Anarchic update news all over the world - 1.04.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #281 - Germany: Basic
      unionism against co-management (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #281 - Universities: For
      education, against selection (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  [Spain] The working class of Catalonia By ANA (pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  The latest Kate Sharpley Library bulletin is up on our
      website - update March 2018 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  [Iceland] Reykjavík: NATO monument bathed in tar and
      feathers for "World Day for Afrin" By ANA (pt) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Poland, WORKERS' INITIATIVE: Work strikes and protests in
      Poland in the first half of 2017. [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1






Across the Rhine, faced with the explosion of poverty and precariousness, fighting 
practices exist, in society and in companies, despite the weight of large bureaucratic 
organizations. The point by Willy Hajek, libertarian syndicalist. ---- From France, 
Germany can have the image of a country where the social conflict is relatively weak 
because, among other things, its good economic health. This and its low unemployment rate 
are, indeed, rehashed by the media in France. But the reality is quite different: more and 
more precarious jobs, in all sectors of society, among workers and workers, but also among 
Siemens engineers or employees of the university. ---- Poverty in Germany is growing, 
especially in big cities like Berlin and industrial areas like the Ruhr. Anyone who knows 
a little bit about Berlin's popular neighborhoods, like Neukölln or Wedding, is always 
surprised at the visibility of this poverty on the street, in and around metro stations or 
in other public spaces.

At the same time, housing prices exploded in the same city. Movements against evictions 
and rent increases are legion and very combative. Housing insecurity and the danger of 
homelessness have become a real threat for many families with and without jobs.

The number of temporary employees is constantly increasing. It represents 8% of workers 
and workers at Mercedes, 40% at BMW. There are also temporary work at Volkswagen (VW) in 
Hanover, in particular, to impose their hiring on permanent contracts. The IG Metall union 
does not support them because this fight is initiated from the ground up and does not 
correspond to the interests of the trade union leaders. The main union representatives at 
VW earn as much as the managers of the company. It is a closed, corrupt world, cut off 
from the concerns of employees.

40% of temporary workers at BMW

Admittedly, employees of the German metal industry will have the right to reduce their 
working time to 28 hours a week, thanks to a branch agreement signed in early February 
2018, between the IG Metall union and the employers. But, moreover, precariousness 
increases with the complicity of the trade union bureaucracies. The DGB union will support 
a Merkel government with the SPD. It is also about a Minister of Labor from the ranks of 
IG Metall. That is to say.

Yet, at the base, there is a real fighting spirit. We have recently experienced the mass 
demonstrations against the G20 in Hamburg, despite the police violence and the hunt for 
activists. Police everywhere are posting photos of protesters in the city calling on the 
population to report. Those responsible for these measures are Social Democrats and the 
Greens (the Minister of Justice is a member of the Green Party).

On the other hand, there are locally, almost everywhere, movements and activities of 
solidarity with refugees, with temporary workers, immigrant and private workers.

On the weekend of January 7, in Dessau, 5,000 people demonstrated to pay tribute to Oury 
Jalloh, who was murdered in a police station thirteen years ago. His mattress had been 
burned in the cell where he was being held in police custody. A dismissal for the police 
was pronounced.

Alongside this daily combativity in society, conflictuality does not spare companies. 
Admittedly, it is necessary to recognize this German specificity which gives a particular 
role to the unions in the exercise of the co-management with the federal State. The union 
landscape is dominated by IG Metall for industry and Ver.di for public service, the most 
influential and wealthy unions, with a bureaucratic apparatus unimaginable in France.

We saw it during the pollution scandal at Volkswagen. In the VW factories, most union 
delegates campaign against those (American capitals according to them) who would destroy 
Volkswagen. A T-shirt with the label "  We are all Volkswagen  " was distributed free of 
charge by IG Metall, thousands of employees wore them during a general assembly: this is 
concretely the expression of co-management and complicity with criminal bosses. 
Fortunately, lawyers, environmental initiatives and journalists engage in this struggle to 
find officials and reveal the truth of the facts.

Nevertheless, Ver.di, which has 2 million members, includes a fairly militant trade union 
left wing and groups of young trade union activists.

Exemplary fight at Amazon

The most advanced sector of the fight is currently the hospital, where the situation is 
quite catastrophic. There is understaffing everywhere and the main demand is to have more 
staff. It began in Berlin at Charité Hospital (12,000 employees), and in all regions of 
Germany the hospital sector is in motion. Several unions (Ver.di, but also categorical 
unions - doctors, nurses) are able to mobilize and create a balance of power. But the most 
important is that there is a societal debate on privatization and especially the pricing 
of care. Doctors' organizations are very involved in this social movement.

