How to intervene in the class struggle?
An article from the ICC/Internationalism USA about their participation in the 2011 Verizon strike. It investigates how to present a message critical of the unions role within capitalism, while not coming off as the right wing bourgeoisie.
Here we are publishing an exchange that occurred between the comrades who were engaged in the intervention toward the striking Verizon workers, some of them ICC militants, some of them sympathizers.
India: workplace resistance increases
Submitted by working class s... on Apr 4 2012 21:43
The labour movement in India is still under the control of bureaucratic leaders and political groups. However, as shown by a strike last year, among the workers of the country is gradually spreading the idea of self-organization and sovereign general assembly.
Up to 100 million workers were involved in a one-day strike in India on February 28. Strike, which affected a number of branches across the country, has been named one of the biggest strikes ever taken place in the world. It was announced 11 trade union centres (they first worked together since the declaration of independence) and 5000 smaller 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.
General Strike in Portugal.
Submitted by Leon on Nov 25 2011 03:07
A 24-hour strike in Portugal against proposed austerity measures has grounded flights and halted public transport.
Hundreds of thousands of workers took part in the action, including air traffic controllers, metro workers, teachers and hospital staff.
A march in the capital, Lisbon, attracted thousands of protesters.
Parliament will vote next week on a deficit reduction plan being imposed as a result of an international bailout.
Portugal is getting 78bn euros (£67bn; $104bn) in emergency funds from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Where has all my money gone you vile insidious woman?
Submitted by working class s... on Nov 19 2011 14:56
The great privatisation swindle has meant that we are indirectly paying twice for some services. Successive governments has trousered trillions from the legalised thievery that was made popular by 'that woman'. Where has my money gone, and can I have it back please?
The issue of privatisation is a contentious issue for many. I constantly ask myself why I want the state to control a variety of services when I actually want to abolish the state. For me the answer is two-fold. Firstly, the society that I want to see is not about to arrive any time soon, although you never known.
Suicide or Revolution
Submitted by Samotnaf on Apr 28 2011 05:30
Tuesday, 26th April, saw yet another suicide of a man working for France Telecom, this time by self-immolation in the parking lot of the France Telecom offices in Mérignac near Bordeaux. The picture on the left shows the exact place Rémi L. set fire to himself - beneath what was architecturally designed to look like a cross. The glories of sacifice. Ironically part of the guy's most recent job requirement was to assess stress levels within the company and their remedy. Some remedy!
Since 2008 France Telecom has had 60 suicides, each year more than the previous one. Such a public and particularly horrible form of suicide was perhaps intended to shock France Telecom's impervious wall of indifference into finally 'listening'.
Another Union Protest without Workers, Another Missed Opportunity
Submitted by akai on Jul 14 2010 22:09
Late on July 13 I received by personal email an invitation from "workers of TPSA" to join a picket in front of the French Embassy the next day. (TPSA is owned by France Telecom.)
Having a number of contacts with rank and file workers at the company, I assumed this explained the invitation and, without making any phone calls to check, I managed to get there during my break at work.
Two Suicide Attempts this Month at Polish Telecom and Open Letter from Workers
Submitted by akai on Mar 28 2010 12:44
Workers ask to help spread information about their plight.
The wave of suicides at France Telecom last year made headlines around the world. But in Poland, the suicide attempts of two workers in one month at TP S.A. (Polish Communications, owned by France Telecom) is being hushed over, as are complaints by the workers. They have also written an open letter, again repressed by the mainstream media (but published here).
The Line You Have Reached... Disconnect It!
Lucius Cabins writes on the 22 day nationwide strike of 700,000 telecoms workers at AT&T in 1983.
The 22 day nationwide strike by 700,000 telephone workers provided a window on the relative strength of capital and labor in the current era. In classic style, both management and unions are claiming victory, since neither side was able to push through its most aggressive bargaining goals.
March for Resalto in Keratsini
Submitted by taxikipali on Dec 20 2009 17:19
More than a thousand march in Keratsini in solidarity to the 21 comrades arrested during the police raid on Resalto, the anarchist social centre of the proletarian suburb of Peiraeus.
More than a thousand protesters marched on Saturday afternoon in the industrial proletarian suburb of Peiraeus, Keratsini, against state terror and the police invasion of Resalto, the local anarchist social centre two weeks ago which resulted in the arrest of 21 people who are being accused of preparing explosives for…some empty beer bottles and a few litters of heating kerosene found in the remis
Can comment on articles and discussions