Today's Topics:
1. Czech, afed.cz: Nevolo nikoho! -- The Anarchist Federation
joined the anti-authoritarian appeal calling for a boycott of
elections and decentralized actions revealing electoral fraud.
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. wsm.ie: The Personal and Political within Catholic Ireland
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. wsm.ie: The Personal and Political within Catholic Ireland
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. London Anarchist Federation Public Meeting on the Russian
Revolution (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. France, Alternative Libertaire Tract AL, My body, my choice,
for all women, all over Europe (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. US, First of May Anarchist Alliance (M1): More Firms or No
Firms: Monopoly and the Weak Leftism of the Democratic Party By K
Detroit Collective (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. Poland, Workers' Initiative - Interview: There are many
problems at Volkswagen, but no one talks about them (de)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
This year, elections are held in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament on 20-21
October. You will not see most of the anarchists and anarchists at the ballot box unless
they are just throwing in white ballots to symbolize what they need a representative for
their lives - none. Although we are pushing for a critical election absenteeism, we do not
have to blame anyone when they go to the polls to choose so-called lesser evil - if they
are aware of what this step means. That is, by inserting a ticket for lesser evil nothing
changes, at best, the situation of survival in capitalist marathism will not deteriorate
much, but the nature of the system will be preserved. ---- For most of us, however, this
step is by adopting rules that have been dictated to us; rules for a game that can not be
won, as these rules have already set their winners ahead. Putting a ticket in the
bourgeois democracy is the confirmation of it. It is not a winning political party, it is
not a "holiday of democracy," as we are embarrassed, it is only a confirmation of the
legitimacy of the ruling regime.
We do not like to play this game. Likewise, we do not mean to look quietly and stand up
with our hands. We have our vision of a free and self-governing society. We are guided by
the principles of equality, freedom, cooperation and solidarity, which are the direct
opposite of the capitalist practice of inequality, social oppression and indiscriminate
competition among individuals. Capitalism and its sacred bodies of inviolable private
property are the crap that keeps most of the company in pursuit of earnings, either for
survival, the achievement of gilding, or the keeping of its head over the debt trap. And
so far, a party that barely packed one panel, lives in surplus and decides about the lives
and future of others. And the politicians elected during the election circus such a world
shield and keep up.
Still, elections are a good opportunity for free-minded people; opportunities to detect
and attack the entire electoral fraud; the opportunity to call for direct action and to
take people back to their lives instead of giving them as an offering to the altar hidden
behind the ball.
Everybody can engage in the campaign of decentralized anti-election actions, for example
by destroying or altering electoral propaganda, spreading their own materials, performing
different types of performances, banners, graffiti, or picking up the counter-election
number of the A3 wall paper that we released on the occasion of this year's election.
We do not need any representatives to dictate what we can or can not do!
http://www.afed.cz/text/6745/nevol-nikoho
------------------------------
Message: 2
Sci-fi is a genre that I've never been able to get into and have never had the desire to
change this. I find myself in the strange position now, however, of wishing I was some
kind of sci-fi expert so that I could easily find a term for something that is half alive
and half ghost. If there were such a term I'd use it to personify catholic Ireland, an
institution that is still alive but dying with a ghost that wields most of its power. ----
Catholic Ireland was a violent, brutal regime that existed - among many other reasons - to
dehumanise, torture and inflict as much pain as possible on women. The church sexualised
us from no age through instilling notions of modesty and chastity in us. They then shamed
us and hid us away when we did have sex and the evidence was there to prove it. While in
hiding they tortured us in laundries and traumatised us in Mother and Baby Homes.
Through their harshness and utter contempt for us they murdered us and closed off whatever
markers stood to show we existed and that we mattered. They dumped our "illegitimate"
children in septic tanks and prayed not for their "souls", but that they would never be
found out.
The institution that created these conditions stands in rubble, but its ghost haunts us.
