This was produced by ordinary workers who believe in the importance of organizing in way of autonomous, solidary and day-to-day action. We are small workers of public and private companies. We have a facebook page, printed bulletins and now a site to publicize our problems and strengthen our struggles.
Workers direct or outsourced, temp or stable, unite!
Hello, dear reader.
This site was produced by ordinary workers who believe in the importance of organizing in way of autonomous, solidary and day-to-day action. The maintenance of independent means of communication in non-profit platforms are an important piece of this process.
The site is avalaible here: https://invisiveisluta.milharal.org/
Our collective was born in the middle of 2017 with the idea of some workers that we needed to focus our political action in the main place of our lives: our workplaces; and in the most present people in our lives: our workmates, either stable or precarious, outsourced or direct employees. Starting by our own lives to kick start in a deeper change in our society, one change in which workers have more voice and power, since there isn’t a single thing that works in this world without our input. We started with a printed bulletin and a facebook page. This site is part of our effort to make public our “private” problems in this life of exploitation. It is still under construction, needs to be improved – also like ours efforts of organization and struggle in the current historical moment. We count on you for improvements, dear reader, with suggestions and comments. We also hope that such initiative stimulates other similar efforts and we expect solidarity of other groups and platforms with common interests. We did not make this site to substitute or compete with anyone, but to make a constructive contribution. We also made this site to turn available a history of the work we’ve done to workers who may have lived similar situations or may have interest in that subject. We also have made available the archive of our “regular” and “special” bulletins.
Below are our documents explaining who we are and what we propose to workers and our perspective of building a solidarity network between workers.
Being a worker is really hard - when you’re alone! The situation is similar in our neighborhoods. How many times do we depend on the help of our neighbor to take care of kids, being driven to the hospital, when food is lacking or when we need company? How many times we depend on our coworkers to get through problems in our worktime? Solidarity is what allows us to survive in this world of exploitation. Invisiveis was created to amplify and deepen our solidarity so we can survive and go beyond.
Many of us change jobs or places frequently – and every place has similar problems. In company, our wages many times come late, the boss or our coworkers oppress us, many times we feel isolated and disrespected. Problems at work continue in our ‘rest’ time – the lousy public transport, the landlord who wants to raise our rent or evict us, a family member who has been waiting for months for a surgery or exam in the public health services. They try to convince you that the problem is just yours to dealt with. But we are hundreds, thousands, millions who are in the lines of social services, public transportation, in precarious neighborhoods. We work in companies, apps, “public” services, in the streets of the city and may even be unemployed. The problem is ours to deal with. If that is true, what can we do? Who can do it?
We are small workers of public and private companies. We have a facebook page, a site and printed bulletins to publicize our problems and strengthen our struggles. None of us is a lawyer, expert or friends of TV network reporters. But we know our rights. We know how to organize. And we know that without our effort, the effort of the working class, nothing in this world can be put to use. We want to discuss your problem with you, fellow worker, and help you organize with your co-workers to find a solution. We want you to know that you are not alone.
FORM AN INVISIBLE NODE
A path we suggest to those who want to organize with us to defend themselves and improve their lives is to create a Node in our Solidarity Network.
An Invisible Node is a small group of workers in the company or workplace that makes sure the workers in that place have access to the information of other workers and informs the workers of other places in the network about what’s going on in their own places. The node consists of the people who take responsibility for encouraging and making the culture of solidarity stronger in the workplace.
These people can meet informally or organize a meeting every once in a while – we suggest once every one or two weeks. According to the level of surveillance from the bosses, it may be interesting to use the moments of rest or lunchtime and talk more informally. These people have the role of, for example:
+ Stimulate workers to share space and time together – sharing coffee, lunch places, taking a time out of your work to say hi and chat a little with your coworkers and persuade others to do the same. People who don’t live and talk together don’t know each other’s problems and have no way of practicing solidarity.
+ Staying alert to situations of harassment that we and our coworkers may be suffering. Talking to a coworker after he is reprimanded publically by the bosses is a simple but important step to helping that coworker and starts the groundwork for possible collective changes. In time and with proper organization, it may be a good idea to gather a group of coworkers and talk to the boss to make him change this kind of procedure.
+ Encourage a culture where all workers of that place are valued, respected, paid properly and acknowledged. If any of them isn’t, investigate why and try to make that change together with the coworker.
+ Help the workers communicate directly and solve their problems without needing the bosses or supervisors. Help inhibit the culture of competition, ratting out and gossiping.
These are some of the basic steps to begin organizing in your own workplace. With a little effort and time available – and also the help of your coworkers in not ratting you out to the bosses – it’s possible to do some more. Below are two extra steps that may help break separation between workers and count with the help of other groups of workers from different workplaces, be it by making use of material (pamphlets, texts, audios/videos) of a reality that is similar to your workplace, be it by asking for help to publish your own texts our produce your own bulletin with the help of other workers. You can do that by making contact and being part of the Invisiveis network or you can try to find and create other groups more compatible with your reality. Regardless, the Invísiveis network will always be open to help (even those who do identity as Invisíveis) and welcome you in your network, because we believe that together we are stronger!
+ Find a way to make our “regular” bulletin reach workers who are interested in the subject in your workplace. Find a way to send the produced audios and videos so people can have access to them. Help feed the facebook page, the site and produce bulletins with recent happenings of your company or workplace.
+ Keep on eye in the problems, the conflicts, the cases of invisible solidarity between works, try to produce or seek reports of these happenings and send it to the other nodes of the network to encourage a culture of analyzing our workplace and communicating with other workers. Pay special attention to delays in wages, unfair sackings and payment cuts.
You don’t have to do it alone! From your observation and conversations may come ideas for texts, videos, actions and other things. The network exists precisely to make it possible for us to do what we couldn’t alone – and for us to begin searching for practical ways of enacting change by our own action, now that we are no longer alone.
Translated from the original avaliable here.
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