This combative unionism has led some exemplary struggles in recent years on the issue of 
precariousness. This is the case, in particular, of employees of Amazon: for three years, 
there is a struggle in this multinational, organized by Ver.di to obtain a collective 
agreement. The boss of Amazon refuses. There are many actions to lobby. So far, nothing 
has been achieved, but during these three years, young workers have discovered grassroots 
unionism, building a union network at all Amazon factories in Germany. They meet regularly 
to discuss their experiences. At the same time, transnational coordination was established 
with unions at Amazon in Poland, France and Germany.

These practices at Amazon are a practical example of the ideas of Transnationals 
Information Exchange (Tie) [1]for a different unionism. This inter-union network is an 
idea of grassroots unionists a few years ago to create transnational trade union networks 
in the automotive, textile and trade sectors, as at Amazon, in the transport sector such 
as the railway, around the question of mobility. In the network "  Rail without borders 
There has been cooperation with railwaymen and railway workers all over the world for many 
years. At the moment, there are activities to support the fight of temporary workers at 
Volkswagen in China, such as actions in front of Volkswagen headquarters in Germany or 
pressure on the management of IG Metall to intervene. Even in Germany, struggles and 
international solidarity are not empty words.

Willy Hajek (Berlin)

[1] www.tie-germany.org

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Allemagne-Le-syndicalisme-de-base-contre-la-cogestion

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Message: 2





The Macron government wants to challenge our right to education with, among other things, 
selection at the university. The riposte is built little by little: will it be enough to 
reverse the balance of power ? ---- The Student Plan, the student success orientation bill 
(ORE), set up the selection at the entrance of the university, require to have the average 
in all subjects to validate its license, and will increase the fees As for the reform of 
the baccalaureate provided for by the Mathiot report, the government's objective is to 
make the university more and more elitist and to increase social selection to ban the 
university from the lower classes. High and high school students in vocational or 
technological baccalaureate will have even less chance to enter. Those who work next to 
their studies will have even more difficulty validating their license.

In January, universities like Paris-I voted motions against the selection, while in 
others, as in Rennes-II for example, the vote of the expectations that put in place the 
selection was prevented by the invasion of advice. Indeed, the government is asking 
universities to implement the reform while it has not yet been voted in parliament, which 
is illegal. The 1 st February, about 20,000 high school students and high school students, 
students, teachers and personnel.les protested against these bills Macron government. On 
the 6th, we were a little more mobilized, the teachers' strike in secondary school 
encouraged the mobilization high school, allowing them to go down the street.

The opportunity to show the fight unionism
With the winter holiday tunnel, alternating zones and student holidays in April, the 
accelerated procedure leaves us little time. This short timeline should not blow us away 
from key milestones of mobilization: informing and explaining these bills is important - 
so far few people were aware that they were attacks on our rights. Especially since the 
first demonstrations were not a tidal wave. For students, for example, the mobilization 
exists but remains weak, with the exception of the University of Mirail in Toulouse, where 
the mobilization is present with a GA bringing together up to 1000 students and staff. 
This is partly explained by the local movement against the merger that had lasted for 
three months. The merger of the facs is also a subject that concerns many other university 
sites. In high schools, the success of the first walkout conditions the result. But the 
difficulty of holding general assemblies, often because of the directions of the 
establishments, prevents to give breath to this movement. The absence of self-organization 
at the place of study can be offset by coordination between high schools. The challenge is 
to broaden and amplify the struggle. The national mobilization of February 15 launched an 
active protest that we will hold until March 22, day of strike throughout the public 
service. often because of the directions of the establishments, prevents to give breath to 
this movement. The absence of self-organization at the place of study can be offset by 
coordination between high schools. The challenge is to broaden and amplify the struggle. 
The national mobilization of February 15 launched an active protest that we will hold 
until March 22, day of strike throughout the public service. often because of the 
directions of the establishments, prevents to give breath to this movement. The absence of 
self-organization at the place of study can be offset by coordination between high 
schools. The challenge is to broaden and amplify the struggle. The national mobilization 
of February 15 launched an active protest that we will hold until March 22, day of strike 
throughout the public service.

The self-organization of students, high school students, teachers, staff is crucial so 
that each and everyone appropriates the struggle, from its realities, from its place of 
work or study. The current struggle will be complicated, but what must also be remembered 
is that this government attack will not be the last, and that it will have to be 
retaliated. A movement is also an opportunity to show the usefulness of struggle 
syndicalism and the resources it offers. It is in our interest that self-management and 
combative practices take root in our mobilizations in view of other struggles to come.

Quentin (AL Rennes)

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Universites-Pour-l-education-contre-la-selection

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Message: 3






The unions of the CNT of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands want to spread our position on 
the authoritarian attitude of the State in these moments of extraordinary gravity. ---- 
Incarcerations, constant police assaults on citizen mobilizations, attacks on freedom of 
expression, suppression and / or reduction of the most basic and basic rights (pensions, 
housing, energy, etc.), the constant threat that the model that instructs and educate our 
daughters and sons, the resurgence of fascism, are an unequivocal demonstration of the 
uncontrollable escalation of reactionary values that are returning against the people of 
Catalonia and that is also being seen in the rest of the state. ---- We must be very clear 
that this tyrannical and repressive state is the direct heir of the pro-Franco judicial 
and pro-government structures that drew the so-called transition, regime of 78, that have 
shifted their responsibilities and amnestied their post-war criminal responsibility. The 
CNT denounced it at that moment, paying a very expensive price in the form of beatings, 
repression, infiltrations, assemblies and police murders, which ended with a calculated 
marginalization.

We want to make it very clear that anarcho-syndicalists will make use of our values of 
solidarity, mutual support and direct action, and we will put them at the service of the 
cause of social progress and the working people.

We call on the entire working class of Catalonia to find and use all the tools of 
mobilization that have been most successful in our history, in order to rediscover the 
strength we have if we act collectively and massively.

The CNT, as a historic organization of anarcho-syndicalism in Catalonia, goes a step 
further to declare publicly that it will make all the necessary efforts to combat these 
moments of injustice and dictatorship. For this, in these times when many people want real 
changes, we will soon release a program of action to shape a society where self-management 
and participation of the working class in the organization of the economy are the guiding 
principles.

Permanent Secretariat of the Regional Committee of CNT Catalunya and Baleares

" Disobedience is the true foundation of freedom. The obedient must be slaves "- Henry 
David Thoreau

Translation> Sol de Abril

Fonte: http://cnt.es/noticias/la-clase-trabajadora-de-catalunya

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Message: 4





View this email in your browser 
http://mailchi.mp/3283f62f1881/kate-sharpley-library-update-march-2018?e=9336b259d8 ---- 
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 93-94, March 2018 has just been posted on 
our site. ---- The PDF is up at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/m0chf2 ---- Contents 
page is at: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/zkh32f ---- Contents ---- Here is Louise 
Michel (by Louise Michel) "She is a menace to society, for she has declared a hundred 
times that everyone should take part in the banquet of life." ---- The Princess 
Casamassima by Henry James [Review]. "The idea that it is the sheer usefulness of the poor 
that makes the rich determined to keep them poor was evidently beyond Henry James." ---- 
Mr Batllori’s Death. The Friend of Ferrer "the kind and modest comrade whom an imperfect 
knowledge of our tongue rendered very coy, and whose face bore the indelible imprint of 
the torments he had previously undergone."
Tom Keell by Oscar Swede "And what good did all the talking do? Well, it kept the torch 
alive and has handed it on."
Transition and the right to well-being by Albert Meltzer "If the community advances all 
are responsible – if we are not now in the conditions of the Middle ages everyone has 
contributed in one way or another to what is, and the right to well-being is universal. 
Not just for the famous, or the rich, or the well connected; not just for the proletariat 
or for all those who work – but all."
Gig economy, pig economy by Richard Warren [cartoon]
The Price We Pay "The social wealth created isn’t used to benefit all of us equally – far 
from it! A large slice is constantly creamed off by a small section of the population who 
do no work at all – the ruling class."
Anarchy and the art of motor-cycle maintenance [Or, Squatting in Ilford] by Chris Broad. 
"It is as though we are separated by a wall, one side painted blue and the other green. We 
both agree that the wall must be destroyed, but at the moment we are fighting each other 
over what colour the wall is."
Looking at Anarchist solidarity with prisoners and exiles in the Soviet Union "Not only 
did they stop people from starving: there was the psychological support of being remembered."
Anarchist Solidarity : An exchange between Lilly Sarnoff and Alexander Berkman "Well, you 
are at liberty to have your own opinion on the matter. That is why I call myself an 
Anarchist, leaving others free to act and think as they believe best."
Library News (March 2018)
Book news/mini-reviews [March 2018]
Copyright © 2018 Kate Sharpley Library, All rights reserved.
We're sending you this because you asked to receive updates from the Kate Sharpley Library

Our mailing address is:
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Message: 5






Yesterday (3/24), "World Afrin Day", a monument to cooperation between NATO and Russia was 
bathed in tar and feathers in Reykjavík. The monument disgraced the city since 2002; a 
constant reminder of Iceland's humiliating submission to the superpowers of military 
alliances. With the silent approval of Russia and NATO, Turkey now seeks to crush the 
revolution of Rojava with all its might - killing and dislodging men, women and children. 
Not surprisingly, objections from some Western states have been both weak and empty 
because they are obviously more concerned about their friendship and connections with the 
fascist Erdogan than with the just and egalitarian society he is trying to overthrow. 
Their cowardice and laziness will place them and us in eternal shame.

Iconoclas Anarchists, Comrades of Haukur Hilmarsson (Sahin Hosseini)

Translation> G Montenegro

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Message: 6





Protest of the PNA under the Sejm in November 2016. ---- The first half of 2017 brought a 
significant increase in the number of strike actions compared to previous years. This is 
probably the first symptom of the social crisis in the field of employer-employee 
relations in the period when both wages and employment are growing, and the government 
exercises a party considered to be "pro-social". Importantly, a more accurate analysis of 
strike activity indicates that the practices of organizing employee protests beyond the 
legal regulations of the Act on the resolution of collective disputes - the occupation of 
workplaces, Italian strikes, spontaneous pickets and demonstrations are becoming more 
frequent. ---- As the strike is, in our opinion, the key means to achieve the goals of the 
labor movement, we have decided and decided in a small group of people from the Warsaw 
Workers' Initiatives committees to start monitoring strike activity in Poland.
Our monitoring is based on data analysis of the Central Statistical Office and media 
mentions on employee protests (searched in nationwide and local media using Google 
Alerts). In this way, we want to get a fuller picture of workers' protests in Poland and 
take into account not only strikes organized by trade unions under the restrictive Act on 
the resolution of collective disputes, but also other forms of refusal of employment by 
employees and employees. Therefore, we define strikes broadly - as "organized employee 
presentations involving the organization of pressure on entrepreneurs or state authorities 
in the form of total or partial interruption of work or disruption of the normal course of 
the production process or service delivery, aimed at causing losses to the entrepreneur or 
manifesting the position of the state authorities ". This study and methods used in it are 
inspired by the research of the World Labor Group at the University of Binghamton in the 
1980s (based on which, among others, the book Beverly Silver "Global Proletariat" was 
created). aimed at causing losses to the entrepreneur or manifesting his attitude towards 
the actions of the state organs ". This study and methods used in it are inspired by the 
research of the World Labor Group at the University of Binghamton in the 1980s (based on 
which, among others, the book Beverly Silver "Global Proletariat" was created). aimed at 
causing losses to the entrepreneur or manifesting his attitude towards the actions of the 
state organs ". This study and methods used in it are inspired by the research of the 
World Labor Group at the University of Binghamton in the 1980s (based on which, among 
others, the book Beverly Silver "Global Proletariat" was created).

According to the CSO report on the socio-economic situation in the country in the first 
half of the previous year, in the period from January to the end of June 2017, there were 
1.5 thousand strikes in which 29.3 thousand people took part. For comparison, in the 
entire 2016, according to the Central Statistical Office, only 4 strikes took place, in 
which 700 employees and employees took part. Data from previous years look similar (2015 - 
4 strikes, 2014 - 3 strikes, 2013 - 93 strikes). It is possible that the first half of 
last year was a moment of breaking the long-term tendency that has persisted since the 
mid-1990s, according to which there are few strikes in Poland.

What is important, this abrupt increase in the number of strikes and people participating 
in the refusal of work took place in the period when the average employment in the 
enterprise sector increased by 4.4% and the average nominal gross remuneration by 6%. In 
the corresponding period of 2016, the increase of both indicators was much lower and 
amounted to 3% and 3.9% respectively. So we have a situation in which employee 
dissatisfaction grows in a situation of relative improvement of living conditions and with 
unchanged level of unionization. This could be considered a paradox, because, according to 
many sociologists, protests are intensifying in conditions critical to employees (as Prof. 
Juliusz Gardawski from SGH believes) and the low level of strikes results directly from 
the low level of unionisation (such as Prof. Henryk Domanski from the Polish Academy of 
Sciences, he explained a small number of strikes in 2016).