The old Ireland was seen in the present Ireland when Savita Halappanavar was told that her
life and her health didn't matter because "this is a catholic country." We saw it again
when the state tortured an asylum seeker who was so desperate to have an abortion and left
with no other choice than to go through the gruelling and grinding Protection of Life
During Pregnancy Act which led to the state forcing a c-section on her at the earliest
opportunity. When a pregnant woman had died but was kept on life support despite the
wishes of her family we heard the howls of a ghost we are so, so sick of.
The generations before us started the execution of this institution and we are finishing
it off. The present Ireland consists of a fierce movement of young women banishing this
ghost and taking control of our bodies and choices. For many, this goes beyond obtaining
abortion rights, we want to change society and our place within it. No longer will we be
treated like vessels. No longer will we branded hysterical for resisting. No longer will
we be the slave of the home. No longer will we put up with this brutal oppression.
Just like in the generations that came before us, these two worlds clash and collide
constantly. Oftentimes these worlds are the size of our homes.
This writer is a queer, abortion rights activist and anarchist organizer. This writer's
mother was a nun in catholic Ireland whose faith is as devout now as it was then.
These clashes and collisions aren't always as simple or as exhilarating as the Rally for
Choice and Rally for Life standing in close and heated contact on O'Connell Street. It's
coming out in a letter that you left on the kitchen counter on your way out to do a
pro-choice stall because you were too broken from years of internalising homophobia to
admit who you are to your mother's face, despite your queerness radiating from every inch
of you since birth. It's being told you have blood on your hands for helping those women.
It's being told you're loved and accepted and adored no matter what but being asked again
and again if you're still gay. It's knowing that the person who has done the most for you
in your life and who you love the most thinks that your views and actions, and possibly
you, are evil.
It's finding out your mother worked in a Mother and Baby Home and spending the whole night
in tears listening to the stories of women who came through it. It's knowing that she was
the kindest nun there, but that silence and turning a blind eye is complicity.
It's no longer being told that you remind your mum of her favourite person, your granny,
because the qualities you share, your strength of mind and spirit, flourish when you are
working for that which your mother hates the most. It's sensing how much hurt that must
cause when that resemblance surfaces.
It's a constant battle between longing for that time before you agitated against the
church, and completely loving the person you have become and the activism you do.
It's an indescribable sadness that no matter what is said or done, religion wields a power
that no person can break for another.
It's knowing all too well that the personal is political, and while the big battle rages
against the state and the church, mini-battles that are so insignificant in terms of scale
within this war carry on. It is soldiers within our feminist army who suffer the wounds
from the most unlikely of places; not directly from the church but from our mothers, our
fathers, our aunts and uncles and so on.
The collective damage of the church outrageous us; the individual damage breaks us. The
remedy for this damage lies in us destroying that which attempts to destroy us. It lies in
the fight for a world with neither gods nor masters, with neither popes nor patriarchs.
Words: Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird
https://www.wsm.ie/c/personal-political-catholic-ireland
------------------------------
Message: 3
Sci-fi is a genre that I've never been able to get into and have never had the desire to
change this. I find myself in the strange position now, however, of wishing I was some
kind of sci-fi expert so that I could easily find a term for something that is half alive
and half ghost. If there were such a term I'd use it to personify catholic Ireland, an
institution that is still alive but dying with a ghost that wields most of its power. ----
Catholic Ireland was a violent, brutal regime that existed - among many other reasons - to
dehumanise, torture and inflict as much pain as possible on women. The church sexualised
us from no age through instilling notions of modesty and chastity in us. They then shamed
us and hid us away when we did have sex and the evidence was there to prove it. While in
hiding they tortured us in laundries and traumatised us in Mother and Baby Homes.
Through their harshness and utter contempt for us they murdered us and closed off whatever
markers stood to show we existed and that we mattered. They dumped our "illegitimate"
children in septic tanks and prayed not for their "souls", but that they would never be
found out.
The institution that created these conditions stands in rubble, but its ghost haunts us.
