The great upheaval of 1877 - Jeremy Brecher
Submitted by Steven. on May 23 2013 19:24
Jeremy Brecher's vivid history of the first mass strike in US history: the great upheaval of 1877 where workers took over the railways and took on police and federal troops.
In the centers of many American cities are positioned huge armories, grim nineteenth-century edifices of brick or stone. They are fortresses, complete with massive walls and loopholes for guns. You may have wondered why they are there, but it has probably never occurred to you that they were built to protect America, not against invasion from abroad, but against popular revolt at home.
Left dead-end street vs. destructive critique: China's counterinsurgency policies and how to respond
Gongchao on the attempts of the Chinese state to handle growing unrest and struggle.
In spring 2010, workers at a Honda plant in the industrial city of Foshan, Guangdong went on strike. They overcame the split between permanent employees and technical student interns and brought Honda's entire production in China to a halt. The transnational company was forced to increase workers' wages by more than 30 percent.
China in revolt
Eli Friedman on some of the recent strikes in China.
The Chinese working class plays a Janus-like role in the political imaginary of neoliberalism. On the one hand, it’s imagined as the competitive victor of capitalist globalization, the conquering juggernaut whose rise spells defeat for the working classes of the rich world.
Striking teachers ordered back to work
Submitted by Thrasybulus on May 12 2013 18:31
The Greek government has issued orders for teachers to halt a planned strike over working conditions this week.
This weekend the Greek government ordered striking teachers back to work. The union of secondary school teachers(OLME) had voted on strike action to take place starting this week. In an attempt to stifle the strike before it could begin the government issued civil mobilisation orders. Under such an order a worker must return to work or face arrest.
"We are no machines": workers' struggle in a Chinese electronics factory in Poland
An overview of a strike by the syndicalist union Workers Initiative, at a contract manufacturing plant in Poland that produces components for the Korean electronics multinational, LG.
An electronics factory in a special economic zone, low wages, long working hours, hire-and-fire labor contracts – what we primarily hear from China, Malaysia, or Mexico, happens about 350 kilometers from Berlin, Germany, too.
"I work beside my shit. I eat beside my shit.": impressions from the dockworkers strike in Hong Kong
An article by Frido Wenten based on talking with a dockworker in Hong Kong during the Spring 2013 strikes.
As the Hong Kong dockworkers strike enters its third week, around 100 workers still camp outside the gates to Hong Kong International Terminals (HIT). 400 to 500 crane operators refuse to return to work, making them a 40 to 50 per cent majority amongst the contract workers at the docks.
Against the fetish of representation: class struggle in China beyond the leftist Grand Narrative
An overview of the effects and causes of strikes and labor unrest in China over the last decade, and how what some leftists and NGOs advocate is inadequate for the advancement of class struggle in the country.
1 | introduction
Strikes and scuffles in Milan to defend public healthcare
Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on May 9 2013 09:35
Health workers across the Lombardia region took part in a 24-hour strike on Wednesday 8th May, as part of the ongoing struggle against 244 redundancies at San Raffaele Hospital. Already, 66 workers have been served with redundancy letters, effective immediately.
However, while officially about the current struggle at San Raffaele, many health workers see this as part of a wider struggle to defend public healthcare, with workers displaying banners saying “Healthcare is a public good”. As one striking worker told Struggles in Italy, the attack on workers at San Raffaele is “part of a wider attempt to open up healthcare to the private sector”.
Cargo ship destroys building at the Port of Genoa: 7 dead
Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on May 8 2013 18:20
Seven dock workers lost their lives on Tuesday May 7, when the cargo ship Jolly Nero hit a pilots' tower in the Port of Genoa. This incident draws attention on the shocking lack of safety of maritime workers in Italy, the country with the highest number of work-related deaths across the entire continent.
During the night of Tuesday May 7 the cargo ship Jolly Nero hit a pilots’ tower at the Port of Genoa. A 55 meter-high building collapsed, burying 14 workers: 7 have been found dead, 4 are injured and 3 are still missing.
Autobiographies of the Haymarket martyrs
Submitted by Steven. on May 1 2013 17:17
The full of autobiographies of each of the Haymarket martyrs: eight Chicago anarchists who were sentenced to death and in whose memory we celebrate May Day, International Workers' Day. Originally written for the Knights of Labor journal.
Digitised by libcom.org on 1 May 2013
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