Today's Topics:
1. black rose fed: AZADI NO. 4 (DECEMBER 2017): "INDIA AND
ANARCHISM: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE" (A SPECIAL ISSUE)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. WSM.ie, Strikes and Solidarity: Interview with a worker at
Irish Rail (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. awsm.nz: In November We Remember By Jon Bekken - Industrial
Worker, November 2005 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Novembre - Book: Boris
Savinkov, "What was not" (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Poland, Workers Initiative, Amazon lost in court [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Greece, Liberation Initiative of Thessaloniki: WINNING IN
THE GUESTS OF THE DRAGONS AGAINST THE NEW SAFETY
CODE (gr)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
We are pleased to share the fourth issue of Azadi (December 2017), a special issue on
"India and Anarchism: Past, Present, and Future." ---- "Azadi, meaning freedom and
liberty, is a 4 page newsletter by Indian Anarchist Federation, published and distributed
primarily in city of Bhopal. It began in 2017." ---- Azadi volume 1, issue 4
http://blackrosefed.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AZADI-V1-I41.pdf
For previous issues, please see: -- Issue 3
https://libcom.org/library/azadi-volume-1-issue-3-october-2017-indian-anarchist-federation
---- Issue 2
https://libcom.org/library/azadi-volume-1-issue-2-october-2017-indian-anarchist-federation
http://blackrosefed.org/azadi-no-4-december-2017-india-anarchism-past-present-future-special-issue/
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Message: 2
Irish Rail workers were out on strike recently. What's going on? ---- The WSM recently
caught up with J, an activist and worker at Irish Rail, to find out. ---- [For background
details, see our analysis, "Why Irish Rail workers are right to strike", published here.
---- WSM: Hi J. So why have workers at Irish Rail been out on strike recently? ---- J: Hi.
Yeah - so workers have been in pay talks with the company through the unions over the last
number of months. We've had a pay freeze since 2008 and there have been pay cuts. We have
given in terms of productivity and we've just been putting in for pay increases. In the
negotiation we were looking for an increase with no conditions attached. The company were
saying that there was no money and it was looking like nothing. We were looking for a
3.75% increase. The company were offering 1.5% with about 20 conditions attached to it in
terms of productivity.
We were about to secure a deal for 2.5%, I think, within a 12 month period with a 500 euro
voucher at Christmas. The CEO refused to sign it. The CEO was not engaging with the unions
at all and sent the HR director to negotiate with the unions. When that document was
agreed by the unions and brought back for the CEO's signature he refused to sign it. The
workers, the unions and the Labour Court were frustrated to say the least. The CEO is over
from the UK, could be described as Thatcherite and does not negotiate with unions. He was
brought over with an agenda presumably - privatisation and cuts - and is very anti-worker.
At that point the company started lying saying that we were the ones not negotiating and
that we walked out of talks. They put out there PR spin but at that point we were balloted
for industrial action. And the anger of everybody! I think there was 80% or so voted for
strike action. We went out then over a series of days.
WSM: What form did the strike action take? What happened?
J: Pickets were formed at each work location. We worked a rota on the pickets of workers
doing that duty.
[J later added: The cleaning workers respected the picket and didn't cross it. They are
members of SIPTU as well. They should get strike pay because they help our strike by not
crossing it. But they don't get strike pay. They're down pay and they're low paid workers.
It's something we should put pressure on the unions to do].
WSM: Strike action has been called off for now. What have been the latest developments?
J: We were called back in to the Labour Court just before the third day of action. This
would have fallen on the day of the Ireland-Denmark match which would have caused the
company some disruption. The Labour Court has delivered a recommendation. It's a peculiar
one in that it's complicated. You read it back around to see what they are actually saying.
Basically, they recommended a 2.5% increase over three consecutive years and a 500 euro
voucher bonus. (It's in voucher form to avoid the tax aspect of it).
The unions are interpreting the recommendation as saying that there are no conditions
attached to that. There are a few - I think they're called ‘initiatives' - that workers
will have to comply with the railway safety legislation - you know, things that we would
have to be complied with anyway. Then there's a list of further conditions, items to be
discussed. We agreed to go into talk again with the company on these items. Some of them
are outsourcing and pay roll reform. There's a list of them.[J later added that the
company's ‘initiatives' feature increased ‘performance management', including GPS tracking
on the workers' vans].
They are also saying that there is be a ‘no strike' agreement.
