Reposting of an interview published a few months ago on the CrimethInc website .
The practice of blacklisting rebellious employees is an old technique on the partof employers. More than fifteen years ago, comrades of the libertarian communistorganization Autonomous Action in Russia created a web-based platform allowingemployees to denounce abuses suffered in their workplace. This platform quicklyproved to be extremely effective and reached a large number of workers in acontext marked by precariousness, the fairly frequent non-payment of wages andwork that is dangerous and harmful to health. Denunciations have sometimes alsoled to direct action to return the costs to the exploiters. Since 2001, the collectively run website Antijob.net has offered an "employerblacklist" and gives Russian workers a space to report bad work experiences. AsRussian media and labor organizations come under increasing pressure, Antijobcontinues to provide employees with an essential resource in this extremelyrepressive environment. Russian companies and government agencies have repeatedlytried to bribe publishers and take down the website, but without success. Thephenomenon of the "Great Resignation" and the very popular anti-work sub-reddithave recently made headlines in the United States; we conducted the followinginterview with Antijob to learn more about the anti-work movement in Russia.Antijob also plays a role in supporting movements against the invasion ofUkraine, informing Russian workers of their labor rights if arrested during aprotest."Remember it and repeat it around you: your interests are opposed to those ofyour employers. It is a struggle that has been going on for centuries. Thestruggle between those who are trying to earn a living, and those who want to buya new yacht.»Employers always have something to write about Antijob. They say everything andits opposite - they slander, they claim that they have been slandered, they tellthe intrigues of their competitors. Come on, they say, remove the article aboutthe next LLC "Lepyoshki and Matryoshki", otherwise we will sue you. Sometimes, onthe contrary, they offer us money so that we remove the contents...To be honest, we don't really want employers to become more acceptable. Conflictbetween employers and workers, whether acute or latent, is an integral part ofcapitalism. It will only be fully overcome with the rejection of wage labor as such.First, tell us what Antijob.net is.Technically, we are a webpage where workers can leave negative comments abouttheir jobs. We are also a micro-media platform that is about labor and labor.Politically, it is an anarchist project that seeks to shed light on what the wagesystem is and calls on workers to organize to fight for better working conditionsand, of course, against capital and against the state.What drives you to continue this project?Probably the main reason for Antijob's longevity and constant regeneration (sincemost of the original team members have changed) is that we are getting tangibleresults. We know how many users use our server and we know that it allows us tolobby employers with relatively little effort on our part. We give employees apressure tool and they use it effectively. As far as we are concerned, it is asuccess.Tell us a bit about how the project has evolved over time.Antijob appeared in the early 2000s in response to the emergence of jobaggregators targeting young people, who represented the majority of Internetusers at the time. These services promised to build "careers", then their userslearned the hard way that these consisted of temporary jobs paid a pittance,followed by fraudulent dismissals. It was the target of our criticism; the methodconsisted of employee testimonials. Over time, the internet has grown, but theproblems have remained the same. The audience of job search sites has grown - andso have we.The message of the original version of the site was more aggressive; today, weare a little less radical. But we did not fall into orthodox Marxism, which isgenerally the case with groups dedicated to the question of organizing workers inRussia.What is the impact of Antijob on workers in Russia? How has the political contextchanged since you started?We can say that our web page was a pioneer in the field of labor rating inRussia. Employers realized that internet reviews could pose a threat to theirbusiness. In addition, the field of "reputational work" has emerged, and hasitself become a kind of industry.For the authorities, we do not represent an obvious threat. Lawsuits are filedagainst us and sometimes the authorities even block the website, but it is alwaysat the initiative of the employers.Of course, the situation has deteriorated as control of the internet hasincreased. The political situation has also worsened. The authorities and thepolice have started to write to us more often, and we are sure that sooner orlater we will be blocked for good, as is already the case in Belarus and Kazakhstan.How do you moderate contributions? Is there a verification system? How do youdecide what to post?All content is manually moderated. We have several levels of authentication; thehighest is reserved for notices in which proof of employment with the company hasbeen attached, such as correspondence or other documents. Then there are reviewsthat are confirmed by the person who leaves their email address; they are themost numerous.We discard positive reviews because they are not objective by definition. It isalmost impossible to verify their authenticity.We also have an automatic review checker that alerts us to suspicious activityand helps us identify people trying to abuse our webpage.We do not do detailed fact-checking. That's technically impossible with over 150comments coming in every week. In any case, we are not trying to claim totalobjectivity. For us, there is a clear disproportion of power in the relationshipbetween employee and employer - so, by default, we trust the employee more.We understand that there have been attempts to bring down