The old Ireland was seen in the present Ireland when Savita Halappanavar was told that her
life and her health didn't matter because "this is a catholic country." We saw it again
when the state tortured an asylum seeker who was so desperate to have an abortion and left
with no other choice than to go through the gruelling and grinding Protection of Life
During Pregnancy Act which led to the state forcing a c-section on her at the earliest
opportunity. When a pregnant woman had died but was kept on life support despite the
wishes of her family we heard the howls of a ghost we are so, so sick of.
The generations before us started the execution of this institution and we are finishing
it off. The present Ireland consists of a fierce movement of young women banishing this
ghost and taking control of our bodies and choices. For many, this goes beyond obtaining
abortion rights, we want to change society and our place within it. No longer will we be
treated like vessels. No longer will we branded hysterical for resisting. No longer will
we be the slave of the home. No longer will we put up with this brutal oppression.
Just like in the generations that came before us, these two worlds clash and collide
constantly. Oftentimes these worlds are the size of our homes.
This writer is a queer, abortion rights activist and anarchist organizer. This writer's
mother was a nun in catholic Ireland whose faith is as devout now as it was then.
These clashes and collisions aren't always as simple or as exhilarating as the Rally for
Choice and Rally for Life standing in close and heated contact on O'Connell Street. It's
coming out in a letter that you left on the kitchen counter on your way out to do a
pro-choice stall because you were too broken from years of internalising homophobia to
admit who you are to your mother's face, despite your queerness radiating from every inch
of you since birth. It's being told you have blood on your hands for helping those women.
It's being told you're loved and accepted and adored no matter what but being asked again
and again if you're still gay. It's knowing that the person who has done the most for you
in your life and who you love the most thinks that your views and actions, and possibly
you, are evil.
It's finding out your mother worked in a Mother and Baby Home and spending the whole night
in tears listening to the stories of women who came through it. It's knowing that she was
the kindest nun there, but that silence and turning a blind eye is complicity.
It's no longer being told that you remind your mum of her favourite person, your granny,
because the qualities you share, your strength of mind and spirit, flourish when you are
working for that which your mother hates the most. It's sensing how much hurt that must
cause when that resemblance surfaces.
It's a constant battle between longing for that time before you agitated against the
church, and completely loving the person you have become and the activism you do.
It's an indescribable sadness that no matter what is said or done, religion wields a power
that no person can break for another.
It's knowing all too well that the personal is political, and while the big battle rages
against the state and the church, mini-battles that are so insignificant in terms of scale
within this war carry on. It is soldiers within our feminist army who suffer the wounds
from the most unlikely of places; not directly from the church but from our mothers, our
fathers, our aunts and uncles and so on.
The collective damage of the church outrageous us; the individual damage breaks us. The
remedy for this damage lies in us destroying that which attempts to destroy us. It lies in
the fight for a world with neither gods nor masters, with neither popes nor patriarchs.
Words: Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird
Author: Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird
https://www.wsm.ie/c/personal-political-catholic-ireland
------------------------------
Message: 4
The Russian Revolution-What went Wrong?
7pm Thursday October 5th at May Day Rooms, 88 Fleet street, London EC4Y 1DH Nearest tube
Blackfriars
We look at the Russian Revolution and how it was undermined by the Bolsheviks. Guest
speakers TBA. Plenty of time for discussion. Free. Refreshments provided.
https://www.facebook.com/events/515409172124896/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&pnref=story
https://aflondon.wordpress.com/
------------------------------
Message: 5
The International Day for the Right to Abortion is on 28 September. The slogan of this
year is to launch a European mobilization for the inscription of this right as well as the
right of women to freely dispose of their bodies in European legislation. ---- My body, my
choice, for all women, all over Europe ! ---- The International Day for the Right to
Abortion is on 28 September. The slogan of this year is to launch a European mobilization
for the inscription of this right as well as the right of women to freely dispose of their
bodies in European legislation. ---- Faced with disparate situations in Europe:
solidarity! ---- While the European Union claims to defend the rights of " man, " the
right to abortion is still not guaranteed, sometimes in disregard of women's lives. It is
severely restricted in Poland, Cyprus, Andorra and Ireland (women only have access to it
in case of danger to the mother, sometimes in case of rape or malformation of the fetus),
and it is totally forbidden in Malta.
