#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #SPAIN #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Spain, CNT-AIT Anarcho syndicalisme! n°178: the strikers of the "Conquest of Bread" of Montreuil! (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 La "Conquête du Pain" is a cooperative bakery in Montreuil, near Paris. Created

in 2010 among others by libertarian activists, its name is an explicit reference
to Pierre Kropotkine's book, "La Conquête du Pain", according to the Wikipedia
page, is a cooperative that employs nine employees and two apprentices. The
hourly wage is the same for everyone (apart from the apprentices), as is the
distribution of benefits: "We operate on the basis of fixed equality, which
amounts to a monthly salary of €1,500 which we had to lower to 1 350 € per month
to be able to hire a person for the delivery. That said, we do not have the same
workloads, nor necessarily the same hours. For production, some come to work at
3:30 a.m., others at 8 a.m., others come to work on Sundays." The bakers claim
libertarian communism: "Communism because we want to pool, share. Libertarian
because we reject authoritarian ideology and believe that equality without
freedom is nothing".

"La Conquête du Pain" is a sort of "media showcase" for the militant community,
which has devoted many articles and books to it and which is regularly cited as
an example in the militant press (Le Monde libertaire, CQFD, le Combat
Syndicalist, etc.) ) as in the mainstream media (BFMTV, Le Parisien, les
Inrockuptibles, etc.).

But beyond the words, this experience of self-management in a capitalist
environment ended up drifting, like many other experiences of the same type,
alas. Little by little, the self-management aspect gave way to authoritarianism.
A distinction appears between the "cooperators" - owners of the social capital -
and the employees. They are asked to work unpaid overtime, in the name of the
"cause".

Thus, in June 2022, some employees decided to refuse to continue and to be
silent. They decided to put their feet in the dish, to speak aloud the reality,
far from fairy tales, and they declared themselves on strike. They call for
solidarity, especially from activists.

When we received the information at the CNT-AIT, it reminded us of the struggle
of the ex-workers of Cinéma Utopia in Toulouse: an "alternative", "committed"
cinema, a media showcase put forward by the entire "alternative and citizen" but
where the working conditions were those of any traditional company: unpaid
overtime, management by pressure, non-respect of the word of the employees (often
employees elsewhere ...) ... At the At the time, most of the militant milieu had
refused to show solidarity with the workers of Utopia in struggle on the grounds
that one should not criticize "militant bosses" nor a place so useful in the
media for the "cause". The workers in struggle, and those who had taken up their
cause (including the CNT-AIT) had been the object on the part of the militant
milieu at best of silence on the struggle in order to make it invisible, at worst
of a a veritable campaign of anti-striking smear and even hatred worthy of the
salmon pages of Figaro1.

As far as we are concerned, anarchosyndicalist militants, in a wage dispute -
yesterday as today - we are on the side of the workers. Point. The strikers of
the "Conquest of Bread" therefore have our solidarity in principle and in action.
This is why we relay their call for financial solidarity and call to contribute
to their kitty.

Moreover, this fight for dignified working conditions in the bakery sector joins
that of our companions in the "Firin" bakery chain in Austria, thus showing that
wage exploitation is a scourge to be fought internationally.

Activists of the CNT-AIT Paris Banlieue

http://cntaittoulouse.lautre.net/spip.php?article1263
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