The increase in the number of strikes in the first half of last year must therefore be 
explained in a different way. In our opinion, the all-Polish one-day general strike 
organized on March 31 by the Polish Teachers 'Union in a protest against the reform of 
education eliminating the gymnasium was of key importance for the dynamics of workers' 
protests in this period. The PNA demanded employment guarantees for all those working in 
schools until 2022 and a 10% pay rise - the Ministry of National Education did not 
withdraw from the reform, declaring that no one will lose their jobs due to changes and 
announcing the schedule of increases in April. Although the strike did not stop the 
reform, it was a demonstration of the Union's mobilization capabilities. Due to the law in 
force, the PNA action required a collective dispute procedure in each of the schools, 
which directly translated into the number of strike actions in the previous year. By. PST 
estimates of strike actions March 31 were held in 40% of educational institutions across 
the country (ie over 11,000 schools), while the Ministry of National Education announced 
that the strike included only 11% of branches (or slightly more than 3,000 schools) - 
independently however, from what data will be taken into account, the number of schools 
struck is higher than all strike actions that the CSO has registered, which confirms our 
supposition that the statistics of the Office are not in themselves valid in terms of 
strike activity.

The GUS statistics do not include protests of paramedics, taxi drivers and wild strikes 
organized by employees and employees without the participation of trade unions. The 
protest in emergency medical services began on May 24 last year and consisted in flagging 
buildings and transporting all patients with ambulances on the signal. Rescuers demanded 
four rises of PLN 400 each. (in July and September 2017 and in January 2018 and January 
2019). The Ministry of Health, under which the demonstration took place on 30 June, 
finally proposed two increases of 400 zlotys - in July 2017 and in July 2018, which led to 
a temporary suspension of the shares. June 5, 2017 in Warsaw, Poznan and Lodz. Uber and 
other unlicensed carriers opposed illegal activities of taxi drivers. In Warsaw alone, 
over 2,000 drivers organized a trip to the center, starting at five points on the 
outskirts of the city. The action was coordinated by the trade union "Warsaw Taxi Driver". 
In addition to nationwide protests, in the first half of last year there were also at 
least a few spontaneous actions in individual workplaces: on February 3, Ukrainians and 
Ukrainians employed by the subcontractor of the slaughterhouse Pini Polonia in Kutno 
blocked the plant's gates by demanding payment of outstanding wages; On March 21, a 
two-hour spontaneous strike was carried out by employees of the Kirchhoff Automotive 
factory (demanding higher allowances for work on weekends); March 27, nurses from the 
hospital in Staszów (province Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship) occupied the director's office 
demanding that the remuneration demands made by OZPiP be met; On April 25, employees of 
Transgór SA (collective transport) blocked the roundabout in Rybnik demanding increases;

In total, in the first half of the previous year, based on media monitoring, we managed to 
register 102 employee conflicts, of which 42 were in the form of a formal collective 
dispute, and 10 ended in various forms of strike action (interruption of work) - others 
were in the form of either negotiations or pickets street. This is a much lower number 
than the one provided by the Central Statistical Office - the difference most probably 
results from the fact that in media relations the general strike in education was 
presented as "one strike action". Nevertheless, such monitoring allowed to see the 
above-described wild strikes and distinguishing important strikes organized by trade 
unions: a three-week strike in the iron foundry in Zawiercie (concluded with an agreement 
regarding wages), a two-hour warning strike in Elblag trams, strike at the Baltic Opera in 
Gdansk and in the hospitals: Staszowski and them. John Paul II in Krakow.

Interestingly, most of the conflicts about which we were able to collect information 
related to wage issues - regardless of whether they took place in the public sector or in 
private companies, the level of remuneration was the motivating factor for employees and 
employees to put collective pressure on employers. This is probably due to two reasons: 
firstly, not everyone feels wage increases (or considers it insufficient), and secondly - 
increasing the level of social security due to an increase in the minimum wage, reducing 
the unemployment rate and introducing social benefits in the Family 500 plus program could 
have contributed to encourage employees and employees to fight for their rights.

Elaborated by: Szymon Sierminski, cooperation: Jakub Grzegorczyk

http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/walki-pracownicze/item/2358-strajki-i-protesty-pracownicze-w-pierwszej-polowie-2017

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