With the development of reactionary parties in the various branches of power, this right
is often attacked and questioned where it is recognized. Retrograde and religious forces
use powerful lobbies to limit or prohibit it.
But every year around the world, an estimated 47,000 women die from clandestine abortions.
However, remember that abortion must be a right AND a choice. The forced sterilization of
Roma women in Slovakia and Hungary also involves violence and mutilation. In both
directions, women's bodies are a battlefield. It is up to us to recover our rights !
In the face of these situations, we must be supportive of each other and demand a free,
free and accessible abortion right for all.
Austerity and abortion: women have to drink
In France, austerity measures lead to closures of abortion centers, decreases in subsidies
to associations, and hence reduced access to abortion. Without a means, the law is not real.
What is the legitimacy of the European Union on such a subject ? Recall that by strongly
encouraging the austerity policies of its member states, it is today an instrument of the
capitalists. Women's rights always come last when it comes to increasing profits. It is
not up to the elected officials to decide our lives, but to each woman to make the choices
that suit her !
Against the control of our bodies: it is in the street that we must fight !
If the petition and a letter are to be handed to the European deputies on 28 September in
Brussels, Alternative Libertaire thinks that it is above all in the street that the
mobilization must be strong. In Spain in 2013 and in Poland in 2016, women have fought in
the streets to guarantee their rights. We have no illusions as to what the next European
elections will bring in 2019. There is only one sweeping movement that could make an
intrinsically anti-democratic institution, constructed not in the interests of but to
promote the enrichment of the capitalists.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Mon-corps-mon-choix-pour-toutes-les-femmes-dans-toute-l-Europe
------------------------------
Message: 6
In the wake of electoral defeat by Trump and the far right, the Democratic Party has been
attempting to strategically tap into the growing populist current of economic discontent
in this country. The Democrats, ardent supporters of capitalism as they are, have found
this difficult to navigate; the Clintonite wing has been effective at blocking most
progressive economic measures, including single-payer healthcare and anti-free trade
legislation. So where have the Democrats fled to in order to secure the populist vote? In
recent months, the party has put forth an economic platform they label "A Better Deal",
and amongst all the tax breaks for business owners and other meaningless reforms in their
proposal is one that is sure to get people's attention: a new orientation against monopoly
(1) (2). This orientation is a shallow attempt at left-progressive politics by an
historically pro-business political party, a diversion from the real economic issues we
face today, here in the US or across the globe.
It seems like a no-brainer: monopolies are concentrations of economic power in the market.
The conventional wisdom is that monopolies are able to secure higher than average profits
due to their market power; their ability to raise prices by limiting growth of supply,
based on their own whims and not on competition, is considered by many conventional and
heterodox economists to be a sign of market "imperfection" and "inefficiency". To get to
the heart of this and why the focus on monopoly is a diversion, we must understand what is
meant by "imperfection" and the role of price in neoclassical economics (the school of
economics that is dominant in all major universities around the globe).
In mainstream economics and its variants (I include Keynesian and Post-Keynesian economics
here, but also Marxists like Hilferding, Lenin, and the Monthly Review School), prices are
supposed to be information signals. Within a price is supposedly a measure of the scarcity
of a good and its relation to the demand of that good. Importantly, in a "perfectly
competitive" market, where the supply and demand curves meet is considered the equilibrium
price - where the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded are equivalent. We must
understand neoclassical economics not as a science, but as an ideological project - and
the ideological implication of the equilibrium price is that it is the point where scarce
resources are allocated most "rationally" and "efficiently" considering their demand.
