wildcat strikes

Content on libcom.org related to wildcat, or unofficial, strike action. Including news, history, analysis, discussion and tactics.

New York postal workers on wildcat strike, 1970

New York postal workers on wildcat strike, 1970

Fires set during farm workers' protests.

Uprising in the Cape Winelands - self-organised farmworkers reject union attempts to end their strike

Driving through the Hex River Valley after Wednesday’s chaotic protests feels like…

Police van overturned during farm workers riot, Nov 14 2012.

Self-organised strikes on the mines and farms in South Africa

Two interesting new articles on the self-organised wave of strikes in South Africa that has now…

Massacre at Marikana: the fight continues in South Africa

Mineworkers of the Marikana diamond mine in South Africa are continuing their strike. Their perseverence comes after violent police efforts to suppress the strike, efforts culminating in a horrendous bloodbath on 16 August, when police machinegunned protesting miners, killing 34 and arresting at least 250 of them.

Signed, sealed and delivered: 1978 strike against mandatory overtime, speedups and hazardous working conditions

On July 21, 1978 thousands of postal workers walked off the job, saying "No" to…

South African bosses suspend 15,000 gold miners over wildcat strike

In the South African region of West Rand, Gold Fields, one of the world’s largest producers of gold…

The Marikana massacre: a glimpse of the men behind the numbers

The City Press, a mainstream newspaper in South Africa, has published short obituaries of the striking miners gunned down by the ANC government.

Wildcat strike in Antep, Turkey: “We want to live like human beings”

The textile workers in the organised industrial zone of Antep, a city on the border of the Kurdish…

Construction workers clash with police on Melbourne picket line

Police have clashed with striking construction workers in Melbourne. The strikers have been…

The Marikana massacre: a premeditated killing?

Benjamin Fogel on the Lonmin Massacre and the chilling bloodlust of the Stalinists in the South African Communist Party.

Machinists on strike at Bethlehem shipyard, San Francisco, October 29, 1945

Class-conscious machinists: "Stormy petrels of west coast labor"

Sister machinist unions, San Francisco's Lodge 68 of the International Association of Machinists and…

Echoes of the past: Marikana, cheap labour and the 1946 miners strike

Chris Webb puts the Lonmin massacre in some historical perspective.

Umshini Wam

Chris McMichael on the Lonmin Massacre. 'Umshini Wam' is Jacob Zuma's trade mark song. It means 'bring me my machine gun'.