steel industry
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Homicide as a weapon of the weak in postsocialist China: some recent incidents
Report on the struggle of Guixi Co-op workers in Chengdu against the cooperative equivalent to a management buyout. Reflections on the use of homicide - or the threat of homicide - as a weapon of the weak over the past few years in China.
After writing this a few days ago I learned about a more recent incident where the implicit threat of homicide was effectively used by workers to win a battle against retrenchment: Yesterday (August 16), the provincial government of Henan stepped in to block the sale of state-owned Linzhou Iron & Steel to a private company after workers captured a government negotiator and held him hostage for
1892: The Homestead Strike
Extracts from Louis Adamic, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman describing the Homestead Strike in 1892, and the circumstances of Berkman’s shooting of Henry Clay Frick, the head of the Carnegie Steel Company’s strike-breaking operation.
Document One: from Dynamite: a century of class violence in America 1830–1930, Louis Adamic, 1934 (reprinted by Rebel Press, London, 1984)
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.
Belgian general strike diary, 1960 - Maurice Brinton
Maurice Brinton's vivid and captivating first hand account of the massive general strike in Belgium in 1960-61 against a new law "loi unique" to reduce workers' purchasing power.
THE BELGIAN GENERAL STRIKE: DIARY DECEMBER 28-31, 1960
THE BACKGROUND
Galvanising the steel strike, 1980 - Solidarity
An article from Solidarity on the British Steel Corporation strike of 1980, which was one of the early blows of the Thatcher government against workers' organisation in the UK.
The advance publicity given to the steel strike promised us yet another confrontation between the government and the trade unions. It was a confrontation which the unions were determined to avoid, and the government equally determined to provoke.
230 Sheffield steel workers to lose jobs
Finnish metals group Outokumpu Oyj said Friday it will close a stainless steel plant in Sheffield, England - laying off all 230 workers - because of oversupply. Its stock surged 14 percent.
“The market for stainless precision strip is oversupplied and this business in Sheffield has been loss-making for several years,” the world’s No. 2 stainless steel maker said. “The proposal is part of Outokumpu’s performance improvement actions to ensure global competitiveness.”
Nationwide general strike in India
The nationwide general strike in India has affected West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura almost completely and other States partially with industrial establishments remaining closed across the country and the functioning of the public sector banks was hit at most places.
“The strike was spontaneous with eight crore people participating in it. It is an expression of deep indignation of the masses against the pernicious economic and labour policies of the United Progressive Alliance government,” Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress, told reporters.
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.
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
Steel workers' strike in Venezuela attacked by Chavez' state
Steel workers in Venezuela have been attacked by the Chavez government folowing a series of strikes.
The following is a translation from Internacionalismo.
The Chávez government - with the support of the opposition and unions - has unleashed repression against the workers of the Steel Zone of Venezuela who are struggling for their most basic necessities. Here we see the real Senor Chávez and his "socialism of the 21st century".