Notably, this phenomenon is only said to be allowed to happen when the market is free of
"imperfections" that may distort the price - including government regulation, labor
unions, and monopoly power. The latter is important because in mainstream economics, firms
in ‘perfect competition' are considered to be "price takers" - that is, no individual firm
is big enough to influence the market price; monopolies, on the other hand, are able to be
"price setters" and can therefore decrease the market price in order to drive other
businesses out of the market and increase the monopoly's market share and, when the market
is thoroughly captured, limit supply in order to increase prices. However, the very idea
that firms under competitive conditions are price-takers is ludicrous; the myth of perfect
competition actually obscures the fact that competition is taking place, and that
competitive cost-cutting and competitive pricing are the integral to any firm's existence
in the market.(7)
Bigger firms, through scale, are able to have an absolute advantage by being able to keep
costs low. This produces a higher bar on the ability for other firms to enter and compete
in the market - but it does not mean that large firms are not competing intensely with
each other, nor does it mean that resources are being allocated in less "socially optimal"
manner than if there were more numerous smaller firms. Such conclusions only follow if one
accepts the ideological framework of bourgeois economics, where competition is exalted as
rational rather than condemned as destructive. There are also a whole host of assumptions
that ground the possibility of the "perfect competition" model - assumptions like perfect
information symmetry (the consumer knows as much about a good as the seller) and the
hyper-rational "utility-maximizing" behavior of consumers and firms - all of which are not
only inaccurate, but impossible. Finally, it is unclear what is meant by "rational"
allocation of resources when the majority of capitalist history has resulted in increasing
inequality (3), and when socially relevant outcomes like climate change are considered
"market externalities".
Many left wing, progressive economists claim that the perfect competition model has no
relevance to real life due to its foundation of false assumptions, and so they add
modifications to the orthodox model like "imperfect competition" (prices set by
institutions/monopolies) . At first, this appears to be a step in the right direction, as
anyone can see that perfect competition is an utter farce and studying the economy as if
it behaved that way would be irresponsible. However, by introducing imperfections into the
model, the left economists are still trapped in the paradigm of perfection. By claiming
that we have imperfect competition assumes that perfect competition is still the standard
by which we measure the "rationality" and "efficiency" of the allocation of resources. The
ideal firm is still considered to be a "price-taker" and the implication is still that
less firms equal less rational allocation of resources - that more competition would bring
about more "socially optimal" outcomes and a more equitable society. In a backhanded way,
the left wing heterodoxy supports the right wing's ideological conclusions on how
capitalism should operate: the more firms a market has, the better off we'd all be. The
assumption behind that that implication is twofold: that competition is beneficial, and
that the more firms and market has, the more competitive. This is inaccurate on all
counts. Even Marxists like Hilferding and Lenin fall into this trap by assuming there was
once a golden age of competitive capitalism - in reality, monopolies have always existed,
capitalism having always oscillated between periods of relatively high and low
concentration (4), and monopolies have always been competitive.
None of this is to say that capitalism doesn't have the tendency to concentrate and
centralize capital, but the theory often utilized to explain what this means is grounded
in bourgeois ideology. The dichotomy that needs to be challenged is the idea that monopoly
and capitalist competition are opposites, when in fact they sit on the same spectrum.
There are hardly ever pure monopolies, but rather, there is monopolistic competition.
Monopolies are not stable, static entities able to control markets without competition;
the concentration of capital only intensifies competition. If one massive firm takes over
a sector, it will compete with other sectors of the economy for investment, and it will
move into other sectors to expand its market. The pressure of cost-cutting is still
imperative, and thus the laws of motion of capital are still the same as they were in the
19th century; contrary to Lenin, we have not entered a new stage of capitalism with new
laws of motion. Empirically speaking, correlations between "market concentration" and
categories like price rigidity, profit rates, and profit margins have been either entirely
null or inconclusive (Shaikh, 370-379).
