AngryWorkersWorld - Crisis/Struggle List

AngryWorkersWorld - Crisis/Struggle List

Dear friends,

For the preparation of a small meeting of comrades from various towns at the end of September we propose to set up a mailing-list in order to collectivise a basic gathering of material concerning the development of crisis and struggles in the UK. A collaboration would be appreciated, but joining the email-list is not a precondition for attending the meeting.

What's the aim?

The aim would be to have a simple type of archive that we can draw on e.g. if at some point we want to write a leaflet about the housing situation, we'd have a ready-made list of articles and information that could inform it. We all read and maybe save articles and stuff online anyway so the idea would be to somehow collectivise and systematise this work, as well as maybe share more 'local' news.

How could it work?

We propose to develop some main categories marked in the email subject, e.g. [Austerity], followed by a five line summary of the main information and a short statement why we think the information is of political relevance, followed by the link to the article. With a broad categorisation we hope to be able to follow some trends 'in hindsight' rather than having to read each single article immediately.We give some examples below.

What next?

Firstly, does this make sense to people as something that they want to be a part of? Let us know your thoughts. If people think it's worth trying, then we should test it out for a month, see how it goes and then assess whether it's viable for a longer-term effort (i.e. not too much of an effort and proves useful in practice when we're preparing papers/statements for our planned twice-yearly meetings or our local political work).

If you are interested in taking part in this process, please drop us a line!

[email protected]

------

Proposed categories / Email subjects

[Crisis]
By this we mean information about the 'economic' development, e.g. the composition of GDP growth, tendencies of inflation, monetary policies. Given the scope it would be necessary to chose only the most relevant information.

[Austerity]
Here we look at the cuts or changes in state spending, in particular of the social wage: child care, unemployment money, pension etc.

[Foreign Policy]
Mainly the relation between the state in the UK and the EU process and the foreign (military) policy of the US.

[Repression]
Basic changes of the repressive (legal) apparatus, prison system, black-listing, deportation.

[Labour Market]
Basic trends, such as composition of unemployment, self-employment, zero-hour contracts, work-fare.

[Migration]
This will be largely a question of the labour market, but we thought of having a separate category which would include the political-ideological element of the issue (which for example might include what the EDL/UKIP are up to).

[Housing]
Given the importance of the 'housing question' for the working class in the UK we thought of using a separate subject on, e.g. mortgage debt, wage/rent developments, evictions.

[Restructuring]
This concerns information of corporate attacks and strategies, such as redundancies, (technological) changes of the production process (including education etc.), sectoral shifts.

[Struggles]
We want to focus less on campaigns and symbolic actions, but on struggles which we think contain a 'new quality' or wider relevance politically, e.g. successful resistance against evictions.

[Strikes]
Here again, it is about strikes which touch a certain nerve, e.g. because they actively oppose casualisation and/or break out of the tight frame-work of the usual negotiation/representation game.

[Trade Union]
This is less about trade union strikes, rather about changes in the relation between trade unions and state and trade union internal changes.

[Left]
Basically new either positive or negative trends on the political left.

[Debate]
If we have longer commentary on certain trends or questions for discussion. We can also use this subject in order to debate whether the current set-up of the list works or not.

--------

Here some examples how a typical mail could look like

Subject: [Labour Market] Increase in numbers of workers who work from home to four million
16/05/2014
Short article concerning the increase in workers who usually work from home. Their numbers increased by 62,000 over the last year to a total of four million. It is interesting that the TUC speaks very positively about home work, as a flexible and inclusive type of employment, which helps disabled people into the labour market etc.
http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/work-life-balance/more-four-million-people-now-regularly-work-home?

Subject: [Repression] Collaboration between black-listing firm and police
22/05/2014
Article about the collaboration between the black-listing agency 'The Consulting Association', the police and the secret service. The police passed on personal details of 'anti-road'-protestors and 'antifascist' trade unionists to the black-listing agency of bigger construction companies, while 'The Consulting Association' employed former police officers who made use of their 'old connections'
http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/phil-chamberlain/building-blacklist-police-spies-and-trade-unionists

Subject: [Struggles] Hunger-Strike of prisoners in four detention centres
09/05/2014
Hunger-strikes in four different detention centres across the UK. In Harmondsworth 100 to 200 detainees occupied the prison yard. They protested against the fact that some of them had been issued deportation letters before the final asylum claim hearing. They also protested against the condition in the prison run by private GEO group.
http://libcom.org/blog/taking-refuge-struggle-protests-hunger-strikes-four-asylum-seeker-detention-centres-across-