WSM: What do workers think of all this?
J: The concern with workers is that those conditions are tied to the agreement. Anything
mentioned in the agreement or in the recommendation, we can't strike for. But then you
have to go back to another paragraph which says that the company can't bring in those
items without - now it doesn't say without ‘agreement', it says without ‘productivity
discussions' and referral back to the Labour Court if needs be. I suppose, of course, the
fear would be that the Labour Court, because it is not impartial, would deliver a
recommendation that we would have to comply with those conditions further down that road.
So the unions, on the one hand, can see that it is something over a three year period.
They're saying that any sort of productivity or pay talks that have happened in the past
have had a ‘no strike'[presumption]and that hasn't prevented us from acting anyway. We
take it that there are still ways.
Some workers are saying[...that they would take action...]if the company does try to bring
in anything unilaterally without our agreement or without some sort of payment attached to
each of those conditions. They see it as tying those conditions into payment separate to
what we have. If the company tries, then they are, in effect, breaking the agreement. Then
we would be able strike on that basis.
I don't know. It remains to be seen how that will play out. Some people are talking about
voting against until it is explained to them more. Other people are saying that they want
to take this and fight further battles down the line. They think that these conditions are
now tied to something in return. The agreement did say that no extra costs are to be
claimed by the unions but something in return for those conditions would be cost-neutral
in a sense.
WSM: Is it difficult being in a union at Irish Rail?
J: No. It's part of the culture. It's a very unionised environment. You're encouraged to
join a union.
WSM: What effect has the strike had on the way that your colleagues, fellow workers relate
to one another?
J: Between workers who scabbed the strike and those who were on the picket, there is the
obvious tension there. Between workers who were on the picket together, you can't beat the
feeling of just walking past and there's a ‘how-are-ya?' acknowledgement. You know that
you have each other's backs. You know the solidarity.
WSM: What would you say to any worker at present - not necessarily those at Irish Rail -
who was afraid to go out on strike?
J: I would say that it is scary. The way to overcome the fear is through the collective
action.
Find just one other worker who thinks the same as you in order to organise. If it's not a
workplace that is organised, find just that one other person because often times they try
to keep you isolated within a workplace. Two great - but even just one other person! You
can organise from there.
WSM: Thanks J. To wrap up, what would you say you have learned from this strike?
J: A few things. I‘ve realised my own fear around being on strike. It's not my first
strike. I was on strike in 2014.
This time around I've learned that - as somebody on the left and knowing the importance of
agitating for revolution - there is also a line as to not patronising workers when they're
on strike and not fetishizing us. There would be some people whose support is welcome on
the picket but maybe some people overly enthusiastic. You know, leftists asking ‘So what's
the mood?' and clapping their hands - real enthusiastic when the mood at that particular
moment was a mood of fear. We had just been photographed from a window. I think it's a bit
distasteful. It feels kinda fetishized, not meeting workers where they are at, or listening.
I've learned that the only way to overcome the fear though is through collective action
and having more people from your own work area around you. In my work location there are
workshops and offices. There were more people from the workshops out with me on the first
day. On the second day, we got a ratio of about 23 from the workshops and 16 from the
offices. You'd feel that bit safer. The only way to combat the fear is through collective
solidarity with your fellow workers. You can actually win, I suppose!
Finally, I suppose it's easy for us to get demoralised as activists. What was very clear
to me throughout the strike was that the struggles that have gone before are still there,
that we're not doing this for the first time, and that it's not just happening in a
vacuum. The struggles that have gone before have ingrained in people not to cross your
picket. The importance of that is there. That all of the struggles that have gone before
still matter and that our struggle now will matter into the future as well. We're building
this, passing the baton on through time. What you do now - even though it may feel like
something isolated or not having an impact - it does have an impact and it helps continue
that on for the future.
Subject: Transport
Topics: Economy, The Left
Geography: National
Source: Opinion
Type: Interview
Author: Tomás
https://www.wsm.ie/c/strikes-and-solidarity-interview-worker-irish-rail
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Message: 3
Every November we remember the rebel workers murdered by the employing class; a long list
which grows longer every year. Fred Thompson used to speak of an Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW) soapboxer whose rap went something like this: ‘Workers are being fired for
joining the IWW. Workers are being killed... Join the IWW.' It demonstrated, Fred used to
say, a fine sense of solidarity but was not necessarily the best way to sign up new
members. ---- The IWW has contributed more than its fair share of labor's martyr, because
we have always been in the forefront of the struggle for workers' rights. By some accident
of the calendar, many of our fellow workers have fallen in November, from the Haymarket
Martyrs murdered Nov. 11, 1887, to the Nov. 4, 1936, death of FW Dalton Gentry, shot on an
IWW picket line in Pierce, Idaho.
