Requiem for a campaign
Submitted by Recomposition on Jan 24 2013 04:41
An organizer's overview of an ended Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) campaign in the Twin Cities.
Oftentimes as workplace organizers, we have a difficult time admitting our mistakes. We are driven and strong-willed, and though these attributes often aid us in the struggle, they can also hold us back from self-reflection and acknowledgment of our flaws. As Wobblies, how do we cope with the realization that our entire campaign was perhaps a mistake from the start?
Supermarket sweep across Argentina
Submitted by working class s... on Dec 21 2012 18:21
Two people have been killed, dozens injured, and at least 137 arrests have been made in several poverty stricken cities across Argentina, during an outbreak of mass lootings at supermarkets. The state has deployed the armed forces to try and maintain order.
The first incident of looting occurred in Bariloche on Thursday, and has since had a knock-on effect and spread to other areas, including, Buenos Aires, Santa-Fe, Entre Rios, Chaco, Esistencia, Zarate, Campana, and Rosario – where it was reported that at least 25 supermarkets had been emptied.
The 'Black Friday' Wal-Mart strikes: an analysis
Submitted by Chilli Sauce on Nov 22 2012 23:08
Friday the 23rd of November will see Wal-Mart, which owns UK chain ASDA and which has an entirely non-union workforce, hit with coordinated strikes and protests on “Black Friday”, the busiest shopping day of the year.
This article, written by a American-born SolFedder who's worked retail in the past, seeks to explore the strikes: their roots and their implications for the American working class. This is written in lieu, I should add, of a proposed North London SolFed solidarity picket on the day. It didn't happen. I blame PAMSU 
So what should radicals make of this? First and foremost, we should support the strikers. We should make an effort to understand how such strikes were organised, how they've spread, and why, at this particular point, Wal-Mart workers have found the confidence to strike. Second, however, we should also analyse the potential pitfalls of the so-called “viral strikes”.
Unemployed take food from Mercadona and Carrefour in mass action in Andalucia
Submitted by fingers malone on Aug 8 2012 11:46
The Spanish field workers union the SAT has gone en masse to two supermarkets to take food by direct action.
Unemployed fieldworkers and other members of the union went to two supermarkets, one in Ecija (Sevilla) and one in Arcos de la Frontera (Cadiz) and loaded up trolleys with basic necessities.
They said that the people were being expropriated and they planned to “expropriate the expropriators”.
The problem with the Pay Up campaign
Submitted by Phil on Jun 19 2012 20:45
On the back of a demonstration at Sainsbury's headquarters, Pay Up has recently emerged as the latest UK Uncut-style activist campaign. Its aim is to highlight the problem of "in work poverty" and push for a living wage - starting with Sainsbury's. As someone whose first experience of workplace struggle was in Sainsbury's, this immediately caught my attention. So I decided to have a closer look at the campaign, and its pitfalls.
According to its website, Pay Up is "a national network built on the model of UK Uncut." In essence, this means using protests and street theatre directed against high street chains in order to get its message across. It also appears to mean that it is a structureless entity, with no clue given to exactly who is behind it or how decisions are made.
Off the clock
Submitted by Recomposition on Apr 13 2012 16:19
Jen Rogue writes about how our work life infiltrates itself into our dreams and technically amounts to unpaid labor.
A blaring alarm clock interupts my restless slumber. Damn it! Time to go to work. And do what I’ve been doing in my sleep for the last few hours, unpaid. In the shower, I wonder about how much space in my brain are taken up by produce codes. Are bananas (4011) edging out my memory of the first time I rode a bicycle?
Locked out workers on Merseyside to demonstrate outside conference
Submitted by working class s... on Mar 15 2012 10:28
Locked out food workers on Merseyside are on their way to London to protest outside a major food industry conference.
Locked out workers staged a demonstration earlier in the week at the tranfood plant on Merseyside. The demonstration was arranged to coincide with a meeting between the bosses and trade unions.
The Corporation (Documentary)
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 23 2012 23:16
The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary.
Provoking, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis.
Proposed Glastonbury Tesco site is occupied
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 11 2012 01:23
After years of bullying locals, Tesco have finally been given permission by bureaucrats to build a new Tesco in Glastonbury on the site of a formers plastics factory. Unfortunately for Tesco, travellers have now occupied the site, and are trying to rally local support against them.
Since before Christmas, the former Avalon Plastics factory site in Glastonbury has been occupied by travellers.
The travellers gained access to the site ‘legally’ as workmen had not secured the padlock correctly. Therefore, no ‘breaking and entering’ had taken place.
The great supermarket swindle
Submitted by working class s... on Nov 17 2011 10:11
A brief look at the supermarket plot to dispense of the services of a large percentage of their workers. Where are USDAW is all of this? They are sat in board rooms, chasing peerages, and brown nosing the bosses.
Have you ever used the self-service checkouts in a supermarket? If so, please consider the following.
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