Renault

Romania: Workers strike at Dacia-Renault

10,000 workers have walked out of the Dacia-Renault car plant for improved wages.

The indefinite strike was launched on Monday in protest at the low level of wages at the plant, which is situated some 68 miles northwest of Bucharest.

France: another suicide by Renault worker

This death was the fourth suicide in a year by a worker at the Guyancourt technocentre site.

The company immediately sought to distance itself from the suicide, firstly by claiming that the man in question had been on sick leave since September 6 and secondly by claiming that his workplace was only administratively a part of the site which has seen three other workers take their own lives in the last year.

France: suicides amongst auto-workers

A spate of suicides amongst workers at French car plants reflects the fact that large numbers of workers are being driven to take their own lives by workplace stresses.

In France there are 300-400 suicides a year directly attributable to working conditions according to Christian Larose, vice-president of the social and economic council of the CGT. Roughly one worker is killing him/herself a day because of the job that they have.

France: Sabotage at Renault factory

Workers at the Renault factory in Le Mans have been accused by management of sabotaging factory equipment.

The action appears to be a response to the sacking, ten days ago, of five workers for faute grave (gross misconduct). It is unclear how many of the 3000 workers were involved in the action, management has not specified exactly what form the sabotage took. The condemnation of the action by the CFDT union also fails to describe the action.

news

Nepal; a nice little earner for the Maoist ruling class - in Lenin's footsteps
Nepal's Maoist Party has won around 220 seats in the recent Constituent Assembly (CA) election, about one-third of the total. Though the largest party, they don't have an overall majority; they have stated their wish to lead a coalition government.

articles

Struggle is a school: the rise of a shack dwellers movement in Durban, South Africa
This article by Richard Pithouse, first published in Monthly Review, charts the rise of the militant South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which first emerged in 1995 and has gone from strength to strength since then despite severe state repression.

1968

Review: Whatever happened to the Situationists?
A steady trickle of publications about the situationists testifies to the market value of their ideas, but it also reminds us of the continued requirement for revolutionaries to engage with them. In this review we look at two recent books. Ken Knabb's Public Secrets illustrates the self-obsessed nature of the situationist milieu after the heady days of 1968. What is Situationism? A Reader includes Barrot's important critique of the Situationist International for their one-sided emphasis on circulation rather then production.