The 1934 Toledo Auto Lite Strike
A speech given by participant Ted Selander on June 3, 1984 at an anniversary celebration of the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike.
Brothers and sisters, the key to an understanding of the magnificent Auto-Lite strike in 1934 is that it was a strike won on the picket line by a community uprising. I repeat: on the picket line by a community uprising.
Toledo was in the grip of a tremendous popular upsurge of anger at the greedy bosses who have to give their wage slaves a few cents more in their pay.
Teamsters close down Coca Cola bottling plant
Submitted by working class s... on May 17 2012 22:56
Coca Cola worker in Connecticut walk off the job in response to attempts to reduce pay and benefits, and implement redundancies.
Workers from the Teamsters 1035 branch in Connecticut went on strike yesterday over job security, pay rises, health benefits, and potential redundancies.
Bosses hold 1000 Indian workers hostage in Angola
Submitted by working class s... on May 16 2012 21:27
Over 1200 Indian workers have been left stranded, and effectively held hostage by bosses in Angola after their passports and other travel documents were confiscated in revenge for taking industrial action over not being paid anything for over six months.
The workers are employed by ETA Star International, who produce cement at their factory in Sumbe.
China class struggle update
Submitted by bulmer on May 16 2012 01:48
With all the media focusing their attention on Chen Guangcheng, Bo Xilai etc, there has been another peak of workers taking action against the harsh working and living conditions in China.
Since the end of Spring Festival, which generally makes China's industrial towns very quiet as everyone goes back to their home town for a couple of weeks, there has been a new resurgence in worker's struggles.
Fascists launch failed attack on a Liverpool picket line
Submitted by working class s... on May 10 2012 17:35
Fascists in Liverpool have today continued with their anti-working class agenda by attempting to attack workers striking over pensions at a picket line in Bootle.
At around 15.30, five instantly recognisable boneheads from the Infidels of Britain, Combined Ex Forces, and the National Front arrived a
Strike ballot for Birmingham teachers over forced academy plans
Submitted by Choccy on May 9 2012 18:49
Teachers in thirteen primary schools in Birmingham are being balloted for strike action against plans to force them to become academy schools.
NUT and NASUWT, the two largest teaching unions, are issuing the strike ballot to members in an attempt to halt the expansion of the academies program through conversions. Academies are publicly funded, but run independent of local authorities and amount to the creeping privatisation of state schools.
May Day 2012 - discussion and updates
Submitted by Soapy on May 1 2012 08:13
May 1, International Workers Day. Please post your accounts and updates of workers' events today in the comments below.
See this article for a short history of Mayday as International Workers Day.
And see this thread for discussion of organising of the #occupy Mayday general strike attempt.
Germinal - Émile Zola
Zola's masterpiece exposing the inhuman conditions of miners in France in 1860s. This powerful novel follows a young worker who enters a mining community and leads a strike against pay cuts. Despite its defeat, he retains his belief in struggle for a better world.
Germinal
by Emile Zola
1885
Translated and Introduced by Havelock Ellis
Introduction
By Havelock Ellis
The cotton pickers - B. Traven
B Traven's novel about migrant labourers, poverty, crappy jobs, and the occasional successful strike... Set in 1920s Mexico. Here presented in Kindle and PDF format.
Netherlands: Cleaners end strike after 105 days
Submitted by rooieravotr on Apr 19 2012 18:10
Cleaners end their long strike, after having been on strike for an impressive 105 days, after an agreement has been reached, with elements that make it seriously less than total victory. The main gains are the gains in confidence and solidarity.
Cleaning workers in the Netherlands are ending their long and militant strike, after a deal between the Union of Cleaners – part of the general FNV trade union federation - and the cleaning bosses' organization OSB was reached. The strike was an important and impressive one.
Can comment on articles and discussions