Some, like Joe Hill (killed Nov. 19, 1915) are famous; others, like R.J. Horton, largely
forgotten. Fellow Worker Horton was shot down by a Salt Lake City cop Oct. 30, 1915, while
giving a speech protesting the impending execution of Joe Hill.
Some died in prison, like Samuel Chin (March 1910) in Spokane, or Thomas Martinez (March
3, 1921) in Guadalajara, Mexico. Some were murdered by vigilantes, including Joe Marko
(April 8, 1911) in the San Diego free speech fight and Wesley Everest (Nov. 11, 1919) in
Centralia. Others were killed by police, such as Steve Hovath (August 2, 1908) in the
McKees Rocks strike or Martynas Petkus (Feb. 21, 1917) in Philadelphia.
It is a long list, even if too many are unknown, including the Stettin, Germany,
dockworkers murdered by the Nazi regime, or the fellow workers who fell to military
dictatorships in Chile, Argentina and Peru. A researcher is uncovering the names of
Wobblies who died in Spain, fighting the fascists in the 1930s, but who will recover the
names of the Wobblies murdered as they rode the rails, organizing the harvest stiffs?
In 1973, Frank Terrugi was killed by the Chilean junta; the next year the Philippines army
killed FW Frank Gould. We can not forgot those who while grievously injured were not
killed, through no fault of the bosses, such as Judi Bari who survived a 1990
assassination attempt but spent the rest of her life in pain, or the 15 Tulsa oil workers
who survived a lynching party Nov. 7-8, 1917.
The November 1996 Industrial Worker printed a long list of IWWs killed on picket lines.
The list includes Roy Martin, Decatur Hall, Ed Brown and J. Tooley murdered by gun thugs
in May 1912 in Grabow, Louisiana; Anna LaPizza and Joe Ramey killed the same month during
the Lawrence strike; John Smolsky (Lawrence), FW Donovan (Missoula) and Nels Nelson
(Marysville CA), strikers killed Oct. 19, 1912; Felix Baran, Hugo Gerlot, Gus Johnson,
John Looney and Abraham Rabinowitz killed Feb. 2, 1915, in the Everett Massacre (several
more disappeared overboard that day); James Brew, murdered July 12, 1917, during the
Bisbee Deportation; John Eastenes, Nick Stanudakis, Mike Vidovitch, J.R. Davies, E.R.
Jacques and G. Kosvich, all killed Nov. 21, 1927, in the Columbine Massacre...
However long we make the list, it falls short by the thousands. But the victims we honor
for asserting themselves are but a handful compared to the millions victimized by the
meekness of the working class: miners killed in unsafe mines, seamen lost in ships they
knew were overloaded, construction workers killed because safe practices cost too much,
textile workers who succumbed to brown lung, the millions who have died in the bosses'
wars, and the millions more who have died of hunger in a world of potential abundance.
Consider these numbers next time someone tells you it doesn't pay to stick your neck out.
Every right we possess today we possess because our fellow workers fought and died for it.
We owe it to them not simply to defend the rights and conditions they won, not just to
preserve their memory, but to carry the struggle they began forward - to bring an end to
this brutal system built on murder and exploitation.
AWSM Note: In addition to the fellow workers mentioned above, we add FRED EVANS, killed
during the Waihi Strike in November 1912
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Evans_(union_worker)
http://www.awsm.nz/2017/11/26/in-november-we-remember/
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Message: 4
Brutally, the door opens. Five frost-coated freaks, revolvers in hand, burst into Colonel
Sliozkin's private quarters. The officer, who had fallen asleep in his office, jumped and
contemplated his attackers. They are the militants of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
(PSR) who, in December 1905, participate in the insurrection of Moscow. Individual
retaliation is part of the street war. And Sliozkin, known for his role in the repression,
must fall. ---- Yes, but ... in the small group of insurgents, some hesitate. To kill, is
it not to do evil ? Is not it behaving like the enemy ? The bursting of the tearful wife,
begging her husband to be spared, makes David waver. Paralyzed by doubt, the revolutionary
prefers to flee the house not to see his comrades shoot down the condemned man.
Untied, he roams the deserted and snowy streets of Moscow. A patrol calls out to him, the
search, discovers his revolver. In front of the officer, a soldier slaps his heels and
announces cheerfully: " Your nobility, I caught a youpin ! " Shot in time.
What was not was the true novel of the 1905 Russian Revolution, lived from within the PSR,
which was then the main force of the far left in the tsarist empire. The author, Boris
Savinkov, is himself a novelist. Leader of the PSR Combat Organization at the time of the
assassination of Prime Minister Plehve (1904) and Grand Duke Serge (1905), he was given to
the police by his comrade Azev, a spy infiltrated at the head of the organization.
Arrested, he escaped from prison and fled to France. In exile, he became associated with
the literary bohemian of Montparnasse and began to revise his positions. Under pseudonym,
and with a brilliant pen, he publishes in 1909 The pale horse - which will inspire The
Righteous, Albert Camus - then, three years later,Which was not.
With the help of fictional characters, Savinkov reconstructs the world of revolutionary
socialism. From the semi-vicious worker Vania to the humorous Bolotov intellectual, to the
former peasant peasant Arsene Ivanovich, the militant willing to sacrifice himself for the
cause to the clandestine leader who doubts his legitimacy to allow this sacrifice , the
novel communicates the violence of the time and the questions of its protagonists.
What was not published was serialized in 1912 in Zavety, a magazine published in St.
Petersburg by a PSR figure, Victor Chernov, then evolving into legalism. The self-critical
tone of the story, putting the internal life of the movement in the public square, caused
scandal among the Social Revolutionaries. Lenin saw the text of a renegade, and a " shame
". The Prairial editions now offer a reissue in an excellently revised and prefaced
translation.
William Davranche (AL Montreuil)
Boris Savinkov, What was not, Prairial, 2017, 496 pages, 21 euros.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Livre-Ce-qui-ne-fut-pas-de-Boris-Savinkov-aux-editions-Prairial
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Message: 5
On November 22, 2017, a former Amazon employee was released for a dismissal due to
illness. Another reason for dismissal was unjustified absence from work many months ago.
Court dismissed the dismissal as unfounded. The verdict is not yet final. ---- After more
than a year of bringing the case to the Poznan Labor Court, the court acknowledged the
former employee of Amazon Fulfillment Poland Ltd. and ordered her to return to work and
pay 4,850 PLN for the period of unemployment. He also charged Amazon with the case. ----
The OZZ Workers' Initiative, a member of which was dismissed, welcomes the decision. For
many months we have been stating that the termination of motivated sick leave is a misuse
of the Amazon and grossly unfair. The association has been addressing this issue since
August 2016 under the slogan "Amazon employs? Amazon releases! "( Link ). We emphasize
that working in Amazon is a hard work and the nature of it itself can cause many injuries.
This is another case of absenteeism, which ended in favor of Amazon's released people. In
March 2017, another employee - also dismissed due to sick leave - signed a settlement with
the company, on the basis of which Amazon paid her 5,500 zl for compensation for unlawful
termination of the contract. The employee refused to return to work in the corporation.
There are further cases of people released by Amazon due to L4. The case law of the courts
shows that repeated absences at work may be grounds for the termination of the contract,
but only if they threaten the employer's essential interests. The employer should also
show that, at the time of terminating the contract, he was still at risk of further
absences due to health problems of a particular person. This requires an individual
approach to the problem of each employee. Amazon, pointing out the reason for termination
of the contract, indicates that their percentage of absences is the most common, and,
according to the union, does not adequately justify that specific absences forced him to
engage in reorganization involving additional costs. Recall that Amazon currently employs
around the company ok. 10,000 people and employs a temporary employment agency throughout
the year, plus another 10,000 for the pre-holiday period. It is difficult in such a
situation to recognize that the absence of a particular stockbroker caused by illness
strikes the corporation's interest.
Another problem is that Amazon justifies the termination of an employment contract
sometimes for events many months ago and even years that the employee is no longer able to
recall, and more to prove otherwise than the employer claims. This was the case with the
unjustified absences of the former employee concerned by the case. Employers' behavior
raises fear among employees and the belief that "as the company wants it, everyone will
find the hook to slow it down." For these reasons, the justification for terminating a
contract of employment is indicated by the Supreme Court as abusive.
http://ozzip.pl/teksty/informacje/wielkopolskie/item/2323-amazon-przegral-w-sadzie
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Message: 6
The sharpening of exploitation and oppression also entails upgrading the repression ...
