The congress organizing fight win (OKG) wants to strengthen the trade union's
ability to act in the companies. The discussion also dealt with the role of thetrade unions in the upcoming social protests. ---- Building up the trade union asa social movement and not as a service company with affiliated legal protectioninsurance is the goal of the nationwide initiative Organizing - Fighting -Winning (OKG), which held its congress on the first weekend in October in the IGMetall building in Berlin to strengthen the trade union based in the companies.The initiative is based on the US trade union network Labor Notes. Some textswere translated into German and published by Schmetterlingsverlag under the title"Secrets of a successful organizer". The social democratic trade union activistKim Moody is an important source of inspiration. In Germany, the discussion wastaken up by a very diverse spectrum of leftists, as reflected in the organizationof the congress. Among them are colleagues from FAU.THE STORIES OF SMALL SUCCESSES IN EVERYDAY BUSINESSIn fact, employees from all over Germany, old and young, from a wide variety ofindustries had their say at the two-day congress. They reported on their everydaywork without the fashionable phrases that are supposed to disguise the fact thatwe still live in a class society. The people who spoke did not use academicsociological language to describe their everyday work and life. A fifty-year-oldemployee from Amazon-Hersfeld tells how he successfully prevented his managerfrom giving him the obligatory feedback. This is a method of discipline andcontrol at Amazon and therefore hated by many employees. A nurse from NorthRhine-Westphalia enthusiastically recounted how she met her colleagues at variousclinics during the strike, which lasted several weeks, and felt that they havepower if we stick together and don't allow ourselves to be divided. An employeeof the Berlin delivery service Lieferando reported on the protracted struggle forthe works council, which he described as protection against layoffs. During thetwo days of the congress there were many such stories about the everyday struggleat work, the many humiliations, but also the successes that came about when theemployees defended themselves against the unreasonable demands of the bosses anddid not allow themselves to be intimidated by threats.ENOUGH IS ENOUGHIn addition to the many small but important struggles, a panel discussion wasabout the role of company activists in the much-cited hot autumn of socialprotests. There Ines Schwerdtner presented the Enough is Enough initiative, whichaims to combine social protests with trade union struggles. Concretesocio-political demands should be used to mobilize against inflation. Thereshould be rallies instead of demonstrations. What the difference is then remainsto be seen.A European dimension of the social protests was the focus of the concludingdiscussion of the congress, in which the Amazon worker Agniezka Ruda from theanarcho-syndicalist Polish trade union IP and a member of the autonomousdockworkers' collective CALP from Genoa had their say. There the CALPrepresentative reported that his organization is represented in all of the 13companies in the port. In addition, CALP is part of the Italian base union USB.In the past, the union has been known for striking out on arms shipments tovarious war zones around the world, including Ukraine. A nationwide strike inItaly is being planned for December 2 under the motto "Down with guns - up withwages". Support from abroad is expressly desired. It would be a good opportunityto show solidarity with the striking Italian colleagues around December 2nd! TheM31 campaign, with which leftists in Germany 10 years ago showed solidarity withthe strikes against the crisis policy in Spain, Italy and Greece at the time,could be a model.WILL THE UNION LEFT DISCUSS AND CELEBRATE TOGETHER IN THE FUTURE?The OKG Congress was rated as a success by many participants. But criticism ofthe fragmentation of the union left could be heard, which is evident at threedifferent congresses in October 2022. After the OKG Congress, the "Networking forCombative Trade Union Policy" invites you to a conference in Frankfurt/Main onOctober 8th and 9th. Also on October 8, the magazine for left-wing company workExpress in Frankfurt/Main is organizing its 60th anniversary celebration. Itwould be desirable for the Express to take on the role of collective organizer inthe future, so that the union left, which is by no means a large one, willdiscuss and celebrate together in the future.https://direkteaktion.org/nieder-mit-den-waffen-hoch-mit-den-loehnen/_________________________________________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
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten