in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, remains a standoff as of this writing. The strike echoes in many ways the dynamic seen in the recent Visteon struggle in the UK and in battles over auto industry restructuring around the world. Involving, on the other hand, an outright factory seizure and occupation, and preparation for violent defense of the plant if necessary, it is the first struggle of its kind in South Korea for years.
Loren Goldner
(June 19)
Report and reflections on the UK Ford-Visteon dispute 2009 - a post-Fordist struggle
A detailed account and analysis of the struggle of Ford-Visteon car manufacturing workers who occupied and picketed their plants after being sacked when their employers declared themselves bankrupt.
In June 2000 Ford Motor Company outsourced the production of certain component parts to a new company called Visteon - in reality a spin off company of Ford and in which Ford retained a 60% holding. Visteon runs factories all over the globe: in America, Europe and Asia, for example.