Antijob.People often try to hack us, and we sometimes experience DDoS attacks on thesite. These attacks are organized by employers: either they take revenge on thenotices published, or they try to delete them or identify the authors. We refuseto take down reviews for money, so an angry employer has a choice betweenspending money on legal fees, or hiring hackers.The second type of attack comes from what might be called "competitors" in theworld of commerce. They create copies of our site, buy similar domain names, andseek to divert traffic in order to make money filtering reviews. Recently, theyhave started to act more sophisticated and attack the SEO of the site using bots,which reduce the average visit time and the refusal rate in order to limit ourvisibility in search engines.Another problem concerns the lawsuits and the Roscomnadzor (FederalCommunications Supervision Service). Some companies attack us claiming thatreviews of them are defamatory. If their legal action is successful, after awhile we receive a request from Roscomnadzor to remove the information. If wedon't, they block the site. This has already happened several times.Now we remove the reviews referred to by the Roscomnadzor, and replace them withan invoice and a link to the court decision, which often contains the text of thereview. If we do not remove the comments, the site is blocked, traffic drops by70% and search engine rankings drop, making the attack on employer reputationless effective. We are constantly looking for ways to circumvent this threat.Recently, we managed to make blocked reviews only hidden for Russian IPs, whileeveryone else (including VPN/TOR users) can view them without issue.Sometimes the police or other authorities write to us asking us to provide thedata of the authors. To these requests we respond by sending the data ofdisposable emails and the IP of a TOR node. It's an incredible coincidence thateveryone wanted by the police uses TOR and has a high level of digital security,isn't it =)? So far, the police don't seem very keen on finding out what's going on.What advice can you give to people who would like to try to create somethingsimilar elsewhere?It must be said that starting such a project from scratch can be difficult. Thestrength of our website is its high visibility in search engines and thenotoriety it has accumulated. Those who want to get started must be ready to workfor free, and more than for any commercial company. The e-reputation marketappeared a long time ago and many people want to take advantage of it and areready to invest in it. For example, we compete with commercial commenting sites,we have to deal with interception of users by advertising, bot attacks, etc.We're an annoyance to our competitors and employers because it's our policy notto remove reviews for money. However, even if you have a powerful team ormovement, you will need comrades who have technical knowledge of web development,who understand the basics of SEO[Search Engine Optimization]and IT security,because companies are very ready to hire hackers if you refuse to delete reviews.You must be prepared to regularly commit time to moderation and communicationwith users, as well as confrontations with the state and the courts. In Westerncountries, the legislative problems can be even heavier than in Russia and theCIS[Commonwealth of Independent States].At first, the priority is not functionality, but advertising. In terms ofdistribution, the stickers have helped us a lot. It's a trivial method, andsometimes it hasn't been very effective in other projects, but our stickers tendto stick for a very long time. The question of shitty jobs is very easilyappropriated by anyone who is even slightly politicized. While the anarchistmovement was active in Russia, stickers allowed us to accumulate enough users inbig cities.How do you see the connection between different forms of workplace resistancesuch as unionism, workplace theft, public pressure campaigns, etc.? Which ofthese tactics are viable in Russia?For us, all methods are interconnected, and each has its disadvantages andadvantages, as well as its regional specificities. Unions are effectiveorganizing structures, but in Russia they can only exist in large companies andare often enmeshed in bureaucracy. Theft is a good tactic for individualsabotage, but it is not well received in society and is unlikely to be enough tochange the overall problem of wage labor. Public pressure is effective when itexists on a large enough scale, but it is impossible to mobilize enough to fightthe thousands of small daily violations of labor rights that affect hundreds ofcompanies. Solidarity networks are a good example of decentralized pressure,All of these tactics require mobilization and a certain degree of politicalfreedom - both of which are lacking in Russia - with the possible exception ofpassive (such as refusing to work effectively) or active (theft and willfuldamage) sabotage. and maybe also hacktivism. From our perspective, the futurelies in tactics that do not fall under repressive structures and cannot beclearly targeted by bosses, but are capable of inflicting targeted and concretedamage. Sooner or later, the political situation will change and the way willopen for other tactics.What links exist between resistance to work and other forms of politicalactivity? Over the past 40 years, we have seen labor movements, unions andworkplace struggles weaken in the United States, while other spaces of conflict(such as riots against the police) have grown. . How do you analyze how workers'struggles evolve, and the ways in which they can remain connected to other struggles?We see work as a central element[of social organization], jealously defended atall levels, whether by direct attacks from the police, or by conceptual critiquesfrom right-wing intellectuals. Trade unions may have been an answer before, butthe neoliberal turn has provided a wide range of tools to fight them.The struggles against police brutality, like some other mass protests, areyounger