Politically, this is cause for suspicion and skepticism regarding populist calls against
monopoly. It's not that monopoly isn't a bad thing- it intensifies competition - but a
real, relevant monopoly is being ignored in such a call: the monopoly of economic power
and violence of the capitalist class. By framing monopolies as the enemy, we find
ourselves taking sides within inter-capitalist rivalries - big business vs small business,
big capitalist vs small capitalist. In reality, and for our purposes, the fights that
matters are not between capitalists, but between capital and labor and between the market
and the people. Perfect competition is a powerful myth, and it obscures that there is a
conflict of interest between bosses and workers, with or without monopoly, and it is not
by accident that the Democratic Party picked this low-hanging fruit as a major plank of
their economic populist platform. Such a move is uncontroversial compared to addressing
the economic issues which have greater impact on us globally, such as neoliberal
globalization, institutional racism, or the lack of public goods. The Democrats are being
opportunistic at best. But it is the competitive nature of capitalism, and not the lack
thereof, that is most destructive: the everyday war of cost-cutting has given us stagnant
wages and unemployment through automation and increased exploitation of the colonized
world. The impact on our planet has been severe and possibly irreversible.
The enemy today, in the age of neoliberal globalization, is the same as it was yesterday:
capitalist competition. Monopoly is and has always been a part of capitalist competition,
so the question arises: are we going to fight merely against monopoly, or are we engaging
in the real, meaningful struggle against capital? Honestly, when the Democrats are talking
about leveling the playing field, we have to be real about who is even allowed on the
field and who is not.
Sources:
"Democratics are Finally Waking up to the Monopoly Problem"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrats-antitrust_us_5976572fe4b0a8a40e817612
"Chuck Schumer: A Better Deal for American Workers"
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/opinion/chuck-schumer-employment-democrats.html
Piketty's Inequality Story in Six Charts
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts
"Getting a Level Playing Field"
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/getting-a-level-playing-field/
"Monopoly or Competition: Which is Worse?"
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/monopoly-or-competition-which-is-worse/
"Productivity, Profit, and Market Power"
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/productivity-profit-and-market-power/
Shaikh, Anwar. "Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, and Crisis"
http://m1aa.org/?p=1486
------------------------------
Message: 7
A conversation with Andrzej and Sebastian, who are among the organizers of the
Inter-Factory Committee with the Workers’ Initiative (Inicjatywa Pracownicza) at the
Volkswagen plant in Poznań, Poland ---- Why are workers at VW dissatisfied? And where did
the idea of joining another trade union, other than „Solidarność”, come from? ----
Andrzej: Problems have been piling up for years. The way we see it, “Solidarność” wasn’t
doing anything. I mean that it wasn’t doing all that the workers expected it to do. They
were preparing something with the company management, they were signing things, but they
never consulted anything with the shop floor. We didn’t know what they would be fighting
for or what they would be agreeing on with the management. They only thing they said was
that the workers would be satisfied. Two “Solidarność” delegates worked on my production
line. When I would ask them what was going on in the union, they were never able to tell
me anything, they never knew anything. It seemed that “the top” was blocking what kind of
information could be passed on to “the bottom”. Meanwhile, those on “the bottom” also
wanted to help out. We would tell them that if you have some sort of a problem, we could
organize a protest, etc.
Sebastian: But most often there would never be any response to our suggestions.
Andrzej: The last straw was when „Solidarność” didn’t block the 17th shift, meaning second
shift work on Saturday. They hadn’t discussed this with the crew. Ultimately, I wrote on
FB that all of this was a blow at us, the workers. That it is we who have to work three
shifts; we have to come in on Saturdays at the expense of our families, our friends and
our hobbies. The situation became even more tense when we found out in July that we would
have to work over the long weekend in August, when many of us already had vacations
planned. I wrote that it can’t be that for half the year we know that we have off and then
suddenly we are told that we have to work. The foremen came round to the workers,
especially to those who were on temporary contracts, telling them that they had to come in
over the long weekend in August and that they better remember that their contract was
about to run out. So they tried to blackmail them. This made me really mad. They tell us
that the company is really sympathetic to the workers and to their families, and then
suddenly we find out that we have to come in during our off days because in the end, VW’s
goals are more important than we are.
So you got a disciplinary dismissal for your post about the 17th shift and about forcing
people to come in to work over the long weekend in August. There were also suggestions on
FB about the need for a new trade union. That’s why Inicjatywa Pracownicza claims that the
reason for firing three people from VW was not some alleged attack on the company, but
rather the intention of starting a new organization.
