Prol-Position

Regular newsletter covering working class struggles across the world.

A brief outline of the student movement in Greece, June 2006

Students demonstrate against the reforms

An article written by a group based in Athens, TPTG, in July 2006 about the struggle of students against neoliberal university reforms.

On the 28th of April, the Greek ministry of education published a draft proposal for a bill regarding the reform of university education. The key points of this proposal are the following ones: Specific regulations for the expulsion of 'inefficient' students.

Introduction to debate on the new 'under classes' - Wildcat Germany

Having a historical look at labour migration and welfare policies in Germany, Wildcat criticises the current attempt of those in power in Germany to create an image of the dangerous under-classes as opposed to the class of decent working people.

Introduction to debate on the new 'under classes'1

Cologne: occupation of the Barmer Block housing estate, 2006 - Wildcat

Text published in Wildcat in summer 2006 reporting on the internal dynamics of a major housing estate occupation in Cologne in Spring 2006.

Cologne: 'Barmer Block' occupied. The feeling of great potential...
For over three months in the 'Barmer Block' housing estate an unusual squatting experiment took place.

Working life, interviews and leaflets in Delhi's call centre cluster, 2006

Detailed report written after three months of work as foreign call centre worker in Delhi and collective political intervention in the area.

The text looks at the composition of foreign workers in Indian call centres and documents interviews with workers from international companies such as HP or Citibank which relocated call centre work to the industrial outskirts of Delhi.

Introduction

Mouvement Communiste CPE leaflets for students and building workers

Two leaflets about the CPE employment law. The first from 27 March, by some students in Jussieu to the building workers directly employed by this university in Paris. The second one was distributed in a student General Assembly, a little after the end of the movement.

It is as workers that we are attacked and not as students!

A lovely spring in France - CPE report by Mouvement Communiste

A report on the unrest and struggle agains the CPE employment law by Mouvement Communiste, a Paris based collective.

The struggle against the CPE has mobilised youth in the education system, starting in higher education and then followed by the high schools, with the principal objective of forcing the withdrawal of Article 8 of the 'Equal Opportunities Law'. This article introduced a new punitive employment contract reserved for young workers. The objective of the struggle has been fully achieved.

CPE and labour contracts in France

This is a short overview of the CPE law, by Ni Patrie, Ni Frontier, serving as an introduction to the following articles focussing on the struggles that this law ignited.

1) What is this new law about youth employment called and what it is about?

Prol-position news 7

Issue 7 of prol-position's news sheet about workers' struggles across the world. Contains articls on the anti-CPE struggle, student movement in Greece, welfare in Germany, call centres in Delhi and more.

The anti-CPE struggle report - Theorie Communiste

We summarise a text by Theorie Communiste which focusses on the internal contradictions of the movement, how official representative organisations undermined grassroots initiative and puts the protests in context with the riots of suburban youth.

The anti-CPE struggle
Extracts of an analysis by Theorie Communist

(...)

Occupation, not democracy! Greek student leaflet, 2006

Greek university occupation, Summer 2006

This is a short text then a copy of a leaflet by a group in Thessaloniki called Blaumachen, about the student movement opposed to education "reforms" in Greece around May and June 2006.

Occupation, not democracy!
Introduction

Going east: Direct investments in Eastern Europe

New Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile in the Czech Republic

Article looking at the flow of investments from Germany (and elsewhere in Western Europe) to countries further east.

“Then I will leave and go to the east!”
What some decades ago might have been a defiant outcry of desillusioned lefty teachers, under the threat of dismissal due to their CP membership, is now taken up again and realised by the ‘class enemy’.

Foreign investments in the Czech Republic: Boom or fall? 2004

Article analysing foreign investment and business in the Czech Republic since 1989 and recent changes which are occuring.

Transformation towards private capitalism, which started after 1989, was at the beginning mainly affected by the struggle inside the old-new ruling class for the actual character of this change. Already in 1990 the Czech faction of bourgeoisie led by Vaclav Klaus, who was minister of finance and who later became the prime minister and who is now the present president, got the strongest position.

Migrant workers in the Czech Republic, 2005

An article about the situation of predominantly Slovakian and Ukrainian immigrant workers in the Czech Republic in 2005.

Between Repression and the Mafia

Migration, industry and struggles in Poland, 1956-2005

An analysis of Poland, its economy, its social and political history and how it has been shaped by workers' struggles past and present.

Behind the Border
It is only a one hour journey from Berlin to the German-Polish border, the supermarkets in Berlin offer Polish food, immigrants from Poland are part of daily life in the German capital - nevertheless there are not many direct contacts (apart from perhaps the punk scene). The ‘iron curtain’ is slow to dissolve, due to languages and the geographical location.

Strikes in Poland, early 2005

Information about various workers' struggles in and around Poland, including strikes by seamen, railworkers, car and telecoms workers in 2005.

Here is an update on recent struggles in and around Poland. More information in English can be found on a website run by the base-unionist ‘workers’ initiative’ from Poland: http://paspartoo.w.interia.pl/index.htm

Polish seamen on strike for eleven days in the docklands of Travemünde/Germany

Romania after the transition - restructuring and struggle, 2004

Article looking at capitalist restructuring and economic changes in Romania, and the growing militancy of the working class.

Romania after the Transition
Promised Land and Class Struggle

Strike at Michelin in Zalau, Romania, 2005

Summary of an article about a strike for a 30% wage hike at Michelin in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, February 2005. The English is a little ropey but it is interesting nonetheless.

Thirty per cent more wage! Michelin Workers in Romania on Strike

Interview with an electronics worker in Romania, 2005

Summary of a chat with a young guy who works for Solectron electronics in Timisoara, Romania, Summer 2004

About the international free trade zones in Romania
There used to be six free trade zones in Romania, where foreign investors were supposed to invest in low tax paradises. Today only one zone remains
http://freezone.arad.ro.

About Solectron

Wildcat Preface: Beverly Silver, ‘Forces of Labor’

Wildcat Germany explain why they translated Beverly Silver’s book ‘Forces of Labor’, which traces workers struggles since the 1860s.

[i]Comrades from Wildcat have just published the German translation of Beverly Silver’s book ‘Forces of Labor’.

news

Edit view

Cape Town: two anti-eviction campaigners arrested
On Wednesday, July 2nd at the Bellville Magistrates Court courtroom E, two members of the Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign, Jerome Daniels and Ridwaan Isaacs, were each sentenced twelve months in prison - simply for being community leaders at Delft-Symphony Way settlement.

Edit view

articles

A Proletarian critique of the Nation of Islam - Melancholic Troglodytes
This is a proletarian critique of the U.S. based Nation of Islam (NOI). With anything between 20,000 and 100,000 members and capable of engineering massive reactionary mobilizations, the Nation represents a significant counter-revolutionary force. The pamphlet looks at NOI's history and evolution, the way it exploits its membership and its promotion of anti-working class, sexist, homophobic and racist ideology. Melancholic Troglodytes hope this text will encourage further analysis of NOI, religion and race from a class perspective.

1968

Marti, Vicente, 1926-2006
A short biography of Spanish anarchist Vicente Marti who fought in the resistance to Franco and was involved in the anarchist movement in France.

Prol-Position

1968

drop down