---- In mid-October, the new Prison Code will be publicly consulted by the Ministry of
Justice. End of the same month the proceedings in the House begin, with the aim of,
shortly after, voting. The new Penitentiary Code is fully in line with the gradual and
pre-determined choice of capital and its policies for hardening the crackdown that always
goes hand in hand with the intensification of the conditions of exploitation and
repression by the state and the bosses. ---- In summary, the new Prison Code restores the
operation of C-type prisons from the window, allowing detainees to be detained in police
stations and in "specially designed areas" where they are accused of terrorism or
attempted to escape. For those who do not know, this entails the lack of preening and the
lack of elementary socialization among them. At the same time it useswith new, upgraded
terms in the process of licensing or releasing detainees, the notorious "bracelet" to
increase the turnover of the state-owned company, G4S. Together with the electronic
surveillance bracelet that violates the right to private life and which extends prison
control more and more into society, the most frequent application of the home-restraint
measure comes along. Point of the times, but let us see it, as the rulers see: in both
cases he remains essentially imprisoned, only he now pays himself and the broken ones (in
one case his living expenses in his home and the other the amount of 15 euros a day to
give G4S to give him the wristband).It introduces new restrictions on the use of
educational leave, making it even more difficult to access their education while virtually
retaining the right of the prosecutor to block their permits. It obliges prisoners to
declare telephone numbers that they want to communicate beforehand so that they can be
electronically registered, thus limiting their contacts, while justifying with new
provisions the use of force of custodians and allowing the cancellation of wages (a
lenient penalty calculation for those working in prison) in the event of a disciplinary
misconduct. Certifies and clarifiesthat the humiliation of detainees with their full
embarrassment during inspections is what is required, at the same time as there are the
appropriate machines for detecting substances and "illegal" objects. Finally, it opens the
wayfor the mandatory feeding of hunger strikers - on the order of a court official - if
the prisoner's health is at a critical point. The hunger strike is a last resort to a
fight whose violent interruption with the mandatory feeding process is even contrary to
the bourgeois concept of human rights (the UN has often given its opinion against this
practice, while expressing it also prohibits the relevant declaration of the World Medical
Congresses (Malta 1991, and Spain 1992 and South Africa 2006 revisions WMV), and may cause
a sharp deterioration of the already burdened striker's health. tees fight organized and
fighting against provisions which concern not only them, but all racers,
Removal of the prosecutor's veto, which cuts the prisoners' permits.
The withdrawal of the electronic surveillance or home restriction replacing the regular
leave and the dismissal.
The institution of 1/5 of the penalty for regular leave (which is now a vixi of the
prosecutor's office).
The immediate withdrawal of Article 11 restoring prison C prison.
The end of the degrading deprivation of the prisoner under the guise of investigation.
The withdrawal of the restrictions introduced by the new Penitentiary Code in the training
of detainees
Removing the electronic file of people who communicate with prisoners.
The withdrawal of Article 31 (3), which allows the mandatory feeding of a prisoner of a
hunger strike.
Finally, the deletion of the punishment clause in Article 67, which entitles the prison
council to deduct the beneficial calculation of penalty days
From 11/11, the anarchists Pula Roupa and Nikos Maziotis have begun a hunger strike
calling for 1) the withdrawal of Article 11 for the implementation of C prison, 2) the
removal of the isolation of Nikos Maziotis, 3) the minimization of the visiting hours
based on their frequency and 4) the creation of a special area for children.
As society is increasingly transformed into a universal prison operating solely for the
interests of capital and we continue to fail to stand collectively and militarily against
it, we recognize in the struggles of the prisoners a common starting point, a common
social and class oppression we are experiencing our common oppressors. The project of
emancipation of the exploited and the oppressed, the project of a world of freedom,
communality, solidarity, without classes and power, the project of a world without prisons
is becoming more and more timely, more and more necessary as the crisis deepens and it
sucks the last conquests of the struggles of the past, whether economic, social or "freedoms".
WINNING IN THE GUESTS OF THE DRAGONS AGAINST THE NEW SAFETY CODE
JOINT GAMES WITHIN THE COUNTRY AND IN CAPITAL
Solidarity fund for prisoners and persecuted militants in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki Liberation Initiative
Collectivism of anarchists from the east
https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2017/11/29
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