Andrzej: Exactly. I want to make it clear that I didn’t write anything about VW producing
lousy cars. I am convinced that it produces good cars. In fact, I wasn’t referring to the
company and its management as much as to “Solidarność”; that it doesn’t do anything.
Sebastian: I wrote a comment on Andrzej’s private account saying that many people might
not come in to work over the long weekend in August. That the masters are sitting around
while we work. Because I was employed on a temporary contract, they fired me according to
“normal” procedure. They told me they didn’t have to give me a reason. I don’t really know
what the official reason for firing me was.
What was the IP founding meeting like?
Andrzej: The founding meeting took place on Sunday, August 6th. We announced it on FB.
Because people already knew that some workers were fired for criticizing “Solidarność”,
they were pissed off. That’s why more than 120 people came to the meeting. Many more
workers wanted to come but for various reasons couldn’t. I kept getting text messages from
them.
Sebastian: Currently, after four weeks, the union has over 300 members and declarations
keep coming in. We have people in all the factories, meaning Antoninek [a district in
Poznań], Swarzędz and Września, except for the foundry. For the moment most of them are
from Antoninek. There are slightly different problems in Września because people there
work two shifts from Monday through Friday. But eventually they are also supposed to start
working three shifts on the 17-shift system. From what I’ve observed, there is a lot of
interest in IP at the Września plant. Temp workers are of course also signing up.
What actions have you organized since founding IP?
Sebastian: From the moment we founded the union we started doing regular flyer
distributions at the entrances to the factories, as well as giving out declaration forms.
Our mates are also now collecting signatures on a petition addressed to VW demanding that
we are reinstated back to work. We’ve written a series of appeals to the company
management. There was also a meeting with the company directors.
There is a lively discussion going on and a meeting took place among the crew members, to
which a couple dozen people came, to talk about demands. Which of the problems raised by
the crew members do you consider to be the most important? What are the demands?
Andrzej: The basic demand is to eliminate the 17th shift, although they tell us that this
is impossible because of the large amount of orders. But in such an arrangement, losing
Saturdays must be adequately financially compensated, definitely much more so than it is
now. Second are of course wage raises. For example, the average wage in Slovakia, before
the increases that the workers managed to win there (an increase of almost 14% over the
next 1 ½ years) amounted to 1,800 euros. Here, on the production line, the average wage is
1,000 euros. We don’t have the exact data yet, but we are sure that the wages at VW in
Poland are decidedly lower than in Slovakia, especially following the increases that I
mentioned.
Sebastian: According to us, VW is growing, everything is moving forward, more orders are
coming in, and the 17th shift is evidence to that. As such, the workers have the right to
make higher wage demands.
Andrzej: Some people have been getting wage raises individually, but they are very few.
During the year we also get a so-called “inflation” increase. Recently that amounted to
about 100 zlotys (23 euros). But at the same time the company’s expectations as to our
work hours and our availability are increasing. The norms are also increasing. The problem
mainly concerns young workers, who earn little at the start and the question is how long
will they have to wait to get a proper wage and earn as much as the “senior” workers. For
the moment it seems that they will have to wait a very long time.
Sebastian: I started the job relatively recently. At the beginning I was getting a basic
pre-tax pay of 2,800 zlotys (656 euros). After a few guaranteed raises over a period of
three years my pre-tax income was 3,800 zlotys (890 euros). With a bunch of bonuses (for
working the night shift, for not taking sick days, etc.) I got an additional 400-500
zlotys (94 -117 euros). There is also the so-called quality bonus and the quarterly bonus,
but these aren’t always given and they don’t amount to very much. The situation of young
workers is also difficult because of the pressure: they are often thrown in at the deep
end. They don’t have the experience but the clock is ticking. They aren’t always able to
stand this pressure and they quit. One of my mates had an upset stomach for half a year.
People even talk about how “young” workers are bullied.
What percentage of workers at VW are temporary workers?
