Prol-Position

Interview with Bosch-Siemens worker, 2005

Wildcat Germany interview a worker from the Berlin Bosch-Siemens appliances factory which was threatened with closure until workers threatened to strike for a better redundancy deal.

In the last newsletter we published an article on the plan to close down the Bosch-Siemens household appliances factory in Berlin/Germany. This is an update from Wildcat #75, Winter 2005/06: A conversation with a worker from that factory.

"Now They Call Us Heroes Everywhere!"

Wired - temp-work in the rail-industry, Germany, 2006

Vossloh worker

Prol-Position examine working life and the use of agency staff in railway infrastructure corporation Vossloh.

The corporation Vossloh: From Prussian war profiteer to multinational investor of the rail-industry

Struggles of Asian workers in the Middle East and oil-producing countries, 2006

Prol-Position on the Middle East, migration and workers' struggles, mostly in the construction industry.

Introduction

Social struggles in the Chinese modernization process

Prol-Position write in 2006 on development and class struggle in China.

Washing machines factory in Berlin closing down, 2005

As a large washing machine factory in Berlin closes down, Wildcat examine the history of the plant, and the manufacturing of household appliances in Germany as a whole.

“...the only thing they can expect from us...”

Two weeks in the Hewlett Packard packaging plant

An agency worker describes working life in a German Hewlett-Packard packaging plant in 2005.

Monet in the Duisburg Docklands

Hewlett Packard has recently been in the public spotlight due to its management’s announcement to dismiss several thousands of workers in Europe and because of the resulting strike of HP employees in France.

Car industry disputes, 2005

Short roundups of various workers' struggles in the global automobile industry by Prol-Position in 2005.

Update on Car Industry: More strikes

Silver Debate: Worker's Power and Operaism

The following article asks what will come out of Operaism. It asks on the basis of the current debates around the subject and on the theses of Beverly J. Silver in her book "Forces of Labor".

[see other articles on the debate on Silver's theses in ppnews #2 and #3; online at http://libcom.org/library/interview-beverly-j-silver and http://libcom.org/library/wildcat-preface-beverly-silver-forces-of-labor]. The German version of this article was published in Analyse und Kritik, no. 500, November 2005 [see http://www.akweb.de/ak_s/ak500/07.htm].

Interview with Polish Tesco worker, 2005

Tesco depot

An interview with a Polish agency worker who attempted to organise a reduction of workloads in a Tesco distribution centre in Ireland.

This interview, done by Jasoslaw Urbanski, was published in July 2005 in the Polish monthly Nowy Robotnik and in Wildcat no.74, summer 2005.
“We are picking 800 - No more!”

How did you get to Ireland?

Lodz/Poland: From the household appliance industry’s promised land, 2005

Wildcat Germany on the consumer electronics industry and conditions for workers in Lodz, Poland, following an attack on a foreman after the death of a worker.

Translated from Wildcat 75, December 2005