"It is unacceptable that the decisions of a Nazi jurist still apply to the right
to strike here," explained lawyer Benedikt Hopmann on December 10 at a solidarityrally under the motto "The right to strike is a human right". A group of Berlintrade unionists, mainly from the Education and Science Union (GEW), but alsosupporters from neighborhood initiatives and social alliances, deliberately choseInternational Human Rights Day for this event. "We want to make it clear that theright to strike is a human right," explained one of the organizers. ---- Thefight for a comprehensive right to strike has been the concern of lawyer BenediktHopmann for years. It is very important to him that the traces of Hans CarlNipperdey are finally removed. He was one of the commentators on the NS law onnational labor and, during a labor dispute in 1952, prepared an expert opinionthat has had a significant influence on the right to strike in Germany to thisday. This includes the ban on political and non-union strikes, i.e. industrialaction without union participation. It is therefore particularly important toHopmann to put the right to strike in Germany on a new footing and to erase thetraces of Nipperdey. He is fighting for this legally, and he is also involved inalliances for a stronger extra-parliamentary movement for the right to strike.Lawyer David-Sebastian Schumann from the Association of Democratic Lawyers alsoemphasizes this necessity. It is a mistake to rely solely on the judiciary in thefight for a comprehensive right to strike. There is hope, especially among DGBtrade unions, that the EU judiciary will ensure that strikes without associationwill soon be possible in Germany as well.THE RIGHT TO STRIKE WILL BE FIGHTED AT THE WORKPLACEOn the other hand, the motto at the event was that the right to strike at theworkplace had to be fought for. The fact that the fight for a comprehensive rightto strike is being talked about again today is thanks to delivery service workerslike Gorillas in Berlin, who went on strike against their poor working conditionswithout unions. The consequences were warnings and dismissals, against which thecolleagues mostly successfully defended themselves legally. But there have alsobeen numerous rallies, demonstrations and blockades in front of gorillawarehouses in the past year. In addition to the employees, people who showsolidarity also always took part, for example in spring 2022 against the closureof a gorilla warehouse and neighbors.Fernando Bolaños from the Gorillas Workers Collective and Martin Bechert, whodefends numerous Gorillas workers before the labor courts, then spoke at theevent. In his speech, Marc from the district initiative 'Hands Off Wedding'emphasized the need to combine district and company work. In the Agnes Reinholddistrict shop in Wedding, there is a solidarity meeting called 'Hart am Limit'.These are the first attempts at organization by social workers in Berlin.It was gratifying that two speakers addressed the women's strikes. The socialistfeminist Gisela Notz reported on the first nationwide women's strike day on March8, 1994. She also mentioned the problems of enforcing this self-organized strikeday against the bureaucracy of the DGB trade unions. The consultant for feministpolitics at the LINKE parliamentary group, Judith Solty, reported on the newstart of a women's strike day on March 8, 2019, which triggered a lot ofcommitment and enthusiasm. However, the corona pandemic and internal conflictshave reduced the number of activists. There should be a new attempt on March 8, 2023.CLIMATE STRIKE TOGETHER WITH EMPLOYEESAnny Cory from the Verdi operating group of the botanical garden reports on theparticipation of some of the employees there in the climate strike called byenvironmental activists. You have to know that the employees of the botanicalgarden became known even beyond Berlin because they successfully fought for theirreturn to the original company as an outsourced company. That meant wageincreases for most of the workforce. In September 2019, the workforce took partin the climate strike. They are now approved for this. However, the colleaguesare wondering whether this does not take the political explosiveness out of theconflict.The last block was devoted to the international strike struggles. For example,Haydar Deniz reported from the Turkish teachers' union that their union work wascriminalized, several colleagues were persecuted by the police and the judiciary,which is why he fled to Germany. Based on these experiences, the fight for acomprehensive right to strike in Germany is important to Deniz. A colleague fromthe anarchist Polish trade union Inicjatywa Pracownicza (IP) from Poland wasconnected via video. They organize workers at the Amazon plant in Poznan. Thecolleague spoke out in favor of greater networking of employees across nationalborders. They must globalize their struggles like corporations globalize production.FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO STRIKE PART OF CRISIS PROTESTSIn fact, the question arises as to why, on the one hand, the DGB trade unions inparticular are shedding hope for a comprehensive right to strike in the EUjudiciary, but so far there has been no further EU campaign for a comprehensiveright to strike. Of course, an EU-wide strike movement would be even better. Thelabor disputes in various countries on the European periphery such as Spain,Greece and Italy in the years 2008 to 2011 showed that this is possible. Damasdemonstrated and workers in these countries went on strike against the austeritydiktat of the EU bodies, which worsened the living conditions of many people.Today we face a winter of high inflation and an energy crisis. In the last fewweeks there have been various protest alliances that mobilized for a hot autumnagainst shifting the burden of the crisis onto wage earners and poor people. Sofar, the response to these protests has been modest. Above all, the wage earnerswere missing. New collective bargaining rounds are coming up in many sectors inGermany. In view of the high inflation and the energy crisis, these collectivebargaining rounds under the motto 'enough is enough' could become a fight againstthe consequences of the crisis. Then the fight for a comprehensive right tostrike would be fought in concrete terms on the streets and in the factories.In Berlin, an alliance for the defense of the right to strike organized asolidarity event.Operations & Society By: Peter Nowak - December 14, 2022Cover photo: https://gewerkschaftliche-linke-berlin.de/https://direkteaktion.org/streikrecht-ist-menschenrecht/_________________________________________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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