Andrzej: Among about 10 thousand people employed at all of the VW factories, we estimate
that about 1/3 of those working on the production line are temp workers.
Sebastian: Up until now, temp workers had to work three years before they could be
employed by VW. Starting this year, this is supposed to change to 1 ½ years. In the past
we would be moved from one agency to another in order to avoid legal regulations
concerning temp work. That’s how it went in my case. When I got close to 1 ½ years of
work, they told me to take a vacation and use up my leave time in entirety (which I was
supposed to diligently collect before) and after that I went back to work at VW but
through a different agency. Although in theory temp workers can’t earn less, in this case
they also manage to bypass the law. Temps work positions that are ranked higher in the
wage structure while earning the official wage at which they were hired, and which is of
course ranked lower in the wage structure.
Besides „young” workers and temps, are there any other groups in particular need of union
support?
Andrzej: That’s workers aged 50 and over, who often have a hard time for health reasons
and because of the concussions they’ve had over the years. There’s a growing number of
workers like that. At the same time the norms are being increased and we work longer, at
least periodically. Theoretically there are posts especially for this group, but there are
too few of them and often time workers get them because they have good relations with the
right people, and not because they need them.
Sebastian: There’s also the problem of safety at work.
Andrzej: You can see that there are serious problems at VW. Meanwhile the management and
“Solidarność” make the situation out to be too rosy, as if everyone was satisfied. They
downplay a lot of issues. Now apparently the Germans are surprised that something is not
right and that workers in Poland are starting to rise up.
There are supposed to be wage negotiations between VW’s management and IP…
Andrzej: Wage negotiations are a top priority. Next in line is how particular workers are
treated, because we are not all treated equally. Third is that workers should be able to
choose their leaders. Leaders should not be appointed by the management. These are the
issues we want to discuss.
Do you foresee the possibility of entering into a collective dispute and announcing a
strike action?
Andrzej and Sebastian: That is a possibility of course.
How do you see IP’s activity at VW? How will what you do differ from what “Solidarność”
has been doing?
Sebastian: We have to be visible on the shop floor because everything depends on the
production line workers.
Andrzej: We don’t want to organize the way „Solidarność” has. We also don’t want any
offices or union organizers employed by the boss.
VW workers in Slovakia were able to win pay raises. There is also talk of a strike in
Portugal. How does the VW crew in Poznań, Swarzędz and Września comment on this? What do
you think about it?
Andrzej: The workers’ protest in Slovakia had direct influence on our decision to start a
new trade union. The workers in Portugal don’t want the 16th and 17th shift, meaning they
don’t want to work on Saturdays. They want to have off. They want to have their weekends
and time with their families. The VW crew members talk a lot about the events in Slovakia
and Portugal. The Slovaks were apparently surprised that “Solidarność” didn’t want to join
their protest. People on the shop floor say that trade unions in Slovakia had even sent
some sort of letter to “Solidarność”, to which it is said to have replied that the
situation in Poland is not bad and that they are negotiating with the management, etc. In
the meantime, a few days ago IP received a letter from workers at the Spanish VW who are
members of the CGT trade union (which is allied with IP). We also got in contact with
people in Slovakia.
Do you see the possibility of developing cooperation on the international level?
Andrzej: It’s not a possibility, it’s a necessity. We have to be aware of the fact that we
are dealing with an international corporation. Scandals like “dieselgate” [revealed in
2015, “dieselgate” was the illegal process of installing software into VW cars, which
allowed for manipulating emission readings from the exhaust system] have direct influence
on the situation of workers in all countries where VW cars are produced. That’s why we
have to join forces. Issues like this affect us all.
Sebastian: By the way, not one of the VW bosses was really held accountable for that
scandal. If something like that concerned a simple worker, this would not be the case. As
you can see with the both of us, even moderate criticism of the company, or calling for a
new trade union can land you in hot water and out of a job.
http://ozzip.pl/english-news/item/2299-there-are-many-problems-at-volkswagen-but-no-one-talks-about-them
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