and more mobile in their choice of tactics, to which the state has yet tofind an effective response. Moreover, and unfortunately, the forms of peacefulresistance in many respects do not pose a concrete threat as long as they do notturn into occupations. An organized workers' movement cannot be reduced toorganizing the occasional rally, but must ensure, through the constant threat ofstrikes, that the state spends money on social programs and that companies paydecent wages and provide guarantees for workers. It probably costs more thanfunding a few riot police units.But the workers' movement is often very conservative, unions have their ownstructural problems, and new practices (like solidarity networks) have not yetbecome fully effective tools of struggle.It seems to us quite natural that the problem of work remains topical. The peoplewho suffer the most from police brutality, racism and environmental crises arerarely businessmen. They work - legally or not - and suffer from the toxicity ofthe economic system. What is more important is to what extent we (who areessentially part of the same workforce) can make this struggle relevant.In the United States, the media has talked a lot about the "great resignation",about all those workers who have left their jobs since the start of the pandemic.Did something similar happen in Russia? Is quitting a form of resistance?Russia has also seen large resignations - although these were not resignationsper se, but rather from companies laying off people to cut operating costs.Without compensation or guarantees. The first confinement created such a tenseatmosphere that there were no others thereafter. People found themselvesunemployed, and since most Russians had no savings, but debts, the situationworsened. The state was content to distribute a few allowances. If people had notbeen allowed to go out to work and earn enough to survive, a hunger-drivenuprising would have been inevitable.In Russia, quitting your job to resist is only relevant in sectors where there isa shortage of personnel and for people who are aware of their own worth. Massresignations are very unlikely, as there is no large-scale self-managementorganization; the resignations of a few employees cause no damage. People oftenwork on the black market, so they do not receive compensation and the guaranteesfor the unemployed are very weak. Sabotage, as an individual practice in theworkplace, is a more frequent and visible form of struggle. We do not yet see theopportunity for organized mass action.Have you had a look at the American Antiwork reddit thread? What are thesimilarities and differences with your project?Not only did we see it, but we relayed it, as well as a similar movement inChina. Antijob in its infancy had the same radical critique of work, and we hopethat the movement will eventually take hold in our country as well. We analyzethe emergence of anti-work movements as a form of fatigue with the neoliberal (inthe United States) or pseudo-communist (in China) work ethic. It seems that inour country, this weariness has not yet reached the peak at which the radicalrejection of work would be taken seriously.Moreover, this analytical framework contradicts our audience. Some of the peoplewho visit our site work for 300 or 400 dollars a month, have children, and debtsto pay. It would be a little clumsy to urge them to refuse work under theseconditions.What can you tell us about the invasion of Ukraine from your position?Before the war started, some of us did not think such a turn of events waspossible. But it happened. We issued a statement condemning Russian aggression.Russia's imperialist policy is obvious to us. As usual, it is disguised as"security interests". We have received several insulting messages from patrioticusers, who try to prove to us that the war is against "Nazis who spread LGBTideology". However, this situation is different from the patriotic frenzy of2014[when the Russian army annexed Crimea].How does the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia affect theRussian working class?There are certainly people in Russia who approve of the war, and there are quitea few of them. Many workers live in the information bubble of the state and itsstaged "fortress under siege". Behind their screens, they only read: "everyone isagainst us". This leads them to support the invasion, and leads them to believeit is done in the name of Russian security.The state uses international sanctions and condemnations for propaganda purposes,to reinforce its narrative in order to gain support, even among those who wereinitially hesitant.This mobilization will not continue indefinitely of course. In a few months,everyone will feel the economic consequences and, if the war is lost, thegovernment's reputation will be tarnished. This will not necessarily lead to anuprising, but we hope that the mobilization for the overthrow of the regime willbe more effective within the framework of social struggle.We are preparing for such a turn of events and, as a project directly related tolabor issues, to support this process.Finally, what can people do to support your project?The easiest way is to support us financially. The development of a project suchas this always requires resources to pay for the hosting of the site, or the workof outsiders. In addition to this, you can participate in publicizing theproject. This is especially important in the CIS countries. We also always needpeople experienced in penetration testing to help find and fix securityvulnerabilities, and SEO experts to advise us on promotion in different regionsto increase the pressure. on employers.And on a more macro scale, you can create a similar project in your region andcontact us to create a network of services like ours in collaboration.by Collectif Emma Goldmanhttp://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2022/08/resistance-au-travail-antijobnet-le.html_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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